MR COBDEN ON THE NATIONAL DEFENCES.

It is popularly averred by our Southern neighbours that the house of

every Englishman is his castle. No doubt to a certain extent this may

be true. In the modern mansion, as in the ancient fortalice, the

victualing department is always a matter of prime importance, and

Chubb's patent safety lock may be accepted as a convenient substitute

for the portcullis. Yet, after all, we suspect that the resemblance,

if the matter be closely investigated, will turn out to be rather

imaginary than real. A castle, according to the ideas which we have

imbibed from an early course of miscellaneous and feudal reading, must

have been a sort of earthly paradise, and the possessors of it wholly

exempt from that never-ending series of daily persecution to which we,

unhappy moderns, are subjected. With a good eight-foot thick wall of

solid masonry around, a moat broad enough to baffle the leap of Flying

Childers, and deep enough to have drenched the scalping-lock of

Goliath of Gath, and a few falconets and patereroes symmetrically

arranged along the parapets, a man might afford to enjoy a quiet

night's rest without dread of duns, or any fear of the visits of that

most malignant of unexecuted ruffians, the tax-gatherer. He might give

a jocular rejoinder to the summons of the pursuivant who appeared

before his gates with the intelligence of a further railway call; and

dismay any invading snip by the apparition of a scarecrow dangling

from a gallows on the summit of the donjon-keep. Nay, if currency were

absolutely indispensable for the purpose of paying the garrison,

Castle Dangerous would be more effective than the bank parlour has

shown itself in late times under the operation of Sir Robert Peel's

Act for the perpetuation of national bankruptcy. A simple announcement

in the neighbouring town of a large assortment of cast-off uniforms

and rusty armour for sale, would infallibly attract to the stronghold

a collection of Caucasians who adhere to the Jewish persuasion. Once

within the guard-room, we should deal summarily, and after the manner

of Sir Reginald Front-de-Bœuf, with these infidels. The forceps

should be produced, and no ether or chloroform, upon any pretext

whatever, allowed. We should negotiate with Moses or Mephibosheth at

the rate of units for a stump, tens for a decayed, and hundreds for an

unimpeachable grinder; and may we never shake shekel again if we do

not think we could extract a reasonable amount of ransom from the jaws

of the Princes of the Captivity! As to the advent of many enemies, we

should be utterly and entirely fearless. Cohorn and Vauban might come

with their lines, and mines, and battering-trains without disturbing

our equanimity, or causing the slightest tremor in our hand as we

filled out our post-prandial bumpers of Bordeaux. So long as powder

lasted and shot was plentiful, we should reciprocate the hostile

compliments by all manner of shell and canister; and, if the metal of

the rogues proved, in the long run, too heavy for us, they should have

our full permission to pound away until they were tired; and, on

entering the citadel, they would find us smoking our pipe in the

cartridge-room, as cool as a cucumber, or as Marius at Carthage, or

General Chassé at Antwerp, or any other warrior and hero of antiquity

whomsoever.

Now take that picture--compare it with the state of your present

domicile--and tell us whether, in effect, the fortalice is not an

Eden? What kind of existence do you lead in that Heriot Row house, for

which, last year, when shares were up, you were ass enough to pay some

two or three thousand pounds? You cannot go into your room after

breakfast to write an article for Blackwood, or to draw a

condescendence, without hearing every five minutes the dissonance of

that ceaseless bell. Not unearned are poor Grizzy's eleemosynary

Christmas shoes, for fully one-half of the day is that most weary

wight occupied in flitting from the regions beneath to answer the

summons which _may_ bring an invitation or a fee, but which, in nine

cases out of ten, is the announcement of a gaping creditor. First, in

comes a document wafered, according to that beastly practice, which,

for the credit of Tyre and Sidon, we hope is a modern invention.

_That_, of course, goes into the waste basket without more remark than

a passing objurgation. Then follow the prospectuses of three insurance

companies, you being nearly ruined already with the amount which you

are compelled to pay annually, in virtue of your marriage contract, to

the Scottish Widows' Fund. Next appears a long slip, purporting to be

the intimation of a police assessment. You swear savagely, having

ascertained the fact, by dint of a spirited correspondence in the

newspapers, that the available force of that esteemed body in the

metropolis of Scotland is not much over a dozen, and having accurate

personal corroboration of the statistics by walking the other day into

an unmolested bicker, from which you emerged with a broken hat, and a

head phrenologised by a blacking bottle. Before you have recovered

from this, you receive another missive with a charge for cleaning the

streets--an operation which you know, to your cost, has been performed

throughout the last thaw exclusively by the petticoats of the females;

and upon the back of this appear mulctures touching gas and water. A

huge oblong missive, the envelope whereof bears on a corner the

letters O. H. M. S., and which is sealed with a most imposing and

royal escutcheon, deludes you for a moment into the belief that Lord

John Russell has at last exhibited a gleam of common-sense, and has

recommended you to her Majesty either for a commissionership or for a

reasonable place on the pension list, in consequence of your balaamite

contributions to the unsaleable Edinburgh Review. You open it, and

behold, it contains nothing but a warning that you have not paid the

last quarter of your compounded and thrice confounded income-tax! A

gentleman next requests the honour of a moment's interview. In the

hope that he may prove a Writer to the Signet, you weakly yield; and

incontinently an individual with a strong Israelitish countenance, a

fetid breath, and an odour of stale tobacco floating around his

person, solicits the honour of your custom for a packet of

sealing-wax, a gross of steel pens, or a new edition of the

Pentateuch. You eject him in a tornado of wrath; but the cup of your

misery is not full. Aaron is succeeded by Mendizabel--an expatriated

Spanish grandee, who bears a strong recommendation from an individual

whose handwriting seems to be attached to every begging petition in

the country. This fellow won't choose to understand you, however

frantic you may appear; so that, for the sake of peace, you violate

your conscience and get rid of him at the expenditure of a shilling.

Grizzy is called up, and severely reprimanded for her want of

discrimination in admitting the illustrious stranger; and the

consequence is that, on the very next summons, she peremptorily denies

you to a Glasgow agent who has come through by special train for a

consultation on a case of emergency. Last of all, just as you are

settling steadily to your work, and turning over the third sheet of

foolscap, in walks your friend THE HAVERIL, on no earthly errand

whatever, except to inquire how you are getting on. Of all social

pests, this kind of animal is undoubtedly the worst. In intellect he

is singularly weak: in disposition curious and prying. He hops about

your study like a magpie, eying every letter, as though he longed to

make himself master of its contents; and, notwithstanding that you

believe the creature to be strictly honest, you would on no account

leave him for a couple of minutes in undisturbed possession of the

sanctum. He peeps into every book, indulges you with a quantity of

small literary swipes, and finally fastening upon a volume of prints,

entreats you to go on with your occupation, as he, the Haveril, is

perfectly competent to the task of entertaining himself. Culpable

homicide, say our law-books, ranges from a crime of great enormity to

the smallest possible fraction of imputed guilt; and if, under such

aggravating circumstances, you were to toss your acquaintance out of

the window, it is not likely that your subsequent sentence would be

severe. But you have at the bottom of your heart a sort of attachment

to the nincompoop, whom you know to be utterly harmless, and who,

moreover, to do him justice, invariably stands up for you, whenever

you are assailed in your absence. Therefore you abstain from violence,

and the penance which you heroically undergo is but one degree short

of martyrdom. Under the visitation of these Egyptian plagues, the

morning wears insensibly away; and the imp of darkness, when he calls

for copy about dinner-time, is summarily exorcised, and dispatched,

empty-handed, to the solitudes of his awful den! Is there, then, any

feasible case of resemblance between the fortress and the modern

mansion?

