Those officers who lose the
promotions intended for them by the crown must become of a faction
opposite to that of the Assembly, which has rejected their claims, and
must nourish discontents in the heart of the army against the ruling
powers. Those officers, on the other hand, who, by carrying their
point through an interest in the Assembly, feel themselves to be at
best only second in the good will of the crown, though first in that
of the Assembly, must slight an authority which would not advance
and could not retard their promotion. If to avoid these evils you will
have no other rule for command or promotion than seniority, you will
have an army of formality; at the same time it will become more
independent and more of a military republic. Not they, but the king is
the machine. A king is not to be deposed by halves. If he is not
everything in the command of an army, he is nothing. What is the
effect of a power placed nominally at the head of the army who to that
army is no object of gratitude or of fear? Such a cipher is not fit
for the administration of an object, of all things the most
delicate, the supreme command of military men. They must be
constrained (and their inclinations lead them to what their
necessities require) by a real, vigorous, effective, decided, personal
authority. The authority of the Assembly itself suffers by passing
through such a debilitating channel as they have chosen.
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