The imperial commissioner interfered, in his turn, to reproach the accused for having dressed himself in the character of a Joseph. Why was he ashamed to acknowledge that he was a jovial pleasure-seeker? He could not be blamed for that. The acquittal of this valiant defender of France permitted him to protect us by his good morals, until the theft of a cash-box caused him to be sentenced. His wrong was not having been rich enough to pay for his mistresses with his small coin, otherwise he would be still a brave fellow, resembling many others, for the army reckons thousands of men of honour of this description, whose particular talent is the theft of women and not of cash-boxes. Certain courts-martial have, through it, even come to look upon rape as an extenuating circumstance in a case of assassination. A Vincennes artillery-man was convicted, on the inferences of doctor Tardieu, of having violated a child of seven years with the most revolting atrocity, and then of assassinating her with seventeen stabs of his poinard. Out of seven judges of this monstrous occurrence, three voted for the acquittal of the culprit, who escaped through having a minority favourable to him.[48] These rakes, returning again to their native district, after being liberated, spread corruption even to our smallest villages, where they constitute themselves instructors in vice for the young of both sexes. Let not these plain-spoken truths, however, cause it to be thought that I confound the real men of honour of our army with these numerous supporters of taverns and brothels. Besides, I am not so much attacking the persons as the institutions which are the causes of the evil, like our peace-army, hateful in all its bearings; the negation of the moral law, and, consequently, of civil order, which is order in the intellect and not in the street. In order to raise a revolt against this state of things, it should suffice to point out that it keeps no account of the soldier’s respectability of morals, and even degrades from official honour the courageous man who sets himself determinedly to practise natural morality in despite of social.[49] For the rest, if this evil should spread generally, it is the downfall of society; if it check itself, the reaction will beat back the leaders who endure or exact it. This investigation has shown us that prostitution does not bring dishonour, among us, upon the man who is defiled by it, and does not shut against him the road to any public appointment. We may be convinced that, in France, these prerogatives have caused the principle of the family to fall into the contempt in which that of property is in the East. Theft does not there disgrace public officials, because its immediate advantages often triumph over a dilatory repression, uncertain, and always ineffectual. If our criminals, our robbers, were sheltered from the public vengeance, we should, in the same way, have to be resigned to the evil of an unchecked brigandage.