THE
NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.
JULY 1, 1880.
ORIGINAL PAPERS.
NATIONAL IMPROVEMENTS OP LATE YEARS.
'a tiace out, in all its various bearings and details, the entire object -is, .itle, would bll a volume, but we do not despair of rendering oursufficiently intelligible, even in a single paper, and satisfactorily the immense progress in general improvement the European We made, for example, since the battle of Waterloo. At all will be agreeable to turn from national distress, that has been ,ly sounding upon our ears for the last twelve months, towards sal amelioration. Matthews, in one of his At Homes, describes a .. ,who has been round the world but never in it; now the difference u Ween this ideal personage of the mimic's fancy and our readers will be, that the former, in his circuit, came home as wise as he set out; whilst the latter, at any rate, will be enlightened by facts, if they should not be by the inferences that are drawn from them ; for the necessary objects for information in their voyage, in many cases, lie so com¬ pletely upon the surface that “ he who runs may read,” and conse¬ quently, during our piloting, attention and impartiality are the only re¬ quisites. A prominent feature in the present aspect of affairs is the disinclinaCohbett has somewhere given a feminine grace to that incubus upon our national resources, the public debt, provided it with the power of speech; and made it hold out a threat to the sovereign authority ; “ So long as I exist you shall never go to war.” This, prohahly, in part, may be true; the National Debt may have done something to render us less quarrelsome; but the general disposition to cultivate the arts of peace, throughout the European family, has done, we believe, a great deal more. We are not going to discuss the increased pressure that our finances would suffer by the expenses of another war; all yve are bound to notice here, upon this point, is the facility of raising money for the purpose. All wars have been generally popular in their com¬ mencement, and, if the sinews of them lay readily for the hand of the^ Chancellor of the Exchequer, every thing went on smoothly at first.” We have gone to war in a hurry, and repented at leisure; that has been our constant practice, and, if cutting throats, without any thought* as to the financial consequences that were to follow the exploit, were as much the fashion as formerly, none of his predecessors were ever better prepared for setting the thing going than Mr. Goulburn ; for such •is the abundance of money in the city, that he could, with the greatest July.—VOL. XXIX. NO. CXV. B
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