A single instance of this sort is quite enough to demoralize an army.
But the King of Naples shows the Pope his mistake.

He had a sentry mentioned in the order of the day, for giving a bishop's coachman a cut with his sword.

You are scandalized because certain military administrators curtail the soldiers' poor allowance of bread; but they have never been told that peculation will be punished by dismissal." "Well, the scheme of reorganization is in hand; you will see a new order of things in 1859." "I am glad to hear it, Monsignore; and I will answer for it that a judicious, well-considered reform--slowly progressive, of course, as everything is at Rome--will produce excellent results in a few years.

It is not in a day that you can expect to change the face of things; but you know the gardener is not discouraged by the certainty that the tree he plants to-day will not produce fruit for the next five years.

The morals of your soldiers are, as you say, none of the best: I hear it said everywhere that an honest peasant thinks it a dishonour to wear your uniform.
When you can hold out a future to your men, you need no longer recruit them from the dregs of the population.