The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-05-06 00:00:00

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care to fight alone, Russia coolly set the Tre ity
aside without consultation with any other
Power, and is therefore at present equally as
much at liberty- to mqintain a fleet in the Black
Sea as she ever was. I.ookcd at by its conse-
,im nees, therfore, we dii not gain much by
40114.1, 10 Nva- will the Great Colossus of the
~f the hoc; hVu e 1 iNN,iity year, ag);
Lt.) sooh alter the coaclusida of peace in 183(3
the mistake which had been made was rendered
clear enough. It was then that the word above
quoted began to come into general favour. Non-
ntervention ;n foreign politics must be tl
order of the day. For several years before the
death of Lord Palmerston, and for a long time
afterwards, this doctrine was rigidly carried
out. It is true that there was some little revul-
sion against it in 1854, when Denmark was
attacked by Austria and Prussia, and obliged to
part with her German speaking, provinces. Be-
fore the days of non-intervention Denmark had
been assured by an English foreign minister
i that n case of an attack by Austria or Prussia.
she would not stand alone ; and possibly on the
faith of this assurance had made a prolonged
but hopeless resistance to the demands of the
two great German Powers. But if poor Den-
mark ever had anticipations of help from this
country, there can be no question that, although
she had some friends amongst ns, the prepon-
derating influence was that of non-intervention,
and she was left to her fate. At all events she
had the satisfaction, two years afterwards, of
seeing her two foes quarrel and fight amongst
themselves. The capture of Duppel in 1864
was avenged by the slaughter of Sadowa in
1866.
Besides the feeling that the Crimean war had
been barren of results, another cause contri-
buted powerfully to the gradual spread of the
feeling in favour of non-intervention in foreign
politics. That was, the restless course pursued
by France for many years under the guidance of
the late Emperor Napoleon. The enemies of
that potentate declared that, as his throne was
based upon despotism, his constant endeavour
was to wean the minds of his people from a con-
templation of their domestic political condition
by diverting their attention from things at home
t) the affairs of neighbouring nations. He thus
not only accomplished this purpsoe, but at the
same time, and by the same means, ministered
to the love of power which it is the vanity of
Frenchmen to exercise. There need be no too
close inquiry into the truth of such an allega-
tion. Without being uncharitable to the memory
of a deceased sovereign and a former ally, there
can be no doubt that France did very often
interfere in the affairs of other people upon her
own immediate frontiers. Italy came in for a
large share of this, as witness the prolonged
occupation of Rome by French troops, which
only terminated when France was beaten down
in the war of 1870. The crushing of the Geri-
b ildi expedition which ended so disastrously at
Mentana in the autumn of 1867, was another
instance of the very active interest taken by
France in the internal concerns of the Italian
kingdom. Belgium, as we know, was often
warned to be on her good behaviour ; Switzer-
iand sometimes stood in fear; Spain was made
to understand that her neighbour over the
Pyrenees was more powerful than she ; and we
all know that, at last, when it was proposed to
place a German prince upon the Spanish throne.
France made this a pretext for declaring war
against Prussia. The punishment for that act
of interference in the affairs of another people
was one of the most terrible which ever fell
upon a nation. It has been seen that since the
conclusion of the last tremendous struggle upon
the continent, France has confined herself to
her own business. There is no dictation to
Switzerland, no sending troops into Italy for the
suppression of an insurrection no instructions
to Spain whether she shall or shall not accept
a particular king. 'I he awful lesson then taught
will not, it is hoped, require to be repeated. As
for ourselves, we had learned it years before, but
in a different way. It is true that of late there
may have seemed to be an apparent departure
from that policy of non-intervention which was
so popular in the closing years of Lord
Palmerston's life. But such an act as the pur-
chase of the Suez Canal shares is one clearly
for the protection of our own interests in the
East; there is no necessity for a free country to
divert the minds of the people from infernal
reforms from a fear of discussion. The threl e
of the Sovereign of Great Britain does not rest
upon bayonets, but upon the loyalty of a united
and attached people.