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No. 484. July 2, 1859.] THE LEADER. 795
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it inflicts, designedly or undesignedly,...
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Tho Patrio announces that the 4th dlvwio...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
The "Tailor's Mission." One Lives And Le...
purchase . The appointment ' was gazetted , and the price agreed on was divided amongst the confederates and the parties whom they had influenced . Unfortunately , in all human affairs there is a possibility of miscarriage . If Napoleon had Ills Waterloo , why should not Air . Marshall have his run of ill-luck also ? There was a dispute about the division of the booty , and one of the happy party turned traitor . The matter was taken up by the Government , and Mr . Marshall has just been convicted of a criminal misdemeanour . In spite of this slight accident , our belief in our discovery remains unshaken . Take our advice , and when in doubt or difficulty go to your tailor .
The matter , however , ought not to rest here . No one suspects men of position and fortune , to say nothing of character , to be liable to any temptation from a bribe of a cou |> le of hundred pounds or so . This much , however , we do say , without fear of contradiction : —It is a lenown fact that a vast number of the fashionable and aristocratic world , who form our governing classes , are heavily in debt to their tailors . It is known , also , that tailors have constantly in their hands over-due
bills and I . O . U ' s of their customers to large amounts . Now , if you have any knowledge of human nature , and consider how impossible it is for any embarassed man , however honourable by character to treat with indifference any not too unreasonable request of a manwlio has it in his power to sell him up at oncer—why , then , if you think of this , you will still take our opinion , and consult your tailor when you want a friend at court . ¦ „ ¦¦ .
No. 484. July 2, 1859.] The Leader. 795
No . 484 . July 2 , 1859 . ] THE LEADER . 795
It Inflicts, Designedly Or Undesignedly,...
it inflicts , designedly or undesignedly , are powerful reasons for not waging -war . In the language of economists and statesmen , however , they are not included in the cost of war . They are nxighty evils , at which the heart shudders , and which the hand , unless driven by dire necessity , refuses to inflict over and above the labour required to inflict them , which is the measure of the cost of war to humanity . The cost of war to a country , to which we next turn our attention , and about which there is most controversy , is , in like manner , all the labour , skill , and knowledge which the country requires and uses to carry on any particular war . In this estimate is included all the services of foreigners— - such as those of the Ilussian peasant , in growing
hemp to make cables and ropes for ships—for which the war-making country must pay by its own labour , as well as all the labour of its own people , including that of miners and shipwrights , as well as soldiers and sailors , directly or indirectly employed to canyon the war . The labour which produces the provisions , implements and weapons necessary to war is so enwoven with the other labour and skill of the ' community-that it is quite impossible to estimate the real quantity of-labour required . In our country , where all the preliminary work is cheaply and well performed , the cost is comparatively less than in other countries ; still it is of a large amount , and must always be included in our estimate of the cost of a war .
Of this cost to our country we have various estimates in money . Thus , the cost of war between 1801 and 1816 was stated by the Economist , a fortnight ago , to have been 369 , 114 , 000 / ., over and above an additional annual amount of taxation , wliich would make the cost to have been , besides the additional taxation , 23 , 000 , 0002 . per annum through , the whole period . But this annual expense for all military and many civil purposes includes the cost of the troops employed in Ireland ,
such as building a series of gunboats after the war ¦ was at an end , which cost , like many ships built only to be destroyed or to rot , a vast sum to preserve them . There must be included , too , 'lie higher wages which the country is obliged to jay for the services c . ' both seamen and soldiers by t \ e regulations in favour of the aristocracy , whith limits to members of that body all the honours -f both professions . The reader -will see , therefore , that the disbursements , for the army and , navy are not the measure of the cost of war to the country , but of many matters that have as little to do with -war as the expense of the coast-guard included 'i the cost of the navy , and only used to collect the revenue . Deducting these matters it must als ^ be remembered that all the admirals , and capta , and seamen of the navy—all the general subaltern officers and men of the army—all the shipwrights and officers of the dockyards—all the contractors for clothing and provisions—are members of "the community ; and then- wages , salaries , and pay men ts are all made out of the 21 , 655 , 4801 . ; and , though paid by the rest of the community , are not cost to these individuals ,. but rewards , for which they have given their labour or . skill , and sources of wealth
to them . Admiral Lyons , for example , received increased pay and a peerage for his services and his pay formed a part of the general property . TVhat is true of him . is true of all other officers , and all the men employed ; and though their labour is a cost to the community , their re-wards , included in the 21 , 655 , 480 ^ ., are ¦ wealth to themi It is riot such an easy matter , therefore , as these and other writers hastily suppose and dogmatically assert , to , determine the cost of war to the country . is another
The cost of zoar . to the taxpayers thin , and is represented pretty correctly by the 21 , 655 , 480 / . per annum , while the larger sum of 36 . 655 , 480 Z . is the total cost of our military establishments . The former is something like th e actual cost of war to the taxpayers ; the latter is something like a measure of the annual burdens wliich cmr Government imposes on the people , under the name of war . It is one of the many false pretexts on which it lives . At least , ^ this sum .- measures the burden imposed on industry in 1854-1856 , for pretended war purposes . A very slight acquaintance Aviih naval and ¦ military matters is sufficient to
convince every person that a large proportion of this sum is always wasted by mismanagement , or by the freaks of naval and military authorities . For a long period these magnates assumed that then * peculiar technical knowledge placed them above all ordinary cri ticism , and their follies were unchecked by public admonition . What is set down under these heads of army , navy , and ordnance , does not include the cost of much civil service , employed at the Treasury , and in collecting taxes , which this great expenditure makes necessary . It does include all the money wasted under these heads by the Government ou jobs or caprice , which have as little claim to be called the cost of war as the cost of a brace of hunters to is
be called household expenditure . The sum , therefore , not a fair estimate of the cost of war . ^ ¦ Though so much of it as pays the wages of workmen a soldiers , rewards oflicers , and remunerates manufacturers , is not lost to the nation , it is all taken from the taxpayers by the Government , and by it so much of it as is not blown away is transferred to these other classes . When wo notice that war interrupts trade , that till the nations of the earth have now a groat interest in trade , and would probably noc have war- but for their Governments , wo arc entitled to affirm that all this expeiwe--aud not merely the expense of building ships , only to be nulled to pieces , & c-i « rather the cost to uaot Government than of war . It is one athe items <• * i . « «« , ™ , «« ii « nm-1 increasing expense ot tins
„ ^^^ aii ^ ^^ V ^ uiy hurls on man , but even the cost of war is pot so black as it is painted , by Uio millions of IiKMioy set down to its charge by those who seek to throw on it all . the blame of the oxoessive and wiistoful expenditure of the Government .
