Both ‘Sword Exercises’ carefully avoid naming “Tierce” and “Carte;” preferring “right” and “left” (of the Sword) or “outside” and “inside,” as if such mysteries were too high or too deep for our national intelligence. I would again quote a few lines from my ‘System of Bayonet Exercise’ (Introductory Remarks, pp. 8, 9):-- “But why, it may be asked, should the English soldier be deterred by difficulties which every French voltigeur can master? We admire the intelligence of our neighbours in military matters: we remark that they are born soldiers, and that their men learn as much in four months as ours do in six. Is not this, however, partly our own fault? In my humble opinion we mistake the cause of their quickness, attributing to nature the effect of art. When our system of drill is thoroughly efficient; when the _Manual and Platoon_ is much simplified, when a _salle d’armes_ is established in every corps, and when the bayonet exercise becomes a recognized branch of instruction; then, I believe, we shall find our soldiers equal in intelligence to any others.” These words were written in 1853; in 1875 I add, “When we enlist the right kind of recruit either by improving his condition and his prospects, not his pay, or better, far better, by securing a superior man through the conscription of modern Europe.” We Britons are no longer physically divided from the total orb; nor can we afford to remain morally insulated and isolated. The logical effect of union with the outer world will be to make us do as the world does, and all our exceptional institutions, such as the system of volunteer recruiting, must sooner or later go by the board. [Illustration: Outside Guard--(Tierce). (A Parry not a Guard.)] Nor is the most modern French Treatise (pp. 229–256, _Manuel de Gymnastique et d’Escrime_, officially published by the _Ministre de la Marine et des Colonies_; Paris, Dumaine, 1875) “_Escrime au Sabre_” much superior to our home growth. The position of the left hand (pp. 232, 233) is bad throughout: it must slip during the Lunge and make the play loose. The retreat of the left leg (Fig. 5, p. 235) is carried to an extreme of caution. The body is always perpendicular in the Lunge, whereas the same volume shows (Fig. 16, p. 20) the trunk naturally inclining forwards. The Cuts are not double nor continuous, as they should be. The “Hanging Guards” (pp. 240, 244, 245) are deplorable. On the other hand, the _Manuel_ (p. 231) places the thumb along, not around, the handle; the _moulinets_, the _enlevés_, and the _brisés_ (presently to be explained) are good stuff, and, moreover, they are applied to the Cuts (p. 239). Finally, nothing can be better than the advice (p. 249), “Après avoir touché, retirer vivement le sabre en arrière en lui imprimant une direction oblique dans le sens du tranchant, de manière à _scier_.”