e to their superior intelligence and
information, and from a regard to the good of the service.

The French army may, in fact, be said to have little of the feelings
which are truly military. The officers have not the strong feeling of
humanity, and the high and just sense of honour, not merely as members
of the army, but as individuals; the soldiers have not the habit of
implicit obedience and attachment to their peculiar duties; and the
whole have not the lively sense of responsibility to their country, and
dependence on their sovereign, which are probably essential to the
existence of an army which shall not be dangerous, even to the state
that maintains it. The French army submitted implicitly to Napoleon,
because he was their general; but we should doubt if they ever
considered themselves, even under his dominion, as the _servants of
France_. They appear, at present, at least, to think themselves an
independent body, who have a right to act according to their own
judgment, and are accountable to nobody for their actions. In this idea
of their own importance they were, of course, encouraged by Napoleon,
who, on his return from Elba, spoke of the injuries done by the Bourbons
to the _army and people_, and assigned the former the most honourable
place in his Champ de Mai. And it will appear by no means surprising,
that they should have acquired these sentiments, when we consider the
importance which has been attached to their exploits by their
countrymen, the encouragement to which they have been accustomed, the
preference to all other classes of men which was shewn them by the late
government, and the nature of the services in which they have been
engaged, and for which they have been rewarded; circumstances fitted to
assimilate them, in reality as well as appearance, rather to an immense
band of freebooters, having no principle but union among themselves,
and submission to their chiefs, than to an established and responsible
standing army.

This observation applies to the feelings and principles of the soldiers
taken as a body, not to their individual habits; for, excepting in the
case of the detachment of the imperial guard, quartered at Fontainbleau,
we never understood that the French soldiers in time of peace, at least
among their own countrymen, were accused of outrage or rapine.

There is considerable variety in the personal appearance of the French
soldiers. The infantry are generally little men, much infer