were in old Rome the only rewards for military atchievements Money, it is true, was fometimes diftributed among the private men, as an addition to their pay, after a fatiguing campaign; but not as a recompence for their good behaviour, becaufe all flared alike. It did not escape the penetrating Romans, that wealth, the parent of luxury and selfishness, fails not to eradicate the military fpirit. The foldier who to recover his baggage performed a bold action, gave an instructive leffon to all governments. Being invited by his general to try his fortune a fecond time; Invite, fays the foldier, one who has loft his baggage. Many a bold adventurer goes to the Indies, who, returning with a fortune, is afraid of every breeze. Britain, I suspect, is too much infected with the fpirit of gain. Will it be thought ridiculous in any man of figure, to prefer reputation and refpect before riches; provided only he can afford a frugal meal, and a warm garment? Let us compare an old officer, who never deferted his friend nor his country, and a wealthy merchant, who never indulged a thought but of gain : the wealth is tempting; —and yet does there exist a man of spirit, who would not be the officer rather than the merchant, even with his millions? Sultan Mechmet granted to the Janifaries a privilege of importing foreign commodities free of duty was it his intention to metamorphofe foldiers into merchants, loving. peace, and hating war?

But tho' I declare against large appointments beforehand, which,

* A Roman triumph was finely contrived to excite heroifm; and a fort of triumph not lefs fplendid, was display'd by the Fatemite Califs of Egypt. After returning from a fuccefsful expedition, the Calif pitched his camp in a spacious plain near his capital, where he was attended by all his grandees, in their finest equipages. Three days were commonly fpent in all manner of rejoicings, feafting, mufic, fireworks, &c. He marched into the city with this great cavalcade, through roads. covered with rich carpets, ftrewed with flowers, gums, and odoriferous plants, and hedged on both fides with crouds of congratulating fubjects.

instead

instead of promoting service, are a temptation to luxury and idlenefs; yet to an officer of character, who has spent his younger years in ferving his king and country, a government, or other fuitable employment that enables him to pass the remainder of his life in ease and affluence, is a proper reward for merit, reflecting equal honour on the prince who bestows, and on the subject who receives; befide affording an enlivening profpect to others, who have it at heart to do well.

With refpect to the private men, the rotation proposed, aims at improvements far more important, than that of making military fervice fall light upon individuals. It tends to unite the spirit of industry with that of war, and to form the fame man to be an industrious labourer, as well as a good foldier. The continual exercise recommended, cannot fail to produce a spirit of industry; which will occafion a demand for the private men after their feven years fervice, as valuable above all other labourers, not only for regularity, but for activity. And with refpect to fervice in war, conftant exercife is the life of an army, in the literal as well as metaphorical fenfe. Boldness is inspired by strength and agility, to which conftant motion mainly contributes. The Roman citizens, trained to arms from their infancy, and never allowed to rest, were invincible. To mention no other works, fpacious and durable roads carried to the very extremities of that vaft empire, fhow clearly how the foldiers were employ'd during peace; which hardened them for war, and made them orderly and fubmiffive (a). So effential was labour held by the Romans for training an army, that they never ventured to face an enemy, with troops debilitated in any degree by idleness. The Roman army in Spain, having been worsted in feveral engagements, and confined within their entrenchments, were funk in idlenefs and

(a) Bergire hiftoire des grands chemins, vol. 2. p. 152..

luxury.

luxury. Scipio Nafica, after demolishing Carthage, taking the command of that army, durft not oppose it to the enemy, till he accustomed the foldiers to temperance and hard labour. He exercised them without relaxation in marching and countermarching, in fortifying camps and demolishing them, in digging trenches and filling them up, in building high walls and pulling them down; he himself, from morning to night, going about, and directing every operation. Marius, before engaging the Cimbri, exercised his army in turning the course of a river. Appian relates, that Antiochus, during his winter-quarters at Calchis, having married a beautiful virgin, with whom he was greatly enamoured, spent the whole winter in pleasure, abandoning his army to vice and idlenefs: and when the time of action returned with the spring, he found his foldiers unfit for fervice. The idleness of our foldiers in time of peace, promoting debauchery and licentiousness, is no lefs deftructive to health than to difcipline. Unable for the fatigues of a first campaign, our private men die in thousands, as if fmote with a peftilence *. We never read of any mortality in the Roman legions, tho' frequently engaged in climates different from their own. Let us listen to a judicious writer, to whom every one liftens with delight: "Nous remarquons "aujourd'hui, que nos armées périffent beaucoup par le travail

very

* The idleness of Britifh foldiers appears from a tranfaction of the commiffioners of the annexed estates in Scotland. After the late war with France, they judged, that part of the King's rents could not be better bestow'd, than in giving bread to the difbanded foldiers. Houfes were built for them, portions of land given them to cultivate at a very low rent, and maintenance afforded them till they could These men reap a crop. could not wifh to be better accommodated: but fo accuftomed they had been to idlenefs, and change of place, as to be incapable of any fort of work: they deferted their farms one after another, and commenced thieves and beggars. Such as had been made ferjeants must be excepted: these were fenfible fellows, and profpered in their little farms.

