GUIBERT, Jacques-Antoine-Hippolite, Count de, a well-known writer on tactics, was born at Montauban, on the 12th of November 1743. Before he had completed his fourteenth year, he accompanied to Germany his father, who acted as major-general to the army commanded by Marshal de Broglie, and he served, either as captain in the regiment of Auvergne, or as an employe in the staff, during the six campaigns of the war of 1756. At an age when little could be expected but the ardent valour which is natural to that period of life, he attracted notice by the superiority of his dispositions and the justness of his observations; and from the experience he then acquired, he was enabled to lay the foundation of the theory to which he was afterwards indebted for his reputation as a military writer. During the interval between this war and that of Corsica, he devoted the whole of his time to that species of study for which he felt an increasing predilection. At the conclusion of the combat of Ponte-Nuovo, which secured to France the conquest of the island of Corsica, he received the cross of St Louis, and shortly afterwards a colonel’s commission, although as yet he was not more than twenty-four years of age. He also displayed great zeal in raising and training the Corsican legion, of which he was appointed colonel-commandant in 1772. The year following he published his Essai General de Tactique. But not wishing to abide, in his own country, the explosion which such a work was calculated to produce, he set out for Germany, which opened to him a vast field of instruction, and repaired to Prussia, whither a species of celebrity had preceded him. Here, however, he had considerable difficulties to encounter. It was, above all, necessary to overcome certain prepossessions of Frederick, who judged severely the theoretical attainments and views of the young tactician, and who besides was not by any means satisfied with what Guibert had published in his book on the subject of the Prussians. With this view he addressed a letter, in explanation and in defence, to the Prussian monarch, who was so well pleased with the composition that he received the writer with particular distinction. Ever since the year 1772, Guibert had conceived the design of also entering on the career of literature; and, from year to year, after his return from Prussia, compositions of his, either in the shape of tragedies, or of panegyrics on the great men of France, procured him much reputation in the saloons, where they were generally read by the author. An ardent and enthusiastic temperament; considerable talent, with not a little of pretension; great facility and an astonishing memory; an anxiety to occupy the attention of the public, and “march to glory by every road ;” sincerity and hardihood; elevation of sentiment, and a desire to promote the general good; these, united with an active and craving ambition, formed the principal elements in the character of Guibert. He mistook for genius the gifts which he had received from nature, and persuaded himself that he not only could, but should undertake every thing. Laharpe, who appears to have disliked him, alleges that he contemplated nothing less than a remplacer Turenne, Corneille, et Bossuet; but little importance is to be attached to those sallies of enthusiasm, under the immediate influence of which he may perhaps have said and even believed, that a single individual might, in our time, be at once a Turenne, a Corneille, and a Bossuet. Guibert was recalled to his original occupation, by the appointment of the Count de Saint-Germain to the department of war; and having been honoured with the confidence of that minister, he had the rare merit of not abandoning him in his disgrace. In 1776 he was made colonel-commandant of the regiment of Neustrie; in 1782, brigadier-general; in 1788, marechal-de-camp, or major-general; and next inspector of infantry in the province of Artois. When his father was appointed governor of the Hôtel des Invalides, he did all in his power to second him in his administration, and spared neither pains nor travel to extend to all parts of France the succours and consolations due to the veteran or disabled defenders of the state. In 1787 he was appointed member and reporter of the council of administration in the department of war. But as Guibert, in the discharge of his functions, combined his own peculiar ideas with those which the deliberations of the council rendered common, the whole appeared to emanate[7:11:25] from the reporter, whose proper duty it was merely to give expression to the views of the council; and it was consequently against him that all the complaints and accusations of the discontented were directed. People judged without any indulgence the imperfection of the work and its results; the faults of the moment rendered them blind to the advantages which might afterwards be expected; and at length the projects and their author became involved in the same proscription. In a memoir addressed to the public and to the army on the operations of the council of war, Guibert undertook to prove, that, like the other members, he had only his opinion and his voice in the council; and that consequently he did not deserve the abuse and animadversion of which he had been made the sole object. But his reclamation seems to have convinced few, and to have silenced none of the malcontents; and the unlucky organ of the