The warrant founding the Academy was issued in 1741. The cadets then in the Regiment were to be instructed there, but not these only; it was to be available for the professional education of all "the raw and inexperienced people belonging to the military branch of the Ordnance." At first, the sum proposed to be voted annually for its support was merely 500_l._, but this was almost immediately doubled, and before 1771 it had reached 1364_l._ 14_s._ From the very first the practical and theoretical schools were distinct. The former was attended not merely by the cadets, but also by all officers and men off duty; the latter by all above the rank of bombardier, as well as any below that rank who had evinced any special talent, or capacity for study. In the Theoretical School, pure and mixed mathematics were taught; in the Practical School, the various gun drills, fortification, laboratory duties, &c. Once a year there was performed before the Master-General, or his lieutenant, "a great and solemn exercise of Artillery, in which exercise those who were best advanced in the several classes shot with different pieces of Ordnance at several marks according to their different proficiencies, or produced some other specimen of their diligence and application in their study of fortification, drawing, &c., when he who best distinguished himself in each class was presented with some prize of honour—if an engineer, officer, or cadet—or some pecuniary premium, if a private man, as an encouragement." It will thus be seen that from the earliest days there was no finality in the education acquired by a cadet at the Academy. His training was not supposed to cease when he was commissioned. It is well to remember this at a time when there are not wanting men to decry the continuous education of Artillery officers, and to express perfect contentment with the amount of Artillery education obtained at the Academy. Probably these very men who deem Artillery an exact and finite science to be mastered by a boy in his teens, would be the first to protest against the idea that a man could master the intricacies of the stable, without many years of progressive and practical experience. Chemistry as applied to the service of Ordnance, dynamics, metallurgy, might be sufficiently conquered at the Academy, or might be conscientiously dispensed with, but the perambulation of a horse infirmary might go on for a lifetime, and yet a man's education be incomplete. The best friend to his corps is the man who denies and scorns such a theory. National predilections have made and will continue to make the horsing of the English Artillery the best in the world, but the gun must not be lost sight of in devotion to the horse. And this once recognized, from that moment an Artilleryman, to be conscientious and progressive, must be studious. At the altar of science he should be the most regular votary; for gunnery, to be perfect, draws incessantly and largely upon science.