1 374 HISTORY OF THE SIKHS.
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3 It may be said, that in making’such rematks on
4 military anovements we have forgotten the maxim
5 “ Sutor non ultra crepidam,” and that none but ©
6 military men versed in the tactics of war are
7 competent judges. This may be true, as regards
8 modern warfare, but our contest with the Sikhs
9 partook of the ancient mode of fighting, on our side
10 at least; and if we substitute the word bayonet for
11 pike or halbert,.the British attack on the guns at
12 Feerozshuhur, and the storming of their entfench-~
13 ment, resembled closely what might have been
14 expected from the Roman legions under Julius
15 Cesar, or the Macedonian phalanx under Alex-
16 ander the Great! Such being the case, those who
17 have perused the commentaries of the former, or
18 the records of Arrian and Quintus Curtius, though
19 not military men, can form a pretty accurate judg-
20 ment regarding the importance of keeping in a
21 close body when the bayonets are the never-failing
22 weapons, and not to expose a body of men thus
23 armed to a murderous fire from cannon, such as Sir
24 Harry Smith experienced on the night of the 21st of
25 December. His driving the enemy before the bay-
26 onets of Her Majesty’s 50th through the village of
27 Feerozshuhur, was consonant to ancient warfare; a
28 Cesar himself would have done the same with his
29 pikes and halberts ; but having accomplished this, he
30 would not have taken up a position in the darkness
31 of night with an enemy’s guns playing on him,
32 entirely ignorant of where he was, and totally
33 isolated from the rest Sf the army ; and though his