The author takes this opportunity of expressing his gratitude to his brother officers for the cordial sympathy and encouragement which he has received from them during his labours, and his hope that the noble narrative commenced by him will not long remain unfinished. The importance of completing the record of the Corps' services in the Crimea and India, while the officers who served in these campaigns are yet alive, is very apparent; and the author would respectfully suggest that any documents throwing light upon these services, which are in the possession of any one belonging to, or interested in the Corps, should be deposited for safe keeping, and for reference, in the Regimental Record Office at Woolwich. _March 2, 1874._ PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. AMONG the uneducated, discipline is created by fear, and confirmed by habit. Among the educated, the agency at work is more complicated. Sympathy with the machine of which the individual finds himself a part, and a reasoning apprehension of the necessity of discipline, are mingled with a strong feeling of responsibility; and, as in the former case, habit steps in to cement the whole. Of all these agents, the noblest is undoubtedly the sense of responsibility, and the highest duty of a military commander is to awaken this sense where it does not exist, and to confirm and strengthen it where it does. * * * * * Two means may be employed to ensure this end. First: let the importance of his duty be impressed on the individual, and let the value in a military sense of what might seem at first sight trivial be carefully demonstrated. Let it be explained that neglect of some seemingly slight duty may disarrange the whole machine; and that for this reason no duty, in a soldier's eyes, should appear slight or trivial. Second: let an _esprit de corps_ be fostered, such as shall make a man feel it a shame to be negligent or unworthy. * * * * * History has a power to awaken this _esprit_, which it is impossible to overrate. Its power reaches the educated and the uneducated alike; it begets a sympathy with the past, which is a sure agent in creating cohesion in the present; for the interest which binds us to our predecessors binds us also to one another. In this cohesion and sympathy is to be found the most sublime form of true discipline. CONTENTS OF VOL. I PAGE PREFACE v Introductory Chapter 1 CHAPTER I. —THE MASTERS-GENERAL OF THE ORDNANCE, AND THEIR HONOURABLE 9 BOARD II. —THE INFANCY OF ARTILLERY IN ENGLAND 35 III. —THE RESTORATION, AND THE REVOLUTION OF 1688 45