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Excerpt from Lives of the Warriors Who Have Commanded Fleets and Armies Before the Enemy, Vol. 3: Warrios of the Seventeenth Century; Part II But when the newly-appointed Parliament Admirals went on board their ships of war, they found them so utterly out of condition, that it was the first requisite to constitute the three commanders into a Board of Commissioners of the Navy, to inquire into and amend the service. When the new ofiicials came to examine in detail the actual state of affairs, they found the disorders greater than ever they had apprehended. Few of the vessels were even sea worthy. Abuses existed every where to such a degree that the stores and arms were systematically stolen or purloined, and the wages of the sailors were insufficient and irregularly paid; so that a natural dissatisfaction existed throughout the service. The energy and character of the new Commissioners were soon evinced; for they examined with their own eyes both the dockyards and the ships. The idle, the vicious, and the disaffected of the crews were at once discharged, and the ablest commanders were searched out and employed as captains of the re spective vessels. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from Lives of the Warriors Who Have Commanded Fleets and Armies Before the Enemy, Vol. 3: Warriors of the Seventeenth Century; Part I My humble labours in the cause of military education have only aspired to produce publications that might be regarded as a summary of facts and events, which have been already recorded by others. I do not claim the merit of originality, but merely to give a compilation from various sources Of things proper to be known by all soldiers. My works were written by me for the use of youths who have already entered the service Of arms, and whose career has commenced, but whose profession has yet to be learned; and I desire to impress upon them more and more my ardent desire that every Officer in the service should become a military historian, either from my works or from the original sources from which I have derived them. You address the higher ranks Of the army, and appear to seek to philosophize the Art of War, by showing it to be capable, under its most scientific phases, of being less lavish of human blood. You write that although the natural principle Of war is to do most harm to the enemy with the least harm to Ourselves, yet that good generals only fight battles when necessity compels them and that the most brilliant triumphs have been procured by stratagems and address, without exposing armies to heedless dan gers. You say likewise that none but men who have never learned their business in actual war will waste their best men and officers in seeking, through idle theories, unprofitable or unattainable results, and that to sacrifice good Old regiments is like turning the intelligent and industrious out of school and keeping on only with the fools and dunces. I quite subscribe to these high and praiseworthy sentiments. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1869.