p. 158 | Untitled article

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, February 18, 1868

FromReview and Herald, Vol. XXXI, No. 10

European Armies.

It is a truism that the weakness of a nation can never be a guarantee for its security; but is it equally true that national peace can only be placed beyond the risk of disturbance by the maintenance of immense and costly military armaments? The philosophers of the Peace Society teach a very different wisdom, but Louis Napoleon, who is not generally believed to be a fool, pronounces this to be the only true faith, and the French people, acting through the Assembly of their representatives, have yielded to his demand for an army of 800,000 men in time of peace, and the establishment of a system that will enable him to bring into the field a force of one million and a quarter of soldiers in time of war. One-thirtieth of the whole population of France is to be converted into soldiers, and as an inevitable consequence, the other European nations are to go on in what seems to us to be an endless and insane competition in military expenditure and armaments. Under the reign of Louis Philippe, France contented herself with an army of 300,000 men; under Louis Napoleon, until now, she has borne the burden of sustaining the subtraction of 400,000 of her male citizens from the pursuits of industry and production; and now, at one step, this immense force is to be doubled. Out of a population of 38,000,000 souls, 800,000 “bread-winners” are to be taken for nine years, one-half of whom will be for five years in the active army, and the other half for four years in the reserve. Before the war in the Crimea, 80,000 men were annually conscripted for the army in France; during the war this number was raised to 140,000 men; then it was reduced to 100,000 men, at which figure it has since remained until now. To supply these conscripts, 300,000 young men are annually obliged to take part in this singular lottery, and of the 100,000 who draw the fatal “black bean,” about 75,000 are really obliged to become soldiers. The term of service is seven years, but in practice this is generally reduced to five or six years. Of these recruits only a portion join the regular army, the remainder being drilled at home, in the departments to which they belong. A conscript can purchase a substitute for $400—the Government for this sum undertaking to fill the vacancy, which it does by paying a bounty and increased pay to old soldiers who re-enlist. But this system is now, in many respects, to be changed, the terms of service being extended to nine years, the conscription being more severe, and the purpose of the new law being to have an army of 800,000 men always ready for action. To keep our army in the field during the late rebellion—an army which varied in nominal strength from 75,000 to 1,000,000 men—rolled up that gigantic debt, under which the people of the United States are now groaning. But not only was this debt contracted for an exceptional and holy purpose, but it was incurred by a people who have no other national burdens upon them, and will be paid with the hopeful and cheering assurance that it will be the last expenditure of this nature that they will be called upon to make, and that the blessings secured by it are well worth all they cost. But France must make up her mind to be reconciled to the necessity of furnishing a permanent standing army of 800,000 men, at a cost that must seriously increase the financial troubles of the State—an army that must turn away from all the productive occupations of life the flower of her children in the best days of their life, making them forever after unfitted for these pursuits, and at once a menace to other countries, and a burden and danger to their own. This is only the regular army; but in addition to this, there are to be about 460,000 “mobile” National Guards, whom the Emperor may summon to his aid in time of war. Thus a force is to be provided of 1,260,000 men, with which at his heels, Louis Napoleon may perhaps feel tolerably secure. Austria is now laboring to provide for an effective army of a little more than 1,000,000 soldiers. Italy is organizing an army of little less than 1,000,000. Germany has a force of 1,250,000 men, and Russia can muster 1,300,000 soldiers. The “general arming” movement which commenced after the issue of the war of 1866, has not yet ended. It still remains true that when France arms, the other nations must do so likewise. But the converse is likewise true, and Louis Napoleon has plausible reasons to prove that he is only acting the part of prudence in thus making France so formidably strong. Russia, always powerful, has now waxed so great as to inspire well-founded alarm among those of her neighbors whom she has not already seized upon and swallowed. Toward the others she glances with a hungry air, and her king and his minister have plainly shown that they are restrained from making war only by their own pleasure, and not by any fear of the consequences. Public opinion is powerful, but Bismarck laughs it to scorn. The time has been when Prussia, less powerful than she now is, held at bay the allied forces of France, Russia, Austria, and Sweden; and the glorious history of a score of gigantic battles attests the magnificent discipline and the extraordinary courage of the great armies which seem to spring from her soil in constant readiness to crush the foes of the Faderland. As we contemplate the spectacle which the whole of Europe now presents, we must bid farewell to the idea of Lessing, Bastiat, Cobden, and Gladstone, that as nations become wealthy they will grow peaceful, and that Free-trade is the most potent foe of war. Never was trade so free as it now is all over Europe, and never were the preparations for war so extensive and alarming. A hundred years ago, a philosopher proclaimed the discovery of the great truth that men were not born into the world, to send each other out of it—but the greater part of mankind, ever since that proclamation, have been engaged in demonstrating its practical falsity.—Boston Journal.