The
first discerns treason in every danger; the second, always placed
between the necessity of conquest and the image of the scaffold, dares
not raise himself to bold conception, and those heights of courage which
electrify an army and insure victory. Turenne, in our time, would have
carried his head to the scaffold; for he was sometimes beat: but the
reason why he more frequently conquered was, that his discipline was
severe; it was, that his soldiers, confiding in his talents, never
muttered discontent instead of fighting. Without reciprocal confidence
between the soldier and the general, there can be no army, no victory,
especially in a free government.
Is it not to the same system of anarchy, of equalization, and want of
subordination, which has been recommended in some clubs and defended
even in the Convention, that we owe the pillages, the murders, the
enormities of all kinds, which it was difficult for the officers to put
a stop to, from the general spirit of insubordination,--excesses which
have rendered the French name odious to the Belgians? Again, is it not
to this system of anarchy, and of robbery, that we are indebted for the
_revolutionary power_, which has so justly aggravated the hatred of the
Belgians against France?
What did enlightened republicans think before the 10th of August, men
who wished for liberty, _not only for their own country, but for all
Europe? They believed that they could generally establish it by exciting
the governed against the governors, in letting the people see the
facility and the advantages of such insurrections_.
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