Excerpt from A Sketch of the Military System of France, Comprising Some Observation on the Character and Designs of the French Government: To Which Is Added, an Inquiry Into the Probable Duration of French Power The general introduction of standing armies constitutes an important era in the his'tory of Europe. To this we may refer the rapid growth of arbitrary power in that quarter of the globe the supernatural energy with which wars have, since that period, been waged - the enormous increase of taxation-and, finally, the adoption of the pernicious system of loans, which has ena bled1the governments of Europe to go to war With their whole capital - 110 waste the resources of the present, and encroach upon those of future generations. T 0 this it is owing, that Europe has been converted into an'immense entrenched camp, in which nothing is heard but'tho din of arms; in which nothing is seen but blood, slaugh ter, and confusion. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.