Wmmll 4KmwMttg ptawg THE GIFT OF ..n..01dW...^..A^^A..ySDA^.. ..Aq.rjl.a.oy.. ..fe(..LP.tv.4fl.3.«. 4553 arW9394 Political writings Cornell University Library 3 1924 031 441 219 olin.anx The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031441219 THE POLITICAL WRITINGS OF RICHARD COBDEE IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON : WILLIAM RIDGWAY, 169, PICCADILLY. W. NEW YORK : D. APPLETON & CO., 443 & 445, BEOADWAY. 1867. (The right of translation is reserved.) TO THE FRIENDS OF RICHARD OOBDEN Mm Wohmes r \ ABE INSCEIBED BY HIS WIDOW. CONTENTS OF VOL. I. ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMEEICA . . page 1 Introductory Note, 3 England, 5 — Russian Chimera, 7 — David Urquhart, 9— Appre- hensions for our trade, 13 — England, Russia, Turkey, 17 — Desolation of Turkey, 21 — What Turkey might be, 23 — Eng- land's true Colonial Policy, 25 — Greek Church, 33 — Odessa, 35 — "What England is asked to do for Turkey, 39 — Non-interven- tion principle, 41. Ireland, 48— Foreigner's impression of Ireland, 49 — English ignorance of Ireland, 51 — Restrictions upon Irish trade, 53 — Political tendency of the Roman Catholic religion, 55 — Pros- perity of Protestant States, 57 — Irish Customs unchanged, 61 — Effects of the Church of England in Ireland, 63 — England depressed by Irish poverty, 69 — Henry David Inglis' testimony, 73 — Charity should begin at home, 75 — Lord Brougham's appeal for intervention, 77 — Proposed remedy for absenteeism, 79 — Poor Law for Ireland, 81 — Emigration, 83 — Valencia as a trans-atlantic port, 85 — Railway extension in Ireland, 89 — Evils of a dominant Church, 91. Ameeica, 97 — English prejudice against America, 99 — Commer- cial rivalry of the United States, 101 — American and British exports, 103 — American and English Navies, 105 — Military Ex- pense of England and America, 109 — Military Defence of Eng- land, 111— Cotton Trade of the United States, 113 — American Railroads, 115 — Obstructions to English railway enterprise, 119 — Education in America, 121 — Press of England and Ame- rica, 123 — Old and new race of shopkeepers, 125 — The English, an aristocratic people, 131 — Pruits of an aggressive policy, 133 — Great armaments unnecessary, 135 — Pressure of the debt, 139— How our revenue is raised, 143— Effects of Corn Law repeal, 149. vi CONTENTS. KUSSIA page 155 Advertisement, 157 — Introductory Note, 159 — Eussia, Tubkey, and England, 161 — Popular panics, 163 — Character of the Turkish Government, 165— Description of Eussia, 175 — Eussia and Constantinople, 183 — Apprehensions for our trade, 185— True sources of national power, 191 — The manufacturing districts, 195 — Eussian and British aggression, 199— State of the Eussian provinces, 205 — The Caucasian tribes, 209 — "Wallachia and Moldavia, 211— Eussia's Persian conquests, 213. Poland, Eussia, and England, 215 — Polish nobles and people, 217 — Former condition of Poland, 219 — Poland since the par- tition, 227— Polish revolt in 1830, 233— Incitements to war with Eussia, 235 — Absurd ideas of Eussian power, 237 — Obstacles to Eussia's domination, 251. The Balance op Poweb — English passion for interference, 253 — Balance of Power, 257. Pbotection op Commebce — King's Speech in 1836, 285 — Value to England of her manufactures, 287 — Armed protection of commerce, 289 — Mutual dependence of England and America, 295 — True policy of the nation, 299 — Effects of the great war, 301 — Protection in Prance, 303 — American manufacturing competition, 305 — Effects of armaments on commerce, 309 — Cost of the armed protection of commerce, 311 — Consequences of British wars, 321 — Probable result of another war, 327 — Non-intervention in foreign wars, 329 — The Author's parting word, 337 — Supplementary note, 339 — Appendix, 340. 1793 and 1853 335 Introductory Note, 357— Preface, 359. Lettee I., 361 — Belief concerning the last French war, 363 — Expulsion of the Erench Ambassador, 365 — Peace party in 1793, 367— The Duke's theory of military duty, 369. Lettee II., 373 — Historical sources of information, ibid. — Ante- cedent state of opinion, 375— Speeches of Burke and Pox, 377 — The Constituent Assembly, 379 — Alarm of the European Sovereigns, 381— Grounds of foreign interference, 383— CONTENTS. VII France not responsible for the war, 385 — Austrian and Prussian manifesto, 887 — Results of the manifesto, 389 — The two parties in England, 391 — Duke of Brunswick's manifesto, 393— Correspondence with the French Ambassador, 395 — Action of the French Ambassador, 397 — Remonstrances of the French Minister, 399 — M. Chauvelin's interview with Lord G-renville, 403 — French and English letters compared, 405 — Free navigation of the Scheldt, 407 — England popular in France, 409— Real causes of the war, 411 — The King's Speech, 413 — Fears of the Boroughmongers, 415 — Edmund Burke's monomania, 417 — Windham and "Wilberforce, 419 — Lord Fitzwilliam's admissions, 421 — Alison on the origin of the war, 423 — "Warlike preparations in England, 425 — Moral of the argument, 427. Letter. III., 428 — Value of correct views of the war, 429 — French apology for 1794, 433 — What the Revolution did for Erance, 435 — Argument applied to Englishmen, 437 — The present danger, 439 — Letters of "an Englishman," 441 — Invasion cry of 1847, 445— The Duke's fears in 1851, 447— Invasion panic literature, 449 — Increase of the Army, 451 — Influence of example, 453 — Lord Aberdeen's views, 455 — Pacific tendencies of the age, 457 — Securities for peace, 459 — French resources in the two epochs, 461 — Spoliation of invaded countries, 463 — Benefits of intercommunication, 465 — Sir William Molesworth's protest, 467 — Importation of coal into France, 469 — Cotton trade of France, 471 — French silk trade, 473 — French imports, 475 — Manufacturing operatives of Paris, 477 — Mercantile tonnage of France, 479 — French distrust of the alarmists, 481 — Force of public opinion in France, 483 — Composition of the French army, 487 — Work of the Peace party, 489— Energy of the English character, 491— War glori- fied in Christian temples, 493— An example of true heroism, 495. ERRATUM. - p. 106, line 7, omit as. NOTE. The new foot-notes are printed within brackets. INTRODUCTION TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. On the evening of the 18th of June, 1845, Covent Garden Theatre, in London, was crowded with men and women assembled at the call of the Anti-Corn- Law League. They had come together in order to hear addresses from some of the eminent leaders of that association. I was present, and had never seen a large assembly more respectable in appearance, or more attentive to every word that fell from the lips of the speakers, — enthusiastic applause interrupting, from time to time, the profound silence^ and again quickly hushed into breathless attention. This vast audience was addressed by John Bright, Richard Cobden, and W. J. Fox. Bright had then begun to distinguish himself by that manly and massive eloquence which has since given him his fame. The oratory of Fox, who spoke last, was of a more florid cast, and enlivened with sallies of humour, by which the audience was greatly entertained. But most of all was I impressed by the speech of Mr. Cobden — by his direct dealing with the subject of discussion, the manifest sincerity of his convictions, his air of invincible determination, the perspicuity of his state- ments, his skill in- arranging and presenting his topics, and the closeness of his logic. So persuasive was his address,- that I saw at once why so high a place had been assigned him in the agitation for the b 11 INTRODUCTION TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. repeal of the Corn -Laws. Here was one who knew how to appeal to the general mind of his countrymen, and having won their assent to the merits of a great public cause, was able to infuse into them his own resolute spirit in carrying forward that cause to its final triumph. When I left the building I remember saying to a friend that I did not see how the Corn Laws could survive the attacks to which they were exposed, and that I perceived, or thought I perceived, in the meeting I had just attended, the proofs of a public opinion too powerful for the land-owners much longer to resist. The hour of triumph for the League was, in fact, even nearer than I anticipated. In the next year's session of Parliament, the British Ministry, with Sir Eobert Peel at its head, came forward with a bill for removing the old restrictions on the trade in grain, and wresting from the landed proprietors- the monopoly on which they had relied as one of the main sources of their prosperity. The bill became a law ; the long and vehement struggle was closed by the defeat of the aristocracy ; Peel, now the object of their displeasure, though thanked by the nation, withdrew from the Ministry ; but he, like Mr. Cobden, found his reward in the appreciation of his country- men. More to be valued than mere success in procuring this change to be made by Parliament was the triumph of the principles on which the change was founded. Mr. Cobden and his associates in the agitation for free trade in corn had always insisted that the agriculture of the country wtould suffer no INTRODUCTION TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. Ill prejudice from the repeal of the Corn Laws, and the result showed the truth of this assertion. The people were sensibly relieved, and the land-owners suffered no loss; the manufacturing population had cheap bread, and the agricultural population were not de- prived of employment. The cultivator found himself obliged to resort to more skilful methods of tillage, and was rewarded with richer harvests. I believe I am not mistaken when I say that among the land- owners of Great Britain there is now no fear or jealousy of foreign rivalry. This success of an association organized under popular leaders against a powerful aristocracy has made Mr. Cobden's an historical name. In discuss- ing the justice and expediency of what were called the Corn Laws of England, he was led to investigate the principles which all measures regulating the intercourse between one nation and another should recognize. All his writings refer to these principles, and have a value which lifts them out of the sphere of local and temporary interests, and which no lapse of years can impair. They are practical illustrations of the philosophy of commercial legislation : docu- ments from which the history of the world's com- merce is to be written. At present, while the policy of most governments in regard to their intercourse with each other is far from being fully and finally settled, they form a storehouse of arguments and illustrations in the controversies continually arising. There are two classes of politicians — statesmen the world generally agrees in calling them, though that title, in its proper and nobler sense, belongs to but IV INTRODUCTION TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. one of them. One class keeps studiously in sight the rules of justice and humanity, as the principles of legislation and government upon which it con- scientiously supposes the welfare of the community to depend. The other class, which is found in all countries and in all political parties, aims at securing and promoting certain minor interests upon one specious pretext or another, which is taken up or laid aside as it may serve or fail to serve the occasion. I need not say that Mr. Cobden belonged to the former of these classes, and was a statesman in the highest sense of the term.. In all the public mea- sures which he discussed, he regarded mainly their consequences to the people at large, or, in other words, the good of the human race. In the most civilized part of the globe, he saw how often the subjects of the different governments were slaugh- tered and stripped of their substance to carry on wars in which they had no manner of interest, and the sole motive of which was the aggrandizement or caprice of those who ruled them. Moreover, to refer a dispute between nations to the arbitrament of war is in no way to obtain a just decision, and Mr. Cob- den saw no reason why, for this brutal method, the custom of nations should not substitute that which, in every society, even of the loosest organization, determines controversies between individuals, namely, the obvious expedient of referring them to third persons presumed to be impartial as between the disputants. He wrote, therefore, in favour of refer- ring to arbitrators all differences between nations which could not be settled by negotiation. It is INTRODUCTION TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. V certain that this method is coming more and more into favour, as the intercourse between nations be- comes more intimate, although various causes still prevent it from being generally adopted. At some time, when mankind shall be more generally en- lightened, and those who administer the governments of the world shall be forced to pay more regard to the interests of the people whose affairs they have in charge, the folly of going to war may be deemed as great as that of settling a question of law by a boxing match. The hope that the world may grow wiser, and therefore more peaceful, as it grows older, is not so absurd that it has not been cherished by the friends of the human race from an early period ; and whether it be a philanthropic dream, or, as I believe, the expectation of a, wise foresight, it has in all ages inspired the prayers of good men, who look for the time when the sword shall be beaten into the pruning hook, and nations shall learn war no more. Mr. Cobden never hesitated to raise his voice against any war undertaken by the British Govern- ment, for causes which, in his view, did not justify a resort to arms. In 1857, he led the majority which, in the House of Commons, censured Lord Palmerston for the war with China. It is most natural in a time of war for the large majority of every nation to take part with its own government, and to maintain the justice of its quarrel. It was a great triumph for the cause of impartial justice in Great Britain, when the popular branch of its legislature was persuaded so far to forego this natural prejudice as to declare VI INTRODUCTION TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. that a war in which the British ministry had involved the nation was neither just nor necessary. There could scarcely he a higher testimony to the statesmanship of Mr. Cohden, the justness and safety of his views of commercial questions, and his capacity for fulfilling an important public trust, than was given by the British Government, when, a few years since, on his suggestion that an opportunity had presented itself for placing the trade between Great Britain and France on a better and more liberal footing, it entrusted him with full powers for that purpose. The expected arrangements were made through his agency ; a treaty was negotiated, and the result was an enormous increase in the trade of the two countries, and a corresponding development of friendly intercourse between the one people and the other. In the later years of his life, Mr. Cobden took a deep interest in the controversy which the leading men of the Southern States of this Bepublic forced upon the people of the North, when, renouncing their allegiance to the Federal Government, and breaking away from the Union, they invited an appeal to the sword. He was convinced of the absolute necessity of the effort we were making to preserve the Union unimpaired, as indispensable to the future peace and prosperity of the country. He rejoiced with good men all over the world when our government re- pealed the law of bondage in the Eebel States. He was one of those enlightened Englishmen who zeal- ously took our part against the governing class of their own country, maintained the justice of our INTRODUCTION TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. vii cause, and predicted for it a certain and glorious triumph. He lived, if not to see his prediction ful- filled, yet to behold the sure signs of its near accom- plishment. I now leave the American reader to the perusal of the writings included in this collection. He will find in them the utterances of a true friend of the human race, whose sole aim was so to modify existing institutions, by proper and equitable methods, that all who live under the same government may be equal partakers in its benefits, and to bring all the bless- ings of life within the reach of the largest number. This great end he kept steadily in view, never inti- midated from pursuing it by the danger of unpopu- larity, nor seduced to abandon it by the love of dis- tinction and the praises of the great. His indignation at the oppression of the weak and helpless was never disguised, and his whole political life was made up of manly labours in the cause of justice. From the writings of this illustrious teacher the wisest states- man may be instructed in the practical application of the maxims of a comprehensive, humane, and generous political philosophy. W. C. BRYANT. New Yobk, November, 1866. ENGLAND, IRELAND, & AMERICA. 1835. "The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is, in extending our commercial relations, to haye "with them as little connection as possible." — Washington's farewell address to the American people. VOL. I. NOTE. As the first of Mr. Cobden's literary productions — written and published in the spring of 1835, when he was unknown to fame, and a simple "Manchester manufacturer" — the following pamphlet is invested with an interest peculiarly its own. Like the suc- ceeding work on " Eussia," it has for many years been out of print ; and although, during the inter- vening period, it has been constantly alluded to and frequently criticised, probably few of those who wrote and still fewer of those who read the strictures of the press upon it, had an opportunity of reading either of the editions which were published thirty years ago. It may be interesting to state that both pamphlets were in the first instance published by Mr. Eidgway of Piccadilly, and subsequently repro- duced in a cheap form by the late Mr. William Tait of Edinburgh, in whose hands " England, Ireland, and America" passed through, at least, six editions, It will be seen that at that early period Mr. Cobden foresaw the importance to Ireland of Trans-Atlantic steam packet stations at suitable points on her coast, as well as of the more general cultivation of flax, the great staple of Irish manufactures, on soil suitable for the purpose. He dealt with the questions of the national debt and of the military and naval estab- lishments of the United States as he then found them. No one could at that time foresee that the institution of negro slavery would entail upon the b 2 4 NOTE. American nation so terrible a retribution as that with which they have since been visited, although Mr. Cobden was careful to point out that the exist- ence of this " indelible stain upon their religion and government" would " serve to teach mankind that no deed of guilt or oppression can be perpetrated with impunity, even by the most powerful." This pamphlet also contains Mr. Cobden's earliest pub- lished contribution to the literature of free trade. It may further be remarked that almost immediately after be had seen these pages through the press, he paid his first visit to the United States. He landed in New York on Sunday, June 7th, 1835, and — reckoning the sea voyages — was absent exactly three months. The impressions which he had previously formed of the illimitable resources of the great Eepub- lic, of the ingenious and industrious character of the people, of the wide diffusion among tbem of the blessings of education, and of the boundless spirit of enterprise by wbich they were animated, were fully confirmed by what he saw with his own eyes ; and on his return to England he ibund nothing in his pamphlet that required to be omitted or modified in the subsequent editions. ENGLAND, IRELAND, & AMERICA, PAET I.— ENGLAND. Contents.— The Balance of Power. — Eussia now, instead of Prance, the object of British Apprehension. — Notice of Mr. - TTrquhart's Pamphlet, " England, Prance, Eussia, and Turkey" — Absurdity of all Apprehensions for our Trade. — Inutility of Bonaparte's " Commercial System." — Our Trade with Eussia and Turkey contrasted. — Miserable State of the Turkish popu- lation. — What Turkey might become with a different People. — Our Colonial Policy ; Canada, the "West Indies, the East Indies. — Eussia not an Anti- Commercial Nation. — " The Trifling Succour " asked for Turkey. — The Non-intervention Principle. To maintain what is denominated the true balance of European power, has been the fruitful source of wars from the earliest time ; and it would be instruc- tive, if the proposed limits of this work permitted it, to bring into review all the opposite struggles into which England has plunged, for the purpose of ad- justing, from time to time, according to the ever- varying theories of her rulers, this national equili- brium. Let it suffice to say, that history exhibits us, at different periods, in the act of casting our sword into the scale of every European state. In the mean- time, events have proclaimed, but in vain, how futile must be our attempts to usurp the sceptre of the Fates. Empires have arisen unbidden by us : others have departed, despite our utmost efforts to preserve 6 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. them. All have undergone a change so complete that, were the writers who only a century ago lauded the then existing state of the balance of Europe to reappear, they would be startled to find, in the pre- sent relations of the Continent, no vestige of that perfect adjustment which had been purchased at the price of so much blood. And yet we have able writers and statesmen of the present day, who would advocate a war to prevent a derangement of what we now choose to pronounce the just equipoise of the power of Europe. For a period of six hundred years, the French and English people had never ceased to regard each other as natural enemies. Scarcely a generation passed over its allotted section of this vast interval of time, without sacrificing its victims to the spirit of national hate. It was reserved for our own day to witness the close of a feud, the bloodiest, the longest, and yet, in its consequences, the most nugatory of any that is to be found in the annals of the world. Scarcely had we time to indulge the first emotions of pity and amazement at the folly of past ages, when, as if to justify to the letter the sarcasm of Hume, when alluding to another subject,* we, the English people, are preparing, through the vehicles of opinion, the public press, to enter upon a hostile career with Russia. * " Though, in a future age, ifc will probably become difficult to persuade some nation's that any human two-legged creature could ever embrace such principles. And it is a thousand to one but those nations themselves shall haye something full as absurd in their own creed, to which they will give a most implicit con- sent." THE RUSSIAN CHIMERA. 7 Eussia, and no longer France, is the chimera that now haunts us in our apprehension for the safety of Europe : whilst Turkey, for the first time, appears to claim our sympathy and protection against the en- croachments of her neighbours ; and, strange as it may appear to the politicians of a future age, such is the prevailing sentiment of hostility towards the Russian government at this time in the public mind, that, with but few additional provocatives adminis- tered to it by a judicious minister through the public prints, a conflict with that Christian power, in defence of a Mahomedan people more than a thousand miles distant from our shores, might be made palatable, nay, popular, with the British nation. It would not be difficult to find a cause for this antipathy : the im- pulse, as usual with large masses of human beings, is a generous one, and arises, in great part, from emotions of pity for the gallant Polish people, and o* indignation at the conduct of their oppressors — senti- ments in which we cordially and zealously concur : and, if it were the province of Great Britain to ad- minister justice to all the people of the earth — in other words, if God had given us, as a nation, the authority and the power, together with the wisdom and the goodness, sufficient to qualify us to deal forth his vengeance — then should we be called upon in this case to rescue the weak from the hands of their spoilers. But do we possess these favoured en- dowments ? Are we armed with the powers of Om- nipotence; or, on the contrary, can we discover another people rising into strength with a rapidity that threatens inevitably to overshadow us ? Again, do we find ourselves to possess the virtue and the 8 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. Wisaom essential to the possession of supreme power; or, on the other hand, have we not at our side, in the wrongs of a portion of our own people, a proof that we can justly lay claim to neither? Ireland and the United States of America ought to he the subjects of our inquiry at this period, when we are, apparently, preparing ourselves to engage as parties to a question involving countries with which we are hut remotely, and in comparison very little, interested. Before entering upon some reflections under each of these heads, we shall call the conside- ration of our readers to the affairs of Eussia and Turkey ; and we shall use, as the text of our re- marks, a pamphlet that has recently made its appear- ance under the title of " England, France, Eussia, and Turkey," to which our attention was first attracted by the favourable comments bestowed upon it by the influential portion of the daily press. The writer* appears to be versed in the diplomatic mysteries of the Courts of St. Petersburgh and Con- stantinople : indeed, he hints that he has been him- self a party to the negotiations carried on with the Sublime Porte. He says, p. 77 — " The details into which we have already entered may probably contain internal evidence of our opinion not having been formed in a closet, remote from the subject we are treating." And the concluding words of the pam- phlet are calculated to lead to a similar inference ; and they are moreover curious, as illustrating the tone of feeling with which the author regards the Eussian government : — " Our words have been fewer * [Mr. TJrquhart, formerly Secretary of the English Embassy at Constantinople.] MR. DAVID URQUHART. than our thoughts; and, while we have to regret abler hands have not wielded our arms, we owe it to our subject to state, that others, unproduced, pru- dence forbade to draw, until the hour of retribution arrives." After a preliminary appeal to the sympathies of his readers in favour of Poland, he proceeds to ask, " Is the substance of Turkey to be added to the growth of Russia? Is the mammoth of the Sarmatian plains to become the leviathan of the Hesperian seas ? Is another victim to be sacrificed within so short a time on the same altar, and because the same trifling succour is again withheld? Are the remains of Turkey to be laid upon the tomb of Poland, to ex- clude every ray of hope, and render its doom irre- vocable ?" To what extent this trifling succour is meant to go, will be explained in the writer's own words, by and bye. But we propose, in this place, to inquire, what are the motives that England can have to desire to preserve the Ottoman Empire at the risk of a war, however trifling ? In entering on this question, we shall, of course, premise, that no government has the right to plunge its people into hostilities, except in defence of their own national honour or interests. Unless this principle be made the rule of all, there can be no guarantee for the peace of any one country, so long as there may be found a people whose griev- ances may attract the sympathy, or invite the inter- ference, of another state. How then do we find our honour or interests concerned in defending the Turk- ish territory against the encroachments of its Chris- 10 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMEEICA. tian neighbour ? It is not alleged that we have an alliance with the Ottoman Porte, which binds us to preserve its empire intact ; nor does there exist, with regard to this country, a treaty between Russia and Great Britain (as was the case with respect to Poland) by which we became jointly guarantees for its sepa- rate national existence. The writer we are quoting puts the motive for our interference in a singular point of view ; he says, " This obligation is imposed upon us, as members of the European community, by the approaching annihilation of another of our com- peers. It is imposed upon us by the necessity of maintaining the consideration due to ourselves — the first element of political power and influence." From this it would appear to be the opinion of our author, that our being one of the nations of Europe imposes on us, besides the defence of our own territory, the task of upholding the rights, and perpetuating the existence, of all the other powers of the Continent — a sentiment common, we fear, to a very large portion of the English public. In truth, Great Britain has, in contempt of the dictates of prudence and self- interest, an insatiable thirst to become the peace- maker abroad ; or, if that benevolent task fail her, to assume the office of gensdarme, and keep in order, gratuitously, all the refractory nations of Europe. Hence does it arise, that, with an invulnerable island for our territory, more secure against foreign moles- tation than is any part of the coast of North America, we magnanimously disdain to avail ourselves of the privileges which nature offers to us, but cross the ocean, in quest of quadripartite treaties or quintuple ME. DAVID UEQUHAET. 11 alliances, and, probably, to leave our own good name in pledge for the debts of the poorer members of sucb confederacies. To the same spirit of overween- ing national importance, may in great part be traced the ruinous wars and yet more ruinous subsidies of our past history. Who does not now see, that, to have shut ourselves in our own ocean fastness, and to have guarded its shores and its commerce by our fleets, was the line of policy we ought never to have departed from — and who is there that is not now feeling, in the burthen of our taxation, the dismal errors of our departure from this rule during the last war ? How little wisdom we have gathered along with these bitter fruits of experience, let the subject of our present inquiry determine ! Judging from another passage in this pamphlet, it would appear that England and France are now to be the sole dictators of the international relations of all Europe. The following passage is dictated by that pure spirit of English vanity which has already proved so expensive an appendage to our character ; and which, unless allayed by increased knowledge among the people, or fairly crushed out of us by our financial burthens, will, we fear, carry us still deeper into the vortex of debt : — " The squadrons of Eng- land and France anchored in the Bosphorus, they dictate their own terms to Turkey ; to Eussia they proclaim, that from that day they intend to arbitrate supremely between the nations of the earth." We know of but one way in which the honour ot this country may be involved in the defence and preservation of the Turkish empire; and that is, 12 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. through the indiscreet meddling in the intrigues of the seraglio, on the part of our diplomatists. After a few flourishes of the pen, in the style and spirit of the above quotations, shall have passed between the gentlemen of the rival embassies of St. James' and St. Petersburgh, who knows but the English nation may, some day, be surprised by the discovery that it is compromised in a quarrel from which -there is no honourable escape but by the disastrous course of a long and ruinous war ? If our honour be not committed in this case, still less shall .we find, by examining a little more at length, that our interests are involved in the preser- vation of Turkey. To quote again from the pam- phlet before us : — " Suffice it to say, that the countries consuming to the yearly value of thirty millions* of our exports, would be placed under the immediate control of the coalition (Eussia, Prussia, and Austria), and, of course, under the regulations of the Eussian tariff j not as it is to-day, but such as it would be when the mask is wholly dropped. What would be the effect on the internal state of England, if a con- siderable diminution of exportation occurred? But it is not only the direct effects of the tariffs of the coalition that are to be apprehended : would it not command the tariffs of Northern and Southern Ame- rica." Passing over, as too chimerical for comment, the allusion to the New World, we here have the argument which has, immediately or remotely, de- cided us to undertake almost every war in which Great Britain has been involved — viz. the defence of * Official value. APPREHENSIONS FOR OUR TRADE. 13 our commerce. And yet it has, over and over again, been proved to the world, that violence and force can never prevail against the natural wants and wishes of mankind : in other words, that despotic laws against freedom of trade never can be executed." " Trade cannot, will not, be forced ; let other nations prohibit by what severity they please, interest will prevail: they may embarrass their own trade, but cannot hurt a nation whose trade is free, so much as themselves." So said a writer* a century ago, whilst experience down to our own day has done nothing but confirm the truth of his maxims ; and yet people would frighten us into war, to prevent the forcible annihilation of our trade ! Can any proofs be offered how visionary are such fears, more conclusive than are to be found in the history of Napoleon's cele- brated war against English commerce? Let us briefly state a few particulars of this famous struggle. The subject, though familiar to everybody, is one the moral of which cannot be too frequently enforced. The British Islands were, in 1807, declared by Bonaparte in a state of blockade, by those decrees which aimed at the total destruction of the trade of Great Britain. The Berlin and Milan edicts de- clared — 1. The British Isles were in a state of blockade. 2. All commerce and correspondence were forbidden. All English letters were to be seized in the post- houses. 3. Every Englishman, of whatever rank or quality, found in France, or the countries allied with * Sir Matthew Decker. 14 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. her, was declared a prisoner of war. 4. All mer- chandise or property, of whatever kind, belonging to English subjects, was declared lawful prize. 5. All articles of English manufacture, and articles produced in her colonies, were, in like manner, declared con- traband, and lawful prize. France, Russia, Austria, Prussia, Holland, Italy, and the States of Germany, joined in this conspiracy against the commerce of England. To enforce more effectually these prohibitions, commissioners of rank were appointed to each of the principal sea-ports of the Continent. Now, let us mark well the result of this great confederation, which was formed for the avowed purpose of annihilating us as a trading people. The following is an account of the declared value of our exports of British products for each of the years mentioned, ending 5th of January : — 1804 . . . £36,100,000 1805 . . . 37,100,000 1806 . . . 37,200,000 1807 .... 39,700,000 1808 . . . 36,400,000 1809 .... 36,300,000 It must be borne in mind, that the proclamation of war against our trade, above mentioned, was dated in 1807. It appears, then, by the preceding tabular view, that our commerce sustained a loss to the ex- tent of about 7£ per cent, in 1808 and 1809, as com- pared with 1806 and 1807 ; whilst the amount of exports in the year 1808, or 1809, if compared with the mean or average amount of the above six years, shews a diminution only of about two per cent. And APPREHENSIONS FOR OUR TRADE. 15 all this took place, be it remembered, when two- thirds of our foreign trade was confined to Europe.* It is singular to observe, that, - by the following tuble, the declared value of our exports, during the I.:.,?, t six years, has remained nearly stationary, at a point va tying from the average of the former series of years only by a fraction. Below is a table of the exports of the products of British industry for six years, ending 1833 : — 1828 . . £36,400,000 1829 . . . 36,200,000 1830 . . 35,200,000 1831 . 37,700,000 1832 . . 36,600,000 1833 . . . 36,000,000 But it must be borne in view, that, as the price of the raw materials of manufactures, such as wool, cotton, silk, iron, &c, together with the price of grain, has undergone a vast depreciation since the former periods, of course the actual exchangeable value of the money amounts in the second table is very much greater than in the first. * It would be amusing, and full of romantic interest, to detail some of the ten thousand justifiable arts invented to thwart this unnatural coalition, which, of necessity, converted almost every citizen of Europe into a smuggler, Bourrienne, who was himself one of the commissioners at Hamburgh, gives some interesting anecdotes in his " Memoirs" under this head. The writer is ac- quainted with a merchant who was interested in a house that em- ployed five hundred horses in transporting 'British goods, many of which were landed in Sclavonia, and thence conveyed overland to France, at a charge of about £28. a cwt. — more than fifty times the present freight of merchandize from London to Calcutta ! 16 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. In fact, the official value of our exports appears to have doubled, whilst the real or declared value has remained stationary. Bearing all this in mind, still, if we take into consideration -the great increase of our exports, since 1809, to the Americas, and to Asia — the quarters where our commerce has been principally increasing — and if we also recollect the higher rate of profits at the earlier periods, it becomes a question if our trade with Europe, notwithstanding its rapid increase in population and wealth, has been benefited by the peace. It is exceedingly doubtful whether, whilst we were engaged in a war for the avowed emancipation of our commerce, our merchants were not, all the while, carrying on a more gainful traffic with the Continent than they now do, when its people have become our bloodless rivals at the loom and the spinning frame. Where, then, is the wisdom of our fighting Euro- pean battles in defence of a commerce which knows so well of itself how to elude all its assailants ? And what have we to shew as a per-contra for the four hundred millions of debt incurred in our last conti- nental wars ? We havC dwelt at greater length upon this point, because the advocates of an intermeddling policy always hold up the alluring prospect of benefiting commerce; and we think we have said enough to prove, that Eussian violence cannot destroy, or even sensibly injure our trade. But it here becomes proper to ask, Are we war- ranted in the presumption that Russia is less inclined than other nations for trading with us ? Our author, ENGLAND, RUSSIA, TURKEY. 17 indeed, says, p. 90, " Is it for England to allow an empire, a principle of whose existence is freedom of commerce, to be swallowed up by tbe most restric- tive power on the face of the earth ? Is it for Eng- land to allow the first commercial position in the world to be occupied by such a power ? Is it for England to allow freedom of commerce to be ex- tinguished in the only portion of Europe where it exists?" We are at a loss to account for the ignorance that exists with reference to the comparative importance of our trade with Russia and with Turkey. The fol- lowing tables exhibit the amounts of our exports to each of the two countries, at the dates mentioned : — Exports to Russia. Exports to Turkey . A.D. £. A.D. £. 1700 60,000 1700 220,000 1750 100,000 1750 135,000 1790 400,000 1790 120,000 1800 1,300,000 1800 165,000 1820 2,300,000 1820 800,000* By which it will be seen that, whilst Turkey has, in more than a century, quadrupled the amount of her purchases, Eussia has, in the same interval of time, increased her consumption of our goods nearly forty- fold. Our exports, since the year 1 700, have increased in a more rapid ratio to Russia tnan to any other country of Europe. The rise of the commerce of St. Petersburgh is unparalleled by anything we meet with in Europe, VOL. * M'Culloch's Diet., 2d Edit., p. 671. I. U 18 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. out of England. This city was founded in 1703 ; in 1714 only sixteen ships entered the port, whilst in 1833 twelve hundred and thirty-eight vessels arrived, and of which no less a proportion than six hundred and ninety-four were British. Nor must it be forgotten, in drawing a comparison between the value of our trade with Eussia and that with Turkey, that, whilst the former has, until very recently, possessed but little sea-coast, with but one good port, and that closed by ice one half of the year, the latter had, down to the date at which we have purposely brought the comparison, (when the Greek Islands still formed a portion of the Turkish empire,) more than double the extent of maritime territory of any power in Europe, situated in latitudes, too, the most favourable for commerce, including not only the best harbours in the world, but the largest river in Europe. Neither must it be forgotten that the natural pro- ducts of the Eussian empire are restricted to corn, hemp, tallow, timber, and hides, with a few minor commodities ; and that of these, the two important articles of corn and timber are subjected to restrictive, or we might almost say, prohibitive, duties at our hands ; whilst Turkey contains the soil and climate adapted for producing almost every article of com- merce, with the exception probably only of sugar and tea. We need only mention corn, timber, cotton- wool, sheep's-wool, wood and drugs for dyeing, wine and spirits, tobacco, silk, tallow, hides and skins, coffee, spices, and bullion — to exhibit the natural fertility of a country which is now rendered sterile ENGLAND, RUSSIA, TURKEY. 19 by the brutalizing rule of Mahomedanism. Nor can it be said that commerce is wholly free in Turkey, since the exportation of silk is burthened with a duty, and it is prohibited to export grain,* or any other article of necessity, including the product of the mines. It is true that this otherwise barbarous government has set an example to more civilized countries, by its moderate import duties on foreign productions ; and this, we suspect, is the secret of that surprising tenacity of life which exists in the Ottoman empire, notwithstanding the thousand or- ganic diseases that are consuming its body politic. But what avails to throw open the ports of a country to our ships, if the population will not labour to obtain the produce wherewith to purchase our com- modities ? Plains, which Dr. Clarke compares to the fairest portions of Kent, capable of yielding the best silk and cotton, abound in Syria ; but despotic violence has triumphed even over nature ; and this province, which once boasted of Damascus and Antioch, of Tyre, Sidon, and Aleppo, has by the oppressive exactions of successive pachas, become little better than a deserted waste. " Everywhere," says Volney, speaking of Asiatic Turkey, " everywhere I saw only tyranny and misery, robbery and devastation. I found daily on my route abandoned fields, deserted villages, cities in ruins. Frequently I discovered antique monuments, remains of temples, of palaces, and of fortresses; pillars, aqueducts, and tombs : this spectacle led my mind * [This prohibition does not now exist.] C 2 20 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. to meditate on past times, and excited in my heart profound and serious thought. I recalled those an- cient ages when twenty famous nations existed in these countries : I painted to myself the Assyrian on the banks of the Tigris, the Chaldean on those of the Euphrates, the Persian reigning from the Indus to the Mediterranean. I numbered the kingdoms of Damascus and Idumea, of Jerusalem and Samaria, the warlike states of the Philistines, and the com- mercial republics of Phoenicia. This Syria, said I, now almost unpeopled, could then count a hundred powerful cities ; its fields were covered with towns, villages, and hamlets. Everywhere appeared culti- vated fields, frequented roads, crowded habitations. What, alas ! has become of those ages of abundance and of life ? What of so many brilliant creations of the hand of man? Where are the ramparts of Nineveh, the walls of Babylon, the palaces of Per- sepolis, the temples of Baalbec and Jerusalem? Where are the fleets of Tyre, the docks of Arad, the looms of Sidon, and that multitude of sailors, of pilots, of merchants, of soldiers ? Where are those labourers, those harvests, those flocks, and that crowd of living beings that then covered the face of the earth ? Alas I I have surveyed this ravaged land — I have visited the places which were the theatre of so much splendour — and have seen only solitude and desertion. The temples are crumbled down; the palaces are overthrown ; the ports are filled up ; the cities are destroyed ; the earth, stripped of its in- habitants, is only a desolate place of tombs." Nor less hideous is the picture given to us by another eloquent eye-witness of the desolation of this THE DESOLATION OF TURKEY. 21 once flourishing region. " A few paltry stops expose nothing but wretchedness to view, and even these are frequently shut, from apprehension of the passage of a Cadi. " Not a creature is to be seen in the streets, not a creature at the gates, except now and then a peasant gliding through the gloom, concealing under his garments the fruits of his labour, lest he should be robbed of his hard earnings by the rapacious soldier. The only noise heard from time to time is the gallop- ing of the steed of the desert ; it is the janissary, who brings the head of the Bedouin, or returns from plundering the unhappy fellah."* A still more recent traveller, and one of our own countrymen, has these emphatic words, when speak- ing of the Turkish territory : " Wherever the Osmanli has trod, devastation and ruin mark his steps, civiliza- tion and the arts have fled, and made room for barbarism and the silence of the desert and the tomb."t But why need we seek for foreign testimony of the withering and destroying influences of Mahomedan- ism ? The Turks themselves have a proverb, which says, " Where the sultan's horse has trod, there no grass grows." "And where tbe Spain's hoof hath trod, The verdure flies the bloody sod." Byeon. Our limits do not allow us to dwell on this portion of our task ; suffice it to say, that, beneath the sway of Ottoman violence, the pursuits of agriculture and * Chateaubriand. t Macfarlane's Turkey. 22 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. commerce are equally neglected, in regions that once comprised the mart and granary of the world. No ship was ever seen to leave a Turkish port, manned with Turkish sailors, upon the peaceful errand of foreign mercantile traffic. On the ocean, as upon land, this fierce people have always been the scourge of hu- manity, and a barrier to the progress of commerce and civilization. In their hands, Smyrna, which was termed by the ancients the ornament of Asia, and Constantinople, chosen for the unrivalled seat of empire by one who possessed the sovereignty of the world — these two cities, adapted by nature to become the centres of a vast trade, are now, through the barbarism and indolence of their rulers, little better than nurseries of the plague ! What shall we say more, to prove that England can have no interest in perpetuating the commercial bondage of such a land as we have been describing? Before quitting the consideration of this part of our subject, we will, for a moment, give way to our imagination, and picture the results that would fol- low, supposing that the population of the United States of America could be moved from their present position on the earth's surface, and in a moment be substituted in the place of the inhabitants of Turkey. Very little difference of latitude opposes itself to the further supposition, that the several pachalics, being "transformed into free states, should be populated by the natives of such districts of the New World as gave the fittest adaptation to their previous habits- of labour. , Now, let us picture this empire, after it had been for fifty years only subject WHAT TURKEY MIGHT BE. 23 to the laws, the religion, and the industry of such a people. Constantinople, outrivalling New York, may be painted, with a million of free citizens, as the focus of all the trade of eastern Europe. Let us conjure up the thousands of miles of railroads, carrying to the very extremities of this empire — not the sanguinary satrap, but — the merchandise and the busy traders of a free state ; conveying — not the firman of a ferocious sultan, armed with death to the trembling slave, but — the millions of newspapers and letters, which stimulate the enterprise and excite the patriotism of an enlightened people. Let us imagine the Bos- phorus and the sea of Marmora swarming with steam-boats, connecting the European and Asiatic continents by hourly departures and. arrivals; or issuing from the Dardanelles, to reanimate once more with life and fertility the hundred islands of the Archipelago; or, conceive the rich shores of the Black Sea in the power of the New Englander, and the Danube pouring down its produce from the plains of Moldavia and Wallachia, now subject to the plough of the hardy Kentuckian. Let us picture the Caro- linians, the Virginians, and the Georgians, trans- planted to the coasts of Asia Minor, and behold its hundreds of cities again bursting from the tomb of ages, to recal religion and civilization to the spot from whence they first issued forth upon the world. Alas! that this should be only an illusion of the fancy ! There remains another argument in favour of an interposition on our part in defence of Turkey for us 24 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. to notice ; and it points to the danger our colonies might be in, from a,ny movements which Eussia should mate eastward. " Our Indian possessions," says the pamphlet before quoted : " shall we fight for them on the Dnieper, as directing the whole Mussulman nation, or shall we fight for them on the Indus, at Bagdad, or in Persia, single-handed ; close to the insurrection she will raise in her rear, and when she is in posession of Turkey ?" We might have passed over this point as too chimerical for comment, were it not that it involves a question upon which, we believe, there is greater misapprehension than upon any other subject that engages the attention of our countrymen. Supposing Eussia or Austria to be in possession of the Turkish dominions, would she not find her attention and resources far too abundantly occupied in retaining the sovereignty over fifteen millions of fierce and turbu- lent subjects, animated with warlike hatred to their conquerors, and goaded into rebellion by the all- powerful impulse of a haughty and intolerant religion, to contemplate adding still further to her embarrass- ments by declaring war with England, and giving the word of march to Hindostan ? Who does not perceive that it could not, for ages at least, add to the external power of either of these states, if she were to get possession of Turkey by force of arms ? Is Eussia stronger abroad by her recent perfidious incorporation of Polish territory ? Would Holland increase her power if she were to reconquer her Belgic provinces to-morrow? Or, to come to our own doors, for example, was Great Britain more England's true colonial policy. 25 powerful whilst, for centuries, she held Ireland in dis- affected subjection to her rule ; or was she not rather weakened, by offering, in the sister island, a vulnerable point of attack to her continental enemies ? But supposing, merely by way of argument, that Eussia meditated hostile views towards our eastern colonies. Constantinople is about three thousand miles dis- tant from Calcutta: are our Indian possessions of such value to the British people that we must guard them with operations so extended and so costly as would be necessary if the shores of the Bosphorus are to be made the outpost for our armies of the Ganges ? Surely it becomes a momentous question, to the already over-burdened people of England, to ascertain what advantages are to be reaped from enterprises like this, -which, whatever 'other results they may chance to involve, are certain to entail increased taxation on themselves. Nothing, we believe, presents so fair a field for economical analysis, even in this age of new lights, as the subject of colonization. We can, of course, only briefly allude to the question ; but, in doing so, we suggest it as one that claims the investigation of independent public writers, and of all those members of the legislature who are of and for the people, dis- tinct from selfish views or aristocratic tendencies. Spain lies, at this moment, a miserable spectacle of a nation whose own natural greatness has been immolated on the shrine of transatlantic ambition. May not some future historian possibly be found recording a similar epitaph on the tomb of Britain ? 26 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. In truth, we have been planting, and supporting, and governing countries upon all degrees of habitable, and some that are not habitable, latitudes of the earth's surface ; and so grateful to our national pride has been the spectacle, that we have never, for once, paused to inquire if our interests were advanced by so much nominal greatness. Three hundred millions of permanent debt have been accumulated— millions of direct taxation are annually levied — restrictions and prohibitions are imposed upon our trade in all quarters of the world, for the acquisition or main- tenance of colonial possessions ; and all for what ? That we may repeat the fatal Spanish proverb — " The sun never sets on the King of England's do- minions." For we believe that no candid investi- gator of our colonial policy will draw the conclusion, that we have derived, or shall derive, from it ad- vantages that can compensate for these formidable sacrifices. But we are upon the verge of a novel combination of commercial necessities, that will altogether change the relations in which we have hitherto stood with our colonies. We call them necessities, because they will be forced upon us, not from conviction of the wisdom of such changes, but by the irresistible march of events. The New World is destined to become the arbiter of the commercial policy of the Old. We will see in what manner this is in operation. At the passing of the Negro Emancipation Act, an effort was made by the merchants of Liverpool, trading to South America, to prevail on the legislature to abolish the discriminating duties on West India England's true colonial policy. 27 sugar, which operated so severely on the trade with the Brazils. It was finally decided, that the bounty in favour of the importation of our colonial produc- tions should be continued for ten years. At the end of this period, if not long before, therefore, the mon- strous impolicy of sacrificing our trade with a new continent, of almost boundless extent of rich territory, in favour of a few small islands, with comparatively exhausted soils, will cease to be sanctioned by the law. What will then follow ? If we no longer offer the exclusive privileges of our market to the West Indians, we shall cease, as a matter of justice and necessity, to compel them to purchase exclusively from us. They will be at liberty, in short, to buy wherever they can buy goods cheapest, and to sell in the dearest market. They must be placed in the very same predicament as if they were not a part of his Majesty's dominions. Where, then, will be the sem- blance of a plea for putting ourselves to the expense of governing and defending such countries ? Let us apply the same test to our other colonies. It is no longer a debateable question, amongst en- lightened and disinterested minds, that the privileges which we give to the Canadian exporters of timber to Britain, and by which alone we, command a monopoly of that market for ■ our manufactures, are founded on gross injustice to the people of this country^ and are calculated to give a forced misdirection, as all such bounties are, to the natural industry of these colonies, by causing the investment of capital in the preparing and shipping of inferior timber, which would otherwise seek its legitimate employment in the pursuit of agriculture. This monopoly must 28 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. yield to the claims of the United States and Baltic trades. Nor have we been contented with sacrificing our own interests to the promotion of a fictitious prosperity in our colonies, but we destroy the interests of one of these, in the vain hope of benefiting another. Thus, in the same spirit of withering pro- tection, we have awarded to the West Indies a mono- poly of the trade to Canada, whilst, to the latter, we give the privilege of exclusively supplying the former with corn and timber :* and all this whilst, at the same time,. these islands lie within half the distance of the shores of the United States, whose maritime districts possess all the identical exchangeable products with Canada, and teem with a population of industrious and enterprising people, eager for a commerce with these prohibited islands. True, the Government of the United States has lately compelled us, in self-defence, to relax from this system ; and every one now sees that the same motive prescribes that the commerce of the West Indies be wholly, and without restriction, thrown open to the people of the neighbouring continent, from which it has hitherto been shut out only by means of unnatural prohibitions. We have said that the New World is the arbiter of the commercial policy of the Old ; and we will now see in what way this is the fact in the case of our East Indian trade. Hitherto it has been the custom to impose discriminating duties in favour of the pro- ducts of these colonies ; and this, and this only, has given us the right to compel these dependencies, in * [These monopolies have, of course, long since been abolished.] England's true colonial policy. 29 return, to restrict themselves to the purchase of our manufactures. We have seen that this restrictive policy must be abandoned in the case of the West Indies and Canada, and still less shall we find it prac- ticable to uphold it in the East. Our leading imports from this quarter must be cotton-wool, silk, indigo, and sugar. The last of these articles, as we have already shewn in speaking of the West Indies, the Brazils have, by its successful culture, forced us to remove from the list of protected commodities ; whilst the three first, being raw products, in the supply and manufacture of which we are so closely checkmated by the competition of the United States or of Euro- pean countries, it would be madness to think of sub- jecting the fabrication of them to restrictive duties, however trifling. We shall then be under the necessity of levying the same duties on the cotton, sugar, &c. imported from the East Indies, as on similar products coming from North or South America ; and it will follow, of course, that, as we offer no privileges in our markets to the planters of Hindostan, we can claim none for our manufacturers in theirs. In other words, they must be left at liberty to buy wherever they can pur- chase cheapest, and to sell where they can do so at the dearest rate ; they will, in all respects, be, com- mercially and fiscally speaking, the same to us as though they did not form a part of his Majesty's dominions. Where then will be the plea for subject- ing ourselves to the heavy taxation required to maintain armies and navies for the defence of these colonies ? 30 ENOLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. Provided our manufactures be cheaper than those of our rivals, we shall command the custom of these colonies by the same motives of self-interest which bring the Peruvians, the Brazilians, or the natives of North America, to clothe themselves with the pro- ducts of our industry ; and, on the other hand, they will gladly sell to us their commodities through the same all-powerful impulse, provided we offer for them a more tempting price than they will command in other markets. We have thus hastily and incidentally glanced at a subject which we predict will speedily force itself upon the attention of our politicians ; and we know of nothing that would be so likely to conduce to a diminution of our burdens, by reducing the charges of the army, navy, and ordnance, (amounting to fourteen millions annually,) as a proper understand- ing of our relative position with respect to our colonial possessions.* We are aware that no power was ever yet known, voluntarily, to give up the dominion over a part of its territory. But if it could be made manifest to the trading and industrious por- tions of this nation, who have no honours, or inter- ested ambition of any kind, at stake in the matter, that, whilst our dependencies are supported at an expense, to them, in direct taxation, of more than five millions annually, they serve but as gorgeous and ponderous appendages to swell our ostensible gran- deur, but, in reality, to complicate and magnify our government expenditure, without improving our * [The charges for army, navy and ordnance for the year 1865, amounted to £25,280,925.] England's- true colonial policy. 31 balance of trade — surely, under such circumstances, it would become at least a question for anxious inquiry with, a people so overwhelmed with debt, whether those colonies should not be suffered to support and defend themselves, as separate and independent exist- ences. Adam Smith, more than sixty years ago, promul- gated his doubts of the wisdom and profitableness of our colonial policy; at a time, be it well remembered, when we were excluded, by the mother countries, from the South American markets, and when our West Indian possessions appeared to superficial minds an indispensable source of vast wealth to the British empire. Had he lived to our day, to behold the United States of America, after freeing themselves from the dominion of the mother country, become our largest and most friendly commercial connection — had he lived also to behold the free states of South America only prevented from outstripping in magni- tude all our other customers by the fetters which an absurd law of exclusive dealing with those very West Indian Colonies has imposed on our commerce — how fully must his opinions have coincided with all that we have urged on this subject ! Here let us observe, that it is worthy of surprise how little progress has been made in the study of that science of which Adam Smith was, more than half a century ago, the great luminary. We regret that no society has been formed for the purpose of dissemin- ating a knowledge of the just principles of trade. Whilst agriculture can boast almost as many associa- tions as there are British counties } whilst every city in the kingdom contains its botanical, phrenological? 32 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. or mechanical institutions, and these again possess their periodical journals, (and not merely these, for even war sends forth its United Service Magazine]) — we possess no association of traders, united together for the common object of enlightening the world upon a question so little understood, and so loaded with obloquy, as free trade. We have our Banksian, our Linnsean, our Hun- terian Societies ; and why should not at least our greatest commercial and manufacturing towns ^possess their Smithian Societies, devoted to the purpose of promulgating the beneficent truths of the " Wealth of Nations ?" Such institutions, by promoting a correspondence with similar societies that would pro- bably be organized abroad, (for it is our example in questions affecting commerce that strangers follow,) might contribute to the spread of liberal and just views of political science, and thus tend to ameliorate the restrictive policy of foreign governments, through the legitimate influence of the opinions of their people. Nor would such societies be fruitless at home. Prizes might be offered for the best essays on the corn question ; or lecturers might be sent to enlighten the agriculturists, and to invite discussion upon a subject so difficult and of such paramount interest to all. The question of the policy or justice of prohibiting the export of machinery might be brought to the test of public discussion; these, and a thousand other questions might, with usefulness, engage the atten- tion of such associations. THE GREEK CHURCH. 33 But to return to the consideration of the subject more immediately before us. It will be seen, from the arguments and facts we have urged, and are about to lay before our readers, that we entertain no fears that our interests would be likely to suffer from the aggrandizement of a Chris- tian power at the expense of Turkey, even should that power be Russia. On the contrary, we have no hesitation in avowing it as our deliberate conviction, that not merely Great Britain, but the entire civilized world, will have reason to congratulate itself, the moment when that territory again falls beneath the sceptre of any other European power whatever. Ages must elapse before its favoured region will become, as it is by nature destined to become, the seat and centre of commerce, civilization, and true religion; but the first step towards this consummation must be to convert Constantinople again into that which every lover of humanity and peace longs to behold it — the capital of a Christian people. Nor let it be objected by more enlightened believers, that the Russians would plant that corrupted branch of our religion, the Greek church, on the spot where the first Christian monarch erected a temple to the true faith of the Apostles. We are no advocates of that church, with its idolatrous worship and pantomimic ceremonials, fit only to delude the most degraded and ignorant minds; but we answer — put into a people's hands the Bible in lieu of the Koran — let the religion of Mahomet give place to that of Jesus Christ ; and human reason, aided by the printing- press and the commerce of the world, will not fail to vol. i. D 34 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. erase the errors which time, barbarism, or the cun- ning of its priesthood, may have engrafted upon it. But to descend from these higher motives to the question of our own interests, to which, pro- bably, as politicians, we ought to confine our con- sideration. Nothing we confess, appears so opposed to the facts of experience, as the belief which has been so industriously propagated in this country, that Eussia, if she held the keys of the Dardanelles, would exclude all trade from the Black Sea and the Sea of Mar- mora. The writer so often quoted, says — " On the occupation of the Dardanelles, disappears the impor- tance of our possessions in the Levant. They were only valuable because the Turks held these straits. When Eussia is there, they are valueless, and will soon be untenable." It might be a sufficient reply to these assertions, unsupported by facts or reason- ing, to demand of what use will these maritime possessions be to Eussia, or any other power, unless for the purposes of trade ? Why did the government of St. Petersburgh, for nearly a century, bend a steady and longing eye on the ports of the Euxine, but for the facilities which the possession of one of them would give to the traffic between the interior pro- vinces of Eussia and the Mediterranean ? We write, however, with no motive but to disabuse the public mind on an important question ; and as we prefer in all cases to appeal to facts, we shall here give a few particulars of the rise and progress of the only commercial port of consequence as yet established in the Black Sea. ODESSA. 35 The first stone of the town of Odessa was laid, by order of Catherine, in 1792. Previously to this, the Euxine was so little visited by our mariners, that every kind of absurd story was advanced and credited respecting the danger of its navigation; the very name was held to be only synonymous with the black and dismal character of its storms, or the perilous mists that it was imagined constantly shrouded its surface. The Danube was, in a like spirit of credulity, suspected to pour from its channel so vast a deposit of mud as to fill the Black Sea with shoals, that threatened,. in the course of a few ages, to convert its waters into dry land ; whilst this river the noblest in Europe, sealed by Turkish jealousy, thus blotting out, as it were, from commercial existence, that vast pastoral district through which it flowed — this stream, whose course lay almost in the centre of Christendom, was as little known as the great yellow river of China. Odessa has fully equalled the rapid commercial rise of St. Petersburgh, to which only in importance it is now the second in the Eussian empire. These two ports, which we are taught to believe belong to the most anti-commercial people, present, singularly enough, the two most astonishing instances in Europe of quick advances in wealth, trade, and population. The population of Odessa is estimated at 40,000 souls. The exportation of tallow has increased in two years twenty-fold ; thus civilizing and enriching extensive districts which must have remained in comparative barbarism, had not this outlet been found for their produce. During the same time, the d 2 36 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. breed of sheep lias been much improved in these vast southern regions of the Russian territory, by the introduction of the merinoes; and the consequent increase of the export of wool has been very con- siderable. The amount of imports is stated at 30,000,000 roubles. We subjoin a statement of the movement of Rus- sian and British shipping at this port, to shew that here, as at St. Petersburgh and elsewhere, the com- merce of England finds a proportionate extension with the trade of other countries. SHIPPING AT ODESSA.* Vessels. 1826. 1827. 1828. 1829. 1830. 1831. T3 nS "3 ni t5 Td nd 13 o> T3 1 1 ! r2 38 1 24 1 38 > 172 02 194 1 155 ■a Eussian 164 111 167 122 50 136 British 104 105 155 143 4 8 65 43 147 169 81 83 * M'Culloch's Dictionary, p. 858 ; a work of unrivalled labour and usefulness, which ought to have a place in the library of every merchant or reader who feels interested in the commerce and statistics of the world. "We will quote from another part of this valuable work, the opinion of the author upon the influences of Eussian sway in thiB quarter :— " On the whole, however, a gradual improvement is taking place ; and whatever objections may, on other grounds, be made to the encroachments of Eussia in this quarter, there can be no doubt that, by introducing com- parative security and good order into the countries under her authority, she has materially improved their condition, and accelerated their progress to a more advanced state." — P. 1108. ODESSA. 37 This town has latterly been declared a free port, with exemption from taxes ; and, therefore, we can- not but anticipate for it a much more rapid career in the time to come. Already have its merchants appeared as our customers on the Exchange of Manchester ; and it only requires that we remove our suicidal restrictions on the import of corn, to render Odessa ultimately one of the chief contributors to the trade of Liver- pool. The influence of Eussia, since she has gained a settlement on the shores of the Euxine, has been successfully exercised in throwing open the naviga- tion of its waters, with those of the Danube, to the world ; and this noble river has at length been sub- jected to the dominion of steam, which will, beyond all other agents, tend most rapidly to bring the population of its banks within the pale of civilization. A Danube Steam Navigation Joint Stock Company has been projected, and will, in all probability, be in operation next summer ; and, as this will give the route from the west of Europe to Turkey, by the way of Vienna, the preference, there is no reason to doubt that eventually this river will enjoy a considerable traffic both of passengers and merchandise. We have probably said sufficient to prove, from facts, that Eussia is not an anti-commercial nation. We have endeavoured likewise to shew that alarms for the safety of our eastern possessions ought not to induce us to go to war to check a movement three thousand miles removed from their capital ; and to those who are inspired with fear for our European 38 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMEKICA*- commerce, from the aggrandisement of Bussia, we have answered by shewing that Napoleon, when he had all Europe at his feet, could not diminish our trade eight per cent. What then remains to be urged in favour of the policy of this Government putting its over-taxed people to the cost of making warlike demonstrations in favour of Turkey? At the moment when we write, a British fleet is wintering in the gulf of Vouria, the cost of which, at a low estimate, probably exceeds two millions, to say nothing of living ma- teriel; and this is put in requisition in behalf of a country with which we carry on a commerce less in annual amount than is turned over by either of two trading concerns that we could name in the city of London ! But we are to await a regeneration of this Ma- hometan empire. Our arms, we are told, are not only to defend its territory, but to reorganize or re- construct the whole Turkish government, and to bestow upon its subjects improved political insti- tutions. Let us hear what the pamphlet before us says upon this subject, and let it be borne in mind that the writer's sentiments have been applauded by some of our influential journals : — " It is the policy of England which alone can save her : it is therefore no trivial or idle investigation which we have under- taken, since it is her political elements that we have to embody into a new political instrument." — P. 54. Again — " In the capital, in the meanest villages, in the centre of communications, on the furthest frontiers, a feeling of vague but intense expectation is spread, WHAT ENGLAND IS ASKED TO DO FOE TURKEY. 39 which will not be satisfied with less at our hands than internal reorganization and external independence." — P. 62. Again—" Unless anticipated by visible intervention on the part of England, which will relieve them from the permanent menace of the occupation of the capital, and which will impose on the government {!) the necessity of a change of mea- sures, a catastrophe is inevitable." — P. 63. And again — " An empire which in extent, in resources, in population, in position, and in individual qualities and courage — in all, in fact, save instruction — is one of the greatest on the face of the earth, is brought to look with ardent expectation for the arrival of a foreign squadron, and a body of auxiliaries in its capital, and to expect from their presence the refor- mation of internal abuses (!) and the restoration of its political independence." — P. 73. To protect Turkey against her neighbour, Eussia — to defend the Turks against their own government — to force on the latter a constitution, we suppose — to redress all internal grievances in a state where there is no law but despotism ! Here, then, in a word, is the " trifling succour " (p. 2) which we are called on to render our ancient ally;" and if the people of Great Britain desired to add another couple of hundreds of millions to their debt, we think a scheme is discovered by which they may be gratified, without seeking for quarrels in any other quarter. If such propositions as these are, however, to be received gravely, it might be suggested to inquire, would Eussia, would Austria, remain passive, whilst another power sent her squadrons and her armies 40 ENOLAND, IKELAND, AND AMERICA. from ports a thousand miles distant to take posses- sion of the capital and supersede the government of their adjoining neighbour ? Would there be no such thing as Russian or Austrian jealousy of British ag- grandisement, and might not our Quixotic labours in behalf of Mahometan regeneration be possibly per- plexed by the co-operation of those Powers ? These questions present to us the full extent of the dilemma "in which we must be placed, if we ever attempt an internal interference with the Ottoman territory. Without the consent and assistance of Eussia and Austria, we should not be allowed to land an army in that country. We might, it is true, blockade the Dardanelles, and thus at any time annihilate the trade of Constantinople and the Black Sea. But our interests would suffer by such a step ; and the object of intermeddling at all is, of course, to benefit, and not destroy our trade. We must, then, if we would remodel Turkey, act in conjunction with Russia, Austria, and France. Would the two former of these powers be likely to lend a very sincere and disinterested co-operation, or must we prepare for a game of intrigues and protocols?* * We here give an extract from the correspondence of a Lon- don morning paper, upon the "affairs of Greece, that is illustrative of the case in hand : — " Mmplia, Nov. 28, 1834. — If we (the English people) had not been paying for fleets, destroyers of fleets, protocols, loans, extra- ordinary ambassadors, presidents, couriers, subsidies, etc., in the Levant, we might not have been surprised at the present state of things. But taking into account the talents of Palmerston and S. Canning, and the straightforward, open, John Bull policy of their agent here, really it is wonderful how they can have allowed THE NON-INTERVENTION PRINCIPLE. 41 These are the probable consequences of our inter- posing in the case of Turkey ; and, from the danger of which, the only alternative lies in a strict neutra- lity. We are aware that it would be a novel case for England to remain passive, whilst a struggle was going on between two European powers ; and we know, also, that there is a predilection for continental politics amongst the majority of our countrymen, that would render it extremely difficult for any adminis- the others powers to have made such a mess of the business. But the worst part of the affair is, that things are quite as complicated now as they were a week after the breaking out of the Revolution. Here we have a fleet reaching from Gibraltar to the Dardanelles — here we have the Russians as busy as ever — and here we have not the proceeds of the loan which our (the British) govern- ment has guaranteed, nor have we a revenue that will pay the interest of it." Amusingly enough, we find, in another column of the very same copy of the same journal, a letter from its cor- respondent, dated at Constantinople, Nov. 25, from which the fol- lowing is extracted : — " Now is the time to step forward ; a cracking south-wester and a bold front are all that would be wanted ; and our ships once at anchor in the Bosphorus, adieu to the ambitious views of Russia ! They would burst like a child's bubble. Adieu to the stupid notions about the inevitable dissolution of Turkey. Adieu to the accursed treaty which binds lovely Turkey to a remorseless ravager ! * * * * One of her vain finesses is now visible in Austria, where a hired press would make the world believe that Austria is seriously opposed to Russian schemes. It does not require a very long or sharp look-out to see that the two absolute governments are acting in collusion. * * * * * It is a petty manoeuvre to lead us from the real point of attack — a mere feint ; we must pay no attention to it, but direct all our strength-and energy to the true point, Constantinople ; that Constantinople which, once in Russia's hands, becomes the mistress of Europe." 42 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. tration to preserve peace under such circumstances. Public opinion must undergo a change ; our ministers must no longer be held responsible for the every-day political quarrels all over Europe; nor,- when an opposition member of Parliament, or an opposition journalist,* wishes to assail a foreign secretary, must he be suffered to taunt him with neglect of the honour of Great Britain, if he should prudently abstain from involving her in the dissensions that afflict distant communities. There is no remedy for this but in the wholesome exercise of the people's opinion in behalf of their own interests. The middle and industrious classes of England can have no interest apart from the preser- vation of peace. The honours, the fame, the emolu- ments of war belong not to them ; the battle-plain is * Extract from a -London paper, October 22, 1834 : — " As at home, so abroad ; the Whigs have failed in all their negociations, and not one question have they settled, except the passing of a Reform Bill and a Poor Law Bill. The Dutch question is unde- cided ; the French are still at Ancona ; Don Carlos is fighting in Spain ; Don Miguel and his adherents are preparing for a new conflict in Portugal ; Turkey and Egypt are at daggers drawn ; Switzerland is quarrelling with her neighbouring states about Italian refugees ; Frankfort is occupied by Prussian troops, in violation of the treaty of Vienna ; Algiers is being made a large French colony, in violation of the promises made to the contrary by France in 1829 and 1830 ; ten thousand Polish nobles are still proscribed and wandering in Europe ; French gaols are full of political offenders, who, when liberated or acquitted, will begin again to conspire. In one word nothing is terminated." It is plain that, if this writer had his will, the Whigs would leave nothing in the world for Providence to attend to. THE NON-INTERVENTION PRINCIPLE. 43 the harvest-field of the aristocracy, watered with the blood of the people. We know of no means by which a body of mem- bers in the reformed House of Commons could so fairly achieve for itself the patriotic title of a national party, as by associating for the common object of de- precating all intervention on our part in continental politics. Such a party might well comprise every representative of our manufacturing and commercial districts, and would, we doubt not, very soon embrace the majority of a powerful House of Com- mons. At some future election, we may probably see the test of " no foreign politics " applied to those who offer to become the representatives of free con- stituencies. Happy would it have been for us, and well for our posterity, had such a feeling predomi- nated in this country fifty years ago ! But although, since the peace, we have profited so little by the bitter experience of the revolutionary wars as to seek a participation in all the subsequent continental squabbles, and though we are bound by treaties, or involved in guarantees, with almost every state of Europe ; still the coming moment is only the more proper for adopting the true path of national policy, which always lies open to us. We say the coming moment is only the more fit for withdrawing ourselves from foreign politics ; and surely there are signs in Europe that fully justify the sentiment. With France, still in the throes of her last revolution, containing a generation of young and ardent spirits, without the resources of commerce, and therefore burning for the excitement and em- 44 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMEKICA. ployment of war ; with Germany, Prussia, Hungary, Austria, * and Italy, all dependent for tranquillity upon the fragile bond of attachment of their subjects to a couple of aged paternal monarchs ; with Holland and Belgium, each sword in hand ; and with Turkey, not so much yielding to . the pressure of Russia, as sinking beneath an inevitable religious and political destiny ; — surely, with such elements of discord as these fermenting all over Europe, it becomes more than ever our duty to take natural shelter from a storm, from entering into which we could hope for no benefits, but might justly dread renewed sacrifices. Nor do we think it would tend less to promote the ulterior benefits of our continental neighbours than our own, were Great Britain to refrain from partici- pating in the conflicts that may arise around her. An onward movement of constitutional liberty must continue to be made by the less advanced nations of Europe, so long as one of its greatest families holds out the example of liberal and enlightened freedom. England, by calmly directing her undivided energies to the purifying of her own internal institutions, to the emancipation of her commerce — above all, to the unfettering of her press from its excise bonds — would, by thus serving as it were for the beacon of other nations, aid more effectually the cause of political progression all over the continent, than she could possibly do by plunging herself into the strife of European wars. For, let it never be forgotten, that it is not by * Since writing this, the death of the Emperor of Austria is announced. THE NON-INTERVENTION PRINCIPLE. 