The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1851-04-03

ment of political rights. What IL her standing
army at home has been reduced TO fifty thousand
men, while that of France has been augmented
TO four or n We hundred thousand-at the first tap
Of an invaders drum, could we suppose France
mad enough, with volcanic elements at work in
her own bowels, to dream Of descent upon her
ancient rival, every man on English soil would
be transformed into a soldier, more formidable
than the best drilled mcrcensry that breathes.
1t is mistake to suppose that the martial virtues
are best cultivated by the unwilling sluggish per-
Torrance Of camp duty in times Of peace. That
nation will be found to be most dangerous in
war whose citizens in peace left at liberty to
develop their energies in fearful struggles with
adversely, or in the daring pursuits of fortune,
while the products Of their ever-working ener-
gies, instead Of being wasted in useless war-arma
ments, 90 TO the aggrandizement Of national
power and the multiplication Of national re-
sources. The same causes which, as some sup
pose, have been operating unfavorably upon the
warlike character, or, rather, the courage and
daring of the English people, have been in full
operation in this country; but we all know with
what eagerness at the first signal of war,
our peace-loving, peace-drilled people sprsng at
the throat of the Republic of Mexico, and that,
too, in a war pronounced by more than one.h half
of them to be unjust and aggressive. The South
en- Press has mistaken the character of the
English People, their condition and resources.
Never were they more powerful, more courage
Gus, more capable of prolonged endurance, ADLER
to infict deadly blows, than they are now. Abroad
and at home, their Government has shown itself
equal to all emergencies When, year or two
since its empire in the Indies was menaced by
the Sikhs, with what unfsiling energy it met the
danger, and INDICATED its supremacy And at
home, did it betray any signs Of debility, when
Rebellion lifted its front in Ireland, and Chartism
threatened the throne in London2 The wrongs
of Ireland have always commanded our sympa-
thy, and excited our indignation against her
oppressor and we have ever bid God-speed to
the efforts of the masses in England to secure
equal political rights; but bloody revolution in
Great Britain is not the way to redress wrong, or
establish right, any more than in this country;
and we rejoced when we saw with what irresist-
lDle mlRnt tne OoVeTuucut CTusheu INC VI
and upheld the cause of order.
The Southern Press exaggerates the dangers to
be apprehended from France. That Republic
is warlike but she is not so stable in her domes-
tic affairs, or go prosperous that she can afford
to provoke lightly such Power as England No
Frenchman now dreams of the conquest of Great
Britain, and the Southern Press pays but poor
compliment to the "poor, rural" population of
France, when il supposes that the immense
wealth of London must prove provocative to its
appetite for plumber We were not aware that
the robber-instinct was characteristic of the
French people The history of the late revolu-
ton, when the masses Of Paris, indoctrinated rs
they were with the ideas of Socialism, had pos
session of that rich capital, and command Of its
piles of wealth, and yet prohibited plumber I'M
der pain of death, scarcely gives countenance to
the notion that the treasures of London are 80
inviting to the poor people Of France that they
will seize the first opportunity to make descent
upon England for the sake of plumber!
There is nothing in the circumstances of the
two Powers, nothing in their relations to each
other, nothing in their relations to Europe gene
rally, which threatens to embroil them. On the
they belong to the same great system
Of Representative Government, and they are
equally interested in maintaining political insti-
buttons, founded to great extent in common upon
the doctrine of Popular Sovereignty, against
the aggressive designs of Russian and Austrian |
Despotism