APOPHTHEGMATIZATIONS.

NZ Truth, Issue 92, 23 March 1907, Page 1

APOPHTHEGMATIZATIONS.

NO. X.

STILL AMONG THE FALSE PROPHETS.

Pox, Canning and Wellington.

(By JOHN NORTON.)

FOX'S FALSE PROPHECY. Still delving m Professor Pearson's rich mine of prophetical lore we find several other specimens of false prophecy cited, which must be aidded to those quoted m No. IX. last week. It has been shown what a shameless sham Burke waa as a seer. His great rival, Charles James, Fox, notwithstanding all his perspicacity as a statesman, and his sympathy with France as a' liberty-loving Englishman, placed himself m a similar predicament as a false prophet by a somewhat premature prophecy concerning the probable consequences of the French Revolution. But there is this to be said on behalf of Fox, viz., that he prophesied as a friend of freedom and of France, whereas Burke prophesied as the enemy of both , and . as . .the - paid' tool or tyranny. Fox's" false forecast wasfesed upon a sincere anxiety for the safety of England, and an equally sincere desire for the success of the Revolution ; that elf Burke was based on love of lucre at home, and hatred of freedom abroad. * * . • WHAT FOX REALLY SAID. In the course of his great speech mi n the House of Commons m 1803 on the proposed mediation of Russia between . the Coalesced Powers andr France, he" declared that the reason he had opposed the war against France was that he believed that its ultimate outcome would be "to effect the total destruction of the influence of this country (England) on the Continent." But, as Pearson points out : • Jn the day of her greatest humiliation, France was never m danger of being partitioned ; and the longer the war. lasted, the greater was the increase of English influence on the Con<tlnent. ■ It ought, however, to 1 be remembered that whatever influence England e&med on the Continent she obtained by means of money,. bribes or subsidies, and not by force of arms. What she then bought as. the financier of Five Coalitions, she has since lost, two of the greatest and greediest, of her gold-glutted, allies, Prussia and Russia, being to-day her bitterest foes. It was, however, on the sea, and ' not on land, that Britain really reaped the harvest of her subsidies and self : sacrifice. It waa during the Napoleonic wars that England established her maritime supremacy, and built up her; colonial Empire on its present basis, notwithstanding that she had just lost the best half 'of that Empire by the revolt of the North American Colonies. Nelson, not Wellington, is England's national hero. # • ■ . • CANNING'S POLITICAL STATUS. There is a strong disposition prevalent, nowadays, to magnify political pigmies of the past into legislative leviathans, and to talk much about "the giants of the past"— to the utter" depreciation of the men of the present. This preposterous process of depreciatory comparison of what is present with what is past, is a common practice with partisan writers like Macaulay, who, notwithstanding all his Puritanical predilections and protestations,, has deified some ot the most dissolute dunderheads, immoral monsters, and religious rascals that the politics of England has ' produced . Among these magnified mediocrities and miscreants is George Canning, the son of a se-cond-rate actress, a servile snob to the soles of bis feet, and a compliant cad to the top of his head— this same parvenu premier of England. Canning was, without the least possil'Hitv of the semblance of a shade of a shadow of doubt, the most truculent time-server and pestiferous political peiiifogger of his time. He affected, the part of a statesman when he was only playing the part of a partisan. Not one m ten thousand Englishmen knows more of Canning than that he was a prominent politician some time ago, but whether More Pitt, or after Burke, o r after both, not one m a hundred tbousamd could tell. How he came to. be j Prime Minister, wfca* be did muo