We have been led into this train of thought by a perusal of the

speeches lately delivered at Manchester on the subject of our national

defences. The question is one of undoubted interest to us all, and it

is well that it should be brought forward and thoroughly discussed in

time. If there is danger, either immediate or impending, let us know

it, and then, to a certain extent, we shall be forwarned if not

forearmed. The Duke of Wellington--a tolerable military authority, as

times go--has already given us his opinion on the point, and that

opinion has been immediately met and contradicted by the sapient Mr

Richard Cobden. We have yet to learn the exact amount of Mr Cobden's

attainments in the arts of strategy and fortification; but as he is

undoubtedly a "myriad-minded" gentleman, of fair average conceit, and

more than average effrontery, and as we have hitherto abstained from

making special mention of him in our columns, it may, perhaps, be

worth while to see how he has acquitted himself in the lists against

the veteran conqueror of Napoleon. Our old friend Tomkins--he of the

Ten Tumblers--used to be, if we recollect aright, rather eloquent upon

this weighty topic. Tomkins, in early life, had sustained an amatory

disappointment, in competition with a thwacking drum-major; and

therefore always looked upon the army with somewhat of a jaundiced

eye. The sound of the fife, clarion, and trumpet was ever after

distasteful to his ear; and he never trotted his mare past a marching

regiment of these scarlet locusts, without a spasm of righteous

indignation. "They eat our bread, sir!" he would say, "and drink of

our cup, and do absolutely nothing in return. The sooner we get rid of

them the better. An Englishman, sir, needs no hired supernumeraries to

protect his home. When was our soil ever invaded? Let the French come,

and we will give them graves!" And having delivered himself of this

sublime sentiment, Tomkins would incontinently ring for another

tumbler. It always struck us, however, as a singular proof of the

eccentricities or rather inconsistencies of genius, that our

distinguished friend, when in his cups, and towards the close of the

evening, invariably began to glorify himself upon his length of

lineage and descent. In support of these heraldic claims, he was wont

to cite the case of his great progenitor, "the founder of the family,"

who just about a century ago had the condescension to hold the stirrup

of Lord George Murray, as he alighted from his horse when the clans

marched into Derby. Tomkins, on the strength of this anecdote, had

rather a kindly feeling towards the Jacobites, and would never allow

that the enterprise had at any time the character of an invasion. "We

were ready, sir," he would exclaim, "to have marched up, in the Reform

year, from Birmingham to London; and who can doubt that, had we done

so, we should have driven the household troops before us as the chaff

flies out from the fanners?"

We have often deeply regretted that Tomkins did not survive to witness

the consummation of the triumphs of free-trade--a cause which he

contributed materially by his efforts and his writings to advance. The

leading feature of his character was the total absence of every kind

of prejudice or bigotry. He held it to be a fundamental principle, as

old as Magna Charta, that England was to be governed mainly through

the influence of cotton: that all other interests were immeasurably

inferior to this, and that the settlement and maintenance of our

colonies was a gross instance of reckless and frantic extravagance.

"Let us thrive," he would say, "through the arts of universal peace.

Let us set a bright example to the world by opening our ports to the

free admission of all foreign produce, without any kind of reciprocity

whatever. If our artisans and workmen cannot maintain their ground,

let them go to the comfortable Unions we have provided, and pick oakum

in return for their rations of wholesome bone-soup! Let us hear no

more nonsense about humanity or short-time! Cram the children into the

factories so soon as they can walk. Early habits are the surest means

of promoting and fostering industry. Let us look to our imports, and

the exports will look after themselves. Disband the army. Reduce the

navy. Do away with Church establishments. Contract the currency.

Flabbergast the colonies; and Great Britain must go ahead!" Such were

the expressed opinions of that great and good man, who now sleeps in a

premature sepulchre at Staley Bridge: and we need hardly add, that in

matters of revenue, he was an uncompromising advocate of the sponge.

Had his valuable existence been prolonged for a few years, he would

doubtless have been at the head of the onward movement, and might have

shared in the rewards which are gratefully accorded to the patriots of

this latter age. Andrew Marvell, sitting incorruptible in his garret

with a shoulder-blade of mutton, has ceased to be a favourite example

with the new democratic school. They affect ovations and banquets,

perform continental reforming tours, and demean themselves after the

manner of our able correspondent, Mr Dunshunner, who, we are glad to

observe, has been lately invited to a free-trade demonstration on the

banks of the Bosphorus, by several of the leading Muftis of

Constantinople. Dunshunner writes in great spirits, and has promised

us an early paper, on the advantage of our establishing free-trade

relations with the domestic Circassian market.

Failing Tomkins, we have every reason to be proud of his disciple and

successor, Mr Cobden. In fact, the mantle of our lamented friend has

fallen most gracefully upon his shoulders; and in nothing is the

genuine likeness more displayed, than in the contempt which both of

them have exhibited for the standing army of Great Britain. Yet,

perhaps, in this we may be doing Mr Cobden some little wrong. Tomkins,

we know, had just and natural reason for abhorring the sight of a

red-coat; Cobden, so far as we are aware, has no such motive for

dislike. Of the two, he is the calmer and the cooler man, and very

naturally looks sedulously about him for the means of substantiating

his theories. After all the fine words which Sir Robert Peel bestowed

upon him, to no visible improvement of his parsnips, Mr Cobden very

naturally felt a little uneasy at the non-fulfilment of several of his

prophecies. It is a pity that a man cannot vaticinate in this country

without undergoing a certain risk of subsequent stultification; and

yet, if he does not affect the gift of prophecy, your patriot is

usually at a discount. Our memory is not a very good one, and yet we

have hardly forgotten certain flourishes by Mr Cobden, regarding the

immense amount of employment which was to accrue to this country,

immediately after the passing of his favourite measures. Bread was to

be as cheap as dirt, common luxuries within the reach of every one,

and the whole British nation, through its length and breadth, was to

hold a perpetual jubilee and jollification, to the music of the

engine and the shuttle.

"Wild dreams! but such

As Plato loved; such as, with holy zeal,

Our Milton worship'd. Blessed hopes! awhile

From man withheld, even to the latter days!"

and, were we to add, in the words of Mr Canning's imitation of the

above passage, the concluding line,

"Till France shall come, and all laws be repeal'd,"

it would not, we apprehend, be entirely foreign to the subject. The

result, however, so far as we have yet seen, has by no means justified

the experiment. Trade, instead of improving under the stimulus of

free-trade, has fallen off, and a year of commercial panic and misery

has been the result of the liberal nostrum. This, no doubt, is very

galling to our friends of the billy-roller. Old stagers like us, who

are sometimes represented as prosy, because we reverence time-honoured

principles, love the constitution of our country, and defend the

memory of those who were the true founders of its greatness, are

supposed to feel some triumph at the aspect of the present depression,

and to exult over the slough of despond in which the Whigs are left to

flounder. If there be any who, judging from their own mean nature, so

think of us, it is hardly worth our while to undeceive them. Bitterly

indeed have we mourned over the spectacle of fraud and imbecility

which the last two years have disclosed in the higher places of the

land, and most earnestly do we hope that, ere long, the true-hearted

people of this country will awake to a full sense of their present

perilous and by no means creditable position. All the difficulties

which are just now pressing upon ministers, and which, for a longer

period than we can venture to calculate, must continue to environ

them, are of their own creating, and are the natural effects of that

unconstitutional policy which would sacrifice every thing for the mere

possession of power. Do we speak truth or not? Let the Chancellor of

the Exchequer answer us. What but free-trade and its concomitant

schemes has lessened the revenue and increased the pauperism of the

country? What but the vicious and yet invincible desire of change,

consequent on a contest for popularity, has struck a blow at the

prosperity, and even the existence, of our colonies, which has already

reacted with fearful effect within the centre of the mother-country?

Mr Cobden, on being twitted with the failure, or, at all events, the

non-realisation of his unqualified prophecies, very naturally, but not

very wisely, flies into a passion. He fixes, of course, upon the

failure of the harvest of 1846 as the prime element of justification.

Can I control the elements?--says he--can I regulate the seasons?

Certainly not, Mr Cobden. We presume that no one, not even the

stupidest operative that used to bellow in your congregation, and who

believed every one of the golden promises which you were hardy enough

to enunciate, ever dreamed that you were in possession of that power.

Several of us, moreover, are of opinion that, upon the whole, you have

been rather overrated as a conjurer, and that, having failed in your

endeavours to get into an empty quart bottle, you are not a whit more

likely to succeed when you come to experiment upon a pint. But let us

whisper in your ear that this excuse will hardly serve your turn, and

that it is wholly irreconcilable with the arguments which you used to

advance. A copious supply of foreign grain was the very thing for

which you and your associates primarily clamoured. You wanted an

import to a prodigious extent, and you flattered yourselves that, for

each quarter of American wheat, you would be able to send in exchange

so many yards of that calico which you fondly maintain to be the

principal fabric of the world. You were content, and you have said it

over and over again, to take your chance of the home market, provided

the other ones were opened to you. Now that you have them open, and

now that wheat has come in such abundance as even your most sanguine

anticipations could not have conceived, you have the coolness and

effrontery to turn round and throw the blame upon Providence, for

having speedily brought about the very thing which every charlatan in

Great Britain has been shouting for since the anti-corn-law league

began! Do you really think that this will go down with any portion of

the community? that such deplorable wriggling will not insure you,

throughout the country, the contempt of every man of average and

common understanding? or that the labourer on short time, and the

artisan whom you have deprived of his employment, will put up with

such miserable excuses? The plain state of the fact is,--and you know

it,--that your theories are crumbling beneath your feet. You cannot

expect that your gross and egregious error will escape a speedy

detection. You, without any previous qualification for the task, save

your natural talent, which is not much, have thrust yourself forward

to a prominence which you never were entitled to occupy. You may fancy

yourself, if you choose, the people's man; but so were Jack Cade, and

Wat Tyler, and several others, who, mistaking energy for knowledge,

and ill-regulated enthusiasm for calm deliberate judgment, took upon

themselves the task of misleading the English people, and either

perished amidst the ruin they had caused, or sank back into their

pristine obscurity. There is a favourite cant phrase very current just

now, to the effect that "we are living in new times." The same thing

might have been said by our common progenitor Adam, the day after his

expulsion from Paradise. It is the most trite truth of the world.