45 means of war that states are rendered fit for the en- joyment of constitutional freedom ; on the contrary whilst terror and bloodshed reign in the land, in- volving men's minds in the extremities of hopes and fears, there can he no process of thought, no educa- tion going on, by which alone can a people be pre- pared for the enjoyment of rational liberty. Hence, after a, struggle of twenty years, begun in behalf of freedom, no sooner had the wars of the French revo- lution terminated, than all the nations of the conti- nent fell back again into their previous state of political servitude, and from which they have, ever since the peace, been qualifying to rescue themselves, by the gradual process of intellectual advancement. Those who, from an eager desire to aid civilization, wish that Great Britain should interpose in the dis- sensions of neighbouring states, would do wisely to study, in the history of their own country, how well a people can, by the force and virtue of native ele- ments, and without external assistance of any kind, work out their own political regeneration : they might learn too, by their own annals, that it is only when at peace with other states that a nation finds the leisure for looking within itself, and discovering the means to accomplish great domestic ameliora- tions. To those generous spirits we would urge, that, in the present day, commerce is the grand panacea, which, like a beneficent medical discovery, will serve to innoculate with the healthy and saving taste for civilization all the nations of the world. Not a bale of merchandise leaves our shores, but it 46 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. bears the seeds of intelligence and fruitful thought to the members of some less enlightened community ; not a merchant visits our seats of manufacturing industry, but he returns to his own country the mis- sionary of freedom, peace, and good government — whilst our steam boats, that now visit every port of Europe, and our miraculous railroads, that are the talk of all nations, are the advertisements and vouchers for the value of our enlightened insti- tutions. In closing this part of our task, we shall only add^ that, whatever other plea may in future be allowed to induce us to embark in- a- continental conflict, we trust we have proved, that so far as our commerce is concerned, it can neither be sustained nor greatly injured abroad by force or violence. The foreign customers who visit our markets are not brought hither through fears of the power or the influence of British diplomatists: they are not captured by our fleets and armies : and as little are they attracted by feelings of love for us ; for that " there is no friend- ship in trade," is a maxim equally applicable to nations and to individuals. It is solely from the promptings of self-interest, that the merchants of Europe, as of the rest of the world, send their ships to our ports to be freighted with the products of our labour. The self-same impulse drew all nations, at different periods of history, to Tyre, to Venice, and to Amsterdam ; and if, in the revolution of time and events, a country should be found (which is proba- ble) whose cottons and woollens shall be cheaper than those of England and the rest of the world, then to THE NON-INTERVENTION PRINCIPLE. 47 that spot — even should it, by supposition, be buried in the remotest nook of the globe — will all the traders of the earth flock ; and no human power, no fleets or armies, will prevent Manchester, Liverpool, and Leeds, from sharing the fate of their once proud predecessors in Holland, Italy, and Phoenicia.* * Lest it might be said that we are advocating Russian objects of ambition, we think it necessary to observe, that we trust the entire spirit of this pamphlet will shew that we are not of Hussion politics. Our sole aim is the just interests of England, regardless of the objects of other nations. 48 PAET II.— IEELAND. Contents. — British Ignorance respecting Ireland — England the Cause of Irish Barbarism — Political Tendency of the Catholic Eeligion — English Persecution of the Irish Beligion — The Church of England in Ireland — Miserable State of the Irish People — Urgent Necessity for an Improvement — A Poor-law for Ireland — Emigration — Projected Communication between New York and London in twelve days, by way of Ireland — Evils of a Dominant Church. Whilst, within the last twenty years, our sympa- thies have gone forth over the whole of Europe, in quest of nations suffering from, or rising up against the injustice of their rulers; whilst Italy, Greece, Spain, France, Portugal, Turkey, Belgium, and Poland, have successively filled the newspapers with tales of their domestic wrongs ; and whilst our di- plomatists, fleets, and armies have been put in motion at enormous cost, to carry our counsel, or, if needful, our arms, to the assistance of the people of these remote regions ; it is an unquestionable fact, that the population of a great portion of our own empire has, at the same time, presented a grosser spectacle of moral and physical debasement than is to be met with in the whole civilized world. If an intelligent foreigner, after having travelled through England, Scotland, and Wales, and enjoyed the exhibition of wealth, industry, and happiness, afforded everywhere by the population of these realms, were, when upon the eve of departing for the shores of Ireland, to be warned of the scenes of wretchedness and want that awaited him in that THE FOREIGNER'S IMPRESSION OF IRELAND. 49 country, he would naturally assume the cause in some such question as this: — "The people are no doubt indolent, and destitute of the energy that belongs to the English character?" If it were answered, that, so far from such being the case, the Irish are the hardiest labourers on earth ; that the docks and canals of England, and the railroads of America, are the produce of their toil ; in short, that they are the hewers of wood and drawers of water for other nations— then the next inquiry from this stranger would probably be in some such form as this : — " But their soil no doubt is barren, and their climate inhospitable : nature has, besides, probably denied to them the rivers and harbours which are • essential to commerce ?" What would be his sur- prise to be answered, that, in natural fertility, and in the advantages of navigable streams, lakes, and har- bours, Ireland is more favoured than England, Scot- land, or Wales.* * "And sure it is yet a most beautiful and sweet country as any is under heaven, being stored throughout with many goodly rivers, replenished with all sorts of fish most abundantly, sprinkled with many very sweet islands and goodly lakes, like inland seas that will carry even shippes upon their waters ; adorned with goodly woods, even fit for building of houses and shippes so commodiously, as that, if some princes in the world had them, they would soon hope to be lords of all the seas, of all the world ; also full of very good ports and havens opening upon England, as inviting us to come unto them, to see what excellent commodities that country can afford ; besides, the soyle itselfe fit to yeeld all kiude of fruit that shall be committed thereunto. And lastly, the heavens most mild and temperate, though some- what more moist than the parts towards the east." — Spenser. VOL. I. E 50 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. Where^ then, shall we seek for the causes of the poverty and barbarism that afflict this land ? How- shall we be able to account for the fact, that commerce and civilization, which have, from the earliest ages, journeyed westward, and in their course have even stayed to enrich the marshes of the Adriatic and the fens of Holland, should have passed over, in their rapid flight to the New World, a spot more calcu- lated by nature than almost any besides, to be the seat of a great internal and external trade ? We do not profess to be able to disclose all the precise causes of the depressed fate of Ireland ; still less do we pretend to offer a panacea for all the ills that afflict her. Our object in introducing the subject here is, to shew the absurdity and injustice of that policy which leads us to seek amongst other nations for objects of compassion and care, and to neglect the urgent demands that are made upon us at our very door. The strongest ground of grievance that we have ever heard alleged against us -by intelligent Irishmen, unimbued with party feelings, is the total neglect and ignorance of their country that prevail amongst the people of England. To the middle classes of this country, as to an impartial tribunal, untainted by the venom of their political and religious fac- tions, a large portion of the Irish people look for the probable regeneration of their unhappy country. Without this tardy effort of justice at our hands, they will never be able to escape from the vortex of their social distractions. This patriotic party, including so much of the intelligence and industry of Ireland, ENGLISH IGNORANCE OF IRELAND. 51 claim from their fellow-subjects on this side of the Channel, (and they have a right to claim it,) such a consideration of their country, its population and resources, its history, institutions, and geography — in fact, just such a study of Ireland as shall give them a knowledge of its anomalous physical and moral state. It is almost incredible how little is known of this, one of the largest both in area and population of the four divisions of the kingdom. Let any one of our readers take a person of average intelligence, and ask him which is the finest river in the United Kingdom: he will answer, probably, the Thames, the Humber, or the Severn ; it is ten to one against his naming the Shannon. We will venture to say that there are as many individuals in England conversant with the city of New York and the course of the Hudson, as there are who are acquainted with the topography of Limerick, and the banks of the largest river in the British empire. The past fate of Ireland, like the present condition of its people, presents to our view an anomaly that has no parallel in the history of nations. During all that period of time which has sufficed to enable the other states in Europe to emerge from barbarism — some to attain their zenith of glory and again decay, others to continue at the summit of prosperity — Ireland has never enjoyed one age of perfect security or peace. She has, consequently, unlike every other nation, no era of literature, commerce, or the arts to boast of; nay, she does not exhibit, in her annals, an e 2 52 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. instance in which she has put forth in war a com- bined force to merit even the savage honours of military or naval fame. Poets have feigned a golden age for this, as for every other country ; but it never existed, except in the pages of romance. Ireland never was, at any known period of her history, more tranquil or happy than at this day. She has, from the first, been the incessant prey of discord, bloodshed, and famine. We, who are fond of digging deep into the founda- tions of causes, incline to assign, as one reason of the adverse condition of this island, the circumstance of the Romans never having colonized it. That people, by deposing the petty chiefs, and gathering and compressing their septs into one communion — by inoculating the natives with a love of discipline— by depositing amongst them the seeds of the arts, and imparting a taste for civilization — would, probably, have given to them that unity and consistency, as one people, the want of which has been the principal source of all their weakness and misfortune. Had the Romans occupied for three centuries such a coun- try as this, they would perhaps have left it, on their departure from Britain, more advanced, in all respects, than it proved to be in the sixteenth century. But whatever were the causes of the early degra- dation of this country, there can be no doubt that England has, during the last two centuries, by dis- couraging the commerce of Ireland — thus striking at the very root of civilization — rendered herself re- sponsible for much of the barbarism that at the present day amiets it. RESTRICTIONS UPON IRISH TRADE. 53 However much the conduct of England towards the sister island, in this particular, may have been dwelt upon for party purposes, it is so bad as scarcely to admit of exaggeration. The first restrictions put upon the Irish trade, were in the reign of Charles II. ; and from that, time, down to the era when the United Volunteers of Ireland stepped forward to rescue their country from its op- pressors, (the only incident, by the way, in the chronicles of Ireland, deserving the name of a really national effort,) our policy was directed, incessantly, to the destruction of the foreign trade of that coun- try. Every attempt at manufacturing industry, with one exception, was likewise mercilessly nipped in the bud. Her natural capabilities might, for example, have led the people to the making of glass : it was enacted, that no glass should be allowed to be ex- ported from Ireland, and its importation, except from England, was also prohibited. Her soil, calculated for the pasturing of sheep, would have yielded wool equal to the best English qualities ; an absolute pro- hibition was laid on its exportation, and King William, in addressing the British Parliament, de- clared, that he would " do everything in his power to discourage the woollen manufacture of Ireland." Down to the year 1779, we find that the export of woollen goods from that island remained wholly interdicted. Not only was her commerce with the different ports of Europe fettered by the imposition of restrictions upon every valuable product that could interfere with the prosperity of England ; not only was all trade 54 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMEEICA. with Asia and the east of Europe excluded by the charters which were granted to the companies of Lpndon ; but her ports were actually sealed against the trade of the American colonies. Although Ire- land presented to the ships of North America, the nearest and the noblest havens in Europe, and appeared to be the natural landing-place for the products of the New World, her people were deprived of all benefit — nay, they were actually made to suffer loss and inconvenience from their favoured position ; laws were passed, prohibiting the importation of American commodities into Ireland, without first landing them in some port of England or Wales, whilst the export of Irish products to the colonies, excepting through some British port, was also inter- dicted. If we add to this, that a law was enacted, pre- venting beef or live cattle from being exported to England, some idea may be formed of the commercial policy of this country towards Ireland — a policy, savouring more of the mean and sordid tyranny of the individual huckster over his poorer rival, than of any nobler oppression that is wont to characterise the acts of victorious nations. Need we wonder that, at this moment, the entire foreign commerce of Ireland does not much exceed the trade of one second-rate port of Scotland?* There are those who think the Irish genius is unsuited to that eager and persevering pursuit of business which distinguishes the English people; and they argue that, but for this, the natives of a region * Dundee. POLITICAL TENDENCY OF THE CATHOLIC RELIGION. 55 in all respects so favourable to commerce, must have triumphed over the obstacles that clogged their industry. There is, we believe, one cause existing, less con- nected with the injustice of England, and to which we are about to allude, why Ireland is below us, and other Protestant nations, in the scale of civilization ; yet, if we look to the prosperity of her staple manufacture — the only industry that was tolerated by the govern- ment of this country — it warrants the presumption, that, under similar favouring circumstances, her woollens, or, indeed, her cottons, might, equally with her linens, have survived a competition with the fabrics of Great Britain. But there exists, apart from all intolerant or party feelings on the question, a cause, and we believe a primary one, of the retrograde position, as compared with England and Scotland, in which we find Ireland at the present day, in the circumstance of the Eoman Catholic religion being the faith of its people. Let us not be misunderstood — our business does not lie in polemics, and far be it from us to presume to decide which mode of worship may be most acceptable to the great Author of our being. We wish to speak only of the tendency, which, judging from facts that are before us, this church has to retard the secular prosperity of nations. Probably there is no country in which the effects of the Catholic and Reformed religions upon the temporal career of communities may be more fairly tested than in Switzerland. Of twenty-two cantons, ten are, in the majority of the population, Catholic ; 56 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. eight, Protestant ; and the remaining four are mixed, in nearly equal proportions of Protestants and Ca<- tholics. Those cantons in which the Catholic faith prevails are wholly pastoral in their pursuits, pos- sessing no commerce or manufacturing industry, beyond the rude products of domestic labour. Of the mixed cantons, three* are engaged in the manu- facture of cotton ; and it is a remarkable feature in the industry of these, that the Catholic portion of their population is wholly addicted to agricultural, and the Protestant section to commercial pursuits. All the eight Protestant cantons are, more or less, engaged in manufactures. Nor must we omit to add, which every traveller in Switzerland will have seen, that, in the education of the people, the cleanliness of the towns, the com- modiousness of the inns, and the quality of the roads, the Protestant cantons possess a great superiority over their Catholic neighbours — whilst such is the differ- ence in the value of land, that an estate in Friburg, a Catholic canton, possessing a richer soil than that of Berne, from which it is divided only by a rivulet, is worth one-third less than the same extent of pro- perty in the latter Protestant district. Such are the, circumstances, as we find them in comparing one portion of the Swiss territory with another. The facts are still more striking if we view them in relation to the States immediately around them. Switzerland, being an inland district, far removed from the sea, is compelled to resort to Havre, Genoa, * Appenzell, St. Gall, and Aargau. THE PROSPERITY OF PROTESTANT STATES. 57 or Frankfort, for the supply of the raw materials of her industry ; which are transported by land three, four, or five hundred miles, through Catholic states, for the purpose of fabrication; and the goods are afterwards reconveyed to the same ports for exporta- tion to America or the Levant; where, notwithstanding this heavy expense of transit, and although Switzer- land possesses no mineral advantages, they sustain a prosperous competition with their more favoured, but less industrious neighbours and rivals. If we refer to France, we shall find that a large dep&t of manufacturing industry has been formed upon the extreme inland frontier of her territory on the Rhine, where her best cottons are fabricated and printed, and conveyed to the metropolis, about three hundred miles off, for sale. Alsace, the Protestant district we allude to, contains no local advantages, no iron or coals; it is upwards of four hundred miles distant from the port through which the raw materials of its manufactures are obtained, and from whence they are conveyed, entirely by land, passing through Paris, to which city the goods are destined to be again returned. Thus are these commodities transported, over-land, more than seven hundred miles, for no other assignable reason, except that they may be subjected to the labour of Protestant hands. Germany gives us additional facts to the same purport. If we divide this empire into north and south, we shall find the former, containing Prussia, Saxony, &c, to be chiefly Protestant, and to com- prise nearly all the manufacturing and commercial interests of the country ; whilst the latter are princi- 58 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. pally Catholic, and almost wholly addicted to agri- culture. Education, likewise, follows the same law here as in Switzerland; for, whilst the Catholics amount to ahout twenty millions, and possess but five universities, the Protestants support thirteen, with only a population of fourteen millions. If we turn to Catholic Italy, where there is very little manufacturing of any kind, we yet find that the commerce of the country is principally in the hands of foreigners. The merchants of Genoa, Naples, Trieste, &c, are chiefly British, Swiss, or Germans, whose houses, again, have their own agents in the principal interior cities ; so that the trade of the Italian States is in great part transacted by Protes- tants. We need scarcely add to these statements the fact, which all are acquainted with, that, in Ireland, the staple manufacture is almost wholly confined to the Protestant province. We shall probably be reminded of the former com- mercial grandeur of Spain and the Italian republics. This was, however, to a great extent, the effect of monopolies, which must, from their nature, be of transient benefit to nations; and, moreover, they flourished prior to the complete triumph of the Re- formation; and our object is merely to exhibit a comparison between Protestant and Catholic commu- nities of the same period. Besides, Spain and Italy have left no evidences of the enlightened industry of their people ; such as are to be seen, for example, to attest the energy of the Dutch, in the canals and dykes of Holland. We have thus briefly glanced at the comparative POLITICAL TENDENCY OF THE CATHOLIC RELIGION. 59 conditions of the Catholic and Protestant interests in Europe ; and, disclaiming, as we do, any theological purpose, we trust we may demand for our argument, what is not often accorded to this invidious topic, the candid attention of our readers. The above facts, then, go far to prove that, in human affairs at least, the Reformed faith conduces more than Catholicism to the prosperity of nations. We shall not argue that the temporal welfare of states, any more than of individuals, affords proofs of spiritual superiority ; we will admit that it does not : but, if it can be proved from facts, (as we think even our intelligent and ingenuous Eoman Catholic readers will agree we have done,) that the Protestant is, more than the Catholic faith, conducive to the growth of national riches and intelligence, then there must be acknowledged to exist a cause, independent of mis- government, for the present state of Ireland, as com- pared with that of Great Britain, for which England cannot be held altogether responsible. The deficient education of a people is, no doubt, a circumstance that must tend, in these days, when the physical sciences and the arts are so intimately blended with manufacturing industry, and when com- merce itself has become a branch of philosophy, to keep them in the rear rank of civilized nations ; but we think the abhorrence of change that characterises Catholic states, and which we shall find not merely to affect religious observances, but to pervade all the habits of social life, has even a more powerful in- fluence over their destinies. In proof of this, if we take the pages of Cervantes 60 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMEKICA. and Le Sage, and compare the portraits and scenes they have depicted, with the characters, costumes, and customs of the present day, we shall find that the Spanish people are, after the lapse of so many ages, in even the minutest observances, wholly unchanged. On the other hand, if we look into Shakspeare, or examine the canvass of Teniers, we shall find that, during the same interval of time, the populations of Holland and England have been revolutionized in all the modes of life, so as scarcely to leave one national feature of those ages for recognition in our day. Ireland has clung tenaciously to her characteristics of ancient days. " There is a great use among the Irish," says Spenser, writing more than two hundred years ago, " to make great assemblies together upon a rath or hill, there to parley, as they say, about matters and wrongs between township and township, or one pri- vate person and another." — Vol. viii. p. 399. Now, no person could, by possibility, pass six months in the south of Ireland, during the present year, but he would be certain to witness some gatherings of this nature. But who, that has travelled in that island, can have failed to be struck with that universal fea- ture in the dress of the people — the greatcoat ? " He maketh his mantle," says Spenser, speaking of the Irish peasant of his time, " his house ; and under it covereth himself from the wrath of heaven, from the offence of the earth, and from the sight of men. When it raineth it is his pent-house ; when it bloweth, it is his tent ; when it freezeth, it is his tabernacle. In summer, he can wear it loose ; in winter, he can IEISH CUSTOMS UNCHANGED. 61 wrap it close ; at all times, he can use it ; never heavy, never cumbersome." — P. 367. We have our- selves seen the Irish of our own day, in the midst of winter, wrapping the mantle close, and we have seen them spreading it loosely in summer ; we have seen the peasant, whilst at plough, ohliged to quit one of the stilts every minute for the purpose of adjusting the greatcoat that was tucked clumsily round his loins ; and we have beheld the labourer at work, with his mantle thrown inconveniently over his arms and shoulders ; but we never witnessed it thrown aside. In truth, it is still the mantle that " hides him from the sight of men ; " for, like charity, it cloaks a multitude of defects in the garments beneath. But it is not in mere externals that we shall find the character of Irish society unchanged. In the manifestations of the passions, in the vehement dis- plays of natural feeling, there is, amidst the general amelioration of the surrounding world, alas ! no im- provement here. To quote again from the pages of Spenser, an eye-witness: — "I saw an old woman, which was his foster-mother, take up his head, whilst he was quartered, and sucked up all the bloode that runne thereoute, saying, that the earthe was not wor- thy to drinke it ; and, therewith, also steeped her face and breast, and tore her hair, crying out and shriek- ing most terribly." — Ibid. p. 381. Let us compare the above scene, which was enacted at the execution of one of the turbulent natives of the sixteenth century, with the following incident that occurred at the late Kathcormac tithe tragedy : — " I went up to inspect the haggart where the car- 62 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. nage occurred, and so awful a spectacle I never wit- nessed ; the straw, all saturated with human gore, so that blood oozed through on the pressure of the foot ; and, shocking to relate, the widow Collins was seen to kiss the blood of her sons, imprecating God's ven- geance on the murderers of her children." — Dub. Ev. Post, Dec. 23, 1834. Who would imagine that more than two centuries have elapsed between the dates when these parallel occurrences took place in one and the same country ? Viewing, as we confessedly do, the Eoman Catholic religion to be a great operating cause against the amelioration of the state of Ireland, it becomes an in- teresting question, how it happens that we find its dogmas to be professed with so much zeal at the pre- sent day in that country. How does it arise, that whereas, during the last three centuries, history ex- hibits nation after nation yielding up its religion to those reforms which time had rendered necessary, until nearly -the whole of northern and western Europe has become Protestant— Ireland, notwith- standing so much contiguous change, still clings, with greater devotion than ever, to the shattered tiara of Eome ? That such is the case, is proved by the evidence of a trustworthy author, whose recent travels in Ireland we shall have occasion to allude to. * We fervently believe that persecution — perhaps * " In no country is there more bigotry and superstition among the lower orders, or more blind obedience to the priesthood ; in no country iis there so much intolerance and zeal among the ministers of religion. I do believe, that at this moment Catholic Ireland is more rife for the re-establishmejit of the Inquisition EFFECTS OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN IRELAND. 63 k honestly devised, but still persecution — has done for this church what, under the circumstances, nothing besides could have achieved : it has enabled it to re- sist, not only unscathed, but actually with augmented power, the shocks of a free press, and the liberalizing influence of the freest constitutional government in Europe. We shall be told that the epithet persecution no longer applies, since all civil disabilities are removed from our Catholic fellow-subjects ; but, we ask, does it not still apply as much in principle, though not in degree, to the present condition of the Irish Church — where six millions of Catholics are forced to see the whole tithe of their soil possessed by the clergy of one million of Protestants — as it did to the perse- cutions of the ancient martyrs, or the auto-da-fes of modern Spain ? Is not the spirit of persecution the same, but modified to meet the spirit of the age ? If we would bring this case home to our own feel- ings, let us suppose that the arms of the United States of America were to achieve the conquest of Great Britain ; we will further suppose that that country possessed an established church, differing in faith and doctrine from our own — for instance, let it be imagined to be of the Unitarian creed. Now, then, we put it to the feelings of our countrymen, would they, or would they not, regard it as persecution, if they saw than any other country in Europe." — Inglig' Travels in Ireland. See the same traveller's description of Patrick's Purgatory, Loch Dergh. It adds weight to the testimony of this writer upon such a subject, when it is recollected that he is the author of " Travels in Spain." 64 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. the whole of the tithes of England diverted from their present uses, to be applied to the support of a faith which they abhorred ? Would it not be felt as persecution to be compelled, not only to behold their cathedrals and churches in the hands of the ministers of a (by them) detested creed, but the lands and re- venues which appertain to them, wrested from then- present purposes, by the force of a government on the other side of the ocean? And, seeing these things, would it not be felt and suffered as persecu- tion, if the people of England, still clinging to a man to their national church, were impelled by conscience to erect other temples of worship, and out of their own pockets to maintain their ejected and despised ministers ? But, to come to the still more important question, we appeal to the breasts of our readers, would they, under such circumstances, be likely to become con- verts to the religion of their spoilers and oppressors ; or, would they not, more probably, nourish such a spirit of resentment and indignation as would render impossible a calm or impartial examination of its dogmas? And would not their children and their children's children be taught to abhor, even before they could understand, the very name of Unitarian- ism? But, pursuing our hypothesis, supposing all this to occur in England, and that the nation were compelled, by the presence of a sufficient army, to submit — what would the probable effects of such a state of things be upon the peace and prosperity of the community? However excellent might be the laws and institutions, however liberal and enlightened EFFECTS OF CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN IRELAND. 65 the policy, in other respects, of the government set over us by the Americans, whatever commercial advantages might be derived from a complete incorporation with the United States — would the people, the church-loving people of those realms be found to be quietly and successfully pursuing their worldly callings, forgetting the grievances of their consciences ? We hope not ! For the honour of our countrymen we fervently believe that all worldly pursuits and interests would be, by them, and their sons, and their sons' sons, even down to the tenth generation, abandoned ; that agitation would be rife in the land, and that every county in England would put forth its O'Connell, wielding the terrible energies of combined freemen, until the time that saw such monstrous tyranny abated ! Persecution may be, as it often has been, the buttress of error ; but all history proves that it can never aid the cause of truth. "What has preserved the Jews a distinct people, scattered as they have been amidst all the nations of the earth ? No miracle, certainly ; for they are now dissolving into the ranks of Christians before the sun of American toleration ;* and our country, but espe- cially the spot where we write, gives us a similar beneficent example in comparison with other states. Nothing more than the universal and unintermitted series of oppressions that characterised the conduct of * In the United States a Jew can hold all offices of state ; he may by law become the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Chief Justice, or even President. An American naval commander of the Hebrew faith, was, upon one occasion, introduced to George IV. VOL I. F 66 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. every government towards that despised people, from the destruction of Jerusalem down to the last cen- tury, can be necessary to account for the fact, that the Hebrew people exceed, perhaps, at this moment, in numbers, the population of Judaea, at the most flourishing period of its history. Nor, if it were desired, during the eighteen centuries to come, to preserve the Jews a separate people, could the wit or the philosophy of man devise a scheme to prevent their amalgamating with the nations of the earth, other than by persevering in the same infallible course of persecution. Let them search the annals of religious persecution (and it is the most humiliating chapter in the history of poor human nature), and we will challenge the advocates of coercive dealings in matters of con- science, to produce an instance where violence, bribery, or secular power in any form, has ever aided the cause of true religion. To the honour of the imma- terial portion of our being, although the body may be made to yield to these influences, the soul, dis- daining all mortal fetters, owns no allegiance but to itself and its Maker. So long, then, as the Church of England possesses the whole of the religious revenue of Ireland, there cannot be — nay, judging of the case as our own, there ought not to be — peace or prosperity for its people ; and, what is of still more vital importance, there can be, judging by the same rule, no chance of the dis- semination of religious truth in that country. Let us not be met by those unthinking persons who view tithes as religion, with the cry about the destruc- EFFECTS OF CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN IRELAND. 67 tion of the Protestant church. "We are of that church ; and we reckon it amongst the happiest circumstances of our destiny that Providence has placed us in a Protestant land. In our opinion — and we have endeavoured to prove it from the homely but incon- trovertible arguments of facts — : no greater temporal misfortune can attach to a people of the present age than to profess the Roman Catholic religion : and it is in order to give the Irish an opportunity of con- sidering with that indiffereney which we believe with Locke is the indispensable prelude to the successful search after truth, the doctrines of our reformed faith, that we would do them the justice, in the first place, of putting them on a perfectly equal footing, as respects matters of conscience, with their Protestant fellow-subjects. We are not visionary enough to shut our eyes to the vast impediments in the way of such a consum- mation as we have jumped to. These, however, do not in the least affect the question, as to its justice or expediency. The obstacles lie in the House of Peers, and probably in the breast of the King. If the con- science of the latter should be affected with scruples as to the binding nature of the coronation oath, pre- cautions might be taken to prevent a similar future obstacle on the demise of the crown. With respect to the House of Lords, difficulties of a less august nature will have to be encountered ; for why should the fact be concealed, that the church question, in whichever way agitated, is one that concerns the interests of the aristocracy. Hence is the difficulty : that, whereas, we sincerely believe, if a canvass were F 2 68 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. made from house to house throughout Great Britain, four-fifths of the middle classes of its people would be found at once not interested in the temporalities of the Irish Church, and willing to grant to their Catholic fellow-subjects of Ireland, a complete equality of religious privileges ; on the contrary, if an appeal were to be made to the votes of the House of Peers, four-fifths of that assembly would very likely oppose such a measure of justice and peace ; and probably that great majority of its members would be found to be, immediately or remotely, interested in the revenues of that church. We would recommend the most ample concessions to be made to countervail the obstacles of self-interest. There is no present sacrifice of a pecuniary nature that will not be an ultimate gain to the middle and working classes of England, if it only tend to pacify and regenerate Ireland. Viewing the subject as a question of pounds, shillings, and pence (and it partakes a great deal more of that character than folks are aware of), the people of England would be gainers by charging the whole amount of the church revenue of Ireland to the consolidated fund, if, by so doing, they were only to escape the expense of supporting an enormous army* for the service of that country. * STATIONS OF THE BRITISH ABMY IN IBELAND, ON THE 1ST NOVEMBER, 1834. {From the United Service Journal.') Those marked thus * are depots of Regiments. 3rd dragoon guards, Dublin. 47th foot, Boyle.* 4th dragoon guards, Cork. 52nd, Enniskillen. 7th do. Limerick. 56th, Cork* ENGLAND DEPRESSED BY IRISH POVERTY. 69 But we are, from another motive of self-interest, far more deeply concerned in the tranquillity and improvement of the sister kingdom : for it ought to be borne hi view, and impressed upon the minds of the industrious classes of this country, that, unless we can succeed in laying the foundations of some plan for elevating the people of Ireland to an equality with us, they will inevitably depress us to a level with themselves. There cannot permanently be, in a free community, two distinct castes or conditions of existence, such as are now to be found in this united empire. 9th lancers, Newbridge, 60th, Nenagh.* 10th hussars, Dundalk. 2nd batt. Kilkenny. 14th light dragoons, Longford. 67th, Oashel.* 15th hussars, Dublin. 69th, Clare Castle.* 3rd batt. grenadier guards, Dublin 70th, Cork.* 1st foot, 1st batt. Londonderry.* 74th, Belfast. 2nd batt. Athlone. 76th, Boyle* 7th, Drogheda.* 81st, Dublin. 9th, Toughal.* 82nd, Belfast. 14th, Mullingar. 83rd, Newry. 18th, Limerick. 85th, GaJway. 24th, Kinsale.* 89th, Fermoy 25th, Armagh.* 90th, Nass. 27th, Dublin. 91st, Birr. 29th, Kinsale* 94th, Cork. 30th, Clonmel.* 95th, Templemore. 43rd, Cork. 96th, Kinsale. 46th, Dublin. Here is an array of bayonets that renders it difficult to believe that Ireland is other than a recently conquered territory, throughout which an enemy's army has just distributed its encampments. Four times as many soldiers as comprise the standing army of the United States, are at this time quartered in Ireland ! 70 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. Already is the process of assimilation going on ; and the town in which we write furnishes, amongst others, a striking example of the way in which the contagion of Irish habits is contaminating, whilst the competi- tion of that people is depressing, the working classes of Britain. Manchester is supposed to contain fifty thousand Irish, or the immediate descendants of Irish. The quarter in which they congregate is, like the district of St. Giles' of London, a nursery of all the customs that belong to savage life. In the very centre of our otherwise jcivilized and wealthy town, a colony which has acquired for its locale the. title of Little Ireland, exhibits all the filth, depravity, and barbarism that disgrace its patronymic land. Nor is the evil con- fined within such limits. Its influences are felt in the adulteration of character, and the lowering of the stan- dard of living of our artisans generally : it is a moral cancer, that, in spite of the efforts of science or phi- lanthropy to arrest its progress, continues to spread throughout the entire mass of our labouring popu- lation. No part of England or Scotland is exempt from its share in the natural consequences of this terrible state of degradation to which the people of Ireland are reduced. There is not a village or parish of the kingdom into which its famine-impelled natives do not, at certain periods of the year, penetrate to share the scanty wages of our peasantry ; thus dragging them down to their own level, and, in return, impart- ing to them the sad secrets of their own depraved modes of life. ENGLAND DEPEESSED BY IRISH POVERTY. 71 But great as this evil has hitherto been, it is only a subject of astonishment to us, that the immigration of the Irish people into this portion of the empire has not been more extensive : sure we are, from the accounts we have of the present state of the southern portion of that island, that nothing short of Berkley's wall of brass can, for the future, save us from an overwhelming influx of its natives. Let those who are incredulous of our opinion, con- sult the recent work on Ireland, from which we are about to offer an extract or two for the perusal of our readers. We look upon every writer who directs the atten- tion of the people of England to the facts connected with the present state of Ireland, as a benefactor of his country. Even should an author, for the sake of being read, or for party purposes, like Cobbett, throw some exaggeration into his pictures of the horrors of this land, we still view him in the useful capacity of a watchman, sounding the alarm of danger, scarcely too loud, to the indifferent minds of Great Britain. Though, like the hydro-oxygen microscope, when applied to physical objects, his descriptions magnify its social monsters, till their magnitude terrifies the beholder — still the monsters are there : they are only enlarged, and not created. In the purer elements of English society, such evils could not, through what- ever exaggerating medium, be discovered. But the traveller from whom we are about to quote, gives intrinsic evidences of not only competent intelligence, but strict impartiality, and a sincere love of truth. "We do not think that he possesses, in an 72 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. eminent degree, the organ of causality, as the phre- nologists call it; for he attributes, as the ultimate cause of the miseries of Ireland, the want of employ- ment for its people; not recollecting that this evil must have its cause : but in the qualities of a careful and experienced observer of facts, he is, unquestion- ably, a competent authority. These are his words, in speaking of the remunera- tion of labour in Ireland : — " I am quite confident, t that, if the whole yearly earnings of the labourers of Ireland were divided by the whole number of labourers, the result would be under this sum — four- pence a-day for the labourers of Ireland." Again, in speaking of the habitations of the pea- santry of Ireland, the following is the description given by the same author : — " The only difference between the best and the worst of the mud cabins is, that some are water-tight, and some are not: air- tight, I saw none ; with windows, scarcely any ; with chimneys — that is, with a hole in the roof for the smoke to escape through— as many perhaps with it as without it. As for furniture, there is no such thing ; unless a broken stool or two, and an iron pot, can be called furniture. I should say that, in the greater part of Leinster and Munster, and in the flat districts of Connaught, bedsteads are far from general, and bed-clothing is never sufficient." Let us reflect for a moment on what would be the ' effects upon the condition of our industrious popula- tion, if they were brought down to share one common average with these labourers ; a fate which, we repeat, they are doomed to suffer, unless, by imparting peace ME. HENRY DAVID INGLIS' TESTIMONY. 73 and prosperity to Ireland, we shall succeed in elevat- ing her people to our own level. This intelligent traveller sums up his recital of all that he witnessed during a tour of many months throughout the island, (great part of which time he spent in unrestrained intercourse with the peasantry,) in these words, which, along with every other portion of his volumes, do equal honour to his moral courage and philanthropy : — " I, Henry David Inglis, acting under no superior orders ; holding no government commission ; with no end to serve, and no party to please ; hoping for no patronage, and fearing no censure ; and with no other view than the establishment of truth — having just completed a journey throughout Ireland, and having minutely examined, and inquired into the condition _of the people of that country — do humbly report, that the destitute, infirm, and aged, form a large body of the population of the cities, towns and villages of Ireland: that, in the judgment of those best qualified to know the truth, three-fourth parts of their number die through the effects of destitution, either by the decay of nature accelerated, or through disease in- duced by scanty and unwholesome food, or else by the attacks of epidemics, rendered more fatal from the same causes : that the present condition of this large class is shocking for humanity to contemplate, and beyond the efforts of private beneficence to re- lieve, and is a reproach to any civilized and Christian country." A Christian country, does he say ? Posterity will doubt it ! There is no such picture as this of a per- 74 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. manent state of national existence to be found in any- authentic history, ancient or modern, Christian or Pagan. "We shall search the volumes of the most accredited travellers in Eussia,* Turkey,! or Jhdia, and find no description of a people that is not envi- able, in comparison with the state of millions of our fellow-subjects in Ireland. The natives of Moldavia and Wallachia, which provinces have been the battle- field for Turks and Christians for centuries, are now living in happiness and plenty, when compared with the fate of the inhabitants of a country that has known no other invader but England. We lavish our sympathies upon the serfs of Poland, and the slaves of Turkey ; but who would not prefer to be one of these, to the perishing with hunger under the name of freeman ? We send forth our mission- aries to convert the heathen; but well might the followers of Mahomet or Zoroaster instruct us in the ways of charity to our poor Christian brethren ! Far be it from us to say, with a celebrated French * Dr. Clarke tells us that the serfs of Eussia, when old, are, of right, supported by the owners of the estate. t In the Koran, the charities are enjoined: and Tournefort tells us — " There are no beggars to be seen in Turkey, because they take care to prevent the unfortunate from falling into such necessities. They visit the prisons to discharge those who are arrested for debt ; they are very careful to relieve persons who are bashfully ashamed of their poverty. How many families may one find who have been ruined by fires, and are restored by cha-' rities ! They need only present themselves at the doors of the mosques. They also go to their houses to comfort the afflicted. The diseased, and they who have the pestilence, are succoured by their neighbour's purse."— Vol. ii. p. 59. The Bible still more strictly commands charity, and — see Inglii Ireland ! CHARITY SHOULD BEGIN AT HOME. 75 writer, that we distrust the philanthropy of all those who seek in distant regions for objects of their charity ; but we put it to our countrymen, whether, in lending themselves to any scheme, having benevolence for remote nations in view, whilst such a case as this stands appealing at their doors, they are not, in the emphatic words of Scripture, " taking the children's meat and casting it to the dogs." We shall be told that the hundreds of thousands of pounds that are sent annually to remote regions are for the promotion of religion. But there cannot be religion where there is not morality; and can morals survive in a starving community such as exists in Ireland ? No ! and therefore we say, until the above proclamation of her desperate sufferings be contro- ' verted, (and who will gainsay it ?) a copy of it ought to be affixed to every public building, and to the doors of every church and chapel in particular of England ; and all attempts, of whatever description, to subsidize the charity of this country, in behalf of alien na- tions, whilst this member of our own family, in the extremity of want, supplicates for succour at our hands, should be denounced and put aside by the common sense and humanity of the nation. If not, if for more fanciful, because more distant, projects of benevolence, we neglect our obvious duty towards these our fellow-countrymen, then will the sins and omissions of their fathers be visited upon the future generations of Englishmen ; for assuredly will the accumulated ills of Ireland recoil upon their heads, until one common measure of suffering shall have been meted out to both ! 76 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. But we will not forget that our object in entering upon the consideration of this subject, was to illus- trate the impolicy and injustice of the statesmen of this country, who have averted their faces from this diseased member of our body-politic; and, at the same time, have led us, thus maimed, into the midst of every conflict that has occurred upon the whole continent of Europe. To give one example, let us only recur to the year 1823, when the French inva- sion of Spain drew forth those well-known powerful appeals of Brougham* to the ever-ready-primed * In alluding to this eminent, and we fervently believe disin- terestedly patriotic individual, we have no wish to be thought to have caught the contagion of that virulence with which, perhaps from the unworthiest of motives, his character has been latterly assailed. We feel no very great respect for mere eloquence, which, from the time of Demosthenes down to that of the subject of these remarks, has, probably, as often been sacrificed at the altar of falsehood as upon the purer shrine of truth. But Lord Brougham's labours in behalf of popular intelligence, at a time too, be it always remembered, when the cause of education was not, as now, fashionable, places his fame on a monument that is based securely upon the broad and durable interests of the people. At the very instant of penning this note, we have seen the report of a speech made by Lord Brougham in the House of Lords upon the subject of foreign politics, from which we subjoin an extract, illustrating how little the judgment of this nobleman has profited by the interval since 1823, upon a question on which, unluckily for England, her statesmen have, one and all, been alike infatuated : — " With regard to the change of the sovereign in Austria, he could not avoid expressing his hope, that His Majesty's Government would seize upon the opportunity offered, by the change in the reigning sovereign there, and enforce, what he knew their predecessors had tried to enforce (!) the humane, and in his conscience he believed the sound, prudent, and politic LORD BROUGHAM'S APPEAL FOR INTERVENTION. 77 pugnacity of his countrymen, in which he exhausted his eloquence in the cause of war against France ; declaring, amongst similar flights, that we ought to spend our last shilling in behalf of Spanish inde- pendence ; whilst, at the very same moment of time, famine, pestilence, and insurrection were raging, even to an unparalleled extent, in Ireland, whose natives were driven to subsist on the weeds of the fields, and for whom a subscription fund, amounting to more course, as regarded the individual interest of the Austrian go- vernment, imposed upon the government of his Imperial Majesty, to mitigate the rigours, if not to terminate the sufferings, that, for nearly the whole of the last seventeen years, had been inflicted upon some of the ablest, most accomplished, virtuous, and en- lightened individuals, the ornaments of the nobility of a part of his Imperial Majesty's dominions. He hoped that an occasion would be taken of enforcing this subject on the attention of the Austrian government, in a manner that became the character, the policy, and the wisdom (!) of this country ; for he was convinced," &c. &c. — Morning Chronicle Meport, March 11th, 1835. The circumstances under which the above was uttered were even still more inopportune than those we alluded to of 1823. Under the same roof — at the very same instant of time in which an interference with the domestic concerns of a capital nearly a thousand miles distant, and with which we have scarcely more interested connection than with Timbuctoo, was thus in- voked — a debate was proceeding in the House of Commons (the malt question), in which it was stated by several speakers, that three-fourths of the population of this kingdom are plunged in distress and poverty ; and, in the course of which, the Chancellor of the Exchequer declared that he possessed not the power of alleviating such misery ; whilst such was the extremity to which this minister of the crown was driven, that he felt impelled to appeal to the honesty of a British Parliament in behalf of the national creditor. 78 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. than a quarter of a million, was that very year raised by the people of Great Britain. Subsequently, as our readers know, our Govern- ment dispatched an armament to the succour of Portugal. We witnessed the departure of those troops from London, and well do we remember the enthusiasm of the good citizens on that occasion. In the next meeting of Parliament, it was stated that this display of our power and magnanimity towards an old ally cost upwards of a million sterling. Here was a sum that would have sufficed to employ the starving pea- santry of Ireland in constructing a rail-road fifty miles in length. What fruits have we to exhibit, in the present state of the Peninsula, that can be said to have grown out of this expenditure ? But the worst effects of an intermeddling policy are, that we are induced, at all times, to maintain an attitude, as it is termed, sufficiently formidable, in the face of Europe. Thus, the navy — which after the peace was very properly reduced, so that in 1817 it comprised only 13,000 seamen and 6000 marines — was, under the plea of the disturbed state of Europe, from time to time augmented ; until, in 1831, the estimate amounted to 22,000 seamen, and 10,000 marines : whilst the army, which, in 1817, had been cut down to 69,000 men, was, by successive augmen- tations, raised to 88,000 men in 1831. Our limits do not allow us to go further into de- tails upon this portion of our task. But we cannot dismiss the subject altogether, without a few observa- tions upon the remedies which are proposed for the present state of Ireland. That " every quack has his PROPOSED REMEDY FOR ABSENTEEISM. 79 nostrum for the cure of poor Erin," is a common re- mark with, her people; and although we find the doctors, as usual, differ exceedingly in opinion, there are two prescriptions which have been very nume- rously recommended — we allude to a law against absenteeism, and a poor-law. We should hail any measure that promised the slightest relief to the wretched people of this country. But it is necessary to ask, Could these plans, through any law, be efficaciously enforced? There is, we think, much raving after impracticable legislation nowadays. Let us see if these be not specimens of it. We never yet met with a person who professed to understand how an Act of Parliament could be framed, that, without committing the most grievous injustice and cruelty, would be more than a dead letter against Irish absenteeism. Let us imagine that a law™was enacted to compel every owner of an estate in Ireland to reside upon his property. Well, this would [be imprisonment for life. No, is the answer : he might range over the whole island, and even reside on the sea-coast, or, for a portion of the year, in Dublin. Good : then he must have a^ passport, and at every move his person must be cognized ; and for this pur- pose a police, similar to the French gensdarmerie, must be organized throughout the country. But the traders, the farmers, the professional men, the tourists, the beggars, the commercial travellers, the strangers — all these, we suppose, would be subjected to the like surveillance 9 Oh, no ! must be the reply : that would be to obstruct the entire business of the coun- 80 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. try. Thus this law falls to the ground, since the landowner might elude it under any of these disguises. But to approach the subject in another way. The enactment would not, of course, be passed without some clauses of exceptions. It would be barbarous, for example, to prohibit a man from changing his abode, if illness demanded it, or if his wife or children were in that extremity. What, then, would be the market price of a doctor's certificate, to transport a malade imaginaire to France or Italy ? Again, if a Milesian landlord pined for a trip to London, would not a subpcena to attend some law process be a favourite resource ? Or a friend might summon Tn'm before a parliamentary committee, or find him com- fortable apartments in the rules of the Fleet. Ficti- tious conveyances, nominal divisions of property, and a thousand other expedients, might be named, for rendering nugatory this law, each one of which would, to a reasonable mind, prove the impracticability of such a measure. Let those who think that a poor's-rate, sufficient to operate as a relief to the pauper population, could be levied in the south of Ireland, peruse InghV descrip- tion of the present state of the province of Connaught. How would the rate be agreed upon, when no one of the wretched farmers would come forward to fix the amount ? Or, if they did agree to a levy, who would be bold enough to collect the rate ? Who would dis- tribute it, where all are needy of its assistance ? But, for the sake of contemplating the probable effects of such a law, let us suppose that these difficulties were A POOR LAW FOE IRELAND. 81, got over. m We believe that those who recommend a poor's-law as a remedy for Ireland, are imperfectly acquainted with its desperate condition. The poor's-rate of England had, two years ago, in various districts, reached fourteen shillings in the pound ; and, in one instance, it absorbed the entire rental of the land ; and this occurred in Buckingham- shire, within fifty miles of London, and where there are rich farmers and landowners. What, then, would be the effects of any poor-law in a country where parish after parish, throughout vast districts, contains not an inhabitant who tastes better food than potatoes, or knows the luxury of shoes and stockings, or other shelter than a mud cabin ? We dread to contemplate the results which, in our judgment, would follow such an attempt to ameliorate the lot of this population. As soon as a competent provision for the poor were ordered — such as a Christian legislature must assign, if it touch the subject at all — the starving peasantry of Ireland, diverted from their present desperate resources of emigration or partial employment in towns, would press upon the occupiers of the soil for subsistence, with such overwhelming claims as to absorb the whole rental in less than six months. What must follow, but that every person owning a head of cattle or a piece of furniture, would fly to the cities $• /leaving the land to become a scramble to the pauper popula- tion, which, in turn, abandoned to its own passions, and restrained by no laws or government, would pro-, bably divide itself once more into septs, under sepa- rate chieftains, (the elements of this savage state are vol. i. a 82 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. still irt existence in many parts of the south of Ire- land,) and commence a war of extermination with each other. The days of the Pale and all its horrors would be again revived : famine would soon, of neces- sity, ensue ; the towns would be assailed by these barbarous and starving clans ; and the British Govern- ment would once more be called on to quell this state of rapine with the sword. , Such, we conscientiously believe, would be the in- evitable consequences of a measure which, to the eye of the uninformed or unreflecting philanthropist, ap- pears to be the most eligible plan for the peace and prosperity of Ireland. What remedies, then, remain for this suffering country ? We shall pass by the cry for the repeal of the Union ; because everybody knows that to have been only used as an engine for the purpose of acquiring a power to coerce England into other acts of justice. A Parliament in Dublin would not remedy the ills of Ireland. That has been tried, and found unsuccess- ful ; for all may learn in her history, that a more corrupt, base, and selfish public body than the domes- tic legislature of Ireland never existed ; and the very first declaration of the United Volunteers, when, in 1781, they took the redress of her thousand wrongs into their own hands, was to the effect, that they re- solved to use every effort to extirpate the corruptions that so notoriously existed in the Irish Parliament ; and one of the first acts of the same patriotic body, was to invest the Parliament House in Dublin, and, at the point of the bayonet, to extort from those EMIGRATION. 83 native legislators a redress of their country's griev- ances. To come, next, to the scheme of emigration. All must regard with feelings of suspicion and disfavour any attempt to expatriate a large body of our fellow- countrymen ; and we hold such an antidote to be only like removing the slough which has arisen from a wound, whilst the disease itself remains untouched. But, unhappily, the maladies of Ireland have taken such deep root, that legislation cannot hope, for ages to come, effectually to eradicate them ; whilst here is a mode by which hundreds of thousands of our fellow- creatures are eager to be enabled to escape a linger- ing death. Surely, under such circumstances, this plan, which would leave us room to administer more effectually to the cure of her social disorders, deserves -the anxious consideration of our legislature. Here let us demand why some forty or fifty of our frigates and sloops of war, which are now, at a time of peace, sunning themselves in- the Archipelago, or anchoring in friendly ports, or rotting in ordinary in our own harbours, should not be employed, by the Government, in conveying these emigrants to Canada, or some other hospitable destination ? The expense of transporting an individual from Limerick to the shores of America, by such a method, would, proba- bly, not exceed two pounds. On arrival, the govern- ment agents might, probably, find it necessary to be at the charge of his subsistence for a considerable time— perhaps, not less than twelve months. Altogether, however, the expense of a project of emigration, on a scale of magnitude, must be enor- 6 2 84 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. mous. But, again we say, that any present sacrifice, on the part of the people of this country, by which the Irish nation can be lifted from its state of degra- dation, will prove an eventual gain. Contemporary with any plan of emigration. Other projects for the future amelioration of the fate of that miserable people must be entered upon by the British Parliament; and we should strongly advocate any measure of internal improvement, which, by giving more ready access to the southern portion of the island, would throw open its semi-barbarous region to the curiosity and enterprise of England. Steam navigation has already given a powerful stimulus to the industry of the eastern maritime counties ; and if, by means of railroads, the same all-powerful agent could be carried into the centre of the kingdom, there can be no doubt that English capital and civi- lization would follow in its train. Every one con- versant with the subject, is aware how greatly the pacification and prosperity of the Scotch Highlands were promoted by carrying roads into these savage districts ; and still more recently, how, by means of the steam navigation of the lakes, and the consequent influx of visitors, the people have been enriched and civilized. Similar effects would doubtless follow, if the facilities of railroad travelling were offered to Ire- land, whose scenery, hardly rivalled in Europe, together with the frank and hilarious temperament of its people, could not fail to become popular and attractive with the English traveller. We will here introduce a scheme to the notice of our readers, which, whilst we gladly acknowledge VALENCIA AS A TRANS-ATLANTIC PORT. 85 with gratitude the source from whence it originated, we think, deserves the notice of our Government. In the New York Courier and Enquirer news- paper of December 24, 1834, appeared a letter headed "Traverse Atlantic," which, after stating that the writer, on a recent visit to Europe, had suffered a delay of ten days in ascending the French Channel, from Finisterre to Havre, and of eight days in descending the Irish Channel, from Liverpool to Cape Clear, says, he " believes that, on an average, one- third or one-fourth of the time is wasted, upon every transatlantic voyage, in getting into, or out of, the European ports now resorted to." The writer then proceeds as follows : — " The commerce of America chiefly centres in the ports of Hamburghj Havre, London, and Liverpool. Each of these is distant from the ocean, and difficult of access. On the western coast of Ireland, there are several harbours far superior in every requisite. As, for instance, the island of Valencia, Which is the nearest point of land in Europe to America. Be- tween it and the main, reposes an excellent receptacle for shipping of any burden, approached by two easily practicable inlets, completely landlocked, capacious, and safe. Situated immediately on the brim of the Atlantic, a perfectly straight line can be drawn from this harbour to the port of New York, the interven- ing transit' unobstructed by islands, rocks, or shoals. The distance being less than two thousand seven hundred miles, may be traversed by steam in about eight days ; and the well-known enterprise of the American merchants, renders it unnecessary for me 86 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. to do more than to intimate that they will avail them- selves of every opening or inducement that may arise, to establish the first link of intercourse by a line of packet boats. * * * * " The extent of this undertaking has been stated as beyond the means of those likely to engage in it. This seems to me incredible, when I advert to the facts, that Ireland has a population of eight millions, multitudes of whom are in beggary for want of work, with wages at from fourpence to one shilling a-day, and money, on the average, not worth more than three per eent. ; and recollect, at the same time, that the state of South Carolina, one of the smallest in the American confederation, with a population of three hundred thousand, wages at five shillings ster- ling a-day, and capital at seven per cent, interest, has, unaided, and by private enterprise, constructed a railroad from Charleston to Augusta, one hundred and forty-five miles in extent, at present the longest in the world, which is travelled by locomotive en- gines in the course of ten hours. " The advantages to accrue to Ireland in particular, by thus opening a regular communication from New York to London in twelve, and to Paris in fifteen days, are incalculable. That island would become, of necessity, the thoroughfare between the two he- mispheres ; and the occupation of the public mind in such an enterprise, and the constantly increasing fruits of its progress, would do more to pacify the fearful dissensions of the people, and ameliorate then- most lamentable condition, than any legislation of even the best disposed Parliament." VALENCIA AS A TRANS- ATLANTIC PORT. 87 The above project, which, in the affluence of their enterprise, our American friends have suggested for the benefit of Ireland, merits the attention of the landowners and patriots concerned for the welfare of her people. It has long been decided, by the merchants and nautical men engaged in the intercourse between Liverpool and America, that steam boats* would be found capable of navigating the Atlantic with perfect safety 5 and the more sanguine amongst those inter- ested in increasing the facilities of communication between the two countries, have gone so far as to predict that, in a dozen years' time, we may hope to witness the arrival and departure of steamers twice a- week between England and the United States. As any scheme of this nature must necessarily require that the vessels should take their departure from the nearest points of approximation of the two hemispheres, Ireland would thus become the starting place for all Europe ; and it is scarcely possible to conceive anything that would be more calculated to enrich and civilise that country, than by thus irri- gating it, as it were, with the constant tide of emi- gration to and from America, j" A railway, for the purpose here alluded to, would pass through the centres of Leinster and Munster ; intersecting the counties of Kildare, Queen's County, * In June, 1819, a steamship crossed the Atlantic from Sa- vannah to Liverpool. f [In 1858, when the Earl of Eglinton was Lord Lieutenant, the first Irish Trans-Atlantic packet station was established at G-alway ; and in about a year later Cork was made a port of call for the Inman steamships, and subsequently for the Cunard line.] 88 . ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. Tipperary, Kilkenny, Limerick, Cork, and Kerry; and would pass within twenty miles of the port of Limerick, and thirty miles from that of Cork, to both of which cities, it might reasonably be expected, that branches would be carried by public subscription: thus, not only would these two great commercial havens be connected with Dublin, but by opening a direct communication with each other, it would afford a medium for traffic, by steam, between the fifteen counties that are washed by that noble stream, the Shannon, and the ports of Cork and Bristol; and, ultimately, by means of the Great Western Kailway, with London. Railroads are already begun for connecting Liver- pool with Southampton, by way of Birmingham and London. The French have long been engaged in making surveys for a railway from Havre, by way of Rouen (the Manchester of France) to Paris: and although characteristic delays may arise to retard the completion of this as of other projects of mere useful- ness, with that fanciful people ; yet, as it is, perhaps, the only line in all France that would prove a remu- nerating speculation, there can be no doubt that it will be the first that is undertaken in that country. Presuming this to be effected, then, by means of such a plan as is here recommended, for constructing a line from Dublin to the extreme point of Munster, a traveller would be enabled to transport himself from the French metropolis, via Havre, Southampton, London, Liverpool, and Dublin, to Valencia Island, or any other point of embarkation on that coast, in about sixty hours ; and, as the voyage to New York would RAILWAY EXTENSION IN IRELAND. 89 be accomplished in about eleven or twelve days, the whole distance from Paris to America, which now, upon an average, occupies forty days, in the passage, would be accomplished, by the agency of steam, in about a third of that time. That such a project, if completed, would secure the preference of voyagers to all parts of North America, not only from Britain, but from every quarter of Europe, must be apparent; that all we have recommended is perfectly practicable, we have no difficulty in believing : and that a traffic, of such magnitude as is here contemplated, would have the effect of imparting wealth and civilization to the country through which it passed, all experience proves to be unquestionable. But it is not merely the future benefit that must accrue to Ireland, from the construction of a railroad through her provinces, that we should alone regard. The present support of her unemployed peasantry is another cogent motive for some such undertakings : for, unless a diversion of the surplus labour from the land be effected, through the employment of English capital amongst its population, no change can be attempted in the agricultural economy of Ireland. There is not, absolutely, in the present densely crowded state of her rural inhabitants, elbow-room, so to speak, sufficient for readjusting their position. Yet there are reforms indispensably requisite to the agricultural prosperity of the island. The farming implements of its people are, for example, notoriously inferior, requiring twice the labour, both of men and cattle, of our own ; yet, how shall we hope to see any improvements effected in these, by which the demand 90 ENGLAND, IEELAND, AND AMERICA. for labour shall be temporarily diminished, whilst one half of the peasantry is perishing for want of work ? Again : the farms are so minutely subdivided, to meet the desperate competition of a people who possess no resource but the land to preserve them from famine, that their occupiers are destitute alto- gether of capital, and aim at no other end but to secure a daily subsistence on potatoes. Under a better system, the cultivation of flax might be extended almost indefinitely. At present, the estimated value of the annual productions of this raw material of their staple manufacture is about £1,500,000, which is yielded from one hundred thou- sand acres of land — not one-tenth of the area of a moderate-sized county.* But how can we apply a remedy to these, or the other evils of the soil, amidst a ferocious and lawless community, that visits with fire and swordf the prsedial reformer ? We confess we see no hope for the eventual pros- perity of this country, except in the employment of a portion of its people, through the instrumentality of English capital, in the pursuit of manufactures or commerce. Of capital they are literally more destitute, in some parts of the west coast of the island, than are the North American Indians on the banks of the Mississippi ; as an instance in proof of which, it may be stated that, in a recent Government survey * [On June 21st, 1864, the Secretary for Ireland stated that in 1854 there were 151,403 acres under flax cultivation ; in 1863, 214,063 acres ; and in 1864 about 300,000 acres.] t The barbarities committed in Ireland as frequently spring out of feuds arising from the competition after land, as from dis- putes upon the question of tithes. EVILS OF A DOMINANT CHUECH. 91 of that quarter, a vessel of war was the first to dis- cover some of the finest fishing stations to he found in the British waters ; and yet the natives of the neighbouring shores possess not the means of pro- curing boats or nets, through which to avail them- selves of these treasures ! Capital, like water, tends continually to a level; and, if any great and unnatural inequality is found to exist in its distribution over the surface of a com- munity^ as is the case in this United Kingdom, the cause must, in all probability, be sought for in the errors or violence of a mistaken legislation. The dominant church, opposed to the national religion, is, we conscientiously believe, in this case, the primary existing cause of this discrepancy. Capitalists shrink with all the susceptibility of the barometer in relation to the natural elements, from the storms and tempests of party passion ; but how infinitely beyond all other motives must this privileged class be impelled, by the impulses of feeling and taste, to shun that atmo- sphere where the strife of religious discord rages with a fury unheard of in any other land ! * There can- * When, at the commencement of the last century, a commis- sion of the most intelligent merchants of Holland drew up, at the request of the Government, a statement of the causes of the commercial prosperity of that country, they placed the following words first in the list of "moral causes." "Among the moral and political causes are to be placed, The unalterable maxim and fundamental law relating to the free exercise of different religions ; and always to consider this toleration and connivance as the most effectual means to draw foreigners from adjacent countries to settle and reside here, and so become instrumental to the peopling of these provinces." 92 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. not be prosperity for Ireland, until the law, by- equalizing the temporalities of Catholics and Protes- tants, shall have removed the foundation of this hideous contention. To this consummation we must be ultimately driven; for nothing short of this will content the people of Ireland, because less would be short of the full measure of justice. We advocate no spoliation : let the vested rights of every individual be respected — especially let no part of the tithes fall to the merci- less grasp of the landlords of Ireland, who, with many exceptions, may be regarded as the least deserving body -of its people. But let the British Parliament assert the right to the absolute disposal of the Irish Church revenues, excepting in cases of private property ; and let an equal government grant be applied to the religious instruction of both faiths, according to the numbers of each, as is the rule in France and Belgium* at the present day. Such a regulation, by preventing Englishmen from holding benefices in Ireland (there would be no longer the temptations of rich livings and sinecures)^ would lead to a beneficial influence of the Protestant ministers in that country : for what could so much tend to destroy all hope of their proselyting the poor Catholics, what in fact could be so much calculated to make those ministers " despised and rejected,"f as * At the last sitting of the Belgium Chambers, a sum of £400 was voted towards the support of the English chapel ; and a similar amount was granted for the service of the Jewish faith. t " In planting of religion, thus much is needful to be done— that it be not sought forcibly to be impressed into them with EVILS OF A DOMINANT CHURCH. 93 to send amongst them, as is now the case, and ever has been, strangers, who, whatever may be their worth, (and we believe the Church of England clergy, as a class, to be at this moment about the best body of men in Ireland,) are ignorant of the character and habits, nay, even of the very language of the people ? What chance have these in competition with the terror and sharpe penalties, as now is the manner, but rather delivered and intimated with, mildnesse and gentlenesse, so as it may not be hated before it be understood, and their professors despised and rejected : And therefore it is expedient, that some discreete ministers of their owne countrymen, be first sent over amongst them, which, by their meeke persuasions and instructions, as also by their sober lives and conversations, may draw them first to understand, and afterwards to imbrace the doctrine of their salvation; for if "that the auncient godly fathers which first converted them, when they were infidells, to the faith, were able to pull them from idolatry and paganisme to the true beliefe in Christ, as St. Patrick and St. Colomb, how much more easily shall godly teachers bring them to the true understanding of that which they already professed ? Wherein is the great wonder to see the oddes that is betweene the zeale of Popish priests and the ministers of the gospell ; for they spare not to come out of Spaine, from Eome, and from Hemes, by long toyle and dangerous travayl- ing hither, where they know perill of death awayteth them, and no reward or riches is to be found, only to draw the people unto the Church of Eome. "Whereas some of our idle ministers, having a way for credite and estimation thereby opened unto them, and having the livings of the country oifered unto them, without peines and without perile, will neither for the same nor any love of G-od nor zeale of religion, nor for all the good they may doe by winning soules to God, bee drawne foorth from their warme nestes to look out into God's harvest, which is even ready for the sickle and all the fields yellow long ago ; doubtless those good olde godly fathers will (I fear mee) rise up in the day of judgment to condemne them." — Spenser. 94 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. Roman Catholic priesthood, who, drawn from the middle or lower ranks of their countrymen, after an appropriate education in Maynooth College, (where are always four or five hundred of such students,) are sent back to, perhaps, their native village, to resume the personal and familiar acquaintance of its inhabitants ? , Would the spiritual interests of the Scotch people be consulted by displacing their present excellent native pastors in favour of the younger sons of English noblemen ? If it be objected that the English establishment is involved in the fate of the Church of Ireland, we answer, that the circumstances of the two are of as opposite a complexion as light is to darkness. In England, the national church comprises within its pale a great majority of the people ; whilst in Ireland we behold a state religion, upheld for the exclusive benefit of one-seventh of its population. Can we, on the face of the earth, find another example of an established church opposed to the consciences of six- sevenths of its supporters ; for although the revenues may not go directly from their pockets, could the present income of the Protestant church be raised with- out the Catholic population ? What should we say if the Government of Austria, Russia, or Turkey (for each of these has a state religion, differing from ours, and from one another, and yet pronounced by the law of the land to be the only true belief), were found to be applying the whole of the religious revenues of its country to the service of the faith of one-seventh of its subjects? EVILS OP A DOMINANT CHURCH. 95 What should we think if the Eussian Government were to bestow the entire of the property of the Greek church upon the Catholic or Armenian frac- tion of its people? In every country we find the established religion in harmony with the consciences of its people ; excepting in Ireland, which, in this, as in other respects, presents to us an anomaly which has no resemblance amongst the nations of the world. In concluding our observations upon this portion of our task, we shall briefly ask — Does not the ques- tion of Ireland, in every point of view, offer the strongest possible argument against the national .policy of this country, for the time during which we have wasted our energies and squandered our wealth upon all the nations of the Continent ; whilst a part of our own empire, which, more than all the rest of Europe, has needed our attention, remains to this hour an appalling monument of our neglect and mis- government ? Add to this, that our efforts have been directed towards the assistance of states for whose welfare we are not responsible ; whilst our oppres- sion and neglect have fallen upon a people over whom we are endowed with the power and accountable privileges of government — and the extent of the in- justice of our statesmen becomes fully disclosed. The neglect of those duties which, in such a case, devolve upon the governor, as in the instance of every infringement of moral obligations, bears within it the seeds of self-chastisement. The spectacle of Ireland, operating like a cancer in the side of Eng- land — of Poland, paralyzing one arm of the giant that oppresses her — of the two millions of negroes 96 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. in the United States, whose future disposal baffles the ingenuity of those statesmen and philanthropists who would fain wash out this indelible stain upon their religion and government: — these are amongst the lessons, which, if viewed properly, serve to teach mankind that no deed of guilt or oppression can be perpetrated with impunity, even by the most power- ful — that, early or late, the invincible cause of truth will triumph against every assault of violence or injustice. May the middle classes of Great Britain, in whom the government of this country is now vested, profit, in the case of Ireland, by these morals of past history ! 