Excerpt from A Military Dictionary, or Explanation of the Several Systems of Discipline of Different Kinds of Troops, Infantry, Artillery, and Cavalry: The Principles of Fortification and All the Modern Improvements in the Science of Tactics; Comprising the Pocket Gunner, or Little Bombarder, the Military Regulations of the United States, the Weights, Measures, and Monies of All Nations The military triumphs of modern France have been ascribed to a multitude of causes really, perhaps, the causes of her military successes may be reduced to two. First, the necessity which arose out oil what has been preposterously called the balance of power in Europe, which under the pretence of maintaining an equality of nations, has been the real mask for reiterated wars, conquests, plunder, and desolation; Spain, Austria, and France, have been at different pe rioda held up as as iring to universal dominion; under the color of resisting the aggrandizement 0 either, they have been for two centuries constantly engaged in efforts to plunder each other. France, from her position, was from the pas sions of the forced to be prepared for the defensive and in several succes sive wars ha made conquests on her extremities, which rendered it daily more necessary to maintain a military establishment; and at length, after suffering great disasters, and thereby producing a succession of great generals, the pas sions and character of the people became military. 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.