CURRENT LITERATURE.
ModernWwfare and Modern Artillery. By Colonel MacDougall. (John Murray.)—This is a compendium of the principles of warfare as illus- trated by modern practice,—a sort of amplification of the author's excel- lent book entitled The Theory of War. The title promises something more, namely, a discussion of the actual and probable changes whioh the new firearms, small as well as great, will produce on strategy as well as tactics. Not that any improvements in armament can affect the fundamental principles of warfare, but it will be astonishing indeed if they do not affect their application. There are indeed frequent hints of probable changes, but Colonel MacDougall is of opinion that a suffi- cient number of facts has not been collected as a basis for sound judg- ment,—" it needs the experience of several campaigns before it would be safe to dogmatize on the subject." In that case the title of the book is a misnomer. The author has even neglected to tell us what rifles and rifled guns effected in the Crimea and Italy, and of the American war he says that "it adds little that is definite or trustworthy to our stock of experience, the conclusions of one day being often overthrown by the events of the next." We cannot but think this is a mistaken form of expression. The reports of one day are overthrown by the reports of the next, and so far as we have been able to follow events wo have been compelled to notice,that nearly all the military, as well as the civilian critics, have looked on the war through the spectacles of partizans, and the medium having distorted the facts, the " conclu- sions" hastily adopted one day have of course been overthrown by events. Even Colonel MacDougall, with all his science, does not look at the contest through that "dry light" which is essential to a correct per- ception of what has occurred. Perhaps the imperfections wo have noticed arise from the fact that the greater part of the book was composed more than two years ago. There are, however, some " conclusions " stated with which we entirely agree. All sensible men will admit that in field- days troops, whether regulars or volunteers, should be divided into two bodies, so that each may see an enemy, that it is most injurious to keep the men so long under arms doing nothing (volunteers are par- ticularly injured by this) ; that there must be greater rapidity of movement, and that greater rapidity may be obtained without con- fusion and only the appearance of irregularity. We quite agree that only "want of habit' prevents our troops from manmuvring with steadi- ness in quick time. Our force must always be small, and for that reason should be the best that can be made. Colonel MacDougall is of opinion that the new fire-arms render all cavalry but light, really light cavalry, useless. This we take leave to doubt. When, however, he says that the new arms will create a revolution in siege warfare we quite agree with him. Detached forts will supersede continuous lines on the old plans, and it is probable that sieges in future will be by blockade. Colonel MacDougall's book contains many tempting texts, which per- haps it would be rash to handle. At all events he has not developed his propositions. On the whole, the book is a good one for military stu- dents, and worth close study by volunteers.
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