COMMENDED Essay, 1895. 855 
him, but there is no remedy for insufficient practice in the manning of 
the individual Battery, which could only in action result in a reversion 
to the old order of things before such terms as “ Fire direction,” 
“Fire control” and “Fire discipline” had been heard of. The 
Battery is indeed the real fighting unit of a Coast Fortress, and the 
necessity for the correction of any imperfections in the machinery 
for fighting it is of such vital importance that it 1s not an exaggeration 
to say that it cannot be manned by its garrison too often. Unfortun- 
ately the few days that the Volunteers can spare for camp in each 
year do not admit of their Batteries being manned with such frequency 
as is desirable: and even in the case of the local Milhtia Regiments, 
which carry out their training at the fortress every year, there is 
so much else to be done during the month that hardly enough time 
can be devoted to this very important part of it. All that can be 
done therefore is to make the most of the time available in each case, 
to ensure which two things are necessary; first, that a judicious 
programme of work should be arranged; and secondly, that the 
preparatory training carried out beforehand should have been as 
complete as circumstances may have permitted, so that when the 
course commences no time need be wasted in elementary details, and 
thus that the fullest possible benefit may be derived from it. 
Before a programme for such a course can be drawn up it is 
necessary to know (1) how the Artillery of the 3 branches (Regulars, 
Militia, and Volunteers) are to be distributed ; and (2) also, in the 
case of the Auxiliaries, whether they are to be prepared to man the 
Batteries allotted to them independently of any assistance from the 
Regulars; or, if not, to what extent this assistance is required. 
(1) The advantages of associating Corps with particular localities 
are well known; and, m order to encourage the various Artillery 
Corps of a garrison to identify themselves with the Batteries which 
they have been told off to man, every endeavour should be made to 
avoid shifting them to other localities, even when changes in armament 
or in the scheme of defence take place. 
As to the way in which they should be distributed, the Regulars 
and the local auxiliaries would, as already stated, as a matter of course 
man the most important forts, as being the nearest at hand in case of 
sudden attack, The local auxiliaries too would have had more oppor- 
tunities than those at a distance of drilling with the guns of the 
fortress: and, if another reason were required for this method of 
distribution, cne not altogether to be disregarded, though perhaps to 
some extent a sentimental one, is to be found in the fact that local 
corps would be those most deeply interested in the defence of their 
own port, and that to them therefore would seem rightly to belong 
both the duty and privilege of occupying the post of danger. It 
would be a matter for decision according to circumstances whether in 
these more important forts the guns to be manned by the Regulars 
would be those in the most important positions or any which might be 
too complicated in themselves or their mountings for the Auxiliary 
Artillery. The forts to be manned by the more distant Corps would 
