SPECULATIONS ON WAR. 27 CHAPTER III. Containing divers speculations on war and negotiations-showing that a treaty of peace is a great national evil. It was the opinion of that poetical philosopher, Lucretius, that war was the original state of man, whom he described as being primitively a savage beast of prey, engaged in a constant state of hostility with his own species, and that this ferocious spirit was tamed and ameliorated by society. The same opinion has been advocated by Hobbes,* nor have there been wanting many other philosophers to admit and defend it. For my part, though prodigiously fond of these valuable speculations, so complimentary to human nature, yet, in this instance, I am inclined to take the proposition by halves, believing with Horace, that though war may have been originally the favourite amusement and industrious employment of our progenitors, yet, like *Hobbes' Leviathan. Part i. chap. 13. + Quum prorepserunt primis animalia terris, 28 MAN'S MURDEROUS INVENTIONS. many other excellent habits, so far from being ameliorated, it has been cultivated and confirmed by refinement and civilization, and increases in exact proportion as we approach towards that state of perfection which is the ne plus ultra of modern philosophy. The first conflict between man and man was the mere exertion of physical force, unaided by auxiliary weapons-his arm was his buckler, his fist was his mace, and broken head the catastrophe of his encounters. The battle of unassisted strength was succeeded by the more rugged one of stones and clubs, and war assumed a sanguinary aspect. As man advanced in refinement, as his faculties expanded, and his sensibilities became more exquisite, he grew rapidly more ingenious and experienced in the art of murdering his fellow beings. He invented a thousand devices to defend and to assault-the helmet, the cuirass, and the buckler, the sword, the dart, and the javelin, prepared him to elude the wound, as well as to launch the blow. urging on, in the brilliant and philanthropic career of invention, he enlarges and heightens his powers of defence and injury-The Aries, the Scorpio, the Balista, and the Catapulta, give a horror and sublimity to war, and magnify its glory by increasing its desolation. Still insatia-. ble, though armed with machinery that seemed Still FIGHTING BY PROCLAMATION. 29 to reach the limits of destructive invention, and to yield a power of injury, commensurate even with the desires of revenge-still deeper researches must be made in the diabolical arca With furious zeal he dives into the bowels of the earth; he toils midst poisonous minerals and deadly salts-the sublime discovery of gunpowder blazes upon the world-and finally the dreadful art of fighting by proclamation, seems to endow the demon of war with ubiquity and omnipotence! This, indeed, is grand!-this, indeed, marks the powers of mind, and bespeaks that divine endowment of reason, which distinguishes us from the animals, our inferiors. The unenlightened brutes content themselves with the native force which Providence has assigned them.The angry bull butts with his horns, as did his progenitors before him-the lion, the leopard, and the tyger, seek only with their talons and their fangs to gratify their sanguinary fury; and even the subtle serpent darts the same venom, and uses the same wiles, as did his sire before the flood. Man alone, blessed with the inventive mind, goes on from discovery to discovery -enlarges and multiplies his powers of destruction; arrogates the tremendous weapons of Deity itself, and tasks creation to assist him in murdering his brother worm! 30 IMPROVEMENTS IN WAR AND PEACE. In proportion as the art of war has increased in improvement, has the art of preserving peace advanced in equal ratio; and, as we have discovered in this age of wonders and inventions, that proclamation is the most formidable engine in war, so have we discovered the no less ingenious mode of maintaining peace by perpetual negotiations. A treaty, or to speak more correctly, a negotiation, therefore, according to the acceptation of experienced statesmen, learned in these matters, is no longer an attempt to accommodate differences, to ascertain rights, and to establish an equitable exchange of kind offices; but a contest of skill between two powers, which shall over-reach and take in the other. It is a cunning endeavour to obtain by peaceful manœuvre, and the chicanery of cabinets, those advantages which a nation would otherwise have wrested by force of arms: in the same manner that a conscientious highwayman reforms and becomes an excellent and praise-worthy citizen, contenting himself with cheating his neighbour out of that property he would formerly have seized with open violence. In fact, the only time when two nations can be said to be in a state of perfect amity, is, when a negotiation is open, and a treaty pending. Then, as there are no stipulations entered into, NO TERMS ARE THE BEST TERMS. 31 no bonds to restrain the will, no specific limits. to awaken the captious jealousy of right implanted in our nature, as each party has some advantage to hope and expect from the other, then it is that the two nations are so gracious and friendly to each other; their ministers professing the highest mutual regard, exchanging billets-doux, making fine speeches, and indulging in all those little diplomatic flirtations, coquetries and fondlings, that do so marvellously tickle the good humour of the respective nations. Thus it may paradoxically be said, that there is never so good an understanding between two nations, as when there is a little misunderstanding-and that so long as they are on no terms, they are on the best terms in the world! I do not by any means pretend to claim the merit of having made the above political discovery. It has in fact long been secretly acted upon by certain enlightened cabinets, and is, together with divers other notable theories, privately copied out of the common place book of an illustrious gentleman, who has been member of congress, and enjoyed the unlimited confidence of heads of departments. To this principle may be ascribed the wonderful ingenuity that has been shown of late years in protracting and interrupting negotiations.-Hence the cunning measure of appointing as ambassador some |