I think it's interesting that AD felt it necessary in the film to insert lines of dialogue on this question so that we would understand what JA's contemporaries knew all too well. Remember, when Elizabeth first meets Col. Forster she asks him something like this: Are you here to repel the French or to subdue the unruly populace? He answers: neither, Ma'am, and goes on to explain that his men need training and the officers want social experience. Ah, yes.