Every new day brings its change, but every new day does not obliterate

the memory of those which have gone before. All the "new times" which

this universe has seen, have not sufficed to alter in the slightest

iota the original character of mankind. Human nature still remains the

same; and the man who does not acknowledge and adopt this as a

principle, is a crazed and dangerous visionary. Never, under any

circumstances, ought such a one to gain ascendancy in the state, or to

be allowed to reduce his unsound theories to practice. If he does so,

woe be to the country which countenances him in the rash attempt!

History and its philosophy are the true studies for a statesman in

every age. In that educational point of view, we strongly suspect that

the present ministerial cabinet is sorely deficient. The Whigs, as a

body, are conversant with a very small space of history indeed. They

are constantly jabbering about the fundamental principles of the

constitution, which they date back no further than the advent of

William of Orange. Their pet historian, and the ablest man among them,

cannot make a single speech without dragging in, neck and heels, some

vapidity about the Revolution Settlement of 1688; and they try to be

profound in their criticisms upon the policy of Walpole and of Bute.

Charles James Fox, of course, still continues to be their principal

fetish, and they cling to antiquated party toasts with a superstition

that would disgrace a Mussulman. But of the freer and bolder regions

of history--of all that is great and elevating--of the numerous

lessons to be gleaned, and the examples to be gathered from the grand

old records of kingly and loyal England, or of the fall and fate of

nations through the imbecility of their rulers, or the ambition of

ignorant demagogues, they either know nothing practically, or they

fail to acknowledge their importance. Whiggery is a small machine

which works according to conventional rules of its own, and will not

make allowance for the great springs of human action. A cabinet of

Whigs is admirably adapted for the control and legislation of the

sovereign state of Pumpfernickel, or some analogous German

principality; but they never can assume their place at the helm of

affairs in a great empire such as that of Britain, without landing the

whole of us in dangerous difficulties, and sneaking off at the last

hour under a humiliating sense of their own impotence and presumption.

The case is still worse when men like Mr Cobden come forward to try

their hand either as pilots or as coadjutors. We presume that Mr

Cobden, if the question were put to him, would candidly admit the

narrowness of the range of his peculiar historical studies. We

understand that he does not pretend to be a scholar, and that the

amount, of the information which he possesses, however great that may

be, is limited to modern facts and premises, upon which he usually

reasons. A worse kind of education for a statesman, or for the leader

of a popular movement, cannot be found than this. It was this kind of

partial knowledge, unilluminated by the clear lucid light which bygone

history alone can shed authoritatively upon passing events, which, in

the recollection of many still alive, led to the dark catastrophe and

horrors of the French Revolution. There is hardly one social change,

hardly one political experiment now making, for which a prototype

cannot be furnished from the pages of history. And of what possible

use, it may be well asked, is history, if we are not to recur to it

for a solution of the difficulties which may arise in our onward

progress? Are we to gain no confidence, nor take any warning from the

rise and decline of nations, not much less powerful than our own,

whose checkered career and the causes of it are open to our view? Is

the world behind us a blank, that we should go stumbling on at the

instigation of every reckless adventurer, more culpable in his

attempts to guide us, than the ship-captain who should presume to

thread the coral reefs of the Indian Ocean without consulting the

authoritative chart? Are we always to derive our information, not from

what has been done and acted in the globe before--not from an

attentive examination of men and their motives, and the countless

springs of action which stir them, but from statistical tables and

long columns of figures, compiled by rusty officials in their dens,

and brought forth for the first time to be cited as overwhelming

testimony by some premier who is meditating apostasy, or seeking some

palliative to cover his shameful abandonment of a party? The features

of the so-called statesmanship of the present day are essentially

those of bureaucracy. A drudging arithmetical clerk, with whom a unit

is every thing, and who would be nearly driven to despair by the

discovery of a misquoted fraction, is a leading authority with our

statesmen; and his vamped-up tables of export and import are

considered sounder expositions of the destinies of the human race,

than all the accumulated wisdom, learning, and experience which the

annals of the world can afford.

The "tables," however, are now turned, and therefore we shall not say

any more for the present about the blue-book and ledger system. Let us

go back to Mr Cobden, whom we still find rather uselessly employed in

protesting his total inability to command the clemency of the seasons.

We have already shown, by papers published in this Magazine in

December last and January of the present year, that our exports have

lamentably fallen off, and that the balance of trade is against us.

Such, we maintained, and we continue still to maintain, must be the

effect of the new theories, especially under the restricted operation

of the currency. We are glad to see that upon this latter point, at

all events, we are supported by a large majority of the press. Mr

Cobden, however, denies the evils of the currency; so that he must

fall back upon something else to account for the unexpected

defalcation.

Such is our position at home and abroad; and if we have been guilty of

a digression, which we cannot altogether deny, we shall plead our

motive in justification. When Mr Cobden comes forward with his views

of foreign policy, with his ideas of the social progress of the

universe, and with his notions as to the policy which hereafter may be

adopted by great and ambitious foreign states,--when, after delivering

his opinion upon these very weighty matters, he arrives at the

inference, not only that we require no addition to our national

defences, but that our present establishment of a standing army and

navy is absurd, extravagant, and superfluous, we are entitled to

inquire into the success with which his first experiment in

legislative agitation has been crowned. Of the abundance of good

things which he promised, how many have been realised, how many are

like to emerge from the dark experimental gulf? If writhing colonies,

diminished exports, want of employment, distress at home, enormous

failures, monetary restriction, and vast depreciation of property,

have followed in the wake of free-trade--if ministry are at present

racking such brains as they possess to discover some means of keeping

up the revenue to its ordinary level, and if they are forced to lay on

a direct additional war-tax in times of the profoundest peace,--surely

we shall not incur a charge of fickleness or ingratitude, if we should

receive this new oracle of the free-trading Mokanna with some symptoms

of dubiety and distrust.

The whole question arose thus. It appears that the Duke of Wellington,

whose illustrious reputation and great services entitle him to be

heard with the deepest and most reverential respect, has long

entertained great uneasiness on account of the undefended state of

this country in the case of a hostile invasion. That such an event is

likely to take place, no one supposes or has said--that it possibly

might take place, very few will venture to deny. The idea is not a new

one; for within the range of the present century, preparations have

been actually made for that purpose, and that whilst the wonderful

power and facilities of steam-navigation were unknown. Fulton--we have

seen men who knew him when he was a humble artisan in the West of

Scotland--had, despairing of success at home, submitted his models to

the French government, who, fortunately for us, did not then

appreciate the merits of the invention. Three years afterwards, he

started his first steamer on the Hudson in America. The power which

our French neighbours had once so nearly within their grasp, at a time

when it might have been used to the exceeding detriment of England,

became generally known and adopted, and we need not speak of its

progress. It has altogether changed the tactics of naval warfare. It

can conquer the old difficulties of wind and tide, and it has

immensely shortened the period of transit from the continental coast

to our own. The security, therefore, of our insular barriers has been

materially weakened, and thus far the possibility of an invasion from

abroad has been increased. We are not now speaking of the

_probability_, which is matter for subsequent consideration.

This open and admitted fact is the foundation of the whole argument of

the Duke of Wellington. In the evening of a glorious life, the greater

part of which has been spent in the active service of his country, the

veteran soldier has thought it his duty to remind us, for our own

guidance and that of our children, of the actual existing state of our

national defences, which he deems to be insufficient. It is one of the

last, but not, we think, the least important of the services which the

venerable Duke has rendered to the nation, with whose proudest history

his name will be eternally associated. We take it--or at least we

ought to take it--from his lips, as a solemn warning; as the

disinterested testimony of a man alike pre-eminent in war and in

council; as the deliberate opinion of the GREAT PACIFICATOR OF EUROPE.