and in certain colonies , to keep discontented and conquered people , or negro slaves , in subjection . It includes , too , much civil service , and the cost of collecting the revenue through the whole period , and can by no means be assumed as a just measure of the cost of war . Our contemporary obviously confounds—as has been shown by the Daily News—all the disbursements of the Government , for police and many other purposes—with the cost of war , while the latter is only a part of the
former . Another estimate has been placed before the public by the Monetary Times and Bankers" Circular ^ which is , for some of the reasons above stated , equally erroneous . " The total , cost of the army , ordnance , and navy , in 1816 , amounted , it is said , to 26 , 593 , 128 ? . A large part of that expenditure was employed for purposes different from war , both at home and in the colonies , and it would be as reasonable to include the cost of building forts about Paris , to prevent insurrection , there , which helped to banish Louis Philippe from France , or of the Lombards in
the cost to Austria keeping subjection , in the war expenses of those nations , as to include , in the cost of our war against France , the expense of the troops required to keep the starving Luddites and the outraged Catholics of Ireland in subjection . We have no means of distinguishing the ordinary police expense , and sometimes wanton military extravagance , of the Government , from the real cost of war ; but we arc sure that the total disbursements of any Government for military purposes cannot bo fairly assumed as the costto any country , of war .
THE COST OF WAR . The cost Of Avar now naturally occupies men ' s thoughts , and many different opinions are . , expressed concerning it . We propose , therefore , discarding all sentimentality , which can be poured put without stint , to endeavour to make a reasonable estimate of the cost of war . Let us break the great subject into parts , and laying aside victories , countries , soldiers , and others who derive advantage from war , and taxpayers on whom fall its total expense . Let us refer , first , to Avar in the abstract ,
or—The cost . of war to Jaimanity , Putting out of view the consequences of Avar , wliich , like that waged by ( he present United States against our fathers and grandfathers , was-rich in blessings to that country , and ultimately to ourselves and the whole of Europe , avc confine our remarks to its avowed evils . In its nature , it is one body of men , striving to subdue another ; such strife has existed irom the beginning of history ; and they uoav use , to attain their ends , the most murderous weapons and the most subtle means whicli art can invent . In war , strength and skill are directed to devastate and destroy what it may ^ effect is always uncertain . ; its cost is definite . The cost of war is the
total amount of skill , strength , and knowledge applied to effect the work of destruction and devastation . In economical language , and according to economical science , which refers all cost to labour , the parent of all produce , the total amount of labour informed by knowledge employed is the cost of war . This includes all the labour required , from the first bloAV of the pick of the miner to the firing of the gun—necessary to complete all the cannon and ships , and all the oilier weapons , and instruments , and implements , and supply the provisions required to carry on the war . The labour of the miner , the smelter , the manufacturer , the shipwright , the merchant who imports the materials for gunpowder or sailcloth , and of the schoolmaster who teaches some necessary arts , must all bd included in the estimate . To ascertain exactly the total
quantity of labour now required to offuot all the destruction of such a battle as that of Magenta , or carry on such a Avar as Unit of Italy , is beyond our power . Much of it is so mingled with the everyday labour of ovury community that we can only state the broad fact . The cost of Avar to humanity is , then , avc repeat , the total amount of the labour applied to effect the Avork of destruction . But this work may be like tllo war labour of the Americans , of prodigious advantage to humanity ; and wo must bo careful not to oonfbund , as wo very often do , the consequences of war—many of whiuh we instinctively abhor—with its cost . Tramplod-down harvests , dilapidated towns , slaughtered hosts , ravished women , and deserted oliildron , are some of tho horrible consequences of war . The sufferings
, The same authority lnst quoted tolls us that , " during the three years tho Crimean Avar lristed , this country spent on its army and navy no less than 109 , 966 , 446 / ., ox an average sum of 36 , 005 , 480 / . per annum , exclusive of the cost of the civil departments . " But in that period an army was maintained in Canada , at tho Cnpo of Good Hope , at tho Mauritius , at Gibraltar , & c , & c , the cost of which was not occasioned by war .
It Avould bo fairer statement of the cost of Avar to subtract from the average the 15 , 000 , 000 / . p er annum that was expended on military services before tho commencement of tho war , and call the annual cost of the three years' war 21 , 600 , 480 * ., rather than 30 , 650 , 480 / . But wq must remember tliore Avas inoluded in tho 21 , 050 , 480 / . the extra price paid for timber , for sugar , wino , and provisions , in oousequonco of duties levied on these articles . There must bo included , also , the oost of sundry follies of tho Horse Guards and tho Admiralty , —
Tho Patrio Announces That The 4th Dlvwio...
Tho Patrio announces that the 4 th dlvwion of the army of Paris , commanded by General Erlon , *» under ordors for Itnly .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 2, 1859, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_02071859/page/15/
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