689 



CAUSTIC'S. 



CAVIAR. 



690 



Mains in his ' Th<!orie de la Double Refraction,' Paris, 1810 ; and more 

 recently by Professor Hamilton, in two papers on ' Systems of Rays,' 

 published in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy. The 

 question of EVOLCTES is nearly akin to that of caustics. 



CAUSTICS. [EscHABOTics.] 



CAVALIER was formerly an ordinary English term for a horse- 

 soldier ; but it has ,111 additional and historical meaning by having 

 been assumed by, or given to, the adherents of Charles I. in the civil 

 war, to distinguish them from the Roundheads, the name given to the 

 adherents of the Parliament. 



CAVALIER, a work whose rampart is raised several feet above those 

 of the fortress in which it is formed. It serves either to defilade those 

 ramparts from the fire of an enemy on. a neighbouring height, or to 

 afford a plunging fire into the trenches of the besiegers. It is generally 

 constructed on the terreplein of what is called a full bastion, and 

 sometimes upon the rampart of a curtain ; its form, on the plan, was 

 originally semicircular, but the cavaliers in bastions are now built with 

 straight faces and flanks parallel to those of the work in which they are 

 placed. 



A cavalier thus formed and situated is proposed by Cormoutaiugue 

 as a retrenchment in a bastion. He recommends that on its exterior, 

 along the two faces, there should be a ditch whose sides have revet- 

 ments of masonry ; and that the ditch should be defended by traverses 

 connecting the faces of the cavalier with those of the bastion, near the 

 shoulders of both. The great disadvantage of cavaliers is, that they 

 take up the whole of the available space in a bastion, and crowd the 

 defenders. 



Trench cavaliers are works raised by the besiegers on the glacis of a 

 fortress, in order to enable them to direct a plunging fire of musketry 

 into the covered way. They are formed of successive steps, revetted 

 with gabions in tiers above each other. 



CAVALRY (remotely from the Latin caballut, ' a horse,') is that 

 claw of troops which serve on horseback ; and, in the British army, it 

 consists of the two regiments of Life Guards, the royal regiment of 

 Horse Guards, seven regiments of Dragoon Guards, and eighteen regi- 

 menta of Light Dragoons, of which the 7th, 8th, 10th, llth, 15th, and 

 18th, are Hussars, and the 9th, 12th, 16th, and 17th are Lancers. 



Among the ancients, while warfare consisted in expeditions to re- 

 mote places rather for plunder than conquest, a numerous cavalry was 

 indispensable. In proportion however us the art of war improved, 

 this class diminished in value : the strength of the Greek and Roman 

 armies lay chiefly in the firm array of their foot-soldiers, and Folard 

 observes, that the most certain evidence of decline in the military 

 character of a state is the existence of a numerous cavalry. A well- 

 disciplined cavalry has however often turned the scale of fortune in 

 war : cavalry contributed greatly to the conquests of Philip and 

 Alexander, and the superiority of Scipio over Hannibal in cavalry was 

 the cause of the victory at Zaina. In modern times, Seidlitz gained 

 by his cavalry the battle of Rosbach in 1757 : and the victory at 

 AVurzburg in 1706 was decided by the same arm. 



In the early French monarchy, and in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of 

 Britain, the men of wealth and noble birth distinguished themselves 

 in the field from those of inferior rank by being well armed and 

 mounted on horses. And during several centuries hi which the 

 poverty of the nations prevented princes from maintaining standing 

 armies and when the foot-soldiers were men undisciplined and ill- 

 provided, and summoned from the plough to attend the sovereign for 

 a short time only, it is evident that a class of troops comprehending 

 those men who, by the tenure of their estates, were required to serve 

 in the wars at their own charges, and to bring into the field a number 

 of dependents mounted like themselves, and trained in the daily prac- 

 tice of martial exercises, must have constituted almost the only efficient 

 arm of battle. 



In France the superior classes of these warriors bore the title of 

 km'ghta bannerets, and the others were designated knights of the 

 second order, or bas-chevaliers. In those days the infantry, for the 

 reason before-mentioned, being held in little estimation, the strength 

 of armies was denoted by the number of banners and pennons under 

 which the knights and their attendants fought; victories also were 

 distinguished only by the number of men of rank who had been slain 

 or m*le prisoners. 



But the power of tlie noMes becoming too great for the monarch, 

 and their mutual jealousies constantly involving the nation in the 

 miseries of civil war, Charles VII., in 1445, took advantage of the tem- 

 porary tranquillity which reigned in France after the English had been 

 compelled to abandon nearly the whole of that country, to reduce his 

 military force. From that time the kings retained in constant pay 

 fifteen companies, as they were called, each consisting of 600 horsemen, 

 besides the young men bearing the title of archers and pages, who also 

 in general fought ..,] 1,,,, -..lck, but were clothed in a lighter armour. 

 The troops composing the companies appear to have been what would 

 b* called gentlemen; and the esteem in which they held them- 

 selves U evident from the refusal of the Chevalier Bayard, on the 

 ground of their quality, to unite them with the Lansquenets (German 

 infantry) at the siege of Padua, in an assault pr< iposud by the Emperor 

 Maximilian to be made on the place. 



