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Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5044, 4 April 1878, Page 2

The following passage from M. Thier's "Consulate and Empire," on the effects of war on Great Britain, we observe is going the rounds of the papers, and is being quoted with admiration and endorsement in various quarters : —" To an insular country which takes part in the conflicts of nations only with fleets generally victorious, or at the utmost with armies acting in the capacity of auxiliaries, war is, generally speaking, not a state- of disquietude deranging public tranquility, or even materially affecting the usual course of things. The stability of credit in London, amid the most fearful havoc of the human race, attests in a striking manner the truth uf this inference. If to such considerations we add that the army is recruited by mercenaries, and the fleet manned by mariners to whom it is of little moment whether they live on board the vessels of the State or on board those of commerce, and to whom, moreover, prizes are an enticing allurement, we shall still better comprehend that to such a country war is a burden which resolves itself simply into a fiscal matter, a species of calculation, in which millions are embarked to obtain more extended commercial outlets. For the aristocratic classes only, which supply officers for those fleets and armies, and which, risking their dearest blood, have in view the glory of their country, as well as the mere increase of trade, war assumes its seriousness and its dangers, although still not its greatest anxieties, since the hazard of an invasion is deemed non-existent." It is a much smaller matter, we imagine, to the aristocracy that they risk their dearest blood than that they have nearly all the honors, preferments, and emoluments that are to be won in war to hope for, hence they are the only class with whom war is immensely popular. In regard to the first part of the paragraph, it must be remembered that when the " Consulate and Empire" was written Great Britain's stake in distant parts of the world was a trifle in comparison with what it is now.