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    £62 THE LEAPEI, [No. 475, April 30, 1859...

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    QIjBBICAJj SCANDAL. We have before now e...

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    Cost Of War. Our Lato Rapid Progress In ...

    perity . The . new Government imposed pn her racked Her by taxes to repay restored emigrants , & c , and she was the continual prey of uneasiness and revolutions . The population and wealth of France have increased very slowly since 1815 , under her restored Government , in comparison to the population of England . The war which began -in 1793 found her suddenly freed , from a vast system of domestic misrule . She was pluming her wing for an eagle flight . Her industrious people , deeply attached to the soil , and living chiefly by cultivating it , found in its reappropriation a new scope for their

    exiunded , amounts to about 807 ; 0 GO , OOO £ , and this vast sum is entirely owing on account of war expenditure , financial juggles may have augmented while pretending to lessen it , but only one single act , we believe , of humanity or benevolence , has added to its amount . In 1836 , 20 , 000 , 000 / . were borrowed to pay the slaveholders a compensation for the loss of the services of their ' -emancipated slaves . With this exception , the debt is entirely due to war . At the commencement of the

    American war , in 1775 , it amounted to 128 , 583 , 635 / ., and at the close of the war in 1784 , to ; 249 , 851 , 628 / . In the ensuing peace 10 , 501 , 380 / . was paid off , so that at the commencement of the French war , in 1793 , the debt amounted to 239 , 350 , 148 / . The debt contracted , during that war was 601 , 500 , 343 / ., making at its close , in 1817 , when the accounts were wound up , the total debt , funded and unfunded , 840 , 850 , 4917 . Subsequent to that period it was generally reduced , but at times additions were made to it ; the result was , that it reached the lowest point in 1853 , when it amounted to 771 , 335 , 8011 . In the thirty-six years which elapsed between 1817 and 1853 it was lessened by

    69 , 514 , 690 / ., or at the rate of 1 , 930 , 000 / . per annum . The Russian war" seems to have augmented it , therefore , from 771 to 807 millions , or about 36 , 000 , 000 / . But this , as our readers well know , who have , since 1854 , had to pay increased duties on tea and sugar and coffee , and an increased property-tax , is only a small part of the cost of that war . Our financiers undertook to provide forthe majorpart of the increased expense by increased taxation . Soj also , all through the French ¦ war , taxation was continually increased , and the debt incurred was only a part of the whole cost to the people of England of that long and arduous ¦¦

    struggle . . ' . « . " We may calculate the war expenditure alone , from 1793 inclusive , " to 1800 , at 196 , 500 , 000 / . ; from 1800 to 1814 , , it is estimated at 633 , 634 , 614 £ . ; making a total of 830 , 134 , 614 / ., of which , as we have seen , 601 , 500 , 343 /; was borrowed ^ This is probably an under estimate . We have seen the cost of the war calculated on good grounds' at 1 , 000 , 000 , 000 / ., and we believe it could not have been less than , 900 , 000 , 000 / . Assuming that the value of the labour of one . labourer in the year is 25 / ., which is as much as the average of workmen then got , this sum would give 36 , 000 , 000 as the number of labourers , the produce of whose toil

    for one year had been blown away .-in powder , or other means of destroying the life which the toil was intended to sustain . If we divide the 36 , 000 , 000 by 22 , assuming this as the number of years the war lasted , we shall find , speaking roughly and broadly , that the value of the labour of 1 , 600 , 000 labourers was annually wasted by the Government of England alone 'in inflicting misery on mankind . True , she fought at t he end for the defence of freedom , but her aggressions on the Republic and people of France were the chief oxugiri of the tyranny she was afterwards compelled to resist .