Prime Minister, how long he was Prime Minister, ! whether he died Prime Minister, how, wlien, or where, he died, if he died top soon or too late for the good of England, the same lot knows not. This is the sort of past politician whom present-day political writers magnify into statesmen. Even Professor Pearson describes Canning as "The most eminent of the Parliamentary generation that succeeded: to Burke and Fox." Well, what of. that ? The generation that succeeded to Burke and Fox could not have been very rich ;in statesmen if Canning, can claim to be the most eminent among them. Asa matter of fact Canning is practically forgotten like many more rnedjocre. myrmidons of the Georges ; if he he remembered . at all, it is as a .scribbler of doggerel . m the "Aaiti-Jacob-in," and as the author of that political parody or pasquinade, "The Needy Knife Grinder." There's Canning the politician ; let's glance at Canning the' prophet. ~ • « • CANNING'S FALACIOUS FORECAST. Speaking m the House of Commons m December, 1826, on the. relations of England and Portugal, Canning was attempting to justify his perfidious policy of inciting the colonies of Portugal and Spain m South America to insurrection ,and revolt, and he, Pearson, observes : Fascinated by the prospect of the South American Colonies, anticipated they would grow up as ' the United States had grown, and heing challenged for his support of them, declared that, lie had "called a new world into existence to redress the balance of the old." We,. who live two generations later, are painfully aware that the South American "new world" has produced little but civil wars, national -bankruptcies, paper constitutions, and examples of declining civilisation.' . , Professor Pearson is . scarcely accurate here as to the origan, or, rather, the time and place of the ? first utterance of'? the celebrated phrase about redressing the balance of , the world. In all probability, it was' coined by Canning, but it first saw the .light m The King's Message or Speech read m the House of Lords on the Opening of Parliament m December, 1826. Canning, like his great archetype, Gladstone, The Grand Old Gasbag, as he has somewhere by somebody been somewhat irreverently styled,, was a great coiner of claptrap catch-phrases. Canning could, like .Gladstone, simulate sincere support of men „whom, and measures which, he had formerly fiercely aittacked and condignly condemned. Canning could do, and did do, and continued to do, for several years, before he grabbed, the premiership, what, m the Anti-Jacobin, he - condemned others for doing. In tha>t most damnable piece of doggerel that he impudently entitled "The New Morality," Canning declares of an opponent that he is a tergiversator and a turncoat— • And finds, with keen, discriminating • sight, Black's not so black— nor white so veli-y^white. ; , ■ This is the true political portrait of Canning himself. • • • CANNING'S CANT AND CHEEK, Canning was the most contemptible time-server and servile sycophant of all the political pests that afflicted the people of England at the fagend of the reign of that filthy beast, George IV., and during that of his balmy, boozing, blasphemous brother, William IV., familiarly known to Ms subjects as "Old Silly Billy." To Canning himself might be applied another excerpt from that mass of manifest hate, humbug,, and hypocrisy, his "New Morality" : Give me the avow'd, the erect, (the manly foe, Bold, I can meet— perhaps may turn his blow ; But .of ' all plagues, good Heaven, thy wrath can send, Save, save, oh ! save me from the ' Candid Friend.

The chief merit of these Anti-Jaco-bin couplets is that they truthfully describe .personalvcharactetf- X |net • po^ical^perfidy^of ; their; :; ariWoi I■■.";1 ■■. "; ; It. seems a pity'that so keen a. judge of men, and judicious an appraiser of policy as- \Prafessor Pearson, should have prostituted his powerful pe n m praisin^aib': disgraceful and disreputable a political Jeremy Diddler as George Canning. However," the best of men err m the appraisement of other men's merits and demerits, and m the apportionment of praise and blame. But m this case the Professor has done something more ; he has blundered by making tne famous phrase above-cited originate, so to say, m the House of Commons. Admitting that' the ! wbrrts were coined by Canning,,: that they '.were first spoken" m the House of- Lords by. the King is proved by their presence m ; the speech which was read from the throne, and m which "Silly-Billy, " that half-mad, three-parts -drunk, and. wholly rotten, Royal rogue, was made to declare, "I called the New World into existence to redress thebalance of the old." It was to try to justify the. use of these magniloquent, but meaningless words,, that George Cauniha; indulged m; that grandiloquent declariiation with which- he. I sought to defend his damnable, delii'sive and disloyal South American j policy, on the same day m the Commons (during the debate, on the Ad-dress-in-Reply) as that- on which tfche Kind's speech was read by the. King m the House of Lords. c CANNING TESTED IN THE CRUCIBLE OF TIME. Tried by that sole true test of prophecy, the crucible of time, Canning's pretensions as a seer have turned out to be as ill-founded as his claims to be regarded' as a statesman., In the flr9t place, Canning had little to do with the cause of South American Independence, beyond covertly conniving at crim.es against the .Constiti!-: tion for the commission of which England has hanged .Englishmen,, -Irishmen, and Colonials, m Africa r and Australia. So fair from calling the New World into existence, Canning had as much to do with that as he had with his *own( bastard birth. < The New World of America was called into existence by men of different calibre from that of the contemptible Canning. It was conceived by the Pilgrim Fathers, m persecution, born m the cradle of convictism, nurtured m prostitution, and fostered to adofescence m oppression and finally achieved its full growth and strength m armed rebellion, culminating m triumphant and glorious revolution. Canning and his contemporaries had as much to do with the momentous movement of manumitting South American States from European control, as he and his contemporaries had to do with the struggle of the North American States for freedom— nothing. . " , . ' \ • . • • BIRTH OP THE NEW WORLIi The New World was called into existence by God, m God's own time, for God's own purpose, and for.punishing and putting an end to. the kindred tyrannies of Portugal; Spain, and England, m the Americas. There was. no redressing of the old balance of power of the old world m Europe; the balance passed over to the New World m America, where it. now permanently preponderates as a perpetual protest against old world pretensions to interfere ■m American Continental affairs. America assumes the right to intervene m British Colonial affairs when an American Admiral, without official invitation or sanction, is pleased to land an armed force at Jamaica, as was done during the recent earthquake catas-, trophe. No European Power dare attempt to try a similar saucy trick upon America, either m the Northern, Central, or Southern States, or m her Hawaiian or Philippine Colonies. "America" dominates the whole of the Americas, on- land and at sea* She applies the Monroe Doctrine to foreir ners, but exempts herself firom its operation. So, too, she will federate the whole of the States of the American Continent, east and west, and north' and south, including Canada, which can no more evade her American political destiny than she can geographically cut herself away from the Continent. Her recent intervention m South American affairs , m conjunction with the republics of Mexico. Costa Rica, Guatemala, and >San Salvador, to compel the two. other republics of Nicaragua and Honduras to cease their suicidal strife, and submit their disputes to arbitration, is the grandest, sincerest, and, .therefore, most successful demonstration m favor of peace and fraternity ever made on God's earth since Cain slew Abel. No, there has been no redressing of the balance of power m the Old World ; it has passed over to the New World,* where it will maintain a perpetual peace m America, and, ultimately, with the help of England, Australia, Africa, and Canada will guarantee the same boon and blessing to all Anglo-Sax-on-speaking peoples whose territories are washed by the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and whose commerce sails those seas. England may yet owe the preservation of her place m the comity of nations to her outraged and alienated, but now, let us hope, reconciled eldest Colonial child, Ame-

