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France had for a long time claimed a right over Genoa; but after the battle of Pavia, when the French were forced intirely to abandon Italy, that claim had become of no effect. Henry the Second however, having commenced a new war in Italy, against the Emperor Charles V, resolved to assert his power in Corsica; Sampiero di Ornano encouraged this disposition, that he might avail himself of it, to free the island from a yoke which galled it so much.

An expedition was therefore ordered to Corsica in the year 1553, under the command of General Paul de Thermes, accompanied by Sampiero di Ornano, Jourdain des Ursins, and several other able commanders. Henry had also the Turks joined with him in this expedition, having prevailed with their fourth Emperor, Solyman, stiled the Magnificent, to send out a large fleet to the Tuscan sea.

This expedition was powerfully opposed by the Genoese. The great Andrew Doria, though then in his eighty-seventh year, bid defiance to age and infirmities, and, since Corsica was an object of importance to his country, the gallant veteran' embarked with all the spirit of his glorious youth, having a formidable armament under his command.

The war was carried on with vigour on both sides. The Corsicans joined in the common cause, and the greatest part of the island was once fairly delivered from the tyrant. But the Ģeonese were so well commanded by the intrepid Doria, and had besides such assistance from Charles V. who sent strong reinforcements, both of Spanish and German troops, that the expedition was not intirely effectual.

At length, a treaty was concluded between the Corsicans and Genoese, advantageous and honourable for the former, having, for guarantee, his most Christian Majesty.

But, as there was an inveterate and implacable hatred between those two nations, this treaty did not long subsist; and upon Henry's death the same oppression as formerly became flagrant in Corsica.

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Sampiero di Ornano, who had been again for some time in France, returned to Corsica, where his presence inspired the islanders with for titude, and occasioned a very general revolt.

He carried on his glorious enterprise with considerable effect; and the more so, that, as he had now no foreign assistance, he was not looked upon as very formidable, and the republic made little preparations against him. But he was stopped in his career by the treachery of the Genoese, who had him basely assas sinated, by a wretch of the name of Vitolli, in 1567.

His son Alphonso di Ornano, who had been brought up in the court of Henry II. kept alive the patriotic struggle for a short while; but, unable to make head against the republic, he retired from the island and settled in France.

The Genoese were thus again put in possession of Corsica. Enraged at what they had suffered from a daring rebellion, as they termed it; and, still dreading a new insurrec tion, they thought only of avenging themselves on the Corsicans; and plunging that people still lower than ever in ignorance and slavery.

Their oppression became now, if possible, worse than before. They were inflamed with hotter resentment, and their tyranny formed itself into something of a regular system. They permitted nothing to be exported from the island, but to Genoa, where, of necessity, the Corsicans were obliged to sell their merchandise at a very low rate; and, in years of scarcity, the island was drained of provisions by a sort of legal plunder. For the inhabitants

were forced to bring them to Genoa, so that actual famine was often occasioned in Corsica.

Long despised, plundered and oppressed, the Corsicans again revived in 1729, when the war commenced, which, with some intervals, has continued till now.

It is wonderful to see how great events are produced by little causes. The rise of the Corsicans, in 1729, was occasioned by a single paolo, a piece worth about five pence English. A Genoese collector went to the house of a poor old woman, and demanded this trifling sum, as the money for which she was assessed. Being in extreme penury, she had not wherewithal to satisfy the demand. Upon which, the collector began to abuse her, and to seize some of her furniture. She begged him to have patience, and said, she hoped in a few days to be able to pay him. He persisted in his severity, and the poor woman made a great lamentation. Two or three people hearing the noise entered the house, took the part of the woman, and exclaimed against the barbarity of the collector. He threatened them with punishment, for having hindered him in the execution of his office, This provoked the villagers, and they drove him away with stones. The Genoese sent troops to support their collector, and the Corsicans assembled in large bodies to defend themselves. The tumult increased. A spark was sufficient to kindle the generous flame, in a people who had so often glowed with the enthusiasm of liberty; and, in a very short time the whole island was in motion.

The Corsicans immediately rushed upon the capital, which they took almost without resistance; and they would have been masters of the castle of Corte, had they been a little better regulated.

The Genoese at first endeavoured to overcome the Corsicans by the sole force of the republic; but find.

ing themselves altogether unable for it, while the Corsicans were every day growing stronger, cutting to pieces the poor reinforcements of Genoese troops, and thereby supplying themselves with more arms; the republic was under the necessity of seeking foreign assistance.