M')r<: than a century before the time of Charles VII., the English 

 cavalry in the pay of the state was divided by Edward III. (1324) into 



AKTS AND SCI. DIV. Vol.. II. 



small bodies, commanded by officers called constables ; .and Grose 

 observes, that the list of the army at St. Quintin (1,557) is the first in 

 wliich a body of cavalry is distinguished by the appellation of a troop ; 

 a name which is still given to the half of a squadron, or the eighth 

 part of a full regiment. 



The respectability of the French companies above mentioned seems 

 to have declined from about the time of Francis II., men of a lower 

 grade being then occasionally introduced, from the difficulty, it is said, 

 of filling with men of high birth the ranks, which were become very 

 numerous. 



But the employment of artillery in the field deprived this heavy- 

 armed cavalry of all the advantages it possessed over the soldiers who 

 fought on foot, and the latter were often enabled to maintain the com- 

 bat after the horsemen were dismounted or forced to retire ; hence 

 they gradually rose in reputation, and the good discipline and conduct 

 of the Swiss infantry in the Italian wars induced the French and 

 Germans to augment the number of the troops of this class in their 

 armies. From that time the cavalry, though always an essential arm 

 in war, may be said to have been inferior in importance to the 

 infantry. 



It appears that light cavalry did not before the age of Louis XII. 

 exist as a distinct body having general officers and a staff; but 

 Moutluc, in the reign of that monarch, mentions a general of 1200 

 light horse ; and the corps must have subsequently become numerous, 

 for it is said that Henry II., in 1552, had 3000 such troops under his 

 command in his expedition to Germany. 



The Dragoons are intermediate between heavy and light cavalry, 

 trained to act either on horseback or on foot, as may 'be required. P6re 

 Daniel ascribes their formation to the Mare"chal de Brissac, when he 

 commanded the French armies in Piedmont at the end of the 16th 

 century. The practice of horsemen fighting on foot is however very 

 ancient : the Roman cavalry are said to have done so at the battle of 

 Cannui ; and Procopius relates that one of the generals of Justinian, in 

 an engagement with the Persians, caused his horsemen to dismount, 

 and oppose their lances to the enemy's cavalry. Dragoons appear to 

 have been introduced into the English service before the middle of the 

 17th century ; but the oldest regiment of dragoons in the army is that 

 of the Scotch Greys, which was raised in 1681. Dragoons perform 

 the duty of advanced guards and patrols ; they escort convoys, and 

 harass the enemy in his retreat ; or, in reverses, they protect the dis- 

 persed and defeated infantry. The name Dragoon arose from the 

 weapon with which they were armed. [ARMS : Dragon.] 



Hussars are also a species of light cavalry, which originally consti- 

 tuted the national militia of Poland and Hungary. In France they 

 were formed into a corps in the time of Louis XIII., under the name 

 of Hungarian cavalry; and the class of troops was subsequently adopted 

 in this country. It is uncertain whence they obtained their present 

 denomination, but probably from the shout they formerly gave before 

 beginning action. They are now employed to protect reconnoitring 

 and foraging parties, to serve as patrols, and to perform all the ordinary 

 light cavalry duty. 



The Lancers were introduced into the British service in order to 

 correspond to the corps of what were called Polish Lancers in the 

 French army. The long lances carried by this class of troops were 

 supposed to be of use in a charge against infantry, and the fluttering of 

 the flag at its extremity, by alarming the horse, to give an advantage 

 over a dragoon otherwise armed. 



In the last war with France, a portion of the French cavalry was 

 furnished with cuirasses, and, in imitation of them, the English Life 

 Guards have since borne the same heavy armour. These troops carry 

 only a sword and a carbine ; the heavy cavalry in general carry carbines 

 and swords; and the light cavalry, with the exception of the Lancers, 

 who besides the lance carry a sword and pistols, the same. The carbine 

 with which the English cavalry is armed is a short breach-loading rifle. 

 A complete regiment of cavalry is divided into four squadrons, and 

 each of these into two troops. The full strength of a troop is 80 men ; 

 and to each troop there is appointed a captain, a lieutenant, and a 

 cornet. 



CAVEAT. As a general term in law, a caveat denotes a formal 

 notice or caution given, by a party interested, to a court, judge, or 

 public officer against the performance of certain judicial or ministerial 

 acts. Thus caveats in this general sense were entered formerly in the 

 Court of Chancery against the passing of a patent ; and in the Court 

 of Common Pleas against the levying of a fine. In a more confined 

 and technical sense, a caveat signifies, 1. A caution entered in the 

 Court of Probate to stop the granting of probates of wills or of admi- 

 nistrations ; and 2. A notice given to the bishop by a party who dis- 

 putes a particular right of presentation, to prevent the institution of a 

 clerk to a benefice. A caveat in the former case is for six months ; in 

 the latter binding for three ; and an institution made, pending the 

 caveat, has been .considered as wholly void by that law. The effect of 

 a caveat on the Court of Probate, is to entitle the person entering it 

 to notice of any application for probate or administration, so that he 

 may appear and oppose it (20 & 21 Viet. c. 77 ; 21 & 22 Viet. c. 95 ; 

 ' Rules and Orders of the Court of Probate,' 1858). 



CAVIAR (French, Caiiar, Cacia, ; German, Kaeiar ; Italian, Cart- 

 ario, Caviale ; Spanish, Caviario ; Russ. Ikra) ; an article of food 

 prepared in Russia from the roes of some large fish, generally the 



v y 



