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430 BISE OF THE CONTINENTALbone of contention between the opposition and the ministerial party. Althoughthis distrust was not altogethergroundless, yet there can be no question that it was carriedtoo far, and that itmight have led to very detrimental consequences. While the other states of Europe continued toaugment their standing forces almost every year, even an insular state cotild not entirely avoid doing so, where it wasnot merely an active member of the genei-al state system ofEurope, but was likewise threatened, and not idly so, withan invasion from without. From such exigencies and obstacles, the system of nations supporting themselves as much aspossible by taking foreign troops into pay, naturally had itsrise. Even this might have its good and evil consequences,according as it was proceeded in with moderation, or abusedand carried to excess.England might by that means spareher men ;but on the other hand itmight prove a very pernicious expedient,if it weakened the confidence which sheought to repose in her own strength, and damped the military spirit of the nation. The evil appeared to attach for themost partto those nations who furnished troops for money.But in the first place, and this is a very important circumstance, according to the recognised principles of international law in those times, the people who furnished mercenarytroops were not on that account regarded as enemies of thoseagainst whom these troops were employed ;and if we donot take narrow and confined views of the subject, it is notdifficult to show how one side of the question alone wasconsidered by those persons whose declamations were solelydirected against a market of the human species, where slavesare exposed for sale. God forbid that these expressionsshould be supposed to recommend the hiring out one's owntroops for foreign pay as a universally excellent maxim ofpolicy. But if countries which groan under the burden ofa heavy national debt, are not only relieved from itby thisexpedient, but are restored to a state of public prosperity,and who can be ignorant that such is the case ? itmay notbe truly asserted, that the troops which enter into a foreignservice promote the good of their country in a more eminentdegree than they could do on the field of battle in any causeof their own. Here too it is the relations under which thecircumstance occurred, and the objects which might be, and