78 Some Views Connected with the Question of Coast Defence. 



more and more diligence to the study of the sacred books. Be not 

 remiss, even in the smallest matter. Associate daily with men of 

 principle and listen to their counsels. Be spariug in every-day life 

 that there may be a fund for unforeseen circumstances. Let the 

 Emperor and his ministers strive with one accord, in all ways that are 

 right, and your servant will seem in the day of his death to be born 

 again into life." 



It is useless to say that these are the words of a pagan and an 

 ignorant man; of a chieftain in an empire half way round the world. 

 Pagan, indeed; but yet a patriot was this Chinese general, and if his 

 despair was so great, if his anguish was so extreme at the sufferings of 

 his people from European tyranny at so vast a distance, does it not 

 behoove us, who are but six days from the shores of Britain, to guard 

 our coasts from similar depredation? It is not so long since the 

 armies of the French emperor swept the coasts of Mexico and drove 

 the president of tbe republic to the very borders of our own land. 

 True, the blood of Maximilian wiped away the insult and turned the 

 crime into a dreadful warning; but is it not our strength of arms 

 alone that prevents a repetition of the offense by a European conquest 

 of Panama ? 



History is said to repeat itself, yet it is mankind — or rather most 

 unkind man — still selfish; as of old; false, treacherous, grasping and 

 murderous, that ever reaches out a robber's grasp to take by cunning 

 or by force the possessions of those who are so credulous or unwary as 

 to expose themselves, and to thus become the easy victims of avarice. 

 I speak of these recent occurrences only to remind, that the murderous 

 avarice of mankind is as great to-day and as unscrupulous as it was in 

 the more warlike times of Croesus or of Crassus, of Sylla or Lucullus. 

 Whenever there is unbridled luxury there must be means to supply 

 the continual waste; and, where extravagance becomes a war of waste, 

 wars alone will support it. 



Let us not be deceived into a false security. Where there is a heed- 

 less nation some foe has eye upon it. Consider the vaults of the 

 treasury at Washington, heaped with silver; what buccaneer ever 

 reaped such spoil since tho days when Francis Drake sacked the 

 towns of the Spanish main? Consider the treasures of New York, of 

 Philadelphia, of Boston; and, in the event of war, we would have more 

 powerful warriors to deal with than a Cortes or Pizarro. Instead 

 of mail-clad knights, we should have floating islands of iron and steel, 

 against which we have made, as yet, but the commencement of a 

 preparation. 



