8 THE POLITICIAN'S PRIMJ.K. 



ments of the different powers, with the exception of Prussia, whose 

 army, by including the first and second ban of the landwehr, we have 

 rated so high as 570,000 men. But it must be recollected that from 

 her peculiar system of military organization, she could mobilize the 

 whole of this force in a very short period. Holland and her rival 

 Belgium have each of them at this moment a force of 100,000 men 

 under arms. In Switzerland, too, from the late measures of the Diet, 

 a force of 100,000 well drilled and equipped soldiers might be assem- 

 bled in the space of twenty-four hours. But it is not by extraordi- 

 nary efforts produced by still more extraordinary circumstances that 

 we must measure the resources of a state. 



The annual cost of the armies of the great powers of Europe we 

 find by access to official documents to be nearly as follows: 



WAR ESTABLISHMENTS. 



Prussia 570,000 men 



Austria 500,000 



Russia 1,200,000 



The contrasts which the above table presents, are, on a superfi- 

 cial view, startling, and to those unacquainted with all the circum- 

 stances upon which are based the respective military systems of the 

 powers, would lead to the most erroneous conclusions of their re- 

 sources and military power. Thus, from our table, it would appear 

 that, for the same money, Russia can keep on foot, within her own 

 territory, eight times as many men as Great Britain ; nearly three 

 times as many as France ; twice as many as Austria, and one and 

 two-ninths as many as Prussia : or, in other words, that every soldier 

 costs this country i'73 per annum; France 25; Austria 18; Prussia 

 11, and Russia 9. But this calculation would be founded on an 

 imaginary basis ; for in the Prussian army, not more than one-third 

 receive pay on the peace establishment : viz. the army of the line, 

 and the Cadres of the first Ban of the Landwehr. In Russia and 

 in Austria, as we have already observed, certain sources of revenues 

 that are paid in kind, and which never appear in their budgets, are 

 devoted solely to the maintenance of their armies. No accurate 

 line of comparison could therefore be drawn without knowing the 

 value of these items. Again, allowance, and a very great one too 

 must be made for the difference in the value of money in the respec- 

 tive countries, and for other circumstances that materially affect the 

 resources of a state. There is also a wide difference between the no- 

 minal and effective force of the continental armies. The former but 

 too often relates only to the Cadres. This observation applies with 

 the greatest force to the Russian army, whose effective strength is pro- 



