place among the military treatifes produced in this country. He juftly holds forth the Pruffian difcipline as a model, particularly in the operations of cavalry; but his admiration of the late King carries him too far when he obferves, that no certain principles were yet established, and the flow regularity introduced into the cavalry, tended to cramp the fpirit, instead of adding to the vigour of the body; every thing feemed calculated for refiftance only; a fquadron was thought hardly capable of a trot; for a line it was fuppofed impoffible; ranks and files were fo crowded, that the leaft violent movement put them in confufion: it remained a lifelefs and inactive mafs, till put in motion by the wonderful talents of the KING OF PRUSSIA. He faw that the great bufinefs of the cavalry, is the offenfive, rather than the defenfive; giving the attack, rather than receiving it; that the velocity of its movements, and quick change of place, muft enfure the most decided advantage over an enemy, inferior in either, and while it infpirits the one body, in the fame proportion tends to intimidate the other. He has shown the facility of moving great bodies of cavalry from one point to another. From experience, he has proved the poffibility of a full line arriving upon the enemy with rapidity and order; and in the impulse of the charge has fhown, that the fpur tends as much to overfet the oppofite enemy, as does the fword which should complete that defeat. • Senfible, that the great intervals betwixt fquadrons when in line, only tended to make them irrefolute, and to fwerve in advancing upon the enemy, under pretence of taking them in flank; he formed his first line of cavalry in a full line, and infifting on the rapidity of the charge, obliged them to the direct attack upon the oppofite enemy. Behind that line he had his bodies of reserve to fupport; to repair any lofs; or improve any advantage gained. The fuperior advantages of the PRUSSIAN fyftem, has obliged most of the nations of Europe to adopt it, and to endeavour to improve upon it.' In the inferior parts of this work, excellent as, in general, it is, there are a few articles, to which we have fome objection. One of them is the fide-step, which has been tried in our fervice, and exploded, as an awkward movement,-militating against that uncontrovertible maxim, that a foldier fhould always fee before him,otherwife, in uneven ground, he will be liable to fall. Befide, ground may be more quickly taken, either to the right or the left, by facing and marching by files. Opening the ranks backward is still more liable to the fame objection; and the intention may be much better answered by the front and centre ranks taking their proper number of paces to the front, or by the centre and rear ranks facing to the right about. The divifion of the battalion adopted by Col. Dundas feems to differ unneceffarily from the established practice. Befide, our companies never come ftrong enough into the field, particularly in time of fervice, to admit of a platoon being divided into two bodies. The The genius of the King of Pruffia did not invent, but his dif cernment adopted, the equeftrian manoeuvres which had been long practifed by the moft enlightened nations of antiquity, and which, till revived by him, had been neglected fince the darkness and ignorance which overspread Europe during the middle ages. The Gian Eucon, or violent impreffion, of the cavalry, so often mentioned by Arrian, and other Greek writers, and the decifive effects produced by it in many engagements which determined the fate of kingdoms, proves that the fervice of cavalry had been reduced to its true principles before the age of Alexander the Great. In this, as well as in other particulars, the merit of the King of Pruffia confifted in adopting the practice invented by nations almoft conftantly engaged in war; the principles refpecting cavalry remain the fame in every age; but the invention of gunpowder made an important change in the fervice of infantry. The King of Pruffia perceived this difference, and, with equal fkill and perfeverance, modified the Grecian manoeuvres, and adapted them to the nature of our offenfive arms, though origi nally contrived for others of a totally different kind. It is with pleasure that we have announced, to our military readers, this ufeful and scientific treatife; which, in our opinion, notwithstanding its defects, will rank very high, as we have already obferved, among the beft books on the fubject, that have been written in the English language. TH ART. VI. Mr. Gibbon's Roman Hiftory, concluded. HE fixth volume of Mr. Gibbon's work comprehends fourteen chapters, of which the first four contain the history of the Crufades. Thefe fingular expeditions are related with great elegance and vigour, but without the leaft fpark of that enthufiafm, by which they were infpired. With the philofophical balance in his hand, our Hiftorian weighs precifely the motives. of the Crufaders, and appreciates the merit, or rather arraigns the flagrant injustice, of that romantic and fanatical enterprile. So familiar, and as it were fo natural to man, is the practice of violence, that our indulgence allows the flighteft provocation, the moft difputable right, as a fufficient ground of national