Politics & Power Quote by George Combe

Combe’s sentence pivots on a brutal calculus: submission can be rational when you are numerically cornered, but becomes moral and political failure when you have the capacity to resist. The first clause grants a kind of grim respect to the “few” facing “an overwhelming mass of brute force.” He’s not romanticizing defiance for its own sake; he’s arguing for strategic humility. Wisdom, here, is survival.

Then he snaps the frame wider and weaponizes national pride. England, in Combe’s telling, is not the vulnerable village. It’s a maritime power with resources, institutions, and, crucially, options. To “submit to be robbed” isn’t tragic; it’s “nonsense” - a word that sounds mild, even quaint, but lands as contempt. He’s scolding complacency, the cozy belief that geography or reputation can substitute for preparedness.

The subtext is as much about civic psychology as foreign threat. “Any invader who chooses to visit her shores” casts invasion as tourism, a casual outing enabled by English laxity. That phrasing suggests an anxiety familiar to 19th-century Britain: fear of sudden raids, doubts about coastal defenses, and the uneasy awareness that empire creates enemies. As an educator, Combe’s intent isn’t to beat the war drum so much as to teach a public to think in proportions - to match policy to circumstance. His argument is an early lesson in deterrence: peace isn’t a posture; it’s a capability.