force
kept in a constant state of efficiency, in order to impart life and
stability to the system. The one can never properly replace the other;
for while the former constitutes the basis, the latter must form the
main body of the military edifice, which, by its strength and
durability, will offer shelter and protection to the nation; or, if the
architecture and materials be defective, crush and destroy it in its
fall.

The permanent means of military defence employed by modern nations,
are--

1st. An army; 2d. A navy; 3d. Fortifications.

The first two of these could hardly be called permanent, if we were, to
regard their _personnel_; but looking upon them as institutions or
organizations, they present all the characteristics of durability. They
are sometimes subjected to very great and radical changes; by the
hot-house nursing of designing ambition or rash legislation, they may
become overgrown and dangerous, or the storms of popular delusion may
overthrow and apparently sweep them away. But they will immediately
spring up again in some form or other, so deeply are they rooted in the
organization of political institutions.

Its army and navy should always be kept within the limits of a nation's
wants; but pity for the country which reduces them in number or support
so as to degrade their character or endanger their organization. "A
government," says one of the best historians of the age, "which neglects
its army, under whatever pretext, is a government culpable in the eyes
of posterity, for it is preparing humiliations for its flag and its
country, instead of laying the foundation for its glory."

One of our own distinguished cabinet ministers remarks, that the history
of our relations with the Indian tribes from the beginning to the
present hour, is one continued proof of the necessity of maintaining an
efficient military force in time of peace, and that the treatment we
received for a long series of years from European powers, was a most
humiliating illustration of the folly of attempting to dispense with
these means of defence.

"Twice," says he, "we were compelled to maintain, by open war, our
quarrel with the principal aggressors. After many years of forbearance
and negotiation, our claims in other cases were at length amicably
settled; but in one of the most noted of these cases, it was not without
much delay and imminent hazard of war that the execution of the treaty
was finally enforced. No one acquai