PACIFICS, FRENCH AND ENGLISH.

A STUDIED ignorance and a discriminating confusion of ideas are resorted to by the Anti-Defence party : with a perversity not unintentional, they persist in confounding the claim for " suffi- cient national defence" with a bad economy of military matters and extravagant expenditure for purposes of patronage, as well as in presuming a total departure of the aggressive military spirit in our nearest Continental neighbour, to say nothing about the rest of the world. And, as if the Spectator were deemed the great bulwark of the national safety, the demented gentry, who cannot abide the idea of preparing to prevent war, seem to think it incumbent upon them to get us out of the way. It is the old story of the thief and the watchdog, only that it is a lodger in the house who is trying to remove a faithful guardian ! The reader may think we are jesting when we say that there is al conspiracy to silence, murder, or abolish the Spectator; but the joke is not of our contriving. Manchester, the seat of the organized staff of professional Free-traders, is also the seat of that horrible plot, whereof harrowing evidence has reached us. Some patriotic person has been at the trouble to print and dis- tribute a circular of two pages quarto, consisting of laboured and quasi or would-be personal attack ; and a copy, bearing the Man- chester post-mark—postage paid—has been addressed to our un- happy selves. The Spectator, it seems, is to be sacrificed before its country ! We meet our fate with firmness, quite prepared to set an example of heroism to our illustrious companion in doom, the British empire.

The mode of attacking the Spectator consists, like the other arguments of the clique, in confounding what we have said with what we have not said, as if they were things identical; and in contrasting propositions which are not antagonistic. For exam- ple, our effort to fasten attention upon a military system wasteful of expenditure and strength, in 1832 and subsequent years, is again brought forward as if it were antithetical to our present demand that the efficiency of our home defences should be looked after. In 1832 and other years we took some pains to ascertain, that in the enormous outlay for military purposes a judicious revision would suggest considerable savings; and, although subsequent events have largely increased the demands on our military re- sources, we make no doubt that savings might still be effected by such means as we pointed out formerly. Nay, more, we have always done our best to prevent the causes of the increase : we have on every occasion opposed the policy that led to demands on our military resources—for wars in Canada, in Syria, in Afghan- istan, in China, and elsewhere. But how were we aided by Libe- rals and Free-traders in the House of Commons? Now, in 1848— steam navigation having assumed a military importance which it had not sixteen or even ten years ago—the Governments of France and England having become estranged—signs of commotion among the nations being rife, and spreading,—at such a time, the state of our home defences has been publicly impugned on the highest of all military authority, and we have said that the found- ations of that declaration ought to be investigated. In both cases we insisted on proper and efficient military administration. But we are told that what we said of the highest military au- thority in 1832 precludes us from accepting it now. At that time we denounced the Duke of Wellington's obstruction of Reform, in language that appeared to us not too strong for its purpose : in the year when he ventured to take Earl Grey's office, in the teeth of a public opinion so exasperated as to amount almost to revolu- tion, such terms as " insatiable ambition" were not too extravagant for the occasion ; one proof of which is, that the most prudent of his party, and even his lieutenant, Murray, shrank from him then. In the lapse of years the popular estimation of the Duke of Wellington has greatly altered : the turn of events, the publication of his writings, his own conduct, have thrown a clearer light on his character of unflinching fidelity to set duty : if he erred, it was not so much in swerving from his duty as in mistaking it : in civil affairs he takes his colour from his associates, and there were Tories in those days ; civil affairs are not his vocation, and we blamed him for going too far beyond his province. We see no- thing in all this to prevent our accepting his authority on a point of military knowledge; nor to prevent our viewing his character, in calmer times, with calmer eyes. In the most heated epoch, even when opposed to him as a political enemy, we did not dis- parage his professional reputation, nor exult in the supposition of personal infirmities which did not exist.

We used to share the blame cast on some politicians, both in France and England, for desiring " peace at all price " : we are now assailed by those who desire peace at no price—that is, peace gratis. They are angry with us for saying that peace must be purchased. Eager for their onesided bargain, they assume facil- ities which have no existence. They assume an universal accord, which is refuted in every hour and every place. They twist sta- tistics to their purpose. For example, we see now and then much talk of some " decrease " in the French military or naval ex- penditure; a decrease which can only be made out by some strange process of selecting the figures. On the same plan, we might have proved an increase in our last revenue accounts ; for we might have picked out the solitary item of the Post-office. This figure of synecdoche is familiar to the smaller dealers in sta- tistics. But what can we to say for their honesty when we find that there has been a vast progressive increase in the French naval and military expenditure ? The current number of the Revue des Deux Mondes contains a paper by M. Michel Cheva- lier, intended as an echo to Mr. Cobden's pacific exhortations. M. Chevalier is a writer of such ability, that some political indis- cretions of his youth have failed to prevent his earning a very high place among the statesmen of the pen. His echo of Mr. Cobden's pacific exhortations consists in a call upon his country-

men to cease their increasing armaments, and to abandon their aggressive policy : the spirit of aggression and the arming are admitted. The increase of military forces, in men and money, has been considerable.

