THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
271 
the 8th Battalion, stating that in 1798, when he was reviewed by the 
Commandant at Woolwich, the guns with three horses each, driven by 
contract drivers on foot who wore short white frocks with blue cuffs and 
collars, and a long wagon whip over the shoulder, Capt. Spearman, garrison 
adjutant, observed to General Lloyd that it was impossible the movements 
could be quicker performed, to which the commandant assented ! 
Three years later than this, in 1801, cars were introduced to carry the 
ammunition and the gunners who hitherto had followed on foot. Yet in 
the expedition to Egypt in the same year, the guns were without any means 
of draught, and were dragged about by the sailors of the fleet till after the 
battle of Alexandria ; which partially explains how it came to pass that at 
that battle “ our field pieces were useless for more than an hour 991 from 
want of ammunition. 
In this year a corps of artillery drivers was also raised, but it is impos¬ 
sible to avoid concluding that the artillery was still a neglected service, 
when we read that, on the outbreak of Emmett's rebellion in Ireland, 1803, 
there was not a single round shot in the Dublin arsenal that would fit the 
guns. 1 2 3 
Matters do not appear to have mended much when the great struggle 
with Erance began in 1808; but to use Sir William Napier's words, “in 
the beginning of each war England has to seek in blood the knowledge 
necessary to ensure success, and like the fiends' progress towards Eden her 
conquering course is through chaos followed by death !" 3 
After the first eight days' campaigning in Portugal, during which time the 
combat of Borina was the only engagement. Sir A. Wellesley was compelled 
to write, “ I shall be obliged to leave Spenser's guns behind for want of 
means of moving them; and I should have been obliged to leave my own, 
if it were not for the horses of the Irish Commissariat." 4 Eight days after 
this and five days before the battle of Yimiero, no combat having intervened, 
he complained that “ our artillery horses are not what we ought to have. 
They have great merit in their way as cast horses of dragoons and Irish cart 
horses, bought for £12 each ! but not fit for an army that, to be successful 
and carry things with a high hand, ought to be able to move." 5 
Such were the horses, and the gun carriages were suitable to such animals; 
for one of the chief reasons that induced Sir Harry Burrard to stop the 
pursuit after the battle of Yimiero was that “ the artillery carriages were so 
shaken as to be scarcely fit for service." 6 
In the hands of the Duke of Wellington the materiel of the Boyal 
Artillery rapidly improved, and at the close of the war it was in admirable 
1 Gen. Bunbury’s “ Great War with France/’ p. 112. As might be expected, the infantry at 
this battle felt the want of proper carriage for ammunition quite as fully as the artillery; and the 
28th Regiment were reduced to such straits that they were compelled to pelt the French with 
stones! 
2 “ Curran and his Cotemporaries.” By C. Phillips, p. 280. 
3 “Peninsular War,” Vol. IV. p. 150. 
4 Dispatch, Lavos, 8th Aug., 1808. 
6 Dispatch, Caldas, 16th Aug., 1808. 
6 Napier’s “Peninsular War,” Vol. I. p. 140. 
