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A return of officers, on the 1 4th of each month. 

 A weekly (late, to arrive on Mondays. 

 To the war-office. 

 A monthly return, on the ill of each month. 

 A return of abfent officers, on the 14th of each month. 

 Every officer commanding a regiment, or detachment, 

 on "embarking for a foreign Ration, will tranfmit an em- 

 barkation return to the adjutant-general's office, and to 

 the war-effice, a duplicate of which he will deliver to the 

 general or officer commanding at Che port from which he 

 embarks. 



On a regiment embarking, the commanding officer is to 

 tranfmit to the adjutant-general's office, a return of the re- 

 cruiting parties he purpofes to leave in Great Britain, or 

 Ireland, fpecifying their ftrength, their Rations, and the 

 officers by whom they are commanded ; a duplicate of this 

 return is to be tranfmitted to the infpedtor-general of the 

 recruiting fervice in the Ifle of Wight. 



All officers belonging to regiments on foreign (lations, 

 not actually employed on the recruiting fervice, are to re- 

 port their arrival from abroad, and the caufe of their 

 abfence, at the adjutant-general's office, and are'to leave their 

 addreffes with their refpeftive agents, and in cafe of their 

 changing their places of residence, are immediately to notice 

 the fame to their agent : any officer whofe addrcls is not 

 with his agent, will be confidered as abfent without leave, 

 and guilty of difubedience of orders. 



Officers upon half pay are, in like manner, to leave their 

 addreffes at the war-office ; particularly fo if they mould leave 

 the united kingdoms ; and officers belonging to the militia 

 are to leave their names, &c. with the ieveral adjutants of 

 regiments. 



Commanding officers of regiments are to tranfmit to the 

 quarter-maffer-general an half-yearly return of quarters, on 

 the ill of December, and the lit of May, agreeable to the 

 printed form ; likewife a report of any march performed by 

 the corps under their orders. 



All returns, reports, and papers, purely of a military 

 and public nature, which are to be fent to the adjutant- 

 general, are to be addrefTed, " To the Adjutant-general 

 of the Forces, Horfe-guards, London," without adjoining 

 his name. 



All official letters from general or other officers in com- 

 mand, which are deligned to be laid before his royal highnefs 

 the commander-in-chief, are to be figned by the general or 

 commanding officers themfelvts. 



All official letters, intended for the deputy adjutant-gene- 

 ral, or other officers belonging to the department, are to be 

 tranfmitted, under covers, addrefled as above, to the adjutant- 

 general. 



To prevent an improper expence of portage, all official 

 letters and returns lent to the quarter-mailer-general, or 

 officers in his department, are to be fent, under covers, 

 addrefTed " To the right honourable the Secretary at War, 

 London ;" and on the outlidc of the covers is to be written, 

 in legible characters, " Quartcr-mafler General's Depart- 

 ment." 



R.ET1 ii'., in Building, denotes a fide, or part, that tails 

 away from the forclidc of any llraight work. 



Returns of a Trench, in Fortification, are the turnings 

 and windings which form the lines of a trench. 



Returns of a Mine, in the Military Art, arc the turn- 

 ings and windings of the gallery. 



RETURNED next for Purchafe. When vacancies occur 

 in regiments upon foreign or domellic Rations, the names of 

 filch officers as intend to purchafe mull be inferted in the 

 mullcr rolls ; they arc then laid to Ic returned next for 



K E 1 



purchafe. This ferves as a government to the ieveral agents, 

 and prevents the introduction of pcrfons into a corps they 

 have not done duty with, to the difparagement of thofe 

 who have always followed the colours. The prefent com- 

 mander-in-chief is particularly fcrupulous on this head. Every 

 officer that is returned next for purchafe, mull take care to 

 apprize his agent that the money will be lodged for that 

 purpofe. 



RETURNING Stroke, in Electricity, is an expreffion 

 u fed by lord Mahon, (now earl Stanhope,) to denote the 

 effect produced by the return of the electric lire into a 

 body from which, in certain cireumflances, it has been 

 expelled. 



In order to underfland the meaning of thefe terms, it is 

 neceflary to premife that, according to the noble author's 

 experiments, an infulated fmooth body, immerged within 

 the electrical atmofphere, but beyond the ilriking diflance, 

 of another body charged pofitively, is at the fame time in a 

 Hate of threefold electricity. The end next to the charged 

 body acquires negative electricity ; the farther end becomes 

 pofitively electrified ; while a certain part of the body, fome- 

 where between its two extremities, is in a natural, unelec- 

 trilied, or neutral ftate; fo that the two contrary electricities 

 balance each other. Moreover, it may be added, that if 

 the body be not infulated, or have a communication with 

 the earth, the whole of it will be in a negative itate ; a cer- 

 tain portion of its natural quantity of electricity being driven 

 into the common mafs, by the preflure, repullion, or other 

 action of the electric matter belonging to the charged prime 

 conductor. Let us then fuppofe a brafs ball, which we 

 may call A, to be conllantly placed at the linking dillance 

 of a prime conductor ; fo that the conductor, the inltant 

 when it becomes fully charged, explodes into it. Let 

 another large conductor, which we may call the fecond con- 

 ductor, be fufpended, in a perfectly infulated Hate, farther 

 from the prime conductor than the Unking dillance, but 

 within its electrical atmofphere : let a perfon llanding on an 

 infulated tlool touch this lecond conductor very lightly with 

 a finger of his right hand ; while, with a finger of his left 

 hand, he communicates with the earth, by touching very 

 lightly a fecond brafs ball fixed at the top of a metallic 

 Hand, on the floor, which we may call B ; while the prime 

 conductor is receiving its electricity, fparks pafs (at leall if 

 the dillance between the two conductors is not too great) 

 from the fecond conductor to the infulated perfon's right 

 hand ; while fimilar and limultaneous fparks pafs out from 

 the linger of his left hand into the lecond metallic ball B, 

 communicating with the earth. Thefe fparks are part of 

 the natural quantity of electric matter belonging to the 

 fecond conductor, and to the infulated perfon, driven from 

 them into the earth, through the ball B, and its Hand, by 

 the el tltic preflure or action of the atmolphere of the prime 

 conductor ; the fecond conductor, and the infulated perfon, 

 arc hereby reduced to a negative Hate. At length, how- 

 ever, the prime conductor having acquired its full charge, 

 fuddenly Hrikes into the ball B, of the tirH metallic Hand, 

 placed for that purpofe at the ilriking dillance. The ex- 

 plofion being made, and the prime conductor (uddenly 

 robbed of its elallic atmofphere, its preflure or action on 

 the fecond conductor, and on the infulated perfon, as fud- 

 denly ceafes; and the latter inltantly feels a fmart return- 

 ing llroke, though he has no direct or vilible commu- 

 nication (except by tlie floor) either with the linking or 

 llruck body, and is placed at the dillance of live or i\\ teet 

 from both of them. This returning ftroke ie evidently oc- 

 cafioned by the Hidden re-entrance of the electric lire na- 

 turally belonging to his body and to the fecond conductor, 



which 



