The great argument which has in all ages been used against mercenary
troops, is the suspicion which may justly be entertained of their
fidelity. Mercenaries, it is observed, fight only for pay, without any
affection for the master whom they serve, without any zeal for the
cause which they espouse, and without any prospect of advantage from
success, more than empty praises, or the plunder of the field, and,
therefore, have no motives to incite them against danger, nor any
hopes to support them in fatigues; that they can lose nothing by
flight, but plunder, nor by treachery, but honour; and that,
therefore, they have nothing to throw into the balance against the
love of life, or the temptations of a bribe, and will never be able to
stand against men that fight for their native country under the
command of generals whom they esteem and love, and whom they cannot
desert or disobey, without exposing themselves to perpetual exile, or
to capital punishment.
These arguments have always been of great force, and, therefore, that
nation whose defence has been intrusted to foreigners, has always been
thought in danger of ruin. Yet there have been conjunctures in which
almost every state has been obliged to rely upon mercenaries, and in
compliance with immediate necessity, to depend upon the fidelity of
those who had no particular interest in supporting them.
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