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1880. Few reformers find the path cosy, but for pove is i 80
Zr. 48. hard as for him who introduces a new morality. Cobdé?
could not flinch, because he was far-sighted enough to pe™
ceive that the destination of capital becomes more vitally important
 in proportion as society becomes more democratic
Germany is an instance before our eyes at this moment how;
with modern populations, the destruction of capital in wmilitary
 enterprises breeds Socialism: As population increase
50 does the necessity increase of wisely husbanding the
resources on which it depends for subsistence. As political
power now finds its way from the few to the masses, 50
much the more urgent is it that they should be taught to
see how detrimental war is to them, not merely because 5
destroys human life, which after all is cheap, but because #
plays havoc with the material instruments which raise OF
maintain that no less momentous object. the habit and
standard of living.
Cobden’s urgent feeling about war wag not in any
degree sentimental ; it arose from a truly philosoph
view of the peculiar requirements which the changi®8
forces and condition of modern goclety had brought with
them. He opposed war, bocanse war and the preparatio®
for it consumed the resources which were required for the
improvement of the temporal condition of the populatio?:
Sir Robert Peel had anticipated him in pressing uPo®
Parliament the danger to European order arising fot
military expenditure. Heavy military expenditure, he said,
meant heavy taxation, and heavy taxation meant disconten®
and revolution. That wise statesman had courageotsly
repudiated the old maxim, Bellum para st pacem velis. A
maxim that admits of more contradiction, he said, or one
that should be recsived with greater reserve, nevar foll fron

would very likely keep ons yourself, if you could get ten per cent. by i
—~Sveechss, ii. 418.