through, the latter expedient, when resolved on, should be carried into effect with the greatest impetuosity, and without any regard to order. If infantry are caught in the same trap, the way out must be different; the cavalry must separate, as they can be of no use to the men on foot; the latter are left to the choice of either finding their passage at the opposite side or surrendering as prisoners. The natural functions and powers of cavalry of all descriptions are best shown in the offensive, when nearly all the care required is to keep them in check until the critical moment, and then let them loose in all their force and power. The circumstances themselves will almost dictate the nature of the movement; but it is different when troops of this description are on the defensive, which would probably be the case in the first instance with the Yeomanry, or any other body of light cavalry, sent "to hover about the enemy.' It is here that instruction may be made available, and a few general hints be bestowed to advantage. Defiles, in the proper sense of the word, are very rare in England, as they must be held to be quite distinct from passages among chains of hills or mountains. The best example of a defile is that chasm in the hill called Cheddar Cliff, and there are some few others in the hilly districts of Lancashire and Yorkshire. When the defence of one of these passages on its furthest side is made by a combination of troops, the order of retreat would be the artillery, the infantry, and cavalry, covered with a rear guard of cavalry. This is one of the most trying services on which light cavalry can be employed, as it will be owing to their intrepidity, and the repetition of their attacks, that the other portions of the force will owe their safety. Once passed through, the operations of cavalry are more simple and easy, by merely choosing a lateral position at three or four hundred paces from the debouche of the defile, to wait until a certain portion of the enemy has passed, and then attack them. During the Seven Years' War the French General Victor pushed a reconnaissance through the defile of Untrup. Colonel Jeanneret, who commanded the advanced posts of the Duke of Brunswick, took up a position of this kind on the inner side of the defile; he allowed as many of the enemy as he thought he could master to pass out, and then fell on them; without counting the killed and wounded, he took 12 officers, 100 men, and 220 horses. Bridges over small rivers and rivulets are incapable of defence; their destruction is the best measure; if that cannot be effected, cavalry alone can only observe the passage of the troops. If the side of the river on which they are placed is much broken or wooded, or there are houses behind which they can be sheltered from the fire on the opposite bank the same operation may be attempted as in the debouche from a defile. The defence of fords is difficult and uncertain, because where there is one, there are probably more, and the chances of being turned are considerable. The best plan is to block up those that are known, or at least render their passage more difficult, by throwing in large blocks of stone, empty waggons sunk with stones, harrows, &c. If there are any means of concealing the defenders at a short distance from the ford or fords, they can act as in the debouche from a defile, or passage of a bridge, as before mentioned, by waiting until a certain portion of the enemy has passed, and then falling on them with rapidity. We have a notable example of this on the retreat to Corunna, where a portion of the Imperial Guard, having passed the fords of the Esla, near Benevento, were attacked by our light cavalry, a portion of them driven back across the river, and the remainder, with their Commandant (Le Febvre Desnouettes), taken prisoners. Before quitting the river's banks it may not be improper to give a rule to which no attention has hitherto been paid, either in the Yeomanry or probably elsewhere; namely, that it is indispensable for light cavalry that all the horses and men should be able to swim. The advantages are manifold, and easily imagined. A small body of cavalry pressed by a superior force, and driven to the banks of a river, if their horses cannot swim, they must surrender; it is needless to say what advantages might be derived from this power when cavalry wished to make an inroad or foray beyond a river. In the Seven Years' War entire regiments of Austrian light cavalry passed rivers by swimming; one regiment of hussars, for example, passed the Rhine near Hochat to Oppenheim, at a place where the river is very rapid. In the year 1761 Lieut.