General Billot, the French Minister of War, is evidently not
satisfied with the condition of his Army. He has taken the very unusual step of receiving a " syndicate " of military editors, to whom on Monday he made a speech which would certainly not have been made except for the gravest reasons. The General stated, in words which we have quoted textually elsewhere, that owing to certain exemptions one-half the Army now served only for one year, that this was too short a term for any soldiers, and that it was especially too short a term for young Frenchmen, who were all thoughtless, and who had been taught by the Revolution to consider liberty a dogma. Moreover, he said the twenty Generals in command of Army Corps looked on themselves as "satraps," and it was indispens- able to appoint Inspectors-General who might command three or four of these "satrapies," and who would be the active Generals in the field. He had taken up the burden of office most unwillingly, and was now working sixteen hours a day to carry out these reforms, which, however, require the con- sent of the Assembly. Yea, and of the Army too; and unless we are mistaken it is to the Army rather than the nation that this speech is addressed and circulated through all the pro- fessional organs. Had General Billot feared opposition among the Senators or Deputies he would have made his speech to them. It is to the opinion of the Army, not of the Legislature, that he has appealed in a style which, we need not tell our readers, will be considered on the Continent most unusual.
