The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-12-05 00:00:00

THE ARMY AND NAVY

When we find an energetic association of men com-
bined for the purpose of depreciating the merits and
demanding the reduction of our military and naval forces
on principle—industriously exaggerating their cost and
extenuating their usefulness--mixing up truth and false-
hood, a few right and judicious suggestions with much
that is erroneous* rash, crotchetty, and violent, we feel
that the cause of reform is suffering a great damage at
the hands of pretended reformers, and that the staunch
advocates of old abuses may justify them by the state-
ments and theories of their opponents.
According to the gentlemen who met at Liverpool last
week, the terrible evil in the country is its taxation. Its
taxation is due to its wars and its army, and its wars and
its army to its aristocracy. This seems a fair summary

of all that they stated there, or are likely to state any
where else. We are paying annually twenty-seven mil-
lions of debt incurred for past foreign wars, and twenty

millions more (this is an exaggeration of 3 millions) fcr
present defensive establishments. The former were com-
menced, as the latter are continued, for the sole benefit
of some five or six thousand officers, who are sons,
brothers, or connexions of the aristrocracy. This is, we
believe, a fair relation of what is believed by the mem-
bers of the Financial Reform Association, and what they
wish the thinking population of England and Wales to
believe likewise.

Now, we are not going to contend that a public debt of
£770,000,000 is a public blessing, nor that the taxation of
26,000,000 persons to the amount of £53,000,000 is not
heavy. We had much rather the truth should be told
We may be angry, sorry, indigm
our burdens ; but we need not lie
_ _

If the truth

, the people of this country are responsible for the
- -

ut Luis country. iNo people were so fond of
;—for a number of years—gained so much b

war, and
it as did
popular

najority, or on

hen unpro,

. .
Fepys relates the gloom and distrust which prevailed in
the city at the Dutch war ; but he also tells us that the
merchants were angry, first, because it was an inglorious
war ; secondly, because it was not a French war. Again,
the only means by which William 111. could consolidate
his power and party in England was by a French war.
Unpopular himself his war with France was popular.

Detested by two-thirds of the nation as an alien and an
usurper, he enlisted their sympathies in his struggle with
Louis Quatorze. A Whig Ministry could never have
weathered the storm and tempest of opposition in Queen
Anne's reign, had it not been for the victories of Marl-
borough. Nothing can so clearly indicate the heat to
which party passion in those days rose as the interruption

Lay so,' uty waac oci Ivo vi Lritunpns wmcn min begun at
Blenheim and Ramifies. These were cherished years
after by the people, who never ceased to contrast the pa-
--:-4...1-C _ 4-1 • • -

era, wi
QhPd PA

which glory and conc

Walpole's scrupulous avoidance of a warlike policy
exposed him. At one time he was for giving up
Gibraltar to the Spaniards, and was prevented only
by his dread of the nonular fury. It was the mass of the

of Spain"—who assailed him for resisting their own pro-
pensities, and finally drove him into a conflict which his
judgment and his prejudice equally condemned. It was

led a name and
Which his capriciousness never forfeited nor his
inconsistencies effaced. It was the boast and the theme
of his panegyrists, that he had taught our armies confi-
dence and our navies victory. The American war was
popular till it became inglorious. On Franklin's first
visit to England he found the national bias against the
colonists. It was only when they had lost men, money,
and honour. in a fruitless 4- 1

influenc

lar with three-four
disaTane And M....

'rench revolutionary war was popu-
of the nation. Even in the face of

• ...a .. Al/ Ulla,. I, a I.I.JJCEIUu
large sums out of their private pockets for its continuance.
Never, perhaps, did men contribute so largely to any en-
terprise, as merchants, bankers, landed gentry, and other
of their class did towards the assistance of Pitt's projects
against France. Never was such enthusiasm excited in
the populace as was excited by the victories of the Nile,
St. Vincent, and Trafalgar. There was not a respectable
corporation of England that did not shower down gold
snuff boxes or diamond-hilted swords upon Jervis, Nel-
son, and Collingwood. Liverpool itself has perpetuated
the names of Rodney and Nelson in her streets; Talk of
the aristocracy having encouraged wars for their own in-
terest ! Why, it would have been impossible for ;Inv

aristocracy to check the martial spirit displayed, both be-
fore and after the peace of Amiens, by more than half the

tax-paying cl
Inaccurate
equally inaccurate in others. The army is not officered
by the aristocracy—i. e. by the members of any narrow
and restricted class. It is officered by gentlemen, and we
hope it may always be so. unless the financial refnrm.,..

ssesof the empire

iy the example of foreign States that it is better

Ins put