the troops as their deliverers. See, on the other hand, what the public has done for the soldiers, particularly that stupendous and unprecedented organization, the Sanitary Commission! that shows how the deserts of our brave warriors are appreciated by their countrymen and countrywomen.

What rubbish is it, then, to talk of "military despotism,"-a despotism to be erected by the people out of and over themselves! Perhaps there may be instances in which a minority will feel itself aggrieved by military action; but a minority is always liable to suffer somewhat at the hands of a majority. Such a possibility is inseparable from the nature of our government,nay, something like it is inseparable from the nature of any government, since no philosophers have yet been able to construct a scheme for limiting the sovereign power by legal process.

And for the same reason that we dread no political we dread no social tyranny. The French officer looks down upon the pékin, not because he is a soldier, but because he is a soldier of the Government, which lords it over the people and encourages its dependants to do the same. No such feeling can work upon. the American officer: he is the defender and representative of the country and the people.

There is, however, a third danger, which has a semblance of foundation, namely, that we may become infatuated with military glory, like the French, so that our soldiers will prefer fighting for its own sake, and seek for other wars as soon as the present shall have been finished, while our people will applaud results to the causes of which they had the good sense to object. The large and loose way of talking in vogue among our editors has given some encouragement to this idea; and there is reason to suppose that the Western European nations have become seriously alarmed by it, and that it is a main cause of their hostility to the restoration of our Union. But the bulk of our nation has taken this terrible contest much too seriously and soberly to be inspired by any such ideas. It may be that here and there a contractor or a political general takes pleasure in or derives profit from the continuance of the war: the bulk of the people have accepted it only as a sad, sad necessity. And when it shall have been terminated by the triumph of the right, then, to say nothing of our subsequent exhaustion and the new delights of peace, are we so vindictive as to think immediately of revenging the slights or injuries of foreigners? No! we are a better-natured people. Vain and sensitive we may be, but not of those who "treasure up a wrong." It may safely be presumed, too, that when our hands are free, or nearly so, at home, the Europeans who have been presuming on our weakness will speedily operate a change of base, calculated to diminish the risk of collision. And while we do not perceive any appreciable danger to our national liberty or our national morale from the new military

element introduced among us, we do discern some very positive good effects from its introduction.

In the first place, it will become more fashionable and more popular to attend to physical development, which had been too much neglected for the exclusive culture of intellectual, or, if that be too high a term, of sedentary, pursuits. We were notorious for the grossest neglect of our physique, spasmodically broken in upon by the freaks of half-crazy "dietetics" and the almost equally pernicious exaggerations of extraordinary gymnasts. It is useless to dilate on what has been so frequently noticed of late years by an at last awakened press; but there are two points which deserve brief remark. The first is, that the recreations or exercises which we did patronize were in almost every instance precisely those of the least beneficial kind. Thus, the fashionable amusement par excellence was dancing,-one of the unhealthiest ever invented, from its late hours and other concomitants. Of the thoroughly national and popular amusements, perhaps the most general was driving fast trotters in light vehicles, which combined the greatest exposure to summer sun and winter cold with the least exercise; and next came ten-pins and billiards, games which require a stooping posture and usually a confined locality.

The second is, that the question has a moral side, not so generally remembered. When the good sense of the English put down duelling, they still had their athletic sports, not altogether devoid of peril, to keep their wealthier and professional classes from becoming utterly unacquainted with physical danger. But we possessed no such resource; and, consequently, it might happen -it did happen-that hundreds and thousands of our citizens passed through their lives without once having their physical courage tested in the remotest degree. It was this undemonstrative mode of life among the more respectable classes that gave such power and encouragement to the rowdy and ruffianly element in our large cities.

The movement towards physical regeneration had already commenced before the war (lucky for us that it did!); but the war has done much, and will do more, to further it. One already sees more children riding in the vicinity of our cities than one used to see men. Indeed, the importance attached in various ways to the physical culture of the rising generation is a most gratifying feature of the day.

Soldiers must be men of considerable physical strength or endurance, or both; and, as uniforms are sure to be popular and fashionable, manly qualities will also become so. Of course, we cannot expect every thing to be done in a day. Thus, to make Americans use their feet habitually for ordinary purposes of locomotion, is a change so stupendous that it will probably require a generation to effect it, if it is ever effected at all. But the

progress already made is an augury of much hope for the future, all the brighter because the movement has been gradual, natural, and not attended by any extravagances.

Next, the presence of a military element among us will develop social liberality, by bringing about a more correct appreciation of some classes of men who have a value and place in society, hitherto rigidly denied them.

Our attention to the business virtues, while it had many excellent results, made us in some respects uncharitable. Not merely were the lusts of the flesh regarded as the most deadly and almost the only deadly sins; not merely was "a very bad man," according to the Puritan standard, one "loose in, morals and dissipated in personal habits;" there were many good-natured, unambitious, and somewhat indolent individuals who, without any decided moral criminality, fell under the ban of the hard-working community for their idleness. These persons, who have their representatives in all countries, are not exactly silly or stupid, but they have a mental or intellectual indolence which disqualifies them from ever making a prominent figure in an ordinary business or profession. They are fond of the far niente. They prefer shooting and fishing excursions and country rambles, to the confinement of an office or shop. Their bodies are usually better developed than their intellects.

