THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
437 
that artillery would have at once received a large share of public attention 
in England, and would have shortly attained to as great a degree of perfec¬ 
tion as the state of chemistry and metallurgy permitted. Cavalry had about 
this time exchanged their hauberks for plate-armour, which was proof against 
pointed swords, lance thrusts, and battle-axes, and cavalry charges were in 
consequence irresistible. * 1 2 Any invention, therefore, which created a counter¬ 
poise to the overwhelming influence of men-at-arms, would have been gladly 
welcomed in the English army; for its chief strength lay then, as it has 
always lain, in its foot soldiers, in its archers, in its infantry, 3 and it was then 
engaged in a struggle with a nation which possessed a brave and numerous 
cavalry. 3 But the feebleness of the guns, the weakness of the powder, the 
danger attached to the service of the guns, the inaccuracy and slowness of 
their fire, and the difficulty of moving them from jfiace to place, showed from 
the first how chimerical was the hope that the new arm could cope success¬ 
fully with the men-at-arms. The effect it produced, however, was sufficient 
to ensure its retention in the English service, and its adoption in all others. 
It killed few, no doubt; but it terrified many. Its physical effect was small; 
but its moral effect was great, and “a la guerre tout est moral." 4 Indeed 
the essential difference between ancient and modern warfare, tactically con¬ 
sidered, lies in the vast importance which the invention of gunpowder at once 
conferred upon moral force. Moral force had always exerted an influence, 
and occasionally a great influence, in war, but this “ mischievous discovery” 5 
heightened its importance in an extraordinary degree. The battles of ancient 
times were, in the majority of cases, of the Horatii and Curatii type. The 
hostile forces met, a prolonged and desperate struggle took place, physical 
strength prevailed, the weaker fell, and the battle ended. As surely as 
the greater of two forces predominates, if they act in the same straight 
line and in opposite directions; as surely as the heavier of the weights in 
a true balance turns the scale; so surely did brute force in olden times gain 
the advantage, and the number of dead on either side was an almost infallible 
test of victory or defeat. “ Ajax beating down the Trojan leader with a rock 
which two ordinary men could scarcely lift; Horatius defending the bridge 
against an army; Bichard, the Lion-hearted, spurring along the whole Saracen 
line without finding an enemy to stand his assault; Bobert Bruce crushing 
with one blow the helmet and head of Sir Henry Bohun, in sight of the 
whole array of England and Scotland—such are the heroes of a dark age.” 6 
The mere possession of strength entitled a man to universal respect, and the 
story of Hercules was so popular that no less than forty vagabonds success¬ 
fully assumed the character at different periods of the world's histor y. 7 
But the race of blind force was run when gunpowder was discovered; the 
1852.”—Buckle, “Hist, of Civilisation,” Yol. I. p. 189, Note 44, Liepsig Ed. How many lbs. 
“ a barrel ” then contained, I do not know. 
1 Hallam’s “Middle Ages,” Vol. I. p. 265. Oxford English Prize Essays, Yol. II. pp. 120,131. 
2 Hallam’s “ Middle Ages,” Yol. I. p. 55. 
3 “Etudes sur-le passe et l’avenir de l’Artillerie,” par 1’Empereur Napoleon III. p. 21, 
4 Pensees de Napoleon I. p. 230. Paris, 1863. 
5 Gibbon’s “ Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” Yol. XI. p. 55. 
3 Macaulay’s “Hist, of England,” Yol. VII. p. 32. 
7 Smith’s “ Diet, of Biography and Mythology,” art. Hercules. 
