RESULTS OF THE CONFLICT. 779 wars may be said to have already ceased. Nations have become more intent on the interchange of material benefits than on the infliction of mutual injuries. European states stand nearly on the same level of civilisation, are equally skilled in military science, and equally fearless of bayonet or bullet. Hard knocks can only be exchanged by belligerents, and nearly an equal amount of detriment be inflicted. Were the conquest of one community by another possible, it is doubtful whether their fusion would be an advantage to either, and whether they would not both be happier and more prosperous each subject to its own peculiar laws, institutions, traditions, and usages. But such a catastrophe as the subjugation of one nation by another is next to an impossibility, since all the rest of Europe would combine to resist such a disturbance of the existing long established allocation of territory. The war with Russia is an instance of the instinct of selfpreservation which governs the members of what may be deemed a proximate European federation. For more than a century, Russia had been the dark cloud in the East which was thought to overshadow and menace the independence of the Western States. But the united arms of England and France dispelled the phantom danger, and a long period is likely to elapse before either the constitutionalism or the territory of Western Europe will be menaced or interfered with by Muscovite restlessness or ambition. Beside the humiliation of Russia, and the other benefits noticed, further results of the conflict may be recapitulated. Austria has been rescued from Muscovite thraldom; Napoleon III. has become a fixed star in the monarchical galaxy of Europe; the constitutional government of Sardinia has been raised into European consideration; Sweden has been made secure by a treaty stipu lation against the re-fortification of Bomarsund; and the anomalous condition of Greece and Italy, in which last Austria and France, without a shadow of right, continue to divide between them the Pontifical States, has been so far discussed as to elicit from the Conference the admission that the state of both Greece and Rome continued, as originally avowed, to be provisional only, and not a permanent settlement. The martial reminiscences of the war are little dazzling, and not likely to provoke imitation. The science, endurance, and heroism of the combatants, on both sides, are beyond impeachment; but they recal Dr. Johnson's powerful lines on the foundation of the warrior's pride,— "the ignoble strand, to point a moral or adorn a tale," on which Charles XII. of Sweden, the most redoubtable of modern heroes, met an obscure death. The Duke of Cambridge, who led in gallant style his division to the Alma, declared repeatedly, on his return from the Crimea, that "soldiers do not love war;" they prefer the joys of peace. The losses of the English army in the bloody struggle were small contrasted with those of her opponent. They amounted to 19,314 men in all the casualties of the service; but of this number only 209 officers and 3323 men were killed, or died of their wounds.* The losses of our brave ally were much more considerable, being as follows:-officers of all grades, 1284; non-commissioned officers, 4403; soldiers, 56,805.† In an elaborate report made by the French Minister of War to the Emperor (October 23.) it is stated that France sent to the East 309,268 men, and received back 227,135. The effective strength of the French army of the East on the day when the peace of Paris was *Lord Panmure, House of Lords, May 8. 1856. Report in the "Moniteur de l'Armée" in July. LOSSES OF THE ARMIES IN THE CRIMEA. 781 signed is stated to have been 146,240. The losses of the Russians from various causes have been computed at the enormous amount of 500,000, of which number 90,000 lay buried on the ensanguined heights of Sebastopol.* The havoc of war mainly results from diseases, long marches, night encampments, and mental anxiety; from most of which the Allied armies were saved by the cooperative aid of the British navy. Of French and English troops our ships conveyed to the seat of war in the Crimea 221,000 men. The Czar's forces perished wholesale in traversing dreary wastes and ill-made roads; besides which, they were poorly fed, and, if knocked up, they were but crudely aided by medical appliances. Lord Ellesmere has with reason stated that a single well-directed line of railway would have made Russia more formidable to her assailants than all the ships, guns, and stores which the late Emperor had been for years vaingloriously accumulating in his fortresses by the impoverishment of his subjects and the diminution of the productive capital of the empire. Manifestly the civilisation of science, of wealth, and freedom are the true sources of power in war and peace. * Viscount Palmerston, House of Commons, May 8. 1856. CHAPTER XXXVI. CONCLUSION, AND PRESENT ASPECTS. Chief Agencies conducive to England's Greatness. The Aristocracy and Productive Orders. - Past and Present Civil Agitation. Fusion of Classes and Concurrence of Purpose. - Decline of Parties, from Settlement of Great Questions, and Harmony of the Productive Interests. Unequalled Prosperity of Agriculture and Commerce.-Elements of National Strength. — Quietude of the Religious, Philosophical, and Literary World.— No Symptoms of National Degeneracy from the pervading Social Harmony.Tendency to Refinement among the Masses.· Characteristics of Crime; Increase of Property, and Diminution of Personal Offences; Reform of Offenders.— Reform of Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Preliminary Examination of Candidates for Civil Offices. Disposition to look through Mediaval Spectacles. — New Palace of Westminster.- Sir Joshua Reynolds and the Old Masters. ·Prospective Metropolitan Improvements. THE narrative, in which the general principles of a great nation's progress has been sought to be elucidated by the leading facts of its history, has conducted us to the actual present. The series of changes which have been traced in the successive struggles and vicissitudes of a gathering of islanders from barbarism to civilisation, might not be inaptly displayed in its scenic characteristics in one of those moving spectacles that often attract popular attention. At two former historical epochs-the revolution of 1688, and the accession of George III.-a retrospective summary has been given of existing or antecedent advances; and with those may be now combined the ulterior steps, so as to bring into conclusive results the chief agencies that have been conducive to England's greatness. THE ARISTOCRACY AND PRODUCTIVE ORDERS. 783 To the aristocracy of society has been principally ascribed the fabric of our political, ecclesiastical, and juridical institutions; but what chiefly pertains to material developments is as certainly due to the Productive Orders. The moral and social attributes which give to strangers the general impression of the national character, do not appear to belong exclusively to either denomination of the community, but have resulted from their amicable fusion; and, indeed, it may be remarked of our entire past history, that if divisions have arisen-and occasionally fierce ones have occurred-they have been short-lived, and the pervading characteristic in British advancement has been union and concurrence of purpose. If the productive classes not only created themselves, but by industrial results tended to refine and elevate those in authority, the latter did not in hostile spirit decline to share with them, when competent from intelligence and position, any exclusive immunities they had inherited or acquired. Gradual advancement, moderation in demands, and an equitable compromise of them if conflicting, have been the distinguishing features of parties. In the Plantagenet era it was the sword that arbitrated antagonistic claims; at the Protestant reformation, persecution and the faggot or, later, civil disabilities; in the spirited struggle with the Stuarts violence continued the paramount appeal; but in our more enlightened times a trial of logic or eloquence in the senate or on the platform suffices to determine conflicting issues. This is a bright gleam of existing civilisation,-reason in civil agitation has become paramount to physical force. It is the pen and the tongue, not the sword, which arbitrates. The fruits of this pacific victory are everywhere around us, and it is impossible to contemplate them unmoved. Next to actual war political questions form the |
