Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/87

 IX THE "WAR AGAINST EUSSIA. 57 mure narrowly thau before into the ori<an of taxes, CHAP. . VII. and were not unwilling to hear that their burthens ' were the result of wars which might liave been easily avoided. INIoreover, it chanced that from after Marlborough's time downwards, or, at all events, from after the period of Chatham's ascend- ancy, the wars in which England found herself engaged had been originated and conducted for the most part under the auspices of the Tory party; and it followed naturally that the Whig or Liberal party, being in antagonism to the party which had long kept the country under arms, should charge itself with the duty of expressing a just hatred of all wars which are needless or unjust. If speakers, in the performance of this duty, often used extravagant or fanatical language, they did not perhaps mean to inculcate much doctrine, but rather to display the vehemence of their hostility to the opposite faction. The ap- jjlause which greeted these denunciations had the same meaning. On the other hand, the Tories declared that they did not yield to their adver- saries in hatred of all needless wars ; and thus, for near foity years, there was a chorus and an anti-chorus engaged in a continual chant, and denouncing wars in the abstract at times when no war seemed impending. To men skim- ming the surface of English politics it was made to appear that the people had a rooted love of peace. These signs of a peaceful determination had increased in abundance after the great constitu-