The Sun.
London, England, 1859-08-10 00:00:00

I the noble instincts which animate individuals and
nations, he is master of the knowledge of every
form of egotism, of every bad tendency, of every
low passion which can pervert those instincts.
Like the tempter, he scents out sin, or the weak-
ness which leads to it. He cannot create, he can
only dissolve—and herein is the secret of his rower.
A policy boldly, logically moral would soon destroy
him. The insistence of poor dismembered Italy
in willing unity, was sufficient to overthrow all the
dynastic views of Louis Napoleon. •
War is for the Empire an absolute necessity.
The Empire does not represent a principle, like
liberty; nor a tradition, like legitimacy; nor a
faith, like theocracy. The Empire represents a,
fact—a power created by usurpation ; and this
fact is necessarily invading. This power can only
maintain itself by action, by assimilating to itself
the life of others, and thereby strengthening itself.
Glory and '-rritorial aggrandisement are the only
things that ie Empire can give France in ex
change for liberty. Where power consists in a
chief and an army, war is the normal condition of
its being. To delude oneself into the idea that the
Empire can be peace, is to give the lie to history.
And the alliances of the Empire can only be with
despotism. Alliances are founded upon identity of
principles or of interests. The existence of the
Empire in France demands the triumph of Impe-
rialism in Europe. The natural alliance for Louiz.
Napoleon is with Russia and Austria; it would be
with Prussia, if the Rhenish provinces, destined
according to imperial traditions to belong to
France,.were not in the way. The statesmen who
allied England with the Empire committed an
error, and attempted an impossibility
In face of the ascending movement of imperialism
—in face of a new holy alliance of despotism—in
face of the dangers which threaten England, Prus-
sia, and the liberty of Europe—the neutrality in-
culated as a duty by English statesmen is, as is the
alliance, and still more than the alliance, an error
as well as a crime.
I understand neutrality for Switzerland and for
Belgium ; they are strategical points, which it is
necessary, in the event of a European war, to
protect from the invasion of any Power, and the
European Governments have collectively agreed to
maintain their independence. But the neutrality
of a primary State adopted as the rule of poP,tical
conduct, and without reciprocity on the part of
other States, is nothing but the abdicati_on, the sui-
cide of that State.
Morally, neutrality is the abandonment of every
function, of every mission, of every duty which is
to be fulfilled on earth; it is mere passive exist-
ence, forgetfulness of all that sanctifies a people,
the negation of the common right of nations,
egotism raised to a principle—it is political
Atheism. A people cannot limit its own free
action without falling--without denying the pro-
gress which God calls it to advance. Politically,
the neutrality of a State is its nullification. It does
not diminish a single danger, • but condems a State
to front it in isolation.
History points to States that neutrality has
drawn into ruin—Venice, for example ; not one
that neutrality has saved from war or invasion.
Media via, said Titus Livius, quo nee amicos parat,
nec inimicus lola By inscribing a negation upon
its own flag a nation does not avoid death, but
adds dishonour to it.
I do not speak of a war of contrary interests;
I speak of a war between opposite principles. ,On
one side is the flag of Liberty, Right, Truth, and
Good ; on the other, that of Tyranny, Absolute
Power, Falsehood, and Evil. On one side they
fight for freedom of thought, for the inviolability
of conscience, for the fraternal association of the
peoples ; on the other, for destroying the freedom
of thought and conscience, for unjust conquests, for
enthroning brute force as the governing principle of
the world. And you, free and strong nation, you,
who declare yourselves believers in truth and
justice, and repeat for eighteen centuries the Chris-
tian formula. All men are sons of God, and all
brothers : you say, Between good and evil, we will
remain neutral, indifferent spectators. It is the
speech of Cain. Any people who adopts or teaches
it ought no longer to dare to call itself Christian
—that people practically is a people of atheists or
cowards.
