You will save lives by it
in the end. There is no plea of want, as there was in the agricultural
riots."
_You will save lives by it in the end._ There spoke the truly humanitarian
spirit which does not shrink from drawing the sword at the bidding of real
necessity, but asks itself once and again whether any proposed effusion of
blood is really demanded by the exigencies of the moral law.
On questions of peace and war, Sydney Smith was always on the right
side.[157] He saw as clearly as the most clamorous patriot that England was
morally bound to defend her existence and her freedom. He exhorted her to
rally all her forces and strive with agonies and energies against the
anti-human ambition of Napoleon. And, when once the great deliverance was
achieved, he turned again to the enjoyment and the glorification of
Peace.--
"Let fools praise conquerors, and say the great Napoleon pulled down
this kingdom and destroyed that army: we will thank God for a
King[158] who has derived his quiet glory from the peace of his
realm."
"The atrocities, and horrors, and disgusts of war have never been half
enough insisted upon by the teachers of the people; but the worst of
evils and the greatest of follies have been varnished over with
specious names, and the gigantic robbers and murderers of the world
have been holden up for imitation to the weak eyes of youth.
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