ENGLAND AND RUSSIA.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1260, 23 April 1896, Page 42

ENGLAND AND RUSSIA.

SrECIAL TO THE New ZEALAND AIaIL. London, March (5. At the South Australian dinner on Wednesday evening, Lord Rosebery said, in tho course of his speech iu reply to tho toast of “ The British Empire “There are two great Empires which have their sources in Europe, the development of which must furnish tho most interesting study for any political observer. The one is the Empire of Russia, tho other our own. The Empire of Russia has tlnPe interesting characteristics. It is a vast collective expanse of territory, springing from Europe in tho west and extending to the uttermost east. It is under an autocratic Government, it has that great basis for unity, unity of religion and unity of race, in the original nation which controls that great Empire, and it has above all an extraordinary faculty of assimilation. Though it is a nation of one race and one church in its origin, it is yet able to attract to itself andassimilato iu itself as Russians barbarous tribes and remote races with which it has only had a very recent contact. Our empire strangely enough rests on exactly opposite lines. Where Russia is collected, we are scattered all over tho world. Where Russia is autocratic, wo rest in tho main on a series of democratic Parliaments. We comprehend all Churches and all races, but 1 doubt if we possess the magic faculty of assimilation. Where wo rule what aro called subject races wo gain perhaps respect rather than affection —(no, no) —the gentleman has been more fortunate in his observations than 1 have. (Laughter.) But it may bo due perhaps to a stern and upright seuso of justice. It may be due perhaps to a too great display of innate or believed superiority of culturo and (4 race, but 1 believe, as compared with some other nations, our forte is rat her to gain respect than to gain affection. There is one more feature of our commercial empire which is not possessed by any other of which the world has any record. It is, of course, a territorial empire, but it is also a maritime empire and a commercial empire. I will not dilate on these two vast topics to-night, but I will say this, that by a maritime empire I mean this, that in regions so widely separated and so geographically disconnected it is necessary for England to possess a predominant navy. (Cheers ) And as that necessity lias become uioro universally recognised that predominance is a matter removed outside tho ken of Ministeries or of parties, and has become the property of the race of Englishmen all over the world. And tho other point is this, that it is a commercial empire because v > have a commercial influence, if not a commercial predominance, by our trade alone in regions which we can never hope to embrace within our sway. If our navy and commerce decay we may bid good-bye to our territorial empire. (Cheers.)