THE 110YAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
219 
be a want of unity of system; the officers must receive their ordnance and 
ammunition on the faith of the commissary, and almost without examina¬ 
tion; the harness cannot be expected to fit; new regulations as to interior 
arrangements must be made at the moment, and under all the disadvantages 
of hurry and of every individual's being placed in a new situation. In 
short, under the most favourable circumstances.all that 
can be effected is.that the brigades are put together and 
hastily formed. 
" But if, instead of this, it be supposed—as is known to be the real case— 
that in companies coming from different points, and from different services, 
very different degrees of instruction or efficiency exist; if some have not 
for years gone through even the bare formality of a drill with field guns . . 
. . . if the drivers be in many cases ill-instructed, and in others not at 
all; if their accounts be entangled in confusion; if the horses be frequently 
of an indifferent description, and rarely, as a. body, in that state of good 
condition which a mass unbroken into regular subdivisions seldom attains; 
if harness tried for the first time cannot, without many little unavoidable 
alterations, fit horses of different shapes; if, in short, all the various parts of 
which the field artillery is composed be in this unformed state; what can 
for some time be expected from it, even if it should not be immediately 
brought in contact with the enemy?” 1 2 
This state of things did not escape the notice of foreign officers. " In 
spite of the want of a judicious and systematic organisation,” says the Prus¬ 
sian Scharnhorst, writing in 1806, "the English Artillery has always been 
distinguished for its bravery. Their conduct at Minden gained for them the 
special thanks of Prince Ferdinand, and the successful defence of Gibraltar 
was entirely due to them. In the wars of the French Bevolution no soldiers 
were before them in willingness and courage; but their frequent want of 
ammunition, the bad condition of their horses, &c., &c., show that their 
organisation is a faulty one.” 3 Scharnhorst had need to pray, with the 
poet:— 
“ O wad some Pow’r tlie giftie gie us, 
To see oursels as ithers see us! ” 
The same large general causes which in England had humbled the field 
batteries in the dust, were in full action in Prussia—intensified, strange to 
say, by the personal influence of Scharnhorst himself; and if the English 
field batteries were bad, the Prussian field batteries were not one whit better. 
Towards the end of the last century the Prussian artillery produced two 
officers of great note—Templehoff and Scharnhorst. 3 Both were men of 
eminent culture and ability, both were good writers, both were good 
soldiers, both were men of energetic character, and both reached high 
positions in the service; yet the mind of either was warped by prejudices— 
differing though they did from those of the other as noon from midnight—- 
which lessened his influence and marred his usefulness. Templehoff loved 
the field batteries, and hated the horse artillery; Scharnhorst loved the horse 
1 “Observations, &c.” by Sir Augustus Frazer, K.C.B., Iv.H.A. 
2 “Handbuch der Artillerie,” Band. II. p. 607. 
3 For a general account of the lives of these great men, see the “Biographic Universelle,” and 
the “ Conversations-Lexikon.” Adorf, 1841. 