rica. So, much for CannyJs^niagniloquent,,. > but^ v-nieMitigli^s>^aia&|ing : WELLINGTON THE}/ VWARRIOR. We now come to a much greater | man than Canning, and one with a reputation well founded on splendid services rendered to his country on many foreigri battlefie];ds abroad, and at home by' ca'jlm ; arid considerate counsels for preventing rebellion by timely . concession, and- for preserving peace' should concession, be refused, or fail to ; cpnstrainj#ife popular will and . \Hshcs toy]i.e i aGfeabie ways oi agitation for „Reformy Wellington was a great General, b\it he w.as not a consummate : Commah'dejr worthy' to rank with Alexander, Hjtnnipal, Caesar, or Napoleon. v^e|iingt6n's merits as a 'scddiet-?hatfi|!V/ ! -t ei ? n foolishly exaggerated by his countrymen, proud of his achievements. Such exaggera-' tion is a patriotic fault, ! and, Hhere Ifore, pardonable>i/All thet^orld now knows, that W^Hihgt^nWHa'd fought and lost the battle of Waterloo, when Blucher came up ..in time, and m suffi-. cient force, to -..turn the English defeat into, a -Fiirfefifih. rout.^ -That Wellington would ltayexb^'iputigenerailed by a Marlboroiighl orfa Cromwell both from a .strategical and tactical point of vieV, and, probably;, overmatched by them as, maiioeuyrlr^ and magnetisers . ofi . vlarge :<! masses of .men' few competent; critic^ of the art of war ■■" would hisw ' care to deny. But, after all is said concerning him, it has to be admitted that, the services he rpnd<}red .Englarid.i'by sage counsel m time 'of . pivil, strife at home were as signal as ; those he rendered her on- the battlefield abroad. ' .. . . • ... . • .' .■ ■ , • ■ - : , PREMATURE'^ROPHEO^-bN ENGLAND i Sj.' i j?RO|^iRITY. The particular pfbphccy to which Wellington owes the dubious distinction of a place. among the false pro-; phets;, was pronbimoed' by. hirti to a ; friend, : Raikes, jfchb; recorded it m his famous "Journal;"- Peaxspn refers to thii incident- in's^e>idl.ii^^^e^^ : < The Duke of Wellington was deservedly trusted^ by ; a large portion of bis countrymen for his sound common-sense m matters political, and his reputation was not confined to England. He told a friend m ISB2 that "few people will be sanguine enough to., imagine that v/e shall ever again -be as prosperous as we have been." Whether we measure prosperity by wealth, by Empire, or by general content, it can scarcely be doubted that the England of 1892 may challenge comparison with the country, -as it was at any time, which the Duke of Wellington is likely to have had m his mind. As a matter of fact, England, almost immediately after the Iron Duke had thtis predicted the decline of.her Drosperity, began to progress by leaps and bounds', her enormously ac-^ celebrated progress m commerce, and manufactures being mainly due to the general adoption of labor-saving inventions and the application of steam to manufactures, locomotion, and i transportation, .fully twenty-five years , before ; they were •so adopted and appliedvby her foreign competir tors, who now . are overtaking her m; most departments 'of industrial and commercial enterprise, 'i and actually out-distancing her m several directions'. Wellington, failed to forsee the; marvellous developments m mechanical invention and industrial enterprise which immediately followed his , fallacious forecast ;.- or, if he foresaw, them, he underrated their significance even as a greater than. Wellington,. Napoleon,' failed to apprecir ate the importance of the first steam boat which was exhibited to him by its inventor, Fulton, m motion , on the Seine, at Paris. ■.-.•'■' • :. • . The eternal recurrence of the immortal name of Napolqpn suggests a pause here, m order that we may consider m the next number of this series the part played '.by that great warrior and legislator m the sphere of the seer. : ■■..'■ .....'.. Palace Hotel,' Perth, West Australia, Wednesday, Feb. 2Oth, 1907.