subjected to similar privations, both his mind and his heart are left without wholesome aliment. It is true that the army has had its saints ; some good men have passed through its furnace without the smell of fire on their garments, but the at- tention excited by their wonderful deliverance attests the greatness of the peril they escaped.
The officers of an army are, with few exceptions, far su- perior in education and refinement to the privates, and are therefore rarely guilty of that vulgar motiveless ferocity which too often marks the conduct of the common sol- dier. Nevertheless, it would be unreasonable to expect, that their education and refinement should generally shield their hearts from the indurating influence of their pro- fession.
The foregoing remarks are, it is believed, foimded on the acknowledged principles of human nature ; they are most abundantly verified by all military history ; and the conduct to which we will now call the attention of the leader, proves that they are applicable to American, as well as to other armies.
During the horrible bombardment of Vera Cruz, and after a day of indiscriminate slaughter of men, women, and children, the French, Spanish, and English Consuls in the city, addressed on the evening of the 24th March, 184Y, ajoint note to General Scott asking a suspension of hostilities for a time " sufficient to enable their respec- tive compatriots to leave the place With their women and children, as well as the Mexican women and children."
IIow far the emergency of the case justified this application, may be learned from the report of the chief of the artillery, made the same evening to the General—" We have been restrained from the want of shells from throwing more than one every Jive minutes during the day ;" he adds that a full supply would be sent to the batteries that night for the ensuing day. The next day the 25th, Gene- ral Scott sent to the consuls a