For notwithstanding the irreverent, mean, and scurrilous taunts of the

Manchester gang of demagogues, it is undeniable that the Great Duke

has been the chief instrument in procuring for us the blessing of that

peace which for two and thirty years we have enjoyed. It was his

conquest at Waterloo which hushed the world. The tranquillity of

Europe was the stake for which he fought, and he nobly won it. And

now, when, at the last hour, this illustrious man comes forward to

offer us his advice, and to warn us against the folly of trusting too

implicitly to the continuance of that tranquillity, is it wise that we

should scorn his counsel?

And what is the proposal which has excited such wrath, and so sorely

roused the choler of the bilious Cobden? Simply this--that the British

nation should at all times maintain at home a military force

sufficient to repel an invasion, should such be attempted, from our

shores. The Duke believes and maintains that we cannot now, as

formerly, rely solely and implicitly upon our navy for defence, but

that, in the event of a war, we must provide against the contingency

of an enemy's landing. Our arsenals, he thinks, and our dockyards,

should be supported by a military force, and at least we ought to

exhibit such a front as will hold out no temptation to a hostile

attempt. These are not aggressive, but precautionary measures; and

without them, according to the Duke, we cannot consider ourselves

secure.

Such are the proposals which Cobden and his clique--we are sorry to

observe a gentleman like Sir William Molesworth among them--are

prepared to resist to the last. They want no defences at all. They are

opposed to any augmentation of the army. They would rather do without

it, or reduce the establishment so as to make the national saving

equivalent to the diminished amount of revenue consequent upon their

commercial experiments. They look upon free-trade as a universal

panacea which is to cure all national and social ailments, and to

remedy every grievance. War is to be no more--territorial aggressions

unknown--and the advent of the millennium is to be typified by an

unbounded exportation of calico!

These are the views which have been lately propounded at Manchester,

and the parties are therefore at issue. Cobden has matched himself

against Wellington, and Quaker Bright has volunteered to be his

bottle-holder. We really wish that it had been permitted us to

approach the argument without mingling with it any asperity. But this

is now totally out of the question. The disgusting and vulgar language

which Mr Cobden has thought fit to use towards the greatest historical

character of the age--the low-minded scurrility which pervades the

whole of his egotistical discourse,--put him beyond the pale of

conventional courtesy, or even of dignified rebuke. The man who could

stand up in his place--no matter what audience was before

him--stigmatise the Duke of Wellington as being in his old age a

whetter and fomenter of discord, and finally insinuate _dotage_ as the

only intelligible excuse, deserves, if there is a spark of national

feeling left, to be publicly pilloried throughout Britain. "Would it

not," says this disloyal prater, "have been a better employment for

him to have been _preaching forgiveness for_, and oblivion of the

past, than in reviving the recollection of Toulon, Paris, and

Waterloo?" Forgiveness! and for what? For having vindicated the rights

of the nations, terminated the insatiable career of Napoleon's rapine,

and restored to us that peace which he is still desirous to preserve

by maintaining Britain invulnerable, secure, and free!

But let us pass from a matter so deeply discreditable both to the

speaker, and to the audience that applauded his sentiments. Meanly as

we think of the latter, we are yet to believe that the next morning

brought to many some feelings of compunction and of shame. Not so the

former, who, wrapped up in the panoply of his own ridiculous conceit,

a would-be Gracchus, must remain a Thersites for ever.

Irrespective of the purse argument, which, as a matter of course, is

the chief motive of these gentry, the free-traders attempt to brand

the Duke of Wellington with a charge of attempting to raise a hostile

feeling between this country and the continental states. The

accusation is as false as it is frivolous. The attitude of Britain is

not, and never will be, aggressive. She is at this moment in the proud

position of the mighty mediator of Europe; and it is to her strong

right arm, and not to her powers of producing calico, that she owes

that ascendency. Our interest clearly and incontestibly is to maintain

peace, but that we cannot hope to maintain, if we abandon the power to

enforce it. Among nations as among individuals, the weak cannot hope

to prosper in active competition with the strong--nay, they are even

in a worse position, because the law will protect individuals, whilst

to nations there exists no common Court of Appeal. If we are content

to renounce our position, and to give up our foreign possessions--a

consummation which the free-trade theorists appear abundantly to

desire--if we are to confine ourselves simply to our insular

boundaries, and advertise as the workshop of the world--then, indeed,

we shall surrender our supremacy, and with it the hope of maintaining

peace. Can these men read no lessons from history? Does the sight of

what is daily acting around them justify their anticipations of a

millennium? What is the real state of the fact? Russia, having

absorbed Poland, is now engaged in a territorial war with the

Circassians, upon which she has already expended an enormous amount of

treasure and of men; and she is prepared for a double sacrifice, if by

such means she can gain possession of the passes which are the keys

to southern Asia. Austria is hanging upon the skirts of Italy,

concentrating her forces upon the frontier, and menacing an immediate

invasion. Very lamb-like and pacific has been the conduct of America

to Mexico. As for the French, whom Cobden eulogises as the most

"affectionate and domesticated race on the face of the earth"--did the

man ever hear of the Revolution?--they are notoriously the most

aggressive of all the European nations. Did domestic feelings excite

them to the conquest of Algeria? Did affection lead them to Tahiti?

Was it a mania for free-trade that brought about the Montpensier

marriage? Really it is difficult to know for which palm, that of

ignorance or effrontery, this Manchester manufacturer is contending.

Has he forgot the Joinville letter, which was hailed with such rapture

on the other side of the Channel? Was Paris fortified without a

purpose? Is he blind to the fact that the peace of Europe at this

moment depends upon the life of a man now in his seventy-fifth year?

We maintain that there never was a period, at least within our

recollection, when the maintenance of general tranquillity throughout

Europe was more precarious. And yet, this is the very moment which Mr

Cobden selects for a crusade, or rather a tirade, against our military

establishments!

Our feelings are any thing but those of dislike towards the

"affectionate and domesticated" French. We admire their genius, and

read their novels,--and we have a peculiar affection for their wine.

In one point alone we agree with Mr Cobden. We still retain the

ancient Caledonian predilection for claret in competition with port,

and we should be sorry to be deprived of champagne. Still sorrier

should we be to lose our annual spring trip to Paris; to be banished

from the Boulevards and the Palais Royal, and to enjoy only in memory

those delicious dinners at the Rocher de Cancale. We have no wish to

run the risk of a compulsory detention at Verdun. Nay, we shall go

further, and apprise Mr Cobden, that had our lot been cast a few

centuries back, we should in all probability have been fervent

maintainers of the ancient bond of alliance between King Achaius of

Scotland and the Emperor Charlemagne; and nothing would have given us

greater pleasure than to have visited Manchester along with a few

thousand lads who swore by Saint Andrew, whilst the partisans of Denis

were amusing themselves in the neighbourhood of Portsmouth. But times

have changed. We have contracted an alliance with the nation of which

Mr Cobden is so creditable a representative; and upon the whole, we

are not altogether dissatisfied with the arrangement. We can now look

upon the French with an eye undimmed by affection; and we must confess

that we have very little, if any, faith in that marvellous change of

their character which is sworn to by the Manchester spouters. They may

be very excellent fellows, but we would rather not trust them with our

keys. The tone and temper of a nation do not alter quite so rapidly as

Mr Cobden seems to suppose. The history of Algeria is a very

significant hint that the old ideas of the French on the score of

conquest are not yet wholly obliterated; and we should rather imagine

that they have not quite forgotten their pristine appetite for

plunder. They deserve, however, considerable credit for the dexterous

manner in which they have thrown dust into the eyes of Mr Cobden. You

would think, to hear the man, that he is an inoculated Frenchman.

Presume to criticise their character, and his scream is like that of a

railway engine. Just hint that you consider them unscrupulous, and our

calico-printer overboils "with horror and shame and indignation." We

have no doubt that he considers it a great pity that history cannot be

annihilated--that is, supposing he has ever condescended to notice any

thing so trivial as history. Will he not favour the world with a new

version of the French Revolution? We are anxious to hear his grounds

for supposing the French to be an "affectionate and domestic people;"

and since we are, to fraternise with them altogether, it would be

comfortable to know our brethren as they really are. We want to have a

true account of the Noyades. Were these really wholesale drownings, or

a mere ebullition of national fun? Doubtless, there is much

humour--though we have not yet been able to see it--in the clanking of

the guillotine; and the expeditions to Moscow and Madrid, with their

accompanying tales of rapine and butchery, may possibly be

demonstrated by Mr Cobden as instances of a practical joke. Davoust,

as the Hamburgians know, was a fine fellow; and so, upon examination,

may prove Robespierre and Marat. Perhaps, too, he will come down a

little later, and tell us the particulars of the gallant and

gentleman-like behaviour of M. Dupetit-Thouars towards Queen Pomare.

