It is not from numbers, nor from inconsiderate valor, that we are to expect victory; in battle she commonly follows capacity, and a knowlege of arms. We do not see, that the Romans made use of any other means to conquer the world, than a continual practice of military exercises, an exact discipline in their camps, and a constant attention to cultivate the art of war. Hence, both ancients and moderns agree, that there is no other way to form good soldiers but by exercise and discipline; and it is by a continual practice and attention to this, that the Prussians arrived at that point of perfection which was long so much admired in their evolutions, and manual exercise. Formerly in the British service every commander in chief, or officer commanding a corps, adopted or invented such manœuvres as he judged proper, excepting in the instance of a few regulations for review: neither the manual exercise, nor quick and slow marching were precisely defined by authority. In consequence when regiments from different parts were brigaded, they were unable to act in line till the general officer commanding had established some temporary system to be observed by all under his command. These inconveniences were at length obviated by the rules and regulations compiled by general Dundas on the system of the Prussian discipline, as established by Frederic the Great. During the American revolution, a committee of officers was appointed by congress to digest a system of discipline for the military forces of the United States. A considerable body of materials were thrown together by the several officers, which proving too voluminous, amounting to three volumes folio, Baron Steuben, an officer who had been in the Prussian service, was appointed to make a digest, which was afterwards adopted, and continues still to be the only regulation for discipline. This work which is very brief, was of much use where there was no sort of order established, or rather where utter disorder prevailed; but is not by any means adapted to the uses of a good discipline in the present state of military knowlege. It is confined to the duties of a regiment of infantry only, and is in fact no more than an abstract modification of the Prussian system of 1741. The war department of the United States, has had the provision of a more enlarged and competent system under preparation for three or four years, and the commander in chief (general Wilkinson) had made great progress in a general arrangement of a system comprehending all the details of drill, exercise, manœuvre, formations of separate, and co-operating bodies, and of various kinds of troops; as well as the police of camps, garrisons, rank, and rotation; and other regulations, but public service having called him off to the southern frontier, and general Dearborne having resigned, the system of Steuben remains, while the new discipline of Europe has become known to all the volunteer