-Colonel Emmerech, with a detachment of cavalry, passed the Main between Rumpenheim and Offenbach, where the river is very rapid, and with no other object in view than carrying off a French courier. It was from want of instruction on this point that the greatest part of the thirty squadrons that the Duke of Marlborough "pushed" into the Danube, at Blenheim, perished. The following is the method recommended by the officer, whom I have named above, for crossing rivers, in which manoeuvre he had much practice: The first horse should be directed with his head towards the current; the horse that follows, although also heading the current, should rest his head on the saddle of the horse that precedes him; and so in succession." To perform this manoeuvre, it is indispensable that the horses should be good, and be able to swim well; those that cannot should be left behind. When there happen to be a few boats, the operation is much easier; the men can pass over in these, and the horses be towed after them, in the same order as that recommended by Colonel Emmerech; that is, the second horse, and those following, should be made fast, by a collar, or snaffle-rein, to the saddle of the horse that precedes them on the side from which flows the current. There are numberless duties of detail, such as escorts of convoys and prisoners, foraging, patroles, &c., all which would require much time and space to enter into; sufficient has been said to show the multiplicity of duties that devolve on light cavalry on active service. In speaking of the system now actually in use for drill and exercise of the Yeomanry, there is not the slightest wish that it should be discontinued or materially altered; it is perfectly requisite to teach the men every formation, to give them the habits of attending to orders, and instruct them in all the field-movements; but what I wish to impress is, that instruction should not cease there; that there is a vast deal more to be learned in the craft before men can become perfect light horsemen. A few instances I have detailed, and twice as many remain behind. Unfortunately, although England is one of the best countries in Europe to defend, it is the one where the practice of that defence is least easy to accomplish. The ominous words, "Trespassers will be prosecuted," "No thoroughfare," "Man-traps and spring-guns set on these premises," warn people not to interfere with their neighbours' fences; still instruction may be gathered on marches, both as to the various roads and paths, as well as by practising on the roads occasional attacks and defences. In the neighbourhood of exercising grounds, on commons and wastes, there is much greater scope. I have already hinted at the occasional visits to the sea-shores, to mark the defencible points, and to ascertain the nature of the footing for horses in the several creeks and bays. The banks of the rivers should be made also familiar to the Yeomanry of the different counties, and they should gain an accurate knowledge of all the swampy and marshy districts, with the best means of finding the way amongst them; still more strongly would I wish to recommend the practice of fire-arms, on foot and on horseback. I have said enough as to the actual value of the Yeomanry in time of peace, and what service may be expected from them in time of war, to enable impartial persons to form a just opinion between the extremes that exist; one party insisting on this being the very best species of force to employ, both in peace and war; the other declaring that it is a mere plaything for country gentlemen, attended with unnecessary expense to the public. I believe that the chief and, indeed, the only objection to the Yeomanry force is the latter end of the last argument. A correspondent of the Naval and Military Gazette has put forth some suggestions on this point, and as the voice comes de profundis, the hints are worthy of notice. It is suggested that the money expended on the Yeomanry would be sufficient to support depôts of all the militia regiments, amounting in numbers to five thousand men. My views on the subject of the militia are quite in accordance with those of the "Rambler on the Styx," and I should be glad to see that useful military body placed in some state of organization; but, previous to such a measure, I should desire first to see the regular Army so much increased as to lighten the periods of foreign service, and a few regiments in addition would go far to carry that object into effect. If we were to suppose that the Yeomanry was allowed to die off, there is no occasion for the formality of disbanding; the money saved in this way might be applied with advantage in the increase of the Army. The sum voted in the Army Estimates of this year for volunteer corps is 86,1681. If we add to this the money lost to the revenue by the non-payment of horse-tax, it will not be too much to give in round numbers 90,000%.sufficient to support a fourth West India regiment, a second regiment of Canadian rifles, and two regiments of the line; soldiers of all work, and at all times ready to serve in every part of the world. A FEW REMARKS ON THE SLAVE-TRADE IN THE BRAZILS. BY COMMANder foote, B.N. In the present state of our relations with foreign countries, regarding treaties for the suppression of the slave-trade, a few remarks on the manner in which it is carried on in the Brazils are here submitted, with a view to expose the character of the Brazilians, who, disregarding alike the principles of religion and morality, the faith of treaties, and the execration of the whole civilised world, continue the nefarious traffic in human flesh; and in pursuit of their guilty speculations practise greater cruelties than were ever before