operation. Marius, before engaging the Cimbri, exercifed his army in turning the courfe of a river. Appian relates, that Antiochus, during his winter-quarters at Calchis, having married a beautiful virgin with whom he was greatly enamoured, fpent the whole winter in pleafure, abandoning his army to vice and idlenefs; and that when the time of action returned with the fpring, he found his foldiers unfit for fervice. It is reported of Hannibal, that to preferve his troops from the infection of idleness, he employ'd them in making large plantations of clive trees. The Em peror Probus exercifed his legions in covering with vineyards the hills of Gaul and Pannonia. The idlenefs of our foldiers in time of peace, promoting debauchery and licentioufnefs, is no lefs destructive to health than to difcipline. Unable for the fatigues of a first campaign, our private men die in thousands, as if fmitten with a peftilence *. We never read of any mortality

The idleness of British foldiers appears from a tranfaction of the commiflioners of the annexed eftates in Scotland. After the late war with France, they judged, that part of the King's rents could not

mortality in the Roman legions, though frequently engaged in climates very different from their own. Let us liften to a judicious writer, to whom every one liftens with delight: "Nous remarquons

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aujourd'hui, que nos armées périffent beaucoup par le travail immodéré des "foldats; et cependant c'étoit par un "travail immenfe que les Romains fe confervoient. La raifon en eft, je croix, ແ que leurs fatigues étoient continuelles ; au lieu que nos foldats paffent fans ceffe "d'un travail extreme à une extreme "oifivété, ce qui eft la chofe du monde "la plus propre à les faire perir. Il faut que je rapporte ici ce que les auteurs nous difent de l'education de foldats

be better applied, than in giving bread to the dif banded foldiers. Houses were built for them, portions of land given them to cultivate at a very low rent, and maintenance afforded them till they could reap a crop. These men could not with to be better accommodated: but fo accustomed they had been to idlenefs and change of place, as to be incapable of any fort of work: they deferted their farms one after another, and commenced thieves and beggars. Such as had been made ferjeants must be excepted: these were fenfible fellows, and profpered in their little farms.

Romains.

"Romains.

On les accoutumoit à aller "le pas militaire, c'est-a-dire, à faire en cinq heures vingt milles, et quelque"fois vingt-quatre. Pendant ces mar"ches, on leur faifoit porter de poids de "foixante livres. On les entretenoit dans "l'habitude de courir et de fauter tout "armés; ils prenoient dans leurs exerci

ces des epées, de javelots, de flèches, "d'une péfanteur double des armes ordi"naires; et ces exercices étoient conti"nuels. Des hommes fi endurcis étoient "ordinairement fains; on ne remarque pas dans les auteurs que les armées Ro"maines, qui faifoient la guerre en tant "de climats, periffoient beaucoup par les "maladies; au lieu qu'il arrive préfque "continuellement aujourd'hui, que des "armées, fans avoir combattu, fe fondent, pour ainfi dire, dans une campagne* (a)." Our author must be here understood

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(a) Montefquieu, Grandeur de Romains, chap. 2.

* "We observe now-a-days, that our armies are "confumed by the fatigues and fevere labour of "the foldiers; and yet it was alone by labour and "toil that the Romans preferved themfelves from "deftruction. I believe the reason is, that their

"fatigue

understood of the early times of the Roman ftate. Military difcipline was much funk in the fourth century when Vegetius wrote (Lib. 3. cap. 14. 15.). The fword and Pilum, thefe formidable weapons of their forefathers, were totally laid afide for flings and bows, the weapons of effeminate people. About this time it was, that the Romans left off fortifying their camps, a work too laborious for their

"fatigue was continual and unremitting, while the

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life of our foldiers is a perpetual tranfition from "fevere labour to extreme indolence, a life the "most ruinous of all others. I must here recite the account which the Roman authors give of the "education of their foldiers. They were continu"ally habituated to the military pace, which was, "to march in five hours twenty, and fometimes

twenty-four miles. In thefe marches each foldier "carried fixty pounds weight. They were accu"ftomed to run and leap in arms; and in their mi "litary exercifes, their fwords, javelins, and arrows,

were of twice the ordinary weight. Thefe exer

cifes were continual, which fo ftrengthened the "conftitution of the men, that they were always in "health. We fee no remarks in the Roman authors, "that their armies, in the variety of climates where "they made war, ever perished by difeafe; whilst "now-a-days it is not unusual, that an army, with66 out ever coming to an engagement, dwindles a "way by difeafe in one campaign."

weakly

weakly conftitutions. Marefchal Saxe, a foldier, not a phyfician, afcribes to the ufe of vinegar the healthiness of the Roman legions were vinegar fo falutary, it would of all liquors be the most in requeft. Exercife without intermiffion, during peace as well as during war, produced that falutary effect; which every prince will find, who is difpofed to copy the Roman discipline*. The Marefchal gueffes better with respect to a horfe. Difcourfing of cavalry, he obferves, that a horfe becomes hardy and healthful by constant exercise, and that a young horfe is unable to bear fatigue; for which reason he de

*Rei militaris periti, plus quotidiana armorum exercitia ad fanitatem militum putaverunt prodeffe, quam medicos. Ex quo intelligitur quanto ftudiofius armorum artem docendus fit femper exercitus, cum ei laboris confuetudo et in caftris fanitatem, et in conflictu poffit præftare victoriam. Vegetius, De re militari, lib. 3. cap. 2.-[In English thus: "Our "mafters of the art-military were of opinion, that "daily exercise in arms contributed more to the "health of the troops, than the skill of the physi"cian: from which we may judge, what care should "be taken, to habituate the foldiers to the exercise "of arms, to which they owe both their health in "the camp, and their victory in the field."]

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