, 1875-07-24
Military Position of England.


Ever since the Revolution of 1858. Eng
land has been able to make respectable fix
ure in all the great Continental wars-tha
is, she was always able to despatch a force o
Englishmen, Scotchmen or Irishmen to tn
Continent, and able. with the assistance o
such auxiliarles as she was able 10 secure b
diplomacy or pay, TO hold her own agains
anything which the greatest military pOwel
| % the day could send against 1t. Her armies
were the first to COW Louis XIV, and during
his reign and that of his successor brOnsh
I the French monarchy to the brink OF ruin by
( q succession OF victories After iis oyerih hrC,,
and the rise If Napoleon, she snt a sufficient.
/ y large force TO Spain to check the progress
/ of his arms in that quarter and finally, with
such assistance as the Spaniards could give,
TO drive him out of the country, and the fol-
lowing year confronted the whole French
army for a whole day at Waterloo, and came
out of the struggle with the reputation of be-
ing the first military power in the world. In
1853, too, she was able to send force TO the
Crimea which, if it had been properly COM
manded and organized, would, without diff
Guilty, have borne at least half the brunt of
the war to the end, and, indeed, as a matter
of fact, mustered in much larger numbers at
the close than at the beginning. She coaid,
however no. enly play no such part now in a
Continental war. but she could not play any
part at all that would not be moriifying 10
the national pride. As wars are waged in
our day, the contingent she sent to Spain OF
the Crimea would hardly exert an apprecia-
able effect on the fortunes of q struggle be-
tween any two great powers. a small de-
tachment from the armies which Russia or
Austria or Germany or France sends into the
field would suffice To hold it in check Be
sides this, the system of subsidies in money
by which she exerted 50 much influence ON
Continental politics could no longer be resort
cd TO, and for the simple reason that money
will not now go nearly as fay in military
preparations as 1t did In the beginning of the
century Armies cost vastly more per man,
and they contain more men; aud thongh the
veal Of England has increased prodigiuusly
within The last fifty years, i has not increased
In anything like the ratio of the expense of
armament. Le monstre Pitt avec ses gum
ees anglaises " who weighed 80 heavily on the
French imagina ion during the war of the
Revolution, and who was supposed 10 pay the
enemies of the Republic literally, would find
his money-bags IN our time almost ridiculous.
This great change is due largely, of course,
TO the growth of revenues aud population,
but it is due mainly TO he wonderful increase
In the means of transportation. 1t is the rail
roads and steamers which have called great
armies into existence, by making it possible
to concentrate them rapidly. Great blows
can now be struck in a fortnight with three
or four hundred thousand men; and these
can be kept together within one tenth part of
the space il which Napoleon ennld have kept
them, because they can draw their subsistence
from great distances. In short, the military
sysr ems Of modern countries have been adapt
ed to their industrial systems; and to ask
countries like France or Germany now not to
use their force in numbers III warfare would
be much the same thing As asking them not
to use their skill in making riffs or cannon
or steam engines They only doing what
they have always done-yiz., getting as
many men in the field as they can transport
and maintain
That there is any near probability of the
disuse of great armies we presume very lew
thinking men not Immediately engaged in the
advocacy of peaceful modes of adjusting in
ternatiOnal differences really believe
There are also, it must be remembered.
three nations in Europe just now in that un-
easy state of mind through which the individ-
nal passes just be Is entering on manhood.
Neither Russia nor Germany nor Italy knows
as yet exactly what it wants, nor, with the
consciousness of great capabilities, has 1t
made up its mind as to how its ambition is to
be gratifed. Moreover, each of them IL sur
rounded by territory into which expansion is
possible or ever which influence is desirable.
OF the opportunities Of Russian growth we
need not speak, and the future OF the scat
tered races Of Eastern Europe is certainly
problem with which Germany begins to think
she will eventually have to deal, while it Is
quite safe to predict that the generation now
coming on the stage will see on the part OF
Italy a revival of visions and dreams with
regard 10 the basin of the Mediterranean
which are none the less dazzling for having
been extinct FOR fourteen hundred years We
shall probably have more serious talk OF dls,
armament when each says she has attained
hey legitimate place and is satistied.-AG!'@'.