Besides what he said on mediation, Mr. Lowe congratulated the
country very justly on the evidence that Prussia has given that educated troops are not only as good as, but much better than uneducated troops ; and he indulged in pacific hopes which seem to us very little likely to be realized, founded on the presumable wish of other nations to imitate the Prussian system, and if they do so, the probable dislike of "armed nations" to fight anything but defensive wars. That does not seem to us to furnish any solid ground for pacific hopes. In the first place, Prussia has a big enough standing army without arming the "nation," and if she is imitated at all, we fear she will be imitated in this respect also. Then, again, four hundred thousand men, about the number of her regular army, are quite enough to begin a struggle into which the whole nation will be subsequently drawn as soon as it assumes a serious aspect. Whether a war be defensive or offensive at the start, it is sure to become a defensive war as soon as the nation is alarmed. Finally, the very conditions attending the rise of a new and powerful nation into the first place in Europe are unfavourable to peace. Jealousies must be excited, hopes must be raised, 'developments' must go on. The Austrian Germans will hardly be long content to stay out in the cold for the sake of civilizing Czechs, and Croats, and Slays. The Russian Germans will cer- tainly not be long content to stay out in the cold for the sake of being uncivilized by Russia.
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