THE PRICE OF FRENCH GLORY.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XII, Issue 836, 3 July 1855, Page 4

THE PRICE OF FRENCH GLORY.

The Emperor of the French hns /550,000 soldiers at his disposition :— the glory of w,ir is therefore one for which Frenchmen bid high. We vraHt soldiers '—the French want employment even now for their amnes. We are drafting regiments IVom every country to make n decent show in the Crimea :— our allies, on the controry, are selecting only battalions from their numerous regin* nts, for this service. The contrast is, perhaps, at the present moment annoying to us ;— but there is comfort even in our inferior numbers. Lately the streets of Paris have been paraded by bands of young men, wearing gay colours in their hats in token of theii escape from the "glorious career of arms." France loves military fame, we are told, at every street corner : — but on the other hndit is really remarkable to see how delighted young France is to escape from the "glorious career." In a state of painful suspense parents wait about the Hotel de Ville to learn the fate of sons gone to draw lots. Most distressing are the scenes which describe the withdrawal of an unlucky number .-—intense the joy with which youths dance away from the lottery into the secuiity of civil life. Noi'do the evils of this military lotteiy begin or end at thtidoorof the Hotel de Ville. They penetrate into every poor home ; —they paralyse the aspirations of y..ung men ; they damage the moral tone of the social b >dy. These are' undoubted facts which it is easy to illustrate. In England every young man may be placed in a position to earn his living at the age ot eighteen or seventeen. His father proceeds on the assurance that th,- state requires no service fiom his boy incompatible with his studies or his apprenticeship. His career is clear befofe him. Bu in France the case of a youth is not in these happy conditions. He has to diaw when he has completed his twentieth year. This risk is a great one. Of what avail then, the studies, the labours of his youth, when his career may be cut short, and he may have to shoulder a musket, to keep guard in the capacity of a private soldier at the very gateway of the institution where he was learning the elements of a liberal profession ? The reply to this objection has been that a son may find a substitute. Yes, for £100 in times of peace, for £300 in times of war! At the present moment many homes are desolate in Parismany tears fall o\er promises of youth destroyed at the ITotcl de Ville. Painiul instances of the oppressive nature of the system have come to my personal knowledge—as they must come to the personal knowledge of every man who has ever pasted six or seven months in Paris. There was a young sculptor in Paris last spring, •who promised to win a great name. He was a mere boy. He had studied with* enthusiasm ; he had mixed •with intellectual men ; he had been accustomed to the freedom and charms of a student's life. He drew, and drew an unfortunate number. Sad must the hour have been to him whs n he saw that the studio must be left for the Champ de Mars ! The promise of his youth was darkened ; bat, I believe, he bore up against the hardship of his doom, and went away cheerfully to his work. He became a sailor, and, prob..bly, lies at night upon the troubled waters of the Black Sea di earning -about the times~whcn his statuettes made a sensation in the Quartier Lathi, and he was lively at the Closerie ! He will become a sailor in heart, most probably— he -mny oven lose all taste for his art, in the excitement of -the profession forced upon him, He may be as happy .-as a-suilor, as he would haye been as a sculptor : but mod tii art has lost a promise it could ill affoid to throw aw;.y. I have mentioned the above instance as one illustrating completely the kind of evil inflicted upon a com. Try which forces every man to draw for military !- rvioe. The depredations made in the lists of students e%e:y year, might make up a picture of talents thrown . ray ; of hard studies rendered worthless ; of poor parents broken-hearted. Yet vive la ghire ! A cheer for the glory that makes no choice of instruments ; that subotitutes pipe-clay for the pencil ; that as mercilessly peizos upon the pale student as upon the hearty ploughman ; that makes young men careless, because without aim ; that seizes the most intelligent citizens'; and knows no claim for exemption in supreme talents, and remarkable acquirements. Thus France has her fine army of 580,000 men. This force is splendidly equipped ; excellently disciplined ; made of soldierly stuff; but it is built upon social tragedies. The evil" of the system is in its indiscriminate claims. It is true that it would be an act ot gross injustice to select certain classes for military duty and to exonerate others. I simply point to the evils of the system, that we may not shut our eyes to the price at which France purchases her military strength. To the evils I have pointed out I might easily add others ; and foremost among these, the grasping societies thai provide substitutes. However, these societies are, I bjlieve doomed. The government will henceforth undertake to provide substitutes at a certain rate. But even this reform will not make the system a healthy one. The evils lie deep, and prey upon the great social heart. While the war lasts, we have clear before us its only advantage ; but even now, thankful as the ft iends of civilization must be for the strength of this French army, to be blind to the cost at which this s> length is obtained, is to live for the present, utterly disregaifiiul qf" the future. It is not improbable that there are, at the present momtnt, men in England who would not be disinclined to see the French military lottery copied in London, and it is therefore not altogether without use to point out the real evils which lollow in its train. There are men fit for nothing so much as_ for the parade ; men who have courage, and who are inclined to be dressed in a gay uniform. Sebastopol has taught us that these men have other virtues not brought o light in barrack life. The heroism of patient endurance, as well as of daring strife hand-to-hand with the enemy, b:lon<*s to the red coat; and ungrateful is the man who, sitting snugly at his fireside, does not heartily admire ipid acknowledge these soldierly virtues. But the "strong point against the French system! is, that men fit to perform civil duties eminently, a c drarged thereby into a profession for which they have no aptitude ; mml many men remain sentinels who might have been academicians. Thus, while we look with envy at the armies of Fiance, let us never forget the social misery, the moial wrong, at which they are purchased. The military glories of our allies are a long list ; but the price at which they hare been purchased is heavy. May we never legalise a military lottery.