    What sums the other Governments of Europe expended in the same period we have no means of ascertaining . Several of them were not engaged in the contest fqr'the whole , time . Several , of them too , as if to show how worthless are the objects for which such vast quantities of labour was wasted , fought first on one side and then on the other . Only France can be considered , besides England , as at war through the whole peiiod , and what sum of money she spent is not known , but the labour she wasted may bo approximatively guessed at . She did not carry on the war at such a lai * go nominal expense ns England , but the real cost to her was much greater . Despite the waste of our Government , England at the end of tho war had

    increased about 30 per cent , in population , and still more in wealth , though the bulk of her labouring classes had boon pauperised and degraded in relation to tho rest of the community beyond any known example in history . ' She prospered by means of the now ana wonderful Jfaaohlnory then coming in to use , which increased amazingly her power and her wealth . France , however , at the end of the war , found her Government degraded , the nation enfeebled , and at the mercy of conquerors . She was stripped of most of her oolonios , and driven back within the boxmdaries she had reached before the Revolution . She had made but little us © of machinery , and all her expenses wore paid by the almost unaided toil of her people . JTor her , too , tho peaeo was followed by little

    prosskill of the intelligent people of Europe will be perverted , in -a . degree perfectly . unassignable to the diabolical purposes of destruction . The people who suffer are clearly responsible in their sufferings to nature or to God for this mighty evil and they should stop it at its source . '

    ertioris , and began zealously to improve it . Then came war and the conscription ; and the new population just starting into manhood , and the new wealth , of which the seeds were just sown , were both sacrificed . Her budding prosperity was at once blighted—her eagle flight sank to a vulture swoop amongst carnage , and ended in bloated destruction . Her prosperity was sacrificed on the ' altar of military glory , and she was in the end impoverished and disgraced . In her wars 2 , 000 , 000 men , at least , perished ; while the misdirection of labour which they caused annihilated the subsistence and the life of probably three tunes the number . Her . finances were

    brought into working order only by the-. bankruptcy that wiped off her debt ; and though she ' quartered her armies , on the enemy , she came out of the war burdened with-a new debt and onerous" taxation . Figures cannot express the enormous cost of the war to France , which deprived , her of all . the benefits which might have followed frorn the abolition of domestic misrule , and which substituted

    for the freedom she had hoped to win , a new and more baneful system of . tyranny ; Her civil life was subjected to ' military law , and t he spirit of the nation was perverted froni the stedfast love of ; honest industry . 'to a fiendish delight in destruction . Her progress was in reality stopped ; and as society is only in a state of well-being when making , consistently with its nature , a rapid progress , France was damaged more than words can tell by the war .

    The case was similar with , every other State of Em-ope . The beneficial inventions of art , adding to the power of man , and enabling an cverincreasing population to multiply all the enjoyments of life—and which , wherever brought first into existence , are sure , in a time of peace , speedily to beconVe , like railroads , the common property and common enjoyment—were neglected . Only the arts of destruction were studied , and the bulk of the Continental nations , like France , became almost stationary . Not one but committed , by the issue ofpaper promises to pay , which it never redeemed , or other similar devices , acts of bankruptcy . They , all lost character as well as wealth . By war the finances of every . State . ' . of Europe

    were deranged . If we consider that France only was at war through the whole of the long period , and that the other countries did not make equal exertions to those of France and England , we may be justified in concluding that at least four times the produce of 36 , 000 , 000 , or the produce- p f 144 , 000 , 000 labourers , or the produce——again spcaking roughly—of 6 , 400 , 000 labourers annually , for twenty-two years , was dosfcroyed in Europe by the wars which began in 1793 and ended in 1815 . This rough but simple estimate would make the cost of these wars ^ 3 , 600 , 000 , 000 / . The quantity of human toil destinod to supply enjoyment and sustain life this sum represents , was perverted to purposes of destruction ; and tho hearts of men were filled—which is not the least noxious

    consequence of war—with discontont from suffering , and with doubt of the goodnoss and wisdom of the Creator . Now tho heirs and successors of tho classes who bogan or provoked those wars are again commencing tho sad and dreary work . There is scarcely one of them not encumbered with debt , and of . which tho finances aro not already "deranged by military establishments : theso they have of late been increasing 5 those they must increase to carry their unholy projects through a disastrous course to a conclusion that cannot bo otherwise than disastrous . And

    again , they must , in some way or other , defraud their creditors . If modern improvements make it probable that tho war will be short , they make it oortain that war , while it lasts , will bo increasingly expensive and destructive . Again , human labour to an incalculable amount is to . be wasted . Again , life , to an extent beyond conjooturo , is to bo destroyed 5 and again , tho growing ingenuity and

    £62 The Leapei, [No. 475, April 30, 1859...

