state as it ought to be. The object then, one, to wit National Defence; against enemies from without and within; neither against enemies from without to the exclusion of those who are within, nor the opposite, but against both; by land and by water; abroad and at home. For which object, branches two; the Radical [fearful word], and the Stipendiary. Stipendiary to fight for Radical; and Radical to frighten Stipendiary. Of the Radical force the members naturally unpaid;'-a poor invention, what can there be got by that? The Stipendiary, as the name imports, paid; which undoes the mischief, by taking money from one person and giving it to another, which is what political economists call putting money in motion. Nevertheless it may be doubted whether it be enough to undo it altogether; for

Of the land-service force, the Stipendiary portion is but as a twig growing out of, and nourished by, the Radical branch. Though in respect of its quantity capable of being augmented, and but too liable and apt to be augmented to excess, the existence of it is the result and evidence of a considerable progress made in the career of civilization; forasmuch as thus, by means of a comparatively small portion withdrawn from the care of producing the matter of subsistence and abundance, the whole remainder of the population is left free, without obstruction, to employ itself exclusively in maximizing the aggregate mass of the matter on which life and prosperity depend.'-p. 3.

The object of government is not to maximize the aggregate mass of the matter on which life and prosperity depend; but to maximize the matter on which the prosperity of the governors depends. If this was not so, nobody would be a governor; and consequently there would be anarchy. With this exception the passage is probably correct.

'But while the number of them is thus comparatively small, their power of exerting force with effect,-and this for the purpose not only of defence, but of offence likewise,-will, in equal numbers, be comparatively great. And it being necessary not only for the actual exercise of their appropriate functions, but also for the putting and keeping them at all times in a state of preparation for it, that they should be kept together in bodies more or less numerous: hence it is, that they are at once a source of security on one account, and of danger on another.'—p. 6.

In the stipendiaries belonging to the sea-service branch, no such source of danger is perceptible. The element on which they act keeps them in a state of comparative separatedness; and at the same time mostly at an uninfluential distance from the seat of the legislature.' —p. 7.

The process of obtaining the greatest good, is therefore reduced to the following rules:

'Rule 1. Minimize the stipendiary force, so far as is consistent with security against hostility from without.'

'Rule 2. Maximize the radical force,—to wit, so far as is consistent with the non-employment of compulsory means for the formation or maintenance of it.'—p. 21.

If prophecy means speaking of a thing beforehand, this is undoubtedly the National Guard by prophecy.

The Reasons also contain much in brief. To begin with the diminution of the Stipendiary:

'Reasons.-1. Minimization of danger to the constitution from insubordination on the part of these functionaries, and from resistance to, and even forced ascendancy over, their respective superordinate authorities, whether in the military line or the non-military; to wit, the army minister, the navy minister, the prime minister, and the legislature.

2. Minimization of expense,-of the quantity of the expense bestowed upon the service of this compound sub-department.

3. Minimization of power and disposition, on the part of the government, to engage in offensive aggression against other States, and thence to involve this State in needless and internally pernicious warfare.

Reasons for the maximization of the Radical:

1. Maximization of security, and sense of security, against danger of insubordination and ascendancy on the part of the stipendiary force. 2. Giving increase to the chance and facility of affording, without expense of bounty or enlistment, or at less expense, as well as without compulsion, increase in case of need, to the stipendiary force.'-p. 21.

As some persons have declared the style of the author to be to their apprehension occasionally peregrine and difficult, it may be useful to remark that maximize' means 'have the most you can of,' and 'minimize' means 'have as little as you can of.'

The above is the great discovery of the book; which, though like Columbus's egg, it is easy to say it was within every body's knowledge when they are told-yet leaves the question, of why people have been so long in making any practical employment of it.

These extracts are from the Sections entitled Branches, what, and Leading Principles. The next are from that surnamed Radicals, who. To which the answer is, not that they are all who drink Roasted Corn, or attend the meetings at the Rotunda, or wear tricoloured cockades, or beat the New Police when they catch them in small quantities; but that

Exceptions excepted, to the Radical branch of the Defensive Force will belong, at all times, all who, being apt with respect to the performance of the appropriate exercise, are willing to join therein; none

who are not willing. Appropriate denomination, accordingly, volun◄ teers.'-p. 32.

It will present itself at once as an objection to this plan, that it can be used only in very limited circumstances. It contains no provision for the interest of any but the community; it is applicable, therefore, under none but popular governments. Consider, for example, what the consequences would be in England, if every individual who was willing to join therein,' had a musquet of forty inches barrel, and ammunition hanging by it in a pouch. In six months there would not be an abuse a man could live by. The mine of wealth which consists in the power of appropriating the public money, would be ruined and dried up; and the consequences would creep downwards into all classes of society, ramifying themselves like a plague, and preying on the wholesome frame of social order like a leprosy. If the rich were impoverished, it is clear the poor would starve; for it is the rich that feed the poor and not the poor the rich. The aristocracy and higher classes would be reduced to the state in which they are found in a neighbouring country,' of being obliged to keep their children instead of feeding them out of the public purse. Wealth would lose its best reward, which is the power of taking other people's; and industry its surest recompense, which is the certainty of being allowed to continue its exertions. To aver that such a plan would answer under better circumstances, is Utopian; that is to say, it belongs to an ideal state of things, where tubs shall be made with bottoms, and every cat have claws. Whatever is not present, can only be seen in vision, therefore it is visionary; and every thing is wild, which any man would be mad to expect. The whole vocabulary of dyslogistic statesmen, may be poured out upon a scheme so unlicked and barbarous, as that of giving arms to 'all who are willing to join therein.' There would be no amusement in the world, after such a consummation as this. There would be nothing in it worth taking,-that is to say, that could be taken. Instead of every man's house being his castle, every man's purse would be his castle; which would have much more serious effects on the existing order of things. Society would be one collection of unmanageable men, too strong to be robbed, and too self-willed to be muzzled. Chaos would come again, and the earth be without form and void; till at last the survivors would cast lots for a Royal Guard to fire on the remainder, and club their last sixpences to hire Swiss regiments in aid.

