nt which has
twice owed its elevation to the discomfiture and humiliation of the
French arms.

It may be easily conceived, that in an army, the officers of which have,
for the most part, risen from the ranks, the principles of strict
military subordination cannot be enforced with the same punctilious
rigour as in services where a marked distinction is constantly kept up
between officers and soldiers. There is a more gradual transition from
the highest to the lowest situations of the French army--a more
complete amalgamation of the whole mass, than is consistent with the
views of other governments in the maintenance of their standing armies.

It is true, that a change has taken place in the composition of the
French army, in this respect, under the imperial government. A number of
military schools were established and encouraged in different parts of
the country, and a great number of young men were sent to these by their
parents, under the understanding, that after being educated in them they
should become officers at once, without passing through the inferior
steps, to which they would otherwise have been devoted by the
conscription. A great number of officers, therefore, have of late years
been appointed from these schools to the army, who have never served in
the ranks; but the manners and habits which they acquire at the schools
are, we should conceive, very little superior to what they might have
learnt from the private soldiers, who would otherwise have been their
associates. A comparison of the appearance and manner of the pupils of
the Ecole Militaire, with those of the young men at the English military
colleges, would shew, as strongly as any other parallel that could be
drawn, the difference in respectability and gentlemanlike feeling
between the English and French officers.

There is so little of uniformity in dress, of regard to external
appearance, or of shew of subordination, and inferiority to their
officers, in the French soldiers, that a stranger would be apt to
consider them as deficient in discipline. The fact is, that they know
perfectly, from being continually engaged in active service, what are
the essentials of military discipline, and that they are quite careless
of all superfluous forms. Whatever regulations are necessary, in any
particular circumstances, are strictly enforced; and the men submit to
them, not from any principle of slavish subjection to their officers,
but rather from deferenc