Military Manners and Customs

CHAPTER I.. The Laws of War.

THE LAWS OF WAR.

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The prohibition of explosive bullets in war 2

The importance of the Declaration of St. Petersburg of 1868 3

The ultimate triumph of more destructive methods 4

Illustrated by history of the crossbow or the musket 5

Or of cannons, torpedoes, red-hot shot, or the bayonet 5

Numbers slain in modern and earlier warfare 8

The laws of war at the Brussels Conference of 1874 10

Do the laws of war tend to improve? 13

A negative answer suggested from reference 13

1. To the use of poison in war 14

2. To the bombardment of towns 15

3. To the destruction of public buildings 16

4. To the destruction of crops and fruit-trees 16

5. To the murder of prisoners or the wounded 17

6. To the murder of surrendered garrisons 18

7. To the destruction of fishing-boats 19

8. To the disuse of the declaration of war 19

9. To the torture and mutilation of combatants and non-combatants 20

10. To the custom of contributions 20

The futile attempts of Grotius and Vattel to humanise warfare 21

The rights of war in the time of Grotius 24

The futility of international law with regard to laws of war 26

The employment of barbarian troops 26

The taking of towns by assault 27

The laws of war contrasted with the practice 28

War easier to abolish than to humanise 30

CHAPTER II.. Warfare in Chivalrous Times.

WARFARE IN CHIVALROUS TIMES.

Delusion about character of war in days of chivalry 32

The common slaughter of women and children 33

The Earl of Derby’s sack of Poitiers 34

The massacres of Grammont and Gravelines 35

The old poem of the Vow of the Heron 36

The massacre of Limoges by Edward the Black Prince 37

The imprisonment of ladies for ransom 38

Prisoners of war starved to death 39

Or massacred, if no prospect of ransom 41

Or blinded or otherwise mutilated 42

The meaning of a surrender at discretion 44

As illustrated by Edward III. at Calais 44

And by several instances in the same and the next century 45

The practice of burning in aid of war 47

And of destroying sacred buildings 47

The practice of poisoning the air 49

The use of barbarous weapons 50

The influence of religion on war 51

The Church in vain on the side of peace 52

Curious vows of the knights 54

The slight personal danger incurred in war by them 54

The explanation of their magnificent costume 55

Field sports in war-time 56

The desire of gain the chief motive of war 57

The identity of soldiers and brigands 57

The career and character of the Black Prince 59

The place of money in the history of chivalry 61

Its influence as a war-motive between England and France 62

General low character of chivalrous warfare 64

CHAPTER III.. Naval Warfare.

NAVAL WARFARE.

Robbery the first object of maritime warfare 66

The piratical origin of European navies 67

Merciless character of wars at sea 69

Fortunes made by privateering in England 71

Privateers commissioned by the State 72

Privateers defended by the publicists 73

Distinction between privateering and piracy 73

Failure of the State to regulate privateering 74

Privateering condemned by Lord Nelson 77

Privateering abolished by the declaration of Paris in 1856 78

Modern feeling against seizure of private property at sea 79

Naval warfare in days of wooden ships 80

Unlawful methods of maritime war 81

The Emperor Leo VI.’s ‘Treatise on Tactics’ 83

The use of fire-ships 84

Death the penalty for serving in fire-ships 85

Torpedoes originally regarded as ‘bad’ war 85

English and French doctrine of rights of neutrals 86

Enemy’s property under neutral flag secured by Treaty of Paris 87

Shortcomings of the Treaty of Paris with regard to--

1. A definition of what is contraband 88

2. The right of search of vessels under convoy 88

3. The practice of Embargoes 89

4. The Jus Angariæ 90

The International Marine Code of the future 91

CHAPTER IV.. Military Reprisals.

MILITARY REPRISALS.

International law on legitimate reprisals 93

The Brussels Conference on the subject 95

Illustrations of barbarous reprisals 97

Instances of non-retaliation 98

Savage reprisals in days of chivalry 100

Hanging the commonest reprisals for a brave defence 101

As illustrated by the warfare of the fifteenth century 102

Survival of the custom to our own times 104

The massacre of a conquered garrison still a law of war 105

The shelling of Strasburg by the Germans 106

Brutal warfare of Alexander the Great 107

The connection between bravery and cruelty 110

The abolition of slavery in its effects on war 112

The storming of Magdeburg, Brescia, and Rome 112

Cicero on Roman warfare 114

The reprisals of the Germans in France in 1870 115

Their revival of the custom of taking hostages 117

Their resort to robbery as a plea of reprisals 118

General Von Moltke on perpetual peace 119

The moral responsibility of the military profession 121

The Press as a potent cause of war 122

Plea for the abolition of demands for unconditional surrender 123

Such as led to the bombardment of Alexandria in 1882 123

CHAPTER V.. Military Stratagems.

