THE EOYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
281 
THE MOBILITY OE FIELD ARTILLERY; 
PAST AND PRESENT. 
BY CAPTAIN HIME, K.A., P.S.S. 
[No. V.] 
“ Les canonniers Anglaises se distinguent entre les autres soldats par le bon esprit qui les anime. 
En bataille, leur activite est judicieuse, lenr coup-d’oeil parfait, et leur bravoure stoi'que .”—General 
Foy. 
Haying described at length the different forces which determined the 
relative positions of the horse artillery and the field batteries at the beginning 
of the present century, it is now necessary to consider the influences which 
gave a considerable impetus to the field artillery service at large at that period. 
Without the operation of these influences, the horse artillery would not have 
been so good as they then were, while the field batteries would have been, if 
it were possible, worse. These influences were two in number—first, the 
wonderfully rapid progress of the arts and sciences at the end of the 
18th century and the beginning of the 19th ; and secondly, the appearance on 
the stage of war of the three greatest artillery officers the world has yet 
seen—Napoleon, Senarmont, and Drouot. In the case of England, a third 
influence must be added—the delivery of the army, by a long and bloody 
series of wars, from the obscurity in which it had long languished, in 
consequence of our insular position and the supremacy of our navy. 
I.—The marvellous progress of physical science during the latter half of 
the 18th century, was chiefly owing to the natural reaction of the mind of 
man after centuries of protection and tyranny. For centuries the physical 
sciences had been consigned to the land of forgetfulness ; for centuries it was 
dangerous to think, it was death to write upon them. “ Innovation of every 
kind was regarded as a crime; superior knowledge excited only terror and 
suspicion. If it was shown in speculation, it was called heresy; if it 
was shown in the study of nature, it was called magic.” 1 The cause of 
this tyranny is neither doubtful nor obscure; for it has been pointed out 
by the greatest thinker of his age—Lord Bacon. 2 “ A theological system 
had lain like an incubus upon Christendom, and to its influence, more 
1 Lecky’s “ Rise ancl Influence of Rationalism in Europe,” Yol. I. p. 275. 
2 In his “ Novum Organ urn A 
