764 



ANNUAL REGISTER. 1809. 



truth, first to collect all the infor- 

 mation to be procured on the sub- 

 ject, next to weigh the authorities 

 and evidences, the one against the 

 other, in order to ascertain those 

 to which the greatest credit was to 

 be allowed, and lastly to apply his 

 own reason in tracing out the ob- 

 ject of his inquiry, conformably to 

 the evidences he had approved. 

 By this process, simple in ajjpear- 

 ance. but which few men are able 

 to follow, he solved difficulties and 

 discovered truths, which had been 

 abandoned by many able investiga- 

 tors as insoluble and unattainable. 

 On other occasions, when evidences 

 were evenly balanced, or where 

 testimonies were perplexed, his 

 method was to inquire what would 

 be the conduct of a given person, 

 endowed with ordinary faculties, 

 and possessed of a due portion of 

 information on his subject, for the 

 attainment of a certain end. Plac- 

 ing himself thus, in that person's 

 situation, he often arrived at an 

 object which, in the usual mode 

 of research, had remained for ages 

 unknown. Of the former mode of 

 investigation, an example has just 

 been given, in the discovei-y of the 

 true route of Hannibal across the 

 Alps. Of the latter mode, a preg- 

 nant instance was, his theory of 

 the order of battle employed by the 

 ancient Romans. It has been as- 

 signed as one reason why military 

 antiquities have been less satisfac- 

 torily explained than the otlier 

 branches of antiquarian research, 

 that scholars and antiquarians have 

 seldom been military men ; and 

 that military men have seldom 

 been scholars and antiquarians. 

 Polybius's Treatise on Tactics has 

 unfortunately perished ; and the 

 other ancient writers who have no- 



ticed military affairs, have only 

 mentioned the legionary arrange- 

 ment in battle, in a cursory way, as 

 a subject familiar to their readers : 

 little direct information, therefore, 

 has been afforded by them on the 

 subject. On the revival of learning 

 in Europe, ecclesiastics, and other 

 men of a recluse life were almost 

 its only encouragers and promo- 

 ters ; it is not, therefore, a wonder 

 if these should, by their writings, 

 furnish but little light on this mat- 

 ter. In the end of the sixteenth 

 century, Justus Lipsius, of Lou- 

 vain, a writer not more distin- 

 guished by his learning than by 

 his singularity and love of paradox, 

 sent into the world a S)'stem of the 

 Roman art of war, professed to be 

 drawn from certain passages in Po- 

 lybius. This system, borrowed, 

 with very little acknowledgment 

 indeed, from a preceding work of 

 Patrizzi, of Ferara, coming from 

 such an author, was implicitly re- 

 ceived and repeated by all suc- 

 ceeding writers on the subject. 

 The absurdity, nay, the utter im- 

 practicability, of the Lipsian sys- 

 tem, placed in contrast with the 

 learning and ability of its propa- 

 gator, reduced other inquirers to 

 the necessity of abandoning the 

 matter as altogether inexplicable. 

 Amongst these inquirers was ge- 

 neral M. when but a young man ; 

 but happening in Scotland to be 

 shown what was called a Roman 

 gladius, or legionary sword (not, 

 however, genuine), he discarded at 

 once all his systematic knowledge, 

 and handling the weapon, asked 

 himself in what manner men armed 

 with that sword in the right hand, 

 and with a legionary shield in the 

 left, ought to be arranged, in order 

 that they might be able to make 



the 



