618 
REVIEW. 
tion and inferiority in this arm of our national force.* This 
is more conspicuous in some parts of it than others ; but 
there is no branch of the service in which it is, at present, 
more remarkable than in the Horse Artillery. Those who 
are old enough to remember — among whom we may reckon 
our nameless author — what noble, fine, strengthy horses in 
former times composed the troops of Horse Artillery, and can 
recollect what condition those splendid animals were in at 
the battle of Waterloo, must indeed have sighed when they 
came to see the cattle which the same troops brought with 
them to the Chobham camp : no more comparable to those 
of former days than, as our bard says, 
“ Hyperion to a Satyr !” 
The work before us ascribes this defalcation to a scarcity, or 
indeed actual want, of such horses in the country ; and no 
doubt this is mainly the cause : at the same time we must 
take into the account, that the Artillery, like the Dragoons, 
purchase their horses at a fixed price, 30 guineas, while the 
cavalry regiments are confined'to 25 guineas ; hence it follows, 
that, in times of scarcity, the article, as a natural conse- 
quence, enhancing in price, 25 or 30 guineas would no 
longer buy the same valuable horse it did before. And as a 
proof that this is a consideration which ought not to be over- 
looked, we may instance the horses of which our three house- 
hold regiments of cavalry are now composed, as compared 
with the cattle upon which they were mounted as the old Life 
Guards, at the time they wore the three-corner cocked hats. 
In those days the horses were certainly strong enough, and 
perhaps more fit, as weight-carriers , for the purpose they 
were required than the present ones are; but then they 
were so inferior in point of breeding , that we feel quite sure 
the Life Guards in those times could not have gone the 
pace they are able to go now, neither were they so efficient 
as an opposing force. Let us add, however, by way of a key 
* “ All other reforms in our cavalry would be useless unless this important 
point (the horse) be looked to. It is building a house upon the sand to 
organise cavalry without good horses. Government alone could work the neces- 
sary reform by importing stallions and mares of eastern blood for the purpose of 
breeding troop-horses and chargers for the cavalry of England.” — Captain Nolan 7 s 
Work on ‘ Cavalry 7 
