The Art of Destruction.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3660, 18 September 1880, Page 1

The Art of Destruction.

The curious theory was recently ad* vanced by the Saturday Beview tbat, aftjer a few more- improvements in fire* „ arms there will be no more battles. There is a suggestion that this result may have already been reached in! naval warfare, in the fact that neither in the Franco Prussian nor the' Btisso-Turkish wars was there any naval battle of consequence, although all the combatants bad squandered immense' sums of money on their navies. The inference is tbat, knowing' that in. certain contingencies their forces might be exterminated, they forbore to run the risk of exposure to hopeless destruction. The Be* view argues that this will be the ultimate result of contests between nations which equip our armies with weapons which will probably be invented during the', next half century. War will become a, species of game, and the army which, when brought face to face with a strong force,, realises. that it will be. annihilated. .. if it enters into an engagement will yield without fighting. Iv that very excel* lent and carefully-edited publication, the United Service, published at PhiladelEhia, there is an article by E. Henry laeombe which,-while it does not assume to support the Review's half-serious, halfhueaorous theory, does contain singular facts which seem to show tbat each marked improvement in destructive weapon 8 is the cause of a decreased loss of life in battle.... The writer has grouped into four periods the! more prominent battles of the last two hundred and fifty years, and has stated with ' all' the accuracy attainable, the average percentage of killed and wounded to the whole number engaged. He has made no effort at a selection of battles . favorable to the theory, and he has included only engagements in the- field. Sotbe pitched battles, such as Waterloo, have been omitted because accurate estimates of loss were sot accessible. "•■ The fir?t period extends from the time whei »c i*se of firearms became general to the introduction of the iron rasarod and the bayoaet. The battles inelnded in ttiil period are those of Leipsic, I*tzen, Continued in Fourth Bag*.