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 ; tlien, 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 cartridge- 

 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- 



