On the Supply, Care, and Repair of Artillery Material, including Small Arms and Ammunition for Canadian Militia. By Captain OSCAR PRÉVOST. Pamphlet. Pp. 58. Quebec, 1877.

THIS is an Essay, written for the Medal given by the Governor-General of Canada. It has received honourable mention. It is a very creditable production, and the writer has evidently carefully studied his subject.

Tactical Examples. By HUGO HELVIG, Major on the Royal Bavarian General Staff. Vol. II. "The Regiment and Brigade." Translated by Colonel Sir Lumley Graham, Bart. C. Kegan Paul and Co. London, 1878. Size 9" x 6" x 1". Pp. 127. Weight under 14 lbs. Price 10s. 6d.

THE appearance of this volume is singularly well timed, as the period of exercise in Minor Tactics is just commencing at our principal military stations. The example contains illustrations of the working of the three arms. The design of the whole work was explained in No. 93 of the Journal.

H.

The Armenian Campaign. A Diary of the Campaign of 1877 in Armenia and Koordistan. By CHARLES WILLIAMS. 1 vol. London: C. Kegan Paul and Co., 1878. Price 10s. 6d. Size 8′′ × 5′′ × 14′′. Pp. 336. Weight under 14 lb.

Armenia and the Campaign of 1877. By C. B. NORMAN, late Special Correspondent of the Times at the seat of war. 1 vol. London: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, 1878. Price 21s. Size 8" x 6" x 2". Pp. 484. Weight under 2 lbs.

The War Correspondence of the Daily News. description of the taking of Kars. 1 vol. Price 10s. 6d. Size 7" x 5" x 14". Pp. 613.

Second edition, containing a full London: Macmillan and Co., 1878. Weight under 14 lb.

The Narrative of an Expelled Correspondent. By FREDERICK BOYLE. 1 voi. London: Bentley and Son, New Burlington Street, 1877. Price 14s. Size 9 × 6"× 1". Pp. 424. Weight under 24 ibs.

If we cannot hope to obtain with regard to the late campaign anything approaching in completeness and accuracy the German official account of the Franco-German war, it is nevertheless probable that at a future time we shall receive from some nation whose military representatives at the theatre of hostilities were more welcome than our own, some comprehensive and authentic history of this important struggle. It is possible that the Russian Staff, fired by emulation of its neighbour, may itself publish the desired information. Meanwhile we must avail ourselves of the valuable stores provided by the energy, industry, and intelligence of newspaper correspondents. The four books above given are, so far as we are aware, the only collected series of correspondence at present published. In studying the contents of these books, it is well to bear in mind the caution candidly given by one of the writers, Mr. Williams.

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Mr. Williams frankly says: No pretence, it may serve some misconception to say, is made at impartiality, which, however desirable for journalists commenting "at home upon the progress of events, is virtually unattainable by correspondents "recording the succession of those events among all the excitement and all the "myriad influences of life in a camp.

But it may be doubted whether it is either the duty or in the power of a cor

respondent, mingling daily and hourly with soldiers fighting for the integrity and independence of their nation, for their hearths and homes,' to preserve that calm "balance of mind which it is the duty of the leader-writer, the editor, and the statesman "to endeavour to cultivate; consciously or unconsciously he must be biassed; it may, as "in my case, be in favour of the soldiers among whom he dwells, or, as in the "instance of more than one of my confrères, against the people and the Government "which afford him the hospitality of their lines."

It may be well to state that Mr. Boyle's duties as correspondent lay in European Turkey. The titles of the other books give the necessary information as regards the localities of which they treat.

Sea Terms and Phrases in English. For the Use of Officers of Royal and Mercantile Navies, Engineers, Shipbuilders, &c. By Lieut. E. PORNAIN, French Navy. 1 vol. Portsmouth Griffin and Co., 1877. Price 4s. Size 8"x5"<". Pp. 159. Weight under 7 oz.

:

A useful compendium.

