Southern sentinel. [volume] (Plaquemine, Parish of Iberville [La.]) 1848-1858, 1856-04-12
ENGLAND FORTY YEARS AGO AND
ENGLAND TO-DAY.
Feom the Dublin Tablet.

Kingdoms and empires, and thus it will be with
future ones, which God in His providence will
allow to rise and flourish for a time. Egypt,
Assyria, Babylon, Greece, Rome, and Com
stantinople had each its day of glory and great
ness; but if they had their day of health and
vigour, they had also their day of old age, de-
cay, and death. England, too, has had her day,
a long day indeed-of conquest and rapine-
an uninterrupted day of sunshin and glory-a
day unexampled in the history of natious.-
Every day, however, has its evening, and we
believe that, reading history with the torch of
faith-believing as we do in the Just retribution
of Providence--contrasting the past with the
present--England's evening is fast approach
ing; her day of inirmity and old age is not far
away. To Englishmen, pulled up as they are
with pride and arro~gance--habituated as they
are to centuries of sunshine--unacquainted as
they are with defeat and NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
as they are to scotland ridicule every thing and
person not English--to EngIishmen, forgetful
that the sins of tie parent are visited on the
children and that the more multiplied the crime
the greater the retribution, such an idea would
seem absurd and ridiculous; but we believe
that this overWeening confidence in themselves,
this characteristic contempt of everything for
eign--:his haughtiness and i~nsolence that marks
their footsteps in every land, will, in the end,
ALLEVIATE, and perhaps combine every nation for
their humiliation.
Forty years ago England was the first en-
pire in the world by land and by sea--her army
was invincible--her feet secured the OCEAN
her generals and admirals were of the first Or
der; forty years ago England was the scourge
and terror of any nation which dared TO cross
her path. In the days of blood and desolation
England was the only nation that could ~effectu-
ally cope with old Bonaparte. She logged
him and thwarted him wherever he turned; she
drove his abiest and most experienced generals
out of Spain; she finally crushed him at Waters
loo, and gave the conqueror of Europe an ISL
and-prison of humiliation and death. Perhaps
the three brightest hours in the military history
of England were, first, the meeting of Butcher
and Wellington after the battle of WATERLOO
The Emperor was then in hopeless ffight--the
victor was vanquished--the conqueror subdued,
the cry of "Viye ltEmpereur," that so often led
the French to glory, was hushed amidst the
cheers of the British, the shrieks ofthe wounded,
the groans of the dying, and the rout of the
French; the "Old Guard" so accustomed to
victory, so triumphant in every battlefield, was
melting before the chivalry of England and
Prussia. This was, indeed, a sunny hour for
England. She was then at the pinnacle of her
military greatness and pride; her old foe,
France, was humbled mt her feet, and a long
career Of glory and power shore in the vista
before her. England. however, had another
hour equally bright, aud that was when We'll
lington led his victorious legions into the city
ofParis. We can form some idea of the ehagrin
Of the Parisians when they 6theld the "hcro of
a nundredsights" marching through their CAPT
tal--the veterans Of Salamanca, Viitoria, Torres
XTalu,, D.I,t, -..l NN.{nrto1 IL, II H.
that never wavered"--the men who drove the
French before them ~in.every field, and before
whom even the "Old. Guard" reeIed. 1t was
a proud hour for England when Russia, Prus-
STA, Austria, France, the REPRESENTATIVES of
every nation, beheld the "Iron Duke and his
vel eran army. There was another hour, equally
bright and equally important, and that was the
entry of Castlereagh into the conference of
Vienna, when the news of Waterloo had reacll>
ed that European congress. "Eogland's am
bassador," said the Uniuers last week, "then
filed a high and enyiabIe position--alI listened
with attention to his words, because all knew
that the sword of Wellington hung behind
him." These were, indeed, palmy days for
EngIand--such days as perhaps she may never
see again. England forty years ago was the
first empire in the world by land and by sea.
Turn we now to a different scene; let the
curtain Of time hang over the pat. "The
friends of to-day may be foes of Tomorrow
We saw a coalition against France, in which
England held a conspicuous place; we see now
a coalition against Russia, with the nephew of
England's prisoner foremost in the conflict
We have witnessed a gigantic struggle for the
last two years, and we hear that another con-
ference is to take place, not, indeed, in Vienna,
but under the eye of a Bonaparte. England
to-day and Englsnd forty years ago are two
different Englands. She has now no Vittorias,
no Salamaneas, no Trafalgar, no Nile, no Wa
terloo to point at. Her laurels are faded, her
glory is gone, her prestige is vanished, her
military history for the last two years was one
uninterrupted, one nnexampled failure. She
was saved at the Alma by the celebrity and
bravery of the French; she would have been
annihilated at Inkermann only for the timely
aid of the same ally; she lost her cavalry at
Balaklaya by the blunders of somebody; she
lost the finest army that ever went from her
shores by the neglect and Encouragement, too,
of somebody's; and she lost the Redan, and
with it her prestige and character, by her suici-
dial policy to Ireland. We often spoke in
words of warning against the determination of
Ireland; we often foretoId that England would
yet need the strong arms, the hardy frames, the
chivalrous bravery of the Irish peasant; we of
ten said that England would rue the day she
allowed q handful Of landlords TO decimate .
nation Of soldiers. The hour Of retribution,
the day of vengeance, has come on her when
she least expected it. England needed not our
warnings; she was drunk with joy at the star
walton and exodus of our people. Like Baltha~
sar of old, she needed not the fingers on the
wall; she saw but one thing, the Church of
Christ, in Ireland, and she has spared no pains
to root out that hated creed, to level our home.
steads, and scatter our faithful race. However,
England, in her hatred Of the Church, over
reached, the marks Like Samson, when shone
of his hair, in losing the Irish peasant she has
lost her bulwark and her strength.
While other nations are anxions for paaee.