THE NATIONAL DEFENCE QUESTION.

New Zealander, Volume 4, Issue 228, 5 August 1848, Page 2

THE NATIONAL DEFENCE QUESTION.

Mv dear blK — 1 have read in the Spectator with soirow and suipiisc Ihr articles which you have inserted on the sulject ot n.uioiml defences, nnd which articles so em to me iucoiiMs cut with the great priuplcs which you have so often and bO ably advocated. Can you be i-erions in p opining to ineicase our expenditure on the A. my, Navy, and Ordnance? It is not ;it the present moment as large us. if not liirgrr than, it has been nt any period dv ing the lastthhty years ? During that period, h, s war ever been less likely than vi the present moment? Do you count as notliint; the pacific tendencies ot free tradi: 1 Did we not for many a year advocate free trade, not merely (in ecomomical grounds, but as a. great internal tional, andcivili ing mcaiUrc, which would hreak down the barriers which had long separated neighbouring states — would bind together hitherto hostile communities by the tics of mutual interest, and would afford potent secunlirs ag.'.in>t the calamities of war? Have we then no longer any frith in our principles ? Musi wo recant them ? Having obtained frte trudc, dmll our first act be to arm our people and to cover our shores with fortifications, as if we had declared hostility to the rcit of the human race by proposing to exchange our manufacture tor their food ? Are our revenues bo v;ist, so excessive— our means of employment then fco deficient ? Are our people «o well educated — our prisons so excellent— our railroads all completed ? Have we noth'iig to do with our superabundant weul'b, that w<s must squander it to guard against imaginary dangers ? You tfill say the dangers we mil. Trove them to be so. "In vain," ihe Duke of Wellington tella us, he ban " endearoured to awnken the attention of diffeient Admin strut ions." Peel, Graham, and ihu Tories, would not be alarmed : wliut have frightened you and the Whigs t Yon my that " the next attack upon England will piobahly be without notice! — *• Five thousand (Frenchmen) might iLilict dit-grace in some d. fencelets poit ; five hundred might intuit Biitish blood at lierne Bay or even mfi.ct indelible shame on the empire at Osborne Home' 1 ! Good God, cun it be possible that you, whom I ranked so high among the public initructers of this nation — that you consider the French to be ruffians, Pindarce», fieebooters — that you believe it necessaiy to keep constant watch and ward agoinat them, as our Saxon forefathers did again t the Dunes and the Nordmeu, lest they should burn our towns, plunder our coasts, and put our Queen to ran9om ! Are you not aware that the Fiench are as civilized at ourselves— in come respects intellectually our superior* ? Have you forgotten that they have pamed through a great social revolution, w Inch has equalized pioperty, abolUJied pr.vi'ege, and converted the mass of the people into thrifty and industrious men, to whom war is hateful, and the consciip'ion detestable? Are you not aware that they pobbes-h a constitutional government, with the forms and practice of which they are duily becoming more and more conversant ; that no measuie of imTOrtance can be adopted without bung firm debated and agreed to in the Chambers ; and that the love of peace, and the determination to preteive peace, has given to the King of the French a constant majouty of those Chamb rs, and kept him in peacible posset>fci,ni ofhib tiione? Cm you controvert any one of tin c positions ? If not, whence this panic terror uhii'h liujj s. i/'t.d upon you? it wa& not :»o m the v.inter of 18 iO, when the bynan dispute raisid unfriendly feelings between tiu; Governments of ICng'aud und France, und rumouis of wni wcio life. Then Uio ('nuger v»as uot lesa thun at piescnt, but our anapgemtnts

were leas by a cost of some coup!" *f million or io. Vdt you did not dream of a Piench invasion. You asked for no increase of our forces, but backed me and other friends of peace in denouncing feelings of hostility towards Fiance. You approved of our meeting at Leedi and elsewhere. You sanctioned by your praise the sentiments to which we gave utterance, and which arc (lie Mine as those contained in this letter. Let me entreat you, therefore, to carefully reconsider this question. You have been and are a high atuhoiiiy with myself and nanny othcis ; for we believe you to be an able, hon<"sr> and straightforward man, who may fall into en or, but will not on that account persevere in it. Believe mo, therefore, with every feeling of personal respect, Yours truly, William Moi.ebworth.

to Tim i.imoa of this ipuctator, Pencatrow, BaJmxn, nth January 1848.