New-York Daily Tribune.
Nr. 4366, 17. April 1855

That discipline in the French army is rapidly dissolving, is confirmed by fresh
evidence every day. Reports have reached the Ministry of War at Paris, both
from the East, and from the inland garrisons, that in this respect the army is
becoming a mere band of Praetorians and Janissaries. Respect for the commanders, especially the generals, is completely gone. Those officers and old soldiers,
whose military habits make them regret this state of things, sigh for the return of
the good old times, when Bugeaud, Changarnier, Lamoriciere, Bedeau—men
whose feats even now form the staple of conversation in the French army—by a
single word, by a mere gesture, could hold in check whole regiments. But these
are bygone times, and the military policy of the Lower Empire is reaping its own
fruits. Indeed, what but disorganization can the man expect who flattered the
soldiers in every possible manner, calls them the élite of the nation, the true
nation itself, the only real nobility of the country, and then places at their head a
set of adventurers and ragamuffins, who earned their places, not by victories, but
by acts of treason contrary to all military honor, like Lespinasse, or by a career of
indescribable meanness, by complicity in the wholesale robberies of their chief,
like St. Arnaud and Magnan?