THE WEALTH OF NATIONS.

657

The soldiers, who are exercised only once a week, or oncea month, can never be so expert in the use of their arms, asthose who are exercised every day or every other day ; andthough this circumstance may not be of so much consequencein modern, as it was in ancient times, yet the acknowledgedsuperiority of the Prussian troops, owing, it is said, very muchto their superior expertness in their exercise, may satisfy usthat it is, even at this day, of very considerable consequence.

The soldiers, who are bound to obey their officer only oncea week or once a month, and who are at all other times at li-berty to manage their own affairs their own way, withoutbeingin any respect accountable to him, can never be under the sameawe in his presence, can never have the same disposition to readyobedience, with those whose whole life and conduct are everyday directed by him, and who every day even rise and goto bed, or at least retire to their quarters, according to hisorders. In what is called discipline, or in the habit of readyobedience, a militia must always be still more inferior to astanding army, than it may sometimes be in what is calledthe manual exercise, or in the management and use of its arms.But in modern war the habit of ready and instant obedienceis of much greater consequence than a considerable superi-ority in the management of arms.

Those militias which, like the Tartar or Arab militia, go towar under the same chieftains whom they are accustomed toobey in peace, are by far the best. In respect for their of-ficers, in the habit of ready obedience, they approach nearestto standing armies. The highland militia, when it servedunder its own chieftains, had some advantage of the samekind. As the highlanders, however, were not wandering, butstationary shepherds, as they had all a fixed habitation, andwere not, in peaceable times, accustomed to follow their chief-tain from place to place; so in time of war they were less will-ing to follow him to any considerable distance, or to continuefor any long time in the field. When they bad acquired anybooty they were eager to return home, and his authority wasseldom sufficient to detain them. In point of obedience theywere always much inferior to what is reported of the Tartars and Arabs . As the highlanders too, from their stationarylite, spend less ot their time in the open air, they were alwaysless accustomed to military exercises, and were less expert inuse of their arms than Tartars and Arabs are. said to be.

A militia of any kind, it must be observed, however, which