Cowardly and Atheistical was the formula ut-
tered by Casimir Perier during the reign of Louis
Philippe— Chacun pour soi, chacun chez soi. Neu-
trality is only the practical application of that
formula.
The doctrine of neutrality, of indifference, be-
tween the two principles, liberty and despotism,
was inaugurated by Canning in his discourse of
the 28th April, 1823. From that time forward
England has progressed in the path which leads
to isolation. She has not at the present time a
single ally amongst the peoples or Governments
upon whom, in the hour of real danger, she can,rely
with confidence. The Governments know her to
be useless for their designs ; the Peoples accuse her
of egotism.
Absurd and fruitless egotism. Humanity is one :
its collective life cannot be destroyed by a theory.
As in the bosom of each State there is a continual
action and reaction between class and class, be-
tween citizen and citizen, and isolation is impos-
sible to the individual ; so there is continual action
and reaction between State and State, between
people and people, in the great society of the
human race. , You can renounce the benefits of the
community, you cannot avoid its evils • you can be
passive, but you cannot prevent the activity of
others operating upon you and modifying your life.
A rise or fall in the funds at Vienna or Paris re-
acts on your banks and on the whole of your Allan-
ciary life. A war, an insurrection, closes or limits
your markets. Europe in arms obliges you to arm.
There cannot be any prolonged struggle on the
Continent without your being obliged to take part
in it. The pretext of being neutral cannot in the
end save you from war; only it leaves the choice
of the ground and the hour to the enemy. No ;
neutrality can be the cry of the day of a fraction
of men incapable of any large views or great con-
ception of national life, but it cannot become the
rule or policy of any great or moral nation. A
nation's life cannot be cut in two ; it cannot repre-
sent liberty at home and indifference and egotism
abroad ; the internal and external life are only two
aspects, two phases of the same principle, which is
the soul of the nation.
England cannot say, I will abstain from all in-
terference for good, and allow any one free to
interfere for evil. She cannot deny her function
in Europe, and coldly contemplate the growing
power of Austro-French Imperialism and of
Czarism. A terrible expiation will visit, sooner or
later, the cowardly desertion of duty, which God
commands to nations as to individuals.
Imperialism is the most urgent danger of Europe.
Europe must combat it and conquer, or die in the
attempt.
Imperialism cannot be resisted by caressing it,
diplomatising with it, endeavouring to bind or limit
its action by hypocritical alliances or conditional
concessions. It must be resolutely met. If France
persuades herself that the Empire is a fact with
which no one can contend—if the peoples are con-
vinced that there is no support for them anywhere
—Europe is lost.
Imperialism cannot be resisted by endeavouring
to keep up the old treaties of 1815, irrecoverably
violated is many points, deservedly condemned in
the others, nor by obstinately sustaining Austria.
doomed to perish under the shock of the various
races of which,she is composed ; nor by seeking a
barrier against the Czar in the Turkish empire in
Europe, the eastern Austria, which is also doomed
to perish under the shock of the European Chris-
tian races, which constitute nearly seven-eighths
of its populations. The only way to destroy it is
by isolating it and snatching from it the arms with
which it is preparing to conquer Europe.
These arms are th principle of nationality.
I need not insist upon the power of the principle
—it is sufficiently proved by facts. Agitations,
diplomatic conferences, insurrections, war, all have
originated, in the last quarter of a century, from
'this principle; all point, as a political axiom, to
the inevitable remodelling of the map of Europe.
In the awakening races which constitute the Turk-
ish empire in Europe, and the restless subjects of
Austrian empire, lies the secret of the power of thy
Czarism. The thrill of re-awakening Italy exalted
Louis Napoleon to the Italian war, and soon after
hastened the peace of Villafranca. Without a re-
settlement of Europe, with the natural tendencies
of the peoples, there is no peace, no possibility of
fraternal association.
Louis Napoleon and the Czar intend to avail
nationalities must not, from despair of getting
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