Or will he undertake to prove that Abd-el-Kader is an infamous

scoundrel, utterly beyond the pale or security of national faith and

of plighted honour?

It is plain, either that Mr Cobden has been egregiously humbugged by

the acute foreigners, or that he has subsided into a state of calm,

settled, and imperturbable idiocy. It is too cruel in Bright to parade

in such a way his former friend and master, and to quote from his

private correspondence. We wonder what is Sir Robert Peel's present

opinion of the man whom he chose to bespatter with his praise, and for

whose sake he was content to forfeit the elaborate reputation of a

life-time. But bad as Cobden may be, he is fairly surpassed in Gallic

enthusiasm by the notorious George Thompson, whose patriotism may be

gathered from the tone of the following paragraph:--"Why, what were

the toasts given at the sixty reform banquets of France? This has been

one of their toasts at least, 'Fraternity, liberty, equality.' Let us

echo from these shores the shouts that have been raised there, and I

am sorry to say, stifled, so far as Paris is concerned, for the

banquet did not come off there. Let us send back the echo, fraternity,

liberty, equality!" And this pestilential raving has been applauded to

the echo in Manchester.

Let us have peace with the French by all means, and with all the world

beside; but let us not fall into the despicable and stupid blunder of

supposing that human passion and human prejudice, the lust for power,

and the cravings of ambition, can ever be eradicated by any system of

commercial arrangement. Britain is naturally an object of envy to all

the continental states. It is her strength and position which have

hitherto maintained the balance of power--and of that the European

states are fully and painfully aware. Every step which can tend to

weaken the fidelity of her colonies, is regarded with intense interest

abroad, and more especially in France. The people of that country envy

us for our wealth, and dislike us for our power; and war with Britain,

could the French afford it, would at any time find a host of

advocates. We are not believers in the probability of such an event,

if we keep ourselves reasonably prepared; but the very first

relaxation upon our part would inevitably tend to accelerate it. It is

quite possible that France may yet have to undergo another dynastic

convulsion. The death of Louis Philippe may be the signal for

intestine disorder. The Count of Paris is a mere boy, and popularity

is not on the side of his uncle and guardian. A powerful party still

exists, acknowledging no king save the rightful heir of St Louis; and

the fanatical republican section is still strong and virulent. These

are things which it would be imprudent to disregard, and of which no

man living can venture to predict the result. The death of the Queen

of Spain would, according to all appearances, give rise to a rupture

with France, and possibly test, within a shorter period than we could

have believed, the sufficiency of our national defences. There is at

this moment every reason why our real strength and power should be

made apparent to the world, and our weakness, where it does exist,

immediately remedied and repaired.

Had the Duke of Wellington proposed, like Friar Bacon in Greene's old

play,

"To girt fair England with a wall of brass,"

the outcry could not have been greater. An iron wall might perhaps

have been rather popular in the mining districts. But his Grace

proposes no such thing. He only suggests the propriety of a small

augmentation of the regular forces at home, the strengthening of our

neglected fortifications, and the gradual reimbodiment of the militia.

It is for the British nation, or rather its representatives, to adopt

or reject the proposal. Now, it is worth while that we should keep in

mind what is our actual disposable force at present.

According to the most recent authorities, the armies of the principal

European powers would rank as follows:

Russia, 568,000

Austria, 414,000

France, 340,000

Prussia, Bavaria,

and other German States, 268,128

Britain, 138,895

The disproportion of force exhibited by this list is sufficiently

obvious; but when we descend to particulars, it will in reality be

found much greater. Abroad, the majority of the male population are

trained to the use of arms: with us it is notoriously the reverse.

France, in the course of one week, could materially increase the

amount of her regular army; whilst here that would be obviously

impossible. Beyond Algeria, France has almost no colonies as stations

for her standing force. We have to provide for the East and West

Indies, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Cape, Ceylon, Hong Kong,

the Mauritius, Gibraltar, Malta, the Ionian Islands, and others. The

profession of the British soldier is any thing but a sinecure. A great

portion of his life must be spent abroad; he may be called upon to

undergo the most rapid vicissitudes of climate, to pass from one

hemisphere to another in the discharge of his anxious duty. There is

no service in the world more trying or severe; and it very ill becomes

Mr Cobden, or any of his class, to sneer at that establishment, which

is kept up for the direct promotion of our commerce. So large a

portion of the territorial surface of the world is nowhere defended at

so little cost either of money or of men. Indeed, as recent events

have shown, we are but too apt to save the one at the expense of the

other. No doubt, if the free-trade policy is carried out to the

uttermost--if our colonies are to be thrown away as useless, and our

foreign stations dismantled, we might submit to a still further

reduction. France will be too happy to receive Gibraltar or Malta from

our hands, and will cheerfully free us from the expense of maintaining

garrisons there. Let us but make over to that affectionate and

domesticated people the keys of the Mediterranean, and we shall soon

see with what eagerness they will co-operate in the dissemination of

Mr Cobden's free-trade dogmas.

Apart from the colonies, we have a serious difficulty at home.

Ireland--that most wretched and ungrateful country, which no

experience can improve--is as far from tranquillity as ever. The

hard-working population of Britain submitted last year without a

murmur to an exorbitant taxation, for the purpose of relieving the

distress occasioned by the failure of the potato crop. The return is a

howl of defiance from the brutal demagogue, and an immediate increase

of murder and of crime. Notwithstanding every kind of remedial

measure--notwithstanding their exemption, which is an injustice to us,

from many of the heaviest burdens of the state--notwithstanding the

mistaken policy which fostered their institutions and their schools,

the Roman Catholics of Ireland stand out in bad pre-eminence, as the

most cold-blooded, unthankful, and cowardly assassins of the world. In

order to repress that outrage, which is so villanously rife among

them, and which nothing but physical force can restrain from breaking

out into open rebellion, we are compelled at all times to keep the

largest portion of our remanent disposable force quartered in Ireland.

The consequence is, that a mere handful of our standing army is left

in Great Britain.

If Mr Cobden should like to see a little terrestrial paradise, in

which few birds, with that gaudy plumage which is so offensive to his

eyes, can be found, he had better come down to Scotland, and pay us

another visit. He is kind enough, we observe, to make himself the

mouthpiece of our sentiments upon this matter of the defences; and,

certainly, if there be any truth in the adage that we are entitled at

least to see what we are paying for, Scotland has no reason to be

peculiarly warlike in her sentiments. Mr Cobden will find us quite as

affectionate and domesticated a people as the French; and he may rely

upon it, that he will not be shocked by any over-blaze of scarlet.

From a turbulent, we have gradually settled down to be a quiet race;

and as a natural consequence, we share in none of those benefits which

are heaped so liberally upon the "persecuted Irish." Our only

excitements are a Church squabble, which does not require the

interference of the military, but exhausts itself in the public

prints; or a bread row, which is always over, long before a detachment

can be brought from the nearest station, it may be at the distance of

some hundred miles. We are never noticed in Parliament, except to be

praised for our good behaviour, or to have some remaining fragment of

our national establishments reduced. We pay for an army and a navy

which we never see; indeed, of late years the French and Danish flags

have been far more frequently displayed upon our coasts than the broad

pendant of Great Britain. In many of our counties a soldier is an

unknown rarity; and the only drum that has been heard for the last

thirty years, is in the peaceable possession of the town-crier.

England, we apprehend, except in the immediate neighbourhood of the

metropolis and of Manchester, is not much better supplied: in short,

so far as Britain is concerned, we have a remarkably insufficient

force, and one which has been declared by the highest military

authority alive, wholly incompetent for our protection in the case of

an attempted invasion. Cobden, who has no veneration for successful

warriors, having feathered his nest very pleasantly otherwise, admits

that he has not the slightest practical knowledge of the trade of war.

We therefore demur to his position that this is a question for

civilians to determine, and that military and naval men have nothing

to do with it. His previous admission involves an inconsistency. He

might as well say, that, having no acquaintance whatever with

engineering, he is entitled to deliver his opinions in opposition to

Walker or Stephenson, on the construction of a skew bridge, or the

practicability of boring a tunnel. If one of those vessels in the

Tagus, which, according to Cobden, are kept there for the sole purpose

of instructing our seamen in the culture of the geranium, was to

spring a leak, we should assuredly apply to Jack Chips, the carpenter,

to stop it, before invoking the aid of the peripatetic apostle of

free-trade. And just so is it with the state of our national defences.

Manchester must excuse us, if we prefer the testimony of the Duke of

Wellington upon this point to the more dubious experiences of Cobden.

