Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/89

 IN THE WAU AGAINST RUSSIA. 59 !n their way of applauding loud words, they chap, encourage their orators, and those also who ad- L. dress them in writing, to be strenuous rather than wise ; and the result is, that these teachers, trying always to be more and more forcible, grow blind to logical dangers, and leap with headlong joy into the pit which reasoners call the Absurdum. Then, and not without joyous laughter, reaction begins. All England had been brought to the opinion that it was a wickedness to incur war without necessity or justice ; but when the leading spirits of the Peace Party had the happiness of behold- ing this wholesome result, they were far from stopping short. They went on to make light of the very principles by which peace is best maintained, and although they were conscientious men, meaning to say and do what was right, yet, being unacquainted with the causes which bring about the fall of empires, they deliberately inculcated that habit of setting comfort against honour M'hicli historians call ' corruption.' They made it plain, as they imagined, that no war which was not engaged in for the actual defence of the country could ever be right ; but even there they took no rest, for they went on and on, and still on, until their foremost thinker reached the conclusion that, in the event of an attack upon our shores, the invaders ought to be received with such an effusion of hospitality and brotherly love as could not fail to disarm them of their enmity,