to be fufficiently flexible, each must not only have a ftric habit of obedience, but a readiness in immediately executing what may be ordered; and that it may not be unwieldy, ic must be animated by powers, derived from the head, which hall pervade the minuteft limb. If we look on an army in this view, and examine military regulations in this light, we fhall fee that they have all a tendency to render the soldier ftrong, active, ready, and obedient. Even the cock of the hat has its ufe; for it teaches him that there is no one thing fo minute as to be below attention; and how much depends on trifling, and apparently unimportant matters, those best know, who have been used to combine varied and independent movements, and to expect much from their refult. If it be contended that, in this inftance, man is only a machine, and that it takes from the fancied dignity of human nature, it may be alledged that, in various fituations, he is equally mechanical; and, at least, this dignity is only depressed while he is the agent of another. That the minutest attentions may be useful, is evinced by the exactness of lord Cornwallis, fir G. A. Elliott, and the king of Pruffia. If they had not been diftinguished generals, they might have been ftigmatized by the name of Martinets. If it had not been for the most mechanical obedience, and a train of the best concerted movements, the king of Pruffia's army might have been destroyed, in his last campaign against the emperor. Another Cæfar almost met with another Dyrrhachium.

It is from the difcipline of the Pruffian armies that this treatife has been formed. The Elements were originally written by a Pruffian general; and they are now tranflated with fufficient accuracy, though a few idiomatical errors occafionally occur. The author begins with inftructions for teaching a recruit, then proceeds to detail the evolutions of 2 battalion, and next those of a whole corps. The tranflator juftly obferves, that his author may be ftyled the Euclid of Tacticians; in fact, the whole is connected with great kill and we find the firft leffon of a recruit, of fome confequence in the management of an army. This gives a great force and fimplicity to his directions: it makes the fubject one, whole, and entire. For this reafon, and because the leffons depend fo much on the plates, we are unable to give any proper specimen. We must choose one, which will not perhaps give an adequate idea of the work, but it can be more eafily separated than any other part; and we have reason to fuppofe that it was written by the king of Pruffia.

"I think

"I think one fhould endeavour to make all the officers acquainted with every manœuvre, the reasons which occafion them, and the advantages that may be made ufe of. Should even the greatest part of them not learn by this to judge and to combine them; there will, however, always be a certain number, who will think and fpeculate. By this, a great deal would be already gained; becaufe from thefe, there may be formed in time able men, who, when they have attained a certain degree of knowledge of their profeffion, will be induced to read good books, and by this means enlarge their notions. Their eagerness will increafe, in proportion as they perceive themselves to advance in knowledge. Because, one never labours in any profeffion whatever, with more pleasure, than when one perceives in oneself the required capacity; it is then impoffible to withstand the defire of distinguishing onefelf. It is to wifhed, that fuch able officers, though they fhould not know how to draw plans, fhould understand them perfectly, with the manœuvres of the troops, and the references marked upon them; and that they fhould endeavour to perform them; because, this is the best method of executing them upon the ground. The ideas are formed much quicker upon a plan, than from the best relation without a drawing ; because, the eye may follow the manœuvres, as if one was prefent at it. Thofe, who are deprived of this talent, muft be contented with obtaining a general idea of the manœuvres, fo as to be able to perform them directly without a previous preparation.

"Experience has fhewn, that with all the officers in general one may go far; and, when they have a certain degree of knowledge, one may proceed ftill further with them. For example; fuppofe a defcribed pofition to be given of what is to be performed, and when they are well prepared for it, you then, when on the spot, perform unexpectedly, and without giving any notice, quite another thing than what they have been prepared for; in the beginning they will fail, but in time will be fo used to this, that they will punctually execute what is commanded. This method fharpens their attention, and confirms that confidence which an officer should have of himself; it makes him bold and certain, and he will not feem embarraffed when any thing unexpected is to be performed."

After a very careful perufal of this work, we can very confidently recommend it as clear, fimple, and accurate.

in Hiftorical View of the English Government, from the Settlement of the Saxons in Britain to the Acceffion of the House of Stewart. By John Millar, Efq. 4to. 18s. in Boards. Cadell.

FR

ROM the imperfect state in which the more ancient records of nations have been tranfmitted, it is impoffible to afcertain, by existing documents, the various gradations of their respective governments, through the ftages between their infancy and maturer periods. In attempting, therefore, to inveftigate this fubject, the inquirer muft frequently appeal to other collateral refources, befides the fixed decifions of written authority. He must call to his affiftance a philofophical knowlege of human nature, and of the progrefs of fociety, by the light obtained from which, he may be enabled to explore the concatenation of caufes and effects, and thence elucidate the obfcure, indefinite, and unconnected information of history. A narrative, founded upon fuch principles, may be deemed, in fome measure, hypothetical; yet, when conducted with strict attention to the different objects, when the reasoning is fairly deduced, and the reprefentation confiftent with probability, it feems entitled to an equal rank in hiftorical difquifitions with that prefumptive proof which is admitted in judicial proceedings, where pofitive evidence is deficient.

The work now before us affords a natural difplay, upon this plan, of the gradual progrefs of the English conftitution, from the earliest period of its hiftory. The author has very properly divided his copious fubject into three parts: the first, extending from the Settlement of the Saxons in Britain to the Norman Conqueft; the second, from the Reign of William the Conqueror to the Acceffion of the House of Stewart; and the third, from the Reign of James the First to the prefent Time. He begins with a Preliminary Account of the State of Britain under the Dominion of the Romans, in which it cannot be expected that he should differ materially from the delineations exhibited by the numerous writers on this subject.

