With respect to the manner in which the provinces of the Sublime Government are to be defended, and the means by which the enemies of our faith are to be repressed, and the causes that have produced victory and defeat, the rabble are utterly ignorant of them, occupying themselves solely with this question, “shall we lose our pay of a few aspers?” With this, as with a fishing hook, they draw from their sack various absurdities, and prevent a number of simple and foolish men from undertaking the duties of holy warfare. In truth, is not this a sufficient reason for their being excluded from the two blessed worlds? To sum up all in one word: it is evident to men of penetration, that there is no possibility of introducing this system into our old corps, for this reason; that as at their first institution they were regulated in a different manner, every one of them has an aversion to submitting himself to the new discipline. If, for example, any of the old troops wish to leave the camp and return, although forty thousand officers should attempt to turn them back, it is useless; they will do as they please. If only five or ten individuals should turn their faces, who has power to say to them “Stop, go not away!” the whole body forthwith following on their steps; for the most part draws breath in the tents containing the treasure and baggage of the Imperial camp. The following is another of the advantages of the new troops. If it should happen that the enemies have obtained the victory by their superior numbers, and that the new forces were defeated, they will not, in consequence, lose courage and disperse themselves; their captains and other officers will rally them the following day or soon after, and will again march upon the enemy; and not one of their soldiers will dare to make the defeat a pretext for quitting his post. But if our old corps meet with a small check, they run, throw themselves into the water, and get drowned. Thus they become the cause of the progress of the enemies of the faith. Which thing having come to pass in our own times, twice in the Russian, and once in the Austrian war, and repeatedly in the war with the French, is manifest to the world, and wants no new proof.[96] Another of the advantages of the new troops is this; that when a body of them are appointed to defend any post, they establish an advanced guard round the place in order to obviate any hostile stratagems. Although this sort of vigilance and precaution was formerly observed, yet there is a world of difference between the ancient method and the new. According to the old system, it is not easy to discover strange soldiers of the enemies’ army who mix with the posts; but it is utterly impossible for strangers to pass the guards of the regular troops, and to get into a fortress which they defend; so that the army is safe from any surprise.