Subordination to the law is the distinguishing mark of all
civilised society. But such subordination, however praiseworthy, is
not the discipline of the soldier, though it is often confounded with
it. A regiment of volunteers, billeted in some country town, would
probably show a smaller list of misdemeanours than a regiment of
regulars. Yet the latter might be exceedingly well-disciplined, and
the former have no real discipline whatever. Self-respect--for that
is the discipline of the volunteer--is not battle discipline, the
discipline of the cloth, of habit, of tradition, of constant
association and of mutual confidence. Self-respect, excellent in
itself, and by no means unknown amongst regular soldiers, does not
carry with it a mechanical obedience to command, nor does it merge
the individual in the mass, and give the tremendous power of unity to
the efforts of large numbers.
It will not be pretended that the discipline of regular troops always
rises superior to privation and defeat. It is a notorious fact that
the number of deserters from Wellington's army in Spain and Portugal,
men who wilfully absented themselves from the colours and wandered
over the country, was by no means inconsiderable; while the behaviour
of the French regulars in 1870, and even of the Germans, when they
rushed back in panic through the village of Gravelotte, deaf to the
threats and entreaties of their aged sovereign, was hardly in
accordance with military tradition.
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