482 
SYNOPTICAL CHARTS. 
service shell gun is shown lower down in the chart, 1625, when the 
howitzer was adopted in Europe first by Spinola. 
Lastly, under the horizontal line 1815, devoted to Congreve, should 
be added, “ 1813 Rockets (Congreve’s) first employed in the field in 
Europe by British Royal Horse Artillery.” 
Mr. ScAIFE : —Colonel Corbett, ladies and gentlemen, I am sure I 
am only voicing the sentiments of all present in saying how much we 
have enjoyed the lecture. I myself have enjoyed it possibly more than 
anybody else because as the inventor and patentee, if I may use the 
expression, of the system, I naturally take a more than ordinary inter¬ 
est in it. I would like to tell you, if you will allow me, how that original 
chart came into existence, and how my attention was directed to the 
desirability, I might almost say the necessity of providing something of 
the kind. I was at a public school—it would be invidious to mention 
its name—in England some 30 years ago, when I was solicited by my 
fond parents to defend my country by entering into the service of the 
Navy. I was only too anxious to do so, and my parents wrote to my 
school-master to ask if it would be necessary for me to go to a crammer’s 
or whether I was sufficiently advanced to pass the examination without 
participation in that feast of reason and that flow of soul provided at 
these establishments. The answer they received was that I should 
pass the examination when the time came without such extraneous and 
expensive aid. I, of course, felt very pleased to think that they thought 
so well of me, but when I went up for the examination, far from passing 
with flying colours I regret to say, (and I hope you will receive the con¬ 
fession in confidence) I was ignominiously plucked—I did not even 
pass the test examination. I had very good marks in some subjects I 
afterwards learnt, but in two, namely, geography and history, I did not 
get any marks at all. You can imagine the kind of reception that 
awaited me at home. I felt very keenly about it mentally and, if I re¬ 
member right, physically too. The whole question was a very sore 
subject for many a long day. But after all there were extenuating cir¬ 
cumstances ; it was not all my fault, because I had not been taught those 
subjects, and you now know why I do not mention the name of the 
school. It is 30 years ago and as a matter of fact they did not teach 
geography, or history then as they do now, and in both of those subjects, 
unfortunately, I had to return a blank paper. Time went on, the 
country lost the value of my services and I went abroad, but I kept 
thinking this thing over, and out of “ sheer cussedness,” as they say out 
west, I took to reading history, and after I had read a good many his¬ 
tories and given a good deal of time to the subject, I used to ask myself, 
“How much do I know about it.” I could look upon a map of the world 
or of any country and I could get as the lecturer has told us, a synoptic 
idea of it. I did not have to' go to Sicily, for instance, to know its shape 
or position, I could see it lying like a football at the toe of Italy, and the 
same with regard to other countries. It seemed to me then that if I 
could devise some method of learning or teaching history analogous to 
a map in geography, at least the effort was worth the making. That 
chart which you see on the board there was the result. It took a great 
