Hawke's Bay Herald. SATURDAY, APRIL 25, 1885. WAR AND CIVILISATION.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7146, 25 April 1885, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Herald. SATURDAY, APRIL 25, 1885. WAR AND CIVILISATION.

Russia is fated to advance civilisation in apite of herself. Her czarß, her governors, and her knout-beaten peasants seem to paint to an opposite conclusion, and to prove that the country which produced ( Peter the Great will be the last to be flooded with the wave of liberty gradually eating away the foundations of all despotisms. A closer view will show the contrary to this. The Anglo-Saxon and the Slav are bound to come into collision, and to become near neighbors. The result of the struggle now imminent will decide whether Russian shall scowl upon Englishman where now is what is known as the frontier of Afghanistan, or whether | England will have to retire behind the natural bulwark which separates Afghanistan and Beloochistan from India. Should war be declared, as seems too probable, the victors in the struggle must practically dominate the territory now being invaded by Russia. Supposing war to take place, and Russia to win, there can be no doubt that she will follow up her successes by finally occupying Afghanistan. Should the result be the other way, and Russia be as soundly thrashed as her territorial greed and her unscrupulous bloodthirstiness deserve, England, to prevent further incursions, will have to talse steps that will practically amount to an Afghan protectorate. In either case Russia and England must become neighbors, with their respective outposts almoßt within speaking distance of each other, and the two Powers standing at bay divided bjt nothing more substantial than a " scien-^ tific frontier." The oppressed and/ ignorant hordes governed by the Czar will/ then be en rapport with the people whose proud boast it ia that they are in the van of Western civilisation and advancement. Then will ensue a silent conflict far more momentous, and far more widereaching in its results, than any mere struggle between two hostile armies can be. " Thoughts that breathe and words that burn" will permeate into Russia. They will meet with two forces, one opposing and one more than aiding. The aspirations which form part of the daily life of the A-nglo-Saxon races will come into contact with minds and ideas that have been formed under circumstances of isolation from the outer world such as no country but China can furnish] a parallel to. Russia's army, although composed in the main of stolid personifications of the densest ignorance, Jand therefore of active opponents] of new ideas, also has within its ranks men who will welcome with avidity English notions of liberty. Strengthened and fired by that indescribable and almost spiritual sympathy which is begotten of contact with those whom it is desired to imitate or to emulate, these men will become active propagandists of an agitation against despotism that will ultimately overturn the tyranny of the ruling classes of Russia. She is, therefore, in precipitating a conflict with Great Britain, preparing for herself her own dissolution. The silent but strong tide of the desire for freedom will Bap the base of the last and greatest obstacle to its progress, and "Holy Russia," as now known, will be spoken of by future historians as having forced on the cataclysm by which, considered as a power to subjugate the human race, she ultimately perished. Universal;, history proves war to have been the precursor of liberty. A barbarian State coming into conflict with a more enlightened nation may succeed in avoiding direct destruction by force of arms, but lays itself open to more subtle and stronger agencies, which ultimately effect what armaments cannot achieve. If Russia and England fight, the result of the campaign muat be an inrush into the Czar's dominions of ideas and aspirations that will ultimately strangle despotic government, and that will constantly tend towards a state of things that will render wars for territorial aggression less and less likely. It is a pity that evil should precede good, but it is a consolation to know that the good must ultimately triumph. War in itself is always to be deplored, and the apparently impending struggle between Russia and England will be no exception, but there is a crumb of comfort in the fact that the means taken by the Czar and his councillors to gratify a hateful lust for power and aggression will end in such power and aggression being wiped out. War between England and Russia means the hurrying on of Russian enlightenment and enfranchisement, and a shortening of the interval which separates us from the time when the nations of the earth will have learned to live in peace and and amity with each other.