council continued as before to bear the opprobrium of all its unpopular acts. We have already seen that no species of ambition was foreign to Guibert; but in him, nevertheless, ambition was blended with the desire of doing good, and being useful to his country; Accordingly, in ]789, he aspired to become a member of the states-general of the kingdom, and thereby prepared for himself the bitterest mortification which he had ever yet experienced. His pretensions, both as a military man and a writer, had provoked censure, and even excited hostility. He was accused of having attempted to subject officers to imprisonment in irons; proposed to introduce the cane as an instrument for chastising the common soldiers; and recommended the detestable barbarity of hamstringing deserters. Guibert replied by a most formal denial of these imputations, which he declared to be atrocious falsehoods, as, we have no doubt, they were. But his disclamation met with no credit; and in the assembly of the bailliage of Bourges, the people went so far as to refuse him a hearing. Forced to retire, he printed, under the title of Precis de ce qui s' est passe á mon égard a l' Assemblée du Eerri, a defence which, however, failed to excite the interest he had fondly hoped it would inspire. Whilst matters were in this state, the Count de Fontette-Sommery had the courage openly to take the part of the oppressed, and to publish the Opinion dun Gentilhomme de Bourgogne sur ce qui s est passé a l’ Assemblée de la Noblesse du Berry, relativement à Μ. le Comte de Guibert, en mars 1789. But no salutary effect resulted from this generous interposition. The fatal blow had been struck; public opinion refused to acknowledge itself in error; and the innocent victim was accordingly immolated. Inconsolable at this injustice, Guibert retired from public life, and, after a short illness, died on the 6th of May 1790, in the forty-seventh year of his age. His works are, 1. Essai General de Tactique, already mentioned, Liège, 1773, in one vol. 4to and two vols. 8vo; 2. Eloge de Catinat, Edinburgh (Paris), 1775, in 8vo; 3. Connétable de Bourbon, a tragedy; 4. La Mort des Grecques, a piece in three acts; 5. Anne de Boulen, the best of his dramas; 6. Eloge Historique de Michel de l’Hôpital, Chancelier de France, 1777; 7. Défense du Système de Guerre Moderne, ou Réfutation complète du Système de Μ. de Mesnil-Durand, par l’auteur de l’ Essai General de Tactique, Neufchatel, 1779, in two vols. 8vo; 8. Discours de reception à l’Académie, 1786; 9. Eloge du Roi de Prusse, London (Paris), 1787, in 8vo; 10. Letter addressed to the National Assembly, in the name of the Abbé Raynal, Marseilles, 1789, in4to; 11. Traité de la Force Publique, Paris, 1790, in 8vo, the last production which he acknowledged; 12. Journal d’un Voyage en Allemagne fait en 1773 par Guibert, Paris, 1803, in two vols. 8vo; 13. Oeuvres Militaires de Guibert, published by his widow, Paris, 18Ö3, in five volumes 8vo; 14. Voyages de Guibert dans diverses parties de la France et en Suisse, faits en 1775, 1778, 1784, et 1785, ouvrage posthume, Paris, 1806, in 8vo; 15. A volume of Eloges, including that of Claire-Francoise de l’Espinasse, Paris, 1806, in 8vo. But of all the works of Guibert, that by which he is best known is his Essay on Tactics, so often quoted and referred to under the head Army. Its extraordinary success may be attributed, partly to the enthusiasm of military glory which appears to have dictated it, and partly to the freedom of thought and expression for which it is distinguished; and although some of the projects which it recommends are now ascertained to be pregnant with danger, yet it is consulted and appreciated by all military men who know their profession; and even its errors conduce towards the instruction of those who are capable of estimating its merits. We learn from contemporary authority, that the preliminary discourse produced a great sensation, and gave an exaggerated idea of the author. This discourse, in which the young tactician assumed a tranchant and decisive tone towards the sovereigns of Europe, at the same time that he depreciated the government of his own country, was read with avidity by the women, cried up by the men of letters, circulated in the army, and at length known in all Europe. Amidst all its warmth, and, as some think, extravagance, it developes important truths, which had escaped ordinary observation, and suggests matter for reflection to those who are accustomed to weigh opinions before adopting them. We may add, that Voltaire, after having read the work, addressed to the author, through Μ. d’Argental, some beautiful verses, in which, amidst other flattering things, he says to Guibert,

Digne peut-être

De commander déjà dans l’art dont il est maitre.

In a word, of all the productions of Guibert, his Treatise on Tactics is that which will most certainly survive the generation to which it was more immediately addressed. It constantly affords aliment for thought, and may be considered as the first grand step towards the formation of a scientific and effective system of tactics. Much may also be gathered from his Defense du Systeme de Guerre Moderne, in which he attacks the ordre profond of Folard, and ably analyses some of the finest operations of Turenne, Luxembourg, and the king of Prussia, all of whom were opposed to the system promulgated by the celebrated çom-mentator on Polybius. (a.)