New-York tribune., 1871-06-27
ENGLAND ON GUARD.

| tiOn of ability and luck. The description or
the fatal fight, in which the honor and the
liberties of England went down on the slope
of that now stOried hill, has enough of truth
and vividness to prove the authors thorough
and professional acquaintance with his sub
! iect, and enough of skill and grace in manage
| ment to arrest the attention and excite the
| admiration of even a careless reader. But II
| some vast new enterprise of industry or OF
colonization TO take place half century hence
had been described with equal technical sue
cess, it would have been thing to read and
smile at with passing remark upon its clever
ness. The peculiar good fortune of this curl
Ously realistic sketch is that it fixes In sharp
and almest brutal distinctness the vague
forebOdings of great number of Englishmen,
in the presence of danger which has for the
first time become possible, and which many
think ia therefore probable. It's publication
has thus created an immediate and painful i'm
preston, strong enough and extensive enough
to exert a certain influence upon the thoughts
and the plans of politicians In country
which is governed like England, almost en-
tirely by the power of public opinion, any
| cause no matter how trfling in appearance,
which can stir to such depth the feeling of
the people, has a character of profound signlt-
canoe and deserves the most careful cOnsdera-
tiOn This pamphlet cannot be treated as a
jeu-d'csprit. Ii is at once political argument
and a call to action. 1t rouses aquestion which
must have come up sooner or later, ana de-
mands an immediate solution for 1t. The
author himself in the second edition which has
just been published in England, takes
occasion to interpOlate a few phrases of
especial interest as showing that he desires to
remain free from any partisan bias in his de-
mands for greater efficiency for the army.
Speaking of the present discussion of the
military bill in Parliament, he says: :" 1t was
" a haif-and-h half affair at best; and unfor-
" "tunately, instead of being taken up in Par
Lament IS a national scheme, it was made
"party matter of, and so fell through :" 1t
"was not" he goes on to say later, that
" there was any lack of money, If only 1T had
been spent in the right way. The army cost
"enOugh, and more than enough, TO give us
"proper defense, and there were armed men
/" of all sorts i'll plenty and to spare, II only
I" they had been decently organized. 1t was
" in organization and forethought that we fell
"short, because our rulers did not heartily
"beleve in the need for preparation.
$50 army reform was put off to some more con-
"venieut season. We would not
"even be at the trouble of putting our arse
"nals in a safe place, or of guarding the cap
"ital against q surprise, although the cost OF
"doing so would not have been so much as
"missed from the national wealth" 1t is posi-
Bile. as some have stated, that this powerful |
and graphic writer is "TOry alarmist;" but
if this be true, he has certainly shown unusual
skill in covering all traces of partisan malev0-
lence in these recently inserted phrases. He
attacks the disorganizatiOn of the army, appa-
rently not in the interest of any party or
clique, but from a genuine devotion to the
service, and sincere desire to incite the
country to a work of preparation for which he
evidently thinks there is deadly necessity.
With these later paragraphs he guards against
the objections which were most readily made
against the positions he was thought to as
sumo. He does not advocate, as his vOciferous
critics asserted, an increase OF the army and
navy, and a great expenditure of money. On
the contrary, he expressly states that there are
men and money enough, if properly organized
and intelligently used. 1t is the necessity of
thorough and immediate preparation for war
which he insists upon as the only shield against
the phantom of invasion.
Perhaps, with this limitation, there is nothing
very Objectionable about the book. II there
be an army at all in England, it had infinitely
better be efficient than not, for strict discl-
pline and perfect efficiency are qualities as
valuable in garrison as in the battlefield.
That the utmost care and intelligence should
be employed in the expenditure of the army
appropriations is a proposition absolutely self
evident in spite of the constant violation OF
it. If this incsive satire shall do anything to
set these two truths clearly before the British
people, it will have accomplished an important
and by no means deleterious work
The point at which it becomes purely mis-
chievous is where it excites the British mind
to hatred and suspicion of its neighbOr.
Whatever may happen in the future-and we
do not place implicit faith in either the peace
| fulness of Bismarck or the piety of the Kaiser
where reasons of state intervene-there is az
vet no reason for that indefinite alarm which
now pervades the island on account of Ger
man ambition. A nation ia not necessarily
! 1uarrelsome because 1t is warlike. Victory does
| not entail the necessity of an endless career
of conauests. Our own history shows most
striking instance of the truth of this. When
we came triumphant out of a great war with
| million of fre-proved veterans, the whole
world waited moment with something like
alarm. They wondered what we would do
next They expected nothing less than that
we should appropriate all our nearest neigh
bors on this continent, before letting our
soldiers 90. The result showed the greatness
and strength of nation which could take
up the sword for principle, and lay
it down when it seemed omnipotent, be-
cause there was mo further just cause