It is admitted, that the new levies in the British army are diminished more by fatigue, than by the sword of the enemy. Our regiments are gradually wasted by sickness and disease, for they are not fitted by a course of preparatory training, to undergo those hardships to which they are unavoidably exposed; and the sudden transition from a life of ease to that of great activity, too frequently proves fatal to men of feeble bodies and weak constitutions. Were the practice of the ancients imitated, by the erection of schools for gymnastic exercises, and our young soldiers subjected to a process of training, the lives of many of them would be saved to their country, and the efficient strength of our army greatly augmented. Mr. Edgeworth, while treating on military education, says, “As to EXERCISE and AMUSEMENTS for the pupils in a military academy, they should all be calculated to promote and sustain manly dispositions. The judicious SULLY recommends, in the strongest manner, to military youth, those sports and exercises which form a graceful carriage, and give strength to the limbs.”--‘I was,’ says he, ‘always of the same opinion as Henry IV. concerning these exercises. He often asserted, that they were the most solid foundation, not only of discipline, and other military virtues, _but also of those noble sentiments, and that elevation of mind which gives one nation pre-eminence over another_.’ “A military school should have annual competitions and prizes for foot-races, leaping, wrestling, fencing, and firing at a target. Though the prize need not be absolutely wreaths of oak or parsley, yet whatever they are, they should be more honorary than lucrative. The victors should be rewarded also with the applauses of the public, the countenance of the great, and sometimes, perhaps, with the patronage of the government.”--“All sports,” he farther observes, “without exception, that promote strength and agility, should be encouraged in our military schools[13].”