e, those pampered
nobles who had no feeling in common with the people were shaken off'
like dew-drops from the lion's mane'; and the hitherto spurned
peasantry of France, under the guidance and auspices of men who
understood and appreciated them, astonished the world with their
powers. [W. H. S.]

21. The allusion is to the now half-forgotten war with the United
States in the years 1812-14, during the course of which the English
captured the city of Washington, and the Americans gained some
unexpected naval victories.

22. The author has already denounced the practice of impressment,
_ante_, chapter 26, note 27.

23. 'to' in the original edition.

24. See McCulloch, _Pol. Econ._, p. 235, 1st ed., Edinburgh, 1825.
[W. H. S.]

25. Many German princes adopted the discipline of Frederick in their
little petty states, without exactly knowing why or wherefore. The
Prince of Darmstadt conceived a great passion for the military art;
and when the weather would not permit him to worry his little army of
five thousand men in the open air, he had them worried for his
amusement under sheds. But he was soon obliged to build a wall round
the town in which he drilled his soldiers for the sole purpose of
preventing their running away--round this wall he had a regular chain
of sentries to fire at the deserters. Mr. Moore thought that the
discontent in this little band was greater than in the Prussian army,
inasmuch as the soldiers saw no object but the prince's amusement. A
fight, or the prospect of a fight, would have been a feast to them.
[W. H. S.] It is hardly necessary to observe that the modern system
of drill is widely different.

26. Speaking of the question whether recruits drawn from the country
or the towns are best, Vegetius says: '_De qua parte numquam credo
potuisse dubitari, aptiorem armis rusticam plebem, quae sub divo et
in labore nutritur; solis patiens; umbrae negligens; balnearum
nescia; delictarurum ignara; simplicis animi; parvo contenta; duratis
ad omnem laborem membris; cui gestara ferrum, fossam ducere, onus
ferre, consuetudo de rare est.' (De Re Militari_, Lib. i, cap. 3.)
[W. H. S.] The passage quoted is disfigured by many misprints in the
original edition.

27. As the Madras sepoys do.

28. The writing of the bulk of this work was completed in 1839. These
concluding supplementary chapters on the Bengal army seem to have
been written a little later, perhaps in 1841, the year in which they
were firs