ENGLAND'S POSITION IN THE WORLD.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2043, 11 August 1885, Page 4

ENGLAND'S POSITION IN THE WORLD.

BY AN* AM. Id AMERICAN,

The Pull Mall Gazette has received the the following letter from a well-known American journalist, who has had almost unique opportunities for forming an opinion on the subject on which he writes :—: — I have spoken in my former note of the cuiious vUe fine which seems to possess England on the subject of her decadence u» tho eyes of Europe, and Ido know people who «ctm to be profoundly eon- \ inced that England has fallen to the ia:il» of a thud rate Power -that her pu^tige is tut.ill> damaged, Sec. Ido nt.t bilievr- tli.it any European statesman tegatds England has fallen pottnfhi/h/ one degtec." llei icsousccs, her intelligence, the tuilitaiy value of her piow ess by land and by sea aie as well known asc.ei the} weie, and known to boas gnat as ever they weic — the leal difficulty to day for England is not to com maud fi lends, but to choose which she shall command Your prestige is clouded by causes which is rests with the English people to lemove tomorrow, and these reasons are, piinio— and it is nonsense to blau.e Mr Gladstone's or any other Government for the pre\ ailing state of things — that the constituencies (or the men who represent them in Parliament) are unwilling to pay the cost of maintaining the position they insist on the Governments keeping for the nation ; your economies in season and out of season ha\e left your na\y far below the strength the crisis demands, and your army as to its armament behind that of any Continental Power except Spain. You are not ready for war, and if you will be quiet and think for a moment jou must admit it ; but the whole excited nation (that portion of it which has been earned away by the on tu>) insists on wai. knowing nothing and asking nothing about the probable result or even the justice of the cause. It knows that a wai in which England shall be involved now means really a European war, and one in which Enghnd has lost the power to choose her allies, and in which she may possibly be the object of a hostile combination on which some of the powcis will reconcile their quauels, while the others will take the opportunity to do what they please in every diiection. No Englishman apparently imagines or will stop to think what this war may be, but m< indue, it will lie one in which it is of the most vital nnpoitance to Eng'and that she "hall hold her foi ces in lesene for the juncture in which her interests must I) 1 upheld, not in Afghanistan but in the Meditetrnne.m, if not in the Channel. The nation wishes to nish not ineiely lightheartcd but hot-headed into a fray that, befoie it is o\er, may change the entile political gcogiaphy of Europe. You are not leady foi such a war, and tluie is no man in England who has any education in politics w ho does not know it, and yet the men \\ lio are shrieking loudest foi the w.ii aie oigmiMng meetings to piotest against a t.i\ of a farthing 01 so on a p>t of beer and growling o\ei .in increase of the income tay, It stands within the limits of the possible that this war, when it ends, " will find England obliged to l ansom herself not with five milliards, but with fifty," as 1 once heard a German officer say. And who will shoulder the responsibility, Mr Gladstone or the men who drive him into war ? Englishmen say commonly that Mr Gladstone has no foreign policy. Have Englishmen a foieign policy ? Is not the w hole of Englind determined to keep u position aloof fi om all other nations, and j ist now in latent hostility to all? It is not coinage w Inch the ti lie fi ie nils of Engl Hid w ould awaken, but foolluidine-s tint they would depiecito, while they implore her to make ready for war by piudcnce and cneigy ; theie will be fighting enough and soon cnoueh, to satisfy the fin y of any political passion. Youi wor^t enemy is not so far to seik as Russia, and you may, find ti it while the lion and the bear me fighting for non-osentials the fox has stolen the booty. If you tan make peace on the Khu^L— l will not say with honour, but without dishonour, thank (Jod, and stiengthen your hold on Egypt, •md if Hussia wantstogoto Constantinople kt her go in heaven's name, but don't be fooled by woids. Your piestige is low cm], sccundo, by the lancour of jour paity antagonism* and the insane fury with which your paiti/.ans attack the Government (for the tune being) and exhaust devices to weaken its authoiity at home and its dignity abroad, as if there could be weight in the actions or policy of a Government which Englishmen despise and insuH. It reminds me of the theologian* of Constantinople vv rangling ov ir the intii it t m il pom s of <logn a u Ik n the Turk* wcic attacking the gitc~i Your Kidic.il*, youi Whigs, join Libcials and Coiibeivatn es me div id:ir,' and splitting up into new and smi'ler parties ; \onr Opposition is quai idling m its own tanks, and gasping and imping for power like waives after a prey they cannot reach, while the Eniopean plot tliicki us, and that " fhst gun" is being loaded, whoso filing shill kindle the passions of a continent. I can well understand that Mr Gladstone does not realise the gravity of the juncture; but is there any man in the House of Commons who shows a higher sense of it ? Is there any party oi section of a paity, which realises that when tne fighting once begins between two of the picat I'oweis, the catastiophe which tho in udencc of all Eui ope lias been struggling for years to postpone w ill be at hand, and that it is the duty of every patriotic Englishmen to begin (as it was his duty long ago to have begun) to put England's house in order, and to rise hi» voice against the feuds and party animosities that make of St. Stephen's a bear garden and prevent her representatives fiom sco ing the dangeis mound and near her? You have seen tins kind of thing going on across the Channel foi a time, and >ou have seen what it leads to, and Fiance only is moie isolated in Euiope than England. If the Opposition can turn Mr Gladstone out with safety and dignity, let it be done; but if not, for heaven's sake keep him in with dignity — it is no time for bcarbaiting even with Mr Gladstone for bear. The time has come when Englishmen should forget that they aie anything else, and lay their heads togethci as to how they may strengthen the handy of Government rather than be compounding with the enemies of the empire to make the Government weak and incapable of any ligid policy. The treatment of the Russian question is pimply suicidal. One party for tho sake of peace make concessions which the other party makes futile by its animosity ; a>id Russia, uncertain how long the party of peace will hold on, is obliged to be always ready to meet war. The policy of San Stofano brings in its logical consequence the policy of Penjdoh. The Conservative hand of England holds the knife while the Libcial holds out the olive branch, and the light hand will not know what the left hand is going to do How can any nation have ,i foreign policy when half ot it has one policy and the other half auothei ; when one half is breathing menace of ti i o and the sword while the othci ib making oveiturea of peace ? If it \) c i true that theie is no possibility of a common view of England's interest, then, indeed, not meiely prestige ; but safety, is in danger, not fiom weakness but division. And I must say that a minority that would in a crisis where the safety of the State is involved deliberately weaken a Government it cannot hope to succeed, is the shame of pailiamcntary government, not its strength.

S(tmj— Waverly Station, Edinburgh, 4 p m. — Inebriated East Countryman (who ii holding on by by the railings at foot of bi idge) — 'Sic — sic a pordeccament!' Railway Porter— 'Hnllo, what's the mattor, ma man?" I.E.C.— • Oh, oh ! Sic— sic- <sic a ppidcccament. Tf I quat ma hand T'm sure to fa,' an if I hand on I'll losh ma, train,'