THE EOYAL AETILLEEY INSTITUTION. 
873 
under the same Crown, without any regard to similiarity between them. 
The system has frequently acted well, and produced a unity which would not 
have been attained by other means. We should remember that we owe to 
it the cessation of strife between Scotland and England, and without it 
Erance and Spain might have continued to be, like Germany, and like 
Italy a few years ago, subdivided into independent states; but it has proved 
otherwise when the nations united by a despotic rule are different in religion, 
language, and habit, without any common bond of interest between them. 
There have been collected under the sceptre of the House of Austria, an 
unusual number of countries and races which have neither amalgamated 
together, nor rested contentedly under the central government, but from 
these Austria has been obliged to draw the principal number of her recruits. 
Out of every 100 soldiers only 26 are of true German origin; 20 are 
Czechians, 20 Ruthinians, 11 Italian; the remaining 33 are made up of 
Hungarians, Poles, Croats, Servians, and others.* Ten languages are 
spoken among them, How Hungary is in a state of continual disaffection, 
and how the Italian provinces were retained only by force of arms, I need 
not say. We too have the misfortune of owning a disaffected country, but 
Irish soldiers soon forget the sentimental grievances learned at home, and 
readily devote their lives to support the honour of the British flag. Among 
the Austrian subjects the feeling is far' deeper, and betrays itself in every 
war. In 1848, 15,000 Lombard soldiers of Radetzky's army mutinied 
against their officers. In 1859, at Magenta, one battalion surrendered in a 
body to the Erench, and eight battalions would not fight; one of the men 
bayoneted an officer who tried to rally them. In this campaign of 1866 
the evil went still further, and the number of prisoners, many of whom were 
undoubtedly willing prisoners, was astonishing. 
When the captured men were released at the end of the war there were 
found to be only about 577 Prussian officers and men to be exchanged 
for 48,559 Austrians. 577 for 48,559—83 Austrians for every single 
Prussian.! 
It is therefore abundantly clear that political disaffection was deeply con¬ 
cerned in the Austrian overthrow, and that the demoralization in the ranks 
was not solely due to the needle gun. If corroboration were wanting we 
should find by turning to the campaign on the river Maine that though the 
Prussians there were equally well led, equally victorious in every encounter, 
and equally armed with the needle gun, there was never any great pre¬ 
ponderance of loss on the enemy's side. Eurther, it is worth observing 
that the Austrians, as a military nation, do not excel in infantry fire. In 
the wars with Erederick the Great, when battles were often won from them 
by inferior numbers of Prussians, the success was considered to be partly 
due to the superior steadiness and precision of the latter in the use of 
musketry. Erederick himself makes an observation, in his memoirs, to the 
effect that if lie could pour two or three volleys into an Austrian battalion 
* This is the per centage given in an account of the Austrian Army by Capt. Petrie, 14th Eegt. 
(then on the Topographical Staff) a few years ago. See Journal of the United Service Institution, 
1861. The changes since that time have not been important enough to affect the point of the 
argument. 
f See “ Timesleading article, 6th Sept., 1866; also 3rd Sept., 1866. 
[VOL. V.] 
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