"In 1838, to speak of nothing but the land fortes," says M. Chevalier, "we had under arms 305,000 men; in 1841, we had mounted to 413,000; but in 1845 we had again fallen to 357,000. The interior occupied 259,000 men in 1838, 273,000 in 1845, and nearly 300,000 in 1846." " The expenditure has increased in a larger proportion than the peraonneL The accounts of 1838 show an expenditure of 239,638,285 francs. In 1841, it was 386,557,270 francs; in 1845 again, it was 339,187,051 francs; in 1846, it had mounted to 386,412,918." M. Chevalier gives several tables showing the comparative ex- penditure of France and England, with the yearly increase ; his figures for England being taken from Porter's Progress of the Nation—for France, from the Mkmoires d'un Ministre du Iiresor, and from official documents. The figures which we subjoin ex- hibit the results; those under the head of " increase " being in each case the gross amount formed by adding up the several sums of increase for the eight years—the sums are stated in French francs.

Expenditure of the Marine.

In 1838 In 1846 Gross Increase France.

72,510,642 133,966,635 359,712,846 England. 114,130.000 197,037,000 381,933,000

Expenditure of Land Forces.

In 1838 239,638,285 207,050,000 In 1846 386,412,918 228,796,000 Grose Increase 370,560,431 44,020,000

Total Military Expenditures.

In 1838 373,743,734

321,180,000 In 1846 576,909,553 425 833,000 Grose Increase 1 207,598,722 425,953,000

Excess of French Expenditure above English since 1838 1,202,155,638

In the French accounts the expenditure of the Army does not include certain items of a military nature, such as pensions, &c., which amounted in 1846 to more than 40,000,000 francs. Under this head there has been a decrease in the eight years, amounting collectively to 22,000,000 francs ; and this sum has been made to figure as a "decrease" of military expenditure in France.

M. Chevalier carries back his political review to 1830, when England evinced so strong a sympathy with France. He cites the many occasions on which England has shown forbearance, France hostility ; he quotes the Prince de Joinville's threatening Note, and characterizes the Duke of Wellington's Letter to Sir John Burgoyne as the natural answer on the defensive. Speak- ing of France in 1846, he says—" Never in profound peace did one see such eagerness and enthusiasm for the preparatives of war." The spirit of his paper is summed up in the following passage.

"In this situation, I do not know whether the two Cabinets, as soon as a good intelligence was established between them, bad any explanation on the subject of their respective armaments. If they had, on the Inquiry put by the French Go- vernment, the English Government must have answered— I augment my marine because the tone of the Cabinet of Washington constrains me: never in Europe was such treatment received, never were our rights denied with such hauteur. It is declared to the European powers that their right to form establishments in the New World is not recognized; while we have and intend to keep Canada and its dependencies—while we possess Belize and the sovereignty of the Mosquito shore in Central America—while we negotiate the partition of Oregon, which re.. mained undivided between the United States and us, and of which we certainly will have a part. =This language is almost a declaration of war. Further, the ruling party in the United States, with the leaders of the Slave States, turn to- wards their Southern neighbours the most ambitious regard, not concealing the intention to absorb California and the port of San Francisco, which England has ground to take for a menace addressed to her. The hostilities which have taken place in China may at any moment recommence; for the Chinese population has not ratified the treaty which we have concluded with the court of Pekin. We have then, without the bounds of Europe, reasons but too legitimate to increase our armaments. In fine, we must make a grand effort to establish a steam ma- rine—we who have so many naval stations to maintain, so many posts to admin- ister and support in all parts of the globe. The augmentation which has been effected in the estimates of the British marine scarcely answers to so many ne- cessities. There you have, loyally and frankly, all that is at the bottom of our armaments.'

" This answer, which the Cabinet of St. James's might have made in 1844 or '45 to all observations submitted in the name of France, seems to me to display the characters of pure truth. Let us see what might have been the reply of the French Cabinet if It had been requested to explain why such ardour was shown in augmenting the Naval Estimates, in scattering cannons along our shores, in con- verting to posts inexpugnable by sea or land all the ports of the royal marine— Cherbourg, Brest, Lorient, Rochefort, Toulon, and every metropolis of our com- merce. To be sincere, there was but one answer possible—' We are preparing for the case of a war against you.' `Bat,' Sir Robert Peel and Lord Aberdeen might have replied, you know well that we have no thought of declaring war against France; we attach the greatest value to remaining at peace with her.' To that I do not see what reply would have been made; but I doubt whether one could be found which would be reasonable, and could be explained before the Chambers." The able w,riter reminds his countrymen how costly these mere preparatives far war have been, how injurious to them actual war with England ,would be : he, like Mr. Cobden and ourselves, counsels peace; but he shows, we think, that although self-in- terest should make our neighbours peaceful, neither their temper nor their attitude has been safe. "In England," says M. Che- valier, " they began by saying—' The French are not taking arms against us : that would be absurd, therefore it is impossible' ; a conclusion which would not always be true." M. Chevalier writes and exhorts ; but the vast forces which he describes are not yet disbanded ; and Marshal Bugeaud has sup- plied the pretext for not diminishing the Algerine army, although Abd-el-Kader has yielded. In the face of these facts, we say, a due regard to national defence is necessary, not to provoke war, but to preserve peace. " Tu yens la pair," said Mirabeau to the Quaker: "eh hien ! c'est la faiblesse qui appelle la guerre; une resistance generale serait la paix universelle." Such is still the French idea of an universal peace—an armed millennium.