[8] The inevitable pamphlet appeared--a very funny one in this case. For the information of the curious, the title is, “Caution against Future Subscriptions for Prostitutes and their Associates, with Free Animadversions on several Political Gentlemen who have been Prominently Active in Promoting Subscriptions for Miss Taylor; with Particulars of the Duke of York and Mrs. Clarke” (London, 1809). [9] The Austrians had just suffered two serious defeats. [10] Mr. Madocks had brought forward distinct charges of corruption against these two ministers, but the House negatived his motion for inquiry. This case of “stifling” was one of the most bare-faced of even that dark age, the debate going off on the dangers of Parliamentary reform, and the “blessings we derive from the present order of things.” One thing is certain, that not a soul in that House doubted Madocks’s case. The “factious” minority numbered eighty-five, of whom Sir Samuel Romilly was one. He thought it impolitic of the ministry, on their own account, to try and screen themselves, and justly concluded that the debate and decision would powerfully act upon the cause of Reform. (_Vide_ his “Life,” ii. 116.) CHAPTER XVIII. “COMPARED WITH DEFEATING ME, DEFEATING BUONAPARTE IS A MERE TRIFLE.” If there is one thing, more than another, characteristic of the British soldier, it is his attachment to home. Home, that is to say, in the hearts of his countrymen, as well upon the hearth of his parents. You cannot make a hireling of him; nor is he a mere worshipper of glory. The links that bind him to his comrades are the same with those, which remain unsevered between him and the civilian-class whence he sprang. This is obvious enough, when we consider the general demeanour of the people toward his profession. You may see it, plainly, when the soldier is “in trouble;” or, when two red-coats are quarrelling in the street;--but, specially, on that supreme occasion when the band is playing “_The girl I left behind me!_” But there have been times where there was danger of these affections being sundered. Notably, during the later days of the Regency, when army-legislation went far to make the soldiery a distinct class, with interests hostile to those of “the mob.” And, during the great war, the employment of German mercenaries for purposes of home defence (whilst the English forces were shedding their blood on the soil whence those had been deported) was naturally productive of some ill-feeling toward the military profession.