636 Notes for ike Month. 



the minor French writers treat the unlucky " acting 7 ' people that they 

 review, is perfectly ridiculous. The abuse of Mdle. St. Leon is very vulgar 

 and impudent; and she is, in truth, rather. a pretty girl, and a clever ac- 

 tress ; but a stout chambermaid, with a mop and pail or other such 

 domestic weapon as the habits and tastes of such an operator might sug- 

 gest would be the more proper " physical means' 7 to employ if casti- 

 gation be absolutely necessary. Corking-pins, and not cudgels the bod- 

 kin we should say should be looked to rather than the bastinado ! 

 The culprit might be tossed in a flannel petticoat; or stoned to death by 

 barbers, with empty rouge or pomatum- pots; but certainly not beaten 

 witb any weapon heavier than a slipper. It is not the least ridiculous 

 part of the affair, however, that any people should be found to buy the 

 wretched trash that these Anglo-French newspaper-mongers publish, at 

 the very impudent price demanded for it. The whole of the paper in 

 question the Mercure does not contain one-half the quantity of matter- 

 such as it is -that would go into one of our two-penny publications; 

 such as " The Mirror" " The Hive'' and others; and the publishing 

 price of the rag, if our memory does not fail us, is a shilling I 



The French periodicals of the last month contain some curious extracts 

 from the " History of the Peninsular War," by the late French Generai 

 Foy ; a work of considerable magnitude, which is in the course of publi- 

 cation. The specimens given shew undoubted talent in the author; and 

 the comparison drawn between the regime and discipline of the English 

 armies and those of France, exhibits a spirited, if not at all points a just, 

 delineation, of the peculiarities of our national character. 



" The world sees no troops better disciplined than those of Great Britain j and 

 yet one of the first causes of that excellence of discipline is a system and state of 

 things which, applied to the armies of France, would lead to results of a nature 

 diametrically opposite. So true it is, that, according to the character or condition 

 of the material on which we operate, we must employ different raeans to attain 

 precisely the same end. w 



" The soldiers and officers of the English army form two classes, which are 

 separated from each other by a barrier almost impassable. This is the effect of the 

 common institutions of the country. An army raised by conscription, chuses its 

 officers from its own ranks, because in those ranks it finds the best citizens of the 

 country, and because the country owes to its children a fair and open career for 

 their fortunes, in whatever situation it has found it necessary to place them. An 

 army recruited by bounties of money, has a right only to the performance of the 

 engagement which is made with it j and the halbert of the serjeant is understood 

 to be the nil ultra of the English soldier's ambition when he enlists. In such an 

 army, the soldiers are passive instruments ; wheels merely, which it is necessary to 

 clean up and and grease abundantly, in order that the machine may always be 

 ready for action." 



The general omits to remember here, that the species of military force 

 which he last describes, is the only standing army that can ever be main- 

 tained without danger to the liberties of a country. Nine-tenths of the 

 soldiers of an English army, would always be pleased five-sixths of 

 them charmed with the prospect of being disbanded. This force is a 

 defence, therefore, which serves our purpose perfectly, while its aid is 

 required ; and which we can get rid of without difficulty, when we want 

 it no longer. But the moment you get a large army together, in which 

 the private soldiers have an interest, and a " career" to look forward to, 

 in their profession, you have a force embodied which may be disposed to 

 continue itself; and which like the spirit raised by the magician's 

 scholar' having raised it, the means are not quite certain how you are to 

 put it down again. But we continue. 