97 PAET m.— AMERICA. Contents. — British Inattention to the Progress of American Greatness. — Danger to British Commerce and Manufactures, from American Competition. — The Commerce and Population of Britain compared with those of America. — Disadvantages under which British Commerce lies. — The Debt. — Our Oppres- sive Public Establishments.— The British Army and Navy con- trasted with those of America. — Are our present Naval and Military forces necessary for our protection? — "Will the Americans continue to Manufacture ? — Advantages possessed by the Americans. — Their astonishing Eailroads. — Aristocra- tical obstacles to Eailroads in Britain. — American Encourage- ment of Education contrasted with English. — Schools. — News- papers. — Importance of a Free Press. — The Ancient and Modern London Trader compared. — Eelative Commercial Positions of Britain and America. — The Land of Castes. — Public Economy and Non-intervention. — Pressure of the Debt. — Effect of the Corn Laws. — The continued existence of the Corn Laws incompatible with National Prosperity and Justice to the National Creditor. It is a singular fact, that, whilst so much of the time and attention of our statesmen is devoted to the affairs of foreigners, and whilst our debates in Parlia- ment, and the columns of our newspapers, are so frequently engrossed with the politics of petty states, such as Portugal, Belgium, and Bavaria, little notice is taken of the country that ought, beyond all others, to engage the attention, and even to excite the appre- hension, of this commercial nation. A considerable portion of our countrymen have not yet reconciled themselves to the belief, that the VOL. I. h 98 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. American colonies of 1780 are now become a first- rate independent power. The more aged individuals of this party, embracing, of course, a considerable section of the House of Peers, possess a feeling of half pique and half contempt towards the United States, somewhat analogous to that which the old Scotch Jacobite lady described by Burns, indulged with reference to Great Britain more than half a cen- tury after it had rebelled, as she persisted in desig- nating it, against the legitimate rule of the Stuarts. We have met with persons of this very respectable and influential party, who believe, conscientiously, that the Americans threw off the yoke of the mother country, merely with a view to escape the payment of certain sums of money due to English creditors ;* and that they have ever since been struggling after a dubious kind of subsistence, by incurring fresh debts with us, and occasionally repaying our credulity in no very creditable coin. If these be told that the people of the United States constitute our largest and most valuable commercial connection — that the business we carry on with them is nearly twice as extensive as with any other people, and that our transactions are almost wholly conducted on ready- money terms — they will express surprise; but then they will predict that no good will arise ultimately from trading with Yankee Republicans. If a word be said about the well-known religious and moral character of the Americans, these worthy people will stop you with the exclamation of, " How * Who could their Sovereign, in their purse, forget, And break allegiance but to cancel debt. — Moore. ENGLISH PREJUDICE AGAINST AMERICA. 99 can there be religion or morality in a country that maintains no established church?" Offer to enter into an argument with these spirits of olden time, or to adduce evidence in reference to the present condition of the American States, and, ten to one, you will find that they have read the works of no authors or travellers upon that country, with the exception of those of Moore, Mrs. Trollope, and Basil Hall. If the news-rooms and the libraries that are under the direction of this prejudiced party be consulted, the former will be found to contain no specimens of the millions of newspapers that issue, cheap as waste paper, from the press of the United States; whilst, from the shelves of the latter, all books* calculated to give a favourable picture of the state of its flourishing community, are scrupulously excluded. Should we look into the periodical journals which are under the patronage of the same class, we shall find the United States' news but rarely admitted to their columns, unless it be of a nature that tends to depreciate the character of republican institutions, * An instance of this nature has come to our own knowledge. A gentleman presented to the Lincoln Mechanics' Institution a copy of Stuart's work on America, (probably the best, because the most matter of fact and impartial of all the writers upon that country), which an influential and wealthy individual of the neighbourhood, one of the patrons of the society, induced the committee to reject. We do not feel intolerant towards these errors of judgment, the fruits of ignorance or a faulty education. The only wonder is, in this instance, to find such a character so out of his element, as to be supporting a Mechanics' Institute at all ! H 2 100 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. or serves as an occasion for quizzing the social pecu- liarities of American -society. - Yet it is to the industry, the economy, and peaceful policy of America, and not to the growth of Eussia, that our statesmen and politicians, of whatever creed, ought to direct their anxious study ; for it is by these, and not by the efforts of barbarian force, that the power and greatness of England are in danger of being superseded : yes, by the successful rivalry of America, shall we, in all probability, be placed second in the rank of nations. Nor shall we retard, but rather accelerate this fate, by closing our ears, or shutting our eyes, to all that is passing in the United States. We regard it as the first duty of every British statesman, who takes an enlightened interest in the permanent grandeur of his country, however unpalatable the task may prove, to weigh, in comparison with all the features of our national policy, the proceedings in corresponding measures on the other side of the Atlantic. Possibly we may not, after all, be enabled to cope with our more fortunate rivals in the energy or wisdom of their commercial legislation, owing to the embarrassments and burdens with which we are encumbered ; but, still, it only the more becomes the character for high moral courage that belongs to us, to strive to under- stand from which quarter danger is the most to be apprehended. By danger, we do not, of course, allude to warlike hostilities. England and America are bound up to- gether in peaceful fetters, by the strongest of all the ligatures that can bind two nations to each other, viz., COMMERCIAL RIVALRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 101 commercial interests; and which, every succeeding year, renders more impossibly if the term may be used, a rupture between the two Governments. This will be sufficiently apparent when we state, that a population of upwards of a million of the inhabitants of this country, supported by the various branches of the cotton industry, dependent for the supply of the raw material upon the United States,* would be deprived of subsistence; at the same time that a capital, of thirty millions sterling, would, for the moment, be annihilated — if such a catastrophe were' to occur as the suspension of the commerce between England and the United States ; whilst the interests of the Americans would be scarcely less vitally affected by the same circumstance. But we allude to the danger in which we are placed, by being overshadowed by the commercial and naval ascendancy of the United States. It has been through the peaceful victories of mercantile traffic, and not by the force of arms, that modern states have yielded to the supremacy of more successful nations. Thus the power and civilization of maritime Italy suc- cumbed to the enterprise of Spain and Portugal; these again were superseded by the more industrious traders of Holland; who, in their turn, sank into insignificance before the gigantic growth of the man- ufacturing industry of Great Britain; and the latter power now sees, in America, a competitor in every respect calculated to contend with advantage for the sceptre of naval and commercial dominion. * The total amount of cotton worked up in this country in 1832, was 277,260,490 lbs. Of which no less a proportion than 212,313,690 lbs. was imported from the United States. 102 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. Whether we view the rapid advance of the United States, during the last forty years, in respect of popu- lation or wealth, it is equally unparalleled in any other age or country. The past history, however, of this country, is so well known, indeed it is compressed into so short a space of recent history, that it would be trite to dwell upon it : our object is to draw a short comparison between the future prospects of the two countries. The population of the United States was, at the first census, taken in 1790, found to be 3,929,328; and, in 1830, the number had, according to the fifth Government return, reached 12,856,171 ; exhibiting an increase, during the last ten years, of thirty-three per cent. ; that is, doubling itself in rather less than twenty-five years.* In 1831, the population of the British Islands amounted to 24,271,763, being an increase of about fourteen per cent, upon the enume- ration for 1821.f Looking, therefore, to the present proportionate increase of the two countries, .and considering the relative circumstances of each, it may be predicted, that, in thirty years, the numbers of the two people will be about equal ; and we further find, that, at the same ratio of augmentation, and making no allowance for the probable increase of emigration from Europe, the population of the United States will, in seventy years from this time — that is, during the lifetime of individuals now arrived at maturity — exceed one hundred millions. * [According to the census of 1860, the population of the United States was 31,676,267.] f [The population of the United Kingdom in 1861 was 29,346,834.] AMERICAN AND BRITISH EXPORTS. 103 These circumstances demonstrate the rapid tendency towards a superiority, so far as numbers go ; but we apprehend that, in respect to the comparison of our commercial prospects with those of America, the position of Great Britain does not, according to facts which we have to state, wear a more flattering aspect We find, by a table in the " American Almanack " for 1835, that the exports from the United States, for the year ending the 25th September 1833, amounted to 90,140,000 dollars, or about twenty millions, sterling of our money. The British exports for the same period, were £47,000,000, of which thirty-six millions were of home commodities or manufactures, whilst the re- maining eleven millions consisted of foreign and colonial produce. But it will be proper to exclude the colony trade from the question altogether, unless, in order to state the matter fairly, we agree to take into account, at the same time, the inhabitants of our dependencies, which would not improve our case. Now, in order to institute a fair comparison be- tween the respective trades of the two countries, it will be necessary to bear in mind, that, at the above period, the population of America was about fourteen millions, whilst that of the British empire may be reckoned to have been twenty-five and one-half millions. We arrive, then, at this result, that, whilst our population, as compared with that of the UnitedStates, is as 25|- to 14,* our commerce bears the proportion * Bearing in mind that two millions of the American popula- tion are negroes, it makes the commerce decidedly in favour of the United States. 104 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. from 36 to 20. Further, if we compare the mer- cantile navy of Britain with that of America, we find the tonnage of the former, in 1832, to have been 2,261 ,860 ; whilst that of the latter, in 1833, amounted to 1,439,450 tons ; by all which it appears clear, that America is, in proportion to its population, at this moment, carrying on as extensive a commerce as England, or any other state in the world. But we should take a very inadequate view of the comparative progress of the two nations, unless we glanced at other circumstances, which will affect very oppositely the career of England and the United States, in their future race of commercial rivalry. This Republican people presents the only example of past — as we believe it will prove ' of future — history, in which a nation has honourably discharged its public debt ; and the greatest financial pressure its Government will in future have to contend against, singular as the fact may appear to us, is the difficulty of applying its surplus treasure impartially to the services of the separate states. The time is gone by, we believe, when people could be found to argue, that a national debt is a national blessing.* * Another fanciful theory upon the subject of the debt, in- vented, we believe, by Coleridge (it must have been by a poet, for the consolation of less ideal minds), has been lately promul- gated. We are told that the country is none the worse off for the national debt, because it is all owing to Englishmen ; and that, therefore, it is only like drawing off the blood from one part of the body to inject it into another vein— it is still all ki the system. We feel sorry to molest so comfortable an illusion, THE AMERICAN AND ENGLISH NAVIES. 105 Sure we are, that, in our case, no person possessing sound reason will deny that we, who find it neces- sary to levy upwards of thirty millions annually upon the necessaries of life, must be burdened with grievous disadvantages, when brought into commer- cial competition with the untaxed labour of the in- habitants of America. But it is not only the load of debt, heavy as that is, that we have to contend with; our oppressive public establishments are, throughout, modelled, un- necessarily, we believe, for the service of the common- wealth, upon a scale enormously disproportioned to those of our more economical rivals. We will pass by the whole of our civil expenditure, because we have not space for the detailed notice of its indivi- dual items ; and we shall proceed to notice, as more connected with the design of this pamphlet^ our army and navy, as compared with the military and naval forces of the United States. We find, from a table in " Eeuss's Satistics of the United States," that the number of seamen in the American mercantile navy, is estimated at 86,000 ; whilst the States Government employs, in vessels of But does it make no difference in what manner the outlay is invested — whether eight hundred millions of capital be sunk in the depths of the sea, or put out to good interest ? Is there no difference between such a sum being thrown away, destroyed, annihilated, in devastating foreign countries, whilst the nation is called upon, out of its remaining capital, and with its gratuitous labour, to pay the interest — and the like amount being employed in making canals, railways, roads, bridges, drains, docks, &c. ; planting trees, educating the people, or in any other way in which ' it would return its own interest of capital ? 106 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. war, 6,000* men. The British merchants' service, exclusive of the colonial registry, supports 140,000 sailors ; and the number voted for the royal navy, in 1833, was 27,000 men. Thus, then, we arrive at the unsatisfactory result, that, whilst in America, the Government's, as compared with the merchants' service, contains in the proportion of hands, as rather less than one in fourteen, the number of men em- ployed in the royal navy of Britain, in comparison with the quantity supported by the merchants' ser- vice, is nearly in the ratio of one to five. The royal navy of England, actually in commission at this time (see the United Service Magazine for February), consists of one hundred and forty-eight vessels of war ; of which there appear to be, ac- cording to the same authority, forty-six in the dif- ferent harbours of Great Britain ; thirty-three in the Mediterranean, thirteen on the coast of Africa,! twenty-seven in the West Indies, and the remainder in various other destinations. * We believe, almost incredible as the fact is even to ourselves, that the British naval commissioned officers exceed, by upwards of a thousand, the whole number of the men and officers of the American navy. A comment of a similar tenor, applied to the army of England, is to be found in a following page. Yet we are in the twentieth year of peace, and every King's speech assures us of the friendly disposition of all foreign powers ! f Upon what principle of justice are the people of these realms subjected to the whole expense of attempting to put down the slave trade. We say attempting, because it is well known that the traffic is carried on as actively as ever ; and, during the last year, the number of negroes conveyed away from the shores of Africa has been estimated at twenty thousand. Here is a horrid trade, which will entail a dismal reckoning, at the hands of Pro- THE AMERICAN AND ENGLISH NAVIES. 107 We find, in the American Almanack for 1835, the United States navy given as twenty-one ships'of war, of the following description : — One line-of-battle ship, three frigates, ten sloops, seven schooners.* It appears, then, that our royal navy contains, as nearly as possible, seven times as many ships as are to be found in the Government service of America. . Now, whatever objections may be urged with respect to other branches of expenditure, against a comparison of our burthens with the corresponding economy -on the other side of the Atlantic, we think no reasonable mind will deny, that it is by reference to the commerce of a people alone that we can form a correct judgment of their policy, so far as the marine service is concerned, and judge of their ability to support permanently their naval establish- ments. The disadvantageous nature of our position, in comparison with that of America, will be better understood, if we repeat in two words, as the sub- stance of what we have proved from the foregoing figures, that, whilst the population, exports, tonnage, vidence, upon the future generations of those countries that encourage it ! But by what right, by what credentials from on high, does England lay claim to the expensive and vain office of keeping all mankind within the pale of honesty ? * These statements refer to the ships in commission. Our navy comprises about six hundred vessels of all sizes and in all conditions. The whole American naval force consists of seventy ships. Tet Sir James Graham, when bringing forward our navy estimates for 1833, actually made use of this comparison to justify our force. So much for the usefulness of that which is called dexterity in debate ! 108 ENGLAND, IEELAND, AND AMERICA. and mercantile seamen of Great Britain are not double those of the United States, our royal navy is about six times as great as the corresponding Govern- ment force of that country. But, if we proceed to a comparison of the land forces, we shall find them to exhibit a yet more striking disproportion in the burthens of the two nations. The entire military service of America, comprises rather less than 7,000 men. In 1833, the Parlia- ment of Great Britain voted 90,000 soldiers for the army of this country. Here, then, we perceive the odds are— still bearing in mind the population, &c, of the two countries — as nearly as possible, six to one against us. If we had the space, however, to allow of our entering into a comparison of details, we should find that the proportion of our officers greatly exceeds the above ratio. It will suffice to prove this, when we add, that the number of our commissioned officers alone, at this time, exceeds the entire amount of the army of the United States; and of these we see, by the army list for 1835, that 2,087 are field officers, of and above the rank of major ! To render the comparison of the respective burthens of the two people more simple and com- plete, we shall add their expenditure under these heads. In the budget of 1833, the army and navy esti- mates of Great Britain were as follows : — Army .... £7,006,496 Navy .... 4,505,000 - Ordnance .... 1,634,817 MILITARY EXPENSE OF ENGLAND AND AMERICA. 109 making a total of £13,146,313 for these warlike purposes. In 1832, according to the American Almanack for 1835, the military service of the United States, including fortifications, arsenals, armories, ordnance, internal improvements, &c, cost £1,134,589 ; whilst the navy estimate was for £817,100, making a total of £1,951,689. Thus, it appears, that our gross expenditure, under the United Service heads, is in the ratio of six and a-half to one, as compared with that of America ; — a country, be it repeated, whose population, trade, and registered tonnage, are more than the half of our own — a country, too, whose public debt is can- celled, whilst ours amounts to nearly eight hundred millions ! But it will be said, that our local position making it necessary to guard our shores with this demonstra- tion of power, and our colonies calling for a vigilant protection, render unfair a comparison of this king- dom with the United States. We believe it might be shewn, that the dependencies of Great Britain are, at this moment, and, in future, are destined still more to be, the source of a considerable amount of taxation and pecuniary loss to the mother country ; and we trust that some abler pen will be applied to the elucidation of this important question. With respect to our proximity to the Continent, we recommend the experiment to be tried, whether that need necessarily embroil us in continental poli- tics. Let us imagine that all our ambassadors and consuls were instructed to take no further share in 110 " •. ; ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. the domestic concerns of European nations, but, throwing overboard the question of the balance of power — as we have long done that equally absurd bugbear of our ancestors, the balance of trade — to leave all those people to their own quarrels, and to devote their attention, exclusively, after the example of the Americans, to the commercial interests of their country. This might prevent our diplomatists dis- playing their address in finessing with Metternich, or Pozzo di Borgo : it might save the bones of our couriers, who now scour the continent of Europe, carrying despatches and protocols ; and it might enable us to dispense with the services of one-half of the establishment at the foreign office. But will any one who understands the subject, pretend to tell us, that our trade would suffer by such a change ? Or if we imagine that our army and navy were reduced one-half, in consequence of this improve- ment of our policy, does any person seriously appre- hend that these islands would be in danger of being molested by any European power ? If such there be, let him recollect that the British empire contains a population of twenty-five millions of free people, compressed within a space of little more than three hundred miles square — probably a denser crowd of human beings than was ever before found upon a similar area: and, further let it be borne in mind, that rail-roads are now in progress for connecting one extremity of England with the other, in such a way, that not only any required force of men, but the entire munitions of war, may be transported, in twelve hours, from Lancashire or Yorkshire, to the MILITARY DEFENCE OF ENGLAND. Ill coast of Sussex or Kent — thus converting, as it were, the entire island into a fortified position of such wonderful strength, that the genius of Vauban or Marlborough could not have conceived anything so formidable. Which is the power of the Continent that will make a descent upon a people placed in such an attitude ? But supposing even that such a scheme should be contemplated, it will be owned, we suppose, that some preparation for so mighty a conquest would be necessary, which must afforcj. us the necessary time for preparations of defence. No one will contend, that a fleet and an army of sufficient magnitude to pounce upon England for its prey, could be conjured up on the scene, like the creations of Harlequin's wand, without the spectators knowing, or caring to know, that the machinery for so grand a performance had been long in contrivance. Besides, is it not apparent that henceforth the pressure of their own domestic affairs will engross the resources, and will impair the external power of all the Governments of Europe. Reform Bills will be demanded by their people, but they will not be obtained without bloodshed; and all must foresee, that the struggle, between the antagonist principles of feudalism and constitutionalism is inevitable through- out the whole of the Continent. But to recur to the subject of America. It might be said that the primary cause of all ,the prosperity and happiness pf its people is to be found in the wisdom of that advice which we have prefixed for the motto of this pamphlet. Happily for that nation, 112 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. this precept has been religiously obeyed ; for never have the political concerns of other states been suffered for one hour to divert the United States' legislature from the pursuit of the just interests of its own people. The results may be seen, not only in unparalleled advances in wealth and civilization at home, but in the fact we have just demonstrated, and which, we doubt not, will surprise most of our readers, that even the foreign commerce of this people is, in pro- portion to population, as great, or greater, than our own ; notwithstanding our battles by land and by sea, and notwithstanding those expensive fruits of our victories, the colonies, that east, west, north, and south, own our dominion ! It is a question of very considerable interest to us, whether America will continue her career as a ma- nufacturing country, after the protective duties, which have professedly created her present cotton and other interests, shall have, in pursuance of the recent tariff law, been partially repealed. It is the opinion of some writers, whose works are entitled to deference, that the United States cannot - for centuries become our rival in manufactures. They argue that, with an unlimited extent of unsettled territory to tempt the inhabitants to engage in the natural labour of agriculture, they will not be induced, unless for much higher wages than in England, to follow the more confined and irksome pursuits of the factory or workshop. But does not the present industry of the population of the New England states tend to prove that there is a disposition, in the people of the older portions of THE COTTON TRADE OP THE UNITED STATES. 113 this country, to settle down into the pursuits incident to towns at an advanced stage of society, and leave to agriculture the natives of the newer states ? We shall find that the exports from Boston comprise— among other articles of domestic manufacture equally unconnected with the system of factory labour — annually, about 3,500,000 pairs of boots and shoes, 600,000 bundles of paper, together with a large quantity of cordage, nails, furniture, &c. We are inclined, however, to view the natives of the maritime portion of the Union, but, particularly, the inhabitants of the New England states, as emi- nently commercial in their tastes and characteristics ; and, as such — looking to the amount of capital at present embarked in their cotton manufacture, as well as to the circumstance of the raw material being the produce of their own soil, and bearing in mind the prodigious increase that is taking place in the numbers of their people — we profess to see no prospect of this our own staple industry being abandoned ; and, if not given up, we may expect, from the well-known and well-deserved panegyric paid by Burke to the enter- prise of the New Englanders, in prosecuting the whale-fishing, that the competition, on the part of such a people, will be maintained with energy. The capital employed in the various branches of the cotton manufacture in the United States, is, ac- cording to a calculation for 1832, in Eeuss's Statistics of America, in amount about £11,000,000 ; and the consumption of raw cotton is estimated at 173,800 bales, or about one-fifth of all the growth of the country, and, as nearly as possible, a fifth of the VOL. I. I 114 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. quantity worked up, during the same year, in Great Britain. The greater portion of all the products of this labour is consumed at home : the rest is exported in the shape principally of heavy calicoes, that have sustained a competition with our own fabrics in the Mediterranean and the East. Some occasional shipments of low yarns have been made to this country ; but these transactions have not been of considerable magnitude. Bearing in mind that the supply of the raw material of nearly one-half of our exports is derived from a country that threatens to eclipse us by its rival great- ness, we cannot, whilst viewing the relative positions of England and the United States at this moment, refrain from recurring to the somewhat parallel cases of Holland and Great Britain, before the latter became a manufacturing state, when the Dutchman purchased the wool of this country, and sold it to us again in the form of cloth. Like as the latter nation became at a subsequent period, we are now overwhelmed with debts, contracted in wars, or the acquisition of colonies ; whilst America, free from all burdens, as we were at the former epoch, is prepared to take up, with far greater advantages, the fabrication of their own cotton than we did of our wool. The Americans possess a quicker mechanical genius than even our- selves (such, again was the case with our ancestors, in comparison with the Dutch), as witness their patents, and the improvements for which we are indebted to individuals of that country in mechanics — such as spinning, engraving, &c. We gave additional AMERICAN RAILROADS. 115 speed to our ships, by improving upon the naval architecture of the Dutch ; and the similitude again applies to the superiority which, in comparison with the British models, the Americans have, for all the purposes of activity and economy, imparted to their vessels. Such are some of the analogous features that war- rant the comparison we have instituted 5 hut there are other circumstances of a totally novel character, affecting, in opposite degrees, the destinies of these two great existing commercial communities, which must not be lost sight of. The internal improvement of a country is, un- doubtedly, the first and most important element of its growth in commerce and civilization. Hence our canals have been regarded by Dupin as the primary material agents of the wealth of Great Britain. But a new invention — the railway — has appeared in the annals of locomotion, which bids fair to supersede all other known modes of land transit ; and, by seizing at once, with all the energy of a young and unpre- judiced people, this greatest discovery of the age, and planting, as it were, its fruits first throughout the surface of their territory, the Americans have made an important stride in the career of improvement, in advance of every nation of Europe. The railroads of America present a spectacle of commercial enterprise, as well as of physical and moral triumph, more truly astonishing, we consider, than was ever achieved in the same period of time in any other country. Only in 1829 was the experi- ment first made, between Liverpool and Manchester, 1 2 116 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMEEICA. of applying steam to the navigation of land, so to speak, by means of iron railways, for the conveyance of passengers and merchandise ; and now, in 1835, being less than seven years after the trial was first made and proved successful, the United States of America contain upwards of seventeen hundred miles of railroads in progress of construction, and of which no less than one thousand miles are complete and in actual use.* t * " The railroads, which were partly finished, partly in progress, at the time when I visited the United States, were as follow : — Miles. Baltimore and Ohio (from Baltimore and Pittsburgh) 250 Massachusets (from Boston to Albany) . . 200 Catskil to Ithaca (State of New York) . . 167 Charleston to Hamburgh (South Carolina) . . 135 Boston and Brattleboro' (Massachusets and Vermont) 114 Albany and New York .... 160 Columbia and Philadelphia (from Philadelphia to York) 96 Lexington and Ohio (from Lexington to Cincinnati) . 75 Camden and Amboy (New Jersey) ... 60 Baltimore and Susquehanna (Maryland) . . 48 Boston and Providence (Massachusets and Rhode Island) 43 Trenton and Philadelphia .... 30 Providence and Stonington .... 70 Baltimore and "Washington 38 Holliday's Burgh and Johnstown (Pennsylvania) . 87 Ithaca and Oswego (New York) ... 28 Hudson and Berkshire (New York and Massachusets) 25 Boston and Lowell (Massachusets) ... 24 Senectady and Saratoga (New York) . . . 21J Mohawk and Hudson (New York) ... 15 Lackawaxen (from Honesdale to Carbondale, Pennsylvania) 17 Prenchtown to Newcastle (Delaware and Maryland) . 16 Philadelphia and Norristown (Pennsylvania) . . 15 AMERICAN RAILROADS. 117 The enthusiasm with which this innovation upon the ancient and slower method of travelling was hailed in America — by instituting a newspaper expressly for its advocacy, and by the readiness of support which every new project of the kind encountered — evinced how well this shrewd people discovered, at a glance, the vast advantages that must accrue to whichever nation first effected so great a saving in that most precious ingredient of all useful commodities, time, as would be gained by the appli- cation of a discovery which trebled the speed, at the same time reducing the money-cost, of the entire intercourse of the community. Already are all the most populous districts of the United States intersected by lines of railroads 5 whilst, among the number of unfinished, but fast advancing undertakings, is a work, now half completed, for Miles. Eichmond and Chesterfield (Virginia) . . 12 Manch Chunk (Pennsylvania) .... 9 Haarlem (from New York to Haarlem) . . 8 Quincey (from Boston to Quincey) ... 6 New Orleans (from Lake Pontchartrain to Orleans) . 5£ The extent of all the railroads forms an aggregate, of one thousand seven hundred and fifty miles. Ten years hence, this amount of miles will probahly be doubled or trebled ; so that scarcely any other roads will be used than those on which steam- carriages may travel." — Arjwedson's Travels m 1834. [Note to the Sixth Edition of " England, Ireland, and America."] t [H may be stated, on the authority of Hr. Eobert H. Berdell, President of the Erie Eailway Company, that thirty-five thousand miles of railway are now in operation in the United States, and that nearly three thousand millions of dollars are invested in these gigantic enterprises.] 118 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. connecting Baltimore on the Chesapeake, with the Ohio river at Wheeling, a distance of more than two hundred and fifty miles. Not content, however, with all that has been done, or is still doing, a scheme is at present favourably agitated in the public press of that country, that shall connect Washington city with New Orleans, by a series of railways, which, with those already in pro- gress between New York and Washington, will join the Atlantic at the mouth of the Hudson and the Mexican Gulf; a project which, if completed, will enable a traveller to visit New York from New Or- leans in four days — a transition of scene that may be better appreciated, when it is remembered, that a person might pass, in winter, from the frozen banks of the Hudson, into the midst of the orange and sugar regions of the Mississippi in about ninety hours ! Other plans, of even a more gigantic character, are marked out as in contemplation, upon the latest map published of the United States* — plans that nothing but the prodigies already achieved by this people, prevent us from regarding as chimerical. It demands not a moment's reflection to perceive the immense advantages that must ensue from these improvements to a country which, like America, contains within itself, though scattered over so wide a surface, all the elements of agricultural and manu- facturing greatness. By subjecting this vast territory to the dominion of steam, such an approximation of the whole is attained, that the coals and iron of Pennsylvania, the lead of Missouri, the cotton of * By Amos Lay. OBSTRUCTIONS TO ENGLISH RAILWAY ENTERPRISE. 119 Georgia, the sugar of Louisiana, and the havens of New York and New England, will all be brought into available connection with each other ; in fact, by the almost miraculous power of this agent, the entire American continent will, for all the purposes of commercial or social intercourse, be compressed into an area not larger than that of England, sup- posing the latter to possess only her canals. Nothing more strongly illustrates the disadvantages under which an old country, like Great Britain, labours in competing with her younger rival, than to glance at the contrast in the progress of railroads in the two empires. At the same time that, in the United States, almost every day beheld a new railway company incor- porated, by some one of the State's legislatures, at the cost only of a few dollars, and nearly by accla- mation, the British Parliament intercepted by its votes some of the most important projects that fol- lowed in the train of the Liverpool railroad. The London and Birmingham company, after spending upwards of forty thousand pounds, in at- tempting to obtain for its undertaking the sanction of the legislature, was unsuccessful in the House of Lords. The following characteristic questions are extracted from the evidence taken before the com- mittee : — " Do you know the name of Lady Hastings' place ? — How near to it does your line go ? — Taking the look out of the principal rooms of the house, does it run in front of the principal rooms? — How far -from the house is the point where it becomes visible ? — 120 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. That would be about a quarter of a mile '-'-Could the engines be beard in tbe bouse at that distance ? — Is there any cutting or embankment there ? — Is it in sight of the house ? — Looking to the country, is it not possible that the line could be taken at a greater distance from the residence of Lady Hastings ? * * " Was that to pass through Lords Derby and Sefton's land? — Yes, they both consented. They threw us back the first year, and we lost such a line as we could never get again. " Since which they have consented to the other line going through their pro- perty. * * * * Supposing that line as easy for you as the present, was there any objection arising from going through anybody's park ?" The following question, put on the same occasion, by a peer to a shopkeeper, is one that probably would not have been asked by any other person but a hereditary legislator : — " Can it be of any great importance whether the article goes there in five or six hours, or in an hour and a half?" The Brighton and several other railways were abandoned, through dread of the expensive opposi- tion that was threatened in Parliament; amongst which the Great Western line was successfully op- posed by the landowners, seconded by the heads of Eton College, under the plea that it would tend, to impair the character of the scholars ! And a large party, headed by the Marquis of Chandos, actually met in public to celebrate, with drinking and re- joicing, the frustration of this grand improvement. Yet this nobleman has since had the offer of a voice EDUCATION IN AMERICA. 121 in the cabinet council of the King ; and, but that he is as honest as he most assuredly is unenlightened and prejudiced, he might now be one of the ministers of this commercial country ! But to recur to the consideration of affairs on the other side of the Atlantic. There is another pecu- liarity in the present attitude of the American people, as compared with our own, that is probably more calculated than all others to accelerate their progress towards a superior rank of civilization and power. We allude to the universality of education in that country. One thirty-sixth portion of all public lands, of which there are hundreds of thousands of square miles unappropriated, is laid apart for the purposes of instruction. If knowledge be power, and if education give knowledge, then must the Americans inevitably become the most powerful people in the world. Some writers have attempted to detract from this proud feature in the policy of the United States, by adducing, as examples, the backwoodsman and his family, and holding up their uncultivated minds, as well as their privation of Christian instruction, as proofs of the religious and moral abandonment of American society ; forgetting that these frontier sec- tions of the community are thinly spread over an inhospitable wilderness, where it must be acknow- ledged that no state provision for mental improve- ment could possibly embrace all their scattered members. When a man is placed at the distance of perhaps ten miles from his next neighbour, he is driven, as Dr. Johnson observes, to become his own 122 ENGLAND, IRELAND^ AND AMERICA. carpenter, tailor j smith, and bricklayer ; and it is from no fault in the laws, but owing to the like unavoidable nature of things, that the same solitary individual must also be left to act the part of teacher and pastor. But, by referring to the last message of the Go- vernor of New York to the legislature of that State, which happens to be before us, we are able to exhibit to our readers, by a very brief quotation, the state of education in that most populous division of the Union. "In the whole range of your duties," says this most enlightened address, " there is no subject in which the interests of the people are more deeply involved, or which calls for higher efforts of legis- lative wisdom, than the cause of education. The funds already provided by the State for the support of common schools is large, but not so ample as the exceedingly great importance of the object demands." After some other details, it goes on to say — " Eight hundred and thirty-five towns and wards (the whole number in the State) have made reports for the year 1833. There are nine thousand eight hundred and sixty-five school districts; the whole number of children, between the ages of five and sixteen-years, in the State, was five hundred and thirty-four thou- sand and two ; and the number instructed in the common schools in 1833 was five hundred and thirty- one thousand two hundred and forty. * * * The whole amount expended during the year 1833, on the common schools, cannot fall short of one million two hundred thousand dollars."* * [Mr. Bright, in the speech which he delivered at Birmingham on the 13th December, 1865, said : — " I have just seen a report THE PKESS OF ENGLAND AND AMERICA. 123 Bearing iri mind that this refers only to one State of the Union, containing rather less than two mil- lions of inhabitants, could we imagine a m<5f e striking contrast to the above statement than in the fact thafy during the corresponding session of the British Par- liament, a sum of £20,000 was voted towards edu- cating the people of England ; whilst^ in close juxta- position to this, was a grant of £60,000 for the pur- pose of partly furnishing Buckingham Palace I* The very genius of American legislation is Op- posed to ignorance in the people, as the most deadly enemy of good government. Not only are direct measures, such as we have just quoted in the case of New York, taken to instruct the poor throughout the United States — not only are all newspapers and ad- of a speech delivered last night by Mr. "Watkin, who has recently returned from the United States. Speaking of education, he says that, taking the nine Northern States to contain ten millions and a half of people, he found there were 40,000 schools, and an average attendance of 2,133,000 children, the total cost of their education being $9,000,000. In the four "Western States, with a population of 6,100,000, there are 37,000 schools, with an average attendance of nearly one million and a half scholars, at a cost of $1,250,000. Thus, in a population of sixteen millions, there are 77,000 schools, to which every poor child can go, at a cost of £2,000,000 a year. He thought this highly to the credit of our American cousins, and I perfectly agree with him on that point."] * [This was written before the date of the education move- ment, in which Mr. Cobden from an early period took a conspicuous part. According to the last Eeport of the Cdm- mittee of Council on Education, the sum of £8,087,296. Is \ld has been expended in Parliamentary grants from 1839 to 31st December, 1864. "The expenditure from Education grants," in the latter year, amounted to £655,041. lis 5d.~\ 124 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. vertisements untaxed — but care is used, by excepting from, fiscal burdens the humblest ingredients of the materiel of printing — such as paper, rags, type, &c. — to render knowledge as cheap and accessible as pos- sible. The newspaper press forms a distinguishing and rapidly improving feature in the economy of the United States. In 1834, according to the American Almanack for 1835, the aggregate of newspapers published under different titles in America was 1,265, of which ninety were daily journals; and the entire number of copies circulated during the year is esti- mated at ninety millions.* In the British islands three hundred and sixty-nine newspapers are published, of which seventeen only issue daily.")" The annual sale of these is estimated at about thirty millions. If, therefore, we compare the newspaper press of America and England together, allowing for the dis- proportion of inhabitants in the two countries, we shall be compelled to acknowledge that there is more than six times as much advertising and reading on the other side of the Atlantic as in Great Britain. * [The census of 1860 states that 4,051 newspapers and perio- dicals were then published in the United States, of which 3,242 were political, the remainder being devoted to religion and litera- ture. The annual aggregate circulation of copies was estimated at 927,951,548.] f [From " Mitchell's Newspaper Directory " for 1865, it ap- pears that 1271 journals are now published in the United Kingdom, exclusive of 554 Eeviews and Magazines. There are no trustworthy statistics of the circulation of these publica- tions.] THE OLD AND NEW RACE OP SHOPKEEPERS. 125 There are those who are fond of decrying news- paper reading. But we regard every scheme that is calculated to make mankind think— every thing that, by detaching the mind from the present moment, and leading it to reflect on the past or future, rescues it from the dominion of mere sense— as calculated to exalt us in the scale of being ; and whether it be a newspaper or a volume that serves this end, the in- strument is worthy of honour at the hands of en- lightened philanthropists. We know of nothing that would tend more to inform the people of England, and especially of Ire- land, than removing the excise fetters from our press. Independently of the facilities to commerce, and the benefits which must ensue to temperance and morals generally, a free press would, by co-operating with a good government, (and henceforth it is our own fault if we have a bad one,) assist essentially the efforts of those who desire to reduce the expenditure of the state, and help us to dispense with that costly voucher of our ignorance, the standing army of this country. We have thus hastily glanced at a few of the points of comparison to be found in the prospects of Great Britain and America, at this moment. To what shall we liken the relative situations of these two great commercial and naval rivals ? We will ven- ture on a simile. Such of our readers as remember the London tradesman of thirty years ago, will be able to call to mind the powdered wig and queue, the precise shoes and buckles, and the unwrinkled silk hose, and tight 120 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. inexpressibles, that characterised the shopkeeper of the old school. Whenever this stately personage walked abroad n matters of trade, however pressing or important, he never forgot for a moment the dignified step of his forefathers ; whilst nothing gra- tified his self-complacency more, than to take his gold-headed .cane in hand, and, leaving his own shop all the while, to visit his poorer neighbours, and to shew his authority by inquiring into thyeir affairs, settling their disputes, and competing them to be honest, and to manage their establishments according to his plan. His business was conducted throughout upon the formal mode of his ancestors. His clerks, shopmen, and porters, all had their appointed cos- tumes ", and their intercourse with their chief, or with .each ,pther, was .disciplined according to established laws of etiquette. Every one had his especial de- partment of duty, and the line of ,demar,ca&on at the counter was marked out and observed with all the punctilio of neighbouring, but rival states. The shop of this trader of the old school retained all the peculiarities and inconveniences of former generations.; its windows displayed no gaudy wares to lure the vulgar passer-by, ,and the panes of glass, inserted in ponderous wooden frames, were constructed exactly after the ancestral pattern. ,Suph were some of the solemn peculiarities of the last generation of trades- men. The present age produced a new school of traders, whose first innovation was, to cast off the wig, and cashier the barber with his pomatum-box, by which step an hour was gained in the daily toilet. Their THE OLD AND NEW EACE OF SHOPKEEPERS. 127 next change was, to discard the shoes and the tight unmentionables — whose complicated details of buckles and straps, and whose close adjustment occupied another half-hour — in favour of Welling- tons and pantaloons, which were whipped on in a trice, and gave freedom, though, perhaps, at the expense of dignity, to the personal movements . during the day. Thus accoutred, these supple dealers whisked or flew, just as the momentary calls of business became more or less urgent; whilst so absorbed were they in their own interests, that they scarcely knew the names of their nearest neighbours, nor cared whether they lived peaceably or not, so long as they did not come to break their windows. Nor did the spirit of innovation end here ; for the shops of this new race of dealers underwent as great a, metamorphosis as their owners. "Whilst the internal economy of these was reformed with a view to give the utmost facility to the labour of the esta- blishment, by dispensing with all forms, and tacitly agreeing even to suspend the ordinary deferences due to station, lest their observance might, however slightly, impede the business in hand — externally, the windows, which were constructed of plate glass, with elegant frames extending from the ground to the ceiling, were made to blaze with all the tempting finery of the day. We all know the result that followed from this very unequal rivalry. One by one the ancient and quiet followers of the habits of their ancestors yielded before the active competition of their more alert neighbours. Some few of the less bigoted disciples 128 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMEEICA. of the old school adopted the new-light system, but all who tried to stem the stream were overwhelmed ; for with grief we add, that the very last of these very interesting specimens of olden time that survived, joining the two generations of London tradesmen, and whose shop used to gladden the soul of every Tory pedestrian in Fleet Street, with its unreformed windows, has at length disappeared, having lately passed into the Gazette, that schedule A of anti- reforming traders. That which the shopkeeper of the present day is to him of the last age, such, comparing great things with small, is the commercial position of America as contrasted with that of Great Britain at the present moment. Our debt may be called the inexpressibles or tights, which incessantly restrain us from keeping up with the nimble pace of our pantalooned rivals. The square-toed shoes* and the polished buckles may be compared to the feudal laws and customs, which, in competition with Wellington-booted bro- ther Jonathan, impede the march of improvement and the enterprise of Englishmen. The powdered * There is scarcely a large town in England, whose prosperity and improvement are not vitally affected by the operation of our laws of entail. In the vicinity of Manchester, scarcely any free- hold land can be bought ; Birmingham is almost wholly built upon leasehold land ; "Wolverhampton has long been presenting a dilapidated aspect, in the best part of the town, in consequence of the property required for improvement being in the hands of the church, and consequently inalienable. In many parts, manu- factures are, from the like obstructing causes, prevented extend- ing themselves over our coal-beds. The neighbourhood of Bul- lock Smithy might be instanced for example. THE OLD AND NEW RACE OF SHOPKEEPERS. 129 wig and queue we shall liken to our Church Esta- blishment, which, -although very ornamental and imposing in appearance, does yet engross a great share of the time and attention of our Parliament to adjust it properly,* all of which the legislature of our straight-haired competitor has been enabled to apply to the encouragement of a more prosperous trade. The untaxed newspapers of America, with their wide expanses of advertisements, contrasted")" with the stamped sheets of this country, are the new and old light windows of the two generations of shopkeepers. The quickened gait of the trader of to-day, and the formal step of his predecessor, are the railways of the United States in competition with our turnpikes and canals. And, to complete the simile, if we would see in the conduct of the two nations a resemblance to the contrast between the policy of the dealer of the old school, who delighted to meddle in the concerns of his neighbours, and that of the reformed tradesman who rigidly con- * It would form an instructive summary, to collect from our parliamentary history, for the last three hundred years, details of the time spent in the vain endeavour to mate conscience square with acts of Parliament. — See the debates in both Houses on Ireland in 1832 and 1 833, for examples. t It is not uncommon to find two thousand advertisements, principally of merchandise, contained in a single copy of a New York journal. "We have counted no less than one hundred and seventy announcements in one column or compartment of the New York Gazette. Of course the crowded aspect of one of these sheets, in comparison with a London newspaper, is as diifer- ent as is one of the latter in contrast with a Salisbury or any other provincial journal. VOL. I. K 130 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. fined his attention to the duties of his own counter—* let us picture England, interfering with and manag- ing the business of almost every state in Europe, Asia, and Africa, whilst America will form no con- nection with any one of them, excepting as customers. What! shall we consign Old England, then, to ruin? Heaven forbid! Her people are made of tough materials,- and he would be but a dastardly politician that despaired of them even yet. We say not, then, that this country will, like the antique establishment of the individual trader, perish at the feet of its more youthful and active competitor ; but we fervently believe, that our only chance of national prosperity lies in the timely remodelling of our sys- tem, so as to put it as nearly as possible upon an equality with the improved management of the Americans. But let us not be misconstrued. We do not advo- cate republican institutions for this country. We believe the government of the United States to be at this moment the best in the world; but then the Americans are the best* people ; and we have a * We mean individually and nationally. As individuals, be- cause, in our opinion, the people that are the best educated must, morally and religiously speaking, be the best. As a natioD, because it is the only great community that has never waged war excepting in absolute self-defence ; — the only one which has never made a" conquest of territory by force of arms ; (contrast the conduct of this government to the native Indians on the Missis- sippi, with our treatment of the Aborigines on the Swan river ;) — because it is the only nation whose government has never had occasion to employ the army to defend it against the people ; — the only one which has never had one of its citizens convicted of THE ENGLISH AN AKISTOCKATIC PEOPLE. 131 theory, that the government of every state is always, excepting periods of actual change, that which is the best adapted to the circumstances and wants of its inhabitants. But they who argue in favour of a republic, in lieu of a mixed monarchy, for Great Britain, are, we suspect, ignorant of the genius of their country- men. Democracy forms no element in the materials • of English character. An Englishman is, from his mother's womb, an aristocrat. Whatever rank or birth, whatever fortune, trade, or profession, may be his fate, he is, or wishes or hopes to be an aristocrat. The insatiable love of caste that in England, as in Hindostan, devours all hearts, is confined to no walks of society, but pervades every degree, from the highest to the lowest.* Of what conceivable use, then, would it be to strike down the lofty patricians that have descended to us from the days of the Normans and Plantagenets, if we of the middle class — who are more enslaved than any other to this passion — are prepared to lift up, from amongst our- treason ; — and because it is the only country that has honourably discharged its public debt. The slavery deformity was forcibly impressed upon this people in its infancy by the mother country. May the present genera- tion outgrow the blemish ! * A diverting specimen of aristocracy in low life is to be found in an amusing little volume, called, " Mornings at Bow Street." A chimney-sweep, who had married the daughter of a costermonger, against the latter's consent, applied to the magis- trate for a warrant to recover the person of his wife, who had been taken away from him by her father. The father did not object to the character of the husband, but protested against the connection as being "so low." k2 132 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMEEICA. selves, an aristocracy of mere wealth — not less aus- tere, not less selfish — only less noble than that we had deposed. No : whatever changes in the course of time education may and will effect, we do not believe that England, at this moment, contains even the germs of genuine republicanism. We do not, then, advocate the adoption of demo- cratic institutions for such a people. But the exam- ples held forth to us by the Americans, of strict economy, of peaceful non-interference, of universal education, and of other public improvements, may, and, indeed, must be emulated by the government of this country, if the people are to be allowed even the chance of surviving a competition with that repub- lican community. If it be objected, that an econo- mical government is inconsistent with the mainten- ance of the monarchical and aristocratic institutions of this land, then we answer, let an unflinching eco- nomy and retrenchment be enforced— mat caelum! Of the many lessons of unsophisticated and prac- tical wisdom which have— as if in imitation of that arrangement of perpetual decay and reproduction that characterises all things in material nature — been sent back from the New World to instruct the Old, there are none so calculated to benefit us — because there are none so much needed— as those maxims of providence and frugality, to which Franklin first gave birth, and which, gaining authority and strength from the successive advocacy and prac- tice of Washington, Jefferson, and now of Jackson, have at length become identified with the spirit of the laws and institutions of the United States. FEUITS OF AN AGGRESSIVE POLICY. 133 An attempt has been made latterly by that class of our writers* denominated Conservative, to deride this parsimony of the Franklin school as unworthy of the American character. But we are, at this pre- sent moment, writhing beneath the chastisement due to our violations of the homely proverbs of " Poor Richard;" and it is only by returning within the sober limits of our means, and rigidly husbanding our time and resources, and by renouncing all idle pomp and luxury — it is by these methods only, and not by advocating still farther outrages of the laws of prudence, that this nation can be rescued from the all but irretrievable embarrassment into which its own extravagance and folly have precipitated it. The first, and, indeed, only certain step towards a diminution of our government expenditure, must be the adoption of that line of foreign policy which the Americans have clung to, with such wisdom and pertinacity, ever since they became a people. If ever there was a territory that was marked out by the finger of God for the possession of a distinct nation, that country is ours ; whose boundary is the ocean, and within whose ramparts are to be found, in abundance, all the mineral and vegetable treasures requisite to make us a great commercial people. Discontented with these blessings, and disdaining the natural limits of our empire, in the insolence of our might, and without waiting for the assaults of envious enemies, we have sallied forth in search of conquest or rapine, and carried bloodshed into every quarter of the globe. The result proves, as it ever * Basil Hall's spending class. 134 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. must, that we cannot violate the moral law with impunity. Great Britain is conscious that she is now suffering the slow but severe punishment in- flicted at her own hands — she is crushed beneath a debt so enormous that nothing but her own mighty- strength could have raised the burden that is op- pressing her. Again we say (and let us be excused the repetition of this advice, for we write with no other object but to enforce it), England cannot survive its finan- cial embarrassments, except by renouncing that policy of intervention with the affairs of other states, which has been the fruitful source of nearly all our wars. We trust that this opinion will be generated throughout the population of this country, and that the same spirit will be reflected, through its repre- sentatives in Parliament, upon the Government. In future, it will not be sufficient that no question concerning the state policy of other nations is allowed to occupy the attention of our legislature, unless it be first shown that our own honour or our interests are involved in its consideration— it will not be enough that our fleets and armies are not permitted to take a part in the contentions of other nations ; — all this will not avail unless our diplomatists and foreign secretaries are jealously restrained from taking a share, either by treaties or protocols, ac- cording to the invariable wont of their predecessors, in the ever-varying squabbles of our continental neighbours. By this course of policy, and by this alone, we shall be enabled to reduce our army and GREAT ARMAMENTS UNNECESSARY. 135 navy more nearly to a level with the corresponding burdens of our American rivals. May we be allowed, once more, to refute the objection which will be urged, that our numerous fleets are necessary to the defence of our commerce ? Then, we ask, does any one deny that the persons of American merchants, or their vessels, are as safe in every quarter of the world as our own ? We have seen to how great a proportion of our tonnage the American mercantile navy now amounts ; we have seen how vast an export trade they carry on ; and we have seen with how small a government force all this is protected : — may not an unanswerable argu- ment, then, be found here, in favour of dispensing, henceforth, with a portion of our enormous naval and military establishments ? Hitherto, whenever a war has at any time been threatened between two or more European states, however remote or however insignificant, it has fur- nished a sufficient pretence for our statesmen to augment our armaments by sea and by land, in order to assume an imposing attitude, as it is termed ; forgetting, all the while, that by maintaining a strict neutrality in these continental brawls, and by dili- gently pursuing our peaceful industry, whilst our neighbours were exhausting themselves in senseless wars, we might be growing in riches, in proportion as they became poorer ; and, since it is by wealth after all that the world is governed, we should, in reality, be the less in danger from the powers on the Continent, the more they indulged in hostilities with each other. 136 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. It is a common error with our statesmen to estimate the strength of a nation — as, for instance, is the case at this moment, in their appreciation of the power of Russia, Prussia, or Austria — according to the magni- tude of its armies and navies ; whereas these are the signs, and, indeed, the causes, of real poverty and weakness in a people. " Our public debt is cancelled," said Mr. Benton, a speaker at the dinner lately held at Washington, to celebrate the extinction of the American debt— " our public debt is cancelled ; and there is more strength in those words than in one hundred ships of the line ready for battle, or in a hundred thousand armed soldiers." And, to exemplify the truth of this sentiment, we have subsequently beheld this very- people, with only a few schooners and frigates, and seven thousand troops, menacing the French govern- ment, steeped in debt, at the head of its million of fighting men, and its three hundred vessels of war. To remove, if possible, for ever the extravagant chimera that haunts the government and people of this country, of our being in danger from any possible combination of continental hostilities, let us suppose, for the sake of argument, that Russia were to invade Turkey — or that France were again to cross the Rhine, having first seized upon Holland and Belgium, and attack Prussia and Austria — or that the Spaniards should seize upon Portugal — or that the Austrian government were to invade Naples or Sardinia — or, if such a supposition be possible, let us imagine these powers to be engaged in a battle-royal all together ; now, does any sober and reasoning mind believe that GEEAT ARMAMENTS UNNECESSARY. 137 Great Britain, who, we will presume, had wisely availed herself of the opportunities afforded by her insular position to remain neuter, would be selected by any one of these powers, in addition to the enemies already opposed to it, for the object of gratuitous attack? Does any rational person think that we should, under such circumstances, be hi greater jeo- pardy than the Americans from these contentions? Having already demonstrated that even Napoleon, with Europe at his feet, was powerless in his attacks upon our exports, we are afraid of being tedious in recurring to that snbject. Were a war once more to break forth over the continent of Europe, and were we to stand aloof from the conflict, our commerce and manufactures, instead of receiving injury in any quarter, would be thereby benefited; for, besides the well-known facilities which a state of warfare would give to the smuggler for supplying those very belligerents themselves with the products of our labour, it would, at the same time, put an end to the competition which we now sustain, in other parts of the world, from our manufacturing rivals of Europe. Germany, France, Switzerland,, and Belgium, and indeed almost every nation of the continent, for whose independence and existence we fought so long and arduously, have profited by the peace, to exclude our fabrics from their markets, and, in mistaken policy, borrowed from our own restrictive code, to raise up, at great sacrifices of national wealth, a manufacturing industry for themselves. Thus we find that, at this moment, Prussia is com- pleting a wall of tariffs, which she has been sedulously 138 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. constructing for many years, and which will, more effectually than did Napoleon, exclude us from the German market — Prussia, for whom we bled, and for whose subsidies we are still taxed ! Austria, another of our costly allies, whose disasters our most renowned statesman* would not outlive — Austria has, ever since the peace, sealed her territory against our merchandise. Naples — that unworthy protege, in behalf of whose court England's greatest herof sullied his otherwise untarnished fame — Naples re- pays us with an impost of cent, per cent, upon our manufactures ; whilst France has, since Napoleon's fall, been a less profitable customer to England than she was during the time of his extremest enmity towards this country. True, at the close of the war, our ministers might have stipulated for, and might have commanded a trade with all Europe, as some indemnity for our expenditure ; but the warriors and statesmen who represented us at Vienna, and who took pains to for- ward such measures as the military occupation of France, or the erection of fortresses in Belgium, or the binding us to become guarantee for the perma- nency of the union of the Netherlands, forgot to utter one word about our merchants. It was un- becoming the dignity of our gallant and noble plenipotentiaries to stipulate for the welfare of the artisans and manufacturers of Great Britain. Com- pare this with the results of the cheap diplomacy of the Americans. * Pitt and Ulm. f Nelson, Lady Hamilton, Prince Caraccioli. PRESSURE OF THE DEBT. 139 Alas! by what numberless arts, neglects, and caprices, (to say nothing of crimes,) have the interests of this industrious and greatly favoured people been victimized ! Before closing this pamphlet, we will offer a few remarks as to the course which it behoves Great Britain to pursue, for the future, upon an important question of commercial policy. With a view to enlarge, as much as possible, the capabilities of this people to support the burden of debt and taxation with which they are destined to be permanently loaded, every possible facility must be given to the increase of population, by the expansion of our foreign trade, and which can only be accom- plished by repealing the protective duties on corn. We shall here be met with the cry, that we are desirous of converting England into one vast manu- factory, that we advocate the interests of our order, and so forth. Far from nourishing any such esprit- de-corps, our predilections lean altogether in an opposite direction. We were born and bred up amidst the pastoral charms of the south of England, and we confess to so much attachment for the pur- suits of our forefathers, (always provided that it be separated from the rick-burnings and pauperism of modern agriculture,) that, had we the casting of the rdle of all the actors on this world's stage, we do not think we should suffer a cotton-mill or a manufac- tory to have a place in it ; — not that they remind us of " billyrollers" " straps" and " infant martyr- doms" for we never saw such; but we think a system which draws children from home, where they 140 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. formerly worked in the company of parents, and under the wholesome restraint incident to disparity of years— nature's own moral safeguard of domestic life — to class them in factories, according to equality of age, to be productive of vice. But the factory system, which sprang from the discoveries in machi- nery, has been adopted in all the civilized nations of the world, and it is in vain for us to think of dis- countenancing its application to the necessities of this country ; it only remains for us to mitigate, as far as possible the evils that are, perhaps, not inseparably connected with this novel social element. The present corn laws are founded on the principle of limiting, as far as possible, the growth of the population of Britain, within the means of the soil to supply it with subsistence. No candid advocate of a protective duty will deny that it must have this tendency ; nor will he dispute, that, to restrict the import of corn into a manufacturing nation, is to strike at the life of its foreign commerce. It is objected by the landowners of England, that, if the duty on grain were to be reduced, it would operate unfavourably upon their interests, and they claim a protection at the hands of the rest of society. Now, without entering at all into the question of the right which belongs to such pretensions, we shall content ourselves with taking our stand upon the simple ground of necessity, and declare that the people of this country are in an emergency that pre- cludes the possibility of their ministering to the selfishness of any one class in the community. The interest of the public debt cannot be paid PRESSURE OF THE DEBT. 141 except by the co-operation of our foreign commerce ; and this cannot be preserved permanently, unless the price of that first element of the cost of our manufactures, food, be the same here as with our competitors abroad. We are surprised that the question has not before been placed in < this point of view by the advocates of a free trade in corn, since it withdraws the subject altogether from that invidi- ous position which it has hitherto held betwixt the rival contentions of agriculture and commerce, and places it under' the control of inexorable state necessity. We have been amazed (if anything could astonish us from this unintelligent party) to find that the national debt is one of the leading arguments made use of, by the economists of the Sadler school, in advocating a restrictive duty on com. A brief appeal to a very few simple facts will, we believe, not only deprive them of this argument, but, in the opinion of all unprejudiced minds, place it on the opposite side of the question. Our public debt, funded and unfunded, amounts to about eight hundred millions. Let this sum be more fully appreciated, by bearing in mind that it exceeds the aggregate of all the debts of the whole world, including that of the East India Company, amounting to one hundred and fifty millions. Here, then, we have the British empire, with only its twenty-five millions of population — possessing a ter- ritory of only ninety thousand square geographical miles, and containing only forty-five millions of acres of cultivated land, (about two thirds of the area of 142 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. France,) supporting an annual burden for the interest of the national debt, equal to the taxation borne, for the same purpose, by all other states. How then can a country, of so confined a boundary, and with no greater population than we have named, find it pos- sible' to endure so great a disproportion of taxation? If it be asked*, how does France meet her public ex- penses, we can answer, by pointing to the super- abundant production of wine, oil, silk, tobacco, fruit, and corn, yielded throughout an expanse of territory so wide as to insure an almost perpetual harvest to its people. If we inquire, how does Russia maintain her government burdens —the surplus timber, corn, hemp, and tallow of that country must be the reply. Would we know by what resources Italy, Spain, and America discharge their respective national encum- brances — the excess of the produce of silk, oil, fruits, cotton, and tobacco, over and above the wants of the population of those countries, solves the mystery. But we demand to know, by what means Great Britain can sustain an annual burden, for interest of debt, exceeding that of these and all other states together. Is it out of the surplus production of its corn? Her soil has not, for the last forty years, yielded sufficient to supply the necessities of her population. Is this enormous demand satisfied by the yearly excess of her wines, silk, oil, fruits, cotton, or tobacco ? The sterile land and inhospitable climate of Britain are incapable of producing any one of these. Where, then, lies the secret of her wealth ? — is it in her colonies? How, if we are prepared to prove that these are at this moment, and, in future^ HOW OUR REVENUE IS RAISED. 143 are still more destined to become, a severe burden to the people of these realms ? Our mineral riches are the means by which alone we have been enabled to incur this debt, and by whose agency only can we at this moment discharge the interest of it. To satisfy ourselves of this, let us examine the year's return of our revenue, and we shall there dis- cover nearly twenty millions of income under the head of customs duties. How are the commodities, on which this amount of taxation is levied, obtained from foreigners — are they received in exchange for our agricultural produce ? By looking over the list of articles exported, we shall, on the contrary, find, that, out of thirty-six millions of home products, not one million is the unmixed growth of the soil. These commodities are purchased by our cottons, woollens,* hardware, and the other articles produced by the manufacturers of this country ; the growth, to use the term, of the coal and iron of Great Britain — which are, we repeat, the primary sources of all her wealth and power, and the want of which alone prevents other nations of Europe from rivalling her in manufacturing greatness. Of course it is known that our agricultural labour supplies a great portion of the food of our weavers and other artisans, and, therefore, mixes with the results of their industry ; but when it is recollected that the cost of food here is from fifty to one hundred and fifty per cent, dearer * We have the testimony of the Leeds manufacturers, in their evidence before the legislature, that foreign wools are absolutely indispensable to our Yorkshire industry. 144 ENOLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. than in other states, it will be admitted that it is not owing to the cheap price at which the farmer supplies the corn of the manufacturer, that the latter is en- abled to undersell his foreign competitors. To come to the point with those who advocate a restrictive policy on our foreign trade, by. a protec- tion, as it is called, of our agriculture, we ask, in what way do they propose ever to pay off the national debt, or permanently to discharge the interest of it, out of the indigenous wealth of these islands ? The whole area of cultivated land in this monarchy, is, as we have before stated, estimated at about forty- five millions of acres : at twenty pounds an acre, the fee simple of the soil of these islands, (we, of course, leave out the houses, &c.,) would very little exceed the amount of our debt. There is an end, therefore, of the idea of discharging the principal out of the real property of the country; and by what means would they who obstruct a foreign commerce, profess to pay the interest of the debt, without the assistance of that trade ? Supposing that our exports were di- minished, and that, owing to the consequent falling off in our imports, our custonls were sensibly reduced, from what articles of our agricultural produce would these advocates of a Japanese policy raise the defi- cient revenue? In France (where the prohibitive system, which has long reigned supremely, is draw- ing fast to a dismal end) the customs duties only amount to about one-fifth of our own, and the great bulk of the revenue is levied from the land. But, provided that a reduction of our foreign trade ren- dered such a step necessary, we ask again, (and it is PRESSURE OF THE DEBT. 145 ah important question, involving the whole gist of our argument,) upon what branch of British agricul- ture could an augmented impost be levied? May not the recent almost fanatical outcry against the malt tax, the only burden of any magnitude borne directly by the land in this country, serve as a suffi- cient answer to the inquiry ? The question of the repeal of the corn laws, then, resolves itself into one of absolute state necessity : since our foreign trade, which is indispensable to the payment of the interest of the national debt, cannot be permanently preserved if we persevere in a re- strictive duty against the principal article of exchange of rude, unmanufacturing people. To prohibit the import of corn, such as is actually the case at this moment, is to strangle infant commerce in its cradle ; nay, worse, it is to destroy it even in its mother's womb. We recommend the landowners, but especially the great proprietors who constitute the upper house of legislature, to reflect upon this view of the corn laws. But we have remarked an inclination in a part of the landed interest to slight — to use the mildest pos- sible term — the public creditor ; a feeling that shone forth in the motion of the Marquis of Chandos to remove the malt tax — thus aiming at the insolvency of the Chancellor of the Exchequer — without caring first to inquire by what fresh imposts he should meet the engagements of his country. These unreflecting minds are, we apprehend, quite incapable of estima- ting the consequences that will ensue if ever we VOL. I. L 146 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. should be found unable to meet the interest of the debt — in other words, if the British nation should be declared bankrupt! Let us, for one moment, con- template the results that would follow from sueh an event. We find, from a statement in " Porter's Official Tables," that there are 250,000 persons receiving dividends, of and under the amount of £200 a-year. Presuming the families or dependents of them to average* two each, then we shall have here half a million of individuals looking to the public funds for support. Moreover, we find the total amount of the deposits in all the savings' banks of the kingdom, to be £13,500,000 ; and the number of depositors, ac- cording to the same authority, is 412,217, averaging £33 each: taking the families or dependents of these at the same average as before, and it gives three quarters of a million more. Then there is an im- mense amount of the public debt owing to charities, — including insurance offices, benefit clubs, schools, &c, involving the interests of an incalculable multi- tude of necessitous persons. Guessing these to amount to only the same total as the last mentioned, (for it is impossible to form a correct estimate on the subject,) then we arrive at an aggregate of two mil- lions of the middle and lower classes, who are, directly or indirectly, claimants on the national debt. Now, no one capable of thinking upon such a sub- ject at all, will, for a moment, believe that, if we were driven to such an extremity as to rob these two * To avoid exaggeration, we have named a lower average than we are entitled to quote. PRESSURE OF THE DEBT. 147 millions— comprising so many of the labourers, the small traders, the orphans and widows — of their sub- sistence, that the pomp of the court, or the wealth of the clergy, or the privileges of our nobles, would be more secure than the bread of these humble annuitants. No rational mind can suppose that lords in wait- ing, grooms of the stole, gold sticks and silver sticks, would be maintained — that bishops and prebends would still be found in undisturbed possession of their stalls and revenues— or that the peers would retain their law of primogeniture, or the right of hereditary legislation, whilst desolation and misery overspread the land with horrors as terrible as any it could undergo from the ravages of half a million of Cossacks.