While the consequences of corruption must in general be weakening and disintegrating, their full import may be concealed or postponed owing to the limitation of the evil condition to certain branches or spheres of government which for the time being are not called upon to function to their full capacity. A chain is no stronger than its weakest link, but it may serve very well so long as no great tensile strain is applied to it. The military arm of a government otherwise honest and efficient might conceivably become well nigh paralysed by corruption without any particular evil consequences so long as hostilities were avoided. All the more terrible, on the other hand, would be the awakening in case of the advent of war. The reverse case is suggested by Tennyson: “Let your reforms for a moment go! Look to your butts and take good aims! Better a rotten borough or so Than a rotten fleet and a city in flames!” Here the point is that a corrupt local government need occasion little or no disadvantage during a state of war provided the army can be relied upon thoroughly. Further the poet warns against agitation for the reform of internal abuses lest it might weaken the country in the presence of a foreign foe. Doubtless both points are well taken so far as an immediate emergency is concerned. If war is not imminent, however, that government would certainly be making the best preparation against future trouble which sought to establish the highest standard of honesty in both its civil and military services. Thus the Freiherr vom Stein immeasurably strengthened Prussia for the final conflict with Napoleon by reforming the rotten boroughs of his country and appealing on the basis of this reform to the patriotism of the liberal classes of his fellow citizens. Moreover there would seem to be little real danger of urging internal reforms so violently during periods of warfare as to cripple military strength. Of course if a government has been reduced to the last extremity of unpopularity by past mismanagement, revolutionists might take advantage of a declaration of war to tear it to pieces, hailing foreign troops as allies rather than opponents. In the more advanced countries of the modern world, however, the spirit of nationality and patriotism is so highly developed that internal reforms are instantly relegated to the background at the least threat of foreign embroilment. To such peoples the poet’s adjuration to “Let your reforms for a moment go” is hardly needed.