to which the defence of a
nation is intrusted, nor can any other scheme be formed which will not
expose the publick to dangers more formidable than revolutions or
invasions. And yet, my lords, how widely those who have assumed the
direction of affairs have deviated from this method is well known. It is
known equally to the highest and meanest officers, that those who have
most opportunities of observing military merit, have no power of
rewarding it; and, therefore, every man endeavours to obtain other
recommendations than those of his superiours in the army, and to
distinguish himself by other services than attention to his duty, and
obedience to his commanders.

Our generals, my lords, are only colonels with a higher title, without
power, and without command; they can neither make themselves loved nor
feared in their troops, nor have either reward or punishment in their
power. What discipline, my lords, can be established by men, whom those
who sometimes act the farce of obedience, know to be only phantoms of
authority, and to be restrained by an arbitrary minister from the
exercise of those commissions which they are invested with? And what is
an army without discipline, subordination, and obedience? What, but a
rabble of licentious vagrants, set free from the common restraints of
decency, exempted from the necessity of labour, betrayed by idleness to
debauchery, and let loose to prey upon the people? Such a herd can only
awe the villages, and bluster in the streets, but can never be able to
oppose an enemy, or defend the nation by which they are supported.

They may, indeed, form a camp upon some of the neighbouring heaths, or
pass in review with tolerable regularity; they may sometimes seize a
smuggler, and sometimes assist a constable with vigour and success. But
unhappy would be the people, who had no other force to oppose against an
army habituated to discipline, of which every one founds his hopes of
honour and reward upon the approbation of the commander.

That no man will labour to no purpose, or undergo the fatigue of
military vigilance, without an adequate motive; that no man will
endeavour to learn superfluous duties, and neglect the easiest road to
honour and to wealth, merely for the sake of encountering difficulties,
is easily to be imagined. And, therefore, my lords, it cannot be
conceived, that any man in the army will very solicitously apply himself
to the duties of his profession, of which, when he