* The cleverest of our journalists has said— and the words have passed into a proverb — " Before you rob the public creditor, send your throne to the pawn shop." And nothing can be more certain than that the national debt (which never ought to have been incurred^ and the authors of which some future gene- ration will, probably, deem to have been madmen) must be borne by the people of England, entire and untouched, so long as they can stand beneath its burden. If ever the day should come that sees this * Here let us remark, in reference to the absurdest of all absurd chimeras with which we haunt ourselves, of this empire being in danger from the assaults of Russia — that we are con- vinced there is, at this moment, ten thousand times more cause of apprehension from the financial evils of Great Britain, than from all the powers of the world. l2 148 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. mighty fabric crush the nation to the dust, it will bury in its ruins the monarchy, church, and aristo- cracy, with every vestige of our feudal institutions, and every ancestral precedent — leaving the state, like Mr. Courtenay's sheet of blank paper, upon which the then existing generation will have the task of inscribing a new constitution, borrowed from the freest and most flourishing community of that day, and which, in all probability, will be found on the continent of America. From such a catastrophe there is no escape, but in either honestly paying off the principal of the public debt, or in continuing to discharge the interest of it for ever. The ravings after an equitable adjustment, and other like expedients, are but the impracticable schemes of those who would wish to precipitate such a calamity as we have been describing. If every house in England were converted into a Court of Chancery, and if all the men between twenty and sixty were constituted Lord Chancellors, there would not then be a sufficient quantity of equity courts and equity judges to effect such an equitable adjustment of the national debt as is meant, during the lifetime of an entire generation. The national debt, then, is inviolable ; and this recalls us to the inquiry of how it is to be per- manently supported ; which brings us again to the question of the corn laws. The only way in which we can lighten the pressure of the debt, is by adding to the population and wealth of the country. The agricultural districts have, we suspect — so far as the middle classes are concerned — EFFECTS OF CORN LAW REPEAL. 149 already experienced that dull state incident to the stationary period of society ; whilst, under the present amended poor laws, we believe that the further increase of the pauper population will be effectually checked. The sole way, then, of adding to our numbers, is to give the freest possible development to the only present superabundant contents of the soil— the mineral products of Great Britain. By repealing the present corn laws, and putting only a fixed duty of such an amount as would bring the greatest revenue (we object no more to a tax on corn than on tea or sugar, for the purpose of revenue,* but we oppose a protective duty, as it is called,) which, probably, might be found to be two shillings a-quarter, such an impulse would be given to the manufactures of this country, whilst so great a shock would be experienced by our rivals, from the aug- mented price of food all over the world, that a rapid growth of wealth and increase of numbers must take place throughout the coal and iron districts of Eng- land, Wales, and Scotland. The population of Staffordshire, Lancashire, York- shire, Lanarkshire, and of counties adjacent to these, might be trebled in the course of a couple of genera- tions; and there would be no limit to its increase but in the contents of our coal mines, to which geologists assign a duration varying from two to three thousand years ! It will be asked, what would be the effects of such a change upon the agriculture of the country ? The * [Mr. Cobden soon afterwards acknowledged his error, See Prentice's History of the League. Vol. I. p. 194.] 150 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. best way of replying to this question is, to consider what must have been the consequence t@ all interests in this country, if, in lieu of the restrictions put upon the import of corn in 1816, a law had been passed, imposing only such a moderate duty as would ulti- mately produce the greatest revenue, and which, in our opinion, would be found to be two shillings a quarter. The factory system would, in all probability, not have taken place in America or Germany ; — it most certainly could not have nourished, as it has done, both in those states, and in France, Belgium, and Switzerland, through the fostering bounties which the high-priced food of the British artisan has offered to the cheaper fed manufacturer of those countries. Our belief, after some reflection upon this question, is, (having already very far exceeded the intended limits of this pamphlet, we are precluded from going into details,) that, had a wise modification of our corn laws been effected at the close of the war, the official value of our exports would have exceeded, by one- third, its present amount. This is, of eourse, pre- suming that our manufacturing population had aug- mented proportionately; — we believe that, under such circumstances, the before-mentioned counties would have now sustained upwards of a million more than their present numbers ; but, as the increase of their inhabitants would not have been equal to the demand for labour, a great immigration must have taken place from the agricultural districts. This would have saved those quarters that frightful ordeal of pauperism and crime with which they have disgraced our modern history. The farmer would, EFFECTS OF CORN LAW REPEAL. 151 by the offer of other resources for his family and dependents, have been saved from the state of ser- vility into which he is plunged. Instead of the rent of the tenants being dictated by the landlords, the former would, under this more favourable state of things, have been the arbiters of the incomes of the latter. In short, the buyers— i.e. the farmers — would, in this case, as the purchasers do in dealing with all other commodities, have decided the prices of their farms — they would not have been, as at present, de- termined by the sellers, i.e. the landowners. Under such an assumed state of things, this country would, we believe, by this time, have acquired an increase to its present wealth, to the extent of 350* millions — nearly one-half the amount of the national debt. The immediate effects of all this to the landed proprietor would, clearly, have been a reduction of rent ; or where the property was heavily en- cumbered, his estates would have passed into other hands. We should not, in such a case, have heard of those displays of wanton extravagance that tend so much to demoralize all classes. Instead of the exhibitions of prodigality and insolence abroad, with which some of those proprietors affronted the nations of the continent, and disgraced at the same time their native country — instead of their contributing, at home, to raise and support a palace for Crockford — instead of their dispensing with all decorum, and herding with * It is estimated that our annual loss on corn alone is nine millions. 152 ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND AMERICA. grooms and black-legs at Newmarket or Doncaster — instead of the necessary consequences of all this, the subsequent ruin and exile of such wastrels* — in place of these things, we might have beheld a provident and virtuous proprietary residing principally upon and managing their estates; and who, we verily be- lieve, would, under this supposed state of things, have become richer in wealth, as well as honour, than they are at this day. But selfishness, which is ever short-sighted, has hitherto governed supremely the destinies of this empire ; and we have seen how disastrous has been its rule, not only to its own interests, but to the prosperity of the nation at large. Should the same misgovernment, from no better motives, be persevered in, with respect to the corn question, the effects will be still more calamitous for the future. The public debt, that " eternal ally of truth and justice," (to use the words of a famous political writer, without adopt- ing his malignancy,) will visit with terrible reprisals the monopolists who shall persist in upholding the present corn laws. We cannot do better than conclude with the words of an intelligent American, as they were addressed to an English traveller. The extract is taken from the preface to " Ferguson's Tour in Canada and a portion of the United States." " Even with your present burden of debt, if your government were to renounce all interference with the affairs of the continent, and keep no more force, * Wastrel, in Lancashire phrase, an idle, debauched, and worth- less spendthrift — a word that may be useful in London. EFFECTS OF CORN LAW REPEAL. 153 land or naval, than is necessary for your own security, have no more wars, and diminish the expenditure as much as possible, you would grow so rapidly in the next fifty years, that your debt would cease to be of any importance. I earnestly hope that the passage of the Reform Bill may be only the prelude to an entire change of system ; and that your suc- cessors may feel, as we do here, that wars do not promote the prosperity of a nation, and have the good sense to avoid them." E U S S I A. 1836. " It is an identity of language, habits, and character, and not of the soil or the name of a master, which constitutes a great and powerful nation." Malte-Beun. ADVERTISEMENT. This is not a party pamphlet. Nor will Kussia be found, as the title might seem to imply, to be exclusively the subject of inquiry in the following pages. If, as has lately been shewn in England, at certain periods in the history of a nation, it becomes necessary to review its principles of domestic policy, for the pur- pose of adapting the government to the changing and improving condition of its people — it must be equally the part of a wise community to alter the maxims by which its foreign relations have, in past times, been regulated, in conformity with the changes that have taken place over the entire globe. Can the " States' System" which was applicable to the inter- national affairs of Europe a century ago, be suited to the circum- stances of to-day ? — or, on the contrary, do not those portentous events which have intervened — in the rise and paramount com- mercial importance of free America, the downfall of the colony system, and the application of the doctrines of free-trade — demand reforms of proportionate magnitude in the foreign policy of Great Britain ? These important changes have, in the latter part of this pamphlet, for the first time, been taken into consi- deration with reference to the question of Turkey : and, without presuming, for a moment, to claim for our mode of treating this important subject the slightest attention, we may be allowed to add, that the mighty influence which such changes are now exer- cising over our destinies, ought to be duly studied and appreciated by those who, as statesmen, are permitted to regulate the external affairs of this commercial empire. NOTE. This pamphlet, which was published in the year 1836, was suggested by the alarm of a Eussian in- vasion, which prevailed in that year, and which led to an increase in our navy of five thousand men. Although the views of what is now known as the " Eastern Question," which Mr. Cobden has embodied in the following pages, correspond with those to which he and his distinguished friend, Mr. Bright, gave such forcible and eloquent expression during the war with Russia, it is scarcely too much to say, that political students generally will peruse the pamphlet with as much zest as if it were now for the first time issued from the press ; and, indeed, the arguments and illus- trations by which Mr. Cobden sought to controvert the popular apprehension of Russian power and am- bition which then existed, have a close bearing upon more recent phases of public opinion. But at the time Mr. Cobden wrote he had to contend with traditional illusions, which not only inspired large classes of the community with an alarm as mischievous as it was vague and unreal, but formed a no unimportant part of the political creed of statesmen. The reader can judge of the manner in which Mr. Cobden acquitted himself of his arduous task ; but an authentic anecdote will best illustrate the effect which the perusal of his work produced on the minds of public men, who, from the eminent position they occupied thirty years ago, were best qualified to form 160 NOTE. a critical opinion on its merits. Shortly after the publication of the pamphlet Lord Durham, who was then the English ambassador at St. Petersburgh, re- ceived a copy of it in his official bag. He read it, and was so much impressed with the clearness and force of its leading ideas, that he at once wrote to his friend, the late lamented Mr. Joseph Parkes, and requested him to discover the name of the author. Mr. Parkes obtained Mr. Cobden's permission to mention his name; and when, two years later, his Lordship returned to England, he desired Mr. Parkes to bring about a meeting between himself and Mr. Cobden. The result was that Mr. Cobden dined with Lord Durham, who, after an evening of friendly conversation, was still more struck with his new acquaintance. His subsequent prophetic and sagacious remark to Mr. Parkes deserves to be recorded. "Mark my words," he said, "Cobden will one day be one of the first men in England." It only remains to add that Mr. Cobden made a tour through Turkey and the East in the year follow- ing the publication of his brochure, but that he did not visit Russia until the year 1846, when the abolition of the corn laws enabled him at once to recruit his health, and to disseminate free trade principles in other countries, by a few months of continental travel. ft tr S S I A, CHAPTER I. EUSSIA, TUEKEY, AND ENGLAND. Contents. — Persevering Efforts of an Individual to rouse thd People of Britain in favour of Turkey and against Eussia. — Protest against any "Wish to Palliate the Violence and Aggres- sion of Eussia.— Peace and Non-intervention the Writer's sole Object. — Character of the Turkish Government — Con- trasted with that of Eussia. — Consequences to Humanity and Civilization of the Occupation of Constantinople by the Eus- sians. — Absurd Apprehension of Injury to our Trade from the Greatness of Eussia. — National "Wealth the true Source of National Power ; not Extent of Territory. — Immense Power of the Manufacturing Districts of England. — Lord Dudley Stuart's and Mr. T. Attwood's Indiscreet Zeal for British Interference with Eussia. — State of the Caucasian Tribes — The Georgians, Circassians, hermetically seal the whole of northern Europe against the trade of the world. In short, Russia, with the addition of Turkey, would ABSURD IDEAS OF RUSSIAN POWER. 249 possess but two outlets, each more contracted than the River Thames at Tilbury Fort; and, as these could be declared in a state of blockade by less than a dozen vessels of war, it is clear that nature herself has doomed Eussia to be in a condition of the most abject and prostrate subjection to the will of the maritime powers. This is a point of paramount im- portance in estimating the future growth of the country under consideration. It should never be lost sight of for a moment, in arguing upon the subject, that Russia, in possession of Turkey and all the coasts of the Black Sea, besides her present stupen- dous expanse of territory, would still be denied, by the hand of nature herself, a navigation of more than three miles in width, to connect her millions of square leagues of territory with the rest of the globe — a peculiarity the more striking since it could not be found to exist in any other quarter of the earth. It is deserving of notice, that these two narrow straits which guard the entrances to the Black Sea and the Baltic, are nearly six months sail distant from each other ; and the track by which alone they can communicate lying through the Straits of Dover and of Gibraltar, it must be apparent that, were Russia the mistress of those channels, she could not pass from the one to the other, unless she were in amicable connection with Great Britain.* * During the war between Eussia and the Porte, in 1791, the government of St. Petersburgh, anxious to send a fleet to attack the Turkish power in the Archipelago, requested permission of the Dutch and English to be allowed to refit the vessels and take in stores at one of their ports ; and failing in this application, the expedition was abandoned. 250 RUSSIA. There remains but one more point requiring our consideration in connection with the abstract ques- tion of Muscovite aggrandizement. They who pre- dict the unbounded extension of Russia, forget the inevitable growth of weakness which attends the undue expansion of territorial dominion.* Not only can they foresee, without difficulty, the conquest of Germany, France, Spain, Persia, and India, but they are, at the same time, blind to the dangers which must attend the attempt to incorporate into one cumbrous empire, these remote and heterogeneous nations. In all ages and climes nature has given the boundaries for different communities; and we find that not only are the several families of the earth generally enclosed by seas or mountains, to mark the limits of their respective territories, but the rivers usually flow through lands inhabited by people of one language — thus constituting a double natural line of demarcation. For example, the Alps and the Pyrenees afford the barriers beneath the opposite sides of which repose the French, Spanish, and Italian nations — within which arise the Rhone and Garonne of France, the Tagus and Guadalquiver of the Peninsula, and the Po and Adige of Italy ; each of which may be almost said to water integral * " In large bodies the circulation of power must be less at the extremities : Nature herself has said it. The Turk cannot govern Egypt as he governs Thrace, nor has he the same dominion in the Crimea and Algiers which he has at Brusa and Smyrna. Despotism itself is obliged to truck and huckster ; the Sultan gets such obedience as he can ; he governs with a loose rein that lie may govern at all : it is the eternal law of extension and detached empire." — Bubke. OBSTACLES TO RUSSIA'S DOMINATION. 251 countries. And, seeing that these allotments of the earth's surface are sufficiently denned by the hand of nature, to have drawn together, in the earliest ages, the scattered seed of Adam into separate and distinct families, how infallibly shall the same natural limits suffice to preserve those distinctions, when aided by those potent safeguards of nationality, the diversified histories, religions, languages, and laws of ancient and powerful empires! These are reflections that do not seem to have occurred to those writers who assign the sovereignty of Europe and Asia over to Eussia ; and, even if they had crossed their minds, such trifling impediments could hardly have dis- couraged them, after having surmounted so much greater obstacles. For assuredly they who can be- stow upon Eussia the supremacy of the seas, whilst her carrying trade is in the hands of England — or who can award her the victory over rich, united, and powerful nations, without the previous possession of money, materiel, or provisions for her armies — need not be daunted by such trifling natural difficulties as the Himalayas or the Alps present against the con- centrations of a government over her conquests ; or feel a moment's alarm about regulating with the same tariff the commerce of the Ehine, Danube, Neva, and Ganges. We have now, we believe, noticed every argument with which it has been the custom to urge us to participate in Eussian and Turkish quarrels and in- trigues; and we have endeavoured to show, by a candid appeal to facts, that the dangers with which we are threatened in our commerce, colonies, or 252 eussia. national dominion, from the power of Russia, are chimerical. We have likewise shown that the pre- judices existing in the minds of the British people against that Power, and which have been indus- triously fostered by the writers and speakers of the day, are founded in delusion and misrepresentation ; that the spread of Eussian empire has invariably increased, instead of diminishing the growth of civi- lization and commerce ; that she owes her extension less to her own forces, which we have shown to be weak, than to the disunion or barbarism of her neighbours ; and that the very nature of her geo- graphical position must always keep her in depend- ence upon the good will of other maritime powers. Where, then, are the motives — seeing that Eussia has not inflicted the slightest wrong upon us, or even contemplated one substantial injury to our people — for the warlike spirit which now pervades the cur- rent writings and speeches upon the subject of that nation? We do not know— for we have not been able in our researches upon this subject to discover — one solitary ground upon which to found a pretence, con- sistent with reason, common sense, or justice, for going to war with Russia. THE ENGLISH PASSION FOE INTERFERENCE. 253 CHAPTER III. THE BALANCE OP POWER. Mischievous Passion of the English for Intermeddling with Foreign States. — Supposed necessity of maintaining " an imposing atti- tude." — The Balance of Power defined. — Inconsistency of the Definitions. — Chimerical Nature of said Balance. — Lord Bacon's Policy of Nations. — Claims of the Turks to the Pro- tection of the " Balance." — Inconsistency of the Advocates of the Balance of Power. — The Americans and the Balancing System. — Sound Policy of the United States. Our object has not only been to deprecate war as the greatest evil that can befall a people, but to show that we have no interest in maintaining the statu quo of Turkey; and, consequently, that the armaments which, in a time of peace, are maintained, at an enormous cost, for the purpose of making demon- strations in favour of that country, and against Russia, might be reduced, and their expense spared to the tax-payers of the British empire. We shall here be encountered with a very general prepossession in favour of our maintaining what is termed a rank amongst the states of the Continent — which means, not that we should be free from debt, or that our nation should be an example to all others for the wealth, education, and virtues of its people, but that England shall be consulted before any other countries presume to quarrel or fight ; and that she shall be ready, and shall be called upon, to take a part in every contention, either as mediator, second, 254 Russia. or principal. So prevalent and so little questioned has this egotistical spirit become, that, when an honourable member rises in Parliament, to call upon a minister of the crown to account for some political changes in Spain, Portugal, or Turkey — instead of the question encountering the laughter of the House (as such an inquiry would probably do from the homely representatives who meet to attend to their constituents' affairs at Washington), or the questioner being put down by the functionary, with something after Cain's answer, "Am I the Spaniard's keeper?" — the latter offers grave explanations and excuses, whilst the audience looks on with silent attention, as though every word of our foreign secretary were pregnant with the fate of nations bowing to his sway. If we go back through the Parliamentary debates of the last few reigns, we shall find this singular feature in our national character — the passion for meddling with the affairs of foreigners — more strikingly prominent in every succeeding session ; and, at the breaking out of the French Eevolution, the reader is astonished to see that the characters of the leaders of the mobs of Paris, Marseilles, and Lyons, and the -conduct of the government of France, became the constant subjects of discussion in the House of Commons, almost to the exclusion of mat- ters of domestic interest — Pitt and Burke on one side, and Fox, Grey, and Sheridan on the other, attacking and defending the champions of the Eevo- lution, with the same ardour as if the British legisla- ture were a responsible tribunal, erected over the whole of Christendom, and endowed with powers to THE ENGLISH PASSION FOB INTERFERENCE. 255 decide, without appeal, the destinies of all the poten- tates and public men of Europe.* Unhappily, the same passion had impregnated the minds of the public generally (as it continues to do down to our own day), and the result was, as everybody knows, the Bourbon crusade. But England, in taking upon herself to make war with the spirit of the age, encountered the Fates; and, instead of destroying that infant freedom which, however monstrous and hideous at its birth, was destined to throw off its bloody swathes, and, in spite of the enmity of the world, to dispense the first taste of liberty to Europe — she was herself the nurse that, by her opposition, rocked the French Revolution into vigorous maturity. Our history during the last century may be called * That this spirit still survives in full vigour, may be shown by the motion recently made in the House of Commons, by Mr. T. Duncombe, for interceding with the French Government in behalf of the state prisoners at Ham. Prince Polignac and his confederates attempted, by their coup d'etat, to deprive Trance of law, place the whole country in the hands of despots, and reduce it to the monkish ignorance of the middle ages, by giving again to priests and bigots the absolute power over the printing press* In this attempt they failed ; but freedom conquered at the cost of hundreds of victims. In England, or any other country hut France, those ministers would have suffered death. Tet, after five years of confinement, behold us interfering with the course of justice, in an empire with whose internal concerns we are no more entitled to mix than with those of China ! "Within a week of this display, a lad was transported from Mac- clesfield for fourteen jeaxB,for stealing a pair of stockings ! "We recommend this to our facetious Gallic neighbours, as a fit oppor- tunity for intervention : the mother should be induced to write her case to M. Odillon Barrot, or some other popular member of the Chamber of Deputies. 256 eussia. the tragedy of " British intervention in the politics of Europe ;" in which princes, diplomatists, peers, and generals, have been the authors and actors— the people the victims ; and the moral will be exhibited to the latest posterity in 800 millions of debt. We have said that our proposal to reduce our armaments will be opposed, upon the plea of main- taining a proper attitude, as it is called, amongst the nations of Europe. British intervention in the state policy of the Continent has been usually excused under the two stock pretences of maintaining the balance of power in Europe, and of protecting our commerce; upon which two subjects, as they bear indirectly on the question in hand, we shall next offer a few observations. The first instance in which we find the " balance of power" alluded to in a king's speech, is on the occasion of the last address of William III. to his parliament, December 31, 1701, where he concludes by saying — ; " I will only add this — if you do in good earnest desire to see England hold the balance of Europe, it will appear by your right improving the present opportunity." From this period, down almost to our time (latterly, indeed, the phrase has become, like many other cant terms, nearly obsolete), there will be found, in almost every successive king's speech, a constant recurrence to the " balance of Europe;" by which, we may rest assured, was always meant, however it might be concealed under pretended alarm for the " equilibrium of power" or the " safety of the Continent," the desire to see Eng- land " hold the balance." The phrase was found to THE BALANCE OF POWER. 257 please the public ear ; it implied something of equity ; whilst England, holding the balance of Europe in her hand, sounded like filling the office of Justice herself to one-half of the globe. Of course, such a post of honour could not be maintained, or its dig- nity asserted, without a proper attendance of guards and officers ; and we consequently find that, at about this period of our history, large standing armies began to be called for ; and not only were the sup- plies solicited by the government, from time to time, under the plea of preserving the liberties of Europe, but, in the annual mutiny bill (the same inform as is now passed every year), the preamble stated, amongst other motives, that the annual army was voted for the purpose of preserving the balance of power in Europe. The " balance of power," then, becomes an important practical subject for investigation; it appeals directly to the business and bosoms of our readers, since it is implicated with an expenditure of more than a dozen millions of money per annum, every farthing of which goes, in the shape of taxa- tion, from the pockets of the public. Such of our readers as have not investigated this subject, will not be a little astonished to find a great discrepancy in the several definitions of what is actually meant by the "balance of power." The theory — for it has never yet been applied to practice — appears, after upwards of a century of acknow- ledged existence, to be less understood now than ever. Latterly, indeed, many intelligent and prac- tical-minded politicians have thrown the question overboard, along with that of the balance of trade — VOL. I. S 258 eussia. of which number, without participating in their favoured attributes, we claim to be ranked as one. The balance of power — which has, for a hundred years, been the burden of kings' speeches, the theme of statesmen, the ground of solemn treaties, and the cause of wars — which has served, down to the very year in which we write, and which will, no doubt continue to serve, for years to come, as a pretence for maintaining enormous standing armaments, by land and sea, at a cost of many hundreds of millions of treasure — the balance of power is a chimera ! It is not a fallacy, a mistake, an imposture — it is an undescribed, indescribable, incomprehensible nothing ; mere words, conveying to the mind not ideas, but sounds like those equally barren syllables which our ancestors put together for the purpose of puzzling themselves about words, in the shape of Prester John 7 or the philosopher's stone! We are bound, however, to see what are the best definitions of this theory. " By this balance," says Vattel, " is to be under- stood such a disposition of things as that no one po- tentate or state shall be able, absolutely, to predomi- nate and prescribe laws to the others." — Law of Nations, b. 3, c. 3, § 47. " What is usually termed a balance of power," says Gentz, " is that constitution subsisting among neighbouring states, more or less connected with one another, by virtue of which no one among them can injure the independence or essential rights of another without meeting with effectual resistance on some side, and, consequently, exposing itself to danger." — Fragments on the Political Balance, c. 1. THE BALANCE OP POWER. 259 " The grand and distinguishing feature of the balancing system," says Brougham, " is the perpetual attention to foreign affairs which it inculcates ; the constant watchfulness over every nation which it prescribes; the subjection in which it places all national passions and antipathies to the fine and deli- cate view of remote expediency ; the unceasing care which it dictates of nations most remotely situated, and apparently unconnected with ourselves; the general union which it has effected of all the Euro- pean powers, obeying certain laws, and actuated in general by a common principle; in fine, the right of mutual inspection, universally recognised, among civilised states, in the rights of public envoys and residents." — Brougham's Colonial Policy, b. 3, § 1. These are the best definitions we have been able to discover of the system denominated the balance of power. In the first place, it must be remarked that, taking any one of these descriptions separately, it is so vague as to impart no knowledge even of the writer's meaning ; whilst, if taken together, one con- fuses and contradicts another — Gentz describing it to be " a constitution subsisting among neighbouring states more or less connected with each other;" whilst Brougham defines it as " dictating a care of nations most remotely situated, and apparently un- connected with ourselves." Then it would really appear, from the laudatory tone applied to the system by Vattel, who says that it is " such a disposition of things as that no one potentate or state shall be able absolutely to predominate and prescribe laws to the others ;" as well as from the complacent manner in s 2 260 RUSSIA. which Brougham states "the general union which it has effected of all the European powers, obeying certain laws, and actuated in general by a common principle" —it would seem, from such assurances as these, that there was no necessity for that " perpetual attention to foreign affairs," or that " constant watchfulness over every nation," which the latter authority tells us, the system " prescribes and inculcates." The only point on which these writers, in common with many other authors and speakers in favour of the balance of power, agree, is in the fundamental delu- sion that such a system was ever acceded to by the nations of Europe. To judge from the assumption, by Brougham, of a " general union among all the European powers ;" from the allusion made by Gentz to that " constitution subsisting among neighbouring states ;" or from Vattel's reference to " a disposition of things" &c. — one might be justified in inferring that a kind of federal union had existed for the last century throughout Europe, i» which the several kingdoms had found, like the States of America, un- interrupted peace and prosperity. But we should like to know at what period of history such a com- pact amongst the nations of the Continent was entered into ? Was it previously to the peace of Utrecht ? Was it antecedent to the Austrian war of succession ? Was it prior to the seven years' war, or to the American War? Or did it exist during the French revolutionary wars ? Nay, what period of the cen- turies during which Europe has (with only just sufficient intervals to enable the combatants to recruit their wasted energies) been one vast and continued THE BALANCE OF POWEK. 261 battle-field, will Lord Brougham fix upon, to illus- trate the salutary working of that " balancing system" which " places all national passions and antipathies in subjection to the fine and delicate view of remote expediency ?" Again, at what epoch did the nations of the Conti- nent subscribe to that constitution, "by virtue of which," according $o Gentz, "no one among them can injure the independence or essential rights of another?" Did this constitution exist, whilst Britain was spoiling the Dutch at the Cape, or in the East ? — or when she dispossessed France of Canada ?-^or (worse outrage by far) did it exist when England violated the " essential rights " of Spain, by taking forcible and felonious possession of a portion of her native soil ?* Had this constitution been subscribed by Russia, Prussia, and Austria, at the moment when they signed the partition of Poland ? — or by France, when she amalgamated with a portion of Switzer- * The conquests of colonies nave been regarded with some complacency, because they are merely, in most instances, reprisals for previous depredations by the parent state : but England for fifty years at Gibraltar, is a spectacle of brute violence, unmiti- gated by any such excuses. Upon no principle of morality can this unique outrage upon the integrity of an ancient, powerful, and renowned nation — placed at a remote distance from our shores — be justified : the example, if imitated, instead of being shunned, universally, would throw all the nations of the earth into barbarous anarchy, and deprive mankind of the blessings of law, justice, and religion. It is time not only to think, but to speak, of these things in a spirit of honest truth. The people of this country — the middling and working classes — have no interest, as we shall by and by have to show, in these acts of unjust aggression and foreign violence. — Alas for the cause of morals, if they had ! 262 RUSSIA. land ?— by Austria, at the acquisition of' Lombardy ? — by Eussia, when dismembering Sweden, Turkey, and Persia ? — or by Prussia, before incorporating Silesia ? So far from any such confederation having ever been, by written, verbal, or implied agreement, entered into by the "European powers, obeying certain laws, and actuated in general by a common principle;" the theory of the balance of power has, we believe, generally been interpreted, by those who, from age to age, have, parrot-like, used the phrase, to be a system invented for the very purpose of supplying the want of such a combination. Regard- ing it for a moment in this point of view, we should still expect to find that the '-balancing system" had, at some period of modern history, been recognised and agreed to by all the Continental states ; and that it had created a spirit of mutual concession and guarantee, by which the weaker and more powerful empires were placed upon a footing of equal security, and by which any one potentate or state was abso- lutely unable " to predominate over the others." But, instead of any such self-denial, we discover that the balance of Europe has merely meant (if it has had a meaning) that which our blunt Dutch king openly avowed as his aim to his parliament — a desire, on the part of the great powers, to " hold the balance of Europe." England has, for nearly a century, held the European scales— not with the blindness of the goddess of justice herself, or with a view to the equilibrium of opposite interests, but with a Cyclo- pean eye to her own aggrandizement. The same lust of conquest has actuated, up to the measure of THE BALANCE OP POWER. 263 their abilities, the other great powers ; and, if we find the smaller states still, in the majority of instances, preserving their independent existence, it is owing, not to the watchful guardianship of the " balancing system," but to the limits which nature herself has set to the undue extension of territorial dominion — not only by the physical boundaries of different countries, but in those still more formidable moral im- pediments to the invader— the unity of language, laws, customs, and traditions ; the instinct of patriotism and freedom ; the hereditary rights of rulers ; and, though last not least, that homage to the restraints of justice which nations and public bodies* have in all ages avowed, however they may have found excuses for evading it. So far, then, as we can understand the subject, the theory of a balance of power is a mere chimera— a creation of the politician's brain— a phantasm, without definite form or tangible existence — a mere conjunc- tion of syllables, forming words which convey sound without meaning. Yet these words have been echoed by the greatest orators and statesmen of England : they gingled successively from the lips of Boling- broke, Chatham, Pitt, Burke, Fox, Sheridan, Grey, and Brougham ; — ay, even whilst we were in the act of stripping the maritime nations of the Continent of their colonies, then regarded as the sole source of commercial greatness ; whilst we stood sword in hand upon the neck of Spain, or planted our standard on the rock of Malta; and even when England * " Mankind, although reprobates in detail, are always moralists in the gross." — Montesquieu. 264 kussia. usurped the dominion of the ocean, and attempted to extend the sphere of human despotism over another element, by insolently putting barriers upon that highway of nations — even then, the tongues of our orators resounded most loudly with the praises of the "balance of power!"* There would be something peculiarly humiliating in connection with this subject, in beholding the greatest minds of successive ages, instead of exercising the faculty of thought, become the mere automata of authority, and retail, with less examination than the haberdasher bestows upon the length, breadth, and quality of his wares, the senti- ments bequeathed from former generations of writers and speakers — but that, unhappily, the annals of philosophy and of past religions, afford too many examples of the triumph of mere imitativeness over the higher faculties of the human intellect. We must not, however, pass over the " balance of power," without at least endeavouring to discover the meaning of a phrase which still enters into the pre- amble of an annual act of Parliament, for raising and maintaining a standing army of ninety thousand men. * The phrase was actually adopted by Napoleon! who told O'Meara, at St._ Helena, that he refused to permit the Emperor Alexander to occupy the Dardanelles, because, if Russia were in possession of Turkey, the " balance of power" in Europe would be destroyed ! Lord Dudley Stuart sees much to admire in this regard for the balance of power, by one who had himself been in military occupation of all the principal states of Europe : — " But the profound views of that great man, Napoleon, told him not to accede to either the demands or entreaties of Alexander ; and, on that occasion, though he had invaded the Turkish empire himself, he saved it by refusing the passage of the Dardanelles to Russia ; nay, he saved Europe itself." — Lord Stuart's Speech, February 19. THE BALANCE OF POWER. 265 The theory, according to the historian Robertson, was first invented by the Machiavellian statesmen of Italy during the prosperous era of the "Florentine (mis- called) republic ; and it was imported into Western Europe in the early part of the sixteenth century, and became " fashionable," to use the very word of the historian of Charles V., along with many other modes borrowed, about the same time, from that commercial and civilized people. This explanation of its origin does not meet with the concurrence of some other writers ; for it is singular, but still consistent with the ignis-fatuus character of the " balance of power," that scarcely two authors agree, either as to the nature or the precise period of invention of the system. Lord Brougham claims for the theory an origin as remote as the time of the Athenians ; and Hume de- scribes Demosthenes to have been the first advocate of the " balancing system" — very recommendatory, remembering that ancient history is little else than a calendar of savage wars! There can be little doubt, however, that the idea, by whomsoever or at whatever epoch conceived, sprang from that first instinct of our nature, fear, and originally meant at least some scheme for preventing the dangerous growth of the power of any particular state ; that power being always regarded, be it well rerfyemhered, as solely the offspring of conquest and aggrandizement : notwithstanding, as we have had occasion to show in a former page of this pamphlet, in the case of England and the United States, that labour, improvements, and discoveries, confer the greatest strength upon a ■people ; and that, by these alone, and not by the 266 Russia. sword of the conqueror, can nations, in modern and all future times, hope to rise to supreme power and grandeur. And it must be obvious that a system professing to observe a "balance of power" — by which, says Vattel, " no one potentate or state shall be able absolutely to predominate ;" or, according to Gentz, " to injure the independence or essential rights of another ;" by which, says Brougham, " a perpetual attention to foreign affairs is inculcated, and a constant watchfulness over every nation is prescribed:" — it must be obvious that such a " balancing system" — if it disregards those swiftest strides towards power which are making by nations excelling in mechanical and chemical science, industry, education, morality, and freedom — must be altogether chimerical. Lord Bacon, indeed, took a broader and more comprehensive view of this question when he wrote, in his essay on empire — " First, for their neighbours, there can no general rule be given (the occasions are so variable) save one, which ever holdeth ; which is, that princes do keep due sentinel, that none of their neighbours do overgrow so (by increase of territory, by embracing of trade, by approaches, or the like), as they become more able to annoy them than they were : and this is generally the work of standing councils, to see and to hinder it." This appears to us to be the only sound and correct view of such a principle as is generally understood by the phrase, " the balance of power." It involves, however, such a dereliction of justice, and utter absence of conscien- tiousness, that subsequent writers upon the subject have not dared to follow out the principle of hinder- THE BALANCE OF POWER. 267 ing the growth of trade, and the like (which includes all advance in civilization) ; although, to treat it in any other manner than that in which it is handled by this " wisest, greatest, meanest of mankind," is to abandon the whole system to contempt, as unsound, insufficient, and illusory.* As for the rule of Lord Bacon ; were the great Enemy of mankind himself to summon a council, to devise a law of nations which should convert this fair earth, with all its capacity for life, enjoyment, and goodness, into one vast theatre of death and misery, more dismal than his own dark Pandemonium, the very words of the philosopher would compose that law ! It would re- duce us even below the level of the brute animals. They do not make war against their own instincts ; but this "rule" would, if acted upon universally, plunge us into a war of annihilation with that in- stinct of progression which is the distinguishing nature of intellectual man. It would forbid all in- crease in knowledge, which, by the great writer's own authority, is power. It would interdict the growth of morality and freedom, which are power. * Lord Bacon's political maxims are full of moral turpitude. " Nobody can," says he, in speaking of kingdoms and estates, " be healthful without exercise — neither natural body nor politic ; and certainly to a kingdom or estate, a just and honourable war is the true exercise." Accordingly, just wars are necessary ; and, as there must be an opposite party to a just war, ergo, unjust wars are necessary ! In speaking of kings, he calls them " mortal gods on earth." And, in his chapter on seditions and troubles, he giyes many rules for governing and restraining, but not one for instructing the people. We speak of the moral sentiments of this great man, distinctly from his intellectual powers. 268 Russia. "Were Lord Bacon's " rule" enforced, not only would the uninstructed Eussians commence a crusade against our steam-engines and our skilful artisans; the still more barbarous Turk would be called upon to de- stroy the civilization and commerce of Petersburgh ; the savage African would be warranted, nay, com- pelled to reduce the turbaned Osmanli to his own nakedness and a wigwam ; nor would the levelling strife cease until either the "rule" were abrogated, or mankind had been reduced to the only pristine possessions — teeth and nails !* * There appears to be one honourable member of the British legislature, and only one, who is an advocate of this policy. Sir Harry Verney, in speaking after Mr. T. Attwood., upon the sub- ject of Russia (see Mirror of Parliament, 1833, p. 2878), said — " The honourable gentleman has represented Russia as a state sunt in barbarism and ignorance, and hostile to every species of liberty. I would to God that such a description of Russia were correct ! ! ! I believe the reverse to be the fact. I believe there is no power on earth which resorts to such effectual means of propagating her power, civilizing her country, promoting com- merce, manufactures, the acquirement of useful information, and the propagation of every useful institution, as Russia. Does the honourable gentleman know that at this moment steam-boats navigate the Volga ; and that you may travel in all parts of Russia in the same way as you may through the United States ? Does the honourable gentleman know that the Emperor of Russia sends abroad agents in whom he can confide, to obtain informa- tion relative to improvements and inventions which may be useful to himself? * * * * I am quite sure that, if this country would maintain the balance of power, we must oppose the encroachments of Russia.'' A Yankee punster would exclaim — " Sir Harry goes the whole hog with Bacon upon the ' balance of power !' " Tes, Sir Harry is right.' He and the noble author of the Novum THE BALANCE OF POWER. 269 The balance of power, then, might, in the first place, be very well dismissed as chimera, because no state of things, such as the "disposition," "constitu- tion," or "union," of European powers, referred to as the basis of their system, by Vattel, Gentz, and Brougham, ever did exist ; — and, secondly, the theory could, on other grounds, be discarded as fallacious, since it gives no definition — whether by breadth of territory, number of inhabitants, or extent of wealth — according to which, in balancing the respective powers, each state shall be estimated ; — whilst, lastly, it would be altogether incomplete and in- operative, from neglecting, or refusing to provide against, the silent and peaceful aggrandizements which spring from improvement and labour. Upon these triple grounds, the question of the balance of power might be dismissed from further consideration. We shall, however, assume, merely for the sake of argument, that such an equilibrium existed in com- plete efficiency ; and the first inquiry that suggests itself is — Upon what principle is Turkey made a member of this European system ? The Turks, at Organvm, are the only two philosophers who have taken a true and consistent view of the question. "We are far, however, from including them both under one rule of inculpation. The honour- able member for Buckinghamshire errs, perhaps, intellectually, and not morally. His chief fault, or rather misfortune, is, that he lives in Buckingham. Let him and the Marquis of Chandos go through a course of Adam Smith and the economists, beginning ■with Harriet Martineau ; and they will then be convinced that we cannot profit by the barbarism of another people, or be injured by their progress in civilization, any more than the British nation can gain by the corn laws. 270 RUSSIA. least, will be admitted, by everybody, to form no party to this " union ;" nor do they give that " per- petual attention to foreign affairs which it incul- cates ;" or that " constant watchfulness over every nation which it prescribes." They never read of the balance of power in the Koran; and they live in pious and orthodox ignorance of the authorities for this " fine and delicate" theory ; for the names of Bacon, Vattel, and Brougham, are nowhere recorded by the prophet ! Turkey cannot enter into the poli- tical system of Europe ; for the Turks are not Europeans. During the nearly four centuries that that people have been encamped upon the finest soil of the Continent, so far from becoming one of the families of Christendom, they have not adopted one European custom. Their habits are still oriental, as when they first crossed the Bosphorus. They scru- pulously exclude their females from the society of the other sex ; they wear the Asiatic dress ; sit cross- legged, or loll upon couches, using neither chair nor bed ; they shave their heads, retaining their beards ; and they use their fingers still, in the place of those civilized substitutes, knives and forks. Equally un- influenced, after nearly four hundred years' contact with Europeans, is the Osmanli's condition by the discoveries and improvements of modem times. A printing press may be said to be unknown in Turkey; or, if one be found at Constantinople, it is in the hands of foreigners. The steam engine, gas, the mariner's compass, paper money, vaccination, canals, the spinning-jenny, and railroads, are mysteries not yet dreamed about by Ottoman philosophers. Lite- THE BALANCE OF POWER. 271 rature and science are so far from finding disciples amongst the Turks, that that people have been renowned as twice the destroyers of learning : in the splendid though corrupt remains of Greek literature, at Constantinople ; and by extinguishing the dawn of experimental philosophy, at the subversion of the Caliphate. Down to within a few years of the present time r * the Turks were viewed only as the scourge of Chris- tian Europe. When, about a century and a half ago, Louis XIV. entered into an alliance with the Sublime Porte, the whole civilized world rung with indignation at the infamous and unnatural combina- tion. And when, more than a century later, on the occasion of the capture of Ockzakow by the Eus- sians, our most powerful minister (Pitt) proposed to forward succours to the aid of Turkey, such was the spirit of opposition manifested by the country, that the armaments already prepared by the government, under the sanction of a servile majority in the Par- liament, were reluctantly countermanded. On that occasion, both Burke and Grey, although advocates of the balancing system, refused to acknowledge that the Turks formed parties to it. "He had never before heard it set forth,"* said the former, "that the Turkish empire was considered as a part of the balance of power in Europe. They had nothing to do with European power ; they considered them^ selves as wholly Asiatic. Where was the Turkish resident at our court, the court of Prussia, or of Hol- * Burke's Speech, House of Commons, March 29, 1791. — See Hansard's Parliamentary Sistory, vol. xxix., pp. 76, 77. 272 Russia. land? They despised and contemned all Christian princes as infidels, and only wished to subdue and exterminate them and their people. What had these worse than savages to do with the powers of Europe, but to spread war, destruction, and pestilence amongst them ? All that was holy in religion, all that was moral and humane, demanded an abhorrence of everything that tended to extend the power of that cruel and wasteful empire. Any Christian power was to be preferred to these destructive savages. He had heard, with horror, that the Emperor had been obliged to give up to this abominable power, those charming countries which border upon the Danube, to devastation and pestilence." And, at a subsequent debate upon the same question,* Mr. Grey (now Earl Grey), who has been a still more zealous champion of the balance of power (having once declared that every peasant in England was deeply interested in its preservation), said, "that England had pursued this object too far, would not be denied, when it was considered that, in her progress after it, she had travelled as far as the banks of the Black Sea." And are the Turks of our own day less cruel or savage, that we should not only admit them within the pale of civilized nations, but impose on our people, for their defence, the burden of enormous armaments ? We appeal to Dr. Walsh's late account of the atrocities perpetrated at Constantinople upon the unarmed Greeks, at the revolt of that people ; we refer to the horrible massacre of the peaceful and civilized population of Scio! Is this empire less * See Hansards Parliamentary History, toI. xxix., p. 929. THE BALANCE OF POWER. 273 wasteful now than when, forty-five years ago, Burke mourned over those fine provinces which were con- signed to devastation and the crescent? We again recur to the description given to us by Walsh, and every other recent traveller, of the desolation that reigns throughout the Turkish dominions ; we adduce those ruined cities, those deserted, though still fertile plains, and that population, wasting away in regions where ten times its numbers once found abundance ; we point to the deplorable condition of agriculture, commerce, manufactures, and all the arts of life, in a country which comprised the ancient civilized world — to prove the waste of- human life, happiness, wealth, and civilization, that is suffered every year at the hands of this Mahometan government. Has the pestilence ceased to ravage the Turkish territory? The quarantine now blockades, in a manner, from Christian Europe, Constantinople — standing upon the same latitude as Naples, Oporto, and New York, and chosen by Constantine as the most salubrious spot on earth — a city now the impure nurse and victim of the plague ! Does Christianity or publie virtue call upon us, in 1836, more than they did in 1791, to arm ourselves in behalf of Turkey ? We point to the Koran and those orthodox vices which it incul- cates — we refer to the slave trade and to polygamy, abominations which still flourish in that country, under the preeept of the impostor of Mecca— to prove that neither religion nor morality can sanction the government of Great Britain in shedding a drop of the blood, or lavishing the treasure of English- men for the support of this " cruel," " savage," VOL. I. t 274 eussia. "wasteful," "devastating," "pestilential," and "in- fidel " nation, in a conflict with Eussia or any other Christian people. There remains one, and but one, other point from which to view the question of the balance of power ; and we may then bid adieu to this monument of the credulity and facility of the human intellect for ever ; or,, at least, until we happen, perchance, to meet with it in the next year's mutiny bill, supplying the " whereas" of an act of parliament, with a pretence for maintaining a standing army of upwards of 90,000 men! Eussia, in possession of Constantinople, say the alarmists, would possess a port open at all seasons ; the materials for constructing &hips ; vast tracts of fertile land, capable of producing cotton, silk, wool, &c. ; and she would be placed in a situation of easy access to our shores — all of which would tend to de- stroy the balance of power, and put in danger the interests of the British commerce, in particular. But New York, a port far more commodious than Con- stantinople, is open at all seasons ; the United States possess materials without end for ship-building ; their boundless territory of fertile land is adapted for the growth of cotton, silk, wool, &c. ; and New York is next door to Liverpool ; for — thanks to Providence ! ■ — there is no land intervening between the American continent and the shores of this United Kingdom. Yet, we have never heard that the North American continent forms any part of the balance of power! Twenty-four sovereign, free, and independent states, altogether forgotten in a " balancing system, which THE BALANCE OF POWER. £75 dictates an increasing care even of nations most re- motely situated, and apparently unconnected with ourselves !" We doubt the equilibrium can hardly be maintained. This is not all. There is the entire southern continent, from the Isthmus of Panama to the point of Cape Horn, likewise entirely omitted. Mercy on us, one scale will certainly kick the beam ! Twelve separate empires of South America, bounded on one extremity by Mexico, and on the other by Patagonia ; and the vast expanse of territory, settled and unsettled, under the dominion of the Government of Washington, and, altogether, comprising one-third of the habitable globe — have been quite forgotten in a balance of power ! Not having been supplied by the authors of the theory with any rule by which to judge of their mode of estimating or weighing the powers of the respec- tive parties to the balancing system; and being equally uninformed as to the qualifications required from those states which aspired to the union, it would be presumptuous to guess upon what principle Turkey is admitted to a connection with England, from which Brazil is excluded ; or why, in forming a balance of the civilized powers, the United States are rejected, in order to give room to admit Eussia into one of the scales. It cannot be from proximity that Turkey is preferred to the Brazils. A voyage from Rio Janeiro to Liverpool will average about forty days ; whilst the time taken in going from England to Constanti- nople usually reaches double that period. Nor can it arise from a comparison of our commerce with the two countries, which is four times as valuable with t 2 276 eussia. the American as the European state. Then a wise and provident regard to the future cannot be the guiding motive, since the prospect is altogether in favour of the transatlantic empire, which embraces within its bounds a territory equalling in extent the whole of Russia in Europe, and forming the finest, and destined in all probability to be, both as respects vegetable and mineral riches, the most productive amongst all the countries in the world. Religion, language, national character, and the plague, all oppose the claim of the Turk to this preference over the Christian rival; and we can only suspend our conjectures, and entreat that some advocate of the "balancing system" will inform the world upon what principle, commercial, social, or political — in short, upon what ground, consistent with common sense — does the foreign secretary involve Great Britain in the barbarian politics of the Ottoman Government, to the manifest risk of future wars, and the present pecuniary sacrifice attending standing armaments; whilst, with another state, with which we are more deeply interested as traders, more identified as men, and from which we are, navally speaking, less dis- tant, no political intercourse is found necessary? The same argument applies, with more or less force, to the other eleven South American States, with each of which our commerce averages probably more in amount than with Turkey ; yet, although they are Christian communities, all but universally at peace,* * "We add an extract from a letter, dated January 26, 1836, addressed to the author by a friend — a gallant officer, and an en- lightened and amiable man, who, himself, holds an official rank THE BALANCE OF POWEE. 277 and notwithstanding the future influence which they are inevitably destined to exercise over the interests of the entire world — these countries have not been thought worthy of admission into that system of civilized nations which is now agitated from one ex- tremity to the other with the fate of Mahometan Turkey ! However impossible it may be to speculate successfully upon the intended operation of a system which, in reality, never existed except in the precincts of the politician's brain, still it must be remembered that, at the time the theory was first invented, it pro- posed to give to the European powers owning American colonies, a weight proportioned to the extent of those possessions ; and the question then arises — which we shall merely propound, and leave at the British Court from one of the States of South America. — " Tou, who are so strong an advocate for peace and freedom will be glad to hear of the tranquillity of America, and that our systems of government are at last working well. Of the thirteen transatlantic republics, ten are now in a perfect state of order and prosperity. The capture of Puerto Cabello from a banditti who are in possession of it, will -restore that of Venesuela; and the next news from Peru will give us that of the peaceable settlement of its government. Mexico, therefore, will alone remain an ex- ception to this peaceful state; and I am afraid she will long remain so : yet, in spite of the troubles of Mexico, she last year raised from her mines (according to the official report of the minister of finance, and without including what was smuggled) thirty millions of dollars, in gold and silver, being three millions more than was ever produced under the most flourishing year of the old Spanish government. As to the national debts of America, the bonds of the United States were used to be sold by basketfuls, in the first years of their independence, yet they have now paid off the whole. — Tou have about fourteen principal nations in Europe, and you know two or three of them have internal dissensions." 278 Russia, in despair, for the solution of such of our readers as may wish to pursue this chimerical inquiry still farther — By what ingenious process was the balance of power preserved, when England, Spain, and Portugal were deprived of their transatlantic terri- tories ? Canning, indeed, once talked of " calling into existence a new world, to adjust the balance of the old ;" but, as in many other oratorical flourishes of our state-rhetorician, he meant quite a different practical object : in other and more homely language, that statesman proposed to acknowledge the inde- pendence of South America — ten years after every private individual of judgment had predicted the freedom of that Continent. To this day those states which once formed so important a part of the balancing system, as appendages to the mother coun- tries, are wanting in the scales of Europe ; and by what arts, whether by false weights or the legerdemain of the nation still holding the balance, the equili- brium can be preserved without them, constituting as they do nearly one-third of the terrestrial globe, is a mystery beyond the reach of our powers of divination. We glanced at the comparative claims of Eussia and the United States, to be included in this imaginary States-union : a very few words, upon this point, are all that we shall add to our probably already too extended notice of the " balance of power." Upon whatever principle the theory under con- sideration may have been at first devised — whether, according to Gentz, for the purpose of uniting neigh- bouring states, or, as Brougham asserts, with a view THE BALANCE OF POWER. 279 to the union of all the European powers — it is certain that it would have been held fatal to the success of the balancing system for any one power, and that one amongst the most civilized, wealthy, and commercial, to have refused to subscribe to its constitution. Yet the United States, (for the number of its inhabitants,) the richest, the most commercial, and, for either attack or defence, the most powerful of modern em- pires ; a country which possesses a wider surface of fertile land than Russia could boast even with the accession of Turkey ; and, instead of being imprisoned, like Russia, by the Dardanelles and the Sound, owning five thousand miles of coast, washed by two oceans, and open to the whole world : — the United States are not parties to the balance of power ! Ignorant as we are of the rule of admission to and exclusion from this balancing system, it would be vain to conjecture why Russia should be entitled, not only to be a member of this union, but to engross its exclusive attention, whilst North America is unknown or not recognised as of any weight in the balance of power. It cannot be, on our part, from closer neighbourhood ; for Russia, even at Constantinople, would — com- mercially and navally speaking — be three times as distant* as New York, from Great Britain. Nor on account of the greater amount of the European com- merce transacted by Russia. The commerce of the United States with the countries of Europe, is nearly as great in amount as that of the British empire with the Continent ; twice as large as the trade of France * The average time of the passage from New York to Liverpool, by the line of packet ships, is twenty-five days. 280 KUSSIA. with, the same quarters ; and three times that of Russia. It cannot be because of the more important nature of the trade which we cany on with Eussia as compared with that with America ; since the cotton of the latter gives employment and subsistence to more than a million of our people, and is actually indispensable to our commercial and political exist- ence. Here are cogent reasons why the transatlantic power should form a party to the union of states — why, at least, it should, in place of an empire situated upon the Baltic or Black Sea, be united in political bands with Great Britain. And wherefore is this rich, commercial, and this contiguous country— with a population more entirely enlightened than any besides, and whose improvements and institutions, England and aE Europe are eager to emulate — an alien to the " balancing system," of which Turkey, Spain, and Persia, are members ? If would be diffi- cult to find any other satisfactory answer than that which we are able to give as the reason of this exclusion : — America, with infinite wisdom, refuses to le a party to the " balance of power." Washington (who could remember when the national debt of England was under fifty-five mil- lions ; who saw it augmented, by the Austrian war of succession, to seventy-eight millions; and again increased, }iy the seven years' war, to one hundred and forty-six millions; and who lived to behold the first fruits of the French revolutionary wars, with probably a presentiment of the harvest of debt and oppression that was to follow — whose paternal eye looked abroad only with the patriotic hope of finding, THE BALANCE OF POWER. 281 in the conduct of other nations, example or warning for the instruction of his countrymen) seeing the chimerical objects for which England, although an island, plunged into the contentions of the Continent, with no other result to her suffering people but an enduring and increasing debt — bequeathed, as a legacy to his fellow-citizens, the injunction, that they should never be tempted, by any inducements or provocations, to become parties to the States' system of Europe. And faithfully, zealously, and happily has that testament been obeyed ! Down even to our day, the feeling and conviction of the people, and consequently of the Government and the authors* of * "Washington Irving has good humouredly satirized this national propensity for foreign politics, in the well-known sketch of " John Bull." " He is," says that exquisite writer, " a busy- minded personage, who thinks, not merely for himself and family, hut for all the country round, and is most generously disposed to be everybody's champion. He is continually volunteering his services to settle his neighbour's affairs, and takes it in great dudgeon if they engage in any matter of consequence without asking his advice; though he seldom engages in any friendly office of the kind without finishing by getting into a squabble with all parties, and then railing bitterly at their ingratitude. He unluckily took lessons in his youth in the noble science of defence ; and having accomplished himself in the use of his limbs and weapons, [i. e. standing armies and navies,] and become a per- fect master at boxing and cudgel play, he has had a troublesome life of it ever since. He cannot . hear of a quarrel between the most distant of his neighbours, but he begins incontinently to fumble with the head of his cudgel, and consider whether interest or honour does not require that he should meddle in their broils. Indeed he has extended his relations of pride and policy so com- pletely over the whole country, [i. e. quadripartite treaties and quintuple alliances,'] that no event can take place without in- 282 Russia. the United States, have constantly increased in favour of a policy from which so much wealth, pros- perity, and moral greatness have sprung. America, for fifty years at peace, with the exception of two years of defensive war, is a spectacle of the benefi- cent effects of that policy which may «be comprised in the maxim — As little intercourse as possible be- fringing some of He finely-spun rights and dignities. Couched in his little domain, with those filaments stretching forth in every direction, he is like some choleric, bottle-bellied old spider, who has woven his web over a whole chamber, so that a fly cannot buzz, nor a breeze blow, without startling his repose and causing him to sally forth wrathfully from his den. Though really a good-tempered, good-hearted old fellow at bottom, yet he is sin- gularly fond of being in the midst of contention. It is one of his peculiarities, however, that he only relishes the beginning of an affray ; he always goes into a fight with alacrity, but comes out of it grumbling even when victorious ; and, though no one fights with more obstinacy to carry a contested point, yet, when the battle is over, and" he comes to a reconciliation, he is so much taken up with the mere shaking of hands, [Lord Gasflereagh at the treaty of Vienna,'] that he is apt to let his antagonists pocket all they have been grumbling about. It is not, therefore, fighting that he ought to be so much on his guard against as making friends All that I wish is, that John's present trou- bles may teach him more prudence in future ; [nothing of the kind : look at him now, fifteen years after this was written, playing the fool again, ten times worse than ever, in Spain ;] that he may cease to distress his mind about other people's affairs ; that he may give up the fruitless attempt to promote the good of his neighbours, and the peace and happiness of the world, by dint of the cudgel ; that he may remain quietly at home ; gradually get his house into repair ; cultivate his rich estate according to his fancy; husband his income — if he thinks proper; bring his unruly children into ordea— if he can." — Sketch Book. THE BALANCE OF POWEE. 283 twixt the Governments, as much connection as possible between the nations, of the world. And when Eng- land {without being a republic) shall be governed upon the same principles of regard for the interests of the people, and a like common sense view of the advan- tages of its position, we shall adopt a similar motto for our policy; and then we shall hear no more mention of that costly chimera, the balance of power. 284 Russia. CHAPTEE IV. PROTECTION Or COMMERCE. Contests. — Protection of our Commerce no just Pretext for maintaining enormous Armaments. — Our Manufactures the true Source of our Commercial Greatness. — Curious Illustration of the TJselessness of Military and Naval Power, for the Pro- tection of our Commerce against the Rivalry of better and cheaper Articles than ours. — Mutual Dependence of Britain and the United States on each other. — Prodigious Traffic be- tween these two Countries. — Instance of our being driven out of our own fortified Market of Gibraltar, by the Competition of an unarmed Rival. — Former Monopoly of the Sea possessed by Britain. — Its Consequences, the National Debt, and the Instigatian of other Nations to commence Manufacturing. — The American and French Manufactures avowedly called into competition with ours, by recollections of British tyranny at Sea. — Progress of the American Cotton Manufacture. — Absur- dity of all Apprehensions of Foreign Invasion. — Cost of the Armaments for the Protection of our Commerce — in the Mediterranean — on the "West India Station. — Causes and Consequences of British "Wars. — No Class of Society really benefited by "War. — Non-intervention in Foreign "Wars the true Policy of Britain. — Superiority of the Influence of British Example, while cultivating the Arts of Peace, to British Violence or Intimidation. — A "Word at parting to the Reader. We began the preceding remarks upon a question which, however universally recognised in former times, has now almost fallen into neglect, by quoting a passage from the last speech of King William III. to his Par- liament ; and — before proceeding to discuss that other, the king's speech in 1836. 285 but still more popular, pretence for wars and standing armaments, the protection of our commerce — we shall give an extract or two from the latest (though we sincerely hope not the last) address of William IV. to his Reformed Parliament, delivered on the 4th February 1836 :— " I continue to receive from my allies, and, gene- rally, from all foreign powers, assurances of their unaltered desire to cultivate with me those friendly relations which it is equally my wish to maintain with them ; and the intimate union which happily subsists between this country and France, is a pledge to Eu- rope for the continuation of general peace." After the above passage, which contains, one would suppose, ample guarantees against war — since it not only conveys assurances of the peaceful disposition of all foreign powers towards this country, but adds, by way of making those assurances doubly sure, that the union which happily subsists between England and France is a pledge for the continuance of a general peace — comes the following : — "The necessity of maintaining the maritime strength of the country, and of giving adequate protection to the extended commerce of my subjects, has occasioned some increase in the estimates for the naval branch of the public service." Now, if we felt some difficulty in apprehending the question of the "balancing principle," we confess our- selves to be much more at a loss to understand what is here meant by the protection of commerce through an increase in the navy estimates. Our commerce is, in other words, our manufactures; and the first inquiry 286 hussia. which occurs necessarily is, Do we need an augmen- tation of the naval force, in order to guard our inge- nious artisans and industrious labourers, or to protect those precious results of their mechanical genius, the manufactories of our capitalists ? This apprehension vanishes, if we refer to the. assurances held out, in the above double guarantee for the continuance of peace, that our shores are safe from foreign aggression. The next idea that suggests itself is, Does piracy increase the demand for vessels of war ? We, who write in the centre of the largest export trade in the world, have not heard of even one complaint of violence done to British interests upon the ocean ; and probably there are not to be found a dozen freebooters upon the face of the aquatic globe. South America demands no addition to the force upon its coasts at the present moment, when those several Governments are more firmly organized, and foreign interests consequently more secure, than at any previous period. China presents no excuse; for her policy is, fortunately for her territorial integrity, invulnerable to foreign at- tempts at " intervention." The rest of Asia is our own. Where, then, shall we seek for a solution of the difficulty, or how account for the necessity which called for the increase of our naval strength ? The commerce of this country, we repeat, is, in other words, its manufactures. Our exports do not consist, as in Mexico or Brazil, of the produce of our soil and our mines ; or, as in France and the United States, of a mixture of articles of agricultural and manufacturing origin : but they may be said to be wholly produced by the skill and industry of the VALUE TO ENGLAND OP HER MANUFACTURES. 287 manufacturing population of the United Kingdom.* Upon the prosperity, then, of this interest, hangs our foreign commerce ; on which depends our external rank as a maritime state ; our customs-duties, which are necessary to the payment of the national debt ; and the supply of every foreign article of our do- mestic consumption — every pound of tea, sugar, coffee, or rice, and all the other commodities consumed by the entire population of these realms. In a word, our national existence is involved in the well-doing of our manufacturers. K our readers — many of whom will be of the agricultural class, but every one of them nevertheless equally interested in the question — should ask, as all intelligent and reasoning minds ought to do, To what are we indebted for this com- merce ? — we answer, in the name of every manufac- turer and merchant of the kingdom — The cheapness alone of our manufactures. Are we asked, How is this trade protected, and by what means can it be enlarged ? The reply still is, By the cheapness of our manufactures. Is it inquired how this mighty industry, upon which depends the comfort and existence of the whole empire, can be torn from us ? — we rejoin, Only by the greater cheapness of the manufactures of another country. These truths are, we presume, well known to the Government of Great Britain; at least, one member of the present cabinet is vigilantly alive to their momentous character, as we are going to shew, by referring to a fact coming within our personal * We stated this familiar fact in a former pamphlet ; but it is one that cannot be too frequently placed broadly before the public eye. 288 Russia. experience, and which bears pointedly upon the question in hand. The Directors of the Chamber of Commerce of Manchester (of which board the author has the honour of being a member) were favoured, a short time since, with a communication from the Eight Hon. C. P. Thomson, accompanied by an assortment of samples of various fabrics, which, in the diligent fulfilment of his official duties, he had caused to be procured from the several manufacturing districts of the Continent ; and requesting a report as to the com- parative relation which, after due examination, they might be found to bear towards the manufactures of England. Among these, were patterns of Swiss Turkey-red chintz prints, and of mixed cotton and linen Saxony drills— both of which commodities have been, for some time, sold in those quarters — superior, both in cheapness and quality, to similar articles pro- duced in this country; and, consequently, in reporting to the Board of Trade, the Directors of the Chamber of Commerce had the disagreeable duty of stating that, in those particular products of the loom and printing machine, we were beaten by our foreign rivals, and superseded in third or neutral markets. The causes of the advantages thus possessed over us by our com- petitors on the Continent, and which were pointed out to the attention of the Right Hon. President, are the heavy imposts still fettering our manufacturing ener- gies, and the greater cost of the food of our workmen : the remedy is, obviously, a reduction of the duties on corn, oil, soap, &c. But, if, instead of naming such causes and remedies as these, the Manchester Chamber THE ARMED PROTECTION OF COMMERCE. 289 of Commerce had stated, in its report, that the prints of Switzerland and the drills of Saxony (the govern- ments of which two countries do not together own a ship of war, as we believe) were cheaper than the like articles fabricated here, because the British navy was not sufficiently strong, and had advised, for relief, that half a million a-year should be added to the navy estimates — would not a writ de lunatko inquirendo have justly been issued- against those intelligent Directors, the writer's colleagues, without further evidence of their insanity! Yet, having seen that the only way in which we can protect our com- merce is the cheapness of our manufactures, what other object can be meant, when the Government calls for an augmentation of the navy, with a view to the protection of our commerce, but some plan, however inappreciable to common minds, for reducing the expenditure of th§ country, and thereby relieving us from some of the burdensome imposts with which our race of competition is impeded ? But there is, in the second passage which we have just quoted from his Majesty's speech, a part which tends to throw more light upon the whole — where it refers to the necessity of giving adequate protection to the " extended'" commerce of the country. By which we are to infer, that it is the principle of the government, that the extension of our trade with foreign countries, demands for its protection, a cor- responding augmentation of the royal navy. This, we are aware, was the policy of the last century, during the greater part of which, the motto, " Ships, vol. i. u 290 RUSSIA. Colonies, and Commerce," * was borne upon the national escutcheon, became the watchword of states- men, and was the favourite sentiment of public writers ; but this, which meant, in other words — " Men of war to conquer colonies, to yield us a monopoly of their trade," must now be dismissed, like many other equally glittering but false adages of our forefathers, and in its place we must substitute the more homely but enduring maxim — Cheapness, which will command commerce ; and whatever else is needful will follow in its train. At a time when all beyond the precincts of Europe was colonial territory, and when the trade of the world was, with the exception of China, almost wholly forced into false channels, by the hand of violence, which was no sooner withdrawn than, by its own inherent law — the law of nature — it again sought its proper level course, the increase of the navy neces- sarily preceded and accompanied an extension of our commerce. The policy of nations, then, if judged by the standard which we apply to the conduct of individuals now — and there can be no exculpation in multitudinous immorality — was, to way-lay their cus- tomers, whom they first knocked down and disabled, and afterwards dragged into their stores and compelled to purchase whatever articles they chose to offer, at such prices as they chose to ask ! The independence of the New World has for ever put an end to the colonial policy of the Old, and, with it, that system * This is still a favourite toast at the annual meetings of the Pitt clubs, drunk by those consistent politicians who will not yield even to the inexorable reforms of trade. THE AEMED PROTECTION OF COMMERCE. 