It is impossible to read the admirable account of Hannibal's campaign
in the last volume of Arnold's _History of Rome_, without perceiving
that this observation, as to the decisive effect of the Numidian
cavalry upon the fortunes of the war, in first giving victory to the
Carthaginians when they were entirely on their side, and gradually,
and at length decisively restoring it to that of the Romans, when they
were won over to their eagles, is entirely well-founded. Napoleon was
of the same opinion, and has repeatedly expressed it in various parts
of his works. "Give me," said that great man, "the French infantry and
the Mameluke horse, and I will conquer the world." It was his constant
affirmation that cavalry, equally brave and skillfully led, should
always, other things being equal, overthrow infantry; and that the
contrary opinion which generally prevails, was owing to horse,
considered as the sole strength of war during the feudal ages, having
been unduly decried since the invention of fire-arms. All the world
knows the immense use he made of his heavy cavalry in all his
campaigns; how often, in circumstances the most critical, it chained
victory to his standards; how nearly it re-established his affairs,
and replaced the imperial crown upon his head on the field of
Waterloo. How striking a proof of human sagacity that the philosophic
sage, in the early part of the seventeenth century, should have
divined a truth which the researches of the historian and the exploits
of the conqueror were to confirm in the middle of the eighteenth!

"Those who are governed by a king," says Montesquieu, "are less
tormented by envy and jealousy, than those who live under an
hereditary aristocracy. The prince is so far distant from his
subjects, that he is rarely seen by them; he is so far above them
that nothing in his situation can mortify his self-love. But the
nobles who govern in an aristocracy are under the eyes of all,
and they are not so elevated, but that odious comparisons are
made without ceasing. Thus in all ages we have seen the people
detest their senators, though they frequently love their king.
Republics, where birth confers no title to power, are in that
respect in a better situation than aristocracies; for the people
feel less jealousy of an authority which they give to whom they
please, and take from whom they incline."--C. 8.

How many confirmat