They applied to the Emperor Charles VI. who sent to Corsica a body of auxiliaries under the command of General Wachtendonck. These harrassed the island, without being powerful enough to overawe it. They had continual rencounters with the Corsicans, who, in one action, killed 1200 of them. The Emperor then sent a strong army of Germans, with the Prince of Wirtemberg at their head. The Corsicans were not in a condition to resist such a force. They laid down their arms upon condition, that a treaty should be made between them and the Genoese, having for guarantee the Emperor.

This treaty, which had been formally concluded between the Corsicans and the Genoese, having been broken by the latter, there was a very short suspension of hostilities; and in 1734 the Corsicans rose anew.

Giafferi, their former general, was again elected, and got for his colleague Signor Giacinto Paoli, fatherof the present general.

Giacinto Paoli was a Corsican gentleman of a good family. But his merit distinguished him more than his rank. He was a man of learning, religion, and bravery; well qualified to serve his country, either in politics or in war,

The Genoese had paid very dear for their victory in the former struggles. It was computed that it had cost them above thirty milions of livres, besides costly presents to the Prince of Wirtemberg, and to the other general officers.

The Marquis d' Argens very pleasantly applies to the Genoese the French fable of a gardener, who com

of his station in society. Can the brave man, and he endowed with any generosity of feeling, forget the mortifying vile condition in which he was exposed? Does not therefore the cat-o'-nine-tails defeat the chief object of punishment?* And is not a mode of punishment too severe which for ever degrades and renders abject?-Instead of upholding the character of the soldier as entitled to the respect of the community, this system renders him despicable in his own eyes, and the object of opprobrium in the state, or of mortifying commisseration.

Military punishments, more severe than the common penalties of civil law, are undoubtedly required, the soldier knows well the necessity, but when they exceed the bounds which a due regard to justice and mercy prescribes, they only deprave the mind, and operate as an encouragement to perseverance in misconduct. Pain will not reform; the discipline of the mind is far more efficacious than the discipline of the body, and how much more satisfactory?

It is a melancholy truth that punishments have considerably augmented, that ignorant and fatal notions of discipline have been introduced into the service, subduing all the amiable emotions of human nature. Gentlemen who justly boast the most liberal education in the world, have familiarized themselves to a degree of punishment, which

It is to be remembered that flogging is the common treatment, not an awful extraordinary example. If the practice of some militia regiments was imitated throughout all, the whole seventy thousand would be flogged round in something less than six years; but even the average of the common practice in many corps would reach to that amount at no very distant date; there are, however, some regiments most kindly treated, and consequently better regulated.

characterizes no other nation in Europe.*

When a commanding officer finds disorder in the regiment, instead of applying himself to discover and remove the cause, by prudent and conciliating arrangements, he too frequently considers the cat-o'-ninetails as the only vis medicatrix; and by an intemperate use produces a general disorganization, rendering the good bad, instead of amending the profligate.

How many regiments have gained admiration when passing in review, for their appearance and manœuvre, whilst the high and exalted feelings of the soldier had long been extir pated by a system of terror? How many officers have established a false reputation, whose registers of punisment should have branded them with disgrace, and rendered them unworthy of their stations in the service?

In proportion as officers are ignorant of their duty, and unequal to the command of men, punishment is more frequent, notwithstanding there are such strong proofs of the inefficacy of such severity. The 52d regiment is at this moment indisputably one of the first corps in the service, in every respect. The cato'-nine-tails is never used, and yet discipline is there seen in the highest state of perfection. In other corps continual punishments are taking place on the fruitless attempt of ri valling the 52d, whereas the very means employed for ever prevent the possibility of their attaining mediocrity.

The 10th battalion of reserve was raised and formed within six months, as a most complete corps, regular in its conduct, and fit for any ser

*It must also be admitted that of ficers who have been raised from the ranks are generally more severe than other members of a court-martial, or a commanding officers.

vice, with only the punishment of three old offenders, who had come from other regiments, and none even of these received more than fifty lashes. A different system was how ever followed in other corps, and a number of men punished beyond what I feel myself at liberty to state.*

Whence comes this indifference to our fellow species? This neglect of men, on whose exertions the life and character of officers must depend, by whose blood they acquire their fame, and by whose generous sacrifice they expect the reward of victory?

There is a great distinction between the romantic theory of false philosophy and practical conduct. No person can deny, that as in the community there are many vicious members, there must also be many bad men interspersed in the army, whom kind treatment will not influence, and who are callous to the sentiment of gratitude. Profigate beings must and should suffer without commiseration, but the general principle should be lenity, and the general abhorrence tyranny.

