ABSTRACT
War in itself is a mighty evil, an incongruity in a scheme of social harmony, a canker at the heart of improvement, a living lie in a Christian land, a curse at all times. In time of tranquillity it is the first duty of the soldier to study how war may be waged with success, but it is then the urgent duty of the statesmen to study how war may be avoided. From the economic standpoint war was at best “a kind of intermittent fever, and the cure or death of the patient must at some time follow.” The Liberal Party were ranged on the side of peace—Lansdowne, Bedford, and Lauderdale in the Lords, and Fox, Sheridan, and Grey in the Commons were the strenuous opponents of the war. The money has been raised for the war by forced contributions and compulsory loans, in the confident expectation that this loan would be raised to pay them off.”