It is, of course, quite another question, whether the leak shall be

stopped, or the vessel permitted to founder peaceably. Mr Cobden may

be heard upon that point, under special reference to the magnitude of

the stake which he hazards, but we decline receiving his opinion on

the subject of military fortifications. He can no more pronounce a

judgement on the adequate state of our defences, than he can parse a

paragraph of Xenophon; and therefore, by approaching the subject, he

has been guilty of presumption and impertinence.

Mr Cobden proposes that we should rely upon the maintenance of peace

by removing all obstacles to invasion. He admits, indeed, that for the

present he is in a minority, but he hopes very soon to change it to a

majority, and until that time comes he is content to remain in the

following position:--"I say this, I am for acting justly and fairly,

and holding out the olive branch to the whole world; and I will then

take upon myself, _so far as my share goes_, all the risk of any thing

happening to ME, without paying for another soldier or another

sailor." This is good! What a glorious insurance is here offered to

the nation against the risk of foreign aggression! If every man,

woman, and child in this mighty empire will remain satisfied without

the means of repelling foreign invasion, the magnanimous Cobden will

take his risk, _so far as his share goes_, of all that may happen to

HIM! Why, who the deuce cares what happens to him or his? Are we all

engrossed in Cobden's weal or woe? Would it matter one straw to us, or

to the universe, if he and his calico print-works were wrapped in

universal conflagration to-morrow? This is, without exception, the

most impudent offer of guarantee which we ever remember to have heard

of; and it justifies us in remarking that, if all accounts be true,

Mr Cobden would be no very great loser by the immediate advent of the

French. If any thing happens to him, he may be assured of this, that

notwithstanding his cautious salvo, he will have no claim for damage

and loss, and little commiseration from any quarter whatsoever. Is the

man insane enough to suppose, that he, armed with his olive branch,

stands forth as prominently in the eyes of the world as if he were a

sign of the Zodiac? Curtius, who leaped into the gulf in the Forum,

which would not close until the most precious thing of Rome was thrown

into it, shrinks into insignificance, and becomes absolutely bashful,

when compared with the emulous Cobden. According to the

Man-in-the-Moon, Curtius was pronounced by the Flamen to be the most

precious fool of his day, but in point of conceit he is fairly trumped

by the honourable member for the West Riding of Yorkshire. In his

opinion there is nothing worth protecting save an inland mill, and he

does not care what becomes of our arsenals so long as there is an

immunity for calico!

If there are no armaments, thinks Mr Cobden, there can be no wars; and

for once he is tolerably right. If iron did not exist there could be

no swords; and without gunpowder, or its modern substitute cotton, a

discharge of musketry is impossible. But unfortunately there are other

armaments besides ours, and no symptom whatever of their reduction.

Here the reciprocity theory is once more brought into play. Let

Britain be the first to set the example, and every other nation will

follow in her wake. Cannons, by unanimous consent, will be spiked,

banners handed over to the respectable fraternity of Odd Fellows, and

the soldier condemned to the stiffing walls of the factory, never more

to stand at ease. Such are the dreams of Cobden; and if he really

believes in them, and in the actual regeneration of human nature by

means of free-trade instead of religion, we should like to see him try

the experiment on a minor scale. Let him, after having collected

within his premises as much plate as he can conveniently acquire, and

as much cash as he is worth, dispense with the unnecessary precautions

of lock and key; let him dismiss the watchmen from his works, and put

up an advertisement that the whole public are welcome to enter at any

hour they please, and that not the slightest attempt at resistance

will be offered. We presume that the Manchester operatives are at

least as affectionate and domesticated as the French; but,

notwithstanding that, we should entertain some apprehension as to the

fate of Mr Cobden's spoons. The temptation would really be too great.

The seeming solidity of the albata plate or purified nickel-silver

would infallibly tempt the cupidity of some affectionate artisan. A

midnight visit would be paid, and on the morrow there would be wail

for the missing tureen! To be consistent, we should begin with

municipal reforms. Let us proclaim honesty as a universal principle,

do away with the police, abolish Chubb, and keep our doors wide open

for ingress as well as for ventilation. If our greatcoats disappear

not, if umbrellas are not less, and if the tale of our forks is

complete after a reasonable lease of the experiment, we shall then

have acquired some data for making a further trial, and intrusting the

wealth of Great Britain to the forbearance of our foreign neighbours.

When Blucher, on his visit to this country after the war, rode through

the streets of London, he was observed, amidst all the shouts of

acclamation, to be peering curiously at the windows of the shops,

which then, as now, exhibited a tempting and valuable display. When

asked what he thought of the metropolis, the worthy veteran replied

with a deep sigh, whilst a tear rolled down his venerable cheek--"Mein

Gott! What a city for to sack!" Such were the first impressions of old

Marshal Forwards; and, with all deference to Cobden's sagacity, we

suspect that the amiable French, if they had it in their power, would

not be slow to realise the sentiments. Indeed, his Royal Highness the

Prince of Joinville, being of an open and candid nature, does not

hesitate to acknowledge it in as many words. We do not think a whit

the worse of Joinville for saying so: on the contrary, we are obliged

to him, and, if wise, we shall treasure the hint. He merely speaks the

sentiments of a large portion of his countrymen, who very probably

have no abstract wish for war, and would rather let things rest as

they are. Of all nations in the world, the French have the best

possible excuse for reducing their armaments, since France is

inundated with troops, and they have few foreign territorial

possessions. As compared with Britain proper, France could afford to

shake off nearly three-fourths of her establishment, and yet remain

upon an equality; but although Algeria may now be considered as safe

and tranquil, there are no demonstrations of the kind. The French army

is organised and ready to act upon any emergency: ours is too small,

is dispersed, and we have not an adequate reserve at home.

Whilst, therefore, the possibility of an invasion remains, we are

bound on every consideration of prudence and of policy, to act as if

the probability were likewise at hand. The youngest of us has seen too

many changes and revolutions--too many political disagreements and

jarrings among the European family, to prophesy with confidence that

these shall never be renewed. Even in commerce we have not got

reciprocity, and we cannot expect to get it in the more abstract point

of armaments. Woodburne House was better fortified by Dominie

Sampson's folios, than Britain possibly could be by bales of Cobden's

cotton. Our sincere belief is, that the surest method of accelerating

a war is to take the advice of the Manchester demagogues, repudiate

the ideas of the Duke of Wellington, and remain in stupid inactivity.

It was necessary for public safety that this matter should be laid

before the country; and the Duke for doing so may yet deserve a debt

of gratitude, which will amply recompense him for the vulgar contumely

of a host of disloyal bagmen. But it would be preposterous to suppose

that the discussion which has arisen at home has not attracted deep

observation abroad. The eyes of Europe are upon us, watching what

course we are to adopt; and France in particular is waiting, with

indrawn breath and tremulous anxiety, the result of the coming

discussion. Our weakness at home is now apparent to the world; we

cannot conceal it; the sole question is, whether we shall apply the

remedy.

Admit the possibility, and the question is a serious one indeed! Let

us suppose that, from some unforeseen accident, some stoppage in the

wheels of diplomacy, or some untoward casualty, war was declared

between Great Britain and France, or even any other continental power.

Such an event could not happen without dividing the nations of Europe.

We could not afford to withdraw our forces from the colonies, because

these would probably be made the earliest points of attack,--nor from

Ireland, except at the immediate and imminent risk of a rebellion.

Even should it be thought prudent to leave the colonies to their fate,

the transport of the garrisons would involve a considerable period of

time--a fact of which our enemy must be aware, and of which he would

be foolish not to take advantage. We should be compelled to recruit

immediately, and upon a large scale; and it would take some time to

metamorphose Mr Cobden's operatives, or even that respectable senator

himself, into any thing like the semblance of soldiers. If fifty

thousand armed men were to be landed on the southern coast--and no one

seems to doubt the possibility of such an occurrence--we should like

to know what are our means of resistance? We have read a good many

letters upon the subject, in the daily prints--some of them apparently

by ex-military men, and some by politicians of the school of Tomkins

and Cobden--but not one of them has been able to make out a decent

case of opposition. The best, and, indeed, the only rational letters,

proceed upon the supposition that there would be a general rising _en

masse_ of the English population--that every hawbuck would turn out

with a musket to repel the invaders, and that the railways from London

would vomit forth a cloud of intrepid musketeers. Every hedge, they

think, would be manned, and every farm-house a sort of minor fortress.

