====
Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
Thomas Macaulay: Drive for transatlantic dominion leads to endless wars, empty treasuries
Thomas Macaulay: Loving war for its own sake
====
Thomas Macaulay
From The Present Administration (1827)
Then will come all those desperate and cruel expedients of which none but bad governments stand in need. The press is troublesome. There must be fresh laws against the press. Secret societies are formed. The Habeas Corpus act must be suspended. The people are distressed and tumultuous. They must be kept down by force. The army must be increased; and the taxes must be increased. Then the distress and tumult are increased: and then the army must be increased again! The country will be governed as a child is governed by an ill-tempered nurse, – first beaten till it cries, and then beaten because it cries!
Source