hoftility. But the name and nature of an holy war demands a more rigorous fcrutiny; nor can we hastily believe, that the fervants of the Prince of Peace would unfheathe the fword of deftruction, unless the motive were pure, the quarrel legitimate, and the neceffity inevitable. The policy of an action may be determined from the tardy leffons of experience; but, before we act, our confcience fhould be fatisfied of the juftice and propriety of our enterprise. In the age of the Cru fades, the Chriftians, both of the Eaft and Weft, were perfuaded of their lawfulness and merit; their arguments are clouded by the per petual abuse of feripture and rhetoric; but they feem to infift on the right right of natural and religious defence, their peculiar title to the Holy Land, and the impiety of their Pagan and Mahometan foes. I. The right of a juft defence may fairly include our civil and fpiritual allies: it depends on the existence of danger; and that danger must be eftimated by the two-fold confideration of the malice, and the power, of our enemies. A pernicious tenet has been imputed to the Mahometans, the duty of extirpating all other religions by the fword. This charge of ignorance and bigotry is refuted by the Koran, by the history of the Mufulman conquerors, and by their public and legal toleration of the Chriftian worship. But it cannot be denied,, that the Oriental churches are depreffed under their iron yoke; that, in peace and war, they affert a divine and indefeasible claim of univerfal empire; and that, in their orthodox creed, the unbelieving nations are continually threatened with the lofs of religion or liberty. In the eleventh century, the victorious arms of the Turks presented a real and urgent apprehenfion of thefe loffes. They had fubdued in less than thirty years the kingdoms of Afia, as far as Jerufalem and the Hellefpont; and the Greek empire tottered on the verge of deftruction. Befides an honeft fympathy for their brethren, the Latins had a right and intereft in the fupport of Conftantinople, the most important barrier of the Weft; and the privilege of defence muft reach to prevent, as well as to repel, an impending affault. But this falutary purpose might have been accomplished by a moderate fuccour; and our calmer reafon muft difclaim the innumerable hofts and remote operations, which overwhelmed Afia and depopulated Europe. II. Palestine could add nothing to the ftrength or fafety of the Latins; and fanaticifm alone could pretend to justify the conqueft of that diftant and narrow province. The Chriftians affirmed that their inalienable title to the promifed land had been fealed by the blood of their divine Saviour: it was their right and duty to refcue their inheritance from the unjuft poffeffors, who profaned his fepulchre, and oppreffed the pilgrimage of his difciples. Vainly would it be alleged that the pre-eminence of Jerufalem, and the fanctity of Paleftine, have been abolifhed with the Mofaic law; that the God of the Chriftians is not a local Deity, and that the recovery of Bethlem or Calvary, his cradle or his tomb, will not atone for the violation of the moral precepts of the gofpel. Such arguments glance afide from the leaden shield of fuperflition; and the religious mind will not eafily relinquish its hold on the facred ground of mystery and miracle. III. But the holy wars which have been waged in every climate of the globe, from Egypt to Livonia, and from Peru to Hindoftan, require the fupport of fome more general and flexible tenet. It has been often fuppofed, and fometimes affirmed, that a difference of religion is a worthy caufe of hoftility; that obftinate unbelievers may be flain or fubdued by the champions of the cross; and that grace is the fole fountain of dominion as well as of mercy. Above four hundred years before the first crufade, the eastern and weltern provinces of the Roman empire had been acquired about the fame time, and in the fame manner, by the Barbarians of Germany and Arabia. Time and treaties had legitimated the conquets of the Chriftian Franks; but in the eyes of their fubjects and neighbours, the Mahometan princes were fill tyrants and ufurpers, who, / who, by the arms of war or rebellion, might be lawfully driven from their unlawful poffeffion.' The origin and preparations of the Crufades, together with the character and circumftances of the Latin princes, as well as of their warlike followers, are described at great length; because fuch particulars tend to illuftrate the condition of the times; but the military operations, which were repeated in feven fucceffive expeditions, and in the course of two centuries, exhibit continually the fame caufes producing fimilar effects, and are therefore related with brevity; not difplayed in feparate pictures, but grouped as it were into one general compofition. With regard to the effects of these extraordinary expeditions, which form the principal tranfactions of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the opinion of Mr. Gibbon is the more worthy of attention, because he differs materially from most writers on this fubject, and particularly from his friend Dr. Robertfon *. After this narrative of the expeditions of the Latins to Palestine and Conftantinople, I cannot difmifs the fubject without revolving