The conduct of the Britons, in foliciting the affistance of the Saxons against the Scots and Picts; a measure which has been generally ftigmatifed as the height of imprudence, is vindicated by Mr. Millar from this uncandid imputation. He obferves, that it proceeded from the fame fyftem of policy. which has been practifed and approved in all ages; that of courting the alliance of one nation, to form a balance against the formidable power of another; and that the cenfures which, in this inftance, have been fo liberally bestowed upon the Britons, are a plain proof how ready we are to judge of actions from the good or bad fuccefs which attends them. B b

VOL. LXIII. May, 1787.

On this

occafion, the conduct of the Britons was doubtless conformable to that of every other people in fimilar circumftances. They confidered the affiftance of fome foreign power as indifpenfably neceffary for their protection; and, in the eventual fuccefs of this meafure, however mean and inglorious, their hope was not disappointed. But that, in the end, they fell a victim to "this dangerous refource, was an incident which, it is probable, neither their acquaintance with hiftory, nor their knowlege of human nature, could enable them to forefee; and, whatever opinion we may form of their political fagacity, they appear to have been actuated by natural motives, when they dreaded more the imminent fury of their inveterate enemies, than the uncertain future hoftilities of their Saxon allies.

After delineating the character and manners of the Saxons, and giving an account of their fettlement in Britain, the author adverts to the fimilarity in the fituation of the AngloSaxons, and of the other barbarians who fettled in the provinces of the weftern empire. Of the affigned causes of this uniformity our limits will not permit us to give a particular detail; but the author traces the subject with perspicuity and attention, combining with the faint gleams of historical information the natural effects which refulted from the manners, the fituation, and fimple policy of those barbarous nations, and which eminently diftinguished them from the other inhabitants of the world. The illuftration of this fubject is comprehended under the following general heads: 1. That the fettlement of the barbarous nations upon the western continent of Europe, as well as in England, was effected by the gradual fubjection of a more civilized people, with whom the con querors were at length completely incorporated. 2. That the German or Gothic nations, who fettled in the western part of Europe, were enabled, in a fhort time, to form kingdoms of a greater extent than are ufually to be found among people equally rude and barbarous. 3. That the great extent of the kingdoms which were formed upon the ruins of the western empire, together with the rudeness of the people by whom they were established, appears to have occafioned that system of feudal tenures, which is commonly regarded as the most diftinguishing peculiarity in the policy of modern Europe. 4. That the cuftom of duelling, and the peculiar notions of honour, which have fo long prevailed in the modern nations of Europe, appear to have arifen from the fame circumftances that produced the feudal inftitutions. 5. That the fame fituation produced the romantic love and gallantry, by which the age of chivalry was no lefs diftinguished than by its peculiar motions of military honour.

The

The author next confiders the ftate of property, and the different ranks and orders of men, produced by the fettlement of the Saxons in Britain. Exclufive of the fovereign, he diftinguishes the inhabitants into three different ranks or orders, namely, the military men, the peasants, and the clergy. With refpect to the fecond of thefe claffes, Mr. Millar differs in opinion from the generality of writers on this fubje&; and, as his obfervations appear to be well founded, we shall lay them before our readers.

The peasants compofed a fecond order, greatly inferior in rank to the thanes of either clafs. They appear to have confifted chiefly of fuch perfons as had been reduced into captivity during the long wars between the Britons and the Saxons, and had afterwards been entrusted by their mafters with the management of particular farms; they were called ceorls, carles, or churles. Some of them, no doubt, were kept in the house of their master, and employed in cultivating the land in his own poffeffion; but the greater number were ufually fent to a distance, and placed, as it happened to be convenient, upon different parts of his eftate. The former being under his eye, and acting on all occafions from his orders, remained for a long time in their primitive fervile condition; the latter, on the contrary, being withdrawn from his immediate infpection, had neceffarily more truft and confidence repofed in them, and were thence enabled, with fome degree of rapidity, to improve their circumstances. From their distance, the mafter was obliged to relinquifh all thoughts of compelling them to labour, by means of perfonal chaftifement; and as, from the nature of their employment, he could hardly judge of their diligence, otherwife than by their fuccefs, he foon found it expedient to bribe their induftry, by giving them a reward in proportion to the crop which they produced. They were thus allowed to acquire property; and their condition became fimilar, in every respect, to that of the adfcripti glebe among the ancient Romans, to that of the prefent colliers and falters in Scotland, or of the bondmen employed in the mines in feveral parts of Europe. In this fituation fome of them, by industry and fru gality, found means to accumulate fo much wealth, as enabled them to stock their own farms, and become bound to pay a certain yearly rent to the master.

It must be acknowledged, the writers upon Saxon antiquities have generally fuppofed that the ceorls were never in a fervile condition; that from the beginning they were free tenants, forming a diftinct clafs of people, and holding an intermediate rank between the villeins or bondmen, and those who followed the military profeffion. But this fuppofition, fo far as I know, is made without any fhadow of proof: it probably took its rife from obferving that the free tenants, towards the end of the AngloSaxon government, were very numerous, without attending to the circumstances from which they obtained their freedom. It Bb 2 is