The sense of this danger produced the volunteer movement, which was excellent as an example and as an exercise of patriotic feeling; but if we compare the English volunteers with any one of the great Continental armies, we see at once that their value is moral rather than material. The militia is less an affair of patriotic sentiment and more of an ordinary military institution. It is a sort of reserve answering in the length of its annual exercises to the French réserve de l’armée active, but with this important difference, that the militiamen have not necessarily passed through the regular army, and their officers have not necessarily received a military education. Some men and some officers have these advantages, but only by accident.
Military Opinion.
The English Army Professional.
Neither the militia nor the volunteers are taken seriously by the regular army in England, so that the sentiment of patriotic duty which exists in them does not receive that full encouragement which would be desirable for its maintenance. The English army is a special profession, it is not the nation, and its feelings, though patriotic, are at the same time strictly professional. The regulars look upon the militia and volunteers as professional artists look upon meritorious amateurs, that is to say, at the best with good-natured indulgence, and at the worst with undisguised contempt.
The Old Purchase System.
Social Distinction of Rich Officers.
Under the old purchase system English officers formed a caste, and were looked upon with great respect, not because they were ready to sacrifice their lives for their country, since the privates were equally ready to do that, and the privates were not respected. Officers in those days were respected for being rich and fashionable, or because they were supposed to be the sons of rich men, and the more expensive the habits of the regiment, the deeper was the sentiment of respect. In a word, it was social distinction that was respected in them. The privates were looked upon as a low caste, and the fact that they might have to die for their country did not suffice to elevate them.[20]
Former Feeling about the French Army.
I well remember the old feeling about the army in France under the Second Empire. It was national in the sense of being raised by conscription, but it was not regarded as national by the people. It was looked upon as an instrument of oppression in the hands of Louis Napoleon. In those days the rich avoided military service by paying substitutes. The common word for that transaction was not “paying” as you pay a servant, but “buying” as one buys a slave. The substitute was considered to have sold himself, and was specially despised, instead of being honoured as a man willing to serve his country, whilst no contempt whatever attached to the rich man who paid money to shirk an unpleasant and dangerous patriotic duty.
Present State of French Feeling about the Army.