31 JANUARY 1846, Page 14

COPARTNERSHIP IN LITTLE WARS.

This great Governments of Christendom—America perhaps ex-

-comport themselves with laudable amity towards each other. France will not war with England, nor England with France. But the fighting passion is strong both in France and England, and finds vent "under the rose." The two great na- tions sin as it were in secret. France wages small wars on her own account—out of Europe—in Algiers and Tahiti : England in New Zealand. And, like old roues whose sense of shame is so dull that they frequent places of bad reputation together, France and England carry on clandestine wars in partnership, in Madagascar and on La Plata—to say nothing of their joint blockade of West Africa. The Queen of the Hovas, no doubt, has evinced that noble disdain of the rights of civilized nations which some senti- mentalists so much admire. Rosas—though the partisan narratives of his administration, which the European press has lent itself to circulate are little better than "romances founded on fact"—is an energumine of the Revolutionary school. The copartnership into which the powerful Governments of France and England have en- tered to fight weak ones may have acted selon rayle in these two instances ; but this warlike alliance does, it must be confessed, somewhat resemble an alliance between two big bullies in a school to thrash all the little boys. If France and England are to be self-appointed police magistrates and constables in one, over the petty republics of South America and the pettier monarchies of barbarous people, the two worshipful authorities are likely to have it all their own way. France and England have bombarded the defences of Roses: admitting that the Dictator of La Plata was in the wrong, would he have been better off if it had chanced that he was in the right? All the petty states of which Rome made itself in succession the arbiter, protector, and tyrant, had not so conducted themselves as to deserve to lose their national inde- pendence. And the modern Kings of Brentford, smelling at one Tose of war, are no more infallible than the despot of the Capitol. A combination between France and England to drub all the little states into conformity with the policy of these powers, may be productive of inconceivable injustice and violation of state rights. Besides, though it sounds quite touching and romantic to hear of the ardour with which Frenchmen and Englishmen combat side by side, and the chi- valrous generosity with which the soldiers of one nation extol the gallant exploits performed by those of another, this main- tenance of large fleets and armies by both countries—this keeping of them in permanent training by exercising them on South Ame- rican Republicans and Madagascar Blacks—is but indifferent pre- paration for peace. The gallant soldiers of France and England feel that they are opposed to adversaries not a match for them, and may yearn for more worthy antagonists. When both French and English fight well in concert, it is not easy to decide which are the better men ; and they may some day take it into their heads to settle the doubt by a stand-up fight between themselves. It is well that the ruling states have become so far ashamed of war as to seek its indulgence in remote and obscure resorts; but so long as a sanctimonious exterior is thought suf- ficient apology for illicit indulgence, the secretly fostered passions may at any time assume open mastery.