Nor does the requisite judgment of a regimental court martial interpose a sufficient check upon the severity of some commanding officers. Young men are allowed to be members, who have never considered

* Brigadier General Levison Gower was once ordered to take the command of the flank companies of the line, in which great disorder had prevailed, and where the men had been most severely punished. He reformed the battalion, and put it into the best order without any flogging whatever. The 2d battalion of the 53d is now in Ireland, and in the highest possible condition, and although 1100 strong, has never had but eight courts martial. These are credible instances, and bear unquestionable evidence that excess of punishment may be in most instances attributed to the mismanagement of the command ing officer.

the moral effects of punishment; they are familiarized to severity, by the recorded instances of their predecessors. They are instructed to consider particular offences as forcing de se* a precise award, without the consideration of a man's previous character: they are accustomed to trust to the mercy of the commanding officer, when the presence of the lieutenant colonel or the major may from the different disposition of these officers make a variation of the punishment of the most serious nature; they too frequently assemble without a thought upon the important trust committed to them, they hear with levity, and decide without reflection.

When General Fox commanded in the Mediterranean, he sent back those courts martial which awarded excessive sentences, observing that punishment should never be cruel, and that no court should sentence a soldier to receive more lashes than what the members themselves thought right to be actually inflicted.

How different were such maxims and conduct to the intemperate resentment of other officers, who have threatened courts martial with the accusation of contumely, for refu

* Punishment affects men very differently some bear a great many lashes without suffering much; others would die under the same number. But there is a great cruelty in bringing men out at different times to receive the remainder of a sentence as soon as the tender skin has covered former wounds. I could mention some terrible instances if evident reasons did not check me, and if the correction of such abuses can be secured in future, there is no necessity to distress the mind with circumstances which have had already their full operation; but only in very aggravated cases of criminality indeed should the remainder of a sentence be inflicted at different periods, particularly as the excess and not the prescribed mode of punishment, as is frequently the case in civil law, prevents the execution of the whole sentence in the first instance.

sing to augment an already awarded sentence, when their reasons for le nity were but too well founded.

There is scarcely a general officer in the service who does not lament the flippancy with which the cat-o'-nine-tails is used; but they have no power of preventing regimental punishments either in the line or the militia.

England should not be the last nation to adopt humane improvements; France allows of flogging only in her marine; for men confined together on board ship, require a peculiar discipline, and the punishment is very different from military severity. The Germans make great criminals run the gauntlet, a mode of punishment by which every one of their comrades becomes their corrector, and thus a greater opprobrium is inflicted; but in their courts martial a private always sits where a private is to be judged, and a noncommissioned officer when a noncommissioned officer is the prisoner. It is true that a field officer may order his serjeant to inflict upon his own authority, for petty misdemeanors thirty blows with a cane; a a captain, twenty; a subaltern, twelve; but as this punishment is instantaneous, the offender escapes imprisonment,and his comrades have, in consequence no additional duty.*

The introduction of that practice of striking soldiers might not be congenial to the sentiments of Englishmen, who are accustomed, from infancy, to consider trial as previously necessary to any execution of punishment; but it is absolutely necessary that there should be some revision of the military penal code, as it is faulty in many respects. No doubt it is easier to destroy than to

* The Germans have an horror of being tied up to receive punishment. In a German regiment, in our service, where punishment was very rare, two men destroyed themselves to avoid this increas ed disgrace,

build; but the defects are so palpable, and the improvements so evident, that there is no fear of the attempt at reformation failing. In the interim, I presume to propose that the following regulations would materially contribute to diminish the frequency of corporal punish ment.

No officer under age should be allowed to sit as a member of a court martial.

All witnesses should be sworn to evidence.

No commanding officer should send back a sentence for augmenta, tion of corporal punishment.

Commanding officers should be instructed to avoid as much as possible the ordering of courts martial for slight offences, but to use their own discretion as to the direction of offenders suffering the minor punishments;* such as imprisonment, temporary marks of disgrace, increase of fatigue duty, deprivation of all food but bread and water, &c.

That with every general return a statement of the offences committed, the sentences of the courts martial and the inflicted punishments should be transmitted to head quarters; and that there should occasionally appear in the general orders of the army some remarks upon the extent or diminution of crimes and punishments grounded upon these reports.

Such preventive checks would not be displeasing to the officer who regulates his regiment upon proper principles; on the contrary, he would feel laudable pride in this exposition of the good conduct of the corps, which the army would attribute to his management; but the

* Artaxerxes used to whip sometimes only the garments of the culprits, and many a man has been saved to the service by only suffering the discredit of the preparation, and who afterwards has declared, that if a lash had been given he never should have regarded bis future conduct.

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