ication of the conquered provinces; this mode promised more prompt
and decisive results than the other. Napoleon, therefore, determined to
adopt it for his active masses, employing the system of magazines and
regular requisitions so far as practicable. In favorable parts of the
country, Soult and Souchet, with smaller armies, succeeded in obtaining
in this way regular supplies for a considerable length of time, but the
others lived mainly by forced requisitions levied as necessity required.
This sometimes gave place to great excesses, but these were principally
the faults of subordinate officers who tolerated them, rather than of
Napoleon, who punished such breaches of discipline, when they were known
to him, with great severity. He afterwards declared that, "had he
succeeded he would have indemnified the great mass of the Spanish people
for their losses, by the sale of the hoarded wealth of the clergy, which
would have rendered the church less powerful, and caused a more just
division of property; thus the evil of the war would have been forgotten
in the happy triumph of public and private interest over the interest of
an ambitious and exclusive clergy."

The following maxims on subsistence have the sanction of the best
military writers:

1st. Regular magazines should be formed, so far as practicable, for the
supplies of an army; the levying of requisitions being resorted to only
where the nature of the war, and the requisite rapidity of marches,
render these absolutely necessary to success.

2d. Depots should be formed in places strengthened by nature or art,
defended by small corps, or garrisons, and situated in positions least
liable to attack.

3d. All great depots should be placed on navigable rivers, canals,
railways, or practical roads, _communicating with the line of
operations_, so that they may be transported with ease and rapidity, as
the army advances on this line.

4th. An army should never be without a supply for ten or fifteen days,
otherwise the best chances of war may be lost, and the army exposed to
great inconveniences. Templehoff says that the great Frederick, in the
campaign of 1757, always carried in the Prussian provision-train _bread_
for _six_, and _flour_ for _nine days_, and was therefore never at a
loss for means to subsist his forces, in undertaking any sudden and
decisive operation. The Roman soldier usually carried with him
provisions for fifteen days. Napoleon says, "Experience has