still more formidable collisions between the armed champions of the conflicting principles of absolutism and democracy; but there has been no general war, like those of the French Revolution, like the American, or the Seven Years War, or like the war of the Spanish Succession. It would be far too much to augur from this, that no similar wars will again convulse the world; but the value of the period of peace which Europe has gained, is incalculable, even if we look on it as only a long truce, and expect again to see the nations of the earth recur to what some philosophers have termed man's natural state of warfare.
No equal number of years can be found, during which, science, commerce, and civilisation have advanced so rapidly and so extensively as has been the case since 1815. When we trace their progress, especially in this country, it is impossible not to feel, that their wondrous development has been mainly due to the land having been at peace.[1] Their good effects cannot be obliterated, even if a series of wars were to recommence. When we reflect on this, and contrast these thirty-six years with the period that preceded them,—a period of violence, of tumult, of unrestingly destructive energy,—a period, throughout which the wealth
- ↑ See the excellent Introduction to Mr. Charles Knight's History of the "Thirty Years Peace."
