THE DECREASE OF ENGLAND'S INFLUENCE.

Timaru Herald, Volume IV, Issue 96, 16 March 1866, Page 5

THE DECREASE OF ENGLAND'S INFLUENCE.

[IS Opinion Xationale, Paris, November 12.]

It is a duty we owe to our friends to tell the truth. We love the English people, their enterprising spirit, their attachment to civil and political liberty, and their practical activity, which does not exclude either religious feeling or scientific intelligence. We look upon the alliance of England and France as essential to the policy of the West. We believe, m particular, that at a time when economical community is beginning to be understood and practised, and two great liberal and industrial nations have common interests, and ought to work m concert for social welfare, and the political emancipation of the nations who still languish under the unproductive sj-stem of military feudalism and ecclesiastical hierarchy.

Thus we cannot rejoice at anything which may afflict England. It is not, therefore, m order to laud ourselves that we draw attention to the critical state of Great Britain since the death of Lord Palmerston. Since th« war m the Crimea, nothing has been done m Europe or m America by the London Cabinet ; everything has been done " spite of it against it." The policy of resistance adopted by Lord Palmerston and Lord Russell was not able to stop the canalization of the Isthmus of Suez, to prevent the union of the Danubian Principalities, or to remedy the dissolution of the Turkey Empire. The withdrawal of England from Mexico lias not suspended the course of events. The Government of Richmond has succumbed, spite of encouragements really given, but always disavowed. Powerless for g-ond as well as for evil, Eng-land has not been able to prevent Poland beingcrushed, the depopulation of the Caucasus, or the spoliation of Denmark. The prestige of the English name has been lowered m every continent ; and now the time seems come when material difficulties will succeed moral defeats.

The colonial empire of Great Britain is cracking- m all parts — Jamaica is becoming a second St. Doming-o, and the black insurrection there is causing- frightful ravages. The mountains to the North of India are full of emissaries who try to revive the insurrection put down ten years ag - o, and promise, m an under-tone, the help of the Czar to the avengers of Nana Sahib. General Tchernaiew is encampingin the heart of Tartary, and the " sotnias " of Cossacks are descending 1 across the g-reat plain to the region where they can give their hand to the tribes of Himalaya. Fenianism even begins to be trembled at after having been laughed at. Mitchell, a rebel m the Carolinas, after having been so m Ireland, has just been liberated by Johnson at the solicitation of the Eenians. The mj-sterious association excommunicated by the Holy See, put by England out of the State and out of the Church, is constituting its Government, after the model of the United States. It threatens Canada, and privateers are being fitted out m the ports of New York and Boston, as was done formerly m Liverpool and Glasgow. The audacious conspirators announce beforehand the departure of their privateers — Irish Shenandoahs and Alabamas — and give it to be understood that they are not disconnected with the events m Jamaica. Already they have gained a great victory over Old England — they have forced her to violate the liberty of the press m Dublin. In London and the counties what do we see ? The legal country disorganised ; a ministry that can neither live nor die; all parties m the greatest confusion. The Tories no longer believe m themselves, like our Legitimists. The Whigs are frightened of the democracy. .....

The Peelites have some sense, but too much of it. Examining and re-examining questions m all its phases, they never touch on them ; and Mr. Gladstone, educated m this school, is by turns, timid and rash ; sometimes giving a hand to popular feeling and sometimes checking it. The Radicals, for the first time, give reasons for their being suspected of loyalty. The Manchester school sees no other remedy for the crisis but adbication ; and makes non-intervention into a doctrine of suicide. The state of things is grave, nothing can hide that. But is it desperate ? We think not.

The English people will find m themselves the necessary resources to go through this crisis. They possess, m fact, two essential qualities — the respect of the law and respect for their own liberty. It is impossible that a nation which has both these elements of order and progress should founder suddenly. But our neighbors, while preserving these national qualities carefully, must adopt entirely a new polic}-, both at home and abroad. "While following the phases of the ministerial crisis, we will endeavour to give a general idea of this policy of home reforms and really national alliances necessary.