<z. Let such a proportion of the present local militia, as will amount to 150,000 men, be chosen by lot, and be incorporated with these 360 skeleton battalions: the local militia of each county, respectively, being joined to the different classes of the old militia of the same county, so that the whole shall form a body of 200,000 men. Each county, or district of a county, now furnishing one battalion or corps of old militia, will, under the new arrangement, furnish four battalions or corps, each equal in strength to the old one, and so on, in the same proportion, for counties, &c. of greater

extent.

3. As a large surplus body of the present local militia will remain, after the whole force now proposed shall have been completed, we submit the expediency of holding such supernumeraries bound to fill up in their several counties the first vacancies that shall arise, and thus to supply, pro tanto, the place of a new ballot.

4. Let every corps throughout Great Britain, comprehended under class 1, and amounting in the whole to 50,000 men, be assembled at some town within its own or a neighbouring county, and there continue on permanent duty, and under constant discipline, for six months, from the 1st January, 18—.

5. At the expiration of those six months, let the whole of class I be disembodied, and one-fourth of its number be discharged, the oldest men being first selected for that purpose, but under an obli gation to rejoin their standards at the first summons, in case of rebellion, invasion, &c.

Class 2 to succeed class for the next six months, to be then similarly disembodied, and in the same proportion discharged, as likewise the classes 3 and 4, in their respective turns.

6. The classes successively disembodied shall be bound to reassemble on three days notice, and at the discretion of the crown, should any emergency arise.

7. Towards the expiration of the second year, viz. while class 4 is on permanent duty, (supposing the supernumerary local militia-men out of the question,) there shall be a ballot throughout the several counties, to supply the place of those discharged from class 1, as above, amounting to 12,500 men; and also to fill up whatever vacancies may have been occasioned by death, desertion, enlisting into the line, &c. since that class was first disembodied. The men so raised, under such new ballot, shall be in readiness to join their respective corps on the day of re-assembling, at the commencement of the third year; and, on their being again disembodied, at the expiration of their six months service, another fourth, or 12,500 men more, are in like manner to receive their discharge. The same regulations to be observed by all the other classes, respecting their gradual discharge, and due completion from the counties.'

We are, however, apprehensive that it would be impossible for us to carry on an extensive commerce, and pay due atten.. tion to agriculture, under the prosecution of such a plan.

In the Appendix we find a letter from Mr. Joseph Lancaster, (addressed to Captain S.) on his system of education; and on the origin,

erigin, progress, and effects, both past and probable, of its introduction into the British army, through the medium of the school established in the First Regiment of Foot, under the patronage of His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent; and here a just tribute of praise is paid to the Duke of Kent, for his disinterested motives in introducing and his laudable zeal in patronizing so useful a system of instruction. A second paper contains observations relative to the employment of the British army on foreign service, with the proper scenes and the legitimate objects of their operations. In this memoir, the author enters into a sort of discussion of the policy of expeditions, and endeavours to enforce the three following propositions:

1st. While England is at war, and threatened with invasion by an enemy, who encircles nearly two thirds of her coast, she ought not to confide in her navy alone, but ought to strain every sinew to create an efficient army, and therefore, without any more immediate mative, she ought to seek all opportunities of fighting her antagonist abroad, in order to prepare her troops for the final struggle, on ground more critical and decisive.”—

2dly. If it should be granted that the prospect of inuring the British army to war will fairly justify the employment of it on foreign service, this policy derives much additional weight, when we are enabled to combine, with such a general object, the specific hope of relieving a distressed neighbour, on the brink of subjection to a com mon enemy, and of forming with that neighbour, on the basis of con genial interest, a permanent aud powerful alliance.'

3dly. I now proceed to the third position which I had in view at starting-viz. That, although it may be quite essential to have soldiers disciplined in war, and although it be an imperious duty to protect our struggling friends, by the same means which contribute to the amelioration of our own armies; yet since it would be wise to obtain for the consumption of men and money, some more solid indemnity than mere discipline and since it would be much wiser to augment our own strength, than to rely implicitly on any foreign friendship-the most valuable of all objects to be attained by the ap plication of the British arms, would be the conquest of some territory now in the hands or under the avowed controul of France, and the permanent annexation of it to the British empire."

These propositions are the natural consequence of the author's having imbibed, to a certain degree, Captain Pasley's Quixotic notions about our making conquests on the continent of Europe, and dismembering the French empire. We have not room and leisure now to enter into an examination of them; and we will only observe that both these gentlemen seem to have assumed an erroneous datum. from which they reason, namely, that the number of expert seamen which a country can produce is in proportion to its population. Now it is evident

evident that an inland continental country never can furnish tenth part of the number of real sailors in proportion to its population, which can be supplied by an insular state; and ships without seamen avail little or nothing for the purposes of invasion or conquest. A considerable part of the French empire, having no immediate communication with the sea, is better adapted for agriculture than commerce; and we may safely conclude that these writers are equally mistaken in regard to their apprehensions and their calculations.

A third paper in the Appendix contains a statistical account of the population of the Austrian monarchy, and the composition of its army.

In conclusion, we certainly must allow that Captain Sterling writes like a scholar and a man of a liberal education ; and that his language is generally good, though in some places too much inflated.

ART. IX.