Handbook to South Africa. Including the Cape Colony, Natal, the Diamond Fields, the Trans-Orange Republics, &c. I vol. 2nd edition. London: Silver and Co., Cornhill, 1876. Price 10s. Size 7′′ x 5′′ x 12′′. Pp. 539. Weight under 1 lb.

Handbook to the Transvaal. British South Africa, its Natural Features, Industries, Population, and Gold Fields. 1 vol. London Silver and Co., 1877. Price 2s. 6d. Size 7" x 5" x 4". Pp. 125. Weight under 7 oz.

:

Map of the Transvaal and the Surrounding Territories. By F. JEPPE, F.R.G.S. London: Silver and Co., Cornhill, 1878. Price 7s. 6d. Size 2 feet square. Scale 180000, about 30 miles to the inch. Limits 23°—33° W. Long., 21°—40° S. Lat. Stanford's Compendium of Geography and Travel. Africa. Edited and extended by K. JOHNSTON. 1 vol. London: Stanford, 1878. Price 21s. Size 84" × 61′′ × 24′′. Pp. 611. Weight under 2 lbs.

THE above-named works will be found useful at the present time.

RECEIVED.

Cavalry Tactics. By a Cavalry Officer.

Der Kaiserlich Deutsche Marine. By BULOW.

ADMIRAL SIR FREDERICK W. E. NICOLSON, Bart., C.B., VicePresident, in the Chair.

ON THE LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF WAR AS LIMITING THE USE OF FIRE-SHIPS, EXPLOSION VESSELS, TORPEDOES, AND SUBMARINE MINES.

By Admiral the Right Honourable LORD DUNSANY.

I AM now about to give what, according to the laws and customs of this Institution, is called a lecture upon a particular point in the laws and customs of war. We are accustomed in this place to hear gentlemen fresh from the seat of war, or inventors of telephones, or Thorneycroft torpedoes, and we naturally listen to them with great attention, because we know they can tell us much more than we know ourselves. In my own case I have no such claim on your attention. I am not a great jurist, or any jurist at all. I am not a great writer on international law like " Historicus;" I would, therefore, prefer to discard the word "lecture" and call this paper an essay. I can only pretend to have thought out this subject to the best of my ability, and to have consulted, I hope with due diligence, the principal authorities on the subject, in doing which I have been under great obligations to the kindness of a friend I see opposite, who gave me facilities in the British Museum. I must further apologize to any learned jurist who may be present, and some distinguished jurists have been invited, for what may appear like depreciating their authority. To ignore the immense services rendered to mankind by the learned civilians, and especially such civilians as Lord Stowell, would only betray one's own ignorance; I simply deny that it is their province to make laws

for carrying on wars under new circumstances. To any Officers of the Torpedo Branch, some of the most promising and intelligent Officers of the Navy, I need scarcely say, if the slightest taint of dishonour attached to that branch they would not be found in it. At present, torpedoes are as lawful as any other means of warfare. There are those who contend that such means are not in the least objectionable on the score of humanity, that they will shorten war, or find some other compensation for their apparent mischief. It is also said with great force that on the introduction of shells, for instance, the same objections were raised on the score of humanity, and yet we have come to be perfectly reconciled to them. Regarding the principal authorities on the laws of war, I confess that a tolerably extensive research in the British Museum has not thrown much light on the matter; but torpedoes and submarine mines could no more find a place in the old jurists, such as Grotius and Vattel and others, than could rifle guns and breech-loaders find a place in Cæsar's Commentaries. The later jurists, again, have not yet had the facts before them upon which to build a theory. For it must be remembered that in the usages of war the practice precedes or makes the law, not the law the practice, and new cases make new laws. The latest instances of this, perhaps, arose out of the employment of balloons during the siege of Paris. During the siege of Paris some balloons were captured, and a knotty point arose as to what position the prisoners ought to be considered in. The French writers on the subject, those who have written, like Charles Heffter and others since the siege, consider that they were at worst nothing more than blockade-runners. The German authorities, on the other hand, considered that they came, in some degree, under the category of spies-in any case they sent them before a court-martial, and I understand it would have fared ill with some of them, including, I believe, a countryman of our own, if the war had not very opportunely for them come to a conclusion. It seems to me that there always has been upon certain points an unwritten law, a general consent of opinion, whether among our land or sea Officers which has governed their practice. This has been antecedent to, and independent of, the so-called "law of nations;" but it has grown into a tradition, and in time becomes public law. Such, for instance, is the old naval tradition that the crews of fire-ships are not entitled to quarter. That such was the universal opinion of the Navy in my boyhood I distinctly remember, and my own recollection concurs with that of many Flag Officers with whom I have consulted. I may add, in passing, that in 1809, the latest occasion on which we used fire-ships ourselves, in the Basque Roads, when the expedition was under consideration, the belief that the enemy would act on the principle of not giving quarter materially influenced the Admiralty. I shall, however, have more to say on the subject of fire-ships, the progenitors of our torpedoes, submarine mines, and other novel modes of warfare. I hope to show that the apparently cruel rule respecting fire-ships worked well for humanity in practice. Whether it should be extended to other cases, and if so, to what cases, is a serious matter for your consideration. I should state I consider if this essay has any value, it will rather be in its

