Extracts.

Lyttelton Times, Volume X, Issue 600, 4 August 1858, Page 6

Extracts.

; THE WATR SPIRIT OF' ENGLAND. • K)f all nations, says the 'Times,*.there.is none tliat drifts into war so easily as England. ' "The faciiit} r consists in our perfect security, in the good opinion of our own justice and.pcne - ableness, and in the intention which Aye ascribe to ourselves of never going to war if we can help it. Having given ourselves fuiL credit of not going to war without very good reason, and notbeing aware of any decided preference for war, we sit down and let things take their course. But the course of things, when they are let alone, is always towards war. The truth is, that we are really a warlike people, which is a circumstance of danger; and, what is still more dangerous, Aye are not a military people. This .may seem at first sight only, a bundle of .paradoxes, but, on the least consideration, it will be found the plain truth. No nation delights so •much in war, in battles, and sieges—the more horrible the better; in all that is manly and heroic, according to the old classic types. Stories of hideous 'suffering and hardship have no effect in damping their ardour. In all estates, high or low, tell the British mother of fine young fellows frostbitten in the trenches or sunstricken on the march, wouuded, maimed, or found gashed to pieces by the barbarous foe, slowly perishing with hunger and thirst; —tell her of ladies surviving .only-to .see their husbands s'.ain, and their little ones pining and passing away by. famine, pestilence, or more merciful shell; —tell her this, and more, and she Avill henceforth send sons, daughters, and little ones to the veiy same scene, to encounter the same risks, and do and be anything rather than sink into poverty or degenerate into trade. In all ranks the same ardour seizes a large proportion of minds, and what they dearly Avish is to be a soldier or sailor. It is the spirit of our old Norse or Norman ancestors, after a few hundred years, still breaking out. To the greater part of Englishmen, indeed, it is the only eha.nce of ever baing Avhat is* called a gentlemen; of ever having a name, a pi ace, a figure; and of Irjing admired by those fair beings who reign in drawing-rooms and ball-rooms, who glide about in carriages, dispensing smiles and happiness on those whom they please to honour. But all this is vefy dangei'nus. What a state of things, what a mine of mischief, when every »irl prefers a redcoat, and, only give her fair-play, will disregard the soul-saving merits of the demure curate if

an ensign comes'in her way! This is to be :l warlike nation. We are. warlike individuiilly and altogether, and bad neighbours to tiie world in general. So, when we are reminded, as wo were by Mr. Disraeli the other day, that oiu* army are all volunteers, that is a great and mosC portentous fact. Yes, at this moment we have at home, beside the many thousand volunteers maintaining a scarcely; equal fight in India, 90,000 volunteers responding to their country's call, at the rate of live or six thpusand a month. What other country can say this? But what a. farce to plume ourselves on being a particularly peaceable, quiet, mercantile, and hearth-loving people!" But it is a more dangerous circumstance that we are not at all a military people. "We have no conscription; and now we have no pressgang. Nobody need be a soldier. Nobody need see a soldier. Yes, a soldier is quite a sight in this country. There are two mounted sentries at the horse guards, and some foot sentries at the palaces anil at the British Museum. Towards nine we may see here and there a soldier posting home to the Tower. But our barracks are all out-of-the-way places—in mews, behind workhouses, or on'odd slips, between roads and canals. We carefully avoid cashing any needless glory on the profession. The officer throws off the,uniform and even the air ot the soldier as soon as he can. He wishes to be a soldier without looking 0112. The army is so scattered abroad and so located at home, that many among us have grown up without ever seeing a dozen soldiers together. So we fancy we are not a nation of soidiers, and have no taste for arms. But we are lulled further into this delusion by the fact, happy or unhappy, as it may be variously regarded, that our wars are at a distance, and we only see them in the newspapers. The Crimeau war was quite a home ulfuir,. but even it was 3000 miles off. Most of our wars are on the other side of the world, and we only hear of events when they are historical. We don't see our own cities besieged, bombarded, stormed, and taken by assault. We don't see our fields ravaged, our • i-iilages and homesteads burnt to the ground, ■our cattle carried off, our roads and bridges broken up, and the whole face of industrious nature seared with hideous wounds. We don't hear the cracking thunder, or see the ghastly t sight, or smell the horrid stench of war. We dp^ not behold populations flying for life, trains of fugitives, many miles long, fainting and perishing on the roadside. We pay in our pocket?, indeed, but not in our persons or in our sense?. So to the nation at large war is a cheap amusement, and a secure path to glory. Hence, we pre spared or rather deprived of those salutary warnings which burn and stamp into other nature's a just horror of war. War feeds our imagination and stimulates that romantic love of achievement which predominates in our race. I The whole matter to us is of this ideal and sentimental character. But why do not our prudence, our money-getting, our economy, and om* other domestic virtues, of which we hear so-, much, come in to the rescue and save the nation from being enslaved to the follies of the headstrong and young? Unfortunately, war has its bribes, and even its prizes, for all classes and all ages.: It holds out busy times, high prices, speculations, contracts, "employments, and a { good ground for politicians who have not much else to stand upon." Now, if we said outright that we were drifting into war with our great neighbour and ally, we should give needless alarm to those who -thought onr opinion worth a straw. But what is it to drift? "If. a collier breaks from its moorings in the. Pool, it will eventually find itself at the Norr, or wiirse,"before long, unless something be done. If a ship is adrift in the channel, it,will certainly ! soon bs ashore on one coast or the other, most probably to its injury* or loss. A Government I has just been" turned out by a war vote, and : iv>ne joined in that vote so heartily as they who I have constituted themselves apostles of peace, las they who particularly represent the commerce ' j of the country, as they who stand tip for the " ; interests of the landholder and the farmer, as ; the champions and spokesmen of the church, i the dissenting interests, and the high morality ;of the country. A motion was deviseS, the purport of which was, that our sage old Premier and his rather elderly colleagues had flinched, ; and parried a blow, without returning it; that I they had been rather more Christian than answers in real politics. For this an otherwise po- ; . pular Government has been disgraced and deposed; and another one is put in its place for the express purpose of assuming a more manly attitude before Prance. Now, we are glad to see that these men, at all events, understand their own position. The very first thing they did, upon finding themselves in office, was to ascertain the state of our national defences. That was the first question Lord Derby sent to the Admiralty and the War Office. "Finding the answer highly gratifying, and, it must be added, much to the credit of the late ministry, they took the earliest opportunity of telling the world, and all whom it might concern, how well provided we were for defence and. offence. Mr. Disraeli only let out what was uppermost in his own mind when he received our army, militia, and navy, for the benefit of his Buckinghamconstituents. In the like spirit, and openly recognising the fact that we are nearer war now than we were a month ago, though we hope and trust still very far off, we will add that we were never so well provided with soldiers, artillery, and other equipments, with ships, guns, and sailors, since the year ISIS. With twenty-four hours' notice, we could either prevent any landing at any accessible part of our coast, or crush any force that might be landed. With a fortnight's notice, we could shut up any fleet that might be assembled in the liarb:»rs of ournei"hbour,and, it is confidently balieved by some of onr bost authorities, steam in and destroy everything afloat in the harbor of Cherbourg. Our new Government, very wisely, does not minoo matters, neither shall we. The late Government, tried to mince mutters, and the result is, they are out." It is vain to wish that England were rather more accustomed to count the cost of war nnil watch its beginnings, for that is nut, ami never will be, the nature of our country.