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Observations on Ophthalmia, and its Consequences. By C. Farrell, M.D. Surgeon to His Majesty's Forces. 8vo. 5s. Boards. Murray. 1811.

IT is scarcely necessary for us to remark that the disease, which forms the subject of this treatise, is that violent inflammatory affection of the eyes which was first observed in the English army during the campaign in Egypt, which has since existed in the different military stations bordering on the Mediterranean, and which has occurred even in our own island. Several works have already appeared respecting it; and in general it may be asserted that its symptoms are accurately ascertained, and the method of treatment well understood. Under these circumstances, we may fairly question the propriety of multiplying publications on the subject, especially such as do not profess to throw any new light on it. This, according to the author's own confession, is the case with the work now before us; and yet he has what he conceives to be a just ground for engaging a share of the public attention:

Though I do not lay claim to originality, (he observes) still I hope it will not be deemed presumption in me to say, that I hope to render this little work worthy of notice, by presenting in it some illustration of the causes of ophthalmia in our army, and by endeavouring to establish a division of the disease into the varieties which it seems naturally to present, and to institute a method of cure adapted to each variety.'

We must acknowlege that the author's means of information have been extensive: he first saw the disease in Egypt itself in the year 1807; and during the three subsequent years, he was stationed in Sicily, where he had ample opportunity of

observing

observing it in every variety of form and degree. We may, therefore, have the satisfaction of supposing that the statements of Dr. Farrell are deduced from an extensive acquaintance with facts; and that the directions which he gives for the treatment are derived from ample experience of their efficacy. As, however, he rests the merits of his work chiefly on the new arrangement of the different varieties of the disease, which he attempts to establish, it is necessary for us to examine this point with some attention; and to endeavour to form a just estimate of the supposed value of the improvement.

The species into which Dr. F. divides ophthalmia are three; these do not, as he informs us, depend on the part of the eye which is affected, but on the violence and character of the symptoms; and he farther states that he has formed his classification more for the purpose of ascertaining

A fixed and precise mode of treatment for each variety, than of attempting any radical distinctions as to the forms of the disease, or of following it through its transitions from one state to another. Three species of ophthalmia, viz. two of an acute inflammatory type, and one of a chronic nature, may then be pointed out according to this view of the subject. But the two first, though resembling one another in the leading feature of acute inflammation, still present such difference in the number and violence of their symptoms, run such different courses, and require so different modes of treatment, that it will be necessary to consider them under separate heads. In conformity to this plan, then, one species of the acute kind may be denominated ophthalmia mitis, or the mild ophthalmia, and the other, ophthalmia gravis, or the virulent ophthalmia. The chronic species, though it is difficult to ascertain, with precision, the point at which it begins, and though it presents some variety in its appearance, is still sufficiently well marked in its aspect to admit of being de

scribed under one denomination.'

Respecting the first two of these varieties, we do not perceive that they differ from each other except in degree; and although in this, as in every other case, a wide difference must necessarily exist between the two extremes of the scale, we cannot discover any mark by which a line of discrimination. may be drawn between them. We, therefore, cannot agree with the author in the propriety of separating them from each other, because we think that such a separation, where no essential difference exists, can be of no use in practice. When the ophthalmia assumes its most acute state, it would appear to constitute a highly inflammatory disease, which requires for its removal the most decided antiphlogistic treatment: yet this treatment is not to be adopted without consideration, but in every instance to be pursued to that extent which the symptoms require. It is not in one case to be pushed to the utmost,

and

and in the other to be entirely disregarded, because the one case is just severe enough to be placed among the graves, and the other just comes within the limits of the mites. With regard to the third species or variety, the chronic, we do not perceive that it materially varies from that kind of ophthalmia to which this denomination is usually applied: but sufficient grounds appear to exist for giving it a distinct appellation, since it differs essentially from the acute disease in its cause and symptoms, and requires an essentially different treatment.

From what has been stated, our readers will perceive that we are not disposed to assign much credit to that feature of this publication on which the author rests its principal merit; and yet we would not entirely reject the work as possessing no claim to our attention. It appears to be the result of actual observation, and must therefore be considered as an additional document in proof of the existence of a series of facts, which are immediately important as to their effect on our practice; and which are also interesting, from the new views which they present of the nature of contagion, and its influence on the ani'mal economy.

ART. X. Sur la Banque de France, &c. i.e. On the Bank of France, the Causes of its critical State in 1806, the bad Effects of that Crisis, and the Means of preventing its Recurrence; with an Inquiry into the Principles of Banking:-being a Report made to the Chamber of Commerce in Paris, by a Special Commission. Svo. Printed at Paris in 1806; and reprinted by Hatchard. London, 1811. Price 35.

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FTER having travelled through a large mass of crude performances, to which the Report of the Bullion-Committee has given rise, having turned over page after page, in a kind of endless succession, and rarely finding an idea deserving to be recorded with approbation, it is a pleasure to meet with a perspicuous and original work which reviewers alone are qualified to appreciate. The author of the Report before us is M. Dupont de Némours, well known as a member of the French Legislature, during the few years in which it was allowed that body to hope that liberty was about to take up her abode among them. The reputation acquired in his former days will not be lessened by this his later production; and fortunate would it be for France, as well as for her neighbours, if men of the patient research and calm consideration, which mark the author of this Report, were admitted to a larger por tion of influence in the deliberations of governments.

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