the general confequences on the countries that were the fcene, and on the nations that were the actors, of thefe memorable crufades. As foon as the arms of the Franks were withdrawn, the impreffion, though not the memory, was erazed in the Mahometan realms of Egypt and Syria. The faithful difciples of the prophet were never tempted by a prophane defire to ftudy the laws or language of the idolators; nor did the fimplicity of their primitive manners receive the flightest alteration from their intercourfe in peace and war with the unknown ftrangers of the Weft. The Greeks, who thought themselves proud, but who were only vain, fhewed a difpofition fomewhat lefs inflexible. In the efforts for the recovery of their empire, they emulated the valour, difcipline, and tactics, of their antagonists. The modern literature of the Weft they might juftly defpife; but its free fpirit would inftruct them in the rights of man; and fome inftitutions of public and private life were adopted from the French. The correfpondence of Conftantinople and Italy dif fufed the knowlege of the Latin tongue; and feveral of the fathers and claffics were at length honoured with a Greek verfion. But the national and religious prejudices of the Orientals were inflamed by perfecution; and the reign of the Latins confirmed the feparation of the two churches. If we compare, at the era of the crufades, the Latins of Europe with the Greeks and Arabians, their refpective degrees of knowledge, industry, and art, our rude ancestors must be content with the third rank in the fcale of nations. Their fucceffive improvement and prefent fuperiority may be afcribed to a peculiar energy of character, to an active and imitative fpirit, unknown to their more polifhed rivals, who at that time were in a ftationary or retrograde * See the Hiftory of the Reign of Charles V. vol. i. p. 30 & feq. 8vo edit. ftate. ftate. With fuch a difpofition, the Latins fhould have derived the moft early and effential benefits from a feries of events which opened to their eyes the profpect of the world, and introduced them to a long and frequent intercourse with the more cultivated regions of the Eaft. The first and most obvious progrefs was in trade and manufactures, in the arts which are strongly prompted by the thirst of wealth, the calls of neceflity, and the gratification of the fenfe or vanity. Among the crowd of unthinking fanatics, a captive or a pilgrim might fometimes obferve the fuperior refinements of Cairo and Conftantinople: the first importer of wind-mills was the benefactor of nations; and if fuch bleffings are enjoyed without any grateful remembrance, hiftory has condefcended to notice the more apparent luxuries of filk and fugar, which were tranfported into Italy from Greece and Egypt. But the intellectual wants of the Latins were more flowly felt and fupplied; the ardour of ftudious curiofity was awakened in Europe by different caufes and more recent events; and, in the age of the crufades, they viewed with carelefs indifference the literature of the Greeks and Arabians. Some rudiments of mathematical and medicinal knowledge might be imparted in practice and in figures; neceffity might produce fome interpreters for the groffer bufinefs of merchants and foldiers; but the commerce of the Orientals had not diffused the study and knowledge of their languages in the schools of Europe. If a fimilar principle of religion repulfed the idiom of the Koran, it fhould have excited their patience and curiofity to understand the original text of the Gofpel; and the fame grammar would have unfolded the fenfe of Plato and the beauties of Homer. Yet in a reign of fixty years the Latins of Conftantinople difdained the fpeech and learning of their fubjects; and the manufcripts were the only treasures which the natives might enjoy without rapine or envy. Ariftotle was indeed the oracle of the Western univerfities; but it was a barbarous Ariftotle ; and, instead of afcending to the fountain-head, his Latin votaries humbly accepted a corrupt and remote verfion from the Jews and Moors of Andalufia. The principle of the Crufades was a favage fanaticifm; and the most important effects were analogous to the caufe. Each pilgrim was ambitious to return with his facred fpoils, the relics of Greece and Palestine; and each relic was preceded and followed by a train of miracles and vifions. The belief of the Catholics was corrupted by new legends, their practice by new fuperftitions; and the establishment of the inquifition, the mendicant orders of Monks and Friars, the laft abufe of indulgences, and the final pro grefs of idolatry, flowed from the baleful fountain of the holy war. The active fpirit of the Latins preyed on the vitals of their reafon and religion; and if the ninth and tenth centuries were the times of darkness, the thirteenth and fourteenth were the age of abfurdity and fable. In the profeffion of Chriftianity, in the cultivation of a fertile land, the northern conquerors of the Roman empire infenfibly mingled with the provincials, and rekindled the embers of the arts of antiquity. Their fettlements about the age of Charlemagne had acquired fome degree of order and ftability, when they were overwhelmed by new fwarms of invaders, the Normans, Saracens, and Hungarians, |