This decree, though in accordance with the rigorous customs of ancient warfare as exemplified by the treatment which Sparta shortly afterwards meted out to the Plataeans,.
To succeed, it was essential that the fellah should be taught that discipline might be strict without being oppressive, that pay and rations would be fairly distributed, that brutal usage by superiors would be checked, that complaints would be thoroughly investigated, and impartial justice meted out to soldiers of all ranks.
The bulk of the offences for which it is meted out are trivial and unimportant.
The Bourbons, on their return, dismissed him, though this treatment was not, compared to that meted out to Ney and others, excessively harsh.
A new commission was now appointed to inquire into alleged abuses in Wales, and the existing evidence clearly shows how harsh and unfair was the treatment meted out to the clergy under the act of 1649, and also how utterly subversive of all ancient custom and established order were the reforms suggested by the commissioners and approvers.