291 of fraud and violence which, for centuries, charac- terised the commercial intercourse of the two hemi- spheres. And in that portentous truth, the Americas are free, teeming as it does with future change, there is nothing that more nearly affects our destiny than the total revolution which it dictates to the statesmen of Great Britain, in the commercial, colonial,* and foreign policy of our Government. America is once more the theatre upon which nations are contending for mastery : it is not, however, a struggle for con- quest, in which the victor will acquire territorial dominion — the fight is for commercial supremacy, and the battle will be won by the cheapest ! Whilst our trade rested upon our foreign depen- dencies, as was the case in the middle of the last century — whilst, in other words, force and violence were necessary to command customers for our manu- factures — it was natural and consistent that almost every king's speech should allude to the importance of protecting the commerce of the country, by means * "We shall not enter upon the subject of the profit and loss of our colonies, which would require a volume. An acute writer of the day estimates the annual loss by our dependencies at some- thing like four millions j but he loses sight altogether of the interest of the money spent in conquering them, which is twenty or thirty millions a-year more ! Leaving these unprofitable spe- culations as to the past, let us beg our readers to look at a chart of the world, and, after comparing the continent of free America with the specks of islands forming our colonial possessions, to ask himself whether, in choosing owe future commercial course, the statesman who presides at the helm of affairs ought to take that policy for his guide which shall conduct us to the market of the entire hemisphere, or that which prefers the minute fraction of it. u 2 292 Russia. of a powerful navy; but whilst, under the present more honest principles of trade, cheapness alone is ne r cessary to command free and independent purchasers, and to protect our commerce, it must be evident that such armaments as impose the smallest possible tax upon the cost of our commodities must be the best adapted for the protection of our trade. But, besides dictating the disuse of warlike establishments, free trade (for of that beneficent doctrine we are speaking) arms its votaries, by its own pacific nature, in that eternal truth — the more any nation trafficks abroad upon free and honest principles, the less it mil be in danger of wars. If, by way of example, we refer to the present commercial intercourse between the United States and this empire, how completely does it illustrate the force of the above maxim ! At no period of history were two people, aliens to each other by birth, government, laws, and institutions, united indissolubly by one com- mon interest and mutual dependence, like these distant nations. One-third* of our whole exports consists of cotton manufactures, the raw material of which is produced from the soil of the United States. More than a million of our population depend upon the due supply of this cotton wool, for the labour of every succeeding day, and for the regular payment of then- weekly wages. "We sometimes hear objections against the free importation of corn, made on the ground that we should become dependent upon foreigners for * About one-half of our exports is of cotton origin ; but we take one-third as the portion worked up from North American material. THE ARMED PROTECTION OF COMMERCE. 293 bread ; but here we have a million of people, whose power of purchasing not only bread, but meat, ay, or even potatoes, as well as clothing, is supplied from the annual growth of lands possessed by an inde- pendent nation, more than three thousand miles off. The equilibrium* of this stupendous industry is pre- served by the punctual arrival, from the United States, of a quantity of raw cotton, averaging 15,000f bales weekly, or more than 2000 bales a-day ; and it depends also upon the equally constant weekly departure of more than a quarter of a million sterling worth of cotton goods, exported to foreign parts. Now, what precaution is taken by the Government of this country to guard and regulate this precious flood of traffic ? How many of those costly vessels of war, which are maintained at an expense to the nation of many mil- lions of pounds annually, do our readers suppose, are stationed at the mouths of the Mersey and Clyde, to welcome and convoy into Liverpool and Glasgow, the merchant ships from New York, Charleston, or New Orleans, all bearing the inestimable freight of cotton wool, upon which our commercial and social existence depends ? Not one ! What portion of our standing army, costing seven millions a-year, is oc- cupied in defending this more than Pactolus — this * We wish those rhetorical statesmen, who talk so eloquently in favour of going to war to preserve the equilibrium of Europe, or the balance of power in Turkey, would condescend to give a thought as to its effects upon the equilibrium of our cotton ma- nufacture. t We confine our illustrative remarks on that part which we assume to be the growth of the United States ; the total of our imports and exports of cotton is, of course, more than stated here. 294 Russia. golden stream of trade, on which floats not only the wealth, but the hopes and existence of a great community? Four invalids, at the Perch Rock bat- tery, hold the sinecure office of defending the port of Liverpool ! But our exports to the United States will reach, this year, perhaps, in real or declared value, more than ten millions sterling, and nearly one half of this amount goes to New York: — what portion of the royal navy is stationed off that port, to protect our merchants' ships and cargoes ? The appearance of a king's ship at New York is an occurrence of such rarity as to attract the especial notice of the public journals ; whilst, along the entire Atlantic coast of the United States — extending, as it does, more than 3000 miles, to which we send a quarter of our whole yearly exports — there are stationed two* British ships of war only, and these two have also their station at the West Indies. No ! this commerce, unparalleled in magnitude, between two remote nations, demands no armament as its guide or safeguard : nature itself is both. And will one rational mind recognise the pos-* sibility of these two communities putting a sudden stop to such a friendly traffic, and, contrary to every motive of self-interest, encountering each other as enemies ? Such a rupture would be more calamitous to England than the sudden drying up of the river Thames ; and more intolerable to America than the cessation of sunshine and rain over the entire surface of one of her maritime states ! * See the United Service Journal for June 1836, for a list of the ships of war and their stations, June 1st :— <-North America and West India stations, one 74 and one 52 guns. MUTUAL DEPENDENCE OF ENGLAND AND AMERICA. 295 And if such is the character of free trade, (or, in other words, all trade between independent nations,) that it unites, by the strongest motives of which our nature is susceptible, two remote communities, ren- dering the interest of the one the only true policy of the other, and making each equally anxious for the prosperity and happiness of both ; and if, moreover, every addition to the amount of traffic between two independent states, forges fresh fetters, which rivet more securely these amicable bonds — how can the extension of our commerce call for an increase in our armaments, or how can a government stand excused from the accusation of imposture, unless by the plea of ignorance, when it calls for an augmentation of the navy estimates under the pretence of protecting our extended commerce ? But, to put this matter in another point of view, let us suppose that this mighty traffic between Eng- land and the United States, which is wholly governed by the talismanic law of " cheapness," were suddenly interrupted, in the only way in which it can be disturbed — by some other people producing cheaper hardware, woollens, pottery, &c, to whom the Ameri- cans, guided solely by that self-interest which controls alike the commerce of every nation, could sell their cotton for a greater amount of those manufactures in return — could our royal navy, were it even augmented to tenfold its present monstrous force, protect us from the loss of our commerce ? To answer this question, we need only appeal to the experience of facts, to be found at this time operating in another quarter. At the moment when we write, the British naval 2% RUSSIA. force stationed in the Mediterranean amounts to thirty- six vessels of war,* mounting altogether, 1320 guns, being rather more than a third of the death-dealing metal afloat in our king's ships. Our entire trade to all the nations bordering on this sea, and including the whole of that with Spain and France, amounts to very nearly the same as our exports to the United States — in value or importance, however, it is not equal to the latter. Now, leaving for the present the question of the profitableness of carrying on a traffic with such heavy protecting expenses annexed, let us proceed to ascertain whether or not this prodigious and costly navy affords an efficient protection to our commerce in those quarters. The reader will bear in mind our statement, that the Chamber of Commerce of Manchester had the unpleasant task of reporting to the Board of Trade, that the drill manufacturers of Saxony and the calico printers of Switzerland had superseded goods of the same descriptions, made in England, in third or neutral markets : — those markets were in the Mediterranean ! This is not all. One of those markets, from which our manufactures were reported to have been expelled, by a decree of far more potency than was penned by the hand of violence at Berlin and Milan, and prohibited by an interdict ten times more powerful than ever sprang from the Prussian league — the interdict of deamess : one of those markets was Gibraltar 11 (We promised, a few pages back, to prove that the industrious mid- dling and working classes of this empire, have no * See the United Service Journal, June 1, 1836, for a list of be stations of the British navy, MUTUAL DEPENDENCE OF ENGLAND AND AMERICA. 297 interest in the violent and unjust seizure and retention of an integral portion of the Spanish territory ; and we have, in this simple fact, redeemed our pledge.) We give it to the reflecting portion of our readers, as a truth authenticated by the very best authority, and worthy of deep attention from the economist, the statesman, and the advocate of peace and of a moral ascendency over physical force — that the artisans of Switzerland and Saxony have achieved a victory over the manufacturers of England, upon her own fortress — the free port of Gibraltar! We kiss the rod— we dote upon this fact, which teaches, through us, a lesson to mankind, of the ineflicacy of brute violence in the trading concerns of the world. Let us pause, then, to recapitulate our facts. On the one hand, behold a commerce with America, amounting to the quarter of the whole trade of the kingdom — upon which depends, from week to week, the subsistence of a million of people, and whereon rests our very exist- ence as a commercial empire — conducted regularly, day by day, without the aid or intervention of ships of war, to guide or coerce it ; on the other, an arma- ment, avowedly to protect our commerce, of 1320 cannon, unable to guard our manufactures against the successful cheapness of the poorest, the weakest, and humblest community of the Continent-^a com- munity destitute of fleets, and without a standing army. The inference is plain — we have succeeded in establishing our premises ; for, having proved that the (physically speaking) impregnable fortress of Gibraltar, with its triple lines of batteries, aided by thirty-six vessels of war, and altogether combining a 298 EU6SIA. greater quantity of artillery than was put in requisi- tion to gain the victory of Waterloo, Trafalgar, or the Nile, surrenders our commerce into the hands of the Swiss and Saxons, unable to protect us against the cheaper commodities of those countries — we need not go further to shew, since these two countries without navies are our witnesses of the facts, that armed fleets, armies, and fortresses are not essential to the extension of commerce, and that they do not possess the power of protecting it against the cheapness of rivals. These may appear trite and familiar truths to our intelligent readers ; our justification may be found, if needed, in the fact, that the Government has demanded and obtained an addition to our navy estimates, this session of Parliament, amounting to nearly half a million sterling per annum, under the pretence of protecting our commerce ; and we do not recollect that one of our representatives rose from his seat to tell the minister, as we now tell him, that Ms is that kind of protection which the. eagle affords to the lamb — covering it to devour it. It will be seen that all which has been stated bears indirectly, but conclusively, upon the question of Eussia and Turkey, and affords an unanswerable argument against going to war to defend our com- merce by means of naval armaments; since it is plain, from the example of Gibraltar, that, even were Constantinople in our own power, its commerce could be retained only by our selling cheaper than other nations ; whilst, supposing it to be in the possession of Eussia or any other people, the cheapness of our commodities will eventually command that market, TEUE POLICY OF THE NATION. 299 in the same manner as the cheap drills and prints of Saxony and Switzerland supplant our goods, in spite of the batteries and fleets which defend our Spanish fortress. Having thus shewn that cheapness, and not the cannon or the sword, is the weapon through which alone we possess and can hope to defend or extend our commerce — having proved, also, that an increase of trade, so far from demanding an augmentation of warlike armaments, furnishes an increased safeguard against the chances of war — is it not clear that, to dimmish the taxes and duties which tend to enhance the cost of our manufactures, by a reduction of our navy* and army, is the obvious policy of a ministry which understands and desires to promote the true interests of this commercial nation ? Were our army and navy reduced to one half of their present forces, and the amount saved applied to the abolition of the duties upon cotton, wool, glass, paper, oil, soap, drugs, and the thousand other ingredients of our manufac- tures, such a step would do more towards protecting and extending the commerce of Great Britain, than an augmentation of the naval armaments to fifty times their present strength, even supposing such an increase could be effected with no addition to the national burdens. * Tie public papers have announced that, owing to the demand for sailors for the royal navy, the merchants have been compelled to advance the wages of their hands. "We have read the following notice upon the quay at Liverpool — " Wanted, for his Majesty's navy, a number of petty officers and able-bodied seamen." It would seem that there is no want of commissioned officers; which accounts for the increase of the navy estimates, we suspect. 300 RUSSIA. Experience has shewn that an overwhelming power at sea, whilst it cannot dictate a favourable commercial treaty with the smallest independent state, (for such a spectacle of violence was never seen, as a victorious admiral, sword in hand, prescribing the terms of a tariff to his prostrate foe,) has had the effect of rousing national fear, hatred, and envy, in the breasts of foreigners ; and these vile feelings of human nature, awakened and cultivated by our own appeal to the mere instinct of brutal force, have been naturally directed, in every possible way, to thwart and injure our trade. During the latter half of the French revolutionary wars, England, owing to successive victories, became the mistress of the ocean ; her flag floated triumphantly over every navigable parallel of latitude, and her merchants and manufacturers commanded a monopoly of the markets of the globe. For a period of more than ten years, an enemy's ship was scarcely to be seen, unless as a fugitive from the thunder of our vessels of war; no neutrals were allowed to pass along that thoroughfare of nations, the ocean, without submitting to pay the homage to British power, of undergoing the humiliation of a search by our cruisers. There was something incon- ceivably flattering to the vulgar mind in this exhibi- tion of successful violence. Our naval supremacy, consequently, became the theme and watchword of all those orators, statesmen, and writers, who had an interest in perpetuating the war. Poets, too, were put in requisition ; and a thousand songs, all breathing such sentiments as "Eule Britannia," were heard in the theatres, taverns, and streets. Cupidity, as EFFECTS OF THE GBEAT WAR. 301 well as pride, was appealed to. Our merchants were continually reminded, by the minister and his minions, that they alone possessed the markets of the world ; and, even whilst our yearly national expenditure reached nearly double the amount of the whole of our exports, such was the intoxication, such the infatuation of the moment, owing to the gross appeals made to national vanity, that the multitude were not only impressed with the belief that our commerce was profitable, but convinced that England was destined to remain permanently the same trading monopolist. Peace cured us of this maddening fever ; but, in ex- change, it brought the lumbago of debt, which still oppresses and torments our body politic. Not only this : the moral is yet to follow. The brute force which we had exercised towards foreign nations, at sea, during the war, had naturally excited the anima 1 feelings of hatred, fear, and revenge, in return. Every country began to establish manufactures, in order to become independent of and secure against Great Britain. Russia, Austria, and France now commenced the war of interdicts ; and Ferdinand of Spain* had * Our former intervention in the concerns of Spain, was charac- terised by wisdom itself, when compared with the unadulterated folly of the part we are at present taking in Peninsular affairs. Here is a family quarrel, between two equally worthless personages, who dispute the right of reigning over ten millions of free people ; and England sends a brigade of four or five thousand men, (by what right ?) to decide this purely domestic question ! "We have been informed, by a friend long resident in Spain, upon whose authority we can rely, that there is not an honest public func- tionary in the country ; that, from the Minister, down to the lowest tidewaiter, all are as corrupt now as when "Wellington ured the treachery of this people. Villiers and Evans are 302 RUSSIA. no sooner succeeded in re-establishing the inquisition, than he — for whom, to the everlasting infamy of that epoch of our history, the blood and treasure of Eng- land were squandered — repaid us with a prohibition of our cottons. We cannot give proofs of the motives which actuate the councils of despotic princes, for they furnish none to the world ; but the discussions on the tariff laws, in France and the United States, which were neces- sarily public, fully disclosed that the reason which led their governments to seek to become themselves manufacturers, was to render those countries inde- pendent of the power of Great Britain at sea. The French nation — which, in 1786, had concluded a treaty of commerce With Great Britain, upon terms very favourable to the latter, and which would, had experiencing that treatment, at the hands of Isturiez and Cordova, which Erere and Sir John Moore encountered, thirty years ago, from the agents of the government. That the people are not improved by our last sacrifices for the dynasty of Ferdinand, may be proved by their atrocities and female massacres — unheard of out of Turkey. "When the affairs of the British empire are con- ducted with as much wisdom as goes to the successful management of a private business, the honest interests of our own people will become the study of the British ministry ; and then, and not till then, instead of being at the mercy of a chaos of expedients, our foreign Secretary will be guided by the -principle of non-interven- tion in the politics of other nations. " A people," says Channing, " which wants a saviour, which does not possess an earnest and pledge of freedom in its own heart, is not yet ready to be free." In the meantime, it cannot be too widely known, that our inter- ference in the private quarrels of these semi-barbarians, will cost us this year, half a million sterling ; whilst with difficulty we have obtained £10,000 for establishing Normal Schools ! PKOTECTION IN FRANCE. 303 it not been interrupted by war, have consolidated the two countries, by a complete identification of interests, long before the period we are now speaking of — proceeded, immediately on the close of hostilities, to prohibit the introduction of every article of our manufacture. The spirit which operated then is still alive, and with the avowal of the self-same motives ; for, during .the late discussions in the Chamber of Deputies,* upon the revisal of the tariff, a discrimi- nating duty was laid upon the coal coming from this country, (by the unprecedented scheme of dividing France into three zones for that very purpose,) and it was defended, upon the plea of protection against inconvenience during war ! * The ignorance manifested in the French Chamber of Deputies upon commercial affairs, during the recent discussions, and the folly and egotism of the majority of the speakers, leave little hope of an increased intercourse between the two countries. M. Thiers openly avowed that we were to be manufacturing rivals, but po- litical friends : we disclaim both these relationships. The French, whilst they are obliged to prohibit our fabrics from their own market, because their manufacturers cannot, they say, sustain a competition with us, even with a heavy protecting duty, never will become our rivals in third markets, where both will pay alike. The boast of the Prime Minister of France, is like the swagger of one who, having barricaded himself securely in his own house, blusters about giving battle in a neighbouring county. For the English ministry to form a mere political connection with the present unstable government and dynasty of France, to the ex- clusion of trading objects, would be to put us in partnership with a party in a desperate state of fortune, who resolved not to mend it. There can be no real alliance, unless by a union of interests. Schoolboys have sufficient knowledge of human nature to feel this, when they throw their marbles into a common bag, and be- come friends. 304 RUSSIA. America, however, presents us with the severest lesson, as the moral of that policy which relies upon violence and war for the support or acquisition of commerce. In the report of the committee on manu- factures of cotton, presented in the Congress of the United States, February 13, 1816 — a paper drawn up with great moderation and delicacy, so far as relates to the allusions to British violence during the war just concluded — it is stated that, " Prior to the years 1806 and 1807, establishments for manufactur- ing cotton wool, had not been attempted, but in a few instances, and on a limited scale. Their rise and progress are attributable to embarrassments to which commerce was subjected; which embarrass- ments originated in causes not within the control of human prudence." The causes here alluded to are the British orders in council and Bonaparte's decrees. Then follows a statement of the quantity of cotton wool manufactured, at successive periods, in the United States : — 1800, . . 500 bales. 1805, . . 1000 1810, . . 10,000 1815, . . 90,000 And, afterwards, it goes on to say, in speaking of Great Britain — " No improper motives are intended to be imputed to that government. But does not experience teach a lesson that should never be for- gotten, that governments, like individuals, are apt ' to feel power and forget right !' It is not inconsistent with national decorum, to become circumspect and prudent. May not the Government of Great Britain AMERICAN MANUFACTURING COMPETITION. 305 be inclined, in analyzing the basis of her political power, to consider and regard the United States as her rival, and to indulge an improper jealousy, the enemy of peace and repose?" And, in proposing, on February 12, 1816, a new tariff to the Senate, in which cotton goods are subjected to 33^ per cent, duty, the Secretary of the Treasury, in the course of his report, has this passage: — " But it was emphati- cally during the period of the restrictive system and of the war, that the importance of domestic manu- factures became conspicuous to the nations, and made a lasting impression upon the mind of every statesman and every patriot." It is not, however, by state papers that we can fully estimate the senti- ments of the nation at large. Immediately on the cessation of war, a strong feeling was manifested in all parts of the Union, in favour of protecting the manufactures of the country. This feeling prevailed with the democratic party, which was then in the ascendant, quite as much as with the federalists; although the former had, previously, been opposed to protecting duties. We cannot better illustrate this than by giving the following extract from a letter, written at this time by the great leader and champion of that party, Jefferson, who, in his "Notes on Virginia," written in 1785, had given his opinion, "that the workshops of Europe are the most proper to furnish the supplies of manufactures to the United States ;" but, after the experience of the war, changed his opinion to the following: — " The British interdicted to our vessels all harbours of the globe, without they had at first proceeded to VOL. I. x 306 RUSSIA. some one of hers i there paid tribute, proportioned to their cargo, and obtained a license to proceed to the port of their destination. Compare this state of things with that of 1785, and say, whether an opi- nion, founded in the circumstances of that day, can be fairly applied to those of the present. We have experienced what we did not then believe, that there does exist both profligacy and power enough to exclude the United States from the field of inter- course with foreign nations. We, therefore, have a right to conclude, that, to be independent for the comforts of life, we must fabricate them for ourselves. We must now place the manufacturer by the side of the agriculturist. The question of 1 785 is suppressed, or rather assumes a new form. The question is, Shall we manufacture our. own comforts, or go with- out them at the will of a foreign nation ? He, there- fore, who is now against domestic manufactures, must be for reducing us to a dependence upon foreign nations. lam not one of these." We have illustrated this matter with reference to the United States, more clearly than in relation to France, because, as we have elsewhere stated, it is our conviction, after giving considerable attention to the subject, that future danger to our manufacturing and commercial supremacy impends from America rather than from any European nation. It will be seen from the preceding quotations, that, from the first independence of that country, the' democratic party was inimical to the establishing of protective duties ; that party, under Jefferson, then was, and down to this day it continues to be, triumphant ; and AMERICAN MANUFACTURING COMPETITION. 307 we therefore possess unquestionable evidence that, by the hand of violence of England herself in 1806 and subsequently, the cotton manufacture was planted in the United States; and it may be seen, in the foregoing table, how, watered by the blood of our succeeding ten years' French war, it flourished an hundred and eighty fold ! That manufacture is not destined to perish; it now equals the fifth of our own staple industry. We do not predict such a retribu- tive visitation; we are proof against despair, when the energies of our countrymen are the grounds of hope ; but if, in consequence of past wastefulness, or future extravagance and misgovernment here, a people' beyond the Atlantic, free of debt, resolute in peacefulness, and of severe economy, should wrest, by the victory of a cheapness" that main prop of our national prosperity, the cotton manufacture, from our hands — how greatly will it aggravate a nation's sufferings, to remember the bitter historical truth, that that people was goaded to the occupations of the spinning-jenny and the loom, by the violence of Great Britain herself ! We mention these facts for the purpose of appealing, on a fresh ground, against the policy of mamtaining enormous standing armaments. It has been seen that armies and ships cannot protect or extend commerce ; whilst, as is too well known, the expenses of mamtaining them oppress and impede our manufacturing industry — two sufficient grounds for reducing both. There is another motive in the above facts. That feeling which was awakened by our overwhelming power at sea, at the conclusion of x 2 308 RUSSIA. the war — the feeling of fear and mistrust lest we should be, in the words of the American state paper, just quoted, " apt to feel power and forget right" — is kept alive by the operation of the same cause, which tends still, as we have seen by the last debates in the French Chamber of Deputies, to afford excuses for perpetuating the restrictive duties upon our fabrics. The standing armies and navies, therefore, whilst they cannot possibly protect our commerce — whilst they add, by the increase of taxation, to the cost of our manufactures, and thus augment the diffi- culty of achieving the victory of " cheapness" — tend to deter rather than attract customers. The feeling is natural; it is understood in the individual con- cerns of life. Does the shopkeeper, when he invites buyers to his counter, place there, as a guard to pro- tect his stock or defend his salesmen from violence, a gang of stout fellows, armed with pistols and cut- lasses ? There is a vague apprehension of danger to our shores experienced by some writers, who would not feel safe unless with the assurance that the ports of England contained ships of war ready at all times to repel an attempt at invasion. This feeling arises from a narrow and imperfect knowledge of human nature, in supposing that another people shall be found sufficiently void of perception and reflection — in short, sufficiently mad — to assail a stronger and richer empire, merely because the retributive injury, thereby inevitably entailed upon themselves, would be delayed a few months by the necessary prepara- tion of the instruments of chastisement. Such are EFFECTS OF ARMAMENTS ON COMMERCE. 309 the writers by whom we have been told that Russia was preparing an army of 50,000 men, to make a descent upon Great Britain to subjugate a population of twenty-five millions! Those people do not, in their calculations, award to mankind even the instinct of self-preservation which is given for the protection of the brute creation. The elephant is not for ever brandishing his trunk, the lion closes his mouth and conceals his claws, and the deadly dart of the reptile is only protruded when the animal is enraged ; yet we do not find that the weaker tribes — the goats, the deer, or the foxes — are given to assaulting those masters of the forest in their peaceful moods. If that which constitutes cowardice, in individuals, viz. the taking of undue and excessive precautions against danger, merits the same designation when practised by communities — then England certainly must rank as the greatest poltroon among nations. With twenty-five millions of the most robust, the freest, the richest, and most united population of Europe — enclosed within a smaller area than ever before contained so vast a number of inhabitants — placed upon two islands, which, for security, would have been chosen before any spot on earth, by the commander seeking for a Torres Vedras to contain his host — and with the experience of seven hundred years of safety, during which period no enemy has set foot upon their shores ; — yet behold the govern- ment of Great Britain maintaining mighty arma- ments, by sea and land, ready to repel the assaults of imaginary enemies ! There is no greater obstacle to cheap and good government than this feeling of 310 RUSSIA. danger, which has been created and fostered for the very purpose of misgovernment.* Instead of pandering to this unworthy passion, every journalist and public writer ought to impress upon the people of these realms, that, neither from the side of Eussia, nor from any other quarter, is this industrious, orderly, moral, and religious community threatened ; that it is only from decay and corrup- tion within, and not from external foes, that a nation of twenty-five millions of free people — speaking one language, identified by habits, traditions, and insti- tutions, governed by like laws, owning the same monarch, and placed upon an insular territory of less than 100,000 square miles — can ever be endangered. History, as we have before remarked, affords no example of a great empire — such, for instance, as Prussia— consolidated, enlightened, and moral, falling * " Nothing is worthy of more attention, in tracing the causes of political evil, than the facility with which mankind are governed by their fears, and the degree of constancy with which, under the influence of that passion, they are governed wrong. The fear of Englishmen to see an enemy in their country, has made them do an infinite number of things which had a much greater tendency to bring enemies into their country than to keep them away. "In nothing, perhaps, have the fears of communities done them so much mischief as in the taking of securities against enemies. When sufficiently frightened, bad Governments found little difficulty in persuading them that they never could have securities enough. Hence come large standing armies, Bnormous military establishments, and all the evils which follow in their train. Such are the effects of taking too much security against enemies." — JEncy. Brit. New edition. Vol. vii. p. 122. COST OF THE ARMED PROTECTION OF COMMERCE. 31 1 a prey to barbarous invaders. But the British, empire, with, more than double the population and twenty times the wealth, possesses in the sea-girt nature of its situation, a thousand times the security of Prussia. To attempt to augment such a measure of safety by oppressive armaments, by land and sea- is it the part of wisdom and prudence, or of impro- vidence and folly ? But to return to that course of inquiry from which our argument has slightly swerved. We recur' to the subject of protecting our commerce by armed ships; and it becomes necessary next to examine, whether, even supposing our naval force could defend our trade against the attacks of rivals, (which we have conclusively proved it cannot,) the cost of its protection does not, in some cases, more than absorb the gain of such traffic. The real or declared value of all the British manufactures and other produce exported to the Mediterranean, including the coast of Africa and the Black Sea, will, this year, amount to about £9,500,000. Under the groundless plea of protecting this commerce, we find, from the United Service Journal of June 1st, that a naval armament, mounting more than 1300 guns, being upwards of a third of the national force, is stationed within the Straits of Gibraltar. Taking the annual cost of the entire British navy at five millions, if we apportion a third part of this amount, and add the whole cost of the fortifications and garrisons of the Mediterra- nean, with their contingents at the war office, ordi- nance, &c, we shall be quite safe and within the mark, in estimating that our yearly expenditure in 312 RUSSIA. guarding the commerce of this sea, amounts to upwards of three millions sterlings or one-third of our exports to those quarters. Now, what kind of a business would a wholesale dealer or merchant pro- nounce it, were his traveller's expenses, for escort alone, to come to 6s. 8c?.* in the pound on the amount of his sales ! Yet this is precisely the unprofitable character of our yearly trade to the * We shall offer no excuses for so frequently resolving ques- tions of State policy into matters of pecuniary calculation. Nearly all the revolutions and great changes in the modern world have had a financial origin. The exaction of the tenth penny operated far more powerfully than the erection of the Council of Blood, to stir the Netherlander into rebellion in 1569 against the tyranny of Charles V. Charles I. of England lost his head, in consequence of enforcing the arbitrary tax called ship-money. The independence of America, and indirectly through that event, all the subsequent political revolutions of the entire world, turned upon a duty of threepence a pound, levied by England upon tea imported into that colony. Louis XVI. of France, when he j summoned the first assembly of the Estates- General, did so with the declared object of consulting with them upon the financial embarrassments under which his Government was labouring : that was the first of a series of definite changes which eventually cbst the king his life, and Europe twenty years of sanguinary wars. The second Erench Eevolution, in 1830, was begun by the printers, who were deprived of the means of subsistence by the Ordinances of Charles X. against the press. How much of our own Reform Bill was the fruits of a season of distress ? Remembering that to nineteen-twentieths of the people (who never encounter a higher functionary than the tax-gatherer, and who meet their rulers only in duties upon beer, soap, tobacco, &c) politics are but an affair of pounds, shillings, and pence, we need not feel astonished at sueh facts as the preceding. COST OF THE ARMED PROTECTION OF COMMERCE. 313 Mediterranean. Most people approach the investi- gation of a nation's affairs with the impression that they do not come under the same laws of common- sense and homely wisdom by which private concerns are governed— than which nothing can be more erroneous. America, which carries on a traffic one- half as extensive as Great Britain, with only a sixth* * The following is the American navy in commission, February 27, 1836 : — One ship of the line, four frigates, eleven sloops, six small vessels ; and this after a threatened rupture with France, when every arrival from Europe might have brought a declaration of war ! Compare this statement with the fact, that the British Government, with a force, at the same time, more than sixfold that of the United States, demanded an increase of more than the entire strength of the American navy, and with the same breath avowed the assurance of permanent peace ; and let it be remembered, too, that the House of Commons voted this augmen- tation, under the pretence of protecting our commerce ! A few plain maxims may be serviceable to those who may in future have occasion to allude to the subject of commerce, in kings' speeches, or other state papers. To make laws for the regulation of trade, is as wise as it would be to legislate about water finding a level, or matter exercising its centripetal force. So far from large armaments being necessary to Becure a regu- larity of supply and demand, the most obscure province on the west coast of America, and the smallest island in the South Pacific, are, in proportion to their wants, as duly visited by buyers and sellers as the metropolis of England itself. The only naval force required in a time of peace for the pro- tection of commerce, is just such a number of frigates and small vessels as shall form an efficient sea police. If government desires to serve the interests of our commerce, it has but one way. "War, conquest, and standing armaments cannot aid, but only oppress trade ; diplomacy will never assist it commercial treaties can only embarrass it. The only mode 314 RUSSIA. of our navy expenses, and with no charge for main- taining colonies or garrisons, is, every year, realizing a profit to her people beyond that of her extravagant rival, in proportion to her more economical estab- lishments; just exactly in the same way that the merchant or shopkeeper who conducts his business at a less cost for rent, clerks, &c. will, at each stock- taking, find his balance-sheet more favourable than that of his less frugal competitor. And the result will be in the one case as the other — that the cheaper management will produce cheaper commodities; which, in the event, will give a victory, in every market, to the more prudent trader. But if, instead of the Mediterranean generally, we apply this test to an individual nation situated on that sea, we shall be able to illustrate the matter more plainly. In the same work from which we have before quoted, we find it stated that there are (June 1st) thirteen British ships of war lying at Lisbon, carrying 372 guns ; a force about equal to the whole American navy employed in protecting the interests of that commercial people all over the world: That part of our annual navy estimates which goes to support this amount of guns, with contingent expenses fairly proportioned, will reach about £700,000. Turning to M'Culloch's Commercial Dictionary, (article, Oporto), we find that the de- clared value of exports of British manufactures and by which the Government can protect and extend our commerce, is by retrenchment, and a reduction of the duties and taxes upon the in- gredients of our manufactures and the food of our artisans. COST OF THE ARMED PROTECTION OF COMMERCE. 31 5 produce to the entire kingdom of Portugal, reached, in 1831, (the latest year we have at this moment access to), £975,991. Here then we find, even allowing for increase, the escort costing nearly as much as the amount sold. In a word, Portugal is, at this moment, 'paying us at the rate of £500,000 a-year clear and dead loss! Our commerce with that country, on this 1st June, was precisely of the same ruinous character to the British nation as it would be in the case of an individual trader who turned over twenty thousand a-year, and whose expenses in clerks, watchmen, rents, &c. were £15,000. If anything could add to the folly of such conduct — conduct which, if proved against an indi- vidual brought before an insolvent debtors' tribunal, would be enough to consign him to prison — it is, to recollect that no part of such a nautical force can possibly be of the slightest service to our trade with Portugal, which is wholly independent of such coer- cion. Even our foreign secretary — a functionary who, during the last hundred and fifty years, has travelled abroad for this commercial empire with no other result to the national ledger but eight hundred millions of bad debts— has, we are happy to see, dis- covered this truth ; for, on being questioned by Mr. Eobinson, in the House,* as to a recent grateful augmentation of duties, upon British goods, amount- ing to 14 per cent., by the Government of Lisbon, our present foreign secretary, Lord Palmerston, avowed that the Portuguese were free to put what- ever restraints they chose upon our trade with their f House of Commons' Eeport, June 6, 316 RUSSIA. country ; and he merely threatened, if the tariff was not satisfactory, that he would attack them — how do our readers suppose?— with the thunder of our ships in the Tagus? — with soldiers and sailors? — with grape, musketry, shot, shell, and rocket? — all of which we provide for the protection of our commerce ? No — with retaliatory duties I To proceed to a worse case. On the 1st June, our naval force, on the West India station (see United Service Journal), amounted to 29 vessels, carrying 474 guns, to protect a commerce just exceeding two millions per annum. This is not all. A considerable military force is kept up in those islands, which, with its contingent of home expenses at the War Office, Ordnance Office, &c, must also be put to the debit of the same account. Add to which, our civil ex- penditure, and the charges at the Colonial Office on behalf of the West Indies ; and we find, after due computation, that our whole expenditure, in governing and protecting the trade of those islands, exceeds, considerably, the total amount of their imports of our produce and manufactures. Our case here is no better than that of Jenkins & Sons, or Jobson & Co., or any other firm, whose yearly returns are less than the amount of their expenses for travellers, clerks, &c. ; and, if the British empire escapes the ruin which, at the close of the year, must inevitably befall those improvident traders, it is only because we have other markets and resources — the Americas, and Asia, and the productive industry of these islands — to draw upon, to cover the annual loss sustained by our West India possessions. (?) COST OF THE ARMED PROTECTION OF COMMERCE. 317 Or, for another parallel case, let our readers sup- pose that a Yarmouth house, engaged in the herring trade, were to maintain, besides the fishermen who, with their boats and nets, were employed in catching the fish, as many yachts, full of well-dressed lookers on, as should cost a sum equal to the value of all the herrings caught : that house would, at the end of the year, have sacrificed the whole of the money paid for the labour of the fishermen, besides the interest and wear and tear of the capital in boats, nets, &c. This is precisely the situation of our commerce with the West Indies at this moment. The British nation — the productive classes — pay, in taxation, as much to support well-dressed lookers on, in ships of war, garrisons, and civil offices, as their goods sell for to the West Indians : and, consequently, the whole amount expended for wages and material, together with the wear and tear of machinery, and loss of capital incurred in making cottons, woollens, &c, besides the hire of merchants' ships and seamen, to convey the merchandise to market — is irredeemably lost to the tax-payers of this country.* Here is a plain statement of the case ; and in America, where everything is subjected to the test of common sense, * We invite the attention of public spirited members of Par- liament to these facts ; they are submitted for the investigation of the conductors of the newspaper press. Every Chamber of Commerce in the kingdom is interested in the subject ; this is not a question of party politics, but of public business. Every prudent trader must feel outraged at such a display of reckless extravagance by a commercial people ; nay, every economical labourer and frugal housewife must be scandalised by this waste- ful misdirection of the industry of the state. 318 RUSSIA. the question would be at once determined by such an appeal to the homely wisdom of every-day life. If, in that country, it could be shewn that a traffic be- tween New York and Cuba, to the yearly amount of ten millions of dollars, was conducted at a cost to the community, of the same amount of taxation, it would be put down by one unanimous cry of outraged prudence, from Maine to Louisiana. And how long will it be, before the policy of the Government of this manufacturing and commercial nation shall be deter- mined by at least as much calculation and regard for self-interest as are necessary to the prosperity of a private business? Not until such time as Englishmen apply the same rules of common sense to the affairs of state, that they do to their individual undertakings. We will not stop to inquire of what use are those naval armaments to protect a traffic with our own territory ? It is customary, however, to hear our standing army and navy defended, as necessary for the protection of our colonies, as though some other nation might otherwise seize them. Where is the enemy (?) that would be so good .as to steal such property ? We should consider it to be quite as ne- cessary to arm in defence of our national debt ! Enough has been said to prove that, even if arma- ments for the protection of commerce could effect the object for which they are maintained, (although we have shewn the false pretensions of the plea of defending our trade), still the cost of supporting these safeguards may often be greater than the amount of profit gained. This argument applies more imme- diately to Turkey and the east; upon which countries COST OF THE ARMED PROTECTION OF COMMERCE. 319 a share of public attention has lately been bestowed, far beyond the importance of their commerce.* It would be difficult to apportion the precise quota of our ships of war, which may be said to be, at this moment, maintained with a view to support our * Pitt — whose views of commercial policy were, at the com- mencement of his career, before he was drawn into the vortex of war by a selfish oligarchy, far more enlightened and liberal than those of his great political opponents, (as witness the opposition by Burke and Fox to his French treaty, on the vulgar ground that the two nations were natural enemies), entertained a just opinion of the comparative unimportance of the trade of the east of the Mediterranean, after the growth of our cotton manufac- tures and the rise of the United States had given a new direction to the great flood of traffic. " Of the importance of the Levant trade," said Mr. Pitt, (see Hansard's Par. Hist. vol. xxxvi., p. 59,) "much had formerly been said ; volumes had been written upon it, and even nations had gone to war to obtain it. The value of that trade, even in the periods to which he had alluded, had been much exaggerated ; but even supposing those statements to have been correct, they applied to times when the other great branches of our trade, to which we owe our present greatness and our naval superiority, did not exist: he alluded to the great increase of our manufactures — to our great internal trade — to our commerce with Ireland — with the "United States of America ; it was these which formed the sinews of our strength, and, compared with which, the Levant trade was trifling." This was spoken in 1801 ; since which time, our trade with the United States has increased threefold ; and, by the emancipation of South American colonies, another conti- nent, of still greater magnitude, offers us a market which throws, by its superior advantages, those of the Levant and Turkey into comparative insignificance, and adds proportionably to the force of the argument in the above quotation. Tet we have statesmen of our day, who seem to have scarcely recognised the existence of America ! 320 RUSSIA. influence, or carry into effect the views of our foreign Secretary in the affairs of Constantinople. The late augmentation of the navy — the most exceptionable vote which has passed a Eeformed House of Commons — although accomplished by the Ministry without explanation of its designs, further than the century-old pretence of protecting our commerce,* was generally believed to have been aimed at Russia in the Black Sea. Our naval force in the east was considerable previously ; but, taking only the increase into calcu- lation, it will cost more than three times the amount of the current profits of our trade with Turkey, whilst it can bestow no prospective benefits ; since, even if we possessed Constantinople ourselves, we should only be able to command its trade by selling, as at Gibraltar, cheaper than other people. Our nautical * Two letters have since been published in the Manchester Guardian, May 28, which are written by Lord Durham, and addressed to Mr. Gisborne, the British consul at Petersburgh, giving the most positive assurances that no interruption will take place in our friendly commercial relations with Russia. Will the navy be reduced ? We may apply the lines of Gay, written upon standing armies, a century ago, to sailors : " Soldiers are perfect devils in their way — When once they're raised, they're deuced hard to lay." Apropos of soldiers. In 1831, during the progress of the Reform Bill, and when the country was upon the eve of a new election, in which, owing to the excitement of the people, tumults were justly to be dreaded, an augmentation of the army, to the extent of 7680 men, was voted by the Parliament. Mr. Wynn, the then War Secretary, declared that this increase had no re- ference to Continental affairs. He should be rejoiced, he said, if the causes which led to this augmentation should cease, and enable the Government to reduce the estimates, before the end of three months. JVo reduction yet — 1896 ! Where is Mr. Hume ? CONSEQUENCES OF BRITISH "WARS. 321 establishments devoted to the (pretended) guardian- ship of British commercial interests (for we can have no other description of interests a thousand miles off) in Turkey, are, the present year, costing the tax-payers of this country, upon the lowest computation, more than three times the amount of the annual profit of our trade with that country. Not content with this state of things, which leaves very little chance of future gain, some writers and speakers would plunge us into a war with Russia, in defence of Turkey, for the purpose of protecting this commerce ; the result of which would inevitably be, as in former examples of wars undertaken to defend Spain or Portugal, that such an accumulation of expenses would ensue, as to prevent the possibility of the future profit upon our exports to the Ottoman empire even amounting to so much as should discharge the yearly interest of the debt contracted in its behalf. We had intended and were prepared to give a summary of the wars- — their causes and commercial consequences — in which Great Britain has been, during the last century and a half, from time to time, engaged ; but we are admonished that our limited space will not allow us to follow out this design. It must suffice to offer, as the moral of the subject, that, although the conflicts in which this country has, during the last 150 years, involved itself, have, as Sir Henry Parnell* has justly remarked, in almost every instance, been undertaken in behalf of our commerce — yet, we hesitate not to declare that there is no instance re- corded in which a favourable tariff, or a beneficial * " Financial Keform." VOL. I. Y 322 Russia. • commercial treaty, lias been extorted from an un- willing enemy at the point of the sword. On the contrary, every restriction that embarrasses the trade of the whole world, all existing commercial jealousies between nations, the debts that oppress the countries of Europe, the incalculable waste owing to the mis- directed labour and capital of communities — these, and a thousand other evils, that are now actively thwarting and oppressing commerce, are all the consequences of wars! How shall a profession which withdraws from productive industry the ablest of the human race, and teaches them, systematically, the best modes of destroying mankind — which awards honours only in proportion to the number of victims offered at its sanguinary altar — which overturns cities, ravages farms and vineyards, uproots forests, burns the ripened harvest — which, in a word, exists but in the absence of law, order, and security : — how can such a profession be favourable to commerce, which increases only with the increase of human life — whose parent is agriculture, and which perishes or flies at the approach of lawless rapine ? Besides, they who propose to influence, by force, the traffic of the world, forget that affairs of trade, like matters of conscience, change their very nature, if touched by the hand of violence : for as faith, if forced, would no longer be religion, but hypocrisy ; so commerce becomes rob- bery, if coerced by warlike armaments.* If, then, * "To me it seems that neither the obtaining nor the retaining of any trade, however valuable, is an object for which men may justly spill each other's blood; that the true and sure means of extending and securing commerce, is the goodness and cheapness of commodities ; and that the profit of no trade can ever be equal CONSEQUENCES OF BRITISH WARS. 323 war has, in past times, in no instance served the just interests 'of commerce, whilst it has been the sole cause of all its embarrassments ; if, for the future, when trade and manufactures are brought under the empire of "cheapness," it can still less protect, whilst its cost will yet more heavily oppress it ; and having seen that, if war could confer a golden harvest of gain upon us, instead of this unmixed catalogue of evils, it would still be not profit but plunder; — having demonstrated these truths, surely we may hope to be spared a repetition of the mockery offered to this commercial empire, at the hands of its go- vernment and legislature, in the proposal to protect our commerce, by an increase of the royal navy ! On behalf of the trading world, an indissoluble alliance is proclaimed with the cause of peace ; and, if the unnatural union be again attempted, of that daughter of Peace, Commerce, whose path has ever been strewed with the choicest gifts of religion, civilization, and the arts, with the demon of carnage, War, loaded with the maledictions of widows and orphans, reeking with the blood of thousands of millions * of victims, to the expense of compelling it, and of holding it by fleets and armies." — Franklin's letter to Lord Howe, quoted in Hughes' His- tory of England, vol. xv. p. 254. * Burke, in his first production — A Vindication of Natural Society — sums up his estimate of the loss of human life, by all the wars of past ages, at seventy times the population of the globe. It is not a little lamentable to reflect, that this great genius, among other inconsequential acts of his life, afterwards contri- buted, more than any other individual, to fan the flame of the French revolutionary wars, in which several millions more were added to his dismal summary of the victims of "glory." {?) y2 324 „ russia. with feet fresh from the smoking ruins of cities, whose ears delight in the groans of the dying, and whose eyes love to gloat upon the dead: —if such an unholy union be hereafter proposed, as the humblest of the votaries of that commerce which is destined to rege- nerate and unite the whole world — we will forbid the bans ! It was our intention, had space permitted it, to have proved, from facts which we had prepared for the purpose, that no class or calling, of whatever rank in society, has ever derived substantial or per- manent advantage from war. The agriculturist, indeed, might be supposed to be interested in that state of things which yielded an augmentation of price for his produce ; and so he might, if hostilities were constant and eternal. But war is, at best, but a kind of intermittent fever ; and the cure or death of the patient must at some time follow. This simile may be justly applied to the condition of the farmer during the French wars, and subsequently ; at which former period, exposed to the effects of the bank restriction, of enormous loans, and of paper issues, the pulsation of prices sometimes alternated bienni- ally, with dreadful consequences to ike febrile sufferer, the agriculturist. What management or calculation, on the part of the farmer, could be proof against such fluctuations in the markets— arising from continental battles, or the violence or wickedness of a powerful and corrupt government as we find when wheat, which, in 1798, averaged £2. 10s 3d a-quarter, had, in 1800, reached £5. 13s 7c7, and again sold, in 1802^ CONSEQUENCES OF BRITISH WARS. 325 at £3. 7s tad', a state of things which exposed the capitalist and the adventurer, the prudent man and the gambler, to one common fate of suffering and ruin? The dull and, to many, fatal peace, brought a state of convalescence more intolerable than the excitement of war. After more than twenty years of this latter species of suffering, the invalid is even now scarcely cured ; —will he permit his wounds to be re-opened, merely that he may again undergo the self-same healing process ? But the great majority of agriculturists, the labourers, so far from deriving any advantages from it, suffered grievously from the effects of that war which is sometimes excused or palliated on account of the pretended benefits it con- ferred upon the " landed interest." Whilst the prices of every commodity of food and clothing were rising, in consequence of the deprecia- tion of the currency, and other causes incidental to the state of war, the labourers' earnings continued pretty much the same. The consequence was, that bread sometimes became a luxury, as is now the case in Ireland, too dear for the English husbandman's resources ; that the cruel salt-tax interposed a barrier between him and that necessary of life, which fre- quently compelled him, when providing his winter's stock of provisions, to exchange one-half of his pig for the means of curing the other ; that good beer rose to a price nearly as prohibitory to the peasant's palate, as port wine; and that, owing to the high cost of clothing, he possessed little more change of habili- ments than the Russian serf of the present day. What greater proof can be required that war prices conferred 326 Russia. no blessings upon the husbandmen, than is afforded in the fact, that the poor rates were the heaviest in the agricultural districts, at a time when wheat was at its highest market price ? In a word, at no period were the peasantry of this country enjoying so great an amount of comforts as they possess at this time ; and the primary cause of which is, the twenty years' duration of peace. Had we space to enter upon the statistics of our trade and manufactures, it would be easily shewn, by an appeal to a comparison of the bankruptcies in times of peace and war ; by reference to the past and present condition of our manufacturing districts, as exemplified in the relative amounts of poor-rate, crime, and turbulence among the working classes; and in the comparative prosperity of the capitalists and employers — that these vital interests have no solid prosperity excepting in a time of peace. We feel that there is little necessity for enlarging upon this point : the manufacturing population do not re- quire to be informed that they can derive no benefit from wars. So firmly are they convinced of the advantages of peace, that we venture to affirm, in the behalf of every thinking man of this the most important body in the kingdom, (in reference to our external and commercial policy), that they will not consent to a declaration of war, in defence of the trade of Turkey,* or for any other object, except to repel an act of aggression upon ourselves. * At a meeting of a literary society, of which the author is a member, the subject of discussion lately was — " "Would, or would not, the interests of the civilized world, and those of England in PROBABLE RESULT OF ANOTHER WAR. 327 A very small number of the shipowners — men who are sufficiently old to be able to look back to the time when the British navy swept the seas of their rivals — entertain an indistinct kind of hope that hostilities would, by putting down competition, again restore to them a monopoly of the ocean. This impression can only exist in minds ignorant altogether of the changes which have taken place in the world since the time when the celebrated Orders in Council were issued, thirty years ago. The United States, containing twice the population of that period, and the richest inhabi- tants in the world, with a mercantile marine second in magnitude only to our own, and with a government not only disburthened of debt, but inconveniently loaded with surplus riches — the United States will never again submit, even for a day, to tyrannical mandates levelled against their commerce at the hands of a British cabinet. The first effects, then, of another European war, in which England shall become un- wisely a party, must be, that America will profit at our expense, by grasping the carrying trade of Europe ; and the consequences which would, in all probability, ultimately follow, are, that the manufacturing and trading prosperity of this empire will pass into the hands of another people — the due reward of the particular, be promoted by the conquest of Turkey by Eussia ?" "Which, after an interesting debate, on the part of a body of as intelligent individuals as can be found in a town more deeply in- terested in the question than any in the kingdom, was decided affirmatively. The assumed possession was alone considered as affecting the interests of society. The morality of the aggression was not the question entertained, and, therefore, did not receive the sanction of the society. 328 Russia. peaceful wisdom of their government, and the just chastisement of the warlike policy of our own. We are, then, justified in the assertion that no class or calling of society can derive permanent benefit from war. Even the aristocracy, which, from holding all the offices of the State, profited exclusively by the honours and emoluments arising from past hostilities, would derive no advantages from future conflicts. The governing power is now wholly transferred to the hands of the middling class ; and, although time may be necessary to develope all the effects of this complete subversion of the former dominant influence, can any one for a moment doubt, that one of its consequences will be to dissipate among that more numerous but now authoritative class, those substan^ tial fruits of power, the civil and military patronage, which, under the self-same circumstances, were pre- viously enjoyed exclusively by the aristocracy ? The electors of the British empire are much too numerous a body to possess interests distinct from those of the rest of their countrymen ; and, as the nation at large can never derive advantages from war, we regard the Reform Bill, which has virtually bestowed upon the ten-pounders of this country the guardianship of the temple of Janus, to be our guarantee, for all future time, of the continuance of peace. Before concluding, let us, in a very few words, recur to the subject more immediately under consi- deration. It has been customary to regard the ques- tion of the preservation of Turkey, not as an affair admitting of controversy, but as one determined by the wisdom of our ancestors ; and the answer given NON-INTERVENTION IN FOEEION WARS. 329 by Chatham, that "with those who contended we had no interest in preserving Turkey he would not argue," may probably be quoted to us. The last fifty years have, however, developed secrets for the guid- ance of our statesmen, which, had that great man lived to behold them, he would have profited by ; he, at least, would not view this matter through the spectacles of his grandfather, were he now presiding at the helm of the state, and surrounded by the glare of light which our past unprofitable wars, the present state of the trade of the colonies, and the preponder- ating value of our commerce with free America,* throw around the question of going to war in defence of a nook of territory more than a thousand miles distant, and over which we neither possess nor pretend to have any control. That question must now be decided solely by reference to the interests of the people of this country at this present day, which we have proved are altogether on the side of peace and neutrality. Our inquiry is not as to the morality or injustice of the case — that is not an affair between Eussia and ourselves, but betwixt that people and the Great Euler of all nations ; and we are no more called upon, by any such considerations, to wrest the attribute of vengeance from the Deity, and deal it * It will be apparent to any inquiring mind, which takes the trouble to investigate the subject, that our commerce with Ame- rica is, at this time, alone sustaining the wealth and trade of these realms. Our colonies do not pay for the expenses of protecting and governing them ; leaving out of the question the interest of the debt contracted in conquering them. Europe has been a still more unprofitable customer. 330 RUSSIA. forth upon the northern aggressor, than we are to preserve the peace and good behaviour of Mexico, or to chastise the wickedness of the Ashantees. It has been no part of our object to advocate the right of Kussia to invade Turkey or any other state ; nor have we sought to impart too favourable a col- ouring to our portraiture of the government or people of the former empire ; but what nation can fail to stand out in a contrast of loveliness, when relieved by the dark and loathsome picture which the Ottoman territory presents to the eye of the observer ? It ought not to be forgotten that Eussian civilization (such as it is at this day) is a gain from the empire of bar- barism ; that the population of that country, however low its condition may now be, was, at no former period, so prosperous, enlightened, or happy, as now ; and that its rapid increase in numbers is one of the surest proofs of a salutary government : whilst, on the other side, it must be remembered that Mahome- tanism has sat, for nearly four centuries, as an incubus upon the fairest and most renowned regions of the earth ; and has, during all that period, paralyzed the intellectual and moral energies of the noblest portions of the human species ; under whose benumbing sway those countries which, in former ages, produced So- lomon, Homer, Longinus, and Plato, have not given one poetic genius or man of learning to the world — beneath which the arts have remained unstudied by the descendants of Phidias and Praxiteles;, whilst labour has ceased where Alexandria, Tyre, and Col- chis, formerly flourished, and the accumulation of wealth is unknown in the land where Croesus himself NON-INTERVENTION IN FOREIGN WARS. 331 once eclipsed even the capitalists of the modern world.* If we refer to the criterion afforded by the comparison of numbers, we shall find, in the place of the over- flowing population which, in former ages, poured out from these regions to colonize the rest of the world, nothing but deserted wastes and abandoned cities ; and the spectacle of the inhabitants of modern Tur- key melting away, whilst history and the yet existing ruins of empires attest the richness and fertility of its soil, affords incontestable proof of the destructive and impoverishing character of the government of Constantinople. Our object, however, in vindicating Russia from the attacks of prejudice and ignorance, has not been to transfer the national hatred to Turkey, but to neutralise public feeling, by shewing that our only wise policy — nay, the only course consistent with the instinct of self-preservation — is to hold ourselves al- together independent of and aloof from the political relations of both these remote and comparatively barbarous nations. England, with her insular terri- tory, her consolidated and free institutions, and her civilized and artificial condition of society, ought not to be, and cannot be, dependent for safety or pros- * It is a saying of Montesquieu, that " Q-od Almighty must have intended Spain and Turkey as examples to shew to the world what the finest countries may become when inhabited by slaves." Yet these two nations are now the objects of British protection, and the source of considerable annual expenditure to the people of these realms ; whilst the statu quo of Turkey seems to be the aim of our politicians. In speaking of the cost of our interference in Spain, we assume (safely enough) that the loan of arms by the British Government will not be repaid. 332 eussia. perity upon the conduct of Eussia or Turkey ; and she will not, provided wisdom governs her counsels, enter into any engagements so obviously to the dis- advantage of her people, as to place the peace and happiness of this empire at the mercy of the violence or wickedness of two despotic rulers over savage tribes more than a thousand miles distant from our shores. " While the Government of England takes ' peace ' for its motto, it is idle to think of supporting Turkey/'* says one of the most influential and active agitators in favour of the policy of going to war with Eussia. In the name of every artisan in the kingdom, to whom war would bring the tidings, once more, of suffering and despair ; in the behalf of the peasantry of these islands, to whom the first cannon would sound the knell of privation and death ; on the part of the ca- pitalists, merchants, manufacturers, and traders, who can reap no other fruits from hostilities but bankruptcy and ruin; in a word, for the sake of the vital interests of these and all other classes of the community, we solemnly protest against Great Britain being plunged into war with Eussia, or any other country, in defence of Turkey — a war which, whilst it would inflict dig- asters upon every portion of the community, could not bestow a permanent benefit upon any class of it ; and one upon our success in which, no part of 'the civilized world would have cause to rejoice. Having the interests of all orders of society to support our argument in favour of peace, we need not dread war. These, and not the piques of diplomatists, the whims of crowned heads, the intrigues of ambassadresses, or * '• England, France, Russia, and Turkey," 5th edition, p. 149. NON-INTERVENTION IN FOREIGN WARS. 333 schoolboy rhetoric upon the balance of power, will henceforth ^determine the foreign policy of our go- vernment. That policy will be based upon the bona fide principle (not Lord Palmerston's principle) of non-intervention in the political affairs of other nations; and from the moment this maxim becomes the load- star by which our government shall steer the vessel of the state — from that moment the good old ship Britannia will float triumphantly in smooth and deep water, and the rocks, shoals, and hurricanes of foreign war are escaped for ever. If it be objected, that this selfish policy disregards the welfare and improvement of other countries — which is, we cordially admit, the primary object of many of those who advocate a war with Russia, in defence of Turkey, and for the restoration of Poland — we answer, that, so far as the objects we have in view are concerned, we join hands with nearly every one of our opponents. Our desire is to see Poland happy, Turkey civilized, and Eussia conscientious and free ; it is still more our wish that these ameliorations should be bestowed by the hands of Britain upon her less instructed neighbours : so far the great majority of our opponents and ourselves are agreed ; — how to accomplish this beneficent purpose, is the question whereon we differ. They would resort to the old method of trying, as Washington Irving says, " to promote the good of their neighbours, and the peace and happiness of the world, by dint of the cudgel." Now, there is an unanswerable objection to this method : experience is against it ; it has been tried for some thousands of years, and has always been 334 eussia. found to fail. But, within our own time, a new light has appeared, which has penetrated our schools and families, and illuminated our prisons and lunatic asylums, and which promises soon to pervade all the institutions and relations of social life. We allude to that principle which, renouncing all appeals, through brute violence, to the mere instinct of fear, addresses itself to the nobler and far more powerful qualities of our intellectual and moral nature. This principle — which, from its very nature as a standard, tends to the exaltation of our species, has abolished the use of the rod, the fetters, the lash, and the strait waistcoat, and which, in a modified degree, has been extended even to the brute creation, by substituting gentleness for severity in the management of horses* and the treatment of dogs — this principle we would .substitute for the use of cannon and musketry, in attempting to improve or instruct other communities. In a word, our opponents would " promote the good of their neighbours by dint of the cudgel :" we pro- pose to arrive at the same end by means of our own national example. Their method, at least, cannot be right ; since it assumes that they are at all times competent to judge of what is good for others — which they are not : whilst, even if they were, it would be still equally wrong ; for they have not the jurisdiction over other states which authorizes them to do them even good by force of arms. If so, the United States and Switzerland might have been * See the volume on The Horse, published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, for the stress laid upon the superiority of mild treatment in the breaking of that animal. _ NON-INTERVENTION IN FOREIGN WARS. 335 justified, during the prodigal reign of George IV., in making an economical crusade against England, for the purpose of " cudgelling " us out of our ex- travagance and into their frugality, which, no doubt, would have been doing good to a nation of debtors and spendthrifts ; instead of which, those countries persevered in their peaceful example. And we have seen the result : Swiss economy has enabled its people to outvie us in cheapness, and to teach us a lesson of frugal industry on our own fortress of Gibraltar. It is thus that the virtues of nations operate both by example and precept: and such is the power and rank they confer, that vicious communities, like the depraved individual, are compelled to reform, or to lose their station in the scale of society. States will all turn moralists, in the end, in self-defence. Apply this principle to Russia, which, we will suppose, had conquered Turkey. Ten years, at least, of turbulence and bloodshed would elapse before its fierce Mahometan inhabitants submitted to their Christian invaders ; which period must be one of continued exhaustion to the nation. Suppose that, at the end of that time, those plundered possessions became tranquillized ; and the government, which had been impoverished by internal troubles, began to reflect and to look abroad for information as to the course of policy it should pursue. England, which had wisely remained at peace, pursuing its reforms and improvements, would, we have a right to assume, present a spectacle of prosperity, wealth, and power, which invariably reward a period of peace. Can there be a doubt that this example of the advantages 336 Russia. to be derived from labour and improvement, over those accruing from bloodshed and rapine — presented in the happiness of the peaceful, and the misery of the warlike nation — would determine the future career of Russia in favour of industry and commerce ? The mere instinct of self-love and self-preservation must so decide. Had England, and all Europe, been plunged in war to prevent Russia from effecting her conquest, there would have been no such example of the fruits and blessings of peace at the close of hostilities, as we have here supposed her to present. The influence which example has exerted over the conduct of nations — more potent and permanent than that of the " cudgel " — might form in itself the sub- ject of a distinct and interesting inquiry. It should not be confined to the electric effects of state con- vulsions, which shock simultaneously the frame of neighbouring empires. The tranquil and unosten- tatious educational reforms in Switzerland, the temperance societies of America, and the railroads of England, exercise a sway as certain, however gradual, over the imitativeness of the whole world, as the "glorious" three days of France, or the triumph of the Reform Bill. But, however interesting the topic, our space does not allow us to pursue it further. Yet, even whilst we write, a motion is making in the House of Commons for a committee to inquire into the mode in which the American government disposes of its waste lands ; a Swiss journal informed us, the other day, that, at a recent meeting of the Vorort of that country, a member called for a municipal reform measure, similar to the English Corporation Act ; and, the author's PARTING WORD. 337 in a Madrid journal, which is now before us, the writer recommends to the ministers of police a plan for numbering and lettering the watchmen of that metropolis, in imitation of the new police of London. Such is example, in a time of peace ! One word, at parting, between the author and the reader. This pamphlet, advocating peace, economy, and a moral ascendancy over brute violence, as well as deprecating national antipathies, has, as our ex- cellent and public-spirited publisher will avouch, been written without the slightest view to notoriety or gain ; (what fame or emolument can accrue from the ano- nymous publication of an eightpenny work ?) and we therefore run no risk of invidious misconception, if, in taking leave of our readers, we do so, not with the usual bow of ceremony, but after a fashion of our own. In a word, as trade and not authorship is our proper calling, they will, we hope, excuse our at- tempting to make a bargain with them before we part. And, first, for that very small portion of our friends who will only step out of their way to do an accept- able act, provided good and sufficient claims be established against them : they will compel us, then, to remind them that this petty production (which we frankly admit reveals nothing new) contains as much matter as might have been printed in a volume, and sold at above ten times its charge 5 and, therefore, if those aforesaid customers approve the quality of the article, indifferent as it is, our terms of sale are, that they lend this pamphlet to, at least, six of their acquaintances for perusal. This is the amount of our demand ; and, as we are dealing with '•'"good" vol. 1. z 338 Russia. men, we shall book the debt, with the certainty that it will be duly paid. But by far the larger portion of our readers will' be of that class who, in the words of Sterne, do good "they know not why, and care not wherefore:" to them we say — " If, in the preceding pages you dis- cover a sincere, however feeble attempt to preserve peace, and put down a gigantic national prejudice ; an honest though humble resistance to the false tenets of glory ; an ardent but inadequate effort, by proving that war «nd violence have no unison with the true interests of mankind, to emancipate our moral and intellectual nature from the domination of the mere animal propensity of combativeness ; if, in a word, you see sound views of commerce, just principles of government, freedom, improvement, morality, justice, and truth, anxiously, and yet all ineffectively advo- cated — then, and not otherwise, recommend this trifle to your friends, place it in the hands of the nearest newspaper editors, and bring it in every possible way before the eye of the public ; and do this, not for the sake of the author or the merit of his poor production, but that other and more competent writers may be encouraged to take up, with equal zeal and far greater ability, the same cause — which, we reli- giously believe, is the cause of the best interests of humanity." Attthoe's Note. — The circumstance of each of the preceding chapters having been stereotyped as soon as written, precludes the insertion of the few following words as a note in another and more appropriate part of the pamphlet. The predominant feeling entertained with reference to Eussia, and the one which has given birth to the other passions nourished SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE. 339 towards her, is that of fear— fear of the danger of an irruption of its people into western Europe, and the possibility of another destruction of civilization at the hands of those semi-barbarous tribes, similar to that of ancient Eome by their ancestors. But the Goths and Huns did not extinguish the power and greatness of the Eomans : the latter sunk a prey, not to the force of external foes, but to their own internal vices and corruptions. Those northern nations which invaded that empire, and whom we stigmatize as barbarians, were superior in the manly qualities of courage, fortitude, discipline, and temperance, to the Eoman people of their day. The Attilas and AJarics were equally su- perior to their contemporaries, the descendants of the Caesars ; and they did not sweep with the besom of destruction that devoted land, until long after the " dark, unrelenting Tiberius, the furious Caligula, the stupid Claudius, the profligate and cruel Nero, the beastly Vitellius, and the timid inhuman Domitian " had, by exterminating every ancient family of the republic, and extirpating every virtue and every talent from the minds of the people, prepared the way for the terrible punishment inflicted upon them. Modern Europe bears no resemblance, in its moral condition, to that of ancient Eome, at the time we are alluding to. On the contrary, instead of a tendency towards degeneracy, there is a recuperative principle observable in the progress of reforms and improvements of the modern world, which, in its power of rege- neration, gives ground for hope that the present and future ages of refinement will escape those evils which grew up alongside the wealth and luxury of ancient states, and ultimately destroyed them. But the application of the power of chemistry to the purposes of war furnishes the best safeguard against the future triumph of savage hordes over civilized communities. Gunpowder has for ever set a barrier against the irruption of barbarians into western Europe. "War, without artillery and musketry, is no longer pos- sible ; and these cannot be procured by such people as form the great mass of the inhabitants of Eussia. Such is the power which modern inventions in warfare confer upon armies of men, that it is no exaggeration to say, that fifty thousand Prussian soldiers, with their complement of field pieces, rockets, and musketry, are more than a match for all the savage warriors, who, with their rude weapons, at different epochs, ravaged the world, from the time of Xerxes, down to that of Tamarlane ; whilst those count- less myriads, without the aid of gunpowder, would be powerless against the smallest of the hundreds of fortified places that are now scattered over Europe. Henceforth, therefore, war is not merely an affair of men, but of men, material, and money. For some remarks upon the possibility of another irruption of barbarians, see Gibbon's Eome, ch. 8. 