The British soldier in India / by Fred. J. Mouat.

  • Frederic J. Mouat
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The British soldier in India / by Fred. J. Mouat. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    They should be heart-and-soul soldiers. Such were Alexander, Caesar, Frederic the Great, Napoleon, and so has been every really great commander. War is a science as well as an art, in which he will suc- ceed best who has studied most. Dash, pluck, and daring are necessary qualities in a leader. But these very quahties are most serviceable and successful in the hands of those who are thorough masters of their art, and can handle their men with the same ease and unerring accuracy as the trained mechanic con- trols the vast powers of the steam-engine, or any other mighty force that enables him to conquer nature, to annihilate time and space, and to overcome the cohesion of the toughest bodies on the earth's surface, as easily as a thread is divided by the scissors of the sempstress. As the officer is, so will be the pien under his command. In regard to punishments I have little to remark. The ordinary duties of the soldier should never be made the means and instrument of correcting his errors and punishing his vices. Hence I entirely disapprove all penal drills and parades. They are serious inflictions on the steady, well-conducted non- commissioned officers who superintend their execution, and generate a distaste for, and dishke of, the very duties in which the real efficiency of the soldier depends. In the tropics, again, no punishments are justifia- ble which are calculated to injure health. In this category fall soHtary confinement, midday punishment
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