MILITARY STRATAGEMS.

Grotius’ theory of fair stratagems 126

The teaching of international law 127

Ancient and modern naval stratagems 127

Early Roman dislike of such stratagems 132

As ambuscades, feigned retreats, or night attacks 132

The degenerate standard of Frontinus and Polyænus 135

The Conference stratagem of modern Europe 136

The distinction between perfidy and stratagem 139

The perfidy of Francis I. 140

Vattel’s theory about spies 141

Frederick the Great’s military instructions about spies 142

Lord Wolseley on spies and truth in war 144

The custom of hanging or shooting spies 145

Better to keep them as prisoners of war 146

Balloonists regarded as spies 147

The practice of military surprises 148

Death formerly the penalty for capture in a surprise 150

Stratagems of uncertain character 151

Such as forged despatches or false intelligence 151

The use of the telegraph in deceiving the enemy 151

May prisoners of war be compelled to propagate lies? 152

General character of the military code of fraud 153

CHAPTER VI.. Barbarian Warfare.

BARBARIAN WARFARE.

Variable notions of honour 156

Primitive ideas of a military life 156

What is civilised warfare? 158

Advanced laws of war among several savage tribes 159

Symbols of peace among savages 161

The Samoan form of surrender 162

Treaties of peace among savages 162

Abeyance of laws of war in hostilities with savages 163

Zulus blown up in caves with gun-cotton 165

Women and men kidnapped for transport service on the Gold Coast 166

Humane intentions of the Spaniards in the New World 167

Contrasted with the inhumanity of their actions 167

Wars with natives of English and French in America 170

High rewards offered for scalps 171

The use of bloodhounds in war 171

The use of poison and infected clothes 172

Penn’s treaty with the Indians 173

How Missionaries come to be a cause of war 176

Explanation of the failure of modern missions 178

The mission stations as centres of hostile intrigues 179

Plea for the State-regulation of missions 181

Depopulation under Protestant influences 181

The prevention of false rumours--Tendenzlügen 182

Civilised and barbarian warfare 183

No real distinction between them 184

CHAPTER VII.. War and Christianity.

WAR AND CHRISTIANITY.

The war question at the time of the Reformation 185

The remonstrances of Erasmus against the custom 186

Influence of Grotius on the side of war 187

The war question in the early Church 188

The Fathers against the lawfulness of war 190

Causes of the changed views of the Church 192

The clergy as active combatants for over a thousand years 193

Fighting bishops 193

Bravery in war and ecclesiastical preferment 196

Pope Julius II. at the siege of Mirandola 197

The last fighting bishop 197

Origin and meaning of the declaration of war 198

Superstition in the naming of weapons, ships, &c. 200

The custom of kissing the earth before a charge 201

Connection between religious and military ideas 202

The Church as a pacific agency 204

Her efforts to set limits to reprisals 207

The altered attitude of the modern Church 208

Early Reformers only sanctioned just wars 208

Voltaire’s reproach against the Church 210

Canon Mozley’s sermon on war 212

The answer to his apology 214

CHAPTER VIII.. Curiosities of Military Discipline.

CURIOSITIES OF MILITARY DISCIPLINE.

Increased severity of discipline 218

Limitation of the right of matrimony 219

Compulsory Church parade and its origin 219

Atrocious military punishments 221

Reasons for the military love of red 223

The origin of bear-skin hats 223

Different qualities of bravery 225

Historical fears for the extinction of courage 225

The conquests of the cause of Peace 227

Causes of the unpopularity of military service 228

The dulness of life in the ranks 228

The prevalence of desertion 230

Articles of war against Malingering 231

Military artificial ophthalmia 233

The debasing influence of discipline 234

Illustrated from the old flogging system 235

The discipline of the Peninsular army 236

Attempts to make the service more popular 239

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