For his brand it was faithless, though true was his quarrel, Before the commencement of the civil wars, the citizens of London were carefully trained in the use of the pike and musket. The general muster of the civic militia was at first once a year; the training and exercises of individuals took place four times a year, and lasted two days each time. These trainings were considered very irksome to weary artisans and thrifty shopkeepers; as, independently of the weight of the back and breast plates, skull-cap, (all iron,) sword, musket, and bandoliers, with which they were obliged to repair to muster, the military MUSKETEER, 1603. discipline was of such a complex character, that it both imposed much labour and consumed a great deal of time. The ponderous match-lock, or carbine, four feet long in the barrel, and dis- charged a bullet ten to a pound, had to be put through a long succession of manoeuvres before it could be loaded, primed, and arged. In learning to shoot with it, the soldier citizen was obliged to gather courage, and accustom himself to the recoil of his piece, by flashing a little powder in the pan: the use of wadding for the ball not being as yet understood, he could only shoot effectually breast high; and his fire was delivered in the act of advancing, lest he should become himself a mark to the enemy while standing to take aim. As for the pike, it was a ponderous, heavy weapon, of pliant ash, sixteen feet long; and dexterity in the use of it could only be acquired by frequent practice.* * The Puritans at first regarded these warlike musters in the artillery gardens with abhorrence, as an obsolute mingling with the profane; but when they were taught from the pulpits that their projected reformation could only be accomplished by carnal weapons, they crowded to the exercise with alacrity.† In the meantime the proud cavaliers, who were still blind to the signs of the times, laughed scornfully at these new displays of cockney chivalry, and used to declare that it took a Puritan two years to learn how to discharge a musket without winking. But the laugh was turned against themselves after the civil wars commenced, when the pikes and guns of the civic militia scattered the fiery cavalry of Prince Rupert, and bore down all before them. When the Puritans were converted into actual soldiers, they marched into the field in high-crowned hats, collared bands, great loose coats, long tucks under them, and calves' leather boots. The active Major Shippon used, when riding about, to address his men thus: "Come boys, my brave boys, let us pray heartily and fight heartily, and God will bless us." They used to "sing a psalm, fall on, and beat all opposition to the devil."§ There was also some praying on the part of the king's troops. It is stated that, at the battle of Edge Hill, (the first onset,) Sir Jacob Astley, who commanded the foot, made the following remarkable prayer at the commencement: "O Lord! thou knowest how busy I must be this day; if I forget thee, do not thou forget me. March on, boys!" It is worthy of remark that the long service and military renown of the Puritan campaigners gave them no disrelish, after the war had ended, for their former peaceful and humble occupations; they resumed their mechanical or handicraft employ ments. * Grose's Military Antiquities. + Life of Samuel Butler, in Somers' Tracts. + Ibid. On the contrary, the cavaliers still went about with belts and swords, swaggering, swearing, and breaking into houses, and stealing whatever they could find. People knew them in the dark, and thus remarked: "King's troops, sir, I'll be sworn! How know you that, sir? Marry my lord, by their swearing." The scarlet and blue uniform came into use as a national military costume in the reign of Queen Anne. A wood-cut of one is given, (p. 000,) offering a billet-deux to a lady. The red and white feathers for officers were also in use. To those who may be curious in these things, there was published, by command of William IV., the regular costume of every regiment, with every change from the beginning. Evelyn says, 1678, grenadiers came into use. They were to throw hand-grenades: they had their pouches full. They also fell on with axes, slings, fire-locks, swords, and daggers. In 1609 began Chelsea Hospital. It had lately 476 in-pensioners, and about 80,000 out; and a military school for soldiers' children. The present queen (Victoria) has had regimental schoolmistresses introduced, for teaching sewing and knitting to the female offspring of the soldiers. The military power of England is about 114,000 men, being many thousands more than she had during the first American war. The half-pay list contains three generals to every regiment of soldiers, (horse and foot,) with other officers of all grades in proportion. This account does not include the county militia, which are only called out in time of war. This is a new feature in English history, contrary to all its ancient institutions, its ancient maxims, and its ancient policy, and has been the means of introducing barracks, whereby the army is kept distinct from the people. In a debate on the army in 1820, Mr. Hume stated there were then 97; but in 1822 they had increased to 100 in England, Wales, and Scotland, and as many in Ireland. There are also yeomanry cavalry. In 1838 there was £98,000 voted for the staff of that department. It has been a question whether the musket is a better weapon than the bow and arrow. Dr. Franklin, in a letter to Major General Lee, (1776,) gives the following six reasons for preferring bows and arrows to the musket: 1. Because a man may shoot as truly with a bow as a common musket. 