"immodéré

“immodéré des foldats; et cependant c'étoit par un travail im"menfe que les Romains fe confervoient. La raifon en eft, je "croix, que leurs fatigues étoient continuelles; au lieu

que nos

"foldats paffent fans ceffe d'un travail extreme à une extreme oifivété, ce qui eft la chofe du monde la plus propre à les faire "perir. Il faut que je rapporte ici ce que les auteurs nous disent "de l'education de foldats Romains. On les accoutumoit à aller "le pas militaire, c'eft-a-dire, à fair en cinq heures vingt milles, et quelquefois vingt-quatre. Pendant ces marches, on leur fai"" foit porter de poids de foixante livres. On les entretenoit dans

l'habitude de courir et de fauter tout armés ; ils prenoient "dans leurs exercices des epées, de javelots, de flêches, d'une pé"fanteur double des armes ordinaires; et ces exercices étoient " continuels. Des hommes fi endurcis étoient ordinairement "fains; on ne remarque pas dans les auteurs que les armées Ro"maines, qui faifoient la guerre en tant de climats, periffoient "beaucoup par les maladies; au lieu qu'il arrive prefque conti

nuellement aujourd'hui, que des armées, fans avoir combattu, "fe fondent, pour ainfi dire, dans une campagne * (a)." Marefchal

(a) Montefquieu, Grandeur de Romains, chap. 2.

"We observe now-a-days, that our armies are confumed by the fatigues and "fevere labour of the foldiers; and yet it was alone by labour and toil that the "Romans preferved themfelves from defruction. I believe the reafon is, that "their fatigue was continual and unremitting, while the life of our foldiers is a "perpetual tranfition from fevere labour to extreme indolence, a life the most rui" nous of all others. I muft here recite the account which the Roman authors "give of the education of their foldiers. They were continually habituated to the

military pace, which was, to march in five hours twenty, and fometimes twenty"five miles. In these marches each foldier carried fixty pounds weight. They "were accustomed to run and leap in arms; and in their military exercifes, "their fwords, javelins, and arrows, were of twice the ordinary weight. These "exercifes

VOL. IL

D

refchal Saxe, a foldier, not a physician, afcribes to the ufe of vinegar the healthiness of the Roman legions: were vinegar fo potent, it would of all liquors be the most in request. Exercife without intermiffion, during peace as well as during war, produced that falutary effect; which every prince will find, who is dif pofed to copy the Roman difcipline. The Marefchal gueffes better with respect to a horfe. Difcourfing of cavalry, he obferves,. that a horse becomes hardy and healthful by conftant exercise, and that a young horse is unable to bear fatigue; for which reafon he declares against young horfes for the fervice of an army..

That the military branch of the British government is fufceptible of improvements, all the world will admit. To improve it,, I have contributed my mite; which is humbly fubmitted to the public, a judge from whom there lies no appeal. It is fubmitted in three views. The firft is, Whether an army, modelled as above, would not secure us against the boldest invader; the next, Whether fuch an army be as dangerous to liberty, as an army in its

"exercises were continual, which so strengthened the constitution of the men, "that they were always in health. We fee no remarks in the Roman authors, "that their armies, in the variety of climates where they made war, ever perished: "by difeafe; whilft now-a-days it is not unufual, that an army, without ever "coming to an engagement, dwindles away by disease in one campaign."

* Rei militaris periti, plus quotidiana armorum exercitia ad fanitatem militum putaverunt prodeffe, quam medicos. Ex quo intelligitur quanto ftudiofius armorum artem docendus fit femper exercitus, cum ei laboris confuetudo et in caftris fanitatem, et in conflictu poffit præftare victoriam. Vegetius, De re militari, lib. 3. cap. 2.- [In Englifb thus: "Our mafters of the art-military were of opinion,. "that daily exercise in arms contributed more to the health of the troops, than "the skill of the phyfician: from which we may judge, what care fhould be "taken, to habituate the foldiers to the exercife of arms, to which they owe both "their health in the camp, and their victory in the field."]The fame author. obferves, that the Romans in his time had become fo inactive, as to leave off the fortifying their camps.

prefent