the civil branch of the Ordnance too often reasoned _à priori_--evolved out of its own consciousness certain ill-defined wants, which the troops might possibly have--and, with many blunders and shortcomings, endeavoured to meet them. And then, with monotonous recurrence, came a pitiful struggle to maintain its own dignity in the face of incessant failure. [Sidenote: Major Cookson, from Houat, 1 August, 1800.] That the response to Major Cookson’s appeal was not wholly satisfactory may be gathered from the following extract from a subsequent letter:--“Conceive,” he wrote, “their sending me a common soldiers’ tent for the sick, and five horsemen’s tents _without their poles_, which to obtain here would be impossible, as all the men-of-war have expended already every inch of wood that could be spared. You will see by the return that we have 50 men ill, and, I am sorry to say, several of them dangerously so.” It is a relief to turn, now, to the words of a man eminently capable of removing the difficulties with which he was surrounded. [Sidenote: Brig.-Gen. Lawson, R.A., MSS. Narrative in R. A. Library.] “The Expedition, under the orders of Admiral Lord Keith and General Abercromby, proceeded from the Island of Malta on the 21st December, 1800, arrived at Marmorice Bay, in Asia Minor, on the New Year’s Day following, and remained there, waiting the co-operation of the Turks (being the time of their Ramadan), until the 20th February. During this period every measure was taken the situation admitted of to lessen the numerous difficulties expected to be met with in Egypt,--such as a dangerous shore to land upon--a country destitute of wood, water, or roads--where (as the Commander-in-Chief informed the General Officers, assembled by order) nothing was to be looked for but a wild waste of desert, and obstacles which the most unremitting exertions had only a chance of surmounting, independent of a formidable opposition from the French troops. “Under these ideas, and the battering train (originally designed against Belleisle only) having joined the army very indifferently provided indeed for such an uncommon, arduous enterprise, no time could be lost. All the artificers were landed, and strong working parties sent into the woods to cut down timber for making additional spars, skids, and various-sized rollers, to form gangways for landing the heavy ordnance upon, assisting them over deep sandy beaches, and in crossing the canals formed for conveying the rising waters of the Nile into the towns and cultivated spots of the country.