have learnt. But this teaching should be simply
how to manage their horses when together, to sit
well and firmly, with a shorter seat than that of
our present dragoon corps, and to be handy with
their weapons when mounted. Their horse
accoutrements should be very few and very simple.
The plain every-day hunting saddle, covered with
a plain, inexpensive, dark-coloured but uniform
saddle-cloth, and a plain uniform bridle—each
man using the bit to which his horse is best
accustomed—would be all the trappings required,
and could be provided by any large outfitter at a
very small cost.

The arms of the volunteer cavalry should be a
curved sharp-cutting sabre, and a short breech-
loading rifle. No pains and no time should be
spared in making the members of the corps good
and expert swordsmen, mounted as well as
dismounted. To use this arm well on horseback
requires the rider to have complete command of
his horse. One of the great faults of our English
dragoons is, that they are not taught to be handy
with their swords. Moreover, their swords are
too straight in make, too blunt on the edge, and
too large in the handle. The writer has taken an
active part in four great cavalry engagements,
besides having been present at more than a
dozen cavalry "affairs" in India; but he can
recollect only three occasions—one, the case of
an officer of the 3rd Light Dragoons, one, the
case of a trooper of the same regiment, one,
the case of the English commander of an
irregular corps—in which a direct cutting blow from
a regulation cavalry sword took effect as it was
intended. For all offensive purposes the regulation
sword is of no more use than a walking-
stick of iron would be; that is to say, it will
knock down, but not cut through. Not so the
native tulwar, or Indian sabre, used by the
natives all over the East, and also by the troopers
in our Indian irregular corps. In his late Diary
in India, Mr. Russell bears testimony to the
fearful wounds effected by this weapon on our
soldiers. With slight modifications, this Asiatic
sabre is the weapon used by the Chasseurs
d'Afrique, who have, when called upon, done
terrible execution with it upon their foes throughout
Algeria. Little teaching is required to make any
man of ordinary strength who wields it, a good
swordsman, and it is in every respect more easily
managed than the cut and thrust sword now used
by our cavalry. But to have this weapon as
effective as possible, it should be provided with
a stout leather, instead of a steel, scabbard: the
latter only serving to blunt the edge, which, as
in the East, should at all times be kept as sharp
as a razor.

But besides being good swordsmen, our
volunteer cavalry should be expert rifle shots, able
to hit any object half as large as a man's body at
at a distance of at least three hundred yards. To
effect this, good fire-arms and much practice are
required. The best—in fact the only—rifle which
a mounted soldier should use, is the rifled breech-
loading carbine, which should be somewhat
lighter, smaller in the bore, and longer in the
barrel, than the arm lately introduced into our
English cavalry. This rifle should not be carried,
as our dragoons carry their carbines, strapped
to the horse, outside the rider's right thigh, but
slung round the body with a strap: the muzzle
coming behind and above the left shoulder, the
butt behind and below the right hip, after the
manner of our own Cape Mounted Rifles, and
of the Chasseurs d'Afrique. In this fashion
the weapon may not only be carried loaded with
the greatest safety, but is easy to be got at when
wanted, and when thus slung, the right arm is
free to use the sword. Volunteer cavalry should
recollect that they are chiefly useful as mounted
riflemen, and should therefore spare no pains in
making themselves perfect marksmen.

Without entering upon any of the numerous
controversies respecting the most appropriate
colour in which a volunteer should be clothed,
it may be well to give some general hints as to
what is the best style of dress for a mounted
soldier in England. Hitherto our rifle volunteers
have been too apt to run into extremes in their
dress: some adopting by far too many of the
Germanic military fopperies which have long
proved a standing nuisance in our regular army;
others seeming to think that to be easy and
comfortable to work in, their uniforms must be more
or less ridiculous to look at. Both of these are
great mistakes. A soldier's uniform should be
what in campaigning is called "workman-like,"
but it should at the same time be decidedly
military in appearance. For a mounted man there
can be no better head-dress than the helmet-
shaped cap commonly worn in India, and now
to be seen in many London shops. Made of light-
grey waterproof felt, and with very slight
military ornaments (such as the number of the
wearer's corps) upon it, it will not only look well,
but sit as easy to the head as a hunting-cap. The
neck should be free from anything in the shape
of stock, and merely protected from the cold
by the stand up collar (which must be quite
loose) of the tunic. The latter garment may
be of such colour as the volunteers of the corps
decide upon, but in the writer's opinion, scarlet
is best adapted for a British regiment. Above
all things the tunic should be loose and easy—
large enough to admit of the wearer's being
able to retain a waistcoat, or other warm clothing,
under his uniform in cold weather. All military
dress should, externally, be quite uniform; that is,
no one member of a regiment should be allowed to
differ in the slightest degree—not so much as in
the number of his buttons or the placing of them
on his coat from his fellows; but men cannot all
be expected to have the same feelings of hot and
cold. Hence it is that the tunic should be
perfectly loose, and merely confined at the waist by
the sword-belt, which should be of black or
brown leather, with pouch-belt to correspond.
There is no better riding gear for the nether
man, than wide pegtop trousers, booted with
leather nearly up to the knee; this obviates