2 2 540 APPENDIX. EXTRACTS EKOM VARIOUS WEITEES, ILLUSTRATIVE OE THE CONDITION OE TUEKET. Indeed, it was impossible to conceive a more dismal scene of Horror and desolation than the Turkish capital now presented. Every day some new atrocities were committed, and the bodies of the victims were either hanging against the doors and walls, or lying without their heads, weltering and trampled on, in. the middle of the streets. At this season, flights of kites, vultures, and other unclean birds of prey, return after their winter's migration ; and, as if attracted by the scent of carcasses, were seen all day wheeling and hovering about, so as to cover the city like a canopy, wherever a body was exposed. By night, the equally numerous and ravenous dogs were heard about some headless body, with the most dismal howlings, or snarling and fighting over some Bkull which they were gnawing and peeling. In fact, all that Byron has feigned of Corinth, or Bruce has described of Abyssinia, or you have elsewhere read that is bar- barous, disgusting, and terrible in Eastern usages, was here realized. — A Residence in Constantinople during the Greek and Turkish Revolutions. By the Ben. B. Walsh, LL.D. HTEKISH DESOLATION. My way lay along the shores of the Hellespont j the weather had now become moderate, and the storm was succeeded by a balmy sunshine. I cannot describe to you the exquisite beauty of the undulating downs which extend along the Asiatic side of this famous sea ; the greensward sloping down to the water's edge, intersected every mile by some sweet wooded valley, running up into the country at one extremity, and terminating in the other by a romantic cove, over whose strand the lucid waves rippled. Here it was that the first picture of Turkish APPENDIX. 341 desolation presented itself to me. "While those smiling prospects which a good Providence seems to have formed for the delight of man, invite him to fix his dwelling among them, all is desert and desolate as the prairies of the Missouri. In a journey of nearly fifteen miles along the coast, and for half the length of the Hellespont, I did not meet a single human habitation ; and this in the finest climate, the most fertile soil, and once the most populous country in the world. — Walsh. A victory obtained at Patras was certified to the Sultan by the very intelligible gazette of a waggon loaded with the ears and noses of the slain, which were exposed in a heap, to gratify the feelings of pious Mussulmans. Dr. "Walsh went to see this ghastly exhibition, which he thus describes in his Residence in Constantinople : — " Here I found, indeed, that the Turks did actually take human features as the Indians take scalps, and the trophies of ears, lips, and noses, were no fiction. At each side of the gate were two piles, like small haycocks, formed of every portion of the countenance. The ears were generally perforated and hanging on strings. _The noses had one lip and a part of the forehead attached to them ; the chins had the other, with generally a long beard ; sometimes the face was cut off whole, and all the features remained together ; sometimes it was divided into scraps, in all forms of mutilation. It was through these goodly monuments of human glory the Sultan and all his train passed every day, and, no doubt, were highly gratified by the ghastly aspects they presented ; for here they were to remain till they were trampled into the mire of the street. Wherever the heaps were partly trodden down, the Turks passed over them with perfect indifference. The features, growing soft by putri- dity, continually attached themselves to their feet, and frequently a man went off with a lip or a chin sticking to his slippers, which were fringed with human beard, as if they were lined with fur. This display I again saw by accident on another occasion ; and when you hear of sacks of ears sent to Constan- tinople, you may be assured it is a reality, and not a figure of speech. But you are not to suppose they are always cut from the heads of enemies, and on the particular occasion they are sent to commemorate. The number of Greeks killed at 342 RUSSIA. Patras did not exceed perhaps one hundred ; but noses, ears, and lips, were cut indiscriminately from every skull they could find, to swell the amount." GEOGRAPHY AND THE USE OF THE GLOBES. Lord Strangford sent the Porte a valuable present. He had brought with him a pair of very large globes from England ; and, as the Turks had latterly shewn some disposition to learn languages, he thought it would be a good opportunity to teach them something else ; and he determined to send them over to the Porte, and asked me to go with them and explain their object This important present was brought over with becoming respect. A Choreash went first with his baton of office; then followed two Janissaries, like Atlases, bearing worlds upon their shoulders ; then myself, attended by our prin- cipal dragoman in full costume ; and, finally, a train of Janissaries and attendants. When arrived at the Porte, we were intro- duced to the Beis JSffendi, or Minister for Poreign Affairs, who with other ministers, were waiting for us. When I had the globes put together on their frames, they came round us with great interest ; and the Eeis EfFendi, who thought, eoc officio, he ought to know something of geography, put on his spectacles, and began to examine them. The first thing that struck them was the compass in the stand. When they observed the needle always kept the same position, they expressed great surprise, and thought it was done by some interior mechanism. It was mid- day, and the shadow of the frame of the window was on the floor. I endeavoured to explain to them that the needle was always found nearly in that direction, pointing to the north : I could only make them understand that it always turned towards the sun ! The Eeis Effendi then asked me to shew him England. When I pointed out the small comparative spot on the great globe, he turned to the rest, and said, " Keetchuk," little ; and they repeated all round, "Keetchuk," in various tones of con- tempt. But when I shewed them the dependencies of the empire, and particularly the respectable size of India, they said, " Beeyuk," with some marks of respect. I also took occasion to shew them the only mode of coming from thence to Constan- APPENDIX. 343 tinople by sea, and that a ship could not sail with a cargo of coffee from Mocha across the isthmus of Suez. The new ap- pointed dragoman of the Porte, who had been a Jew, and was imbued with a slighter tincture of information, was present ; so, after explaining to him as much as I could make him compre- hend, I left to him the task of further instructing the ministers in this new science. Indeed it appeared to me as if none of them had ever seem an artificial globe before, or even a mariner's compass. — Walsh's Constantinople. It has been often remarked, that the Turks are rather en- camped than settled in Europe. Par from improving the coun- tries they govern, they scathe everything that comes within their reach ; they destroy monuments, but build none ; and when, at length, they are driven out by the chances of war or revolution, the only traces they leave of their sway are to be found in the desolation with which they everywhere encompass themselves. They may be compared to a flight of locusts, eating up and destroying whatever they alight upon ; conferring no benefits in return ; and, at last, when swept from the face of the earth by some kindly blast, only remembered from the havoc they have committed. — Encyclopaedia Britannica, new edition, vol. iv., p. 129. — Art. Athens. The barbarous anarchic despotism of Turkey, where the finest countries in the most genial climates in the world are wasted by peace more than any countries have been worried by war ; where arts are unknown, where manufactures languish, where science is extinguished, where agriculture decays, where the human race itself melts away and perishes under the eye of the observer. — 'Burke. The following is extracted from a work published in America, under the title of Letters from Constantinople and its Environs oy an American : and attributed to the pen of Commodore Porter, the United States' ChargS d 'Affaires at the Sublime Porte : — At length we discovered, about two miles to the left of our road, a Turkish village, which may always be known by the cypress trees and the burying ground; and, soon after this, an Armenian village, which may be known by the neat cultivation, the fine shady trees, the mill-race, and an air of primitive patriarchal sort 344 bussia. of comfort which seems to be thrown over it. You can, once in a while, see, at a distance, something like a petticoat moving about ; and here are herds of cattle, flocks of sheep, goats, &c. But none of these are visible on your approach to a Turkish town, where all is still and gloomy. Shopkeepers you will find sitting cross-legged, waiting for their customers, too lazy and indolent to rise, for the purpose of taking down an article for inspection. It is a truth that I have never seen a Turk buy anything since I have been in the country. They are absolutely too indolent to buy. Neither have I ever seen a Turk work, if there is a possibility of his being idle. I have never seen one stand, if there was a possibility of his being seated. A blacksmith sits cross-legged at his anvil, and seats himself when he shoes ahorse. A carpenter seats himself when he saws, bores holes, or drives a nail, planes, dubs with his small adze, or chops with his hatchet, (I believe I have named all his tools), if it be possible to do so without standing. Nothing can be more gloomy than the appearance of things on entering a Turkish village. It is as quiet as the grave ; the streets are narrow ; the doors all shut and locked ; the windows all latticed ; not a human being to be seen in the filthy streets. A growling half-starved dog, or a bitch with her hopeful progeny, which depend for their subsistence on some depository of filth — is all you meet with of animated nature. Tou proceed through the inhospitable outskirts, despairing of meeting wherewith to satisfy the calls of nature, or a place of shelter, when you at length arrive at perhaps half a dozen filthy little shops of six feet square, in each of which you discover a solitary, squatting, silent, smoking Turk. He may glance his eyes at you, but will not turn his head : that would be too much trouble. Now, in- vestigate the contents of these shops, and you will find as follows : — five, or, perhaps, six girths, for pack-horses, made of goats' hair ; half a dozen halters for horses ; fifteen or twenty pounds of rancid Eussian butter ; a small box, containing from one to two pounds of salt, and half a pound of ground pepper. A few bars of curd cheese, looking very like Marseilles soap ; not much better in taste, and not so good for digestion. One quart of black salt olives ; half a pound of sewing twine, cut into needlefuls ; APPENDIX. 345 one clothes line ; half a dozen loaves of brown bread ; and two bunches of onions, with a string of garlick. Nine times out of ten, you will find this to be the stock in trade of a Turkish village shopkeeper : and, over this, in his pitiful box, will he sit and smoke, day after day, without seeking a purchaser, or apparently caring whether one comes or not. If one calls and asks if he has any particular article, his answer is, simply, with- out raising his eyes, " Yoke." (No.) " Can you inform me where I may procure the article ?" "Yoke." It is of no use to try to get anything more out of him. He is as silent as the grave. If he has the article asked for, he hands it to you, and names the price. "When the money is laid on the counter, he merely brushes it with his hand through the hole in the till, and then relapses into his former apathy. No compliments, no " thanks for favours received, no call again if you please.'' Not the slightest emotion can be discovered. He never raises his eyes to see who his customer is or was ; he sees nothing but the article sold, and the money ; and he would disdain to spend a breath, or perform an action that was not indispensable to the conclu- sion of the bargain Give a Turk a mat to sleep on, a pipe, and a cup of coffee, and you give him the sum total of all earthly enjoyments. The magnificent plain of Nice burst on our view. I have often dwelt with pleasure on the recollection of my agreeable surprise, when, descending the mountains at a place (I think) called the Yent of Cordova, the lovely view of the valley of Mexico first presented itself to my astonished sight. No one, I will venture to say, who has travelled from Vera Cruz to Mexico, but recollects the spot I have reference to, and felt as I have felt. Let him recall to his mind the splendour of that scene, and he may then imagine the plain of Nice, in all its fertility and beauty ; not, indeed, so extensive, but more studded with trees, and equally so with villages, and presenting a picture to the eye and the imagination not to be surpassed. But, after a painful descent from our lofty eminence, by a very steep road, we found that, like the plain of Mexico, it was distance that gave to the scenery its principal enchantment Like Mexico, everything is beautiful in the distance ; but nothing will 346 eussia. bear examination. View the scene closely, and the charm vanishes. The large and fertile fields are miles from any human habitation ; and, if a solitary being or two happen to be labour- ing near, you find them covered with rags and vermin. The shepherd, with his numerous flocks and herds, is a half-starved miserable wretch, covered with filthy sheep-skins, and disgusting to look at. His food, a dry crust, with perhaps an onion. Enter the villages, the streets are almost impassable from filth, and you meet only a ragged, dirty, squalid population of beggars. The noble fields and vineyards are the property of some hungry and rapacious lord, whose interests are confided to a cruel, hard- hearted, and rapacious aga. The few in power, revelling in affluence and splendour, have reduced the mass of the people to a degree of misery which appears insupportable. This is Turkey. EXTEACTS FEOM LAEDNEE'S CABINET CYCLOPE- DIA. HISTOEY OF POLAND. Lewis. 1370—1382. By yielding to the exorbitant demands of the turbulent and interested nobles — by increasing their privileges, and exempting them from the necessary contributions — he threw a dispropor- tionate burden on the other orders of the state, and promoted that aristocratic ascendancy before which monarch and throne were soon to bow. — P. 101. ' Hedwig. 1382—1386. The death of Lewis was speedily followed by troubles, raised chiefly by the turbulent nobles. Notwithstanding their oaths in favour of Mary and her husband Sigismund — oaths in return for which they had extorted such great concessions — they excluded both, with the design of extorting still greater from a new can- didate. Sigismund advanced to claim his rights. A civil war desolated several provinces. — P. 102. Casimib IV. 1445—1492. Under this monarch aristocracy made rapid progress in Poland. "When, on the conclusion of the war, he assembled a diet for the APPENDIX. 347 purpose of devising means of paying the troops their arrears, it was resolved to resist the demand in a way which should compel him to relinquish it. Hitherto the diets had consisted of isolated nohles, whom the king's summons or their own will had assem- bled : as their votes were irresponsible and given generally from motives of personal interest or prejudice, the advantage to the order at large had been purely accidental. Now, that order resolved to exercise a new and irresistible influence over the executive. As every noble could not attend the diet, yet as every one wished to have a voice in its deliberations, deputies were elected to bear the representations of those who could not attend What in England was the foundation of rational freedom, was in Poland subversive of all order, all good government : in the former country, representation was devised as a check to feudal aristocracy, which shackled both king and nation ; in the latter it was devised by the aristocracy them- selves, both to destroy the already too limited prerogatives of the crown, and to rivet the chain of slavery on a whole nation. — P. 121—122 This very diet annulled the humane decree of Casimir the Great, which permitted a peasant to leave his master for ill usage ; and enacted that in all cases such pea- sant might be demanded by his lord ; nay, that whoever har- boured the fugitive should be visited with a heavy fine. This, and the assumption of judicial authority over their serfs, for pea- sants they- can no longer be called, was a restoration of the worst evils of feudality. — P. 123. John Albert I. 1492 — 1506. Evils of a nature still more to be dreaded menaced the mur- muring kingdom. Aided by the Turks and Tartars, the Voivode of Wallachia, penetrated into Podolia and Polish Russia, the flourishing towns of which he laid in ashes, and returned with immense booty and 100,000 captives. — P. 125. . . . Under his reign, not only was the national independence in great peril, but internal freedom, the freedom of the agricultural class, was annihilated. At the diet of Petrikaus, (held in 1496), the selfish aristocracy decreed that henceforth no citizen or peasant should aspire to the ecclesiastical dignities, which they reserved for them- 348 EUSSIA. selves alone. The peasantry, too, were prohibited from other tribunals than those of their tyrannical masters i they were re- duced to the most deplorable slavery. — P. 127. Alexander. 1501—1506. Thus ended a reign more deplorable, if possible, than that of John Albert.— P. 129. Sigismtod I. 1506—1548. He had, however, many obstacles to encounter: neither the patriotism of his views nor the influence of his character could always restrain the restless tumults of his nobles, who, proud of their privileges and secure of impunity, thwarted his wisest views whenever caprice impelled them. Then the opposition of the high and petty nobility ; the eagerness of the former to distinguish themselves from the rest of their order, by titles as well as riches; the hostility of both towards the citizens and burghers, whom they wished to enslave as effectually as they had done the peasantry ; and, lastly, the fierceness of contention between the adherents of the reformed and old religion, filled his court with factions and his cities with discontent. — P. 136. iNTEBBEGHTna:. Heney. de Vaeois. 1572 — 1574. The death of Sigismund Augustus, the last of the Jagellos, gave the Polish nobles what they had long wanted — the privilege of electing their monarchs, and of augmenting their already enor- mous powers, by every new pacta conventa.* At first, it was expected that the election would be made by deputies only ; but, on the motion of a leading palatine, that, as all nobles were equal in the eye of the law, so all ought to concur in the choice of a ruler, it was carried by acclamation that the assembly should consist of the whole body of the equestrian order — of all at least who were disposed to attend. This was another fatal innovation ; a diet of two or three hundred members, exclusive of the senators, might possibly be managed ; but what authority could control 100,000 ?— Pp. 148—149. • Pacta conventa meant a fresh bargain which was made by the nobles at every succeeding election of a king, and by which their own powers and privi- leges were constantly augmented. APPENDIX. 349 This feeble prince soon sighed for the bants of the Seine : amidst the ferocious people whose authority he was constrained to recognize, and who despised him for his imbecility, he had no hope of enjoyment The truth is, no criminal ever longed to flee from his fetters so heartily as Henry from his im- perious subjects His flight was soon made known. . . . . A pursuit was ordered ; but Henry was already on the lands of the Empire, before he was overtaken by the grand chamberlain : to whom he presented a ring and continued his journey. — P. 157. Stephen. 1575—1586. After the deposition of Henry, no less than five foreign and two native princes were proposed as candidates for the crown. During the struggle of Stephen with his rebellious subjects, the Muscovites had laid waste Livonia. To punish their audacity, and wrest from their grasp the conquests they had made during the reign of his immediate predecessor, was now his object. War, however, was more easily declared than made ; the treasury was empty, and the nobles refused to replenish it. Of them it might truly be said, that, while they eagerly concurred in any burdens laid on the other orders of the state— on the clergy and the burghers — those burdens they would not so much as touch with one of their fingers The Polish nobles were less alive to the glory of their country, than to the preservation of their monstrous privileges, which they apprehended might be endangered under so vigilant and able a ruler. . . However signal the services which this great prince rendered to the republic, he could not escape the common lot of his predecessors — the jealousy, the opposition, and the hatred of a licentious nobility ; nor could he easily quell the tumults which arose among them. — Pp. 158, 160, 161, 165. Sigismttctd III. 1586—1632. As usual, the interregnum afforded ample opportunity for the gratification of individual revenge, and of the worst passions of our nature. The feud between Zborowskis and Zamoyskis, was more deadly than ever. Both factions appeared in the field of election, with numerous bodies of armed adherents. The former 350 RUSSIA. amounted to 10,000 ; the latter were less strong in number, but more select. — P. 167. . . . His reign was, as might be ex- pected from his character, disastrous. The loss of Moldavia and Wallachia, of a portion of Livonia, and perhaps, still more, of the Swedish crown for himself, and the Muscovite for his son, embittered his declining years. Even the victories which shed so bright a lustre over his kingdom, were but too dearly purchased by the blood and treasure expended. The internal state of Poland, during this period, is still worse. It exhibits little more than his contentions with his nobles, or with his Protestant subjects ; and the oppression of the peasants, by their avaricious, tyrannical, and insulting masters — an oppression which he had the humanity to pity, but not the vigour to alleviate. — P. 178. Ulabislas VH. (Vasa.) 1632—1648. But all the glories of this reign, all the advantages it procured to the republic, were fatally counterbalanced by the haughty and inhuman policy of the nobles towards the Cossacks. In the central provinces of the republic, their unbounded power was considerably restrained in its exercise, by their habitual residence among their serfs ; but the distant possessions of the Ukraine, never saw the face of their rapacious landlords, but were abandoned to Jews, the most unpopular and hateful of stewards Obtaining no redress from the diet —the members of whieh, how- ever jealous of their own liberties, would allow none to the people — they had laid their complaints before the throne of the late monarch, Sigismund III. "With every disposition, that monarch was utterly powerless to relieve them : Uladislas was equally well- intentioned, and equally unable to satisfy them. On one occasion, the latter prince is said to have replied to the deputies from these sons of the wilderness — " Have you no sabres ?" Whether such a reply was given them or not, both sabres and lances were speedily in requisition. Their first efforts were unsuccessful. This failure rather enraged than discouraged them ; and their ex- asperation was increased by the annihilation of their religious hierarchy, of their civil privileges, of their territorial revenues, and by their degradation to the rank of serfs — all which iniquities were done by the diet of nobles 1638. Nay, a resolution was taken, at the same time, to extirpate both their faith and them- APPENDIX. 351 selves, if they shewed any disposition to escape the bondage doomed them. Again they armed, and, by their combination, so imposed on the troops sent to subdue them, that a promise was made them of restoring the privileges which had been so wickedly and so impolitically wrested from them. Such a promise, however, was not intended to be fulfilled; the Cossacks, in revenge, made frequent irruptions into the palatinate of the grand duchy, and no longer prevented the Tartars from similar outrages. Some idea may be formed of the extent of these depredations, when it is known that, from the princely domains of one noble alone, 30,000 peasants were carried away, and sold as slaves to the Turks and Tartars. Things were in this state, when a new instance of outrageous cruelty, inflicted upon the family of a veteran Cossack, Bogdan Chmielnicki by name — whose valour under the ensigns of the republic, was known far beyond the bounds of his nation — spread the flames of insurrection from one end of the Ukraine to the other, and lent fearful force to their intensity The bolt of vengeance, so long suspended, at length fell. At the head of 40,000 Tartars, and of many times that number of Cos- sacks, who had wrongs to be redressed as well as he, and whom the tale of his had summoned around hfm with electric rapidity, he began his fearful march. Two successive armies of the re- public, which endeavoured to stem the tide of inundation, were utterly swept away by the torrent ; their generals and superior officers led away captives, and 70,000 peasants consigned to hope- less bondage. At this critical moment, expired TJladislas — a misfortune scarcely inferior to the insurrection of the Cossacks ; Tor never did a state more urgently demand the authority of such a monarch. "Under him, the republic was prosperous, notwithstanding her wars with the Muscovites and Turks ; and, had his advice been taken, the Cossacks would have remained faithful to her, and opposed an effectual barrier to the incursions of the Tartars. But eternal justice had doomed the chastisement of a haughty, tyrannical, and unprincipled aristocracy, on whom reasoning, entreaty, or remonstrance, could have no effect, and whose understandings were blinded by hardness of heart. In their conduct during these reigns, there appears something like fatality, which may be 352 Russia. explained by a maxim confirmed by all human experience. — Quern Dens vult perdere, prim dementat.* — Pp. 182 — 3 — 4t— 5. Intebbegntjm— John Casimie. 1698. Never was interregnum more fatal than that which followed the death of Uladislas. The terrible Bogdan, breathing vengeance against the republic, seized on the whole of the Ukraine, and advanced towards Eed Eussia. He was joined by vast hordes of Tartars from Bessarabia and the Crimea, who longed to assist in the contemplated annihilation of the republic. This confederacy of Mussulmans, Socinians, and Greeks, all actuated by feelings of the most vindictive character, committed excesses at which the soul revolts; — the churches and monasteries were levelled with the ground — the nuns were violated — priests were forced, under the raised poniard, not merely to contract but to consum- mate marriage with the trembling inmates of the cloisters, and, in general, both were subsequently sacrificed ; the rest of the clergy were dispatched without mercy. But the chief weight of ven- geance fell on the nobles, who were doomed to a lingering death ; whose wives and daughters were stripped naked before their eyes ; and, after violation, were whipped to death in sight of the ruthless invaders. — P. 186. Scarcely an evil can be mentioned which did not afflict the kingdom during the eventful reign of this monarch. To the horrors of invasion by so many enemies, must now be added those of domestic strife. — P. 196 In this beautiful picture of disasters abroad and anarchy at home — of carnage and misery on every side, the disbanded military now took a prominent part. — P. 197 In short, the reign of this monarch, while it exhibits a continued succession of the worst evils which have afflicted nations, is unredeemed by a single advantage to the re- public ; its only distinction is the fearfully accelerated impulse which it gave to the decline of Poland. The fact speaks little either for monarch or diet ; but he must not be blamed with undue severity ; his heart was better than his head ; and both were supe- rior to those of the turbulent, fierce, and ungovernable men who composed a body at once legislative and executive. * Those whom God would destroy, he first deprives of reason. APPENDIX. 353 Michael. 1668—1673. The first act of the diet of nobles was to declare that no Polish king should hereafter abdicate ; the fetters he might assume were thus rendered everlasting. — P. 199 At this time, no less than five armed confederacies were opposed to each other — of the great against the king — of the loyal in his favour — of the army in defence of their chief, whom Michael and his party had resolved to try, as implicated in the Prench party ; of the Lithuanians against the Poles; and, finally, of the servants against their masters— the peasants against their lords. — P. 203. John III. (Sobiesii.) 1674—1696. Though he convoked diet after diet, in the hope of obtaining the necessary supplies, diet after diet was dissolved by the fatal veto ; for the same reason, he could not procure the adoption of the many salutary courses he recommended, to banish anarchy, to put the kingdom on a permanent footing of defence, and to amend the laws. — P. 209. Pbedeeic Augustus. 1696 — 1733. Frederic Augustus died early in 1733. His reign was one con- tinued scene of disasters ; many of which may be imputed to himself, but more, perhaps, to the influence of circumstances. — P. 225. Pbedeeic Augustus II. 1733 — 1763. Though, under Prederic Augustus, Poland entered on no foreign war, his reign was the most disastrous in her annals. While the Muscovite and Prussian armies traversed her plains at pleasure, and extorted whatever they pleased ; while one faction openly opposed another, not merely in the diet but on the field ; while every national assembly was immediately dissolved by the veto ' the laws could not be expected to exercise much authority. They were, in fact, utterly disregarded ; the tribunals were divided, or forcibly overturned, and brute force prevailed on every side. The miserable peasants vainly sought the protection of their lords, who were either powerless or indifferent to their complaints. While thousands expired of hunger, a far greater number sought to relieve their necessities by open depredations. Bands of rob- VOL. I. 2 A 354 EtrssiA. bers, less formidable only than the kindred masses congregated tinder the name of soldiers, infested the country- in every direction Famine aided the devastations of both ; the population, no less than the wealth of the kingdom, decreased with frightful rapidity —P. 232. Stanislas Augustus. 1763 — 1795. During the few following years, Poland presented the spectacle of a country exhausted alike by its own dissensions and the arms of its enemies. The calm was unusual, and would have been a blessing could any salutary laws have been adopted by the diets. Many such, indeed, were proposed, the most signal of which was the emancipation of the serfs ; but the very proposition was re- ceived with such indignation by the selfish nobles, that Bussian gold was not wanted to defeat the other measures with which it was accompanied — the suppression of the veto, and the establish- ment of an hereditary monarchy. — P. 242 The republic was thus erased from the list of nations after an existence of near ten centuries. That a country without govern- ment, (for Poland had none, properly so called, after the extinction of the Jagellos, 1572,) without finances, without army, and de- pending for its existence, year after year, on tumultuous levies, ill-disciplined, ill-armed, and worse paid, should have so long preserved its independence, in defiance, too, of the powerful nations around, and with a great portion of its own inhabitants, whom ages of tyranny had exasperated, hostile to its success — is the most astonishing fact in all history. "What valour must that have been, which could enable one hundred thousand men to trample on a whole nation naturally prone to revolt, and bid defiance to Europe and Asia/ — to Christian and Mussulman, both ever ready to invade the republic ! — P. 256. 1*793 AND 1853, IN THREE LETTERS. " The passions were excited ; democratic ambition was " awakened ; the desire of power under the name of Eeform " was rapidly gaining ground among the middle ranks, and the " institutions of the country were threatened with an overthrow " as violent as that which had recently taken place in the French " monarchy. In these circumstances, the only mode of checking " the evil was by engaging in a foreign contest, by drawing off " the ardent spirits into active service, and, in lieu of the modern " desire for innovation, rousing the ancient gallantry of the Bri- " tish nation." — Alison, vol. iv. p. 7. 2 a 2 357 NOTE. Me. Cobden wrote his pamphlet on Russia mainly to combat the alarm which the supposed policy of that unwieldy empire had excited. It was therefore only natural, that, when in 1852-3, the public mind was filled with apprehensions of a French invasion, Mr. Cobden should thoroughly examine the grounds of the panic, and seek to recall the nation to a sense both of what was due to its own dignity and of the misery which could not fail to be provoked by the revival of the ancient distrust and enmity between the two countries. The series of admirable speeches which he delivered at this time will long live in the memory of his countrymen. Mr. Cobden saw a con- siderable analogy between the epoch of 1793 and that of 1853 ; for in both the same influences were at work to stimulate the fears of the people, and in both our nearest neighbour was the object of attack. The death of the Duke of Wellington, as well as the elevation of Louis Napoleon to supreme power, contributed to re-awaken the old sentiment of hostility towards France ; and, therefore, taking a typical sermon on the Iron Duke's death as, to some extent, the text of his pamphlet, Mr. Cobden proceeded to deduce from the authentic history of a former period the lessons which it taught, and to show that whatever might have been the traditions of states- 358 NOTE. men, the true interests of both nations were based upon mutual friendship and good will. This pamphlet excited the attention not only of England, but of the civilized world, and gave birth to eager discussions in every European and Ameri- can journal. It was published, in extenso, in the columns of the " The Times " and of the "Manchester Examiner." Some fifty thousand copies of a cheap edition were circulated by the Peace Congress Com- mittee alone. It passed through many editions; and its readers must have numbered hundreds of thousands. The preface which Mr. Cobden wrote for the last edition, is reproduced on the following page. 359 PREFACE. The storm of adverse criticism, with which the first appearance of this pamphlet was assailed from certain quarters, did not surprise me. My censors had joined in the cry of " a French invasion," and my argument would therefore only prove successful in proportion as it impugned their judgment. Unless I could be shown to be wrong, they could not possibly be right When the accuser is arraigned before the accused, it is.not difficult to foresee what the judgment will be. — Time can alone arbitrate between me and my opponents ; but even they must admit that the three months which have elapsed since I penned these pages have not diminished my chances of a favourable award. — I have endeavoured with all humility to profit by the strictures so liberally bestowed on the historical part of my argument, by correcting any errors into which I might have inadvertently fallen. But I am bound to state that I have not found an excuse for altering a fact, or for adding or withdrawing a single line. I have been charged with an anachronism in having designated the hostilities which terminated in 1815 as " the war of 1793." I must confess that I have regarded this objection as something veiy like a compliment, in so far at least as it may without presumption be accepted in proof of the difficulties 360 PREFACE, in the way of hostile criticism ; — for who is ignorant that Napoleon, the genius of that epoch, was brought forth and educated by us, — that he, until then an obscure youth, placed his foot upon the first step of the ladder of fame when he drove our forces from Toulon in 1793, and that it was in overcoming the coalitions created by British energy, and subsidized with English gold, that he found occasions for the display of his almost superhuman powers ? It is true that there were brief suspensions of hostilities at the peace, or, more properly speaking, the truce of Amiens, and during Bonaparte's short sojourn at Elba; but even if it were clear that Na- poleon's ambition put an end to the peace, it would prove nothing but that he had by the ordinary workings of the moral law been in the mean time " raised into a retributive agent for the chastisement of those who were the authors of the original war. I am bound however to add that, if we examine the circumstances which led to the renewal of hostilities, after the short intervals of peace, we shall find that our government showed quite as great readiness for war in 1803 and 1815, as they had done in 1793. K. C. March 22nd, 1853. 361 LETTER I. ME. COBDEN TO THE EEVEEEND December, 1852. My dear Sik, Accept my thanks for your kindness in for- warding me a copy of your Sermon upon the death of the Duke of Wellington. I am glad to observe, that like nearly all the commentators upon the achievements of the great warrior, you think it necessary to assume the fact that the war of the French Revolution was on our side defensive in its origin, and had for its object the vindication of the rights and liberties of mankind. A word or two upon that question by and by. But let us at least rejoice, that, thanks to the progress of the spirit of Christianity, we have so far improved upon the age of Froissart, as no longer to lavish our admiration upon warriors, regardless of the cause to which they may devote themselves. It is not enough now that a soldier- possesses that courage whch Gibbon designates " the cheapest and most common quality of human nature," and which a still greater* authority has declared to be the attribute of all men, he must be morally right, or he fights without our sympathy — he must present better title-deeds * " I believe every man is brave." — Duke of "Wellington, House of Lords, June 15, 1852. 362 1793 and 1853. than the record of his exploits, written in blood with the point of the sword, before he can lay claim to our reverence or admiration. This^ at least, is the doctrine now professed; and the profession of such a faith, even if our works do not quite cor- respond, is an act of homage to an advanced civili- zation. The Sermon with which you have favoured me, and which is, I presume, but one of many thousands written in the same spirit, takes still higher ground ; it looks forward to the time when the religion of Christ shall have so far prevailed over the wicked- ness of this world, that men will " beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning- hooks : nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." In the mean time, it condemns all war, excepting that which is strictly defensive, and waged in behalf of the dearest interests of humanity; it professes no sympathy for warriors, no admiration for the pro- fession of arms, and sees less glory in the achieve- ments of the most successful soldier than in the calm endurance of the Christian martyr, or the heroism of him who first ventures alone -and unarmed as the ambassador of Jesus Christ among the heathen. " But," says the sermon, " an occasion may un- doubtedly arise when a resort to arms is necessary to rescue the nations of Europe from a tyrant who has trodden their liberties under foot. At such times God has never failed to raise up an instrument to accomplish the good work: such an occasion un- doubtedly was the usurpation of Napoleon, and his BELIEF CONCERNING THE LAST FRENCH WAR. 363 deadly hostility to this country, and such an instru- ment was the Duke of Wellington." It is impossible to deny that the last extract gives expression to the opinion of the majority of the peo- ple of this country,— or at least to a majority of those who form opinions upon such matters, — as to the origin of the last war. If we were discussing the wars of the Heptarchy, the question would not, as Milton has truly observed, deserve more consideration at our hands than a battle of kites and crows. But the impression that exists in the public mind respecting the origin and history of the last French war may affect the ques- tion of peace or war for the future : — it is already giving a character to our policy towards the govern- ment and people of France. There is a prevalent and active belief among us that that war arose from an unprovoked and unjust attack made upon us ; that we were desirous of peace, but were forced into hos- tilities; that in spite of our pacific intentions, our shores were menaced with a French invasion ; and that such having been our fate, in spite of all our efforts to avoid a rupture, what so natural as to expect a like treatment from the same quarter in future? and, as a rational deduction from these premises, we call for an increase of our " national defences." Now, so far is this from being a true statement of the case, it is, I regret to say, the very opposite of the truth. I do not hesitate to affirm that nothing was ever more conclusively proved by evidence in a court of law than the fact, resting upon historical 364 1793 and 1853. documents, and official acts, that England was the aggressor in the last French war. It is not enough to say that France did not provoke hostilities. She all but went down on her knees (if I may apply such a phrase to a nation) to avert a rupture with this country. Take one broad fact in illustration of the conduct of the two countries. On the news of the insurrection in Paris, on the 10th of August, 1792, reaching this country, our ambassador was imme- diately recalled ; not on the ground that any insult or slight had been offered to him, but on the plea, as stated in the instructions transmitted to him by the foreign minister, a copy of which was presented to Parliament, that the King of France having been deprived of his authority, the credentials under which our ambassador had hitherto acted were no longer available ; and at the same time we gave the French ambassador at London notice that he would no longer be officially recognized by our government, but could remain in England only in a private capacity. How far the judgment of the present age sanctions the course our government pursued on that occasion may be known by comparing our conduct then with the policy we adopted in 1848, when our ambassador at Paris found no difficulty, after the flight of Louis Philippe, in procuring fresh credentials to the French Eepublic, and remaining at his post during all the successive changes of rulers, and when our own government hastened to receive the ambassador of France although he was no longer accredited from a crowned head. But France being in 1792 already involved in a EXPULSION OF THE FRENCH AMBASSADOR. 365 war with Austria and Prussia, whose armies were marching upon her frontiers, and menaced at the same time by Eussia, Sweden, Spain, and Sardinia, being in fact assailed openly or covertly by all the despotic powers of the Continent, nothing was so much to be dreaded by her as a maritime war with England, for which owing to the neglected state of her navy she was wholly unprepared.* By the Treaty of 1786, which then regulated the intercourse of the two countries, it was stipulated that the re- calling or sending away their respective ambassadors or ministers should be deemed to be equivalent to a declaration of war between the two countries. In- stead of seizing the opportunity of a rupture afforded by the conduct of England, the French government redoubled their efforts to maintain peace. Their ambassador remained in London from August till January following, in his private capacity, holding frequent correspondence with our foreign minister, Lord Grenville, submitting to any condition however humiliating, in order to procure a hearing, and not even resenting the indignity of having had two of his letters returned to him, one of them through the medium of a clerk in the Foreign office. At length upon the receipt of the intelligence of the execution of Louis XVIth, the French Ambassador received on the 24th January, 1793, from Lord Grenville, an order of the Privy Council peremptorily requiring him to leave the kingdom in eight days. The sole ground alleged by the British Govern- * England had, in 1792, 153 ships of the line ; and Trance, 86. — James' Naval History. 366 1793 and 1853. ment for this step was the execution of the French King. England* which had 140 years before been the first to set the example to Europe of decapitat- ing a monarch, England which, as is observed by Madame de Stael, has dethroned, banished, and executed more kings than all, the rest of Europe, was suddenly seized with so great a horror for regicides as to be unable to tolerate the presence of the French ambassador ! The war which followed is said by the sermon before me to have been in defence of the liberties of Europe. Where are they? Circumsjpice ! — I can only say that I have sought for them from Cadiz to Moscow without having been so fortunate as to find them. When shall we be proof against the transparent appeal to our vanity involved in the " liberties-of-Europe" argument? We had not forty thousand British troops engaged on one field of battle on the Continent during the whole war. Yet we are taught to believe that the nations of Europe, numbering nearly two hundred millions, owe their liberty to our prowess. If so, no better proof could be given that they are not worthy of freedom. * The Marquis of Lansdowne speaking of the probable exe- cution of the King of Prance, said, " Such a King was not a fit object for punishment, and to screen him from it every nation ought to interpose its good offices ; but England, above all, was bound to do so, because he had reason to believe that what had encouraged the French to bring him to trial was the precedent established by England in the unfortunate and disgraceful case of Charles 1st."— Dec. 21, 1792. THE PEACE PARTY IN 1793. 367 But, in truth, the originators of the war never pre- tended that they were fighting for the liberties of the people anywhere. Then- avowed object was to sustain the old governments of Europe. The advo- cates of the war were not the friends of popular freedom even at home. The liberal party were ranged on the side of peace — Lansdowne, Bedford, and Lauderdale, in the Lords ; and Fox, Sheridan, and Grey, in the Commons — were the strenuous opponents of the war. They were sustained out of doors by a small minority of intelligent men who saw through the arts by which the war was rendered popular. But, (and it is a mournful fact,) the advo- cates of peace were clamoured down, then- persons and property left insecure, and even then families exposed to outrage at the hands of the populace. Yes, the whole truth must be told, for we require it to be known, as some safeguard against a repetition of the same scenes; the mass of the people, then wholly uneducated, were instigated to join in the cry for war against France. It is equally true, and must be remembered, that when the war had been carried on for two years only, and when its effects had been felt; in the high price of food, diminished employment, and the consequent sufferings of the working classes, crowds of people surrounded the King's carriage, as he proceeded to the Houses of Parliament, shouting, " Bread, bread ! peace, peace !" But, to revert to the question of the merits of the last French war. The assumption put forth in the Sermon that we were engaged in a strictly defensive war is, I regret to say, historically untrue. If you 368 1793 and 1853. will examine the proofs, as they exist in the un- changeable public records, you will be satisfied of this. And let us not forget that our history will ultimately be submitted to the judgment of a tri- bunal, over which Englishmen will exercise no in- fluence beyond that which is derived from the truth and justice of their cause, and from whose decision there will be no appeal. I allude, of course, to the collective wisdom, and moral sense, of future genera- tions of men. In the case before us, however, not only are we constrained, by the evidence of facts, to confess that we were engaged in an aggressive war, but the multiplied avowals and confessions of its authors and partisans themselves leave no room to doubt that they entered upon it to put down opinions by physical force, one of the worst, if not the very worst, of motives with which a people can embark in war. The question, then, is, shall we, in esti- mating the glory of the general who commands in such a war, take into account the antecedent merits of the war itself? The question is answered by the Sermon before me, and by every other writer upon the subject, professing to be under the influence of Christian principles', they all assume, as the condi- tion precedent, that England was engaged in a defensive war. There are two ways of judging the merits of a soldier : the one, by regarding solely his genius as a commander, excluding all considerations of the justice of the cause for which he fights. This is the ancient mode of dealing with the subject, and is still followed by professional men, and others of easy THE DUKE'S THEORY OF MILITARY DUTY. 369 consciences in such matters. These critics will, lor ■example, recognize a higher title to glory, in the career of Suwarrow than in that of Kosciusko, be- cause the former gained the greater number of im- portant victories. There is another and more modern school of com- mentators which professes to withhold its admiration from the deeds of the military hero, unless they be performed in defence of justice and humanity. With these the patriot Pole is greater than the Russian general, because his cause was just, he hav- ing been obviously engaged in a defensive contest, and contending, too, for the dearest rights of home, family and country. Now, the condition which I think we may fairly impose upon the latter description of judges -is, that they -take the needful trouble to inform themselves of the merits of the cause in hand,, so as to be com- petent to give a conscientious judgment upon it. In the case of the Duke of Wellington, the wars which he carried on with so much ability and success on the Continent, were in their character precisely the opposite of that upon which the Sermon ought, according to its own principle, to invoke the appro- bation of Heaven. The Duke himself did not evidently recognize the -responsibility of the commander for the moral cha- racter of his -campaigns. His theory of " duty " gave him military absolution, and separated most icompletely the man from the soldier. Some of the Duke's biographers have hardly done him justice, in the sense in which they have eulo- vol. i. 2 b 370 1793 and 1853. gized him for the strict performance of his duty. Nor have they acted with more fairness towards their countrymen, for, by implication, they would lead us to infer that it is an exception to the rule when an Englishman does his duty. In the vulgar meaning they have attached to this trait in his character, they have lowered him to the level of the humblest labourer who does his duty for weekly wages. Duty with the Duke meant something more. It was a professional principle,. — the military code expressed in one word. He was always subordinate to some higher authority, and acted from an impulse imparted from without ; just as an army surrenders will, reason, and conscience to some one who exer- cises all these powers in its behalf. Sometimes it was the Queen ; sometimes the public service ; or the apprehension of a civil war ; or a famine which changed his course, and induced him to take up a new position ; but reason, or conscience, or will, seemed to have no more to do in the matter than in the manoeuvres of an army. We did not know to his death what were the Duke's convictions upon Free Trade, Reform, or Catholic Emancipation. In his public capacity he never seemed to ask himself — what ought I to do ? but what must I do ? This principle of subordination, which is the very essence of military discipline, is at the same time the weak part and blot of the system. It deprives us of the man, and gives us instead a machine ; and not a self-acting machine, but one requiring power of some description to move it. The best that can be said of it is, that when honestly adhered to, as in the THE DUKE'S THEORY OF MILITARY DUTY., 371 Case of the Duke, it protects us against the attempts of individual selfishness or ambition. He would never have betrayed his trust, so long as^he could find a power to whom he was responsible. That was the only point upon which he could have ever felt any difficulty. Had he been, like Monk, in the command of an army in times of political confusion, he would have gone to London to discover the legal heir to his " duty," whether it was the son of the Protector, or the remains of the Rump Parlia- ment 5 but he would never have dreamed of selling himself to a Pretender, even had he been the son of a king. Should the time ever come (which Heaven forbid !) when the work which the Duke achieved needs to be repeated, it is not likely that there will be found one who will surpass him in the ability, courage, honesty and perseverance which he brought to the accomplishment of the task. But amongst all his high merits — and they place him in dignity and moral worth immeasurably above Marlborough or even Nelson — he would have been probably the last to have claimed for himself the title of the champion of the liberties of any people. No atten- tive reader of his dispatches will fall into any such delusion as to his own views of his mission to the Peninsula. Or if any doubt still remain, let him consult the classic pages of Napier. Let me only refer you to the accompanying ex- tracts from the History of the Peninsular War : — " But the occult source of most of these difficulties is to be found in the inconsistent attempts of the British Cabinet to uphold national independence 2 b 2 372 1793 and 1853. with internal slavery against foreign aggression, with an ameliorated government. The clergy, who led the mass of the people, clung to the English, because they supported aristocracy and church domi- nation. * * * * The English ministers hating Napoleon, not because he was the enemy of England, but because he was the champion of equality, cared not for Spain unless her people were enslaved. They were willing enough to Use a liberal Cortes to 'defeat Napoleon, but they also desired to put down that Cortes by the aid of the clergy, and of the bigoted part of the people." — Vol. iv. p. 259. " It was sdme time before the church and aristo- cratic party discovered that the secret policy of England was the same as their own. It was so, however, even to the upholding of the Inquisition which it was ridiculously asserted had become ob- jectionable only in name." — Vol. iv. p. 350. I could, also, refer you to another instructive passage (vol. iii. p. 271), telling us, amongst other things, that the " educated classes of Spain shrunk, from the British Government's known hostility to all free institutions." But I have carried my letter already to an unreasonable length, and so I con- clude. Yours faithfully, ElCHAED COBDEN. ' To the Reverend . HISTORICAL SOURCES OF INFORMATION. 373 LETTER II. ME. COBDEN TO THE EEVEEEND . December, 1852. My dear Sir, You ask me to direct you to, the best sources of information for those particulars of the origin of the French war to which I briefly alluded in my last letter. What an illustration does this afford of our habitual neglect of the most important part of history, — namely, that which refers to our own country, and more immediately affects the destinies of the generation to which we belong ! If you feel at a loss for the facts necessary for fqrming a judg- ment upon the events of the last century, how much more inaccessible must that knowledge be to the mass of the people. In truth, modern English history is a tabooed study in our common schools, and the young men of our Universities acquire a far more accurate knowledge of the origin and progress of the Punic and Peloponnesian wars, than of the wars of the French revolution. The best record of facts, and especially of State papers, referring to our modern history is to be found in the Annual Register. These materials have been digested by several writers, The Pictorial History, of England is not conveniently arranged for refer- ence; and, although the facts are carefully given, the opinions, with reference to the events in ques- tion, have a strong Tory bias. The earliejst and latest periods of this history are written in a liberal 374 1793 ajjd 1853. and enlightened spirit; but that portion which embraces the American and French revolutions, fell somehow under the control of politicians of a more contracted and bigoted school. Alison, of whose views and principles I shall not be expected to approve, has given the best narrative of the events which followed the French revolution down to the close of the war. His work, which has passed through many editions, is admirably arranged for reference. Scott's Life of Napoleon is the most readable book upon the subject, but not the most reliable for facts and figures. But if you would really understand the motives with which we embarked upon the last French war, you must turn to Hansard, and read the debates in both Houses of Parliament upon the subject from 1791 to 1796. This has been with me a favourite amusement ; and I have culled many ex- tracts which are within reach. Shall I put them together for you ? They may probably be of use beyond the purposes of a private letter. But there is one condition for which I will stipulate. There must be a very precise and accurate attention to dates in order to understand the subject in hand. Banish from your mind all vague floating ideas arising out of a confusion of events extending over the twenty-two years of war. Our business lies with the interval from 1789, when the Constituent Assembly of Franoe met, till 1793, when war com- menced between England and France. Bear in mind we are now merely investigating the origin pnd cause of the rupture between the two countries,- ANTECEDENT STATE OF OPINION. 375 The ten years from the close of the American war in 1783 to the commencement of the war with France in 1793, was a period of remarkable prosperity. To the astonishment of all parties, the separation of the American Colonies which had been dreaded as the signal for our national ruin, was followed by an increased commercial intercourse with the mother country. The mechanical inventions connected with the cotton trade and other manufactures, and the recent improvement in the steam engine, were adding rapidly to our powers of production ; and the consequent demand for labour, and accumula- tion of capital diffused general comfort and well- being throughout the land. Such a state of things always tends to produce political contentment, and never were the people of this • country less disposed to seek for reforms, still less to think of revolution, than when the attention of Europe was first drawn to the proceedings of the Constituent Assembly of France in 1789. The startling reforms effected by that body, and the captivating appeals to first prin- ciples made by its orators soon attracted the sympa- thies of a certain class of philosophical reformers in this country, who, followed by a few of the more in- telligent and speculative amongst the artisan class in the towns, began to take an active interest in French politics. Amongst the most influential of the leaders of this party were Doctor Price and Doctor Priestley, and the Dissenters generally were ranked amongst their adherents. But the great mass of the population were strongly, almost fanatically on the side of the Church, which was of course op- 376 1793 and 1853. posed to the doctrines of the French Assembly; the spirit of hostility to dissenters broke forth in many parts of the country, and in Birmingham and other manufacturing places, it led to riots, and a considerable destruction of property. "It was not," said Mr. Fox,* " in his opinion a republican spirit that we had to dread in this country ; there was no tincture of republicanism in the country. If there was any prevailing tendency to riot, it was on the other side; It was the high church spirit, and an indisposition to all reform which marked more than anything else the temper of the times." Such was the state of the public mind when Mr. Burke published his celebrated Reflections on the French Revolution, a work which produced an in- stant and most powerful effect not only in England but upon the governing classes on the Continent. This production was given to the world in 1790: the date is all important ; for bear in mind that the Constituent Assembly had then been sitting for a year only ; that its labours had been directed to the effecting of reforms compatible with the preser- vation of a limited monarchy ; and that such men as Lafayette and Necker had been taking a lead in its deliberations. Do not confound in your mind the proceedings of this body with those of the Le- gislative Assembly which succeeded to it the next year; or the National Convention which followed the year after. Do not disturb your fancy with * House of Commons, May 25, 1792. All the speeches from which I have quoted were delivered in Parliament, and the quo- tations are front Hansard, SPEECHES OF BURKE AND FOX. 377 thoughts of the Reign of Terror : that did not begin till four years later. Burke's great philippic con- tains no complaint of the Constituent Assembly having interfered with us, or meditated forcing its Reforms upon other countries. It gives utterance to no suspicion of a warlike tendency on the side of the French. On the contrary, the author of the Reflections, in a speech upon the army estimates in the House of Commons on the 9th of February of this year (1790,) declared that " the French army was rendered an army for every other purpose than that of defence ;" describing the French soldiers " as base hireling mutineers, and mercenary sordid de- serters, wholly destitute of any honourable princi- ple ;" alleging on the same occasion, " that France is at this time in a political light to be considered as expunged out of the system of Europe ;" and he asserted that the French " had done their business for us as rivals in a way in which twenty Ramilies or Blenheims could never have done it." What then was the ground on which he assailed the French Government with a force of invective that drew from Fox six years later the following tribute to its fatal influence ? " In a most masterly performance, he has charmed " all the world with the brilliancy of his genius, " fascinating the country with the powers of his elo- " quence, and in as far as that cause went to pro- " duce this effect, plunged the country into all the " calamities consequent upon war. I admire the "genius of the man, and I admit the integrity and " usefulness of his long public life ; I cannot, how- 378 1793 and 1853. " ever, but lament that his talents when in my " opinion they were directed most beneficially to " the interest of his country, produced very little " effect, and that when he espoused sentiments dif- "ferent from those which I hold to be wise and "expedient, then his exertions should have been " crowned with a success that I deplore." Read this famous performance again ; and then, having freed your mind from the effects of its gor- geous imagery, and fascinating style, ask yourself what grounds it affords, what facts it contains to justify even an angry remonstrance, still less to lead to a war. From beginning to end it is an indict- ment against the representatives of the French people, for having presumed to pursue a course, in a strictly domestic matter, contrary to what Mr. Burke and the English, who are assumed to be infallible judges, held to be the wisest policy. Everything is brought to the test of our own prac- tice, and condemned or approved in proportion as it is in opposition to or in harmony with British example. The Constituent Assembly is charged with " robbery, usurpation, imposture, cheating, violence, and tyranny, for presuming to abolish the law of primogeniture, or appropriate their Church lands to secular purposes, making religion a charge upon the State; or limit to a greater degree than ourselves the prerogative of the Crown; or estab- lish universal suffrage as the basis of their repre- sentation; changes which however unsuitable they may have been to the habits and disposition of Englishmen were yet such as have not been found THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY. 379 incompatible with, the prosperity of the people of America, and which to a large extent are practically applied to the government of our own colonies. But let us see what was done besides by this Assembly. Liberty of religious worship to its fullest extent was secured ; torture abolished ; trial by jury and publicity of courts of law were estab- lished ; lettres-de-cacket abolished ; the nobles and clergy made liable in common with other classes to taxation ; the most oppressive imposts, such as those on salt, tobacco, the faille, &c. suppressed; the feudal privileges of the nobles extinguished; access to the superior ranks of the army, heretofore monopolized by the privileged class, made free to all ; and the same rule applied to all civil employments. I dwell on these particulars, because it was from this sweeping list of reforms, effected by the Con- stituent Assembly of France, and the sympathy which they excited amongst the more active and intelligent of our liberal politicians, that the war between the two countries really sprung. It was not to put down the Reign of Terror that we entered upon hostilities. That would have been no legiti^ mate object for a war. But the Reign of Terror did not commence till nearly a year after the war began. Our indignation was not excited to blows in 1793, by the madness which afterwards pos^ sessed the National Convention, and which mani-r fested itself in the alteration of the Calendar, the abolition of Christianity, and, finally, in the depo- sition of the Deity Himself These were the con-r sequences, not the causes of war. No, the war was 380 1793 and 1853. entered upon to prevent, the contagion of those prin- ciples which were put forth in such captivating terms in 1789 and 1790 by the Constituent Assem- bly of France. The ruling class in England took alarm at, a revolution going on in a neighbouring state where the governing body had abolished all hereditary "titles, appropriated the Church lands to State purposes, and decreed universal suffrage as the basis of the representative system. " If," says Alison,* "the changes in France were regarded " with favour by one they were looked on with utter " horror by another class of the community. The " majority of the aristocratic body, all the adherents " of the Church, all the holders of office under the " Monarchy, in general, the great bulk of the opulent w ranks of society, beheld them with apprehension "or aversion." From this moment, the friends and opponents of the French Eevolution formed themselves into op- posing parties, whose conduct, says Sir W. Scott,f resembled that of rival factions at a play, who hiss and applaud the actors on the stage as much from party spirit as from real critical judgment; while every instant increases the probability that they will try the question by actual force. Strange that to neither party should it have occurred, that to the twenty-four millions of Frenchmen interested in the issue, might be left the task of framing their own government, without the intervention of the people of England ; and that the circumstance of a peculiar form of Constitution having been found * Vol. iii p. 108. f Life of Napoleon, ch. vii. ALARM OF THE EUROPEAN SOVEREIGNS. 381 suitable for one country, did not necessarily prove that it would be acceptable to the other ! But the Kevolution in France produced a more decisive impression on the despotic powers of the Continent. As soon as the democratic measures of the Constituent Assembly were accomplished, and the powers of the King made subordinate to the will of the representative body, the neighbouring potentates took the alarm, and began to concert measures for enabling Louis XVI. to recover at least a part of his lost prerogatives. The Emperor of Germany, Leopold, the most able and enlightened Sovereign of Europe, who, as Grand Duke of Tus- cany, had carried out many of those great economical and legal reforms which constitute the pride of modern statesmen, took the lead in these unwar- rantable acts of intervention in the affairs of the French people. His relationship to the Queen of Louis XVI. (for they were both the offspring of Maria Theresa) afforded, however, an amiable plea for his conduct, which was not shared by his Royal confederates. Almost every crowned head on the Continent was now covertly, or openly, conspiring against the principle of self-government in France ; and even the Sovereign of England, under the title of King of Hanover, was supposed to be represented at some of their private conferences. The result was the famous Declaration of Pilnitz, put forth in the names of the Emperor and the King of Prussia, in which they declared conjointly, " That they consider " the situation of the King of France as a matter " of common interest to all the European Sove- 382 1793 and 1853, " reigns. They hope that the reality of that " interest will be duly appreciated by the other " powers, whose assistance they will invoke, and that " in consequence, they will not decline to employ " their forces conjointly with their Majesties, in order " to put the King of France in a situation to lay the " foundation of a monarchical government, conform* " able alike to the rights of Sovereigns and the well- " being of the French nation. In that case, the " Emperor and the King are resolved to act promptly " with the forces necessary to attain their common " end. In the mean time, they will give the requi- " site orders for their troops to hold themselves in " immediate readiness for active service," It is all-important to observe the date of this Declaration — August 27, 1791 — for upon the date depends entirely the question whether France or the Allied Powers were the authors and instigators of the war. Up to this period the French were wholly engrossed in their own internal reforms, and had not given the slightest ground for suspecting that they meditated an act of hostility against any foreign power. " Whilst employed in the extension and " security of her liberties," says Mr. Baines, in his able and candid history of these events, " amidst the " struggle with a reluctant monarch, a discontented " priesthood, and a hostile nobility, she was menaced " at the same time by a sudden and portentous com- " bination of the two great military states — Prussia " under the dominion of Frederic William, and " Austria under the Emperor Leopold, brother to " Maria Antoinette,, queen of France." The French, THE GROUNDS OF FOEEIGFN INTERFERENCE. 383 were wholly unprepared for war. Not only were their finances in a ruinous state ; the army had fallen into disorder ; for whilst the common soldiers were enthusiastic partisans of the revolution, the officers, who were all of the class of nobles, were often its violent enemies, and many of them had fled the kingdom. Great as was at that time the dread of French principles, no foreign power felt any fear of the physical force of France ; for every body shared the opinion of Burke, that that country had reduced itself to a state of abject weakness by its revolutionary excesses. But the best proof that the French Government had not given any good ground of offence to foreign powers, is to be found in the fact that the declara- tion of the Allied Sovereigns contains no complaint of the kind. Their sole object, as avowed by them in this and subsequent manifestoes, was to restore the king to the prerogatives of which he had been deprived by his people. It needs no argument now to prove that this threat of an armed intervention in the internal affairs of France was tantamount to a declaration of war. Compare this conduct of the despotic powers in 1791 with the abstinence from all interference — nay, the punctilious disavowal of all right to interfere — in the domestic affairs of France in 1848, when the changes in the government of that country were of a far more sudden and startling character than those which had taken place at the time of the Declaration of Pilnitz. These proceedings of the Allied Powers were not sufficient to divert the French from the all-absorbing 384 1793 asb 1853. domestic straggle in which they were involved. No acts of hostility immediately followed. The wise Leopold, who wished to support the authority of the King of France by other means than war, now exerted himself to assemble a congress of all the great powers of Europe, with a view to agree to a form of government for France. Whilst busying himself with this scheme, death put a sudden close to his reign, and his less prudent and pacific suc- cessor soon brought matters to extremities. In the meantime Russia, Sweden, Sardinia and Spain, assumed a more and more hostile attitude towards France. It was, however, from the side of Germany, where twenty thousand emigrant French nobles were menacing their native country with invasion, that the chief danger was apprehended 5 and it was to the Emperor that the French Government addressed itself for a categorical explanation of its intentions. The Note in answer demanded the re-establishment of the French monarchy on the basis which had been rejected by the nation in 1789 ; it required the resto- ration of the Church lands, part of which had been sold ; and it ignored all that had been done by the Constituent Assembly during the last two years. But 1 will give a description of the Note by one whose leaning to the French will not be suspected.* " The " ^demands of the Austrian Court went now, when " fully explained, so fiar back upon the Revolution, " that a peace negotiated upon such terms must have " laid France and all its various parties (with the " exception of a few of the First Assembly) at the * Scott's Napoleon. PRANCE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE WAR. 385 " foot of the sovereign, and, what might be more " dangerous, at the mercy of the restored emigrants." The consequences of this Note may be described in the language of the same author. " The Legislative " Assembly received these extravagant terms as an " insult on the national dignity ; and the king, what- " ever might be his sentiments as an individual, could " not, on this occasion, dispense with the duty his office " as constitutional monarch imposed on him. Louis " therefore had the melancholy task of proposing* " to an Assembly filled with the enemies of his " throne and person, a declaration of war against " his brother-in-law"]" the Emperor; " Thus began a war which, if not the longest, was the bloodiest and most costly that ever afflicted mankind; Whatever faults or crimes may be fairly chargeable upon the French nation for the excesses and cruelties of the Eevolution up to this time (April, 1792) it cannot be with justice made responsible for the commencement of the war. What might have happened if foreign governments had abstained from all interference, has frequently been a topic of spe- culation and hypothetical prophecy with those who, whilst admitting that the French were not the ag- gressors, are yet Unwilling to allow that war could have been avoided. If such speculations were worth pursuing, surely the experience we have since had in France and other countries would lead to the con- clusion that a nation, if unmolested from without, is * 20th April, 1792. t With his too common inaccuracy, the author has overlooked the previous death of Leopold. VOL. I. 2 C 386 1793 and 1853. never so little prone to meddle with its neighbours as when involved in the difficulties, dangers, and embarrassments of an internal revolution. But we have to deal with facts and experiences, and they prove that in the case before us France was the ag- grieved and not the aggressive party. It is true that France was the first to declare war ; which is a proof that she had more respect for the usages and laws of nations than her enemies ; for 'they were making formidable preparations for an invasion, under the plea of restoring order, and re- establishing the king on his throne, with the view, as they pretended, of benefiting the French people. They would not have declared war against France, but against the oppressors of France, as they chose to term the Legislative Assembly. The resistance they met with proved that they were opposed by the whole French nation ; and, therefore, the only plea, put forth in their justification fails them in the hands of the historian. On the 25th July following, the Duke of Bruns- wick, when, on the eve of invading France, with an army of 80,000 Austrian and Prussian troops, and a formidable band of emigrant. French nobles, issued a manifesto, in the name of Austria and Prussia, in which he states his conviction that " the " majority of the inhabitants of France wait with " impatience the moment when succour shall arrive, " to declare themselves openly against the odious " enterprises of their oppressors." To afford a full knowledge of the objects of the invaders, and of the atrocious spirit which animated them, I give the AlfSTfilAN AND PRUSSIAN MANIFESTO. 387 following extract from the 8th article of this ma- nifesto : — " The city of Paris and all its inhabitants, Without " distinction, shall be called upon to submit instantly, " and without delay, to the King, to set that prince " at full liberty, and to ensure to him and all the " royal persons that inviolability and respect which " are due, by the laitis of nature and of all nations, " to sovereigns", their Imperial and Royal Majesties " making personally responsible for all events, on " pain of losing their heads, pursuant to military " trials, without hope of pardon, all the members " of the National Assembly, of the Departments, of " the Districts, of the Municipality, and of the Na- " tional Guards of Paris, Justices of the Peace, and u others whom it may concern. And, their Imperial' " and Royal Majesties further declafe, on the faith " and word of Emperor and King, that if the palace " of the Tuilleries be forced or insulted, if the least " violence be offered, the least outrage done, their " Majesties, the King, the Queen, and the Royal " Family, if they be not immediately placed in safety, " and set at liberty, they will inflict on those who " shall deserve it the most exemplary and ever me- " morable avenging punishment, by giving ■ up the city " of Paris to military execution, and exposing it to " total destruction." In an additional declaration, published two days later, after declaring that he makes no alteration in the 8th article of the former manifesto, he adds, in case the King, Queen, or any other member pf the Royal Family should be carried off by any of the 2c? 388 1793 and 1853. factions, that " all the places and towns whatsoever, " which shall not have opposed their passage, and " shall not have stopped their proceeding, shall incur " the same punishments as those inflicted on the inha- " bitants of Paris ; and the route which shall be taken " by those who carry off the King and the Royal " Family, shall be marked with a series of exemplary " punishments, justly due to the authors and abettors " of crimes for which there is no remission." Let it be borne in mind that these proclamations, worthy of Timoor or Attila, were issued at a moment when Louis XVI. was still exercising the functions of a Constitutional Sovereign in France ; for it was not till the 10th of August that his palace was as- sailed by the armed populace, and he and his family were consigned to a prison. And, here, in taking leave of the belligerents on the Continent — for my task is confined to the investigation of the origin, and not the progress of the war— let it be observed that there is not a writer, whether French or English, who, in recording historically the dismal catalogue of crimes which from this time for a period of three years disgraced the domestic annals of France, does not attribute the ferocity of the people, and the atro- cities committed by them, in a large degree, to the proclamation of the Duke of Brunswick, and the sub- sequent invasion of the French territory. There is nothing so certain to extinguish the magnanimity, which is the natural attribute of great multitudes of men, conscious of their strength, as the suspicion of treachery on the part of those to whom they are opposed. It is under the excitement THE RESULTS OP THE MANIFESTO. 389 of this passion that the most terrible sacrifices to popular vengeance have been made. The names of De Witt and Artevelde are remarkable among the victims to popular suspicion. But never was this feeling excited to such a state of frenzy as in Paris on the first news of the successes of the invading armies. The king, the nobility, the clergy, and all the opulent classes were suspected of being in cor- respondence with the foreigner ; and the terrors of the populace pictured the Austrians already at the gates of Paris, and the royalists pouring forth to wel- come them and to offer their aid in the vengeance which was to follow. It was under this impression of treachery that the horrible massacre of the polb- tical prisoners, on the 2nd of September took place. But I prefer to give the testimony of a writer, who will have little sympathy, probably, for the main argument of this letter : — " No doubt," says Alison,* " can now exist that " the interference of the Allies augmented the hor- " rors and added to the duration of the revolution, *' All its bloodiest excesses were committed during u or after an alarming, but unsuccessful invasion by " the allied forces. The massacres of September 2nd "were perpetrated when the public mind was excited '■ to the highest degree by the near approach of the " Duke of Brunswick ; and the worst days of the " government of Bobespierre were, immediately after " the defection of Dumourier, and the battle of Ner- " winde threatened the rule of the Jacobins with " destruction. Nothing but a sense of public danger * Vol. v. p. 129. 