, 1866-08-31

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may afterwards be allowed to return the
compliment for ten hours. And it is
we'll for us that this challenge is deliver
ed in an amicable form and spirit, while
we may peacefully examine into the pre-
tensions on which it rests, and convince
ourselves in time TO prepare instead of
being convinced when the proof is ruin.
1t is a profession that produces not the
slightest effect on the rest of the world
for us to call ourselves a very powerful
nation. We are so in our means, and
can be so effectually by the use of them;
that is all. We have more exposed
points 10 defend than almost all the rest
of the world put together, and our very
wealth makes it more difficult for us than
for any other nation 10 assemble the men
who are TO defend them. Of all the ele-
ments of our Warlike strength, none are
a tenth part SO costly or so impossible to
replace as our soldiers and sailors. AS
for our regular army, a pitched battle
would exhaust it. Our final safety and
the protection Of every part of our domi-
Mons demand alike that our fighting ma
chlnery should be incompatible in power.
In one respect, it is immensely to our
advantage that armament should be cost
ly. In this flibustering age, if war were
not the most expensive of all enterprises,
we, with our industrious population and
our world-scattered territory, should lie
at the mercy Of gangs Of buccaneers and
adventures. We may fairly hope that,
Europe being once settled upon the prin-
cipIe that the peoples ars mainly living
under the Governments of their own
choice, the outrageous mounts of arma-
ments will be diminished. Six millions
Of the best manhood of this small quar-
ter Of the globe, devoted to idleness or the
art Of mutual destruction-not on the
spur of quarrel or danger, but a perpe-
tual Institution of precaution and mutual
distruSt-are q standing protest against
Providence or a hideous defiance of il.
We, perhaps, have not very much in the
way OF numbers 10 give up yet we have
great economies to practise in the way Of
recruiting, in the preservation Of health
and efficiency, and in the thorough COM
pleteness-if possible, the undeniable
superiorlly-of armament. These are
our strength and our saving, or we have
none. And at this very moment when
we are staylled, if not alarmed, into the
adoption Of reasonable improvement in
our armament, we are confessedly and
grossly deficient in a point quite as vital
and quite as easily remediable. When
the pressure Of war comes, then, as it will
be quite too late, perhaps it will be at
tended 10. We can get no competent
surgeons for our forces, because we
refuse, in compliance with the fastidious
impertlnence of our half amateur officer
ing, TO treat them as men of responsibility
and merit may justly claim to be treated.
Our medical men are offering themselves
to share the perils, labours and privations
of foreign armies in the field, when they
refuse to contend on the easiest terms
for commissions in our own. And the
foreign armies in which medical men are
honestly and proper dealt by are SO sufi-
GENTLY provided with native skill that
they can decline the aid. Now, is there
sense enough, is there sincerity enough,
to deal with this patent abuse before it
becomes vitality dangerous, and thus scan
dalous TO a degree uDbearable by those
who occasion it Or do our administra-
tors reform only on being utterly shamed,
by facts and their consequences, out Of
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