    £ 62 THE LEAPEI , [ No . 475 , April 30 , 18593

    Qijbbicajj Scandal. We Have Before Now E...

    QIjBBICAJj SCANDAL . We have before now expressed our- disapprobation of the whole system of the confessional . We shall scarcely be suspected of a leaning towards Pusey ite practises , if we express our heartfelt disgust ( for we can use no milder term ) at the language used by the opponents of Mr . Liddell , at the late election for the iriuch-contested post of church-warden for the parish of St . Paul ' s . We believe that Mr . Westertou has really done good service in his time ' to the interest of the Protestant pause , and therefore we the more regret to see so good a cause tarnished and disgraced by the intemperance of its advocates . If any stranger , unacquainted with the whole history of these parochial squabbles , Lad been present at this meeting , the last thought -which would have entered Ms head , would have been that he was taking part in an assemblage of religious Christians engaged in regulating the affairs of their common church . The rector of the parish was hooted out of the chair , in the first instance , because he asserted that he was a parish priest—a fact as undeniable , as that Mr . Westerton is a bookseller and stationer . -After the obnoxious vicar had been ejected , the hero of the day , the Protestant churchwarden , was called to the chair , and the fun grew loud and glorious :. A certain Colonel Vereker amused the meeting with a series

    of biographical sketches of Mr . Liddell ' s curates and assistants . One had turned Papist ; a second had organised a college for sending out missionaries aniong the outcast poor of this jrrcat city ; but , fearful to relate , the spiritual food imparted to these simple heathen was not the true evangelical manna , Tjut was tainted with : i Tractarian taste ; a third clerical offender had had some connection —though of what kind is not stated—with an infant martyr to the cause of Protestantism , who canned Westertohian placards , and was pelted with rotten eggs in . consequence ; of a fourth much might be said , but the time was not yot ripe for the disclosure . Unjileasant tilings hail been told about a fif th , which were not worth repetition . A

    sixth curate had made allusions , in preaching , to tlie fact that adultery was a sin of modern as well as scriptural times ; while tlie seventh and last had committed thu unpardonable sin of not having given rise to any peculiar observation . Besides this — horrible to relate ~ there were rumours afloat which required investigation . An old woman had been directed to atone for the sins of her youth by ofli'nng up prayers for the death of Mr . We * tertoii ; nnd one of the seven curates had been guilty of some indiscretion with some married lady—names ami localities alike unknown 5 and , worst of all , a curate was reported to have received a visit Jroni n young lady iu a sitting-r oom , which was only tfonaratefl from hie betUvoom by ibldefU doors . JNlarlc tlmt ! - not even a single English door , but general folding

    doors . After this final outburst :, wo nro not surprised to earn that Colonel Vorokor '« fueling * boaunc too much fbr him , and that ho gave pluce to au . Westcrton , who , first of all , guvo n . succinct narativo of his efforts in defence oi the truth 5 anU how ho had thwarted n baae attempt on 0 part of the clergy to inis-upproj > nu <<; t » ° J ' scriptions to the offertory . Alter thin recit ol his personal services , the orator turned into a mo 1 appropriate personal narrative of the- im »» nu n wllieh ho had trncked a showjly-. livs . soil y " £ woman to the vestry of St . Paul ' * , ... id hu « l ^ ascertained that she , being a servant tfW ; ™ . ^ Si for ( spiritual conversation to a uurutooi the cIhhoh . A narrative of what ho said to the ounile , « ui . < w uaj the curate said to him , and what tlw g »« « ttUl bothoonoludcd his harangue .

    , Now wo do not houitato to Bay , Hint alt scandalous gossip-thin rockloM tiltle-tut tlofama tion of character , and idlo imputation ol "P ^ motives , is discreditable to tho intcru « l « b < l w « ligiou and morality . II churchman and C 1 uanj wTeli their flvith to be respected , they bhouia nni « that adage , » nd » wash then- dirty hueu ut homo .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 30, 1859, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_30041859/page/18/