A FRENCH PROPHECY OF ENGLAND'S DOWNFALL.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XX, Issue 3, 5 January 1885, Page 4

A FRENCH PROPHECY OF ENGLAND'S DOWNFALL.

Tho "Republique Francaise" recently had a prophetic article on the downfall of Engiand. The Ministerial jurnal, taking as its text some remarks which recently appeared in a Londou paper, sees in the contingency of a general federation of England's possessions the possibility of her ruin. Let England once become democratic, and her destruction is certain. If, it is argued, the great American Union which formed, from a geographical point of view, a complete whole was unable to avoid a terrible war, how is the sporadic English Empire, once shall be constituted on the basis of proportional representation, to protect itself from decomposition, seeing the extreme diversity of the races which compose it and the absolute oppositio of their interests : — * Try to bring together in one Legislative Assembly your Irish and your Hindoos who detest you, your Australians who feel that they are really your Antipodes ! This would bring about, not decomposition, but a violent rupture — a veritable explosion. Your Empire, built up by the aristocracy, cannot transform into a democracy without perishing, and it is nevertheless drawn by an irresistible current towards this tansformation. Without wishing to pose as a prophet, and by simply con? fining oneself to common sense views* it can clearly be seen that the twentieth century — perhaps in its commencement — will be marked by the overthrow of the greatest empire which has existed on the globe since the days of Charles V. The English race will survive, because it is admirably endowed for struggle for existence; but it will cease to form a single state or nation. Auother danger more immediate menaces Great Britain. The wealth of this island comes from the policy free trade which it had the glory of being the first to adopt. What it could not cheaply produce at Home it bought abroad. In exchange it sold abroad that which it produced more easily than othsr countries. It would be a marvel if England could exist on the Continent having different neighbors on her frontiers. But she is an island, and for an island free trade forms a very serious danger. In point of fact she has ceased to produce the things most indispensible to her existence. She no longer draws in a great measure on agriculture, but on commerce, for her supplies. Nothing better in time of peace. But in time of war let the sea

communication be cut off for the space of six weeks, and a terrible famine would affect the land. After bearing this bravely for a few more weeks she would have to capitulate like a simple fortress." According to the pessimistic prophecies of the same paper, the English fleet would be powerless against the combined maritime force of other nations. Ten rapid cruisers sent by a second-rate naval Power into British waters and into the Mediterranean, would suffice to destroy half the merchant fleet of Great Britain, and thus to starve her. " France, were she at war with Germany, Italy, and Spain, could get her supplies from the neutral nations of Belgium and Switzerland. In order that we might be put in the same predicament in which ten cruisers could place you, those countries should also have to declare war against us. You might have an excellent means of braving these cruisers, provided you were on terras of peace with France, by the submarine tunnel. But, blind that you are; you want neither the submarine tunnel nor alliance with France — two inseparable things. You are the least intelligent generation of which record is made in the glorious annah of England. We do not give you ten years wherein to find that out for yourselves."