390 1793 and 1853. u could have united the factions who then strove with " so much exasperation against each other ; the peril " of France, alone, could have induced the people to ' f submit to the sanguinary rule which so long deso- ■' lated its plains. The Jacobins maintained their •'ascendancy by constantly representing their cause " as that of national independence, by stigmatizing " their enemies as the enemies of the country ; and *' the patriots wept and suffered in silence, lest by " resistance they should weaken the state, and cause " France to be erased from among the nations," If facts have any logical bearing upon human affairs, I think I have shewn that the war was pro- voked by the allied powers. Let us now turn to the part performed by England in the events whieh followed, From the moment of the appearance of Burke's famous Reflections in 1790, the character, objects, pnd proceedings of the Constituent Assembly occupied every day, more intensely the attention of the English public. The country took sides, and politicians attacked or defended, according to their own views and aspirations, the conduct of the leadep of the revolution, Not only were the columns of the news- papers occupied with this all-engrossing topic, but the Press teemed with pamphlets and volumes in support of, or in opposition to, Burke's production^ The most masterly of the latter class was the Vindi^ cm GaMeee of Sir James Macintosh, which advo* cated the fundamental principles of freedom and humanity with a far closer logic, and a style scarcely less attractive than that of his great opponent, By THE TWO PARTIES IN ENGLAND. 391 degrees the character of the liberal party, comprising the Whigs and Dissenters, became involved to some extent in the fate of the Revolution; and their opponents took care to heap upon them all the odium which attached to the disorders and excesses of the French people. When the Jacobins, as the ultra party were nicknamed, became powerful in France, that detestable name was assigned to the English reformers, by their Tory enemies, who hold- ing, as they did, the stamp of fashion in their hands, could give general currency to their damaging epithets. But gradually, and almost imperceptibly, a change came over the character of the controversy. In a couple of years the tone of the dominant classes had altered 5 first, from cold criticism upon the revolu- tion, to fierce invectives, then to menaces, and finally, to the cry for war; until at last the Tories and Liberals, instead of being merely contending com- mentators upon French politics, were involved in a fief ce contest with each other upon the question of peace or war with the Government of France. From that time, all that remained of the liberal party, thinned as it was by defection, and headed heroically by Fox, ranged themselves on the side of peace. " The cry of peace," said Windham,* (Secretary at War), "proceeded from the Jacobin party in this country; and although every one who wished for peace was not a Jacobin, yet every Jacobin wished for peace." * May 27, 1795. 392 1793 and 1853. There is every reason to suppose that Pitt* would have individually preferred peace. By a commercial treaty which he had entered into with France, a few years previously, he had greatly extended the trad- ing relations of the two countries, and it is known that he was bent upon some important plans of financial and commercial reform. Upon the meeting of Parliament in 1792, he proposed reduced estimates for our military establishments, and nothing boded * " No one more clearly than Mr. Pitt saw the ruinous con? sequences of the contest into which his new associates, the deserters from the Whig standard, were drawing or were driving him ; none so clearly perceived or so highly valued the blessings of peace as the finance minister, who had but the year before accompanied his reduction of the whole national establishment with a picture of our future prosperity almost too glowing even for his great eloquence to attempt. Accordingly, it is well known, nor is it even contradicted by his few surviving friends, that his thoughts were all turned to peace. But the voice of the court was for war ; the aristocracy was for war ; the country was not disinclined towards war, being just in that state of excitable (though £|,s yet npt excited) feeling which is dependent on the Government, that is, upon Mr. Pitt, either to calm down into a Sufferance of peace, pr roused into a vehement desire of hostili- ties. In these circumstances, the able tactician, whose genius was confined to parliamentary operations, at once perceived that a war must place him at the head of all the power in the State, and, by uniting with him the more aristocratic portion of the "\^Tiigs, cripple his adversaries irreparably ; and he preferred fling- ing his country into a contest which he and his great antagonist by uniting their forces must have prevented; but then he must also have shared with Mr. Fox the power which he was deter- mined to enjoy alone and supreme." — Brougham's Statesmen of George IIJ, series i. vol. i. p. 77-79. duke op Brunswick's manifesto. 398 the approach of war. The governing class in this country shared the opinions of Mr. Burke as to the powerless condition to which France had reduced herself by her internal convulsion. A veteran army of nearly 100,000 men, under experienced generals, was preparing to invade that country, which, torn by civil strife, with a bankrupt exchequer, and with the court, aristocracy, and clergy secretly favouring the enemy, seemed to offer a certain triumph to its assailants. Little doubt was felt that one campaign would " restore order" to France. But the Duke of Brunswick's atrocious proclama^ tion had produced upon the French people an effect very different from that which was expected. It is thus described by Alison :* " A unanimous spirit of " resistance burst forth in every part of France ; the *' military preparations were redoubled ; the ardour *' of the multitude was raised to the highest pitch. *' The manifesto of the allied powers was regarded " as unfolding the real designs of the Court and the w emigrants, Bevolt against the throne appeared " the only mode of maintaining their liberties, or '• preserving their independence ; the people of Paris *' had no choice between victory or death." The campaign which followed proved disastrous to the invaders; and in September the Duke of Brunswick was in full retreat from the French ter- ritory. Soon afterwards Dumourier gained the battle of Jemmappes, and took possession of the Austrian Netherlands. On the Ehine, and the * Vol. ii. p. 330. 394 1793 and 1853. frontier of Savoy, the French armies were also suc- cessful. An instantaneous change of policy now took place in England. The government had looked on in silence, or with merely an occasional protestation of neutrality, whilst the allied armies were preparing to invade, and as every body believed, to occupy the French territory. But no sooner did the news of French victories arrive than the tone of our minis- ters instantly changed, and even Pitt, with all his cautiousness, was so thrown off his guard, that he disclosed the true object of the war which followed: — " Those opinions," said he,* " which the French " entertained, were of the most dangerous nature ; " they were opinions professed by interest, inflamed " by passion, propagated by delusion, which their " success had carried to the utmost excess, and had " contributed to render still more dangerous. For, " would the Right Honourable Gentleman tell him " that the French opinions received no additional " weight from the success of their armies ? Was it " possible to separate between the progress of their " opinions and the success of their armies ? It was " evident that the one must influence the other, and " that the diffusion of their principles must keep " pace with the extent of their victories. He was " not afraid of the progress of French principles in " this country, unless the defence of the country " should be previously undermined by the introduc- " tion of those principles." * Jan. 4, 1793. CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE FRENCH AMBASSADOR. 395 And in the same speech he thus particularises the objects of his solicitude : — " They had seen, within two or three years, a " revolution in France, founded upon principles " which were inconsistent with every regular govern- 44 ment, which were hostile to hereditary monarchy, " to nobility, to all the privileged orders, and to " every sort of popular representation, short of that " which would give to every individual a voice in " the election of representatives." The militia was now suddenly embodied, and Parliament was summoned to meet on the 13th of December. Before, however, we refer to this, the closing scene of the peace, it is necessary for a cor- rect understanding of our relationship with France to take a review of the correspondence which was at the same time going on between our foreign secretary, and M. Chauvelin, the French ambassador at London. Here again, we must pay particular attention to dates.* * And here let me give an extract from Scott's Life of Napo- leon, illustrative of the looseness and inaccuracy with which history is sometimes written. I have explained the errors in italics : — " Lord Gower, the British ambassador, was recalled from " Paris immediately on the King's execution." [He was re- called on the King's deposition in August, his execution not taking place till January following. .] " The Prince to whom he was sent " was no more ; and, on the same ground, the French envoy at " the Court of St. James, though not dismissed by Ms Majesty's " Government, was made acquainted that the ministers no " longer considered him as an accredited person." [The French ambassador was peremptorily ordered to leave this country in eight 396 1793 and 1853. The correspondence commences with a letter, dated May 12, 1792, from M. Chauvelin to Lord Gren- ville, explaining the cause of the war between France and the Emperor, and complaining in the name of the King of the French that the Emperor Leopold had promoted a great conspiracy against France. On the 18th June, 1792, M. Chauvelin alludes at greater length, in a letter to Lord Grenville, to the coalition formed on the Continent against France, and asks the British Government to exert its influ- ence to stop the progress of that confederacy, and especially "to dissuade from all accession to this " project all those of the allies of England whom it " may be wished to draw into it !" In reply to this letter, Lord Grenville declines to interfere with the allies of this country, to put an end to the confederacy against France, alleging that " the intervention of his counsels or of his good " offices cannot be of use unless they should be " desired by all the parties interested." [In direct contradiction to this, was the following passage in the King's speech, January 31, of this very year, 1792, on opening the session :— =" Our intervention " has also been employed with a view to promote a " pacification between . the Empress of Eussia and " the Porte ; and conditions have been agreed upon " between us and the former of these powers which " we undertook to recommend to the Porte, as the re-^ " establishment of peace on such terms appeared to days, upon the news of the King's death reaching this country.'] 4-ncl from these inaccurate data he draws the conclusion that we, are not the aggressors in the war which immediately followed. ACTION OF THE FRENCH AMBASSADOR. 397 -" be, under all' the circumstances, a desirable event " for the general interests of Europe."] On the news of the dethronement of the King of France in August, M. Chauvelin received notice, as has been before seen, that he would no longer be recognized by the English Government in his official character; and there was an interval of several months during which the correspondence was suspended. On the 13th December, as before stated, Parliament was hastily assembled: the King's speech announced that the militia had been embodied, and recommended an increase of the army and navy; it complained of the aggressive conduct of the French, and their disregard of the rights of neutral nations. [Not a syllable had been said in disapproval of the conduct of the allied powers when they began the unprovoked attack on France, an attack the complete failure of which was now known in England.] The speeches of the ministers and the majority in Parliament, in the debate on the address, were of a most warlike cha- racter. On the 27th of December, 1792, after these occurrences, (do not for a moment lose sight of the dates,) M. Chauvelin lenews the corres- pondence with Lord Grenville. He begins by saying that he makes his communication at the request of his own government. After adducing the fact of his having remained in England since August, notwithstanding the recall of our ambas- sador Lord Gower from Paris, as " a proof of the desire the French Government had to live on good terms with his Britannic Majesty," he pro- 398 1793 and 1853. ceeds to complain that " a character of ill-will to which he is yet unwilling to give credit," has been observable in the measures recently adopted by the British Government, and he asks whether France ought to consider England as a neutral power or an enemy. " But in asking from the" ministers of his Britannic Majesty a frank and open explanation as to their intentions with regard to France, the Executive Council of the French Government is unwilling they should have the smallest remaining doubt as to the dis- position of France; towards England, and as to its desire of remaining at peace with her ; it has even been desirous of answering beforehand all the reproaches which they may be tempted to make in justification of a rupture." He then pro- ceeds to offer explanations upon the three reasons which he surmises might weigh with the English, and lead them " to break with the French Be- public." The first has reference to the decree of the National Convention of the 19th November, offering fraternity to all people who wish to recover their liberty ; the next, the opening of the Scheldt, consequent upon the conquest of the Austrian Netherlands ; and thirdly, the violation of the ter- ritory of Holland. With respect to the decree of the 19 th November offering assistance to all people wishing for liberty, he said : " The National Con- tention never meant that the French Eepublic "should favour insurrections, should espouse the " quarrels of a few seditious persons, or in a word " should endeavour to excite disturbances in any REMONSTRANCES OF THE FRENCH MINISTER. 399 "neutral or friendly country whatever." He then proceeds to say — "France ought to and will "respect, not only the independence of England, " but even that of those of her allies with whom " she is not at war. The undersigned has there- "fore been charged formally to declare that she "will not attack Holland so long as that power " shall on its side confine itself towards her within "the bounds of a strict neutrality." He then refers to the only other question, the opening of the Scheldt, " a question irrevocably decided by reason " and justice, of small importance in itself, and on "which the opinion of England, and perhaps of "Holland itself,. is sufficiently known to render it " difficult to make it seriously the single. subject of " war." M. Chauvelin says, in conclusion, " He hopes "that the ministers of his Britannic Majesty will " be brought back by the explanations which this "note contains, to ideas more favourable to the " re-union of the two countries, and that they will " not have occasion, for the purpose of returning to " them, to consider the terrible responsibility of a " declaration of war, which will incontestably be "their own work, the consequences of which cannot '' be otherwise than fatal to the two countries, and to " human nature in general, and in which a gene- " rous and free people cannot long consent to "betray their own interests, by serving as an " auxiliary and a reinforcement to a tyrannical " coalition." The reply of Lord Grenville, dated December 400 . 1793 and 1853. 31, begins in the following haughty fashion: — "I "have received, Sir, from you a note, in which} " styling yourself minister plenipotentiary of France, " you communicate to me, as the King's secretary " of state, the instructions which you state to have " yourself received from the Executive Council of " the French republic. You are not ignorant, that " since the unhappy events of the 10th August, the " King has thought proper to suspend all official " communication with France." The rest of the letter repels with little ceremony the advances of the French minister, and subjects his pleas and excuses to a cold and incredulous criticism. It reiterates the complaints respecting the Decree of the 19th November, the opening of the Scheldt, and the violation of the territory of Holland. " If " France," said Lord Grenville, " is really desirous " of maintaining friendship and peace with Eng- " land, she must shew herself disposed to renounce " her views of aggression and aggrandisement, and " confine herself within her own territory, without "insulting other governments, without disturbing "their tranquillity, or violating their rights." [It would have added much to the force of this remon- strance if a similar tone had been taken a year earlier, when the famous Declaration of Pilnitz was published.] M, Chauvelin, notwithstanding this repulse, again addresses Lord Grenville, January 7, 1793, bringing under his notice the Alien bill just introduced into Parliament, and which contained, as he alleged, provisions, so far as French citizens were concerned, REMONSTRANCES OF THE FRENCH MINISTER. 401 inconsistent with the letter and spirit of the treaty of commerce entered into by France and England in 1786; and he concludes by asking to be in- formed whether, " under the general denomination " of foreigners, in the bill on which the Houses are " occupied, the Government of Qreat Britain means "likewise to include the French." This letter is returned to the writer by Lord Grenville, the same day, accompanied with a short note, declaring it to be "totally inadmissible, M. Chauvelin assuming " therein a character which is not acknowledged." Unable to obtain a hearing in his official capacity, M. Chauvelin abandons the former style of his letters, which ran — the undersigned minister plenipo- tentiary, (fee, and now addresses a letter to Lord Grenville, beginning " My Lord," and dropping all allusion to his own diplomatic quality. In this letter, he complains that several vessels in British ports freighted with grain for the French Govern- ment had been stopped, contrary to law ; he states that he has been informed by respectable autho- rities that the custom-houses had received orders to permit the exportation of foreign wheat to all ports except those of France ; and he goes on to say, " I " should the first moment of my knowing it, have " waited upon you, my Lord, to be assured from "yourself of its certainty, or its falsehood, if the " determination taken by his Britannic Majesty, in " the present circumstance, to break off all commu- "nication between the governments of the two "countries, had not rendered friendly and open vol. i. 2d 402 1793 and 1853. "steps the more difficult in proportion as they " became the more necessary." And he adds: — "But I considered, my Lord, "that when the question of war or peace arose " between two powerful nations, that which mani- " fested the desire of attending to all explanations, " that which strove the longest to preserve the last "link of union and friendship, was the only one " which appeared truly worthy and truly great. I "beseech you, my Lord, in the name of public " faith, in the name of justice and of humanity, to " explain to me facts which I will not characterize, "and which the French nation would take for "granted by your silence only, or by the refusal " of an answer." Lord Grenville's answer, dated 9th Jan., 1793, evades the question : — " I do not know," says he, ' in what capacity you address me, in the letter which " I have just received ; but in every case it would " be necessary to know the resolutions which shall " have been taken in France, in consequence of what " has already passed, before I can enter into any new "explanations, especially with respect to measures " founded, in a great degree, on those motives of "jealousy and uneasiness which I have already de- " tailed to you." Nothing daunted, the indefatigable Frenchman re- news the correspondence on the 11th. But having resumed the diplomatic style of "the undersigned minister plenipotentiary," his letter, which states that the " French Eepublic cannot but regard the conduct " of the English Government as a manifest infraction m. chauvelin's interview with lord grenville. 403 " of the treaty of commerce concluded between the " two powers, and that, consequently, France ceases " to consider herself as bound by that treaty, and " that she regards it from this moment as broken " and annulled," was returned to him by Mr. Aust, a clerk, probably, in the Foreign Office, with the following note : — " Mr. Aust is charged to send back to M. Chauvelin " the enclosed paper received yesterday at the office " for Foreign Affairs." Next, we have a letter ^rom M. Chauvelin to Lord Grenville, written in an unofficial form, dated January 12th, stating that he had just received a messenger from Paris, and soliciting a personal interview ; which request is granted, on condition that the communica- tion be put upon paper. On the following day M. Chauvelin communicates to Lord Grenville a copy of a paper which he had received from M. Le Brun, the foreign minister of France. This dispatch con- tains the strongest expressions of a desire to maintain amicable relations with England. " The sentiments " of the French nation towards the English," says the foreign minister of France, "have been manifested " during the whole course of the revolution, in so " constant, so unanimous a manner, that there cannot " remain the smallest doubt, of the esteem which it " has vowed them, and of its desire of having them " for friends." He then proceeds to discuss, at length, the several topics in dispute between the two countries. As respects the obnoxious decree of the 19 th Novem- ber, every effort is made to explain away its offensive meaning, and it is at last admitted that the object 2 d 2 404 1793 and 1853. contemplated "might, perhaps, be dispensed with " by the National Convention, that it was scarcely " worth the while to express it, and it did not deserve " to be made the object of a particular decree." Assuming that the British Government is satisfied with the declaration made on the part of the French, relative to Holland, the paper proceeds, at length, into the question of the opening of the Scheldt, which is justified by an appeal to the rights of nature and of all the nations of Europe. The Emperor of Germany concluded the treaty for giving the exclusive right of the navigation of the Scheldt to the Dutch with- out consulting the Belgians. " The Emperor, to " secure the possession of the Low Countries, sacri- " ficed, without scruple, the most inviolable of rights." And, further, " France enters into war with the " House of Austria, expels it from the Low Countries, " and calls back to freedom those people whom the " Court of Vienna had devoted to slavery." The paper proceeds to say that France does not aim at the permanent occupation of the Low Countries, and that after the close of the war, if England and Hol- land still attach some importance to the re- closing of the Scheldt, they may put the affair into a direct negotiation with Belgium. • If the Belgians, by any motive whatever, consent to deprive themselves of the navigation of the Scheldt, France will not op- pose it. Lord Grenville in his reply to this letter (January 18, 1793) begins by saying, "I have examined, Sir, " with the greatest attention, the paper which you " delivered to me on the 13th of this month. I THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH LETTERS COMPARED. 405 " cannot conceal from you that I have found nothing " satisfactory in the result of that note." The rest of the letter is either a repetition of the former com- plaints, or an attempt to extract fresh sources of dispute from the preceding communication. After the exchange of two other unimportant letters, we come to the denouement. On the 24th January, on the news reaching London of the execution of Louis XVI., Lord Grenville transmits to M. Chauvelin the order of the Privy Council, requiring him to leave the country in eight days. I have given these copious extracts from this most portentous of all diplomatic correspondence, not to exonerate you from the trouble of reading the re- mainder, for every word ought to be studied by those who wish to understand the origin of the war,- but to enable you to form a correct opinion of the animus which influenced the two parties. Contrast the con- ciliatory, the almost supplicatory tone of the one, with the repulsive and haughty style of the other, and then ask — which was bent upon hostilities, and which on peace ? Eecollect that these correspondents were the representatives respectively of sixteen mil- lions of British and twenty-four millions of French, and then say whether the insolent, de-haut-en*bas treatment received by the latter could have been in- tended for any other purpose but to provoke a war. Observe that the more urgent the Frenchman became in his desire to explain away the ground of quarrel the more resolute was the English negotiator to close up the path to reconciliation ;— forcing upon us the conviction that what the British Government really 406 1793 and 1853. dreaded at that moment was, not the hostility but, the friendship of France. And, now, a word as to the alleged grounds of the rupture. It must be observed in the first place, that there is no complaint on our part of any hostile act, or even word being directed against ourselves. The bombastic decree* of the National Convention — one of the midnight declarations of that excited body, was put prominently in the bill of indictment, but it was never alleged that it was specially levelled at this country. It was aimed at the governments of the Continent in retaliation for their conspiracies against the French revolution. " If you invade us with bayonets, we will invade you with liberties," — was the language addressed by the orators of the Con- vention to . the despotic powers. That this decree was, however, a fair ground of negotiation by our government cannot be denied, and it is evident from the desire of the French minister to explain away its obnoxious meaning, going so far even as to admit that " perhaps" it ought not to have been passed, that a little more remonstrance in an earnest and peaceful spirit, would have led to a satisfactory explanation on this point. In fact, within a few months of this time the decree was rescinded. * Decree of Fraternity. The National Convention declares in the name of the French nation that it will grant fraternity and assistance to all people who wish to recover their liberty ; and it charges the Executive power to send the necessary orders to the generals to give assistance to such people, and to defend those citizens who have suffered or may suffer in the cause of liberty. —19th November, 1792. THE FEEE NAVIGATION OP THE SCHELDT. 407 With respect to the Dutch right to a monopoly of the Scheldt :— if that was really one of the objects of the war, the twenty-two years of hostilities might have been spared ; for if there was any one thing, besides the abolition of the slave trade, which the Congress of Vienna effected at the close of the war, to the satisfaction of all parties, and with the hearty concurrence of England, it was setting free the navigation of the great rivers of Europe. Nothing need be said about the remaining question of the in- violability of the territory of Holland, inasmuch as the French minister offered to give us a satisfactory pledge upon that point. I may merely add that the Dutch Government abstained from making any de- mand upon England to sustain its claim to the ex- clusive navigation of the Scheldt, and wisely so : — for it probably foresaw what happened in the war which followed, when the French having taken possession of Holland, where they were welcomed by a large part of the population as friends, and having turned the Dutch fleet against us, in less than three years, we seized all the principal colonies of that country, and some of them (to our cost) we retain to the present day. Whilst through this official correspondence the French Government was endeavouring to remove the causes of war, other and less formal means were resorted to for accomplishing the same end. Attached to the French embassy were several individuals, selected for their popular address, their familiarity with the English language, and their talent in con- versation or as writers, who, by mixing in society, 408 1793 and 1853. and especially that of the Liberals, might it was hoped influence public opinion in favour of peace. Amongst these was one who played the chief diplo- matic part in the great drama which was about to follow. " The mission of M. de Talleyrand to London," says M. Lamartine,* " was to endeavour to fraternise the aristocratic principle of the Eng- lish constitution with the democratic principle of the French constitution, which it was believed could be effected and controlled by an upper Chamber. It was hoped to interest the statesmen of Great Britain in a revolution imitated from their own, which, after having convulsed the people, was now being moulded in the hands of an intelligent aristocracy." Beyond the circles of the more ardent reformers, however, or the society of a few philosophical thinkers, these semi-official diplomatists made very little way. They were coldly, and sometimes even uncivilly treated ; as the following incident, in which Talleyrand played a part, will shew. " One evening " all the members of the embassy, with Dumont, " went to Eanelagh, which was then frequented by " the most respectable classes of English society. " As they entered, there was a murmur of voices — " ' There is the French embassy !' All eyes were " fixed on them with a curiosity not mixed with any " expression of good- will ; and presently the crowd " fell back on both sides, as if the Frenchmen had " the plague upon them, and left them all the pro-. * History of Girondins, vol. i. p, 197. ENGLAND POPULAR IN FRANCE. 409 " menade to themselves."* This incident occurred before the dethronement of the king in August; and the writer from whom the above is quoted in the Pictorial History of England, after labouring through several pages to prove that the French were the authors of the war, refutes himself with great naivete by adding, " The public feeling which would " have driven England into a war in spite of -any " ministry, shewed itself in a marked manner even " before the horrors of the 10th August and the " massacres of September." The feeling in France towards England was the very opposite of this, up to the time when the hostile sentiments of our government became known, and, even then^ there was a strong disposition to separate the aristocracy from the people, and to attribute to the former all the enmity which characterized our policy towards them. Previously to the revolution, English tastes had been largely adopted in France ; and indeed so great was at one time the disposition to imi- tate the amusements, dress, equipage, &c. of English- men, that it had acquired the epithet of Anglomania. When political reform became the engrossing thought of the nation, what so natural as that the French people should turn a favourable eye to England, whose superior aptitude for self-government, and more jealous love of personal liberty^ they were ready then, as they are now, to acknowledge. Never, therefore, was the sympathy for England so strong as at the commencement of their revolution. When * Pictorial Hist, of England, vol. iii. p. 276. 410 1793 and 1853. the Declaration of Pilnitz, and the hostile proceed- ings of the emigrant nobles at Coblentz in 1791, drew forth the indignant denunciations of Brissot and other orators, and induced some of them to call for war as the only means of. putting an end to the clandestine correspondence which was carried on between the " conspirators without and the traitors within," no such feeling was entertained towards England ; and even after the breaking out of hosti- lities with this country, so unpopular was the war, that the strongest reproach that one unscrupulous faction could throw upon another was in mutual accusation of having provoked it. This fact was at a subsequent period referred to by Lord Mornington,* one of Pitt's supporters, as a proof that the British Government at least did not provoke the war. " Robespierre," said he, " imputes it to Brissot ; " Brissot retorts it upon Eobespierre ; the Jacobins " charge it upon the Girondists ; the Girondists re- " criminate upon the Jacobins ; the mountain thun- " ders it upon the valley ; and the valley re-echoes " it back against the mountain." " All facts," said Sheridan, with unanswerable force, in reply, " tending to contradict the assertion " which the noble Lord professed to establish by " them, and making still plainer that there was no " party in France which was not earnest to avoid a " rupture with this country, nor any party which we " may not at this moment reasonably believe to be " inclined to put an end to hostilities." * January 21, 1794. THE REAL CAUSES OF THE WAK. 411 I have said sufficient probably to satisfy you tbat France did not desire a collision with England ; and that the pretexts put forward by Lord Grenville in his correspondence with M. Chauvelin were not sufficient grounds for the rupture. But I will now redeem my pledge, and 'prove to you, from the ad- missions of the partisans of the war, that the real motive was to put down opinions in France, or at least to prevent the spread of them in this country. Parliament, as I before stated, was hastily sum- moned for the 13th December, 1792. The country stood on the verge of the most fearful calamity that could befall it. But the mass of the people, whose passions and prejudices had been roused against their old enemies the French, did not see the danger before them, and they were ready for a war. At the same time, to quote the words of Sir Walter Scott,* " the ' whole aristocratic party, commanding a very large ' majority in both Houses of Parliament, became ' urgent that war should be declared against France ; ' a holy war, it said, against treason, blasphemy, and murder ; and a necessary war, in order to break off all connection betwixt the French Government ' and the discontented part of our own subjects, who ' could not otherwise be prevented from the most ' close, constant, and dangerous intercourse with ' them." To add to the excitement, tales of plots and conspiracies were circulated ; additional fortifi- cations were ordered for the Tower of London ; and a large armed force was drawn round the metro- * Life of Napoleon, cL xt. 412 1793 and 1853. polis. Speaking of the efforts that were made to create a panic in the public mind, Lord Lauderdale* at a later period observed: — " But is there a man in ' England ignorant that the most wicked arts have ' been practised to irritate and mislead the multi- ' tude? Have not hand-bills, wretched songs, in- ' famous pamphlets, false and defamatory para- ' graphs in newspapers been circulated with the ' greatest assiduity, all tending to rouse the indig-- ' nation of this country against France, with whom ' it has been long determined I fear to go to war? ' To such low artifices are these mercenaries re- ' duced, that they have both the folly and audacity " to proclaim that the New Eiver water has been " poisoned with arsenic by French emissaries." It must not be forgotten that at the very moment when all this preparation was being made against an attack from the French, and when this panic in the public mind was thus artfully created, M. Chauvelin was besieging the Foreign Office with proposals for peace, and, when denied admittance at the front door, entering meekly at the back, asking only to know on what terms, however humiliating, war with England might be averted. The public knew nothing of this at the time, for diplomacy was then, as now, a secret art ; hut the government knew it. The King's speech, at the opening of the session, began by saying, that having judged it necessary to embody a part of the militia, he had, according to law, called Parliament together. He then alluded * February 12, 1793. the king's speech. 413 to seditious practices and a spirit of tumult and dis- order, " stewing itself in acts of riot and insurrec- tion, which required the interposition of a military force." Then followed an allusion to " our happy constitution," which seems a little misplaced in the midst of riot and insurrection ; but the King relied on the firm determination of Parliament " to defend " and maintain that constitution which has so long " protected the liberties, and promoted the happiness " of every class of my subjects." Next, there was a complaint against France for " exciting disturbances in foreign countries, disregarding the rights of neutral nations, and pursuing views of conquest and aggran- dizement." The speech then announced an augmen- tation of the naval and military force, as " necessary " in the present state of affairs, and best, calculated, " both to maintain internal tranquillity, and to render " a firm and temperate conduct effectual for preserv- " ing the blessings of peace." The address, in reply to the speech, was carried without a division. The members who were opposed to the war, spoke under the discouraging conscious- ness that so far from having that popular support and sympathy which could alone make their opposi- tion formidable, the advocates of peace were in as small a minority in the country as in Parliament. On the first night of the session, after denouncing the panic which had been artfully created, Mr. Fox said, " I am not so ignorant of the present state of " men's minds, and of the ferment artfully created, " as not to know that I am now advancing an opinion " likely to be unpopular. It is not the first time I 414 1793 and 1853. " have incurred the same hazard." And, on a sub- sequent occasion, in a still more dejected tone, he said,* — "I have done my duty in submitting my " ideas to the House ; and in doing this, I cannot " possibly have had any other motives than those of " public duty. What were my motives ? Not to " court the favour of ministers, or those by whom "ministers are supposed to be favoured; not to " gratify my friends, as the debates in this House " have shewn ; not to court popularity, for the general " conversation, both within and without these walls, " has shewn that to gain popularity I must have held " the opposite course. The people may treat my " house as they have done that of Dr. Priestley — as it " is said they have done more recently that of Mr. " Walker.f My motive only was that they might " know what was the real cause of the war into which " they are likely to be plunged ; and that they might " know that it depended on a mere matter of form " and ceremony." It is impossible to read the speeches of Fox, at this time, without feeling one's heart yearn with admira- tion and gratitude for the bold and resolute manner in which he opposed the war, never yielding and never repining, under the most discouraging defeats ; and, although deserted by many of his friends in the * December 15th, 1792. t A highly respectable inhabitant of Manchester, whose house was assailed by a " Church and King" mob, upon the charge of being a " Jacobin," or "Eepublican and Leveller." His son, who inherits his liberal principles, but whose good fortune it has been to live in times when popular intelligence can discriminate be- tween friends and foes, is an alderman and magistrate of that city. FEARS OF THE BOBOUGHMONGERS. 415 House, taunted with having only a score of followers left, and obliged to admit* that he could not walk the streets without being insulted by hearing the charge made against him of carrying on an improper correspondence with the enemy in France, yet bear- ing it all with uncomplaining manliness and dignity. The annals of Parliament do not record a nobler struggle in a nobler cause. It may naturally be asked, why, with the popular opinions ranningthus strongly against " French prin- ciples," did the government resort to such arts as have been described, for creating a still greater panic in men's minds, or where was the motive for going to war with the French Kepublic ? But " the wicked fleeth when no man pursueth." The vaunted "Constitution" of that time was, so far as the House of Commons was concerned, an insult to reason, an impudent fraud, which would not bear discussion ; and the " boroughmongers," as they were afterwards called, were trembling lest its real character might be exposed, if people were left at leisure to examine it. What that character was, we have been, with infinite naivete, informed by one of its admirers. " The Govern- ment of Great Britain," says Alison,! "which was "supposed, by theoretical observers, to have been " anterior to the great change of 1832, a mixed con- stitution, in which the Grown, the Nobles, and the " Commons mutually checked and counteracted each " other, was in reality an aristocracy, having a sove- " reign for the executive, disguised under the popular "forms of a republic." Although this government * February 7th, 1793. t Vol. iii. p. 101. 416 1793 and 1853. of false pretences had two extremes of society, the interested few and the ignorant many on its side, yet there was a small party of parliamentary reformers, who, though stigmatized as " Jacobins," " Levellers," and "Republicans," were active, earnest, and able men, comprising in their body nearly all the intellect of the age ; and it was from the chimerical fear that these men would put themselves under the influence of French politicians that the two countries were to be rent asunder by war. Upon this point we have the ingenious avowal of a young statesman, who lived to fill the highest office in the state. Mr. Jenkinson,* (afterwards Lord Liverpool), said, — " He had heard it frequently urged that this was a period particu- larly unfavourable to a war with France, on account of the number of discontented persons amongst us in correspondence with the seditious of that country, who menaced and endangered our government and constitution. That there was a small party enter- taining such designs he had very little doubt ; and, from their great activity, he also considered them as dangerous ; but he confessed that this very cir- cumstance, so far from deterring him from war, became a kind of inducement. They might be troublesome in times of peace — they might be tran- quil in time of war ; for as soon as hostilities were commenced, the correspondence with the French must cease, and all the resource they had would be to emigrate to that country, which would be a good thing for this ; or, remaining where they are, to con- duct themselves like good citizens, as that correspon- * December 15 th, 1792. EDMUND BUEKE's MONOMANIA. 417 " dence which by law was not punishable now, would " in time of war be treason." The same motive for the war was at last avowed by him who had performed the part of Peter the Jlermit, in rousing the warlike spirit of the nation. Edmund Burke, who from the year 1789, was pos- sessed by a species of monomania upon the French revolution, took a prominent part in these discus- sions ; indeed whatever was the subject before the House, if he rose to speak upon it, he was pretty certain to mount his favourite hobby before he re- sumed his seat. " Let the subject, the occasion, the " argument be what it may," said Mr. Francis,* " he " has but one way of treating it. War and peace, " the repair of a turnpike, the better government of " nations, the direction of a canal, and the security " of the constitution are all alike in his contempla- " tion : the French revolution is an answer to every- " thing ; the French revolution is his everlasting " theme, the universal remedy, the grand specific, u the never failing panacea, the principal burden of " his song ; and with this he treats us from day " to day ; a cold, flat, insipid hash of the same - dish, " perpetually served up to us in different shapes, " till at length with all his cookery the taste revolts, " the palate sickens at it." At length, on the discussion of the Alien Bill,f Burke's powers of reason and judgment seemed to be entirely overborne by a frenzied imagination. Drawing forth a dagger and brandishing it in the air, he east it with great vehemence of action on * May 7, 1793. t Dec. 28, 1792. VOL. I. 2 E 418 1793 and 1853. the floor : " It is my object," said he, " to keep the " French infection from this country ; their princi- " pies from our minds, and their daggers from our " hearts ! I vote for this bill, because I believe it " to be the means of saving my life and all our lives " from the. hands of assassins ; I vote for it because " it will break the abominable system of the modern " pantheon, and prevent the introduction of French " principles and French daggers. When they smile " I see blood trickling down their faces ; I see their " insidious purposes, — I see that the object of all " their cajoling is blood ! I now warn my country- " men to beware of these execrable philosophers, " whose only object it is to destroy everything that is " good here, and to establish immorality and murder " by precept and example ! " And on a subsequent occasion,* immediately after the declaration of hostilities, he declared his fixed opinion that " if we continued at peace with " France, there would not be ten years of stability " in the government of this country." Thus did he who first sounded the toscin of war, and led the public mind through each successive phase of hos- tility, until he triumphed in the deadly struggle which had now begun, avow that the object he sought was to avert the danger with which French principles menaced the institutions of this country. I must add one extract from a speech delivered by Mr. Windham, the leader of the Whig seceders,who became Pitt's Secretary at War. It was delivered on * Feb. 18, ]793. MR. WINDHAM AND ME. WILBEEFORCE. 419 the 1st February, 1793, the day on which war was declared by France, but before that event was known here. " He agreed that in all probability the French had no wish at this moment to go to war with this country, as they were not yet ready to do so ; their object seemed to be to take all Europe in detail, and we might be reserved to be the last." Here the whole case as against ourselves is fully admitted by one of the most determined advocates of the war. It is needless to add, that if we were justified in going to war because we predicted that France would attack us at some future time, there never need be a want of justification for a war. But it is at a somewhat later period that we dis- cover more clearly the real motives of the war as acknowledged by its authors. In 1795, when hos- tilities had been carried on for two years, with but little impression upon the enemy, and when the cry for peace became general, there was less reserve in avowing the objects for which we had entered upon war. In a speech in favour of peace, Mr. Wilber- force* said : " With regard to the probable conse- " quences of pursuing the war, he considered them " to be in their nature uncertain. Heretofore it might " justly be said to be carried on in order to prevent the " progress of French principles ; but now there was " much more danger of their being strengthened by " a general discontent, arising from a continuance " of the war, than from any importation of the prin- " ciples themselves from France." On a subsequent occasion, after the government * May 27, 1795. 2 e 2 420 1793 and 1853. of France had undergone a change, and had -passed into the hands of the Directory, and when the British ministry was constrained by the general discontent, to make a profession of willingness to negotiate for peace, they were obliged, in order to justify them- selves for having formerly advocated war, to point to the altered, and as they alleged more settled state of the French Government, as the cause of the change in their policy. Mr. Pitt* said— "I certainly said " that the war was not like others, occasioned by " particular insult, or the unjust seizure of territory, " or the like, or undertaken to repel usurpation, con- " nected with principles calculated to, subvert all go- " vernment, and which while they flourished in their " original force and malignity, were totally, incom- " patible with the accustomed relations of peace and " amity. We professed also that many persons in " that country felt the pressure of the calamities " under which it laboured, and were ready to co- " operate for the destruction of the causes which " occasioned them." In the debate in the House of Lords, which fol- lowed this pacific message from the King, a more, undisguised statement was made by one who, as a cabinet minister, had the fullest opportunity of know- ing the motives of those who entered upon the war. Earl Fitzwilliamf said: — " The present war was of " a nature different from all common wars. It was " commenced, not from any of the ordinary motives " of policy and ambition. It was expressly under- " taken to restore order in France, and to effect the * Dec. 9, 1795. f December 14, 1795. LOED FITZWILLIAM'S ADMISSIONS. 421 " destruction of the abominable system that prevailed in " that country. Upon this understanding it was that " he had separated from some of those with whom " he had long acted in politics, and with other noble " friends had lent aid to his Majesty's ministers. " Upon this understanding he had filled that situa- " tion which he some time since held in the Cabinet. " Knowing then on such authority the object of the war " to have been to restore order in France^ he was some- " what surprised at the declaration in the message " that his Majesty was now prepared to treat for " peace." The Fitzwilliams have always had the habit of plain-speaking, though not of invariably foreseeing all the logical consequences of what they say. Their honesty has, however, been proverbial ; and as in this case the speaker went to the unusual length of giving evidence as a cabinet minister against his former col- leagues, and was not contradicted, we may take his statement as conclusive proof upon the question in hand. But what must we think of the conduct of the government, and especially of Mr. Pitt and Lord Grenville, in having thrown the responsibility of the war upon France upon such pretences as the opening of the navigation of the Scheldt, whilst at the same time we have overwhelming evidence to shew that they were determined to provoke a collision for totally different objects ? What will be said of it when our history is written by some future Mebuhr ? I could multiply quotations of a similar tendency to the above, but I forbear from a conviction that no further evidence. is required to prove my case. 422 1793 and 1853. But there is one act of our government, illustrative of its motives in entering upon the war, which. I must not omit to mention. Shortly after the commence- ment of hostilities (November 1793) our naval forces took possession of Toulon, when Admiral Hood and the British Commissioners published a proclamation, in the name of the King of England, to the people of France, in which they declared in favour of monar- chy in France in the person of Louis XVII. But not a word did they say about the opening of the navigation of the Scheldt, or the pretended objects of the war. And about the same time* the King of England published a declaration to the French nation, in which he promises the " suspension of hostilities, " and friendship, security and protection to all those " who by declaring for monarchical government " shall shake off the yoke of a sanguinary anarchy." It is strange that our government did not see that this was as much an act of intervention in the internal concerns of another people as any thing which had been done by the French Convention, and that, in fact, it was affording a justification for every act of the kind perpetrated on the Continent, from the De- claration of Pilnitz to the present moment. In drawing this argument to a close, I have done nothing but prove the truth of a statement made by a writer who has devoted far more time, labour, and learning to the investigation of the subject than it is in my power to bestow. Considering that he is a partisan of the war, and an admirer of the political system which it was designed to uphold, I cannot but * October 29, 1793. ALISON ON THE ORIGIN OF THE WAE. 423 marvel at his candour, which I should the more ad- mire if I were sure that he has fully appreciated the logical consequences that flow from his admissions. The following are the remarks of Sir A. Alison upon the origin of the war: — " In truth, the arguments urged by government " were not the only motives for commencing the war. " The danger they apprehended lay nearer home than " the conquests of the republicans : it was not foreign " subjugation so much as domestic revolution that " was dreaded if a pacific intercourse were any " longer maintained with France. ' Croyez-moi,' " said the Empress Catherine to Segur, in 1789, " ' une guerre seule peut changer la direction des " ' esprits en France, les reunir, donner un but " ' plus utile aux passions et reveiller le vrai pa- " ' triotisme.'* In this observation is contained the true " secret, and the best vindication of the revolutionary war. " The passions were excited; democratic ambition was " awakened ; the desire of power under the name of " reform was rapidly gaining ground among the " middle ranks, and the institutions of the country " were threatened with an overthrow as violent as " that which had recently taken place in the French " monarchy. In these circumstances, the only mode " of checking the evil was by engaging in a foreign " contest, by drawing off the ardent spirits into active " service, and, in lieu of the modern desire for inno- * Believe me, a war alone can change the direction of men's minds in Erance, re-unite them, give a more useful aim to the passions, and awaken true patriotism. 424 1793 and 1853. " vation, rousing the ancient gallantry of the British " nation*"* Of the moral sense which could permit an approval of the sentiments of the imperial patroness of Su- warrow, I would rather not speak. But I wish that a copy of this extract could be possessed by every man in England, that all might understand the "true secret " of despots, which is to employ one nation in cutting the throats of another, so that neither may have time to reform the abuses in their own domestic government. I would say on the contrary, the true secret of the people is to remain at peace : and not only s0 ; but to be on their guard against false alarms about the intended aggressions of their neighbours, which when too credulously believed, give to govern- ment all the political advantages of a war, without its risks ; for they keep men's minds in a degrad- ing state of fear and dependence, and afford the excuse for continually increasing government ex- penditure. One word only upon the objection that the French were the first to decl&re war. In the present case, as in that of the Allied Powers on the continent, to which we before alluded, we were giving to ourselves all the advantages of a belligerent power by our warlike preparations, without affording to the French the fair warning of a declaration of war. The go- vernment of France acted more in accordance with the recognized law of nations in publishing the reasons why they were, contrary to their own wishes, at war with England. The language and acts of Mr. Pitt * Vol. iv. p. 7. WARLIKE PREPARATIONS IN ENGLAND. 425 were a virtual declaration of war. Half as much said or done by a prime minister now would be enough to plunge all Europe in flames. We have seen that the militia was embodied, and the Parliament sud- denly assembled on the 13th December, 1792, when the King's speech recommended an augmentation of the army and navy. On the 28th January, 1793, upon the arrival of the news of the execution of the French king, not only was M. Chauvelin, the French minister, ordered to leave the kingdom in eight days, but the King's message, which was sent to the House of Commons announcing this fact, recommended a further augmentation of the land and sea forces. This increased armament was not now wanted, as was professed to be the case on the 13th December, for " preserving the blessings of peace," but, to quote the words of the Message, "to enable his Majesty " to take the most effectual measures, in the present " important conjuncture, for maintaining the security " and rights of his own dominions ; for supporting " Ms allies; and for opposing views of aggrandize- " ment and ambition on the part of France, which " would be at all times dangerous to the general " interests of Europe, but are peculiarly so, when " connected with the propagation of principles which " lead to the violation of the most sacred duties, and " are utterly subversive of the peace and order of all u civil society." Once more I must beg your attention to dates. This message was delivered on the 28th January, 1793. Up to this time the French Govern- ment had given undeniable proofs of desiring to pre- serve peace with England. And it was not till after 426 1793 and 1853. the delivery of this message to Parliament, after a peremptory order had been given to their ambassador to leave England ; after all these preparations for war ; and after the insulting speeches and menaces uttered by Mr. Pitt and the other ministers in Parliament, which, as will be seen by referring to the debates of this time, were of themselves . sufficient to provoke hostilities, that the French Convention, by a unani- mous vote, declared war against England on the 1st February, 1793. On the 11th February, the King sent a message to Parliament, in which he said he " relied with con- " fidence on the firm and effectual support of the " House of Commons, and on the zealous exertions " of a brave and loyal people in prosecuting a [when " was war ever acknowledged to be otherwise ?] just " and necessary war." The wisdom of the advice of the Czarina Cathe- rine was exemplified in what followed. The war diverted men's minds from every domestic grievance. Hatred to the French was the one passion hence- forth cultivated. All political ameliorations were postponed ; Keform of Parliament, a question which had previously been so ripe that Pitt himself, in company with Major Cartwright, attended public meetings in its favour, was put aside for forty years ; and even the voice of Wilberforce, pleading for the slave, was for several successive sessions mute, amidst the death struggle which absorbed all the passions and sympathies of mankind. And now, my dear Sir, if you have done me the honour to read this long letter, I will conclude with THE MORAL OF THE ARGUMENT. 427 an appeal for your candid judgment upon the merits of the question between us. Eecollect that we are not discussing the professional claims of the Duke of Wellington to our admiration. He and his great opponent were brought forth and educated by the war of the Eevolution. They were the accidents, not the cause of that mighty struggle. The question is — was that war in its origin just and necessary on our part ? Was it so strictly a defensive war that we are warranted in saying that God raised up the Duke as an instrument for our protection? I humbly submit that the facts of the case are in direct opposi- tion to this view ; and that it is only by pleading ignorance of the historical details which I have nar- rated that we can hope to be acquitted of impiety in attributing to an all-wise and just Providence an active interposition in favour of a war so evidently unprovoked and aggressive. And I remain faithfully yours, ElCHAED COBDEN. To the Rev. . 428 LETTER III. ME. COBDEN TO THE EEVEEEND . January, 1853. My dear Sik, I am afraid you do not overstate the case in saying, that not one in a thousand of the population of this country has ever doubted the jus- tice and necessity of our last war with France. There is all but a unanimous sentiment upon the subject ; and it is easily accounted for. The present generation of adults have been educated under cir- cumstances which forbade an impartial judgment upon the origin of the war. They were either born during the strife of arms, when men's hopes and fears were too much involved in the issue of the struggle to find leisure for a historical inquiry into the merits of the quarrel, or after the conclusion of the peace, when people were glad to forget every thing connected with the war, excepting our victo- ries, and the victors. There are no men now living, and still engaged in the active business of life, who were old enough to form an opinion upon the ques- tion, and to take a part in the controversy, when peace or war trembled in the balance in 1792 : and our histories have been written too much in the in- terest of the political party which was at that time VALUE OF CORRECT VIEWS OF THE WAR. 429 in power to enable our youth to grow up with sound opinions upon the conduct of the authors of the war. But the truth must be told to the people of this country. I have no fear that they will refuse to hear it. Even were they so disposed, it would not affect the final verdict of mankind upon the question. The facts which I have narrated, together with many more leading to the same conclusion, to say nothing of the reserve of proofs which Time has yet to dis- close, will all be as accessible to the German and American historians as ourselves. Mr. Bancroft is approaching the epoch to which we refer, and can any one who has followed him thus far in his great historical work, and observed his acute appreciation of the workings of our aristocratic system, doubt, that, should he bring his industry and penetration to the task, he will succeed in laying bare to the light of day the motives which impelled our govern- ment to join the crusade against the revolution of 1789? But the whole truth must be told, and the public mind thoroughly imbued with the real merits of the case, not as the solution of a mere historical problem, but in the interest of peace, and as the best and, indeed, only means of preparing the way for that tone of confidence and kindness which every body, excepting a few hopelessly depraved spirits, believes will one day characterize the intercourse of France and England. For if in science and morals a truth once established be fruitful in other truths, and error, - when undetected, be certain to multiply itself after 430 1793 and 1853. its own kind, how surely must the same principle apply to the case before us ! If England be under the erroneous impression that the sanguinary feud of twenty-two years, which cost her so many children, and heaped upon her such a load of debt and taxation, was forced upon her by the unprovoked aggression of France, it is, I fear, but too natural that she should not only cherish feelings of enmity and resentment against the author of such calamities, but that there should be always smouldering in her breast dark suspicions that a similar injury may again be inflicted upon her by a power which has displayed so great a disregard of the obligations of justice. The natural result of this state of feeling is that it leads us to remind the offending party pretty frequently of the disastrous results of their former attacks, to thrust before their eyes memorials of our prowess, and to warn them from time to time that we are preparing to repel any fresh aggressions which they may be meditating against us. If, on the other hand, the real origin of the war be impressed upon the mind of the present generation, and it be known, -popularly known, that far from having been, as we are told it was, undertaken in behalf of liberty, or for the defence of our own shores, it was hatched upon the Continent in the secret counsels of despotic courts, and fed from the industry of England by her then oligarchical go- vernment ; that its object was to deprive the French people of the right of self-government, and to place their liberties at the disposal of an arbitrary king, VALUE OF COEEECT VIEWS OF THE WAE. 431 a corrupt church, and a depraved aristocracy ; then the opinion of the country, and its language and acts will be totally different from what we have just de- scribed. Instead of feelings of resentment, there will be sentiments of regret ; far from suspecting attacks from the French, the people of England, seeing through, and separating themselves from the, policy by which their fathers were misled, will be rather disposed to level their suspicion at those who call upon them again, without one fact to warrant it, to put themselves in an attitude of defiance against their unoffending neighbour ; and in lieu of constantly invoking the memory of their own exploits, or the reverses of their opponents, the English people will, under the circumstances which I have supposed, be anxious only for an oblivion of all memorials of an unjust and aggressive war. Can any doubt exist as to which of these conditions of public opinion and feeling is most likely to conduce to peace, and which to war? But, moreover, the truth must be known in order that the people of England may be the better able to appreciate the feelings of the French towards them. The precept ' do unto others as ye would that others should do unto you,' is applicable to thought as well as act. Before we condemn the sentiments entertained by the people of France with respect to our conduct in the last war, let us endeavour to form an opinion as to what our own feelings would be under similar circumstances. To do this we must bear in mind that whilst our historians give lis a flattering and partial account of the conduct of our. government at the 432 1793 and 1853. breaking out of the last war, the French writers, as may naturally be supposed, lose no opportunity of recording every fact which redounds to our disad- vantage. I have abstained from giving quotations from these authorities, because they would be open to the charge of being partial and prejudiced. But it ought to be known to us that not only do these writers make the European powers who conspired against the liberties of France responsible for the war, they invariably assign to England the task of stimulating the flagging zeal of the Continental des- pots, and of bribing them to continue their warlike operations when all other inducements failed. The least hostile of these writers, M. Thiers, the favourite of our aristocracy, in speaking of our preparations for the campaign of 1794, says — " England was still the soul of the coalition, and urged the powers of the continent to hasten to destroy, on the banks of the Seine, a revolution at which she was terrified, and a rival which was detestable to her. The im- placable son of Chatham had this year made pro- digious efforts for the destruction of France." It is to the energies of Pitt, wielding the power of England, that France attributes the tremendous coalitions which again and again brought nearly all Europe in hostile array against her. Thus does M. Thiers describe the spirit which animated him. "In England a revolution which had only half regenerated the social state, had left subsisting a crowd of feudal institutions which were objects of attachment for the court and aristocracy, and of attack for the opposition. Pitt had a double object in view; first to allay the THE FRENCH APOLOGY FOR 1794. 433 hostility of the aristocracy, to parry the demand for reform, and thus to preserve his ministry by con- trolling both parties; secondly — to overwhelm France beneath her own misfortunes, and the hatred of all the European governments." These quotations afford but a faint idea of the tone in which the historical writers of that country deal with the subject. We are held up generally to popular odium as the perfidious and machiave- lian plotters against the liberties of the French people. But it will probably be asked — and the question is important — what are the present opinions of French- men respecting their own Revolution out of which the war sprung ? There is nothing upon which we entertain more erroneous views. When we speak of" that event, our recollection calls up those occurrences only, such as the Reign of Terror, the rise and fall of Napoleon, the wars of conquest carried on by him, and the final collapse of the territory of France within its former boundaries, which seem to stamp with failure, if not with disgrace, the entire character of the Revolution. The Frenchman, on the con- trary, directs his thoughts steadily to the year 1789. He finds the best excuse he can for the madness of 1794; he will point, with pride, to the generous magnanimity of the populace of Paris, in 1830 and 1848, as an atonement for the Reign of Terror ; he throws upon foreign powers, and especially upon England, the responsibility for the long wars which desolated so many of the countries of Europe; but towards the Constituent Assembly of 1789, and the vol. i. 2 F 434 1793 and 1853. principles which they established, his feelings of reverence and gratitude are stronger than ever ; he never alludes to them but with enthusiasm and admiration. This feeling is confined to no class, as the following extract from a speech addressed by M. Thiers on the 29th June, 1851, to that most Conservative body, the National Assembly, and the response which it elicited, will show. It is taken verbatim from a report published by himself: — " M. Thiers. Let us do honour to the men who have maintained in France, since 1789, real civil equality — equality of taxation, which we owe to our admirable and noble Revolution. (Notre belle et honorable revolution.") — (Assent and agitation.) " A voice on the left. Settle that with your friends. (Oh, oh! murmurs.) " A voice on the right. Don't mistake ; it is not the Revolution of 1848 that is referred to. "if. Thiers. I speak of the Revolution of 1789, and I trust we are all of one mind upon that. (The left. Yes ! yes ! laughter.) " M. Charras. Talk to the right. " M. Thiers. I have a better opinion than you of my country, and of all our parties, and I am con- vinced that no one will encounter coldness or dis- approbation from any quarter when praising the Revolution of 1789. (Marks of approbation from a great number of benches.") There is no greater proof of the predominant favour in which any opinions are held in France than to find them advocated by M. Thiers. But whilst em- ployed upon this letter, a recent production from the WHAT THE EEVOLUTION DID FOE FEANCE. 435 pen of my accomplished friend, M. Michael Chevalier, has met my eye, in which he speaks of " the immortal principles " of " our glorious Constituent Assembly of 1789." Where two men of such eminent authority, but of such diametrically opposite views upon eco- nomical principles, agree in their admiration of a particular policy, it is a proof that it must have irresistible claims upon public approbation. Men of the highest social position in France — even they whose fathers fell a sacrifice to the Eeign of Terror, admit that to the measures of 1789 (they were in substance described in my last letter), which have elevated the millions of their countrymen, from a condition hardly superior to that of the Russian serf, to the rank of citizens and proprietors of the soil, France is indebted for a more rapid advance in civi- lization, wealth, and happiness, than was ever pre- viously made by any community of a similar extent, within the same period of time. This feeling, so universally shared, has not been impaired by the recent changes in France, for it is directed less towards farms of government, or political institutions, than to the constitution of society itself. And here let me observe again upon the erroneous notions we fall into, as to the state of public opinion in France, because we insist upon judging it by our own standard. Assuredly, if the French have the presumption to measure our habits and feelings by theirs, they must commit as great blunders. Our glory is that the franchises and charters gained by our forefathers have secured us an amount of personal freedom that is not to be surpassed under any form 2 f 2 436 1793 and 1853. of government. And it is the jealous patriotic un- selfish love of this freedom, impelling the whole community to rush to the legal rescue of the meanest pauper if his chartered personal liberties be infringed by those in power, that distinguishes us from all Euro- pean countries ; and I would rather part with every sentiment of liberty we possess than this, because, with it, every other right is attainable. But the French people care little for a charter of habeas corpus, else, during their many revolutions, when power has descended into the streets, why has it not been secured ? and the liberty of the press, and the right of association, and public meeting, have been violated by universal suffrage almost as much as by their emperors and kings. That which the French really prize, and the English trouble themselves little about, is the absence of privileged inequality in their social system. Any violation of this principle is resisted with all the jealousy which we display in matters of individual freedom. It was this spirit which baffled the design of Napoleon, and Louis the XVIIIth, to found an aristocracy by the creation of entails. Now the Revolution of 1789, besides securing liberty of worship, and establishing probably the fairest system of government taxation (apart from the protective policy of the nation) at present to be found in the world, has divided the rich land of France amongst its whole population. It is these measures, coupled with the abolition of hereditary rank, and of the law of entail, which have chiefly contributed to gain for the Constituent Assembly the gratitude of a people so jealous of privilege, and so THE ARGUMENT APPLIED TO ENGLISHMEN. 437 passionately attached to the soil. Yet it cannot be too strongly impressed upon our minds that it was against the principles of this very Assembly that Burke, in 1790, launched Ms fiery declamation, in which we find the following amongst many similar invectives: — "You would not have chosen to con- " sider the French as a people of yesterday, as a " nation of low-born servile wretches, until the " emancipating year 1789 ;" and we are equally bound to remember that it was with the intention of overthrowing the system of government established by that Assembly that the despotic powers marshalled their armies for the invasion of France, and when, upon the failure of the attack, we threw the weight of England into the scale of despotism. Having fully realized to ourselves the case of the French people, let us ask — what would be our feelings under their circumstances ? Why, I fear, in the first place, we should, like them, still remember with some bitterness the un-i provoked attack made upon us by the nations of Europe, and that we should be sometimes tempted to call that country in particular "perfidious," Which, whilst professing to be free itself, and to have derived its freedom from a revolution, yet joined the despots of the Continent in a coalition against the liberties of another people : we, who have just paid almost pagan honours to the remains of a general who fought the battles of that unrighteous coalition — what would we have done in honour of those soldiers who beat back from our frontiers confederate armies of literally every nation in Christian Europe, except 438 1793 and 1853. Sweden, Denmark, and Switzerland ? Should we not, if we were Frenchmen, be greater worshippers of the name of Napoleon, if possible, than we are of Wellington and Nelson— and with greater reason? Should we not forgive him his ambition, his selfish- ness, his despotic rule? would not every fault be forgotten in the recollection that he humbled Prussia, who had without provocation assailed us when in the throes of a domestic revolution, and that he dic- tated terms at Vienna to Austria, who had actually- begun the dismemberment* of our own territory? Should not we in all probability still feel so much under the influence of former dangers and disasters as to cling for protection to a large standing army ? — and might not that centralized government which alone enabled us to preserve our independence still find favour in our sight ? and should we not indulge a feeling of proud defiance in electing for the chief of the state the next heir to that great military hero, the child and champion of the Eevolution, whose family had been especially proscribed by the coalesced Powers before whom he finally fell ? Yes, however wise men might moralize, and good men mourn, these would, under the circumstances, I am sure, be the feelings and passions of Englishmen, aye, and pro- bably, in even a stronger degree than they are now cherished in France. What, then, are the results which I anticipate from the general diffusion of a true knowledge of the origin and character of the last French war ? In the first place, a more friendly and tolerant feeling * At Valenciennes and Conde. THE PKESENT DANGER. 439 towards the French people. The maxim of Eoche- foucault, that we never forgive those we have injured, if it he not unjust as applied to individuals, does not certainly hold good with respect to communities. Great nations may be proud, and even vain, but they are ever magnanimous ; and it is only meanness which could lead us to visit upon our victim the penalty of our own injustice. Besides, the maxim is not intended to apply, even in individuals, to generous natures, and generosity is the invariable attribute of great masses of men. But, in the next place, I should expect from a more correct knowledge of our error of sixty years ago, that we shall be less likely to repeat it now. It is certain that the lesson will not be required ? Are there no symptoms that we have spirits amongst us who want not the will, if the power and occasion be afforded, to play the part of Burke in our day ? He excited the indignation of his countrymen against a republic which had decapitated a King ; now our sympathies are roused in behalf of a Bepublic which has been strangled by an Emperor. However in- consistent, in other respects, our conduct at the two epochs may be, we seem in both cases likely to fall into the error of forgetting that the French nation are the legitimate tribunal for disposing of the grievance. To forget this is indeed a more flagrant act of inter- vention on our part than was that of our forefathers, inasmuch as, whilst they usurped the functions of twenty-four millions of Frenchmen, we are now in danger of treating thirty -six millions with no greater consideration. 440 1793 and 1853. I have said that we are not without imitators of the Reflections. A small volume of " Letters of ' an Englishman] on Louis Napoleon, the Empire, and the Coup d'Etal, reprinted urith large additions from The Times]' 1 is lying before me. I know a cynical person who stoutly maintains the theory that we are not progressive creatures ; that, on the contrary, we move in a circle of instincts ; and that a given cycle of years brings us back again to the follies and errors from which we thought mankind had emancipated itself. And really, these Letters are calculated to encourage him in his cynicism. For here we have the very same invectives levelled at Louis Napoleon which were hurled at the Constituent Assembly sixty years ago — the style, the language, the very epithets are iden- tically the same. Take a couple of morsels by way of illustration — the one speaking of the Constituent Assembly of 1789 ; and the other of Louis Napoleon in 1852:— BTTEKE, 1790. ENGLISHMAN, 1852. " How came the Assembly " The banquets to the sub- by their present power over the officers, the champagne, the army ? Chiefly, to be sure, by toasts, and the reviews, dis- debauching the soldiers from closed a continuity of purpose, their officers." and a determination to debauch the soldiery, calculated to open the eyes of all." So much for a specimen of specific accusation. Nor for a sample of general invective :— BTJEKE, 1790. ENGLISHMAN, 1852. Speaking of the Constituent Speaking of Louis Napoleon. Assembly. " When all the frauds, impos- " A self-convicted perjurer, an THE LETTERS OF " AN ENGLISHMAN." 441 tures, violences, rapines, burn- attainted traitor, a conspirator ings, murders, confiscations, successful by the foulest trea- compulsory paper currencies, chery, the purchase of the sol- andevery description of tyranny diery, and the butchery of and cruelty employed to bring thousands, he must, if not cut about and uphold this Bevo- short in his career, go all length lution, have their natural effect, of tyranny. For him there that is, to shock the moral sen- is no halt, for his system no timents of all virtuous sober element of either stability or minds, the abettors of this progress. It is a hopeless and philosophic system immediately absolute anachronism." strain their throats in a decla- mation against the old monar- chical government of Prance." Considering that the result of Burke's declamation was a war of twenty-two years, first to put down the French Kepublic, and afterwards Napoleon Bonaparte, both in the interest of the Bourbons ; that the war cost us some five-hundred millions of debt ; and that the result is, this present year 1853, a Bonaparte, whose family we proscribed, sitting upon the French throne, and the Bourbons, whom we installed at the Tuilleries, fugitives from the soil of France— remem- bering these things, and beholding this not altogether unsuccessful attempt at an imitation of the " Eeflec- tions," it does certainly afford a triumph to my cynical acquaintance, so far at least as to raise a doubt whe- ther progressive wisdom be an element of our foreign policy. I could give many specimens of declamatory writing from the Letters, not inferior to Burke in style, and some of them surpassing him in the vigour of their invective. Take the following as an illustra- tion of the lengths to which the writer's vehemence carries him, and let it be bome in mind that these 442 1793 and 1853. letters have had a far wider circulation than Burke's great philippic with all its popularity could boast of; 1 invite attention to those passages marked by me in italics. " The presidential chair or the imperial throne is set upon a crater — the soil is volcanic, undermined and trembling— the steps are slippery with blood — and the darkening steam of smouldering hatred, con- spiracy and vengeance — is exhaling round it. Each 'party can furnish its contingents for tyrannicide; the assassin dogs him in the street; and even at the balls or banquets of the Ely see he may find the fate of Gustavus. He who has been false to all must only look for falsehood, and" is doomed to daily and to nightly fears of mutinies, insurrections, and revenge. Conscience cannot be altogether stifled, and will sometimes obtrude, in her horrible phantasmagoria, the ghastly corpses of the Boulevards." Nobody will suppose that I would deny to any one the right of publishing his views upon French or any other politics. So far am I from wishing to restrain the liberty of the press, it is my constant complaint that it is not free enough. The press, in my opinion, should be the only censor of the press ; and in this spirit I would appeal to public opinion, against the evil tendency of these and similar productions. We all know how the strictures of Burke began with criticism, grew into menace, and ended in a cry for war. The "Englishman's" Letters are here again an exact counterpart of their great original. The volume contains ten letters ; the two first, penned in a style of which I have given specimens, are furious attacks upon Louis Napoleon and his government ; THE LETTERS OF " AN ENGLISHMAN." 