estimate it at $500 a man, making the sum total of $1,132,750,000, an amount the mind cannot realize. But before we give vent to oui* indignation against Kings and Emperors for thus squan- dering the earnings of their subjects, let us once more look at home. Our.young Republic, from the moment of her birth, has scarcely had a hostile neighbor. For about two years, Canada on the north, and for the same timjc, Mexico on the south, have been in a belligerent position towards us. Bounded for the most part by the ocean, and by interminable forests, we have had little to fear from invasion ; and never, except in the war of 1812, has a hostile foot, other than that of a savage, pressed our soil. Yet with all our professions of economy, we have pursued the system of military preparation, after a royal fashion. Since the commencement of the Federal Government to the beginning of 1848, independent of is seventy-seven per cent., still greater than that of Great Britain.
See American Almanac for 1845, page 143.
- ISalayice PolitiqiM du Globe, by M. Adrien Balbi.
the prodigious cost of arming and training the militia, there have been paid from the national treasury For the Army and Fortifications, $-360,713,209 For the Navy, and its operations, 200,994,428 $•576,707,687 Here we have half a billion of dollars taken from the people, with their own consent, for the purpose of being ready for war ! To this immense sum may be added $61,109,834, expended in military pensions.
Were the money lavished in military preparation annihilated, all the mines in the world could not sup- ply the requisite treasure. It is not annihilated, but it is wasted—that is, it is given for what yields no return of comfort and happiness to the nation at large. Let us suppose that the - two milUons of soldiers maintained in Europe, in 1828, had been employed at ordinary wages in building pyramids. Surely, none would