2 28 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of vigorous and fruitful anarchy . . . wlien society desires to form 

 and regulate itself, without knowing how to do so by the free concord 

 of individual wills." After the long and bloody wars of Charles V 

 and Francis I, so quickly succeeded by the more ferocious and devas- 

 tating wars of the Reformation, the universal extinction of freedom 

 in Euroi^e was inevitable. " The traditional liberties perish," says 

 Guizot again, summing up the history of the period, " and new and 

 more concentrated and regular powers arise." These powers were, 

 of course, the powers of despotism — the powers that became most 

 completely personified in Louis XIV. Hardly had they begun to 

 yield to the emancipating influences of peace before the !N^apoleonic 

 wars came to give them new life, and to fasten upon Europe a 

 despotism that required the Reform Bill in England and the revolu- 

 tionary movement on the continent to weaken and partly overthrow. 

 But with the Crimean War and the other great contests that fol- 

 lowed so quickly, there has been a return to despotism again, par- 

 ticularly in France and Germany. 



Like a powerful poison, the despotism called into existence 

 by war diffuses itself through every part of the social fabric. Upon 

 the penalty of defeat or extinction, society must be so organized 

 politically, industrially, and ecclesiastically as to enable the central 

 authority to summon to its aid every resource with the least possible 

 delay. The organization best adapted to this purpose is the organiza- 

 tion of feudalism. At the head of the nation stands the despot him- 

 self; over each great division, a prince or duke; over the lesser 

 divisions, the counts, viscounts, and barons ; finally, there is the great 

 mass of people, whose duty it is to provide without complaint or 

 protest the soldiers that constitute the army and the means to sustain 

 them in the field. Hence the quickness of the movements of Francis 

 I compared with those of Charles Y and Henry VIII. " Before 

 his enemies were ready to execute any of their schemes," says 

 Robertson, bringing out the superiority of a despotic organization 

 of society over a condition of popular freedom, " Francis had assem- 

 bled a numerous army. His authority over his own subjects was far 

 greater than that which Charles and Henry had over theirs. They 

 depended on their diets, their cortes, and their parliaments for money, 

 which was usually granted them in small sums, very slowly and with 

 much reluctance. The taxes he could impose were more considerable, 

 and levied • with greater dispatch; so that ... he brought his 

 armies into the field while they were only devising ways and means 

 for raising theirs." What was true of the great struggle between 

 these potentates is true of every other. The nation most perfectly 

 organized, other things being equal, will be the most successful in 

 war. 



