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238 people or peoples than that they should have to resort to the fiendish practice of killing one another, in order to settle their disputes? To speak mildly of it," he continued, "it is not ingenious, for the lowest and most despicable of human beings that ever existed could not possibly have hit upon a more infamous institution."

I now began to wax warm on the question.

"It is all very well for you," I said, to argue in that strain, for in Neuroomia you have but one nationality, but in many other countries the population is of such a mixed character, and the members of the different races have so little sympathy in common with one another, that hostilities on a larger or smaller scale are apt to break out at any moment, and to prevent this, the governments are compelled to support large standing armies in order to preserve the peace among their own subjects."

I further reminded him that all the continents were not like Neuroomia, surrounded by barriers of ice and climatic conditions that bade defiance to the invader; but, on the contrary, the greater portion of their coast lines were bounded by open seas, and exposed to the ravages of nations more cruel and bloodthirsty than the fiercest animals of the