Now, with all submission, this is downright deplorable drivel. Ever

since the English people--and that is now a very old story--have given

up the use and exercise of arms, and agreed to be mulcted in purse,

rather than undergo the personal fatigue and annoyance of exercise,

there has been no martial spirit at all exhibited by the bulk of the

population. No doubt, when an invasion was actually threatened by

Napoleon, and three hundred thousand men were assembled at Boulogne,

there were large demonstrations of volunteer activity; but then, it

must be remembered that we were in the very height and fever of a

war--the belligerent spirit and strong antipathy to France had

prepared us for such a crisis, and we had not been besotted and

enfeebled by more than thirty years of peace, and almost as many of

gradual but sure demoralisation. We had not then adopted such men as

the Manchester Jacobins for our teachers; we were then content to be

national and not cosmopolitan in our ideas. We were fighting for our

faith and our freedom--not truckling for calico or for yarn. The same

crisis is not likely to occur again, and we cannot--dare not venture

to calculate upon a similar demonstration of energy. Free-trade and

liberal measures have put that utterly beyond our power. We have no

more doubt than we have of our own existence, that a body of men of Mr

Cobden's way of thinking could be found in this country, ready to

contract with the French government for conveying over to Britain an

invading army at the rate of eight shillings a-head, victuals

included; and, if the weather was stormy, they would unquestionably

clear a handsome profit by the speculation. Morals have nothing

earthly to do with free-trade--patriotism is opposed to it--and why

make any distinction between the freightage of Frenchmen and of

bullocks? The contractors, of course, would take care that their own

premises were sufficiently far removed from the scene of immediate

action; and we cannot pitch upon a fitter locality than that which is

exhibited in Manchester.

We would ask any or all of those gentlemen who depend upon a general

rising, to take the trouble, for some half hour or so, to revert to

history. If they do so, and seriously think over the matter, they will

speedily be convinced that an invasion is by no means a difficult

matter, and that no reliance whatever can be placed upon the

co-operation of the undisciplined people, either of the country or the

metropolis, in the event of an actual invasion. In fact, judging from

history, Paris is literally impregnable compared with London, and yet

it has been occupied by the Allies. In 1688, William of Orange, a

foreign prince, having no claim to the crown, and against the will of

the people of England, whatever may be said of the aristocracy, landed

in Britain, advanced to London, and took the throne, without the

slightest demonstration of hostility. The population were perfectly

quiescent. It was not their business to fight: they paid for an army;

and accordingly they allowed the Orangeman to march on, just as they

would do to Joinville, provided he desired his troops to be reasonably

accommodating and civil. Sack and rapine might undoubtedly provoke

resistance; but if ordinary courtesy were used, and more especially if

the French proclaimed that they came upon a free-trade errand, and a

friendly visit to Mr Cobden, there would be far fewer shots fired,

than at the present moment are resounding from the peaceful hedgerows

of Tipperary.

The next instance we select--omitting minor efforts--is the enterprise

of 1745, which peculiarly concerns Scotland, and of which we are by no

means ashamed. The heir of the Stuarts landed in the North, supported

by no force at all. The clans, to their immortal honour, and a portion

of the best Lowland blood of Scotland, maintaining those principles of

loyalty which free-trade cannot comprehend, assumed the white cockade,

and after thrashing the English army effectually at Prestonpans,

marched south, on the desperate errand of displacing the reigning

dynasty. And how were they received? It is important to note the idea

which the English people had, at that time, of the Highlanders. They

considered them a race of cannibals who ate children; so that it was

no uncommon matter, when a Highland officer entered a house, to find

the mistress on her knees, praying for a Lenten diet, whilst the

terrified urchins were all the while concealed beneath the bed. Such

is the positive fact; and yet we will venture to say, that there

never was, in the history of the world, an instance of a more

blameless or more humane invasion. Donald, though quite ready to

cleave a bearded Hanoverian to the chin, had an extreme weakness for

children, and would not, on any provocation, have insulted a

defenceless woman. Had Mr Cobden fallen into his hands, the

Highlander, after a due estimate of his physical capabilities, would

probably have put him to ransom for a quarter of a pound of tobacco.

The feeling in England was not in favour of the exiled family, the

antipathy to the Highlanders was extreme, and yet an irregular and

ill-disciplined host of about six thousand men, with no artillery, no

commissariat, and a mere handful of cavalry, penetrated into the heart

of England without any show of popular opposition, and reached Derby

without the loss of a single man. It is not difficult to understand

why Manchester is so uproarious against the military, when we recall

to mind the splendid instance of poltroonery exhibited by the

manufacturing capital on that memorable occasion. The town of

Manchester was captured by a Scots sergeant of the name of Walter

Dickson, who, supported by a drummer and a wench, took possession of

it in name of Prince Charles, four-and-twenty hours before the clans

came up! Not a magistrate was to be found bold enough to issue his

warrant against the intruder, nor a constable to execute it, nor a

single operative to support it. There was no talk then about finding

graves for the invaders: the invaded were quite content with finding

cellars for their own particular shelter. Gentlemen who had talked big

enough when the danger was at a distance, recoiled at the idea of

personal peril, whenever the danger drew nigh; and, being unsupported

by a regular force, very prudently abstained from opposing their

persons to the terrible sweep of the claymore. But for internal

dissensions and some infirmity of purpose, it is now beyond a doubt

that the clans might have penetrated, without any opposition, to

London. So little martial spirit was exhibited in the capital, that

parties were actually made and carriages engaged for Caxton, to see

the Highlanders march by; and George the Second was in full

preparation for removing, and had stowed away his valuables in his

yachts. As it was, the invaders returned back to their own country

almost as scaithless as they came, without any experience of that

fiery and patriotic spirit which the correspondents of the newspapers

profess to discover blazing within the bosom of every Briton at the

mere idea of an invasion.

In fact, it is mere trash to maintain that raw levies or extempore

guerilla resistance can be of the slightest use in opposition to a

disciplined force. For ourselves, we do not believe that such

resistance would be attempted. Men require to be brought together and

trained before their individual stanchness can be relied on; and we

know perfectly well that a mob has no chance, at any time, against an

immeasurably smaller body, if properly organised and directed. Let the

people of this country be disciplined and accustomed to the use of

arms, and you may search the world in vain for braver or better

soldiers. But the power is still latent, and, according to Cobden, it

never must be called forth. This is mischievous and stupid folly. If

any thing is to be done at all, it must be done regularly and

effectively. Let us have the knowledge, the certainty that, at a few

hours' notice, a formidable body of troops, well disciplined and

prepared, can be concentrated at any given point of the island,--let

this fact be made known to the world, and we have a far better

security for the maintenance of peace than if we were to adopt the

stupid and pragmatical notions of Mr Cobden. Mr Disraeli took a sound

view of the case, when he reminded the honourable member, "that

although the profound peace which he had announced might come within

the time of those who heard him, still there was something in the

catastrophes of nations _sœvior armis_,--catastrophes from other

causes leading to their decay. Happily in those causes the limited

experience of the Roman empire had not included the rapacity of rival

industry, and the quackery of economic science." We are afraid that

the lesson which Mr Disraeli attempted to inculcate--one which, of

late years, we have repeatedly insisted on in these pages--was

somewhat thrown away upon his pupil. Gentlemen of the Cobden school

set little store upon the philosophy of history, and prefer to reason

within the limits of their own experience. They can as little explain

the causes of the decline of ancient empires, as they can account for

the palpable falling off in the amount of our exports; and it is idle

to remind men of things which they have never heard. It is not to

them, but to the intelligent classes of the community, that we would

fain address our argument. There is a remarkable and striking analogy

between the present state of the country, and the position of England

at the time of the Highland descent in 1745. The nation had become

accustomed to peace at home, and was therefore proportionally

enervated. The use of arms, and the training of the militia had been

abandoned; a false economy had reduced the numbers of the regular

forces; and the greater proportion of those which remained were

abroad. Under those circumstances the expedition took place: the

weakness of the front exhibited by England was the temptation, and we

have already seen the consequences. It is now seriously proposed that

we shall remain liable to a similar assault, when the stake at issue

is incomparably greater. What would be the result of a swoop upon

London according to the published Joinville plan? and yet there is

hardly another capital in Europe, which has not during the last fifty

years been occupied by a hostile force.