heard of, or than the minds of Christian men can conceive. On the part of the Brazilian nation, the slave-trade treaty with Great Britain is, and has been, as little regarded as if none such existed, and all, from the first minister of the empire to the lowest and poorest peasant, protect and encourage the traffic in African slaves. When we see slave-vessels fitting out in every port of the empire of Brazils, from Para to St. Catherine's, openly protected by the authorities; when we see slaves landed and sold within a few miles of the Emperor's palace at Rio de Janeiro, and the vessel, after discharging her cargo, fearlessly enters the harbour, triumphing in her success; whilst the authorities refuse, and British cruisers are unable to interfere, being once within three miles of their coast, it will be perceived how utterly useless it is to trust to the good faith or co-operation of the Brazilians in such a matter. The landowners, or fazandeiros of the interior, blind themselves to the cruelties that are practised in the prosecution of the slave-trade, and, as they never witness the bloody kidnapping scenes enacted in Africa, nor behold the starving multitudes penned up in African barracoons, awaiting embarkation, or the horrors of the middle passage; as they never put their feet on board the floating charnel-houses, which disgorge their emaciated cargo of human beings in every stage of suffering and disease,-they consider the slave-trade not only essential to their own interests, but absolutely necessary for the good of their country. For the most part uneducated and unacquainted with the world, they are easily led away by the plausible arguments of interested parties who happen to have visited Portugal, or who are them- · selves Portuguese; they vainly imagine slavery in the Brazils is, in the mind of an African, preferable to freedom in his own country, unmindful that to him "no water is sweet but that which is drawn from his own well, and no shade refreshing but the tabba tree of his native dwelling;" they believe that the measures of Great Britain are directed solely towards the destruction of Brazilian commerce, for the purpose of protecting the British colonies, and they affect to discredit and ridicule the philanthropy of an enlightened Power, and view her prolonged efforts with anger and disdain. It might be supposed that although the slave-trade in the Brazils is so notorious, the Government (whose policy obliges them, in their correspondence with foreign Powers, to express their earnest wishes for its suppression,) occasionally sends out cruisers on their own coast, or that it causes instructions to be issued to the local authorities to prevent such abuses, and calls them to account when they know slaves to have been landed in their districts; or, at all events, that it does not throw any impediment in the way of British Officers carrying their orders into effect, and defending their coast from these nefarious traders. How contrary is the fact ! The enormous gains of the slave-dealers create such a mania for the trade, that the loss of four or five vessels in succession, far from discouraging, only urges them to further speculations, and they are amply repaid by one successful voyage. Slaves are now selling in the Brazils at from sixty to seventy pounds each, and when it is considered that the sum paid for them in Africa seldom exceeds three or four pounds, and in some instances even so low as one pound per head, the sum gained is indeed great; taking as an example the slave-brig Maria Segunda, which arrived at Santos, with seven hundred slaves, from Quillimane, in the Mozambique Channel, where slaves at the time were selling for the merest trifle. DEBTOR. For 800 slaves bought at Quillimane at 17. per head voyage Expenses at Quillimane, and bribes To the overseer of the slave-depôt in Brazil, being 17. 5s. for each slave landed Captain of slaver's pay on arrival Pilot's ditto Boatswain's ditto Pay of twenty seamen on arrival, at 507. per seaman £5,512 0 0 CREDITOR. 714 slaves, sold at 607. per head, 86 having died on the passage 42,840 0 0 Length of voyage to Quillimane and back one hundred and forty-one days! This immense profit is the great incentive to speculators to embark their money in the slave-trade; for it is evident that the price of slaves in the Brazils has risen in proportion to the difficulties in obtaining them; so that although the numbers actually imported into the empire has been considerably reduced, the slave-dealers, instead of suffering, have become gainers to a great amount. It was but lately that a Senator (Senr. Vasconcellos), said to be one of the most talented men in the Brazils, and who has on several occasions occupied the post of a Cabinet Minister, gratuitously offered his opinion respecting the African slave-trade as follows: "Can we expect the public revenue to increase? Can we expect this at present, when we see the number of African labourers diminishing, and we pay no attention to the free labourers having abandoned the important object of colonization? Now the noble Senator has concluded from what I said about machines not being necessary, that nothing was wanting for the |