2. He can discharge four arrows in the time of charging and discharging one bullet. 3. His object is not taken from his view by the smoke of his own side. 4. A flight of arrows seen coming upon them terrifies and subdues the enemy's attention to his business. 5. An arrow sticking in any part of a man puts him hors du combat till it is extracted. 6. Bows and arrows are everywhere more easily provided than muskets and ammunition. He recommends pikes, and bows and arrows. He quotes Polydore Virgil, and remarks: "If so much execution was done by arrows when men wore defensive armour, how much more might be done now that it is out of use," (speaking of a battle in Edward III.'s reign.) In the year 1830 was published a new system of arming, by Francis Macerone, late aid-de-camp to Joachim, (Murat,) King of Naples, &c. He recommends lances nine feet long, with a fold in the middle like a carriage umbrella, and to be slung over the shoulder when not in use; a musket thirty-two inches in the barrel, but no bayonet-this to be slung over the shoulder when the lance is in use; and a pistol for close quarter, same calibre as the musket, so the same cartridges will do for both the lance and fire-lock together to weigh thirteen pounds, which is four ounces less than an English regulation musket and bayonet. The present musket and bayonet do not keep cavalry at sufficient distance: the infantry are often disabled by the cavalry swords; but the nine feet lance renders the sword of the cavalry useless. App. vii. COMMERCIAL MARINE. "Arts, agriculture, and commerce should go hand in hand." DR. J. ANDERSON. ANDERSON, in his annals of commerce, says: "As agriculture is the foundation, so is manufacturing and the fisheries the pillars, and navigation the wings of commerce. Astronomy and geography are the very eyes of navigation, without which no distant voyage can well be performed. At the beginning of the seventeenth century it would not have been considered unmanly to "sit and weep at what a sailor suffers;" as will soon be seen when I state that those instruments which are now considered so indispensable to the * due performance of distant voyages, were not known, if I except the mariner's compass.* England had but few colonies. She had on this coast Newfoundland in 1583; and, in 1685, Bencoolen in the East Indies. Many articles now in great demand were not known at all, much less as articles of merchandise. I have no doubt but that the commercial marine of this Union at the present time is as much, or more than all the world was at that period. The manner of victualling, furnishing, and fitting out the vessels formerly bore no comparison with that of the present time. The ordinary trade was carried on by the Dutch, who had from five to six hundred ships. England had not one-tenth and she had no ships employed in the north-east of Europe. Captain J. Lancaster sailed to the East Indies (under the company; it was the first voyage) in 1601; he returned in 1603. His cargo was cloves, pepper, cinnamon, and calicoes, partly taken from a Portuguese carrack which he captured. vessels then were all armed, and piratical. The It was certain that a vessel, doubling either of the capes, would lose, during her long voyage, many of her crew by death, and most of them would return sick. It was only at the time of Captain Cook's first voyage (1767) round the world that ships began to be fitted out with proper instruments and proper food and proper medicines. Few ships had quadrants before 1734. În 1736 Harrison first went in a king's ship to Lisbon, to try his time-piece or chronometer. In the late voyages made to discover a passage by the north pole, each man was allowed eleven ounces of biscuit, nine ounces of pemmican, (meat pounded, dried, seasoned, and packed closely,) sweetened cocoa, in powder, sufficient for one pint; rum, one gill per day; and three ounces of tobacco per week. How different is all this to mere salt meat and biscuit, and that laid in for a two or three years' voyage. It was a common thing for vessels to clue up and lie-to at night. This is one reason for the length of the voyages. At * The first Insurance trial was in the reign of Queen Elizabeth: the subject was then so little known, that it became a question with the court whether they had jurisdiction to try it. But an act was passed the forty-third year of her reign; and the same year commenced the Royal Exchange Insurance Company. + The Secretary of the Navy, in his Report to Congress, December 1st, 1841, says, the registered seamen in the American ports were, natives, 9015; naturalized, 148: total, 9163. In Bennett's Herald, January 5th, 1843, I saw it stated that the United States sailors on the ocean amounted to 62,125. In the U. S. Navy there were 6100; the remainder were on board the commercial marine. |