Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1856-03-21
BRITISH FOREIGN POLICY.


most determined, as well as the ablest
advocates of the war in England, in a
series of very clever articles, gives the
following gloomy picture of what Eng
land has accomplished by her foreign
policy in times past. Speaking of the
maxim which Washington left to his coun-
trvmen, "To have no relations with 9TH
er countries except commercial ones,
the writer continues: "Those who preach
this policy, unpalatable as it is to the
pride. the instincts, and the traditions OF
Arittons, have unquestionably strong
vantage-ground from which to urge their
doctrines. They can point to many mon
strous follies, to many costly crimes, to
many disastrous failures, to many success
ses more disastrous still, into which our
foreign interferances have plunged u.s.
what real good (they ask have we ev-
er effected by those perpetual wars and
negotiations which our continental ALI
ances and our desire for European infu-
ence have brought upon US? What have
we gained, save universal hatred, and a
wholly unprecedented debt? What cor
dial friend do we possess in the world ?
What nation can we point to whose free
DOT we have established, or whose hap
piness we have secured? What have
we to show for the blood we have shed
and the treasure we have lavished p
To 90 no further back than 1914, what
have we done that might not better have
been left undone? We imposed upon
France a race of sovereigns whom she
detested and she cannot forgive us for
the humiliation. We sanctioned the reb-
berry of Finland from Sweden, and in
Cured her hatred for so doing; and we
are now speaking of its restoration to
Sweden as one of the probable results OF
the present war. We committed an
rtrocious violation of every principle of
justice in tearing Norway from Denmark
to compensate Sweden-a crime which
no State necessity could justify. We
forcibly united Belgium with Holland
only in order, fifteen years later, to sane,
ton its forcible disruption. We gave
Venice and Lombardy to Austria, ant
thus created a chronic source of revolu
ton and of warfare which can nevel
dease till we have severed the unnatura
connection. We secured the triumph o
the so-called constitutional party in SPAN
and Portugal at the cost of much expen
diture and perpetual embarrassment
and our ungrateful and incompetent pro
teges snub US and despise us. We sc
the first example of the dismembermen
Of the Ottoman empire which we ar
now endeavoring to prop up, by tearin
away the kingdom of Greece-whic
we have had to bully and blush eve
since, and which it seems probabl
> enough, we may now have to suppress
On the other hand, when we might hav
done good by interference-have estaI
lished freedom and prevented wrong
3 as in the case of Italy and Hungary, W
i folded our arms and turned deaf ear t
y almost the only two righteous and IL
tional supphcations that had ever bee
addressed to US. We have done whi
y we ought not to have done, and left III
" done that which we ought to have don
) What we have done in the way of int
ID ference, we have almost invariably he
% TO undo, or to repent of. And when v
4 hive run the full cycle of our follies, al
u redressed all the wrongs we have col
u mitted, by severing Italy from Austr
y and Finland from Russia, and Norw;
Sc from Sweden, we shall be in a positi
III to calculate how much of reputation,
q money, and of lives, the doctrine of
10 olation' would have saved us-how mu
NC better and wiser it would have been ne
IL or to have sinned at all, than to ha
III had to follow up such costly iniquity
III such costly atonement."