From Max Hastings' "Soldiers: Great Stories of War and Peace"
Posterity owes a debt to Earl Stanhope, an unabashed hero-worshipper, for minutely recording his many post-war conversations with Wellington, including this one in 1831, about the respective systems of discipline in the British and French armies.
The Duke spoke strongly in favour of having a strong military punishment in reserve, were it only to give efficacy to the milder ones. I think he must have alluded to flogging. I asked him: Do they beat them in the French Army? ‘Oh, they bang them about very much with ramrods and that sort of thing, and then they shoot them. Besides, a French army is composed very differently from ours. The conscription calls out a share of every class - no matter whether your son or my son - all must march; but our friends - I may say it in this room - are the very scum of the earth. People talk of their enlisting from their fine military feeling - all stuff - no such thing. Some of our men enlist from having got bastard children - some for minor offences - many more for drink; but you can hardly conceive such a set brought together, and it really is wonderful that we should have made them the fine fellows they are.’ ~Earl Stanhope
The Duke spoke strongly in favour of having a strong military punishment in reserve, were it only to give efficacy to the milder ones. I think he must have alluded to flogging. I asked him: Do they beat them in the French Army? ‘Oh, they bang them about very much with ramrods and that sort of thing, and then they shoot them. Besides, a French army is composed very differently from ours. The conscription calls out a share of every class - no matter whether your son or my son - all must march; but our friends - I may say it in this room - are the very scum of the earth. People talk of their enlisting from their fine military feeling - all stuff - no such thing. Some of our men enlist from having got bastard children - some for minor offences - many more for drink; but you can hardly conceive such a set brought together, and it really is wonderful that we should have made them the fine fellows they are.’ ~Earl Stanhope