46 CARNOT. 
arate the elements. The chief used then to take a 
responsible, personal, and direct cognizance of the dis- 
patches that were addressed to him; the conceptions of 
the chosen man were not then exposed to perish under 
the blows of an envious multitude of poor intellects; a 
mere sergeant of infantry, then, (young Hoche) did not 
work only on the dusty papers in the archives, when he 
composed A Memoir on the Means of penetrating into 
Belgium ; then, the perusal of this work drew from Car- 
not this prophetic exclamation: “That is a sergeant of 
infantry who will make his way.” Then this sergeant, 
watched by the eye in all his actions, became, in the 
space of a few months, captain, colonel, brigadier-general, 
general of division, and general in chief ; it was not then 
only a small class that was invested with the privilege 
of furnishing the chiefs of our armies; then, both in fact 
and by right, each soldier had promotions in his cartridye- 
box : splendid actions brought them out; yet the military 
force. then, notwithstanding the important services that 
it rendered to the country, notwithstanding the disorders 
of that epoch, respectfully lowered its fasces before the 
civil authority, the proxy of the nation. 
Let us cast a glance towards another phase of the 
military administration, and Carnot will not appear to us 
either less great or less successful. 
There was a want of pure copper; at the cry of the 
distressed nation, science discovered in the bells of the | 
convents, of the churches, of the public clocks, an inex- 
haustible mine, whence she might extract, without delay, 
all the metal that England, Sweden, and Russia refused 
her. There was no saltpetre ; some lands, where for- 
merly only enough of this substance would have been 
sought to add certainty to some delicate chemical analy- 
