Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 401, March 1849Various
Science
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 401, March 1849
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
Mr Cobden, so far as we can gather from his orations, advocates the
propriety of disbanding the army on the score of peace. He thinks
that, if we were to dismiss our forces, all the other nations of the
earth would follow the example. There is something positively
marvellous in the calm audacity of the man who can rise up, as Cobden
did at Manchester, on the last day of January, and enunciate to his
enraptured audience, that, "notwithstanding all that had been said on
that subject, he reiterated there never was a time when Europe was so
predisposed to listen to advances made by the people of England, on
that subject, as now!" Where, in the name of the Seven Sleepers of
Ephesus, has the man been during the last twelvemonths? What does Mr
Cobden understand by Europe? We should like to know this, for it is
very easy to use a general term, as in the present instance, without
conveying any definite meaning. Does he refer to the governments or
the mobs of Europe--to the well-affected, who wish for order, or to
the Jacobins whose cause he adores? If he meant the latter class to
signify Europe, we can understand him readily enough. He is right:
great indeed would be the joy of the clubs in Paris, Berlin, and
Vienna, if there were not a soldier left. What jubilee and triumph
there would be in every Continental capital! Not the suppression of
the police would excite deeper exultation in the hearts of the
denizens of St Giles', than would the abolition of standing armies in
those of the bearded patriots of the Continent. No need then of
barricades--no fighting for the partition of property--no bloodshed,
preparatory to the coveted rape and pillage! The man who can talk in
this way is beneath the average of idiots; or, otherwise, he is
somewhat worse. Not only during the last year, but within the last
five months, we have seen that the whole standing armies of Europe
have been employed in the task of suppressing insurrection, and have
not been able to do it. Under these circumstances, what state would be
"predisposed" to surrender its citizens to the tender mercies of
democracy? Ignorant indeed must be the audience that could listen to
such pitiable drivelling as this!
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