THE BIG BATTALIONS.
rr0 THE Fames OF THE "Monroe.")
Sta,—Was Napoleon the author of the saying that God is on the aide of the big battalions ? Bartlett attributes it to Voltaire, and says it occurs in a letter to M. le Riche of date February 6th, 1770 : " It is said that God is always on the side of the heaviest battalions." Bartlett further quotes from De la Fert4 to Anne of Austria : " I
have always noticed that God is on the side of the heaviest battalions." Was Voltaire quoting De la Ferte) ? No date is given for the latter's observation. Napoleon is given as the author of a saying which an officer tells me is a precept in military text-books and in spirit true to fact : " Providence is always on the aide of the last reserve.", [We were wrong in saying that Napoleon was the author. By his time the phrase, in one form or another, had become proverbial( In 1677 Bussy-Rabutin said: Dieu est d'ordinaire pour les gros escadrona contre les petits.—ED. Spectator.]
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