ne, or deteriorate from the
efficiency of the whole body as a military corps. The soldiers soon
learn to love the idle and dissolute lives which they are allowed to
lead. The officers, especially those in the higher grades of rank, are
paid large salaries, are clothed in a gaudy dress which is adorned with
many decorations, and they are treated every where with great
consideration. Thus they become devoted to the will of the government,
and lose gradually all regard for, and all sympathy with the rights and
welfare of the people. There is a tacit agreement between them and the
government, by which they are bound to keep the people in a state of
utter and abject submission to the despot's will, while he, on his
part, is bound to collect from the people thus subdued the sums of
money necessary for their pay. Thus it is the standing army which is
that great and terrible sword by means of which one man is able to
strike awe into the hearts of so many millions, and hold them all so
entirely subject to his will.

It is in consequence of having observed the effect of such armaments in
the despotisms of Europe and Asia that the free governments of modern
times take good care not to allow large standing armies to be formed.
Instead of this the people organize themselves into armed bands, in
connection with which they meet and practice military evolutions on
appointed days, and then separate and go back to their wives and to
their children, and to their usual occupations, while in the despotic
countries where large standing armies are maintained, the people are
strictly forbidden to possess arms, or to form organizations, or to
take measures of any kind that could tend to increase their means of
defense against their oppressors in the event of a struggle.

The consequence is, that under the free governments of the present day
the people are strong and the government is weak. The standing army of
France consists at the present time[1] of five hundred thousand men,
completely armed and equipped, and devoted all the time to the study
and practice of the art of war. By means of this force one man is able
to keep the whole population of the country in a state of complete and
unquestioning submission to his will. In the United States, on the
other hand, with a population nearly as great, the standing army seldom
amounts to an effective force of fifteen thousand men; and if a
president of the United States were to attempt by me