suggestiveness and the opinions it may elicit, than in anything that is contained in it in the way of my own opinion.

But is some such rule necessary? Looking to the tendency-the increasing tendency-towards what would have been called "illegiti"mate warfare," some may think it necessary or at least expedient. Let us then glance at what has been the progress of this tendency during the last century, and the point is not without interest, for the change that has taken place has been in a contrary direction to that we might have expected.

Going back more than a hundred years, in 1759, we find the Marechal de Conflans, who combined the dignities of Field-Marshal and Admiral, issuing an order against the use of hollow shot,-incendiary shell in this case. His words are remarkable. He says they were "not generally "used by polite nations, and that the French ought to fight according to "the laws of honour." We may pass over forty years to the battle of the Nile in 1798. It was, as we all know, a battle sternly fought out with round and grape, but by one of the thousand accidents in naval war the French flag-ship "L'Orient," a magnificent three-decker, took fire and blew up. Mutual animosity was at its height in those days, and the French thought they could not blacken the character of the victors better than by charging them with using incendiary missiles. This charge was untrue, but it expressed the feeling of the day. The English retorted that they found incendiary shells in one of the prizes. Passing over two instances in which we used fire-ships, as that is a topic to which I must return, let us examine a very remarkable incident that occurred in our war with the United States in 1812. It affords a very good gauge of opinion at that time, as a test of opinion in our own. The " Ramilies," 74, was lying off New London, at anchor, maintaining the blockade. She was short of provisions, and two American merchants, knowing this, fitted out a schooner and filled the hold with powder, covering it over in the hatchways with barrels of flour. An ingenious piece of clockwork attached to a gun lock, and a train leading to the powder, ensured its explosion at the hour it was set to. The vessel was captured as intended, the crew escaping to land. According to ordinary calculation and probability, the prize would have been ordered alongside the "Ramilies " to be cleared, and in that case when the clockwork reached the fatal hour, 2.30, a loud explosion would have ended the history of the "Ramilies" and her 600 men under Sir Thomas Hardy-Nelson's Hardy. As chance or Providence would have it, the schooner was ordered to anchor near another prize, but away from the "Ramilies ;" and thus when the crisis arrived, there were no other victims than the prize crew. James, our standard naval historian, from whom I quote remarks, "We shall "not trust ourselves to comment upon this most atrocious proceeding;" and a naval Officer, a contemporary, Captain Brenton, says, "A quantity of arsenic in the flour would have been so perfectly compatible "with the rest of the contrivance that we wonder it was not resorted to. Should actions like this receive the sanction of Governments, "the science of war and the laws of nations will degenerate into the barbarity of the Algerines, and pillage will take the place of kind

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