_For what use is the Militia of the United States?_ This immense system spreads, with innumerable suckers, over the whole country, draining its best life-blood, the unbought energies of our youth. The same painful discipline which we observe in the soldier absorbs their time, though to a less degree than in the Regular Army. Theirs also is the savage pomp of War. We read with astonishment of the painted flesh and uncouth vestments of our progenitors, the ancient Britons. But the generation will come, that must regard with equal wonder the pictures of their ancestors closely dressed in padded and well-buttoned coats of blue "besmeared with gold," surmounted by a huge mountain-cap of shaggy bear-skin, and with a barbarous device, typical of brute force, _a tiger_, painted on oil-skin tied with leather to their backs! In the streets of Pisa the galley-slaves are compelled to wear dresses stamped with the name of the crime for which they are suffering punishment,--as theft, robbery, murder. Is it not a little strange that Christians, living in a land "where bells have tolled to church," should voluntarily adopt devices which, if they have any meaning, recognize the example of beasts as worthy of imitation by man? The general considerations belonging to Preparations for War illustrate the inanity of the Militia for purposes of _national defence_. I do not know, indeed, that it is now strongly urged on this ground. It is oftener approved as an important part of the _police_. I would not undervalue the advantage of an active, efficient, ever-wakeful police; and I believe that such a police has been long required. But the Militia, where youth and character are without the strength of experience, is inadequate for this purpose. No person who has seen this arm of the police in an actual riot can hesitate in this judgment. A very small portion of the means absorbed by the Militia would provide a substantial police, competent to all the domestic emergencies of disorder and violence. The city of Boston has discarded a Fire Department composed of _accidental volunteers_. Why not do the same with the police, and set another example to the country? I am well aware that efforts to reduce the Militia are encountered by some of the dearest prejudices of the common mind,--not only by the War Spirit, but by that other, which first animates childhood, and, at a later day, "children of a larger growth," inviting to finery of dress and parade,--the same which fantastically bedecks the dusky feather-cinctured chief of the soft regions warmed by the tropical sun,--which inserts a ring in the nose of the North American Indian,--which slits the ears of the Australian savage, and tattoos the New Zealand cannibal. * * * * *