May we not trust that a
time will come when nations will see on a sudden the blank folly of
making war? Day by day the pressure of armaments is growing greater, and
we may almost hope that the very fiendish nature of modern weapons may
bring about a blessed _reductio ad absurdum_, and leave war as a thing
ludicrous, and not to be contemplated by sane men! I find one gun
specially advertised in our Christian country, and warranted to kill as
many men in one minute as two companies of infantry could in five! What
will be the effect of the general introduction of this delightful
weapon? No force can possibly stand before it; no armour or works can
keep out the hail of its bullets. Supposing, then, that benevolent
science goes on improving the means of slaughter, must there not come a
time when people will utterly refuse to continue the mad and miserable
folly of war? Over the whole of Britain we may find even now the marks
of cannon-shot discharged by Englishmen against the castles of other
Englishmen. Is there one man in Britain who can at this present moment
bring his imagination to conceive such an occurrence as an artillery
fight between bodies of Englishmen? It is almost too absurd to be named
even as a casual supposition.
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