But, however skilful the Commander, the whole of his good qualities will be abortive, unless the materials wherewith he is to perform his part be duly prepared in every respect. It is indispensably re quisite, that every individual soldier should be so far trained, as to, compre hend fully. Ahe general intention of every internal service of the company of which he is a part. He must have a complete knowledge of the parade duties, and con sider himself as a mere automaton, under the guidance of a superior, or disposing, power :, he must be cool, obedient, and passive ; and he must possess a sufficient share of physical powers, and of activity, to enable his participating in the .move ments of the company at large. This, 'which is assuredly a most' important mat ter, nevertheless has been only within a few years properly attended to: it was formerly considered fully sufficient if the soldier could wheel, face about, and fire with correctness ; the .conducting of a regiment through its evolutions during an engagement being left entirely to its com mander: It is true, the pageantry of home duties was rather ostentatious, and won Brous pains were taken to go through a review with eclat ; but the drum and fife were considered indispensable ; without them, the soldier could not preserve the cadence ; he had no regulated length of pace—no regulated Aime for various evo lutions. Now, that we see how much the whole depends on its parts, `each' indivi dual is trained systematically, and enters the field fully qualified to act without more instruction, at the moment, than is needful to convey to the corps at large the general intention : this not only pre vents confusion, but gives to each a cer tain confidence, both in his comrades and in himself. Habituated to certain regular ed paces, independent of musical bias, each soldier preserves his situation with correctness, and feels himself, in all situa tions, fully competent to fulfil the orders of his officer.
We shall endeavour to explain, in as brief terms as the subject may admit, the manner in which the British forces are now trained; commencing with the first stages of the recruit's tuition, and pro ceeding, in a regular course, through the operations of companies, battalions, and lines ; whereby the chain of connection will be best preserved, and the whole be duly exhibited. The following preamble, taken from the " Rules and Regulations for Formation, Field ExereiSe, and Move= ments, of his Majesty's Forces," is so ad. mirably suited to our purpose, that we present it to our readers as the best pre paration we can afford : " The great object in view is, one general and just system of movement, which, directing the government of great as well as of small bodies of troops, is to be rigidly conformed to, and practised by, every regiment in his Majesty's service. Fo attain this important purpose, it is necessary to reconcile celerity to order ; to prevent hurry, which must always pro duce confusion, loss of time, unsteadiness, irresolution, inattention to command, 8tc.; and to insure precision and correctness, by which alone great bodies will be able to arrive at their object in good order, and in the shortest space of time ; to in culcate, and to enforce, the necessity of military dependence, and of mutual sup port in action, which are the great ends of discipline ; to simplify the execution, and to abridge the variety of movements, as much as possible, by adopting such only as are necessary for combining exertions in corps, and that can be reqUirid or ap plied in service, regarding alY matters of parade and show merely assecOndary ob jects ; to ascertain to, all yanks the part each will have to, act in'every change of situation that can happen, so that expla nation may not retard at the moment that execution sludld place ; to en able the commanding officer of any body of troops, whedier great or small, to re tain the whole relatively, as it were, in his hand and management, at every in. stant, so aS to be capable of restraining the bad effects of such ideas of indepen dent and individual 'exertion as are Vision ary and hurtful, and of drecting them to their true and proper objects, those of order, of combined effort, and of regulat ed obedience, by the united force of all which a well disciplined army can only be defeated. The rules laid down will be found
few, simple, and adapted to the under. standing of every individual ; but they will require perfect attention in all ranks. In the soldier, an equal and cadenced march, acquired and confirmed by habit, independently of music or sound : in the officer, precision and energy ofcommand ; the preservation of just distances ; and the accurate leading- of divisions on given points of march and formation. These circumstances, with the united exertions ofall, will soon attain that pre cision of movement, which is so essential, and without which valour alone will not avail." After this, the work in question pro deeds to stare " The recruit must be carried on progressively ; he should com prehend one thing before he proceeds to another, and he should not be uselessly fatigued i he is to be trained singly and in squad ; nor-is be to be allowed to join in battalion until he maybe confirmed in every requisite ;, for one awkward man will frequently, derange a whole line." The incipient, parts of instruction, however simple they may appear, are by far the most difficult to inculcate ; but they are of the inost imperious conse quence : a good foundation is ob tained, rite work will proceed with ra pidity and firmness, acrd the pupil will, from being sensible how much he has ac quired at the onset, move and act, throughout the ulterior stages, with promptitude and confidence. Standing perfectly silent and motionless, fixing his eyes steadily either • to the front, or to the right or left, as may be ordered ; dressing up to the same line with others ; carrying erect, the toes turned out, the limbs firm, but pliant, erect, raised, and his 'weight rather -borne on the fore than on the hind parts of the feet, are all matters tending greatly to his perfection. He learns to face to the right and left, or about ; to move for ward in a perfectly straight line, without losing squareness to the front ; to move obliquely to the right or left, under the same precaution ; and to mark time, to step out, or to step short ; to change feet when he does not move with the rest of the company ; to close, (or take room,) to the right or left, the side step ; to change from quick to ordinary time, or vice versa, with unerring readiness; to march in file ; to wheel either forward or backward ; and, in general, to acquire a habitude of acting in concert with his companions in arms, so as not only to avoid embarrassing them, but proving a firm support, and becoming a manageable tool in the hands of his officer. All these are indispensably necessary to be fully acquired'; they must be ,so peaLeetly fe. miliar, as to seemaather lee, effect of kh\-, stinct than of education, , Thus much being duly attained, the re cruit is instructed in the use of arms, in which he, cannot be too perfect: the great difficulty is,to impress him, in a sufficient manner, .with-the advantages of close motion,,, and preserving the body from distuktion, or change of po sition, so ficr as relates to upright ness, squareness to the front, and un deviating attention *to dressing in line. For it is to be observed, that un less very great strictness be observed on the part of the drill serjeant, the whble course will be perverted by the handling of the musket. It would, not suit our purpose, nor could it be equal to the views of our readers, were we to enter upon all the details tegardifig the mo tions of the firelock ;, or what is called the manual exercise `: i•the present pos. tare of °political affairs, such would be perhaps unnecessary; it having, within these few years, hecorne the duty of ma ny, and the amusement of all, to acquife some knowledge` of that branch of disci pline we shalttherefort proceed to treat of the firings, which constitute a very prin= cipal part of the soldier's duty, and greatly interest both the officers commanding di visions, and those in charge of whole bat talions. We must, at the'same time, ex press our hope, that the prac tice of expending so 'many rounds of tght cartridges will be in time much curtailed; in order to make way for a more extend ed practice with ball ; the propriety of, enforcing a correctness of aim must be self-evident ; and is considerably enhanc ed by the little execution done by mus ketry, as has allkady been shown.