MILITARY MAXIMS AND WARLIKE OPERATIONS.
WAR, in the hands of the tyrant, is the science of wholesale murder, plunder and desolation-the science of defence in the hands of the patriot. The one employs it against the people; the other, in their behalf. The one seeks it as a trade; the other adopts it as a dreadful necessity to avoid or arrest greater evils. The one gains for his reward the fears and curses of the people; the other, their heartfelt applause and esteem.
Aware that no man can read descriptions of battles, or other military movements, understandingly, without some previous knowledge of the fundamental principles and maxims of war, we shall endeavour to place a kind of information at the disposal of the reader, which many have hitherto been unable to obtain.
We have always considered ordinary histories defective, from a total neglect of a scientific and philosophical account of the governing principles of warlike operations. In reading such works, we might almost be led to suppose that a general had nothing to do but to "trust in Providence and keep his powder dry"-to march his army against the enemy with no other thoughts than how to fight. But let the general reader once get an insight into the mighty projects of the chief officer before and during his march, all based on profound scientific