pe)--were made Colonels of Foot, without possessing any remarkable
military talent or capacity.

Fortune manifested most cruelly her almighty power in the military
state, where justice, punishments and rewards alone ought to be the
base of it. Men conduct themselves from the view either of honor or
interest; and there can be no emulation in a service where mediocrity
of talents, intrigues, favor, and credit, override merit.

Greatness of soul, joined to superiority of talent, ignores the art of
cringing; it is even impossible that merit can lead to fortune in a
corrupted and venal country: on the contrary, it becomes a cause of
exclusion. Virtue elevates the soul, and can neither fawn nor buy
credit, nor flatter vice and incapacity. "If such is the military
constitution of a State," says M. Gaubert, in his Treatise of
Tactics, "of which the Sovereign (the King of Prussia) is one of the
greatest men of the age, who instructs and commands his armies, and
whose armies form all the pomp of the court, what ought it to be in
those States where the Sovereign is not at all a military man; where
he does not see his troops; where he seems to disdain or be ignorant
of all that regards them; where the Court, who always obey the
impression of the Sovereign, is consequently not military; where
almost all the great rewards are obtained by surprise, by intrigue;
where the greater portion of favors are hereditary; where merit
languishes for want of support; where favor can advance without
talent; where to make a fortune no more implies acquiring a
reputation, but merely to heap up riches; where men may be, at one and
the same time, covered with orders and infamy--with grades and
ignorance, serve ill the State, and occupy the best places; be smeared
with the censure of the public, and enjoy the Sovereign's good graces?
If, whilst all other sciences are becoming perfected, that of war
remains in its infancy, it is the fault of the Governments, who do not
attach to it sufficient importance; who do not make it an object of
public education; who fail to direct men of genius to that profession;
who suffer them to find more glory and advantages in sciences trifling
or less useful; who render the profession of arms an ungrateful
employment, where talents are outstripped by intrigue, and the prizes
distributed by Fortune."

General Amherst, according to his statement in his letter to Mr. Pitt,
then Secretary of State, lost in coming down the