253 

 MAJOR WYNDHAM AND THE CAT. 



LET not our military readers alarm themselves. Let them not sup- 

 pose, because our opinions may not accord with theirs, on the legal 

 authority with which a secret council of officers are invested, to inflict 

 a given number of stripes on the back of the soldier or sailor, (for our 

 remarks apply equally to both services), that therefore we are averse to 

 wholesome and strict discipline ; or that we wish to introduce into our 

 army or navy a relaxation of authority. We hold it to be a maxim, in- 

 capable of refutation, that, in any country, be the civil and political form 

 of its government, or the method of its application, despotic or limited, 

 there can be no effective discipline, either in army or navy, unless such 

 a strict and well-distributed authority be maintained, as will prevent the 

 possibility of any flagrant act of insubordination escaping the infliction 

 of due and impartial punishment. 



As regards the soldier or sailor, of Great Britain especially, he ought 

 thoroughly to understand, when he enters the profession of arms, that, 

 inasmuch as he from that moment becomes exempt from many of the 

 offices and duties to which, had he continued a civilian, he would have 

 remained liable, he at the same time takes upon himself the performance 

 of other duties, which, although they do not by any means deprive him 

 of the rights and privileges of a citizen, in the aggregate, are yet, when 

 considered as those of a separate profession, subject, quoad hoc, to sepa- 

 rate laws. Nor is his case a singular one : for what we say will be 

 found equally true as to other professions and occupations. The states- 

 man, the lawyer, the divine, the physician, when entering on the 

 important duties of his profession, will find himself subject to a variety 

 of conventional rules, obedience to which he will be bound to observe ; 

 while yet, if at any time the administration, the body corporate, or the 

 college, of which he may form a member, should attempt, under cover 

 of certain chartered or conceived privileges or immunities, to exercise 

 over him any more than a necessary and equitable authority, he will 

 discover that he has an appeal to the laws, of right and wrong amongst 

 his fellow creatures, who will not fail to examine his complaint, and see 

 that he lacketh not the application of the remedy to which, in such case, 

 he is doubtless entitled. 



Thus, although exclusive rules become the first, and the firmest bonds 

 of union in any brotherhood, and naturally lead to various other regu- 

 lations founded upon them, for the furtherance of unity, order, and 

 energy of proceeding ; yet do not such rules by any means preclude 

 the application of those more extended principles of government, which 

 apply to the nation at large. Conventional regulations tend, therefore, 

 only to the support and authority of that particular body from which 

 they emanate ; which latter, in a free country like ours, must not seek 

 to extend its rule over such a surface, or in such a degree, as must natu- 

 rally awaken the jealousy of general municipal law, to the true spirit of 

 which such regulations must ever conform. In this sense, the law mili- 

 tary must be considered as a part and parcel of the law of the land, 

 rather than as an obligation binding upon any particular body; inasmuch 

 as, supposing any pressing emergency to arise, every British subject is 

 liable to be called upon, not only in defence of the country, in the case 



