The officer has no rank in
the state. It is a settled point that a deacon shall have
precedence of a sub-deacon; but the law and custom of Rome
do not allow a Colonel to take precedence even of a man
having the simple tonsure. Pray, what position do you assign
to your Generals? What is their rank in the hierarchy?"
"Instead of having our Generals in the army, we have them at
the head of the religious orders. Imagine the sensations of
the General of the Jesuits at hearing a soldier announced by
the honourable ecclesiastical title of _General_!"
"Well! there's something in that."
"In order to have commanders for our troops, without at the
same time creating personages of too much importance, we
have imported three foreign Colonels, who are permitted to
perform the functions of General. They even appear in the
disguise of Generals, but they will never have the audacity
to assume the title."
"Capital! Well, now with us there is not a scamp of eighteen
who would engage in the army if he were told that he might
become a Colonel, but never a General; or even a General,
but never a Marshal of France. Who, or what, could induce a
man to rush into a career in which there is at a certain
point an impassable barrier? You regret that all your
officers are not _savants_. I admit that they have learnt
something. They enter the College without competition or
preliminary examination, sometimes without orthography or
arithmetic.
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