It is chiefly against infantry that the yeomanry should be trained, as they would be mostly employed in dispersing a mob; and if obliged to make use of their swords, it would probably be in pursuit for attack, or for attack and defence, when in the midst of men on foot, armed with bludgeons, poles, &c. or, at the worst, against the pike or bayonet. They should not, however, be totally unacquainted with two or three cuts and guards, as given in the instructions against cavalry, since in charging along the roads, lanes, or in many other situations, they might be assailed by, or be obliged to attack men who had taken advantage of a wall, tree, bank, or such a spot as would bring them upon a level with the horseman. These points, if rightly explained to the yeomanry, and they being required to learn no more than the few requisite cuts and guards, under proper inspection to see that the instructors were of sufficient capability, and that the practice was fully adhered to, appear to me worthy of consideration, whereas the yeomanry may otherwise be led to consider themselves bound, as cavalry, to attempt every thing required of the regulars; and probably some of their own horses, or even comrades, might suffer from those cuts which were intended to have effect elsewhere; and themselves, perhaps, wounded at the moment they had so erred in their attack. With every wish that they may have no occasion to show their efficiency, but at the same time anxious that they should be prepared, and properly too, if called upon to act. I remain, Sir, P.S. Since writing the above, I hear that Mr. Angelo, the Superintendent of Sword Exercise to the Army, has formed a system expressly upon the plan above suggested, and I imagine it could not be in better hands. Mounting the Cavalry. MR. EDITOR, As regulations have so often been made avowedly for the purpose of diminishing the expenses that officers are liable to, I take the liberty of suggesting the following for mounting the officers of cavalry, as it does not strike me that any objection could be made to them, and the officers would nine times out of ten be better mounted than they now are. 1st. According to the strength of regiments, let a certain number of the best horses be selected and marked down in the description book as fit for officers' chargers. 2nd. Let every officer on joining be mounted from these, on paying the Government contract price for the regiment, and if inexperienced, his charger should be chosen for him by the commanding officer and riding-master, which latter is also to be paid his breaking-in fees on every occasion the indulgence is granted. 3rd. Whenever an officer loses a charger, under circumstances for which by present regulations he is entitled to pecuniary compensation, let him be remounted from the select horses, free of expense, excepting ridingmasters' fees. 4th. When such chargers are worn out, or become unfit for the service through any other casualties, not brought on by neglect or ill treatment, let them be cast by the general at the half-yearly inspection, and the officer again be permitted to remount himself as at first. 5th. If officers injure or kill their chargers by neglect or ill treatment, or in consequence of being permitted to ride them hunting, the above indulgence not to be granted, but they must immediately remount themselves from some other quarter, and the charger so purchased, passed and approved of by the officer commanding, and then to be subject to the same regulations as those taken from the select horses. 6th. Officers not to be permitted to sell any charger taken from the select horses until cast by the inspecting general, but they might be permitted by the commanding officer to exchange with one another. A CAVALRY OFFICER. Massey's Sounding-Machine. And MR. EDITOR,-On reading your interesting periodical of October last, a statement by Capt. Hall, R.N. relative to the great utility of Massey's Patent Sounding-Machine, I feel much pleasure in assuring the Royal Navy, through your Journal, that Capt. Hall has done but a bare act of justice to this truly useful article, and which, if more generally used by the Navy, would verify what he has stated in your October Number, viz. that the certainty of its operation in obtaining the vertical depth of water, without regard to the quantum of line let off the deep-sea-reel, in any sort of weather, and even whilst sailing at the rate of six knots per hour, is a decided proof of its superior utility to most other methods in use. having once saved a cruising frigate from grounding, whilst blockading during the war in 1812, by using Massey's Patent in blowing weather, in preference to the old method, I speak from positive experience, and would recommend all officers to give it but a fair trial to convince them of its great service and I can further state, that I once tried Massey's Patent, on a fine day, in sight of the Eddystone Light-house, the ship under all sail, going eight knots per hour, and obtained true soundings in forty-five fathoms. Though I have the highest opinion of its great utility, there is one objection which I think it right to state, and which I have no doubt might be obviated by the ingenious inventor. I have on more than one occasion tried Massey's Patent in deep water, that is, from sixty fathoms upwards, and found, to my great surprise, that the density of water at so great a depth compressed the cylinder (whose rotatory motion causes the index to denote the depth) into a flat body, thereby rendering the machine useless, and have heard practical officers condemn it from that circumstance; I have since only used the Patent when the supposed depth of water did not exceed fifty fathoms but the