alternative of war. Now whatever might be the award, each party would be the gainer, for each would be saved the expenditure of blood and treasure. The successful party would estabhsh his claims without cost ; and to the losing party, the remark of Fiankhn would be strictly applicable : " What- ever advantage one nation would obtain of another, it would be cheaper to purchase such advantage with ready money, than to pay the expense of acquiring it by war."
But it may be doubted by some, whether the award would be in accordance with justice. Why such a doubt ?
Would an impartial disinterested umpire, selected or agreed to by ourselves, and with the gaze of the world fixed upon him, be less able, or less inchned, to understand and deter- mine the merits of the question submitted to him, than the Government of Mexico, or of our own country smarting under the irritation of real or imaginary wrong, seeking popularity by a show of patriotism and sensibility to national honor, and goaded on by politicians seeking for office, and by needy adventurers eager for the commis- sions, contracts, and spoils of war ? The people at large have no interest in war ; on the contrary, it is upon them its burdens press and its calamities fall. We have seen how crushing is the weight of war-taxes upon the multitude ; and yet they seem, for the most part, utterly ignorant of the true cause of their poverty and wretchedness. Deluded by demagogues, they ascribe their sufferings to kings, and nobles, and priests, but render a willing homage to soldiers, who are in fact their real oppressors. The French people restless under the burthen of taxation, drove their monarch into exile, and seizing irf their own hands the reins of Government, immediately enlarged their army, and have thus swelled 332 REVIEW OF THE MEXICAN WAR. — their taxes beyond what they were under the monarchy.
The suflFering masses of England cry aloud against the political institutions of their country, and seek relief in annual parhaments, vote