443 with passing condemnations of the majority of the Legislative Assembly, the Orleanists, the bourgeoise, the peasantry, the soldiers, and the priests ; in fact there is hardly any party in France which escapes his vituperation. Next comes letter the third, headed, most appropriately, after all this provoking abuse, " The National Defences;" which subject he discusses with his telling style, and, upon the whole, with great good sense. Having thus provided against accidents, and ascertained that he was ensconced in something stronger than a " glass house," he resumes his vocation of pelting with the hardest and sharpest words he can find, . in his copious vocabulary of invective, Louis Napoleon in particular, and all sorts of men in general, at home and abroad. After indulging himself in this way through four more letters, we come to the eighth, which bears the title — somewhat out of place in such company — of " Peace at all 'price? It would seem that Mr. Burritt, and Mr. Fry, having taken alarm at the hostile tone of the English press, had set on foot a scheme for counteracting the mischief. Addresses, containing assurances of friend- ship and peace, were drawn up in several of our towns, signed by the inhabitants, and forwarded to various places in France. This movement, than which nothing could be more amiable, and certainly nothing more harmless, draws down upon the heads of poor Messrs. Burritt, and Fry, and the Peace party gene- rally, such a volley of vituperative epithets, that they might almost excite the jealousy of M. Bonaparte himself. Speaking of the peace advocates — " they require," says he, " keepers, not reporters - their 444 1793 and 1853. place is Hanwell, not the London Tavern — and their Chairman should be Doctor Conolly !" Now, in the course pursued by the "Englishman," we have an epitome of the conduct of all such writers; — they begin with denunciations of the French Go- vernment ; they then call for more " defences " as a protection against the hostility which they instinc- tively feel such language naturally excites ; and they end in onslaught upon the advocates of peace because they do not join in the cry. Before indulging this expensive propensity for scolding, this determination to grumble not only for ourselves but also for thirty-six millions of French- men, it behoves us to ask, not only whether any benefit will arise, but whether positive injury may not be done, even to the people'we wish to serve,' by our uncalled for interference. It is hardly necessary that I should declare, that, were Louis Napoleon an Englishman, or I a Frenchman, however small a minority of opponents he might have, I should be one of them ; — that is all I have to say in the matter ; for anything more would in my opinion be mere impertinence towards the French people, who, for reasons best known to themselves, acquiesce in his rule. But admitting for the sake of argument that all that is said of the tyranny, treachery, and wickedness of Louis Napoleon be true 5 those are precisely the qualities in despotic monarchs, to which we are indebted for our liberties. Why should not the French be allowed the opportunity of deriving some of the advantages which we have gained from bad sovereigns ? Where would our charters and franchises THE INVASION CRY OF 1847. 445 have been, if our Johns and Jameses had not reigned, and misgoverned ? Nobody pretends that the French emperor is quite so bad as our eighth Henr y 5 yet we contrived to owe to him our Protestantism. If half that is alleged against Louis Napoleon be true, the French people will have him at a great disadvantage in any controversy or struggle they may be engaged in with him. One thing alone could prevent this — the popularity which will assuredly follow from con- tinued attacks in the English press, such as I have just quoted. But here let me warn you against the belief into which so many fall, that the hostile tone adopted by writers of this country towards the French Govern- ment, and the cry of an invasion, have reference to the present despotic ruler of France only. That is one of the many shapes which the cry has assumed. But it was first heard when Louis Philippe, the " Napoleon of Peace," was on the throne. The letter of the Duke of Wellington to Sir John Burgoyne, which has been made the text-book for panic-mongers ever since, was written when the King of the French had given seventeen years proof of his pacific policy, and when that representative form of government, which we are now told was the guarantee of peace, was still subsisting in France : it made its appearance in 1847, when we were already spending more upon our warlike armaments than in any of the previous thirty years ; more by two millions of money than the most terrified invasionist now proposes to expend : and yet at that time, and under those circumstances, the cry for more defence^against the French was as 446 1793 and 1853. active, and the clamour against the peace party who resisted it, as strong, as at any later time ; and the very same parties who now advocate increased armaments to protect our shores against Louis Napo- leon, were amongst the loudest of those who swelled the panic cry in 1847. An allusion to the infirmities of a great mind, however painful at the present moment, is rendered absolutely necessary by those who quote the authority of the Duke of Wellington's declining years in favour of a policy which, in my opinion, tends neither to the peace, nor the prosperity of the country. At the time of penning his letter to General Burgoyne, the Duke was verging upon his eightieth year. Now, no man retains all his faculties unimpaired at fourscore. Nature does not suspend her laws, even in behalf of her favourite sons. The Duke was mortal, and there- fore subject to that merciful law which draws a veil over our reason, and dims the mental vision as we approach the end of that vista which terminates with the tomb. But the faculties do not all pay this debt of nature at once, or in equal proportion. Sometimes the strongest part of our nature, which may have been subjected to the greatest strain, declines the first. In the Duke's case, his nervous system, his " iron" characteristic gave way. He who at forty was incapable of fear, at eighty was subject to almost infantine alarms. This was shewn on several public occasions ; but on none so strongly as in the provision made by him against an insurrection or a revolution during the Great Exhibition of 1851, when, as is known to those who were in authority, or in connection the duke's pears in 1851. 447 with that undertaking, he was haunted with terrors which led him to change the entire disposition of the army for the year, to refuse to the household regi- ments the usual retreat to summer quarters, and to surround the metropolis with troops. No one in the full possession of a vigorous intellect could have possibly fallen into the error of supposing that the moment, when all people's minds were wound up by a year's previous agitation to the highest pitch of interest in a holiday exhibition, would be chosen for a great and combined political demonstration. Human nature, and especially English nature, is never liable to be possessed by two such absorbing ideas at the same time. In fact, such a diversion of men's minds from public affairs as the Great Exhibition afforded is precisely that which despots have employed for escaping the scrutiny of their own misgovernment. But, as is well known, at that moment universal poli- tical contentment reigned throughout England. If, however, as was supposed, the Duke's prepa- rations were levelled at the foreigners who were attracted to London, the absence of a calm and vigorous reason is still more apparent. For at that time political propagandism was dead even on the Continent ; their revolutions had failed ; universal reaction had succeeded to democratic fever; and England was regarded as the only great country in Europe where political freedom was " holding its own." Besides, a moment's clear reflection would have suggested the obvious answer to such fears, — that the red republicans and revolutionists of the continent were not the persons likely to find the 448 1793 and 1853. money for paying a visit in great numbers to Eng- land. In fact, so great an obstacle did the expense present, that during the whole year scarcely fifty thousand foreigners, European and American, above the average of annual visitors, reached our shores : and it must be evident, that, against any dangers, whether of mischief, or spoliation, contemplated by foreigners, or English on that occasion, a good police force, which was most amply provided by the Com- missioners, and not an army, was the only rational provision. But I appeal from the Duke's advice in 1847, to his own example, when in complete possession of his mental powers, in 1835. He was a member of Sir Robert Peel's government in the latter year, which is memorable for having witnessed the lowest military expenditure since the peace. The estimates of that year are always quoted by financial reformers as a model of economy. The Duke was consulted by Sir Robert Peel, and became an assenting party to those estimates. • What was the change of circumstances which warranted so great a revolution in his views in 1847 ? His letter might lead us to suppose that steam navigation had in the meantime been dis- covered. Does any one whose memory is unimpaired forget that in 1835 our coasts and narrow seas swarmed with steamers, that our sailing vessels were regularly towed to sea by them, and that we were then discussing the merits of the ports in Ireland from which steam-ships should start for America ? The Duke never afterwards acknowledged that he neglected the defence of the country when he was in INVASION PANIC LITERATURE. 449 power. Nobody has made such a charge against him. But I and others who have advocated a return to the expenditure of 1835 have been denounced for wishing to leave the country defenceless. I must leave my opponents to reconcile their conduct with the reve- rence they profess to feel for the authority of the Duke of Wellington. The Duke's letter has been followed by a shoal of publications, all apparently designed to tempt the French to make a descent upon our shores 5 for all are, more or less, full of arguments to prove how easily it might be effected. Some of them give plans of our ports, and point out the nearest road to Lon- don ; others describe, in seductive phrases, the rich booty that awaits them there. Foremost of these is Sir Francis B. Head, who has given us a thick volume under the title of " The Defenceless State of Great Britain ;" then we have " Thoughts on National De- fence" by Vice- Admiral Bowles ; " On the Defence of England" by Sir C. J. Napier, who tells us that he " believes that our young soldiers pray night and day" for an invasion ; " A Plan for the Formation of a Maritime Militia" by Captain Elliot ; " National De- fences" by Montague Gore, Esq. ; " Memorandum on the Necessity of a Secretary of State for our Defences, &c." by Robert Carmichael Smith ; " The Defence of our Mercantile Sea-ports" by a Retired Artillery Officer ; and amongst a host of others is " The Peril of Portsmouth" by James Fergusson, Esq., with a plan; commencing most portentously :—" Few per- " sons are perhaps aware that Portsmouth, which YOL. I. 2 G 450 1793 and 1853, " from its position and its extent, is by far the most " important station of the British Navy, is at present "in so defenceless a state, that it could easily be " taken by a coup-de-mam, either from the sea or by " land. Yet such is the undoubted state of the case, " and it is further easy of proof that if it were to " fall into the hands of an enemy, the navy of Eng- " land would, from that very circumstance, be crip- " pled, as a defenceless element at least, to the extent " of one-half its power ; while the hostile occupation " of Portsmouth would render the invasion of Eng- " land as simple and as easy a problem as ever was " submitted to the consideration of any military man, u &c. &c." Surely the French must have lost all pretensions to their character for politeness, or they would have long ago accepted these pressing invita- tions to pay our shores a visit ! There are two assumptions running through nearly all these productions. First, that we have made no provision for our defence, and, therefore, offer a tempting prey to an invader; and, next, that the French are a mere band of pirates, bound by no ties of civilization, and readjvto pounce upon any point of our coast which is left unprotected. The first assumption may be disposed of with a few figures : — we expend every year from fifteen to sixteen millions in warlike preparations; and we have been, ever since the Duke of Wellington's Estimates of 1835, constantly augmenting the number of our armed forces. In that year they amounted altogether to 145,846— at the close of the last Par- INCREASE OP THE ARMY. 451 liament they stood at 272,481 ;*f thus shewing an addition since 1835 of 126,635. The following is a detailed list of the increase from official sources : — Amount and Description of all the JEbrees added since 1835. Cavalry and Infantry added 20,666 Ordnance Corps 7,263 Sailors and Marines 12,095 Enrolled Pensioners 18,500 Dockyard Battalions (armed and drilled) . . . 9,200 Coast Guard (organized and drilled to the use of Artillery since 1835) 5,000 Irish Constabulary, increase 4,627 Militia increase voted 54,049 131,400 Deduct decrease of Yeomanry . 4,765 Total increase since 1835 up to June, 1852 . 126,635 Thus stood matters at the close of the last Parlia- ment, in June. But the cry was still " they come." The " invasionists" renewed their annual autumn clamour ; and no sooner had the new Parliament * In addition to this, the army in India amounts to 289,529 men, making altogether 562,010 men. The cost of the Indian army is ten millions, which, added to our fifteen millions, makes £25,000,000 — the largest sum paid by any nation for a peace establishment. t [The army estimates voted for 1865-6 amounted to £14,348,447, those for the navy to £10,392,224. These estimates showed a considerable reduction on the expenditure in 1860-1, which was for the army £18,013,896, for the navy £13,331,668. Since 1859 sums of £2,000,000 and £1,200,000 have been voted for fortifi- cations. The estimates for the Indian army for 1865-6 were £13,754,560, and for the Indian marine charges £538,200.] 2 G 2 459 1793 and 1853. assembled in November, 1852, for the short session, than there was a proposal for a farther increase of our "defences." The government asked for 5,000 addi- tional seamen ; 1,500 marines ; and 2,000 artillery- men. The money was voted without a division. Mr. Hume, who had seen many of the popular organs of public opinion joining in the cry, contented himself with a protest ; and then, in despair of any other corrective, left the cure of the evil to the tax- gatherer: — and I confess for the moment to have shared his sentiments. The other argument of the invasionists, — that France is ready to assail us upon any vulnerable point, will be successful in proportion only to our ignorance of the character and condition of the French people, and of the origin and history of the last war. Everything in that country is viewed by us through a distorted and prejudiced medium. We regard France as the most aggressive and warlike country on the Continent, because we have all read of her invasions of other countries, without recollect- ing that they were in retaliation for an unprovoked attack upon her; — we view with alarm the enthusiasm of the French people for their army, but we cannot so far enter into their feelings as to know that it springs from gratitude, because " it was the army," to use the words of the conservative and peace- loving Journal des D6bats, " which represented her with admirable eclat on fields of battle— that is to say, on the spot to which it was necessary that the whole of France should repair in order to defend the new life which she held from 1789." Doubtless there THE INFLUENCE OF EXAMPLE. 453 is danger to be feared from this predominance of the military spirit, however created, a danger most to be dreaded by France herself:— but let it not be for- gotten that we helped to plant and water the upas tree, and have no right to charge with our sins those who are destined to live under its shade. Besides, we must bear in mind that the strength of the army of France is only in proportion to that of other continental states ; and that her navy is always regulated with reference to our own, gene- rally about in the ratio of two-thirds of our force : "We pay England the compliment," said M. Thiers in the Chamber of Deputies in 1846, "of thinking only of her when determining our naval force; we never heed the ships which sally forth from Trieste or Venice — we care only for those that leave Portsmouth and Plymouth." " Oh, but," I sometimes hear it very complacently said, "every body knows that England is only armed in self- defence, and in the interests of peace." But when France looks at our 500 ships of war, our 180 war steamers, and hears of our great preparations at Alderney, Jersey, and other points close to her shores, she has very different suspicions. She re- calls to mind our conduct in 1793, when, within a twelvemonth after the commencement of hostilities, we had taken possession of Toulon (her Portsmouth) and captured or burnt a great part of her fleet ; and when we landed an expedition on the coast of Brittany, and stirred up afresh the smouldering fires of civil war. If we are so alarmed at the idea of a French invasion, which has not occurred for 454 1793 and 1853. nearly eight hundred years, may we not excuse the people of France if they are not quite free from a similar apprehension, seeing that not a century has passed since the Norman conquest in which we have not paid hostile visits to her shores? The French have a lively recollection of the terrible disasters they suffered from the implacable enmity of our government during the last war. They found themselves assailed by a feudal aristocracy, having at its command the wealth of a manufac- turing and mercantile people, thus presenting the most formidable combination for warlike purposes to be found recorded in the world's history; and knowing as they do that political power in this country is still mainly in the hands of the same class, some allowance must be made for them if they have not quite made up their minds that peace and non-intervention are to be our invariable policy for the future. Taking this candid view of the case, we shall admit that the extent of the preparations in France must be in some degree commensurate with the amount of our own warlike armaments. I will add a few remarks upon the present state of France, as compared with her condition in 1793, and endeavour to form an estimate of the proba- bilities of a war between her and this country ; or rather, I should say, of the prospect of an invasion of England by France ; for I will assume the writers and declaimers about this invasion to be in earnest; I will suppose that they really mean an invasion of England, and not a march upon Belgium, or any lord Aberdeen's views. 455 other continental state; I will take for granted that we have not now, as was the case in 1 792, to deal with false pretences, to cover other designs, and that, in this discussion of a French invasion, we are not witnessing a repetition of the bold dissimulation on the one side, and gross credulity on the other, which preceded the war of 1793. I will for the sake of argument admit the good faith of those who predict a war with France, and a consequent descent upon our shores : nay, I will go further, and even not call in question the sincerity of that party which foretells an invasion of England without any previous declaration of war. What are the circumstances of Europe calculated to produce a war? There is one, and only one danger peculiar to our times, and it was foreseen by the present Prime Minister, when he thus ex- pressed himself: "He was disposed," Lord Aberdeen* said, "to dissent from the maxims which had of late years received very general assent, that the best security for the continuance of peace, was to be prepared for war. That was a maxim which might have been applied to the nations of antiquity, and to society in a comparatively barbarous and uncivilised state, when warlike preparations cost but little, but it was not a maxim which ought to be applied to modern nations, when the facilities of the preparations for war were very different. Men, when they adopted such a maxim, and made large preparations in time of peace that would be sufficient in the time of war * Hansard, vol. 107, p. 704. 456 179^ and 1853. were apt to be • influenced by the desire to put their efficiency to the test, that all their great preparations, and the result of their toil, and expense, might not be thrown away. He thought, therefore, that it was iio security to any country against the chances of war, to incur great expense, and make great pre- parations for warlike purposes. A most distinguished statesman* of France had lately emphatically de- clared in the French Chamber his desire for peace, but he added that to maintain it he must have an army of 800,000 men. And what he (the Earl of Aberdeen) would ask, could be expected from the raising of such a force but war, or national bank- ruptcy? He therefore dreaded the intention of those who desired such extensive armaments, not- withstanding the pacific professions they made; and he could not be at ease as regarded the stability of peace until he saw a great reduction in the great military establishments of Europe. Such should be the great object of all governments, and more especially of the government of this country." Thus spoke Lord Aberdeen in 1849. The evil has not diminished since that time. Europe has almost degenerated into a military barracks. It is computed by Baron Von Eeden, the celebrated Ger- man statistical writer, that one half of its population in the flower of manhood are bearing arms. It is certain that in the very height of Napoleon's wars, the effective force of the Continental armies was less than at present. For a long time the cuckoo-cry was repeated '' to preserve peace, prepare for war," * M. Thiers. PACIFIC TENDENCIES OF THE AGE. 457 but the wisest statesmen of our age have concurred with the Peace party, that the greater the prepara- tion the more imminent is the risk of a collision, owing to the preponderance which is thereby given in the councils of nations to those who by education, taste, and even interest must be the least earnestly disposed for peace. At this moment a martial tone pervades the Courts and Cabinets, as well as the most influential classes of the Continental States; and never, even in England, since the war, was the military spirit so much in the ascendant in the ' higher circles as at the present time. To what then are we to attribute the preservation of peace and the present prospect of its continuance, in spite of this dangerous element, but to the fact that, whilst go- vernments are making unprecedented preparations for hostilities, all the signs and symptoms of the age tend more than ever in the opposite direction ? Let us see what are the facts which warrant this con- clusion : — The first safeguard against the employment of these enormous standing armies in foreign wars, is that they are indispensable at home to repress the discontent caused in a great degree by the burden which their own cost imposes on the people. Sir Eobert Peel foresaw this result in 1841, when he said that—" the danger of aggression is infinitely less than the danger of those sufferings to which the present exorbitant expenditure must give rise." Their growing intelligence will render the people every year more dissatisfied with the yoke imposed on them; and athwart these armed and drilled 458 1793- and 1853. mechanical tools of despotism may be often heard low mutterings, which will assuredly swell some day into a shout of defiance. Internal revolutions may be safely predicted of every country whose government rests not upon public opinion, but the bayonets of its soldiers. Those internal convulsions are however no longer to be feared as the causes of war ; for the world has wisely resolved (and it is one of the lessons learned from the last war) that henceforth every nation shall be left to regulate its own domestic affairs, free from the intervention of strangers. It is true that, whilst during the late revolutionary period, this rule was scrupulously ob- served towards the Great Powers, it was flagrantly outraged in the case of Hungary, Italy, and Hesse- Cassel, against which acts of injustice to the smaller States, the public opinion of the civilized world ought to be brought to bear, unless we are to sit down and acknowledge that the weak are to have no rights, and the strong to be bound by no law. In this change of policy, however, which will cer- tainly be observed towards France, we have a secu- rity against a repetition of the offence which led to the last war. There are not a few persons, especially of the military class, who, ever since the peace, have been haunted with the apparition of the late war, and have advocated a state of preparation calculated to meet as great efforts on the part of France as those put forth by Napoleon himself. They will even go so far as to predict the exact latitude where future Trafalgars or St. Vincents are to be fought, and call THE SECURITIES FOE PEACE. 459 for the construction of harbours and basins where our crippled ships may be repaired, after their imaginary engagements.* Now, without laying myself open to the charge of foretelling perpetual peace — for nothing appears more offensive to certain parties — I must say that I think the very fact of the wars of the French Revolution having happened is an argument against their soon recurring again. For even if I take no credit for the lesson which that bloody and abortive struggle affords, if I admit the unteachable character of nations, still Nature has her own way of pro- ceeding, and she does not repeat herself every gene- ration in extraordinary performances of any kind. Alexanders, Caesars, Charlemagnes, and Napoleons, are happily not annual, or even centennial, productions; and, like the exhausted eruptions of our physical globe, they have never been reproduced upon the same spot. Nowhere is the husbandman more safe against a convulsion of nature than when he plants his vines in the crater of an extinct volcano. The very magnitude of the operations of Bonaparte, by for- bidding all attempts at rivalry, is rather calculated to check than invite imitation. " The death of " Napoleon," says Chateaubriand, " inaugurated an " era of peace ; his wars were conducted on so mighty " a scale (it is perhaps the only good that remains of " them) that they have rendered all future superiority " in that career impossible. In closing the temple of "Janus violently after him, he left such heaps of * Such arguments have been gravely urged in the House of Commons by naval men ; and, what is still worse, they have been acted upon. 460 1793 and 1853. " slain piled up behind the door that it cannot be " opened again." But I must refrain from these flights of a humane imagination, in deference to those who, "whilst hoping and desiring universal and perpetual peace, are yet impatient of any arguments which promise the fulfilment of their aspirations. Let us then, whilst agreeing upon the possibility of such an occurrence, confine ourselves to a notice of those circumstances in the present condition of France which render a war on her part less likely in 1853 than in 1793. Fortunately she would, in com- mon with every other European state, encounter at the first step all but an insuperable obstacle in the want of money. It is true that, in proportion to her resources, the debt of France is less now than it was in 1793. But, at the latter epoch, she had vast masses of landed property available for the expenses of the war. The church lands, which by some writers were estimated at a fourth of the soil of France ; the confiscated estates of the emigrant nobles; the national domains, and the national forests: this immense property, altogether valued by different writers at from five hundred million sterling to double that sum, fell in the course of four years into the hands of the revolutionary Government, and was made by them the basis of a paper money, denomin- ated assignats, with which they paid their soldiers, and were enabled to make those gigantic efforts which astonished and terrified the despotic govern- ments of Europe. There is no doubt that for a time this creation of paper money gave to the French Government all the FRENCH RESOURCES IN THE TWO EPOCHS. 461 power which would have been derived from a foreign loan, or the most productive taxes. It seemed in the eyes of the wild theorists of Paris, who were at that time trampling each other down in quick succession in the death struggle for power, that they possessed an inexhaustible mine of riches, and each one resorted to it more freely than his predecessor. For every new campaign, fresh issues of assignats were decreed. When war was declared against England, eight hundred millions of francs were ordered to be created. The result is known to everybody. The more plentiful the assignats were, the less became their value, or in other words the, dearer grew all commodities ; bloody decrees fol- lowed, to keep down prices ; but markets were not to be permanently regulated, even by the Reign of Terror. Ultimately, when seven hundred millions sterling of assignats had been issued, they fell to one and a half per- cent, of their nominal value ; and a general at the head of an army in 1795, with a pay of four thousand francs a month, was in the actual receipt of eight pounds only in gold or silver. But paper money had, in the mean time, enabled the government to overcome Pitt's coalition. But, in case of a war, in 1853, the French Go- vernment would have none of these temporary re- sources. The domains of the church, the crown, and the aristocracy, divided and subdivided, have passed into the hands of the people. There remain no great masses of landed property to seize for the benefit of the state. The very name of assignat conjures up visions of confiscation. In no country 462 1793 and 1853. in the world' is there so great a distrust of paper money as in France. To raise the funds necessary for entering upon a war the Government of France must now impose taxes on the eight millions of pro- prietors amongst whom the land is parcelled, and by whom the great bulk of the revenue is contri- buted. As a declaration of war would be followed by an immediate falling off in the receipts of indi- rect taxes from customs and excise, this defalcation, as well as the extra demand for warlike purposes, must fall upon the land. The peasant proprietors of France, ignorant as they are in many respects, know instinctively all this, and they are, therefore, to a man opposed to a war ; and, hence it is, that in all Louis Napoleon's addresses to them (and they in the ultimate appeal really govern France), whether as candidate for the Assembly, the Presidency, or the Empire, he has invariably declared himself in favour of peace. But, I think, I hear it objected that the French often made war pay its own expenses. It is true, and to a great extent, the foregoing statement ex- plains how it was accomplished. Wherever the French armies went, they carried with them the doctrine of liberty and equality, and they were re- ceived less as conquerors than deliverers by the mass of the people ; for the populations of the invaded countries, like the French themselves previous to the revolution, were oppressed by the privileged classes, and ground down to the earth by inordinate and unjust taxation. Everywhere the invaders found great masses of property belonging to the govern- THE SPOLIATION OF INVADED COUNTRIES. 463 ment, the church, and exclusive corporations ; and, in some cases, the monastic orders were still revelling in their pristine wealth and luxury. These great accumulations of property were confiscated for the use of the armies of the " Republic." In some cases considerable sums were transmitted to Paris, for the service of the Home Government. Napoleon sent home two millions sterling during his first campaign in Italy; and it is stated that the large amount of specie found by the French in the coffers of the frugal aristocratic government of Berne was of essential service in fitting out the expedition to Egypt. But how changed is all this at the present time ! An invading army instead of finding governments with a stock of bullion to tempt their cupidity, or a good balance at their bankers, would encounter nothing but debt and embarrassment, which the first shock of war would convert into bankruptcy and ruin 5 they would find church lands, and government domains parcelled among the people; and as any attempt to levy contributions must bring the inva- ders at once into collision with the mass of the population, it would be found far cheaper and wiser to pay their own expenses, than attempt to raise the money by a process which would convert hostilities between governments into a crusade against indi- viduals, where every house would be the battle ground in defence of the most cherished rights of home, family, and property. And, to increase the difficulty, war itself, owing to the application of greater science to the process 464 1793 and 1853. of human destruction, has become a much more costly pursuit. So great has been the improvement in the construction of horizontal shells, and other contrivances in gunnery, that even Sir Howard Douglas, who could recount with the utmost com- placency the capabilities of Congreve rockets, Shrapnell shells, grape, and canister, seems struck with compunction at the contemplation of this last triumph of his favourite science. But a still greater discovery has been since announced by Mr. Nasmyth, who offers to construct a monster mortar for marine warfare, which shall lie snugly ensconced in the prow of a bomb-proof floating steam vessel, and on being propelled against a ship of war, the concus- sion shall cause an explosion with force sufficient to tear a hole in her side " as big as a church-door." Now, I attach little importance to the argument that these murderous contrivances will disincline men to war, from fear of being killed. When cross-bows were first brought into use, the clergy preached against them as murderous. Upon the introduction of the " sight," to assist the eye in taking aim with a. cannon, on board ship, the old gunners turned their quids, looked sentimental, and pro- nounced the thing no better than "murder." But war lost none of its attractions by such discoveries ; it is at best but gambling for " glory ;" and what- ever be the risk, men will always take the long odds against death. But I have great hopes from the expensiveness of war, and the cost of preparation ; and should war break out between two great nations, I have no doubt that the immense consumption of THE BENEFITS OP INTERCOMMUNICATION. 465 material, and the rapid destruction of properly, would have the effect of very soon bringing the combatants to reason, or exhausting their resources. For it is quite certain that the Nasmyths, Fairbairns, and Stephensons, would play quite as great a part as the Nelsons and Collingwoods, in any future wars ; and we all know that to give full scope to their engineering powers involves an almost unlimited expenditure of capital. Besides, war would now be felt as a much greater interruption and outrage to the habits and feelings of the two countries, than sixty years ago, owing to the more frequent intercourse which takes place between them. There is so much cant about the ' tendency of railways, steam-boats, and electric tele- graphs, to unite France and England in bonds of peace, uttered by those who are heard, almost in the same breath, advocating greater preparations against war and invasion, that I feel some hesitation in joining such a discordant chorus. But when we recollect that sixty years ago it took from four to six days to communicate between London and Paris, and that now a message may be sent in as many minutes, and a journey be made in twelve hours ; — that at the former time a mail started twice a week only for the French capital, whilst now letters may be dispatched twice a-day ; and that the visiting intercourse between the two countries has multiplied more than twenty-fold: — recollecting all this, it cannot be doubted that it would be more difficult now than in 1793 to tear the two countries asunder, and render them inaccessible to each other by war. vol. i. 2 H 466 1793 and 1853. But these are moral ties which I will not dwell upon. I come at last to the really solid guarantee which France has given for a desire to preserve peace with England. If you had the opportunity, as I had, of visiting almost daily the Great Exhibition, you must have observed that, whilst England was unrivalled in those manufactures which owed their merit to great facilities of production, and America excelled in every effort where a daring mechanical genius could be rendered subservient to purposes of general utility, there was one country, which, in articles re- quiring the most delicate manipulation, the purest taste, and the most skilful application of the laws of chemistry and the rules of art to manufacturing purposes, was by universal consent allowed to hold the first rank; that country was France. And it must not be forgotten that her preparation for this world-wide competition was made at the time when her trade and manufactures were suffering great de- pression and discouragement, owing to the want of confidence produced by recent revolution. And yet, notwithstanding this disadvantage, she carried away the highest honours for that class of manufac- tures requiring the greatest combination of intelli- gence and skill on the part of the capitalist and artizan, and the production of which is possible only in a country which has reached the most advanced stage of civilization. Yet this is the people* who, * It cannot be too strongly impressed upon the mind of the reader that this cry of ' invasion without notice' was raised when Louis Philippe was still on the throne, — as the following extract SIR WILLIAM MOLESWORTH'S PROTEST. 467 we are told, will, without previous declaration of war, make a piratical attack upon our shores, with no more regard for the retributive consequences to from a letter of remonstrance, addressed by Sir "William Moles- worth, Jan. 17th, 1848, to the Editor of the Spectator, London Newspaper, will plainly shew : — " Tou say that ' the next attack on England will probably be without notice' — ' Five thousand (Frenchmen) might inflict dis- grace on some defenceless post ; 500 might insult British blood at Heme Bay, or even inflict indelible shame on the empire at Osborne House!' Good Q-od! can it be possible that you, whom I ranked so high among the public instructors of this nation — that you consider the French to be ruffians, Pindarees, freebooters— that you believe it necessary to keep constant watch and ward against them, as our Saxon forefathers did against the Danes and the Nordmen, lest they should burn our towns, plunder our coasts, and put our Queen to ransom ? Are you not aware that the Erench are as civilized as ourselves — in some respects intellectually our superiors ? Have you forgotten that they have passed through a great social revolution, which has equalized property, abolished privilege, and converted the mass of the people into thrifty and industrious men, to whom war is hateful, and the conscription detestable ? Are you not aware that, they possess a constitutional government, with the forms and prac- tice of which they are daily becoming more and more conversant ; that no measure of importance can he adopted without being first debated and agreed to in the Chambers; and that the love of peace, and the determination to preserve peace, have given to the King of the Erench a constant majority in those Chambers, and kept him in peaceable possession of his throne ? Can you controvert any one of these positions ?" These writers must be judged, not by what they now say of Louis Napoleon's designs, but what they said of the Erench nation 'when Guizot was Prime Minister, under a constitutional king, and when we were spending two millions more on our arma- ments than anybody now proposes to spend. 2 h 2 468 K 1793 and 1853. their own interests, than if they were a tribe of ancient Scandinavians, who, when they made a hostile expedition, carried all their worldly goods to sea in their war boats with them. Let me repeat it — if for the dozenth time — such an opinion would never be put forth, unless by writers and speakers who presume most insultingly upon the ignorance of the public. It really should be a question with the peace party, whether they could do a better service to their cause than by giving popular lectures upon the actual state of the popu- lation of France. And let them not forget, when dealing with this invasion cry, how the people were told, in 1792, that the French were coming to bum the Tower, and put arsenic in the New Eiver, to poison the metropolis, at the very moment when, as we know now, the French ambassador was humbly entreating our government not to go to war. May not the historian of sixty years hence have a similar account to give of the stories now put forth respect- ing the intentions of the French people? But I promised to give credit to those writers for sincerity, and I proceed to answer them in that spirit, — beg- ging pardon of every Frenchman who may read my pages for dealing seriously with such a topic. France, as a manufacturing country, stands second only to England in the amount of her productions, and the value of her exports ; but it is an important fact in its bearings on the question before us, that she is more dependent than- England upon the importation of the raw materials of her industry; and it is obvious how much this must place her at IMPOETATION OF COAL INTO FEANCE. 469 the mercy of a power having the command over her at sea. This dependence upon foreigners ex- tends even to those right arms of peace, as well as war, iron and coal. In 1851, her importation of coal and coke, reached the prodigious quantity of 2,841,900 tons ; of course a large portion of it is imported over-land from Belgium; of this, 78,900 tons are specially entered in the official returns as being for the steam navy ; a frank admission, in reply to our alarmists, that the discovery of steam navi- gation has given us an advantage over them. The coal imported into France in 1792, the year before the war, amounted to 80,000 tons only. Now in this enormous increase, during the last sixty years, we have a proof of the great development of manu- facturing industry; but in consequence of steam power having been applied to manufacturing pur- poses since the latter date, the importation of coal has increased in a far greater ratio than any other raw material. Whilst cotton wool, for instance, has increased seven-fold since 1792, coal has augmented more than thirty-fold. This is a most important fact when comparing the two countries ; for whilst the indigenous coal and iron in England have at- tracted to her shores the raw materials of her industry, and given her almost a European monopoly of the great primary elements of steam power, France on the contrary, relying on her ingenuity only to sustain a competition with England, is compelled to purchase a portion of hers from her great rival. In the article of iron we have another illustration to the same effect. In 1792 pig iron does not figure 470 1793 and 1853. in the French tariff; but" the importation of iron and steel of all kinds, wrought and unWrought, amounted in that year to 6,000 tons. In 1851 (which was a very low year compared with the years previous to the revolution of 1848) the importation of pig iron amounted to 33,700 tons. And when it is remem- bered that very high duties are levied upon this article for the protection of the home producer, it must be apparent that its scarcity and high price impose serious disadvantages upon all descriptions of manufactures in France. But the point to which I wish to draw, attention is, that so large a quantity of this prime necessary of life, of every industry, is imported from abroad; and in proportion as the quantity for which she is thus dependent upon foreigners has increased since 1792, in the same ratio has France given a security to keep the peace. But there is one raw material of manufactures, which, in the magnitude of its consumption, the distant source of its supply, and its indispensable necessity, possesses an importance beyond all others. Upwards of two and a half millions of bales of this material are annually attracted across the Atlantic, from the Indian ocean, or the remotest parts of the Mediterranean, to set in motion the capital and industry of the most extensive manufactures ever known in the world ; upon which myriads of people are directly and indirectly employed, who are as dependent for their subsistence upon the punctual arrival in Europe, on an average, of seven thousand bales of this vegetable fibre a day, as they would be if their bread were the produce of countries five THE COTTON TRADE OF FEANCE. 471 thousand miles distant from their doors. Tainted as this commodity is to a large extent in its origin, it is undoubtedly the great peace-preserver of the age. It has placed distant and politically independent nations in mutual dependence, and interested them in the preservation of peace to a degree unknown and undreamed of in former ages. To those who talk glibly of war, I would recommend a visit not merely to that district of which Manchester is the centre, but to the valley of the Seine from Paris to its embouchure, and having surveyed the teeming hive employed upon the cotton manufacture, let them ask what proportion did the capital and labour of those regions bear in 1793 to their present amount and numbers, and what would now be the effect of an interruption to their prosperity, by putting an end to that peace out of which it has mainly grown ? Is there any object that could pos- sibly be gained by either country that would com- pensate for the loss occasioned by one month's suspension of their cotton trade ? The importation of this raw material into France amounted in 1851 to 130,000,000 lbs. In 1792 it was 19,000,000 lbs. ; the increase being nearly seven-fold. The consumption of that country is about one-fifth to one-sixth of our own, and it ranks second amongst the manufacturing states of Europe. But the quantities of cotton wool con- sumed in the two countries afford but an imperfect comparison of the number of people employed, or the value of the manufactures produced ; for it is well known that whilst we spin a great part of our 472 1793 and 1853. - cotton into yarns for exportation, and our manu- facturers are largely employed upon common qualities of cloths, the French convert nearly all their mate- rial into manufactures, a considerable portion of which is of the finest quality. It was stated by M. Thiers,* in his celebrated speech upon the protective system, that " the cotton industry, which in 1786 represented about a million per annum, represents now twenty-five millions." (I have converted his figures from francs into pounds sterling). If this be a correct statement, the value of the French produc- tion will be one-half of our own, whilst the raw material consumed is less than one-fifth. I confess I think there is some exaggeration or error in the estimate ; but no doubt can exist of the vital im- portance of the cotton industry to the prosperity of France ; nor need I repeat that it is wholly dependent upon the supply of a raw material from abroad, the importation of which would be liable to be cut off, if she were at war with a nation stronger than her- self at sea. The woollen and worsted trades of France are of a startling magnitude. I confess I was not aware of their extent; and have had some difficulty in ac- cepting the official report, which makes the impor- tation of sheep's wool to amount, in 1851, to 101,201,000lbs., whilst in 1792, it reached only 7,860,000lbs., being an increase of more than twelve- fold. M. Thiers, in his speech before quoted, esti- mates the annual value of the woollen cloth made in France at sixteen millions sterling. * National Assembly, 27 June, 1851. THE FRENCH SILK TEADE. 473 But if the rivalry between the two countries in worsted and woollen manufactures leaves a doubt on which side the triumph will incline, there is no question as to the superiority of the French in the next manufacture to which I will refer, and which forms the glory of their industrial greatness; I allude, of course, to the silk trade, on which the ingenuity, taste, and invention of the people, are brought to bear with such success, that Lyons and Saint Etienne fairly levy contributions upon the whole civilized world; I say fairly, because when all nations, from Russia, to the United States, bow down to the taste of France, and accept her fashions as the infallible standard in all matters of design and costume, there can be no doubt that it is a homage offered to intrinsic merit. Nothing is more difficult to agree upon than the meaning of the word civilization ; but, in the general acceptation of the term, that country whose language, fashions, amusements, and dress, have been most widely adopted and imitated, has been held to be the most civilized. There is no instance recorded in history of such a country sud- denly casting itself down to a level with Malays, and New Zealanders, by committing an unprovoked act of piracy upon a neighbouring nation. Yet we are told to prepare ourselves for such conduct in the case of France ! Judging by the increase in the importation of the raw material, the French have maintained as great a progress in the silk as any other manufacture. The raw silk imported in 1851 amounted to 2,291,5001bs., against 136,8001bs. in 1792, showing an increase of seventeen-fold. In 474 1793 and 1853. 1792, thrown silk did not figure in the tariff, but it was imported to the amount of l,336,8601bs. in 1851. These large importations, added to the supply from her own soil, furnish the raw material for, by far, the largest silk manufacture in the world. Instead of singling out any other articles T will put them in a tabular form, including the foregoing, for convenience of reference, drawing your attention to the enormous increase in the importation of linen thread. I regret that I cannot include dye-woods ; for, owing to the account having been kept in value in 1792, and quantity in 1851, no comparison can be instituted. Imports into France in 1792 and 1851.* 1792. 1851. Cottonwool . 19,000,000 lbs. 130,000,000 lbs. Olive oil 16,000 tons. . 31,000 tons. Steep's wool . 7,860,0001b*. . 101,201,000 lbs. * [Imports into France in 1865. Cottonwool . . 200,578,400 lbs. (1) Olive oil . 30,934 tons. (2) Steep's wool . . 162,058,600 lb3. Lead . . 36,232 tons. Linen ttread . . 9,532,600 lbs. Coal . . 6,265,000 tons. Ditto for steam navy in 1864 74,497 tons. Coke . . 715,835 tons. Pig iron . . 169,535 tons. Sulptur . . 39,720 tons. Saltpetre . . 1,011 tons. Zinc . . 31,868 tons. Eawsilk . . 8,100,400 lbs. Thrown silk . . 2,131,800 lbs. (1) The figures have been converted from kilogrammes into lbs. (2) Ton of 1000 kilogrammes.] FRENCH IMPORTS. 475 Lead 1,010 tons. 26,100 tons. Linen thread 601,500 lbs. 9,421,000 lbs. Coal 80,000 tons. 2,574,000 tons. Ditto for steam navy „ „ „ 780,900 „ Coke J? J> >J 189,000 „ Total , 2,841,900 tons. Pig iron nil. (wrought iron and steel) 6,000 tons. 33,700 tons. Sulphur 3,876 „ 28,315 tons. Saltpetre 270 „ 8,673 „ Zinc 10 „ 13,480 „ Eaw silk . 136,800 lbs. 2,291,500 lbs. Thrown silk nil. 1,336,860 „ I have confined myself, in the foregoing accounts, to the imports of those articles which are required for manufacturing purposes, because I wish to point out the extent to which France is an industrial nation, and also the degree of her dependence on foreign trade for the raw material of her manu- factures. I have said, elsewhere, that whilst go- vernments are preparing for war, all the tendencies of the age are in the opposite direction ; but that which most loudly and constantly thunders in the ears of emperors, kings, and parliaments, the stern command, " you shall not break the peace," is the multitude which in every country subsists upon the produce of labour employed on materials brought from abroad. It is the gigantic growth which this manufacturing system has attained that deprives former times of any analogy with our own ; and is fast depriving of all reality those pedantic displays of diplomacy, and those traditional demonstrations 476 1793 and 1853. of armed force, upon which peace or war formerly depended. The tabular statement shows that France has entered upon this industrial career with all the ardour which she displayed in her military enter- prises, and with the prospect of gaining more durable and useful triumphs than she won in the battle field. I have given the quantities imported, in preference to the prices, because the mode of valuation frequently makes the price a delusive index to quantity. I may add, however, that the statistical summary of the trade of France for 1851, published by authority, makes the declared value of the imports and exports amount together to 2,614 millions of francs, or £104,560,000; of which the exports are put down at £60,800,000, and the imports £43,760,000. But, that which I would particularly allude to, is the fact, that, of all the countries to which their exports are sent, England stands first. " Pour 1' exportation, l'Angleterre se presente en premiere ligne." It ap- pears that the exports of all kinds (French and foreign produce) to England amounted to 354 millions of francs, or £14,160,000 ; whilst the exports of French produce were 278 millions of francs, or £11,120,000, being 20 per cent, increase upon the previous year. I do not know the mode of valuing the French exports; it is evident that their prices do not correspond with the valuation at our Custom House.*f That, however, does not affect the ques- * Our official value of French exports to this country for 1851 is 368,033,112. t [In 1863 the real value of French exports of all kinds THE MANUFACTURING OPERATIVES OF PARIS. 477 tion of proportions ; and it appears that out of a total of £60,800,000 of exports in 1851, England took £14,160,000, or nearly one-fourth. It might be worth while to ask the honest people who sold us so large an amount of commodities, what they would have to say to the five or ten thousand French marauders, who, we are told, are to precipitate themselves upon our shores some morning, and for the sake of a few hours' plunder, to convert twenty-eight millions of people from their best customers into formidable and avenging enemies ? But I must not omit to notice the part performed by the metropolis of France in the great industrial movement of that country. A most interesting report upon the manufactures of Paris, by my esteemed friend M. Horace Say, has been published, and for which he has received the statistical medal of the Academy of Sciences. It appears that its population has doubled since 1793, and that, including its fau- bourgs, it contains at present 1,200,000 inhabitants. Few people are aware that Paris contains a greater number of manufacturing operatives, than any other city in the world. It appears that there are employed altogether in the various processes of manufacture in that city 407,344 persons, of whom 64,816 are employers of labour, or persons working on their own account, and 342,530 in the receipt of wages ; of the latter, 205,000 are men, and 1 37,530 are women amounted to 3,526 millions of francs, of which 834 millions were sent to England. The real value of the exports of French produce amounted to 2,642 millions of francs, of which 620 millions were sent to England.] 478 1793 and 1853. and children ; and the annual produce of their labour amounts to £58,000,000 sterling. It is estimated by M. Say that 4*0,000 of these work-people are em- ployed in producing articles directly for exportation. A war with England would not only interrupt the labour of these last, but, by intercepting the supply of raw materials, such as the wood used in cabinet making, &c, and obstructing the export of their productions, would plunge the whole of that excit- able metropolis into confusion and misery. It is fortunate for humanity that the interests of so in- fluential a community are on the side of peace, and we may safely leave the blouses of Paris to deal with the 500 French pirates who, in the imagination of the Spectator, were to carry off the Queen from Osborne. , Having thus seen that France is, with the sole exception of ourselves, the greatest manufacturing country in the world, and that in some branches she excels us, — having also seen that in so far as she requires a supply from abroad of coal and iron, she is in greater dependence upon foreigners for the raw materials of her industry than even ourselves, I now come to her navigation ; and here in the facts of her mercantile tonnage, we shall find a remarkable con- trast to the great development of her manufactures ; a fact which ought to give ample assurance to a maritime state like England or America against a wanton attack at her hands. I give below an account of the navigation of France to all parts of the world, and to the fisheries, in 1792 and 1851:— THE MERCANTILE TONNAGE OP FRANCE. 479 AbBIYA&S. 8,229 Ships Depabttjees. 7,688 Ships 1792. 799,458 Tons^, Together 1,442,129 Tons. 1,974,968 Tons. Increase about 40 per cent. . 642,671 Tons. 1851. Aeeitals. 9,175 Ships . 924,465 Tons> Depaettjees. 9,735 Ships . 1,032,503 TonsJ Thus, whilst, as we have seen, the importations of raw materials for her manufactures have increased in some cases twenty-fold, her mercantile tonnage has not augmented more shan 40 per cent, or less than one-half.* The increased tonnage, required for this large additional supply of commodities, has chiefly gone to swell the mercantile marines of other countries ; as the following figures will shew : — JFoBEIGN ToiTHAGE ENGAGED TS THE FeENCH TRADE. Depastures. 1787 1 • • ■ 532,687 Tons 1851—12,720 Ships . 1,510,403 Tons Increase about 180 per cent. * [Navigation of the external commerce of Prance in 1865, fisheries included : — Arrivals Departures . Total Share of Foreign Ships :- Arrivals Departures . Ships. (1) 28,718 22,073 50,791 17,486 12,471 Tons. 4,999,000 3,589,000 8,588,000 3,016,000 1,943,000 Total . 29,957 4,959,000 (1) Vessels with cargoes. Those in ballast, the returns of which are not known for 1865, would if added increase the amount nearly a third, especially that of the departures.] t This is the only report near this date which I can find. 480 1793 and 1853. It will be here seen how much greater the increase of foreign than French tonnage has been in the trade of France ; a fact which, I may add, ought to make her statesmen doubt the wisdom of the protec- tive system, by which they have sought to cherish their mercantile navy. The return of the tonnage of British vessels entering inwards and clearing outwards in 1851, is as follows :* — Inwaeds. Otttwaeds. 1851—4,388,245 Tons. 4,147,007 Tons. Our Custom House records for 1792 were destroyed by fire. But it appears that our tonnage has doubled since 1803. It is, however, in our steam vessels that we have made the greatest relative pro- gress as compared with the French. It was stated by Mr. Anderson, in the House of Commons, that for every horse-power possessed by the French, we had twenty ; and yet we are told that the discovery of steam navigation has conferred a great advantage upon France. The strength of a people at sea has invariably been measured by the extent of their mercantile * [The total tonnage of British, vessels entering inwards and clearing outwards in 1864 was 18,201,675 tons. In 1864, there were 26,142 -sailing vessels, and 2,490 steamers, registered in the ports of the United Kingdom. The total tonnage was 5,427,500 tons. In 1863 the French mercantile navy comprised 15,092 vessels, including 345 steamers ; the total tonnage was 985,235 tons. To arrive at a fair comparison, 300,000 tons should be deducted from the British tonnage, being the increase in 1864.] FRENCH DISTRUST OF THE ALARMISTS. 48L marine. Judged by this test, there is not even a doubt as to whether England or France be the first' naval power. In fact, the French themselves do not question it. It is frankly acknowledged in our favour by M. Thiers, in his speech to the Assembly from which I have before quoted. Nobody in that country has ever pretended that they can, or ought to, keep more than two-thirds of our force at sea. Their public men never believed in the sincerity of our cry of invasion. One of the most eminent of them wrote to me in 1848, and after a frank con-« fession of the deplorable state of their mercantile tonnage, as compared with ours, complained of the cry as a cruel joke, " une mauvaise plaisanterie." Intelligent men in that country cannot believe that we think them capable of such folly, nay madness, as to rush headlong, without provocation, and with-* out notice, into a war with the most powerful nation in the world, before whose very ports the raw materials of their manufactures pass, the supply of which, and the consequent employment and sub sistence of millions of their population, would be immediately cut off, to say nothing of the terrible retribution which would be visited upon their shores, whilst all the world would be calling for the exter* mination of a community which had abdicated its civilized rank, and become a mere band of lawless buccaneers ; no, they cannot think so badly of them- selves as to believe that others, whose opinion they respect, would ever give them credit for such wicked- ness or insanity. vol. i. 2 I 482 17,93 and 1853. But I shall be told that the people of France are entirely at the mercy of one man, and that public opinion is now powerless in that country. There is nothing about which we make such mistakes as in passing judgment upon our next neighbour. Public opinion is as omnipotent there as in the United States, upon matters with which it interests itself; but it takes a different direction from our own, and therefore we do not appreciate it. But it is quite necessary that the people, I mean the mass of our people, should be better informed as to the character and circumstances of the population of France. Teach Englishmen to despise another nation, and yon have gone far towards making them quarrel; and there is nothing so sure to evoke our contempt as to be told that a people have not spirit to main- tain their rights against the arbitrary will of a usurper. Now, no people have ever clung with more tenacity to the essential principles and main objects of a revolution than have the French. The chief aim of the Constituent Assembly of 1789 was to uproot feudalism; to found an equal system of taxation; and to establish religious equality and freedom of worship, by appropriating to the State the lands and tithes of the Church, and making all religions a charge upon the public revenues; very many other reforms were effected by that body, but these were its leading principles. The abolition of the monarchy was never contemplated by the Con- stituent Assembly. The death of Louis (which I attribute to the interference of foreign powers), was decreed by the National Convention three years later. FORCE OP PUBLIC OPINION IN FRANCE. 483 Now, the principles of 1789 have been main- tained, and maintained by public opinion only, with more jealousy than we have shown in guarding our bill of Eights, or Habeas Corpus Act ; for the latter has been suspended, whenever it suited the con- venience of Tory or even Whig governments. But Napoleon at the head of his victorious legions, the Bourbons with a reactionary priesthood at their back, and the present ruler with all the advantages of a socialist hobgoblin to frighten people into his arms, have been compelled to own allegiance to these principles. Insidious attempts have been made to plant anew the genealogical tree, by the creation of majorats, but the schemes were nipt in the bud by public opinion, and public opinion only. "When told that the present Emperor possesses absolute and irresponsible power, I answer by citing three things which he could not, if he would, ac- complish ; he could not endow with lands and tithes one religion as the exclusively paid religion of the State, although he selected for the privilege the Roman Catholic Church, which comprises more than nine-tenths of the French people; he could not create an hereditary peerage, with estates entailed by a law of primogeniture ; and he could not impose a tax on successions, which should apply to personal property only, and leave real estate free. Public opinion in France is an insuperable obstacle to any of these measures becoming law; because they outrage that spirit of equality, which is the sacred and inviolable principle of 1789. Now, if Louis Napoleon were to declare his determination to carry 2 i 2 484 1793 and 1853. these three measures, which are all in full force in England, as a part of his imperial regime, his throne would not be worth twenty-four hours' purchase; and nobody knows this better than he and they who surround him. I am penning these pages in a maritime county. Stretching from the sea, right across to the verge of the next county, and embracing great part of the parish in which I sit, are the estates of three proprietors, which extend in almost unbroken masses for upwards of twenty miles. The residence of one of them is surrounded with a walled park ten miles in circumference. Not only could not Louis Napoleon create three such entailed estates in a province of France, but were he to declare himself favourable to such a state of things, it would be fatal to his popularity. Public opinion, by which alone he reigns, would instantly abandon him. Yet this landed system flourishes in all our counties, without opposition or question. And why ? The poorest cottager on these estates feels that his personal liberty is sacred, and he cares little for equality : and here I will repeat, that I would rather live in a country where this feeling in favour of in- dividual freedom is jealously cherished, than -be, without it, in the enjoyment of all the principles of the French Constituent Assembly. Let us, however, learn to tolerate the feelings and predilections of other people, even if they are not our own ; and recollect, we require the same consi- deration at their hands, for I can vouch from actual experience that the intelligent natives of France, Italy, and other countries, where the Code Napoleon FORCE OF PUBLIC OPINION IN FRANCE. 485 is in force, and where, consequently, the land is divided amongst the people, are very much puzzled to understand how the English submit to the feudal customs which still find favour here. But I have never found with them a disposition to dogmatize, or insist upon making their system our model. I must, however, say that we are egregiously mistaken if we fall into the belief, so much inculcated by cer- tain parties, that we are the admiration and envy of surrounding nations. Tell the eight millions of landed proprietors in France that they shall exchange their lot with the English people, where the labourer who cultivates the farm has no more proprietary in- terest in the soil than the horses he drives, and they will be stricken with horror ; and vain will it be to promise them as a compensation, Habeas Corpus Acts, or the right of public meetings — you might as well ask them to exchange their little freeholds for a bon^mot, or a song. Let us then spare our pity where people are contented ; and withhold our con- tempt from a nation who hold what they prize by the vigilant exercise of public opinion. But the point to which I wish to bring the fore- going argument is, as you will at once see, that where public opinion is thus able to guard great principles which make war upon privilege of every kind, it is surely not to be despised in such a ques- tion as entering upon hostilities with England. Nobody, I believe, denies that Louis Napoleon re- ceived the votes of a majority of the French people. In the election which took place for the presidency, when he was supported by three-fourths of the 486 1793 and 1853. electors, his opponent General Cavaignac had pos- session of the ballot boxes, and there could be no fraud to account for the majority. With what view did the French people elect him Emperor? To maintain, in the first place, as he is pledged to do, the principles of 1789 ; and, in the next, to preserve order, keep the peace, and enable them to prosper. Nobody denies that these are the objects desired by France. Yet we are told that he will, regardless of public opinion, plunge the country into war. The same parties who make this charge accuse him of keeping up 4^ per cents, to 105, by all sorts of nefarious means, in order to maintain an artificial show of prosperity. And this same person, we are told, will make a piratical attack upon England, which would in twenty^four hours bring the 4J per cents, down to 50, in three months to 30, and in three years to nothing ! Last year, we are told, was very inimical to the mental health of the country, owing to the want of electricity : are these invasionist writers under the influence of this meteorological phenomenon ? But the army ! The army, we are told, will compel the Emperor to make war upon somebody. I should hum]bly submit if they wish to fight, and are not particular about a quarrel, or a declaration of war, that they had better march upon Holland, Prussia, or Belgium, inasmuch as they could march there, and, what is equally important, in the combinations of a good general, they could march hack again. If our Government had any fear of the kind, it is quite evident that they would bring to our shores that THE COMPOSITION OF THE FRENCH ARMY. 487 immense fleet which is amusing itself in the Mediter- ranean, and which it would take at least a month to recal. There can be no doubt, if an invasion took place, and it could be proved that the Government had expected it, that the Ministers would be im- peached. But they keep a fleet, more powerful than the whole American navy, two thousand miles off at Malta, and therefore we may be sure at least that they have no fears. Now, as I have already said, the army of France, about which we hear so much, is no larger in pro- portion to her population, than the armies of the other powers of Europe, with which she is sur- rounded; and, inasmuch as that country was invaded, without provocation, by Prussia and Austria, within the memory of man, it is rather unreasonable to ask her to be the first and only country to disarm. Besides, a large part of her army is in Algiers, surrounded by hostile tribes ; and, by the way, when that colony was first seized, we used to console ourselves that owing to that part of the army being liable to be cut off by the sea, and offered as a sacrifice to the neighbouring tribes, we had obtained a great security for peace. But, in a word, every body who is acquainted with France (and they are unhappily in this country but few in number) knows that the army is not, like ours, fished out of the lees of society, but that it fairly represents the people. It is, in fact, 400,000 of the young men taken 80,000 a year from the farms, shops, and manufactories, and to which they return at the end of their service; and, such being their origin and destination, their 488 1793 and 1853. feelings and opinions are identical with those of their countrymen. The French soldier is anxious for the time of his service to expire, that he may return to his little family estate. The discipline and the morale of the army is perfect ; but the conscription is viewed with disfavour, as may he known by the price (from £60 to £80), which is paid for a substitute; and any thing which tended to prolong the period of service, or increase the demand for men, would be regarded as a calamity by the people. I have never heard but one opinion — that the common soldiers share in the sentiments of the people at large, and do not want a war. But then the officers! Surely after Louis Napoleon's treatment of the African generals, steal- ing them out of their warm beds in the night, he will not be any longer supposed to be ruled by the officers. His dependence is mainly upon the peasant proprietors, from whom the mass of the army is drawn. But I must draw this long letter to a close. — What then is the practical deduction from the facts and arguments which I have presented ? Why, clearly, that conciliation must proceed from ourselves. The people of this country must first be taught to separate themselves in feeling and sympathy from the authors of the late war, which was undertaken to put down principles of freedom. When the public are convinced, the Government will act ; and one of the great ends to be attained, is an amicable under- standing, if not a formal convention, between the two Governments, whatever their form may be } to THE WOEK OF THE PEACE PARTY. 489 prevent that irrational rivalry of warlike preparations which has been lately and is still carried on. One word of diplomacy exchanged upon this subject be- tween the two countries will change the whole spirit of the respective governments. But this policy, involving a reduction of our warlike expenditure, will never be inaugurated by an aristocratic executive, until impelled to it by public opinion. Nay, as in the case of the repeal of the corn law, — no minister can do it, except when armed by a 'pressure from without. I look to the agitation of the peace party to ac- complish this end. It must work in the manner of the League, and preach common sense, justice, and truth, in the streets and market places. The advocates of peace have found in the peace congress movement a common platform, to use an Americanism, on which all men who desire to avert war, and all who wish to abate the evil of our hideous modern armaments, may co-operate without compromising the most prac- tical and "moderate" politician, or wounding the conscience of my friend Mr. Sturge, and his friends of the Peace Society —upon whose undying religious zeal, more than all besides, I rely for the eventual success of the peace agitation. The great advance of this party, within the' last few years, as indicated most clearly by the attacks made upon them, which, like the spray dashed from the bows of a vessel, mark their triumphant progress, ought to cheer them to still greater efforts. But the most consolatory fact of the times is the altered feeling of the great mass of the people since 490 1793 and 1853. 1793. There lies our great advantage. With, the exception of a lingering propensity to strike for the freedom of some other people, a sentiment partly traceable to a generous sympathy, and in some small degree, I fear, to insular pride and ignorance, there is little disposition for war in our- day. Had the popular tone been as sound in 1792, Fox and his friends would have prevented the last great war. But, for this mistaken tendency to interfere by force in behalf of other nations, there is no cure but by enlightening the mass of the people upon the actual condition of the continental populations. This will put an end to the supererogatory commiseration which is sometimes lavished upon them, and turn their attention to the defects of their own social condition. I have travelled much, and always with an eye to the state of the great majority, who everywhere con- stitute the toiling base of the social pyramid ; and I confess I have arrived at the conclusion that there is no country where so much is required to be done before the mass of the people become what it is pre- tended they are, what they ought to be, and what I trust they will yet be, as in England. There is too much truth in the picture of our social condition drawn by the Travelling Bachelor* of Cambridge * Mr. Kay, in his valuable work on the education and social condition of the people of the continent, offers this sad reflection in speaking of the state of things at home : — " Where the aristo- cracy is richer and more powerful than that of any other country in the world, the poor are more oppressed, more pauperised, more numerous in comparison to the other classes, more irreligious, and very much worse educated than the poor of any other Euro- pean nation, solely excepting uncivilized Bussia, and' Turkey, enslaved Italy, misgoverned Portugal, and revolutionized Spain." ENERGY OF- THE ENGLISH CHAEACTEE. 491 University, and lately flung in our faces from beyond the Atlantic, to allow us any longer to delude our- selves with the idea that we have nothing to do at home, and may therefore devote ourselves to the elevation of the nations of the Continent. It is to this spirit of interference with other countries, the wars to which it has led, and the consequent diversion of men's minds (upon the Empress Catherine's prin- ciple) from home grievances, that we must attribute the unsatisfactory state of the mass of our people. But to rouse the conscience of the people in favour of peace, the whole truth must be told them of the part they have played in past wars. In every pursuit in which we embark, our energies carry us generally in advance of all competitors. How few of us care to remember that, during the first half of the last century, we carried on the slave trade more exten- sively than all the world besides ; that we made treaties for the exclusive supply of negroes; that ministers of state, and even royalty were not averse to profit by the traffic. But when Clarkson (to whom fame has not yet done justice) commenced his agi- tation against this vile commerce, he laid the sin at the door of the nation ; he appealed to the conscience of the people, and made the whole community responsible for the crimes which the slave traders were perpetrating with their connivance ; and the eternal principles of truth and humanity, which are ever present in the breasts of men, however they may be for a time obscured, were not appealed to in vain. We are now, with our characteristic energy, first and foremost in preventing, by force, that traffic 492 1793 and 1853. which our statesmen sought to monopolize a century ago. It must be even so in the agitation of the peace party. They will never rouse the conscience of. the people, so long as they allow them to indulge the comforting delusion that they have been a peace- loving nation. We have been the most combative and aggressive community that has existed since the days of the Roman dominion. Since the Revolu- tion of 1688 we have expended more than fifteen hundred millions of money upon wars, not one of which has been upon our own shores, or in defence of our hearths and homes. " For so it is," says a not unfriendly foreign critic,* " other nations fight on or near their own territory ; the English every- where." From the time of old Froissart, who, when he found himself on the English coast, exclaimed that he was among a people who " loved war better than peace, and where strangers were well received," down to the day of our amiable and admiring visitor, the author of the Sketch Book, who, in his pleasant description of John Bull, has pourtrayed him as always fumbling for his cudgel whenever a quarrel arose among his neighbours, this pugnacious pro- pensity has been invariably recognized by those who have studied our national character. It reveals itself in our historical favourites, in the popularity of the mad-cap Richard, Henry of Agincourt, the belligerent Chatham, and those monarchs and states- men who have been most famous for their warlike * A Eesidence at the Court of London, by Eichard Bush, Minister from the United States. WAR GLORIFIED IN CHRISTIAN TEMPLES. 493 achievements. It is displayed in our fondness for erecting monuments to warriors, even at the doors of our marts of commerce ; in the frequent memo- rials of our hattles, in the names of bridges, streets, and omnibuses : but above all in the display which public opinion tolerates in our metropolitan cathe- dral, whose walls are decorated with bas-reliefs of battle scenes, of storming of towns, and charges of bayonets, where horses and riders, ships, cannon, and musketry, realize by turns, in a Christian temple, the fierce struggle of the siege, and the battle-field. — I have visited, I believe, all the great Christian temples in the capitals of Europe ; but my memory fails me, if I saw anything to compare with it. Mr. Layard has brought us some very similar works of art from Nineveh, but he has not informed us that they were found in Christian churches. Nor must we throw upon the aristocracy the entire blame of our wars. An aristocracy never governs a people by opposing their ruling instincts. In Athens, a lively and elegant fancy was gratified with the beautiful in art; in Genoa and Venice, where the population were at first without territory, and consequently where commerce was the only resource, the path to power was on the deck of their merchantmen, or on 'Change. In England, where a people possessing a powerful physical organization, and an unequalled energy of character, were ready for projects of daring and enterprise, an aristocracy perverted these qualities to a century of constantly recurring wars. The peace party of our day must endeavour to turn this very energy to good account, 494 1793 and 1853. in the same spirit in which Clarkson converted a nation of man-stealers into a Society of determined abolitionists. Far from wishing to destroy the energy, or even the combativeness, which has made us such fit instruments for the battle-field, we shall require these qualities for abating the spirit of war, and correcting the numberless moral evils from which society is suffering. Are not our people uneducated? juvenile delinquents uncared for? does not drunkenness still reel through our streets ? Have we not to battle with vice, crime, and their parent, ignorance, in every form? And may not even charity display as great energy and courage in saving life, as was ever put forth in its destruction ? A famine fell upon nearly one-half of a great nation. The whole world hastened to contribute money and food. But a few courageous men left their homes in Middlesex and Surrey, and penetrated to the remotest glens and bogs of the west coast of the stricken island, to administer relief with their own hands. To say that they found themselves in the valley of the shadow of death would be but an imperfect image — they were in the charnel-house of a nation. Never since the 11th century, did pestilence, the gaunt handmaid of famine, glean so rich a harvest. In the midst of a scene, which no field of battle ever equalled in danger, in the number of its slain, or the sufferings of the surviving, these brave men moved as calm and undismayed as though they had been in their own homes. The popula- tion sunk so fast that the living could not bury the dead ; half-interred bodies protruded from the gap- AN EXAMPLE OP TRUE HEROISM. 495 ing graves ; often the wife died in the midst of her starving children, whilst the husband lay a festering corpse by her side. Into the midst of these horrors did our heroes penetrate, dragging the dead from the living with their own hands, raising the head of famishing infancy, and pouring nourishment into parched lips from which shot fever-flames more deadly than a volley of musketry. Here was cou- rage ! No music strung the nerves ; no smoke obscured the imminent danger ; no thunder of artil- lery deadened the senses. It was cool self-possession and resolute will ; calculated risk and heroic resig- nation. And who were these brave men ? To what " gallant" corps did they belong? Were they of the horse, foot, or artillery force ? They were Quakers, from Clapham, and Kingston ! If you would know what heroic actions they performed, you must inquire from those who witnessed them. You will not find them recorded in the volume of reports published by themselves : — for Quakers write no bulletins of their victories. Will you pardon me if, before I lay down my pen, I so far presume upon your forbearance as to express a doubt whether the eagerness with which the topic of the Duke of Wellington's career was so generally selected for pulpit manifestations was calculated to" enhance the influence of ministers of the Gospel, or promote the interests of Christianity itself. Your case and that of public men are very dissimilar. The mere politician may plead the excuse, if he yields to the excitement of the day, that he lives and moves, and has his being in the popular temper 496 1793 and 1853. of the times. Flung as he is in the mid-current of passing events, he must swim with the stream, or be left upon its banks ; for few have the strength or courage to breast the rising wave of public feel- ing or passion. How different is your case ! Set apart for the contemplation and promotion of eternal and unchanging principles of benevolence, peace, and charity, public opinion would not only tolerate but applaud your abstinence from all dis- plays where martial enthusiasm, and hostile passions are called into activity. But a far higher sanction than public opinion is to be found for such a course. When the Master whom you especially serve, and whose example and precepts are the sole credentials of your faith, mingled in the affairs of this life, it was not to join in the exaltation of military genius, or share in the warlike triumphs of nation over nation, but to preach " Peace on Eaeth and good will toward Men." Can the humblest layman err, if, in addressing the loftiest dignitary of the Christian Church, he says, " Go thou, and do likewise ?" I remain, yours, E. Cobden. To the Eev. ; END OF VOL. I. **•