Now, probably every man throughout the country can recall from the list of his personal acquaintance some of these "detrimentals" who have done the country worthy service during the war. One has fallen gloriously on the field, and is already inscribed in our book of heroes; another has attained a public and social position which must astonish even himself. What is the inference? Not that idleness is in itself meritorious, still less that vice is commendable, but that men are not utterly worthless because unfit for study or business. Having been worth so much in the war, they may be fit for something out of it. They may give repose and relief to society, and help to prevent the machine from bursting by too much steam. Above all, their case may well make us consider whether an extra-rigid régime of industry, while it keeps some men out of vice, may not drive others into it.

Another effect, and the best of all, will be the establishment of an orderly spirit and a settled regard for law.

It is often said that all the lawlessness which has so long infested our country should be put down to the account of slavery; and much of it ought certainly to be charged in that quarter,-much even of the occasional tendency to illegal measures on the part of anti-slavery men. For it was the nature of slavery to foster lawlessness by making as well as by breaking law, its favorite enactments being of such a character that the soul of self-respecting man instinctively rebelled against them. The

every

lowered character of the ministers of law, caused by the establishment of an elective judiciary in several States, may also have had something to do with diminishing respect for the law itself. But, whatever the cause, the effect was indisputable. A general and growing disregard for law pervaded the land. For this dangerous feeling an infusion of the military element is the best corrective. Men trained in the stern, unyielding discipline of the camp, knowing by experience its power and value, will not be apt hastily to violate the law of the land themselves or excuse its violation in others.

We are quite aware that efforts have been made, and will be made, to show that the very reverse is the case. There is a vast howling among the Copperheads and "Sympathizers" about the suppression of civil justice by military force. But whatever anomalies of this kind have arisen are owing to the strange and illegitimate position in which the pro-slavery party had placed the laws. With them, obedience to law was a "heads-I-win-tailsyou-lose" game. Whenever a legal authority could be made, by any process of subtlety, to tell in their favor, it was rigorously enforced; whenever it stood in their way, it was disregarded. When their power was lost, they began to denounce as injustice. the deprivation of license to act unjustly. The very men who bawled out most loudly against the wickedness of arbitrarily arresting traitors were those who hounded on "Governor Seymour's friends," the wild Irish of New York, to burn and plunder and murder, and convert the metropolis of the Western Continent into a pandemonium; and, when a few of the wretches had partly paid the penalty of their crimes, these same men again cried out lustily against the presence of the military who had saved the city from general pillage and slaughter. So, too, in the South, the villagers who connive at the assassination of our soldiers complain of the destruction of houses which gave refuge to the assassins. It is impossible that such a "muddle" should be righted with all the ceremonies in use during perfect peace; and the common sense of the country has already justified our soldiers in deciding that men cannot at the same time repudiate the authority of the laws and claim their protection.

We do not pretend to have exhausted this theme, so pregnant with interest; but enough has been said to show that while we need apprehend nothing from the new element necessarily introduced into our society, several of its tendencies are directly and strongly beneficial.

THE MILITARY POWER OF RUSSIA.

BY LIEUTENANT-COLONEL C. W. TOLLES, A.Q.M.

PROPERLY to estimate the military ability of any Power, it is necessary to consider not only its armed force, but all the general characteristics of its national life. An effective military organization is the result of a large number of constituents harmoniously combined. To produce it, a nation must be homogeneous either in race or interest, patriotic, and animated by a uniform idea of its destiny. The Government must be en rapport with the people, and secure from insurrectionary disturbances. There must be an educated class, from which officers can be selected. The material resources of the country must be adequate, or its commerce must supply the means for accumulating the munitions of warfare. Its industrial and productive abilities must be in an advanced stage of development. A cursory examination of the condition of Russia on these points will convince us that it possesses all the necessary elements of military greatness. The only disturbing component in its organization has been the condition of Poland; but, from an announcement in late European intelligence, we are led to the belief that the disorders prevailing in that country will be pacified by an important measure about to be adopted. It is stated that Russia has decreed the emancipation of the Polish serfs and intends to render them independent of the nobles. This is not the first attempt of Russia to reform Poland by a policy of liberal government and efforts to elevate the condition of the people; but hitherto her designs have been thwarted by the numerous insurrections. Now, it would seem, she has determined to execute vigorously the same radical measure of improvement so successfully introduced within her own proper domain.

The chief curse of Poland, while it existed as an independent nation, was the immense number of the noble classes, their constant factions, their inveterate hostility to reform, and their entire separation from the interests of the people, or rather of the serfs; for, properly speaking, there was no Polish people, but only a race of oppressed bondsmen subject to the nobles. Too jealous of each other to permit a new royal family to be created from their own ranks, when the old Polish line of kings became extinct, the nobles resorted to the expedient of electing foreign potentates for their monarchs, then fomented opposition to the authority thus instituted, and kept the kingdom in a state of constant anarchy. Finally, a great faction became devoted to Russia, appealed to it for assistance in electing their candidate to the throne, and, by their desire, the Empire of the Czars was