81 ORIGIN OF THE WAR OF 1853 chap, combiue the possession of military strength with . an unmeasured devotion to the arts of peace, than it is for a man to be feeble and helpless in the general condition of his body, and yet to have at his command a strong right arm for the conveni- ence of self-defence. The strength of the right arm is as the strength of the man : the prowess of an army is as the valour and warlike spirit of the nation which gives it her flesh and blood. Eng- land, having suffered herself to grow forgetful of this truth, seemed, in the eyes of foreigners, to be declining. It was not the reduction of the military and establishments which was the really evil sign: for — to say nothing of ancient times — the Swiss in Europe, and some of the States of the North American continent, have shown the world that a people which almost dispenses with a standing army may yet be among the most resolute and warlike of nations ; but there was in England a general decrying of arms. Well-meaning men harangued and lectured in this spirit. What they sincerely desired was a continuance of peace ; but instead of taking the thought and acquiring the knowledge which might have qualified them to warn their fellow-countrymen against steps tend ing to a needless war, they squandered their in- dignation upon the deceased authors of former wars, and used language of such preposterous breadth that what they said was as applicable to one war as to another. At length they generated a sect called the ' Peace Party,' which denounced war in strong indiscriminate terms.