Patentee I should think might, by increasing the thickness of the copper used in making the cylinder, prevent its compression even in a hundred fathoms. I submit this for the information of the Patentee, as well as the Navy in general. Your humble servant, An OLD OFFicer, A strong advocate for Theory as well as Practice. Plymouth, 1st March 1832. Dress and Equipment of Riflemen. MR. EDITOR, The yellow epaulets of the French voltigeurs have been justly censured; but are they not less absurd than the bright silver buttons, glittering ramrods, brass sword hilts, and burnished buckles of the rifle brigade? Permit me, likewise, to inquire the use of the dirk with which the rifleman is encumbered? Its appearance is far from ornamental, and it can never be useful in the field; for when fixed on the rifle it barely projects three feet from the arm of the sharpshooter. I would, therefore, substitute for the dirk a light tomahawk, the lower end made to fix in the ground, and the axe-head hollowed out to serve as a rest for the piece. The officers I would arm with targets, made of rhinoceros hide, and furnished with a projecting spike in the centre. The shields worn by the Mahratta horse, will, I believe, turn off a ball at eighty yards' distance. While on this subject, allow me to observe, that many gentlemen have expressed a wish that the new police were furnished with targets. The celerity of their movements would not be in the least impeded by the weight, and the most violent demagogue could not object to an arm so purely defensive. Instead of forming the rifle brigade into battalions, I would divide into distinct centuries, each consisting of 144 men, and officered by a centurion, captain, first lieutenant, second lieutenant, and ensign. To each century should be attached one of the light pieces, called amusettes. Their range exceeds 3000 yards, they may be loaded six times in a minute, and fired 200 times in an hour. Not wishing to occupy too much of your valuable columns, I here conclude and remain, Sir, yours, &c. Ιωτα. Moustaches. MR. EDITOR, I fully concur in the opinion expressed by " Miles Juvenis," in the last Journal, that the moustache added considerably to the soldier-like appearance of our cavalry, but mark the absurd inconsistency which has attended their abolishment. The moustache was ordered to be discontinued in consequence of his Majesty's dislike to every thing not perfectly English, and yet strange to say, the only regiments allowed to retain this foreign ornament, are HIS MAJESTY'S OWN HOUSEHOLD TROOPS, and the Hussars, to the dress of which latter corps (says the General Order on the subject) the moustache belongs, and why? because hussars are altogether foreign. Then why, in the name of all that is English, are such troops retained in the British service? What a strange nation foreigners must consider us! March 7th, 1832. I remain, Mr. Editor, your obedient servant, Court-Martial on Capt. Warrington. 66 J. W. G. MR. EDITOR,-In your Journal for the last month (No. 40)," An Old Soldier" offers some observations upon Military Law and the late CourtsMartial," amongst which observations, and in reference to the trial of Capt. Warrington, is the following remark : "The other point to which I would advert, is the extraordinary assumption by the prosecutor, which does not appear to have been placed in its true light, that because the evidence tended to impugn the chain of evidence which he thought unbroken, he should therefore be allowed to re-open the prosecution by the production of other witnesses. Such a monstrous doctrine, Mr. Editor, is no less illegal and un-military, than it is unjust and impolitic; the custom of all courts, civil and military, is decidedly opposed to it." We are not told, Sir, in what lights other persons than “ An Old Soldier” have viewed the assumption of the doctrine here imputed to the prosecutor; consequently we are without the means of comparing any variety of interpretation which may have been put upon such imputed doctrine. It is to be presumed, that the remark of "An Old Soldier" is aimed at what fell from the prosecutor upon the termination of the evidence given by private Denny, when the prosecutor is reported to have observed, that the testimony of that witness went to impugn, or to reflect upon, the evidence which the prosecutor had brought forward in support of a particular point, and which he had deemed incontrovertible. The prosecutor therefore submitted the expediency of his again examining witnesses: but for what purpose? For no other than to rebut the testimony of the said witness, which had reflected upon the credibility of his the prosecutor's evidence. Such is reported in the proceedings to have been the prosecutor's object. I have, Sir, attentively perused those proceedings, as given in three of our leading journals, and can no where discover an expression of the prosecutor, savouring of the intention or desire imputed to him by " An Old Soldier," to re-open the prosecution for the purpose of producing in succession, such parts of it as had been held in reserve, in order the better to accord with the course of the defence, and to render more certain the conviction of the prisoner. Well might "An Old Soldier" denounce such doctrine as "monstrous," as "illegal, unmilitary, unjust, and impolitic." But the reflection thus gratuitously thrown out by "An Old Soldier" is not limited to the impeachment of the prosecutor it no less impeaches the judgment and impartiality of every member of the court, and of the Deputy Judge-Advocate, all of whom, had such doctrine been in reality advanced by the prosecutor, might justly be accused of having lent their sanction to an unwarrantable course of