Graham's Magazine, Vol. XL, No. 2, February 1852

GRAHAM’S MAGAZINE.
Vol. XL. February, 1852. No. 2.
Contents
J. Hayter W.H. Mote
LIFE AT THE SEA-SIDE.
GRAHAM’S MAGAZINE.
Vol. XL. PHILADELPHIA, FEBRUARY, 1852. No. 2.
Our engraving presents a view of the Navy-Yard, taken from a point of view below the city of Philadelphia. From this yard have come some of the best sailing and steam-vessels that have ever been built for Uncle Sam. The largest vessel that ever floated upon our waters, “The Pennsylvania,” was built here. She is useless, and is most scandalously given over—we believe, as a sort of “receiving ship,” and is rotting ingloriously. She should have been sent to the “World’s Fair” by Congress, filled with American products, and the Arts of Peace. But Congress was busy—talking about the “dissolution of the Union”—Pshaw!—and had no time for national business.
We have no inclination to talk much about Navy-yards since we read the following. We give you the picture, reader—but give us a cheaper postage upon Newspapers and Books, and fewer Soldiers and Naval Commanders.
“Victor Hugo estimates the annual cost of maintaining the standing armies of Europe at five hundred millions of dollars. This outlay would, in a very few years, pay off every national debt of Europe. In a few years more it would, if wisely expended, so equalize the population of the globe, by a great system of emigration, that every man might have a fair opportunity to earn a competence by his labor. Mr. Upham, in his ‘Manual of Peace,’ thus classifies the causes of the wars of Europe since the age of Constantine the Great—that is, since the Christian religion became the prevailing one: wars of ambition, forty-four; of plunder, twenty-two; of retaliation, twenty-four; of honor, eight; of disputed territory, six; of disputed titles to crowns, forty-one; of alliances, thirty; of jealousy, twenty-three; of commerce, five; civil wars, fifty-five; of religion, twenty-eight: total, two hundred and eighty-six. The national debt of England, caused by wars alone, is equal to about one-ninth of the whole property of the United Kingdom. The cost of maintaining the war establishments of Europe and the United States is fifty-four per cent. of the whole revenue of the nations. Of the revenue of the Austrian government, thirty-three per cent. is expended in maintaining the army and navy; France, thirty-eight per cent.; Russia, forty-four per cent.; Great Britain, seventy-four per cent.; the United States, eighty per cent.” Uncle Sam should take a fresh look at his figures.