ESSAYS-1 [3]
to fall sick.
Frequently, when considerable numbers of them were at work together, a band of music was ordered to play to them while at work; and on holidays they were permitted, and even encouraged, to make merry, with dancing and other innocent sports and amusements.
To preserve good order and harmony among those who were detached upon these working parties, a certain proportion of officers and non-commissioned officers were always sent with them, and those commonly served as overseers of the works, and as such were paid.
Besides this permission to work for hire in the garrison towns, and upon detached working parties, which was readily granted to all those who desired it, or at least to as many as could possibly be spared from the necessary service of the garrison; every facility and encouragement was given to the soldier who was a native of the country, and who had a family of friends to go to, or private concerns to take care of, to go home on furlough, and to remain absent from his regiment from one annual exercise to the other, that is to say, ten months and a half each year. This arrangement was very advantageous to the agriculture and manufactures, and even to the population of the country, (for the soldiers were allowed to marry,) and served not a little to the establishment of harmony and a friendly intercourse between the soldiers and the peasantry, and to facilitate recruiting.
Another measure which tended much to render the situation of the soldier pleasant and agreeable, and to facilitate the recruiting service, was the rendering the garrisons of the regiments permanent. This measure might not be advisable in a despotic, or odious government; for where the authority of the Sovereign must be supported by the terror of arms, all habits of social intercourse and friendship between the soldiers and the subjects must be dangerous; but in all well-regulated governments, such friendly intercourse is attended with many advantages.
A peasant would more readily consent to his son's engaging himself to serve as a soldier in a regiment permanently stationed in his neighbourhood, than in one at a great distance, or whose destination was uncertain; and when the station of a regiment is permanent, and it receives its recruits from the district of country immediately surrounding its head-quarters, the men who go home on furlough have but a short journey to make, and are easily assembled in case of any emergency; and it was the more necessary to give every facility to the soldiers to go home on furlough in Bavaria, as labourers are so very scarce in that country that the husbandman would not be able without them to cultivate his ground.
The habits of industry and of order which the soldier acquired when in garrison, rendered him so much the more useful as a labourer when on furlough; but not contented with merely furnishing labours for the assistance of the husbandman, I was desirous of making use of the army, as a means of introducing useful improvements into the country.
Though agriculture is carried to the highest perfection in some parts of the Elector's dominions, yet in others, and particularly in Bavaria, it is still much behind-hand. Very few of the new improvements in that art, such as the introduction of new and useful plants--the cultivation of clover and of turnips--the regular succession of crops, etc. have yet found their way into general practice in that country; and even the potatoe, that most useful of all the products of the ground, is scarcely known there.
It was principally with a view to introduce the culture of potatoes in that country that the military gardens were formed. These gardens (of which there is one in every garrison belonging to the Elector's dominion, Dusseldorf and Amberg only excepted[3]) are pieces of ground, in, or adjoining to the garrison towns, which are regularly laid out, and exclusively appropriated to the use of the non-commissioned officers and private soldiers belonging to the regiments in garrison. The ground is regularly divided into districts of regiments,
Frequently, when considerable numbers of them were at work together, a band of music was ordered to play to them while at work; and on holidays they were permitted, and even encouraged, to make merry, with dancing and other innocent sports and amusements.
To preserve good order and harmony among those who were detached upon these working parties, a certain proportion of officers and non-commissioned officers were always sent with them, and those commonly served as overseers of the works, and as such were paid.
Besides this permission to work for hire in the garrison towns, and upon detached working parties, which was readily granted to all those who desired it, or at least to as many as could possibly be spared from the necessary service of the garrison; every facility and encouragement was given to the soldier who was a native of the country, and who had a family of friends to go to, or private concerns to take care of, to go home on furlough, and to remain absent from his regiment from one annual exercise to the other, that is to say, ten months and a half each year. This arrangement was very advantageous to the agriculture and manufactures, and even to the population of the country, (for the soldiers were allowed to marry,) and served not a little to the establishment of harmony and a friendly intercourse between the soldiers and the peasantry, and to facilitate recruiting.
Another measure which tended much to render the situation of the soldier pleasant and agreeable, and to facilitate the recruiting service, was the rendering the garrisons of the regiments permanent. This measure might not be advisable in a despotic, or odious government; for where the authority of the Sovereign must be supported by the terror of arms, all habits of social intercourse and friendship between the soldiers and the subjects must be dangerous; but in all well-regulated governments, such friendly intercourse is attended with many advantages.
A peasant would more readily consent to his son's engaging himself to serve as a soldier in a regiment permanently stationed in his neighbourhood, than in one at a great distance, or whose destination was uncertain; and when the station of a regiment is permanent, and it receives its recruits from the district of country immediately surrounding its head-quarters, the men who go home on furlough have but a short journey to make, and are easily assembled in case of any emergency; and it was the more necessary to give every facility to the soldiers to go home on furlough in Bavaria, as labourers are so very scarce in that country that the husbandman would not be able without them to cultivate his ground.
The habits of industry and of order which the soldier acquired when in garrison, rendered him so much the more useful as a labourer when on furlough; but not contented with merely furnishing labours for the assistance of the husbandman, I was desirous of making use of the army, as a means of introducing useful improvements into the country.
Though agriculture is carried to the highest perfection in some parts of the Elector's dominions, yet in others, and particularly in Bavaria, it is still much behind-hand. Very few of the new improvements in that art, such as the introduction of new and useful plants--the cultivation of clover and of turnips--the regular succession of crops, etc. have yet found their way into general practice in that country; and even the potatoe, that most useful of all the products of the ground, is scarcely known there.
It was principally with a view to introduce the culture of potatoes in that country that the military gardens were formed. These gardens (of which there is one in every garrison belonging to the Elector's dominion, Dusseldorf and Amberg only excepted[3]) are pieces of ground, in, or adjoining to the garrison towns, which are regularly laid out, and exclusively appropriated to the use of the non-commissioned officers and private soldiers belonging to the regiments in garrison. The ground is regularly divided into districts of regiments,