1827.] Notes fur the Month. 637 



" This distinction of classes established in both, produces some resemblance 

 between the English army, and the armies of Russia ; for the principal strength 

 of the last lies in the fact, that great masses of ignorant men suffer themselves 

 blindly to be led forward by people more enlightened than themselves. 



" The British soldier is stupid and intemperate. A discipline of iron crushes 

 some of his natural faults, and makes others available. His body is robust, from 

 the strong exercises to which he is accustomed from his youth : his spirit is vigo- 

 rous, because, his father has always told him and his leaders repeat to him inces- 

 santlythat " the men of Old England fed upon roast beef and porter are able 

 to beat three to one of the pigmy races that vegetate on the continent of Europe." 

 Though of a sanguine disposition, his vivacity in the charge is not extraordinary; 

 but he stands fast ; and, properly put on, he goes forward. In the action, he looks 

 very little to the right or left : the example of his comrades does not much increase 

 his courage; their fall may damp, but it never extinguishes his determination. 

 When men like these fall back, it is by dint of sheer hard blows, and it is not a 

 lucky word that rallies, or recals them to the charge. To the French, it is always 

 necessary to talk : to the English, never. The last form no plan of the campaign ; 

 they combine nothing ; and still less suggest any thing. Their passions are only 

 lively within a narrow circle. They have but one manner of expressing the senti- 

 ment whatever it is that they feel ; and the " Hurra !" with which they receive 

 a favourite general in the camp, or on the field of battle, is just the same cry of 

 brutal encouragement that the populace of London shouts to the boxers who divert 

 them on feasts and holidays. 



One lion, the fable says, is worth three foxes. And notwithstanding the 

 strictures of General Foy upon our single " hurra !'' we rather suspect 

 though this may account, perhaps, for the dislike expressed that it was 

 always to French troops the most unwelcome sound in an action that ever 

 greeted them. And, for our want of vivacity, it should be recollected, that 

 there are conventional circumstances and feelings which make men less 

 oriental in their declarations in one country than they are in another. An 

 Englishman always feels it necessary to have some intention of exe- 

 cuting that which he promises or threatens. 



" It is not characterizing tfre English properly to say, that they are brave at such 

 or such an enterprise. They are always brave when they have slept, drank, and 

 eaten. Their courage, which is physical rather than moral, requires to be main- 

 tained by a substantial treatment. Glory would never make them forget that they 

 were hungry, or that their shoes were worn out. Every soldier receives new cloth- 

 ing every year. The lowest pay in the army is a shilling a day" [there is no pay 

 so low] ; " and, after all deductions for rations, clothes, and appointments, there 

 remains twopence-halfpenny a day at the disposal of the individual. This pay, 

 which is but moderate in England, on account of the high price of commodities, 

 becomes, on the Continent, equal to more than double that of the Germans or 

 French. In England there is no such thing known as stoppage of pay, or illegal 

 detention of arrears. The English soldier eats a great deal especially of meat. 

 He drinks still more than he eats. At home, Us drink is beer : abroad, they give 

 him wine, when the country supplies it. In camp, he cannot dispense with spi- 

 rituous liquors ; and the rum comes apropos to rally his spirits in the moment of 

 danger." 



This last line is a little libellous of the late general, and not quite true. 

 The English seldom, if ever, have been known we believe there is no 

 instance on record to make an attack in a state of intoxication. The 

 French have done so constantly. We say nothing about the fitness of the 

 practice; but let the use of it stand in its right place. 



The author then observes upon the contrast which the two nations dis- 

 play in their personal economy, and habits of domestic military life : 



** Observe the French troops arrive at their place of bivouac, after a long and 

 harassing inarch. The moment the drums have ceased to beat, the knapsacks, 

 ranged in rows behind the piled arms, mark out the ground on which each party 



