106 A CONSUMMATION NOT TO BE DESIRED. 



observe and obey tbese laws of God, the doctrine 

 of " peace at any price," as applicable to or prac- 

 ticable by nations, is a fallacy and delusion. 



" A nation of shop-keepers " may sound very har- 

 monious to mercantile ears, but were this consum- 

 mation, so ardently desired by cotton-spinners and 

 manufacturers, attained — were England to become 

 the workshop of the whole globe — the pursuits of 

 agriculture abandoned, and the muscles and fibres 

 of her hardy peasantry devoted to loom and work- 

 shop only, her Cobdenite rulers would then indeed 

 have to plead (like the Roman Senators at the de- 

 cline of their Empire) for " peace at any price," 

 and purchase a hollow truce on any terms from an 

 insulting enemy. The spectacle of Roman Sena- 

 tors in their robes might have been an imposing 

 one to barbarians ; but I doubt of any other effect 

 being produced by a motley group of members of 

 the House of Commons (even with the Speaker at 

 their head, in his full-bottomed wig), on the con- 

 querors, but ridicule and contempt. When coun- 

 try sports, and pastimes also, shall be discontinued 

 and discountenanced, and the higher and middle 

 classes driven to the mighty Babylon of our time 

 for debasing amusements, London will prove to 

 Englishmen what Capua did to Hannibal and his 

 once hardy and victorious soldiers. 



