THE ENGLISH FLAG STRUCK.
FRANCE is attaining to a position novel in these latter days, but not unprecedented, at least relatively; and another state once stood its ground against that power in its proudest supremacy. It is not to be therefore denied that Louis Napoleon is now building up a power which may become available in various ways, according to circumstances and opportunity. He is trying it to his hand. Travellers in France remark the incessant accumulation of re- sources, and of experiments in their efficiency. Besides the votes to be taken on demand out of the official ballot-boxes, he has in store, we hear on credible authority, an artillery of not fewer than twelve hundred guns in readiness for instant service—many more than the aggregate of the forces on both sides at Waterloo. At Toulon, the experiment has been tried of embarking a large body of troops in one of the great steam war-ships recently launched, and the experiment was perfectly successful : the number of troops thus embarked was five thousand. There was to have been a re- duction of the army : it has not taken place ; but these augmenta- tions of navy and artillery are perhaps the substitutes.
Against what are these vast forces to be directed ? Who knows ? Much may depend on others. " Who will buy ?" To offer the alliance of a force so mighty and so handy, is tempting ; to threaten hostility, alarming. "Accept me, and be safe," their master may say; "refuse me, and your blood be on your own head. Enthrone Order' in Paris, or dread the crusade of revolu- tion against you, directed from Paris."
In the face of peril, alarm is in itself the worst danger, as slum- ber is the next worst. The slumberer may awake to resistance and to victory ; the coward's very vigilance is paralysis. Has England united both weaknesses ? We believe not yet. Pre- parations are made, or in progress ; but they are made sub rest, lest the timid take offence. France is ready : we are to have com- pleted our preparatives some years hence ! Now, non-defence is actual temptation for an invader. If not still so, it is only through the latest .precautions of Lord Harclinge that England is not almost an irresistible temptation to any neighbouring adventurer t richer in material power 11 in cash or renown. The temptation is almost the greater when non-defence is backed by precautions like that of taking down the flags in Chelsea Hos- pital, when the corpse of Wellington lies in state, lest the foreigner " take offence " ! A land defended only by a timid people, and that land called "England"! By the same rule, it would be best to dispense with the funereal pageant altogether, as that also might "give offence." Or let a funeral oration declare that the English flag is buried with the hero, and that the series be- gun at Crecy ended with Waterloo. Perhaps the proud invader might grant to pity what ho would refuse to defiance ? The forbearance of any foreign potentate, however, is but poor reliance for a state. There is only one real safety, and that con- sists in rendering invasion impossible.
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