'The legislature will not, it is supposed, look for Radicals in the character of volunteers elsewhere than in towns of considerable size, and in the near neighbourhood of such towns. Reasons; avoidance of

the expense in labour and money, of journeys to and from the place of exercise.-Principle, the expense-minimizing.'-p. 35.

No imperative reason appears, why an insulated Radical might not usefully exercise himself in learning to hit six feet by two' at a hundred and eighty yards, against his own hill side if he has one in his neighbourhood. But the legislature, as is properly observed, would not expect it of him if it was accompanied with any extraordinary degree of personal fatigue.

To qualify the great body of the members of the radical force for attaining the ends of the institution, two sets of directing functionaries will be necessary: commanders and appropriate instructors. The instructors being but assistants to the commanders, will naturally act as such under their direction; as in private life, instructors in the several branches of art and science act under the direction of parents and guardians, their employers. Principle, the aptitude-maximizing.'

'In the case of the privates, service in this line being purely voluntary, the natural course of things is that, in them, that is to say in the majority of them, should be the choice of both commanders and instructors; for unless in this choice a vote were allowed to him, many a man whose service would have been useful, might decline to serve. Principles, 1. The Aptitude-maximizing. 2. The Num4. The Ineber-maximizing. 3. The Contentment-maximizing. quality-minimizing.'-p. 49.

This mode of recommending for commissions, is a cold prospect for the higher orders. In fact an inattention to their interests, is one of the defects with which the author is most liable to be charged.

The next Section is headed Stipendiaries, who.

'A Stipendiary is every person, who, having by authority of government, as per Art. 2, been located in any part of the aggregate corps composed of stipendiary defensive force functionaries, has not been, as per Art. 3, dislocated out of it.'-p. 51.

On the nature of these functionaries more light is thrown in a following paragraph, where they are divided into such as serve by land on foot, armed with fire-arms and bayonets; who are subdivided again into infantry of the line, intended to act in close order, and for the most part in close combat, which the ancients were wont to call dyxiμáxεolaι, cominus,—and light infantry, or say riflemen, destined to act by their dispersed force, and for the most part at a distance, which the Romans entitled eminus. Likewise those who serve on horseback; of whom some are Heavy Horse, or as we say in French Cavalerie d'élite; and those who are not Heavy, are Light. Also Horse, Artillery, including Rockets, to which last, little that is analogous can be found in antiquity, excepting the thunder and lightning which certain Indians did lance at Bacchus, in the

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first and last campaign he made in those parts. Nor is the story so devoid of likelihood, as may at first appear. For though some have thought that Bacchus was Noah, because he is the first whose drinking is commemorated, and others that he was Moses, because he had horns, which Michael Angelo also has represented in his figure of the latter; it is exceedingly probable that he was neither the one nor the other, but some hard-drinking soldado who penetrated into India, as many others have done since; neither is it any way incredible, that such a person should have horns, at least in a figurative sense, which is enough for the explanation of history, especially of ancient dates, it having, as is well known, been the custom of those times to speak much in metaphors and types, so that the account must not be construed too literally, and there may have been many circumstances leading to a full understanding, which as the ancients would express it, præ vetustate deperierunt. And of the functionaries there are also that serve amphibiously (aupi and Bíos) on foot or horseback; which are called dragoons. Quære, may not posterity conclude from this, that the Horse-Guards Blue lived always in their saddles? They also which serve for attack or defence of fortified places, are manifold; as Military Engineers, Artillery-men including such as handle Rockets, Miners, Sappers, Military Artificers, Pontooneers (for making bridges by boats and otherwise). Finally those who may be held to be the veritable amphibes, or such as serve amphibiously by land or sea, videlicet Marines; to whom by reason, as would appear, of the mirthfulness of their occupation, the vulgar do ordinarily attach an epithet indicative of the same. These are the species enumerated by the author; but the learned have distinguished others, as the grenadier, whose function was to throw a hollow ball filled with gunpowder, entitled a grenade; which is undoubtedly from granata a pomegranate, the grains of powder lying inside and the hard shell upon the out, in the same order as in that fruit. Also the fusileer, who was in old time armed with a weapon lighter than the rest; which some call harquebuss. But as there is no limit to the number of ways in which men may be slain, so there is none to the number of functions which may arise out of the same; on which account it may be considered infinite, or as the mathematicians more correctly express it, greater than any quantity that may be assigned.

Officers are distinguished into--1. Ordinary; 2. Erudite, or say Select.'-p. 56. In which it is not meant to affirm, that there are a great many ordinary officers; but by Ordinary' are shown to be intended, first, corporals, secondly serjeants, while the Erudites' begin at the rank of ensign, which is