Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1859-05-18
Mr.. Q'Iraali ON the War.

We make the following extract from the
speech of Mr. DIraeli. delivered TO his late
constituents. in Bucking hamshre, England:
II know we'll that, if there is to he n war
of nationalities of opinions and of raceS--a
war Of revolution and reconstruction. we
shall weather the storm. Cheers 1t Will
not be England that will suffer 1t is Eu-
rope that will be injured. Europe that will
be desolated, and the very potentatrs whose
pride, and ambition. and lust OF conquest
are bringing about this perilous state OF al
fairs. will find themselves at the end III M
inferior position to that which they now "c-
rupv. Cheers Gentlemen, We hear a
great deal of the balance of power Of the
Importance Of sustaining certain barriers in
Europe, and many other axioms, all Of which
to certain degree are true, and which may
for certain time continue to prevail. But
let me take this opportunity OF impresslng
upon Won that the day il coming II II has
not already come, when the question OF the
balance of power cannot be confined To Flu
rope alone. Since the time when that doc
trine obtained, great communities have risen
in another hemisphere. who will not permit
the balance of power t" hr limited to Europe.
You have on the other side Of the Atlantic
vigorous and powerful communities, who
will n" longer submit to your circnmScrlbed
theory of authority The Australian colo
nie-, though now in their youth, but in the
youth Of giants, have already. rs it were,
thrown their colossal shadow over Europe.
And il is for cid Europe lament that she is
exhaustng her energies and her resources in
4 a IL H.. l.
rather prepare for that awful competition
which in coming times she must encounter
| would rather see France, and Germany,
and Russia, deveOpe their resources improve
their agriculture, increase their population,
and cultivate the arts of life. social and
scientific, instead Of wasting their strength,
risking their stability, and sinking when
the era to which | have referred ar
rives. by their own mismanagement and
want of prescence into an inferior and
exhausted position. Remember always that
England, though she is bound to Europe by
tradition, by affections by great similarity Of
habits, and all those ties which time alone
can create and consecrate, is not mere Pow
er of the Old World. Her geographical posi-
ton. her laws, her language and religion.
connect her ~ much with the New World
rs with the Old. And although she has oc-
cupied not only IN eminent, but, am bold to
say the most eminent position among Euro
pean nations for ages. still, if ever Europe
by her shortsightedness, falls into an inferior
and exhausted state, for England there will
remain an illustrious future. Cheers We
are bound to the communities of the New
World and those great States which our own
planting and colonizing energies have crea-
ted by ties and by interests which will sus-
tain our power and enable us to play rs great
Il part in the times yet to come as We do on
these days, and as we have done in the past
Cheers And. therefore, now that Europe
is on the eve Of war, say it is for Europe,
not for England, that my heart sinks. And
this hope that it will be by the influence
Of England that the unhappy strugg lie which
has Just opened may be one of short Duration
that it may be limited in its range and local
in its character: and that after some brlet en-
counters of arms. both France and Austria
may feel that it would be well, by the intlu-
ence of those who have not been seduced by
their political passions, to terminate the strife
and secure ut the same time the better gov
eminent of tia y and the peace of the world.
(Cheers")