will greatly increase our capacity for cohesion, so that we shall reach
in the end that state of inseparableness which characterizes nearly all
other nations, and which we still lack. But we must adapt ourselves to
this decree of Providence by making ourselves so strong that the pikes
can do no more than enliven us....

The bill gives us an increase in troops trained to arms--a possible
increase: if we do not need it, we need not call for it; we can leave it
at home. But if we have this increase at our disposal, and if we have
the weapons for it, ... then this new law constitutes a reinforcement
of the guarantees of peace, a reinforcement of the league of peace, that
is precisely as strong as if a fourth great power with an army of
700,000 men--and this was formerly the greatest strength that
existed--had joined the alliance. This powerful reinforcement will also,
I believe, have a quieting effect upon our own countrymen, and lessen in
some degree the nervousness of our public opinion, our stock-market, and
our press. I hope it will act upon them as a sedative when they clearly
comprehend that from the moment at which this law is signed and
published the men are there. The armament too may be said to be ready,
in the shape of what is absolutely necessary: but we must procure a
better, for if we form an army of triarians of the best human material
that we have,--of the men above thirty, the husbands and fathers,--we
must have for them the best weapons there are. We must not send them
into the fight with an outfit that we do not regard as good enough for
our young troops of the line. The solid men, the heads of families,
these stalwart figures that we can still remember from the time that
they held the bridge of Versailles,--these men must have the best rifles
on their shoulders, the completest armament, and the amplest clothing to
protect them from wind and weather. We ought not to economize
there.--But I hope it will tranquilize our fellow-citizens, if they are