Excerpt from On the Errors and Mischiefs of Modern Diplomacy: As Based Upon the Assumed Prerogative of the Crown in Matters of Peace and War

Does it not seem in the highest degree incon sistent, that a people who claim the right of axer cising, through their representatives, a summary judgment on all matters of domestic policy, from the regulation of the succession to the crown down to the merest parish road bill, should have no delibera tive authority in matters which concern the territorial and other material interests of the country, and its honour before the world -its very position as a great nation? Does it not seem in the last degree absurd, that the crown should have the barren privilege of declaring war, when it cannot put a soldier afoot, or a ship afloat, without the previous sanction of Parliament? Is it to be tolerated that the country, having made the necessary provisions for carrying On a war, having made heavy sacrifices for it in purse and person, should see it brought to a close by an igno minious or unmeaning Treaty of Peace, in which, mayhap, none of the objects with which the war was undertaken, are duly considered, at the mere will and pleasure of the Sovereign and his advisers for the time being, without the Opportunity of interposing a word of remonstrance, or even of suggestion or Opinion on the subject?

An impartial judgment unfettered by party trammels, or the prejudices of routine, can only answer these propositions in the affirmative. And yet, whilst all other questions of administrative practice have been, and are habitually made the subject of jealous and painstaking scrutiny, there has, as yet, been no attempt at reform in a depart ment of Government which, it is no exaggeration to say, transcends all others in magnitude and import ance. In justification of the last portion of the above remarks, it may be observed that in matters of internal policy, and notably in the imposition of taxes, a false step on the part of the executive is immediately controllable by Parliament, and may be remedied before any ill consequences have occurred thus, a proposed tax on matches, for instance, was withdrawn, and the desiderated amount made up by imposing' an additional penny on the income tax; whereas an error in foreign policy, whether it be of war, or peace, or other diplomatic arrangement, involving, perhaps, thousands of lives, millions of treasure, or the dearest sovereign rights of the State, is irrevocable, and without remedy, until it has run its course.

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