It must bo admitted that, till lately, the condition of a private soldier, both in this country and on the Continent, was unfavourable for inspiring a love of the service in his mind. Obliged to be furnished with good clothing and to preserve a becoming appearance, that which remained of his scanty pay scarcely sufficed for procuring the food necessary for his support. In his barracks he was subject to numerous petty details of duty, which produced weariness and even disgust; and, at all times, to the restraints of discipline, which deprived him of the recreations enjoyed by other classes of men ; while the barracks them selves were far from being healthy or even comfortable. These disadvan tages are now, however, in a great measure removed ; and tho pay of the soldier to afford him the means of obtaining the comforts of life in a degree at least equal to those which are enjoyed by an ordinary peasant or mechanic. With the improvement of his con dition, a corresponding improvement in the character of the soldier has taken place : men of steady habits are induced to enlist, and officers are enabled to select the best among those persons who present them. selves as recruits for the army.
The duties of the soldier are now rendered as little burdensome as is consistent with the good of the service; the regulations promulgated by the authorities prescribe that he shall at all times be treated with mildness and humanity, and the non-commissioned officers are required to use patience and forbearance in instructing the recruits in their military exercises. When breaches of discipline on the part of the soldier oblige a commander to order the infliction of punishment, attention is paid as much as possible to renderit a means of promoting a reformation of character : the lash is now very sparingly used. Wherever a regiment be now quarten.sl, there is established for the soldiers a school, which the men are obliged, as part of their duty, to attend, and which is generally furnished with a library for their use. The library and school are formed and supported by the snbscriptiona of the officers, and both have been found to contribute greatly to the preservation of sobriety and good conduct among the men, by weaning them from the haunts of idleness and dissipation, and giving them a taste for useful knowledge.
In time of peace the soldier, being surrounded by the members of civil society, must, like them, conform to its laws ' • and, being tinder the Influence of public opinion, he unconsciously to himself, held in obedience by them ; so that no extraordinary coercion is memory to keep him within the bounds of civil or military law. But in the colonies the soldier, even though he be serving in a time of peace, has many temptations to fall into a neglect or breach of discipline : he is far removed from the frieuds of his early life, who may have exercised upon his mind a moral influence for good : ho sees around him only the conduct, too frequently licentious, of the lower orders of people in the country where he is stationed ; and it may be that he is not fortified with the principles which should have been implanted in his mind by a sound education. The probability of a return to his native land before many years have passed is small, and the diseases to which' he is exposed from the unhealthiness of the climate frequently termi nate fatally : hence he becomes reckless from despair, and the facilities with which wine or spirituous liquors may often be obtained lead him into excesses which, while they accelerate the ruin of his health and render him unfit for duty, cause him to commit offences both against discipline and morals. Thus in the colonies there arises a necessity for greater restraints on the freedom of the soldier, and for the infliction of heavier punishments than are required at home. (Maj.-Gen. Sir Charles Napier, 'Remarks on 3lilitary Law.' ) Lastly, in time of war and on foreign service a vigorous discipline is essentially necessary ; the privations to which soldiers are then exposed strongly induce those who are not thoroughly imbued with moral and religious principles to plunder the country-people, in order to supply their immediate wants, or to drown the sense of their sufferings in liquor.