prosecution, which it was their bounden duty to deprecate and to reject at the very instant of its being proposed; for although the prosecutor did finally abstain from further examination of witnesses to rebut the testimony of the defence, which had reflected upon his (the prosecutor's) evidence, it does not appear from the proceedings that he so abstained through any intervention of the court, or of the Deputy Judge-Advocate, but from a wish to save the court unnecessary delay. The remark of "An Old Soldier," which has been cited above, appears the more extraordinary, because he has had recourse to Simmons, whose work may be pronounced the best authority on the practice of courts-martial; and in the very page of that work, from which he has extracted, as also in the page following, it is distinctly laid down, that further enquiry or further examination of witnesses by the prosecutor, if limited to the object of reestablishing the credibility of his witnesses which had been impeached by evidence in the course of the defence, is strictly admissible. And I may be allowed, Mr. Editor, to observe, (which brings me to one of the principal objects of my troubling you on the present occasion,) that the rule so provided by the Law of Trial appears to be most salutary, for without some such rule provided, scarcely a criminal trial, civil or military, could be carried on without attempts being made by suborned witnesses to upset the evidence, however respectable its character, which may have been brought forward on the part of the prosecution, and the ends of justice would be constantly defeated. I have the honour to be, Sir, Your humble servant, OBSERVER. Ireland. MR. EDITOR,-If you think the following suggestion worthy of a place in your Journal, I pray you insert it: The state of Ireland, every one admits, is a most alarming one; various remedies are talked of. I beg to propose a very simple, but, I think, an efficacious one. Let His Majesty assemble his Parliament in Dublin this next session, and open the House of Lords in person. I need not enter into a detail of the general advantages that would be derived from the particular benefits thus bestowed upon the metropolis, and its immediate neighbourhood. So many and so palpable are the general happy effects which such a step would produce, that I need not say more than express my conviction that, under the mercy of God, this measure would act with the rapidity of lightning, Ireland would be saved, and England in proportion benefited,so says U. S. Club, 21st March 1832. A VETERAN SOLDIER. EDITOR'S PORTFOLIO; OR NAVAL AND MILITARY REGISTER. AFFAIRS AT HOME AND ABROAD. THE New Reform Bill has passed the House of Commons, and been carried up to the Lords. In the debate on Wednesday night, the 28th ult., upon the Army Estimates, as brought forward with much fairness and good sense by the Secretary at War, Sir Henry Parnell took occasion to miscarry of a brood of "very rough" notions of economy in that department. Fortunately for the country and the army, the Right Hon. Gentleman's period of gestation has been cut short, notwithstanding the unre mitting attentions of his professional adviser, Surgeon Joseph Hume, by premature ejectment from the War Office. The mountain laboured, but the birth was worse than ridiculous. Nothing more despicable, in point of principle, justice, or expediency, than the generality of those schemes, was ever uttered within the walls of St. Stephen's. Their reception by the House was commensurate with their merits. FRANCE has been disturbed by a new sedition at Grenoble, which was only quelled by the interference of the Troops of the Line, the National Guard of the place having refused to act. Temporary tranquillity has been restored. A French force of 1500 men, to which we alluded in our last, has forcibly occupied the fortress of ANCONA, and exercises an imperium in imperio in the heart of the Papal States, in defiance of the Pontiff's protests and remonstrances. The object of this expedition remains unexplained: its effect has been to U. S. JOURN. No. 41. APRIL 1832. foment the pre-existing excitement on the Italian Peninsula. The affairs of HOLLAND and BELGIUM appear as much embroilBoth parties are said ed as ever. to be actively preparing for the probable contingency of war. NAVAL AND MILITARY LIBRARY AND MUSEUM.-At a General Meeting of Members of the Naval and Military Library and Museum, held at the Thatched House Tavern, St. James'sstreet, on Saturday the 3rd March 1832, Admiral the Hon. Sir Robert Stopford, Bart. G.C.B. in the Chair, 1st. The report of the Council was read by the Secretary. 2nd. A series of Laws, prepared by the Council for the future government of the Institution, was read. At the conclusion, a short discussion arose on a passage of the 6th Clause in Section III. which stood as follows: "The Members going out by rotation shall be eligible to be re-elected." Lieut.-Colonel W. F. O'Reilly, suggested that the Members of the Couneil going out should not be eligible to be re-elected for one year. A. H. Holdsworth, Esq. M.P. Colonel of Yeomanry Cavalry, and a VicePresident of the Institution, stated the grounds upon which the Committee had decided upon the above Clause. An amendment was then proposed by Colonel Sir John T. Jones, Bart. R.E. (a Member of the Council,) seconded by Major C. C. Dansey, R.A. and agreed to, that "Three of the Members going out shall be eligible to be re-elected." The entire series of Laws was then put from the Chair, and carried unanimously. 3rd. The various officers of the Institution were elected for the ensuing year. 4th. It having been announced to the Meeting that the following distinguished individuals had acceded to the 2 N |