We have all an interest in this question, for a descent may be made

any where. We have not even the benefit of ships to protect us here in

the North; and three or four French frigates would, we apprehend, find

little difficulty in effecting a landing in the Forth. Will Mr Cobden

be good enough to favour us with his opinion as to the course we

should pursue, supposing such a calamity to happen? A simultaneous

attack may be made on the south of England, and the Castle and

Piershill barracks emptied for the purpose of reinforcing Portsmouth,

too weak to maintain itself without their aid. Would he advise us to

resist or succumb? Shall we throw ourselves under the protection of

our friend George M'Whirter, W.S., and the Edinburgh squadron of the

Royal Mid-Lothian Yeomanry? Shall we sound the tocsin of war, and call

out Captain Haining with his reserved band of twenty police, all

fierce and furious for battle? Shall we persuade the Archers to string

their bows, and compete for the Goose medal with a fire-eating

Frenchman as the butt? Shall we barricade Leith Walk, block up the

Granton Railway in the teeth of a suspension and interdict, and

contest, to the last drop of our blood, the possession of every house

in Inverleith Row? May we calculate upon any support from the middle

districts of England in the event of such a calamity? Will Mr Bright

array himself in drab armour, and come to our rescue, with Welford the

flower of chivalry, who has a special objection to guns? Can we depend

upon Cobden himself? Will he pledge himself to back us at our need

with an overpowering army from the factories, clad in calico, and

armed with the tremendous and invincible billy-roller? Will George

Thompson, chief of a thousand wordy fights, be there,--or Wilson,

ex-monarch of the league? Shall we send them the beacon blaze,

or--faster still--the telegraphic signal to the south imploring

immediate succour? Or shall we trust to their own noble impulses, and

hold--

Ye need not warn the Cobden clan,

That ever are stout and true;

And when they see the blazing bale,

The Brights and Thompsons never fail!

Indeed, if we are to believe the last mentioned gentleman, we have

that assurance already, for he has spoken as follows:--"I may venture

to foretell that the Free-Trade Hall, of Manchester will be more than

a match for Apsley House and the Horse Guards put together;"--a highly

satisfactory account of the town which was whilom captured by a

sergeant!

Upon the whole, unless we can come to a serious understanding with

Manchester, we have grave doubts as to the propriety of offering any

very obstinate resistance. If we are to do it, we must send off all

the women to the Trosachs by the Scottish Central Railway, and

perhaps it would be as well for all of us to join the Celtic Society,

and fight the battles of our country in the pass of Roderick Dhu. An

honourable capitulation, on the understanding that the French were to

behave themselves, would probably be the wisest course we could pursue

under the circumstances. We love George M'Whirter, and have every

confidence in his valour, but we could not bear to see him gasping in

his gore; and therefore, unless the regulars are forthcoming, or the

Manchester legion on their way, he had better fall back with his

comrades upon the western warriors of Dalmahoy. The number of our

guardians of the night is at present so small, that we positively

cannot afford to spare even one of them as food for powder. It would,

we fear, be imprudent to risk the fate of the Scottish capital upon

the issue of a combat between our dashing Toxophilites and a body of

French artillery, and we are reluctantly compelled to admit that there

was some truth in Major Dalgetty's sarcasm against bows and arrows.

And now, having gone over the catalogue of our available native

forces, which is not quite so long as the Homeric muster-roll of the

ships, will any body tell us what we are to do? It would be a sore

humiliation were we compelled to illuminate Holyrood, and give a grand

ball in honour of the Duc D'Aumale, and our other ancient and now

redintegrated allies. But if you abolish the British uniform, and

allow the French to supersede it, what else can you expect? We want to

be loyal if you will only tell us how--if not, we see nothing for it

but the illumination and the ball.

Mr Cobden is pleased to be especially bitter upon the "horrid trade"

of soldiering. He characterises it as barbarous and damnable, and

would be rid of it at all risks. Now, setting aside the idiocy of his

remarks, there is a monstrous deal of ingratitude in this language of

the free-trade apostle. Had it not been for our arms, where would our

market have been? If we had succumbed to France instead of humbling

her at Waterloo--and we presume that Mr Cobden would have preferred

the former alternative, since he thinks that the Duke should now be

preaching forgiveness for the past--where would have been our trade,

and where our exportations of calico? Hindostan is an acquired

country, and British arms have opened up the markets of China; and are

these commercial evils? Really it is throwing away language to attempt

enforcing a point so clear as this. Commerce owes every thing to the

exertions and protection of that military power which these purblind

theorists complain of; and were our armaments abolished to-morrow, we

should look round us in vain for a customer.

And pray what does the arrogant upstart mean by characterising the

honourable profession of a soldier as a damnable trade? Does he intend

to disgorge his contempt and contumely upon the graves of those who

fell on the field of battle fighting nobly for their king and country?

Are we now to be told that the names which we have written in our

annals, and embalmed in our memories, are detestable and odious as

those of homicides and of robbers? If it has come to this, and if

public scorn is not roused to overwhelm the man who can conceive and

utter such ignoble sentiments, then indeed we may believe that

demoralisation has partially done its work, and that the mean ethics

of Manchester are henceforward to influence the nation. Not damnable

nor horrid, unless justice and freedom be so, is the profession of

those who have drawn the sword in the service of Britain, and died for

the maintenance of order, liberty, and religion. Other trades there

are far more liable to such epithets, but with these, thank heaven! we

have but little practical acquaintance. The trade of the greedy

taskmaster, who rears infants for his mills, and grinds them to their

task until the sinews shrivel up and the limbs are warped into early

decrepitude--of him who will not recognise the existence of an

imperishable soul within the tender framework of the children whom he

makes the victims of his avarice--of the advocate of long hours,

because thereby he may keep his human machinery under the complete

control of exhaustion,--the trade of that man, we say, though it may

be tolerated in a Christian land, is but one shade less horrid, and

not a whit less damnable, than that of the slave-trader, who is now

chuckling over his living cargoes on the African coast--cargoes for

which he is indebted to the enlightened legislation of Mr Cobden and

his liberal confederates! Are these the men who are to revile and

traduce our army? Faugh! The leprosy of mammon is upon them, and our

nature recoils from their breath.

In conclusion, let us express a fervent hope that we have heard the

last of this dull and deplorable drivelling. It is to the credit of

the Whigs, that, far as they have been led astray by adopting the

newfangled political doctrines, rather, as we believe, for the sake of

maintaining power than from any belief in their efficacy, they have

declined all participation with the Manchester crew in their recent

attempt to lower the position and diminish the influence of Great

Britain. The chiefs of that party know full well how much we have at

stake, and what a responsibility would rest upon their heads, were

they to reject the advice of the great captain who has already saved

his country, and who again comes forward at the close of life to warn

that country of its danger. Mr Cobden likewise is furious with the

public press, and charges a large portion of it for refusing to be

dragged through the Manchester mire, with having abrogated their

duties on this question. We apprehend that the editors of the journals

to which he alludes are perfectly competent to the discharge of their

duties, without submitting to the dictatorial interference of this

very much over-rated and extremely shallow personage. As for the Duke

of Wellington, he is not likely to suffer in health or reputation from

any want of respect or veneration on the part of Mr Cobden. His fame

is too bright to be polluted by such dirty missiles; and the veriest

vagabond who broke the windows of Apsley House would shrink from

repeating the insults which fell from the lips of the calico-printer.

In short, our impression in rising from the perusal of this notable

speech, is deep surprise that such a man should ever have been made

the leader of a popular party, or the representative of a fixed

opinion. That it should have been so, is a reflection that cannot be

flattering to many of his followers, and least of all to those who

threw aside their opinions to undertake the advocacy of his. But the

spell is now broken, the mask removed, and we behold the egotist, the

railer, and the fanatic. Let us sum up in a few words, for the benefit

of posterity, the great free-trader's opinion of the Duke of

Wellington, and then take leave of the most discreditable subject

which for a long time we have been called upon to notice.

MR COBDEN DOES NOT SHARE IN THE GENERAL VENERATION FOR THE DUKE. MR

COBDEN THINKS THAT THE DUKE OUGHT TO PREACH FORGIVENESS FOR WATERLOO.

MR COBDEN THINKS THAT EVERY MAN, POSSESSING THE ORDINARY FEELINGS OF

HUMANITY, MUST CONDEMN THE DUKE FOR HAVING STATED THAT, IN HIS

OPINION, THE DEFENCES OF THE COUNTRY ARE INSUFFICIENT. MR COBDEN

THINKS IT A LAMENTABLE SPECTACLE THAT THE DUKE SHOULD HAVE WRITTEN

SUCH A LETTER. MR COBDEN HINTS THAT THE DUKE IS A DOTARD, BECAUSE HE

HAS VENTURED TO EXPRESS, ON A MILITARY SUBJECT, AN OPINION CONTRARY TO

THAT OF COBDEN. AND COBDEN FURTHER MAINTAINS, THAT THERE IS NOT A MORE

AFFECTIONATE NOR DOMESTICATED RACE ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH THAN THE

FRENCH.

After this we need add nothing more. Our opinion of Mr Cobden could be

thoroughly expressed in a much shorter sentence.