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 A RETROSPECTIVE ENQUIRY. 75 had earned in all her old years of strife. To chap. IV try to remember a little the art of fence learnt in so long, so mighty a war, and to hoard the J^l^riclce^ experience gathered — this, all see, was what g^fnedl prudence — the simplest prudence — enjoined ; and there is nothing more plain than that, whilst of course making haste to effect that extensive disarmament which was warranted by the return of peace, statesmen ought to have cherished and andofthein. ^ . . . choate War perfected the inexpensive machinery of a sound Department ^ . which had War Department, entrusting to it the manage- ministered , 1 -T ■. -1 toWelling- ment of all such military business as might still ton'sarmiea be on foot, taking care to keep it practised and skilled in those administrative operations upon which troops depend for health, for life, for movement, for discipline, for skill — in one word, for power — and finally making it serve as the great treasure-house of the kingdom in respect of the knowledge required for prepar- ing and sustaining war. IV. The very opposite of all this was done. On the compound Department of State which, in one of its coupled offices, had long admin- istered war, and of late years with splendid results, there fell a maiming hand. Because peace had returned, the Letters of Service ex- pired ; and then, coming out of abeyance, the old Royal claim to have personal command of the army regained its baneful force. For the re- imposition of palace authority unsparing destruc-