SOUTHERN AFRICA. 177 
ment, but to extend the acceptation of the word to tliat of a 
military depot, or place suitable for collecting and forming, 
so as always to have in readiness, a body of troops, either 
belonging to his Majesty's regular regiments, or to the armies 
of the East India Company, fitted and prepared for foreign 
service, and seasoned for the climates either of the East or 
the West Indies. 
A very general notion seems to have been entertained iti 
this country in all our former wars, by people who consider 
only the outlines or superficies of things, and such, by the 
way, constitute by far the largest portion of mankind, that if 
the minister can contrive to furnish monejs the money will 
supply men, and these men will form an army. It is true 
they will so ; just as a collection of oak_ timber brought to 
a dock-yard will form a ship. But a great deal of labor is 
necessary in the seasoning, hewing, and shaping of such tim- 
ber, and a great deal of judgment and practice still required 
to arrange and adapt the several parts to each other, so that 
they may act in concert together, and form a complete whole 
that shall be capable of performing all the effects that were 
intended to be produced. Thus is it also in the formation of 
an army. It is not enough to collect together a body of men 
and to put arms into their hands. They must be classed and 
arranged, seasoned and inured to a certain way of life ; ex- 
ercised in certain motions and positions of the body, until 
long practice has rendered them habitual and easy ; they must 
be taught to act in an uniform and simultaneous movement, 
and in such a manner that the separate action of the indi- 
viduals shall form one united impulse, producing the greatest 
VOL. II. A A 
