Gigantic Military Preparations of France.
The London
Times has a long article on this subject, in which the old bug-bear of French invasion is dressed up in toggery that seems none the worse for wear, but which has done service so often in a similar capacity that we should think the most excitable of the
Tribulation Trepid school would persistently refuse to be moved again from his equanimity.
The
Times states that whilst
France fears no invasion and has the compactest territory in the world, she has an efficient military power of four hundred thousand men, being a hundredth of her whole population--one out of every sixteen able-bodied men. The French cavalry numbers 76,903; its artillery 37,873; its train 5,655; its administrative services 8,737; its horses 85,705--evidently, says the
Times, a
locomotive army. What can
France want with so many horses?
Is it for merely a defensive force — so gigantic, so handy, so terrible — that
France is now paying, in money and in forced labor twenty-four millions a year?
France is now in the very state she was in thirty months ago, when she poured her legions over mountain and sea, and drove a great empire and a friendly State out of an ancient appanage.
Thus speaks the
Times, and the explanation may probably soon be given upon the plains of
Italy.
The death of
Cavour may render necessary the intervention of the same friendly hand which not long ago rescued
Italy from
Austrian despotism, and which may naturally desire to reap the reward of its labors.
So far as the
entente cordiale between
England and
France is concerned, we have no apprehension that it is likely to be soon disturbed.
The alliance is of too great mutual importance and benefit to be readily sacrificed.
Nevertheless, the periodical warnings of the
Times are valuable in keeping up the preparation for war which is the best means of avoiding it.
