Chapter XIII: Section XI: involves nothing that can materially offend the advocate

of order, except that in pursuing one species of uniformity, it loses sight of another. By confining the king to move precisely the same distance from his original square, whether he castles on the king’s side or the queen’s side, his relation to the covering pawns, when castled, and the space from the exterior of the board, is not on each side uniform. If the rule be intended to restrain a piece from exerting unnecessary license, in leaping over another piece, it should be remembered, that either the king or the rook must vault three squares in castling on the queen’s side, and the king is entitled to the prerogative of taking this flight once in a campaign, in preference to the rook. Under the mode here prescribed, the king is not equally shielded on the queen’s side as on the king’s. In the inceptive games of the Introduction, the castled king is invariably placed on the knight’s square, and the rook on the bishop’s. The object, however, is of less importance than the two preceding; and as to any striking influence on the aspect of the game, does not furnish materials for a cogent argument, founded on a comparison of effects. The reader having surveyed both modes, will induct that which he approves, into his own practice.