The duel now pending teaches the peril from continuance of the
present system. If France and Germany can be brought so suddenly
into collision on a mere pretext, what two nations are entirely
safe? Where is the talisman for their protection? None, surely,
except Disarmament, which, therefore, for the interest of all
nations, should be commenced. Prussia is now an acknowledged
military power, armed "in complete steel,"--but at what cost to
her people, if not to mankind! Military citizenship, according to
Prussian rule, is military serfdom, and on this is elevated a
military despotism of singular grasp and power, operating
throughout the whole nation, like martial law or a state of siege.
In Prussia the law tyrannically seizes every youth of twenty, and,
no matter what his calling or profession, compels him to military
service for seven years. Three years he spends in active service
in the regular army, where his life is surrendered to the trade of
blood; then for four years he passes to the reserve, where he is
subject to periodic military drills; then for five years longer to
the _Landwehr_, or militia, with liability to service in the
_Landsturm_, in case of war, until sixty. Wherever he may be
in foreign lands, his military duty is paramount.
But if this system be good for Prussia, then must it be equally
good for other nations. If this economical government, with
education for all, subordinates the business of life to the
military drill, other nations will find too much reason for doing
the same. Unless the War System is abandoned, all must follow the
successful example, while the civilized world becomes a busy camp,
with every citizen a soldier, and with all sounds swallowed up in
the tocsin of war. Where, then, are the people? Where are popular
rights? Montesquieu has not hesitated to declare that the peril to
free governments proceeds from armies, and that this peril is not
corrected even by making them depend directly on the legislative
power. This is not enough. The armies must be reduced in number
and force. [Footnote: De l'Esprit des Lois, Liv. XI. Ch. 6.] Among
his papers, found since his death, is the prediction, "France will
be ruined by the military." [Footnote: "La France se perdra par
les gens de guerre."_--Pensees Diverses,--Varietes_: (Oeuvres
Melees et Posthumes, (Paris, 1807, Didot,) Tom. II. p. 138.)]
It is the privilege of genius like that of Montesquieu to lift the
curtain of the future; but even he did not see the vastness
of suffering in store for his country through those armies
against which he warned. For years the engine of despotism
at home, they became the sudden instrument of war abroad. Without
them Louis Napoleon could not have made himself Emperor, nor could
he have hurried France into the present duel. If needed in other
days, they are not needed now. The War System, always barbarous,
is an anachronism, full of peril both to peace and liberal
institutions.