Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1856-02-01
y. = From the Economist.
FNGLAND's DANGER & DIsCREDrT.


or heavy curse to England according
as we may negled Or use the occasion
and the warning it has given. 1t is a
critical moment il our fortunes and our
history: it may b. the commencement of
our decline, or the event from which to
date our rescue ald our rise. 1t may
open our eyes, orit may seal our fate
If we read its Lessons and profit by its
opportunity-and he lessons are as plain
as the opportunity is golden-our chill
dren and our child-en's children viii be
eternally grateful to the shock which has
reused us from our sef-complacent leth~
argy before faults and tllies had CONCEAL
ed into incurable habits, before rust had
irrevocably clogged all the wheels of the
machine, before the sagacity to perceive,
the manliness to ayow, and the energy to
rectify our blunders hal entirely died out
from the heart of the nation. If our
failures, shortcomings, and notifications
shall stir US as they would have stirred
our forefathers shall scatter to the winds
our besotted vanity and our long-sutfer-
ing patience; shall teach US to see our
peril without exaggeration and without
J;ecr,,;eo, ebc1l oxro1-o,, Io+I, +ba r,o17arY,
ment and the people rudely enough to in
duce them to apply the needed remedies,
however severe those remedies may be,
and to break through hampering and par
alyzing etiquette, though that etiquette
may be the most rigid, ancient, and con-
secrated folly of the land ;-then the day
Of our danger may be the day of our re-
demption and our security as well.
But if we wrap ourselves in the blind
ness of a fatuous pride; if we slumber on
in reliance on our insulr position, on ou1
ancient fame, or our unquestionable ener-
gy, or our vast resources if we refuse tc
draw the obvious differences from our sad
calaniilies, our humiliating rebufs, and
our clumsy victories, and leave those in
ferences to be drawn by engious rivals
and exulting foes; if we alone, of al
Europe, are not enlightened by the facts
which we ourselves furnish; if we are
not yet sufficiently alarmed and startled
to declare that such things must go on nc
longer; if we still are content to blunde,
and stagger on as we have done, so long
as we stumble on something like success
at last,-permitting our generals to win
victories by lavish bloodshed instead Of
by skiful strategy, and our statesmen to
gain their ends by enormous expenditure
instead of by wise foresight and consci-
entious appointments then assuredly
we shall have cause to rue the day when
by entering the lists with Russia we un-
yelled our weak points to Europe, while
refusing to see them OR to remedy them
ourselves.
This may sound like exaggerated Ian
guage to those who dwell in the fools
paradise which islanders, living on patri-
monial property and patrimonial fame, SO
easily make for themselves, but it will be
deemed such by no one who is aware of
the way in which at this hour England is
spoken Of throughout the Continent
travelling abroad or keeping up foreign
correspondence, is no pleasant occupation
for EngEshmen now. Partly from facts
which can neither be contradicted nor
concealed, partly from the somewhat ex-
traVagant manner in which those facts
have been blazoned, colored, and added
to by our relentless Press, the impression
has spread wide through Europe that the
events of this war have exposed the
weakness and decline of our country 5
and this impression has difused through
nearly all lands an ominous and malg-
nant joy. 1t is not long since we our
selves conversed with two of the most
eminent public men in France,-the one
vehement partisan, the other consum-
mate statesman. Both considered it as
settled that our strength and glory had
departed, that our institutions were SO
rusty and our government so systematic
ally bad as to render our wealth, our eour.
age, and our stubborn vigor of no avail
but one gloated over the picture with
vulgar exultation, while the other deplor-
ed it as a grievous blow to the hopes Of
freedom and civilization. Caricatures
and conundrums, not of French origin,
swarmed in the private circles of Paris,
representing our supposed incapacity in
every variety of ingenious device. We
have now lying before us, too, a letter
from continental politician, not a French.
man nor specially attached to France, in
which he says: 81 think this war will be
little profitable to the power of your
country. France has gained, and will
gain immensely, by it. God forbid that
it should turn to the prejudice of Eng.