earned a high standing among the educational institutions of Pennsylvania. Franklin College was named in honour of Benjamin Franklin, an early patron; Marshall College was founded by the Reformed Church and was named in honour of John Marshall. The Theological Seminary was opened in 1825 at Carlisle, Pa., and was removed to York, Pa., in 1829, to Mercersburg, Pa., in 1837 and to Lancaster in 1871; in 1831 it was chartered by the Pennsylvania legislature. Among its teachers have been John W. Nevin and Philip Schaff, whose names, and that of the seminary, are associated with the so-called “Mercersburg Theology.” At Millersville, 4 m. S.W. of Lancaster, is the Second Pennsylvania State Normal School. At Lancaster are the graves of General John F. Reynolds, who was born here; Thaddeus Stevens, who lived here after 1842; and President James Buchanan, who lived for many years on an estate, “Wheatland,” near the city and is buried in the Woodward Hill Cemetery. The city is in a productive tobacco and grain region, and has a large tobacco trade and important manufactures. The value of the city’s factory products increased from $12,750,429 in 1900 to $14,647,681 in 1905, or 14.9%. In 1905 the principal products were umbrellas and canes (valued at $2,782,879), cigars and cigarettes ($1,951,971), and foundry and machine-shop products ($1,036,526). Lancaster county has long been one of the richest agricultural counties in the United States, its annual products being valued at about $10,000,000; in 1906 the value of the tobacco crop was about $3,225,000, and there were 824 manufactories of cigars in the county.
Lancaster was settled about 1717 by English Quakers and Germans, was laid out as a town in 1730, incorporated as a borough in 1742, and chartered as a city in 1818. An important treaty with the Iroquois Indians was negotiated here by the governor of Pennsylvania and by commissioners from Maryland and Virginia in June 1744. Some of General Burgoyne’s troops, surrendered at Saratoga, were confined here after the autumn of 1780. The Continental Congress sat here on the 27th of September 1777 after being driven from Philadelphia by the British; and subsequently, after the organization of the Federal government, Lancaster was one of the places seriously considered when a national capital was to be chosen. From 1799 to 1812 Lancaster was the capital of Pennsylvania.
LANCE, a form of spear used by cavalry (see Spear). The
use of the lance, dying away on the decay of chivalry and the
introduction of pistol-armed cavalry, was revived by the Polish
and Cossack cavalry who fought against Charles XII. and
Frederick the Great. It was not until Napoleon’s time, however,
that lancer regiments appeared in any great numbers on
European battlefields. The effective use of the weapon—long
before called by Montecucculi the “queen of weapons”—by
Napoleon’s lancers at Waterloo led to its introduction into the
British service, and except for a short period after the South
African War, in which it was condemned as an anachronism,
it has shared, or rather contested, with the sword the premier
place amongst cavalry arms. In Great Britain and other
countries lances are carried by the front rank of cavalry, except
light cavalry, regiments, as well as by lancer regiments. In
Germany, since 1889, the whole of the cavalry has been armed
with the lance. In Russia, on the other hand, line cavalry
being, until recently, considered as a sort of mounted infantry
or dragoons, the lance was restricted to the Cossacks, and in
Austria it enjoys less favour than in Germany. Altogether
there are few questions of armament or military detail more
freely disputed, in the present day as in the past, than this of
sword versus lance.
The lances used in the British service are of two kinds, those with ash and those with bamboo staves. The latter are much preferred and are generally used, the “male” bamboo being peculiarly tough and elastic. The lance is provided with a sling, through which the trooper passes his right arm when the lance is carried slung, the point of the steel shoe fitting into a bucket attached to the right stirrup. A small “dee” loop is also provided, by which the lance can be attached to the saddle when the trooper dismounts. The small flag is removed on service. The head is of the best steel. The Germans, doubtless owing to difficulty in obtaining bamboos, or ash in large quantity straight enough in the grain over a considerable length, for lance staves, have adopted a stave of steel tubing as well as one of pine (figs. 2, 3 and 4).
 |
| Types of British and German Lances. |
Fig. 1 is the British bamboo lance; |
As to the question of the relative efficiency of the lance and the sword as the principal arm for cavalry, it is alleged that the former is heavy and fatiguing to carry, conspicuous, and much in the way when reconnoitring in close country, working through woods and the like; that, when unslung ready for the charge, it is awkward to handle, and may be positively dangerous if a horse becomes restive and the rider has to use both hands on the reins; that unless the thrust be delivered at full speed, it is easily parried; and, lastly, that in the mêlée, when the trooper has not room to use his lance, he will be helpless until he either throws it away or slings it, and can draw his sword. While admitting the last-mentioned objection, those who favour the lance contend that success in the first shock of contact is all-important, and that this success the lancer will certainly obtain, owing to his long reach enabling him to deliver a blow before the swordsman can retaliate, while, when the mêlée commences, the rear rank will come to the assistance of the front rank. Further, it is claimed that the power of delivering the first blow gives confidence to the young soldier; that the appearance of a lancer regiment, preceded as it were by a hedge of steel, has an immense moral effect; that in single combat a lancer, with room to turn, can always defeat an opponent armed with a sword; and, lastly, that in pursuit a lancer is terrible to an enemy, whether the latter be mounted or on foot. As in the case of the perennial argument whether a sword should be designed mainly for cutting or thrusting, it is unlikely that the dispute as to the merits of the lance over the sword will ever be definitely settled, since so many other factors—horsemanship, the training of the horse, the skill and courage of the adversary—determine the trooper’s success quite as much as the weapon he happens to wield. The following passage from Cavalry: its History and Tactics (London, 1853), by Captain Nolan, explains how the lance gained popularity in Austria:—“In the last Hungarian war (1848–49) the Hungarian Hussars were ... generally successful against the Austrian heavy cavalry—cuirassiers and dragoons; but when they met the Polish Lancers, the finest regiments of light horse in the Austrian service, distinguished for their discipline, good riding, and, above all, for their esprit de corps and gallantry in action, against those the Hungarians were not successful, and at once attributed this to the lances of their opponents. The Austrians then extolled the lance above the sword, and armed all their light cavalry regiments with it.”
The lancer regiments in the British service are the 5th, the 9th, the 12th, the 16th, the 17th and the 21st. All these were converted at different dates from hussars and light dragoons, the last-named in 1896. The typical lancer uniform is a light-fitting short-skirted tunic with a double-breasted front, called the plastron, of a different colour, a girdle, and a flat-topped lancer “cap,” adapted from the Polish czapka (see Uniforms: Naval and Military). The British lancers, with the exception of the 16th, who wear scarlet with blue facings, are clad in blue, the 5th, 9th and 12th having scarlet facings and green, black and red plumes respectively, the 17th (famous as the “death or glory boys” and wearing a skull and crossbones badge) white facings and white plume, and the 21st light-blue facings and plume.
