The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-06-14

that the principles and proclivities manifested by
Lord DERBY administration, in the present crisis,
are entirely consistent with the uniform and ira
ditional policy of the British Government. One
must have read history strangely or not at all, to
be under the deluson that Great Britain has ever,
as a nation, thrown the weight of her arms into
the scale of liberal principles on the continent or
elsewhere except in cases where her national exist
ence or influence, or the preservation of the bal
ance of European power, for her own sake, has
seemed to her rulers to demand her interposition
For the great principles of human freedom and
self-government, in themselves it is perfectly idle
to say that she has ever made q stand, any where
but on her own soil, or in her own behalf. So far
as her example could enlighten or illustrate the
blessings of regulated liberty, she has let it shine
upon the world. So far as her literature and her
press and the discussions of her legislative bodies
could fashion and direct mems thoughts and ac-
tons, she has fulfilled most nobly, the loftiest
mission of great people. But all this has only
been the radiation of great light and heat, which
have had their exclusive focus in herself 1t has
been as at some splendid festival where the pass
ers-by have seen the light streaming from the win
dows, and have caught the echoes of the music,
and been charmed by the perfume from the inner
air,-not because their entertainment was any al
loted purpose of the revel but because the jewellers
themselves could not keep their own ioy within
doors.
We do not mean, by these observations, to dis
parage the British Government. We are not sure,
that in the MAN, free and wise people do not serve
the world better by the perpetual and quiet example
of their own freedom and prosperity than by all the
generous occasional crusades which they can arm
against arbitrary power elsewhere We are in
cned to think that under ordinary circumstances,
nations, like individuals, apt to establish the
largest and best influence that can belong to them
by being careful to NEEDLE but rarely with any af-
fairs except their own. But when they do pursue
this exclusive policy-a policy, wisely and virtu-
ously selfish, it may be, yet selfish, nevertheless
we do not think that it altogether becomes them,
to take romantic airs upon themselves or to affect
to try the policy of their neghbors by an unseish
and sentimental standard. We do not think that
it is altogether graceful or consistent for example
In the English press or people, to set up England
as the champion of oppressed nationaties-wh
she has, really, never championed any, except for
the purpose of fighting her own battles at a con-
venient distance from her own SOIL They can
hardly expect any one who remembers 1915 and
the Congress Of Vienna, to regard Great Britain as
the sincere and honest advocate of Italian nation
atty or freedom. There have been too many books
written, for the world to be ignorant of the fact
that England substantially and practically
part and parcel of that Alliances pleasantly
called Holy-which under the pretence of re-
sisance to the first NAPOLEON as ssthe COM
''mon enemy of mankind" delivered up to the
confederated despots, as their SPOIL the noblestand
most heroic of the minor nations and planted the
brutal heel of Austria upon the fair provinces of
Italy, which, till now, she has continued to OBJ
press and degrade. 1t has been under the eve and
without the hindrance or effe.tive protest of Great
Britain, that the despotsm of the House of Haps-
burgh, extending nominally over Lombardy alone,
has spread its actual domination to the far confines
of Calabria and Sicily TO the utter extinguishment
of free speech and thought and life Many men are
yet alive, who remember the feelings ofmorfcation
and disgust, which shocked the moral sense of the
world, when CANNING's declaration of neutrality, in
1929 handed over the constitutional revolutionists
in Spain to the tender mercies of the Congress of
Verona, and opened the Pyrenees to the invading
columns of Bourbon army. No literature has
teemed, like that of England, with abuse and de-
probation of Spain, her people and her insttu-
tons. No press has sneered more bitterly or con-
stanty than hers, at the submissive torpor with
which Spain has seemed to bear oppresson-none
has ridicued, more mercilessly, the frequent and
at times, abortve efforts of her people, to rise to
the level of the age, in government and civiliza-
ton. But those who read, as well as those who
remember, have the fact always before Them that
the invasion of the Due D. ANGoULEME-which re-
established FERDINAND VII. upon his throne, in alb
solute power, crushingout the hopes of freedom,
till his death-was shamelessly connived at and
countenanced by free England, with an exclusive
and selfish view to the maintenance of her own
influence and the enforcement and perpetuation of
her own interests and policy. In all those cases it
was her policy to let freedom take care of itself
and she did SO. Had her policy required it, she
would have taken care of freedom Whether she
sides with the revolutionists, or with those who
Cypress them is a question of policy only, with
her government, whatever may be its temporary
political tendencies or whatever may be- for the
moment the generous impulses of her people, To
maintain her own rank as 6rst-rate power, by
keeping the balance of the continental nations so
even that her weight, at any time will turn it, is
the sum and substance of the doctrine which |
governs her foreign system and relations.
With the line of public conduct, thus defined,
on the part of England, through all her modern
history, there is great fault to be found we sup
at nations as they are, and have
been and appear likely to be. 1t is not very lofty
or high-toned system, or indeed very scrupulous-
but STILL it is wise and practical and has won great
stakes for her. But if she abides by it, her people
ought to acknowledge it. If her policy is a |
selfish one she has right to be quarrelling with
the selfshness of other governments or rulers She
ought not to set up for saint, when she is taking
the profits of being sinner If she regards LOUIS
NAPOLEON as growing too powerful, and the Italian
war as likely to disturb the European equipoise,
let her state the fact and avow the principle. Let
her press take that ground and her people stand to
it. Let them give up their dsingenuous assaults
upon the French Emperor, because he is "des-
"pot'-knowing, as they do that their real COM
plant against him is only as a rival. When Mr.
TENNYsoN, of late, said to his eountrymen-
"Be not deaf to the sound that warns
Be not guild by a despot's plea
Arefgs Of thistles grapes of thorns2
How should despot set men free?
we presume he had forgotten that the "despot, in
question was the chosen and faithful, and efficient
ally of England but three years ago. in what she
called war of freedom and civilization. Was he
less "a despot' then than he is now? Have his
s.thistles' or his 'thorns" changed the fruit
which they bore in the Crimea Were the Kings
and Emperors, with whom CAsTLEREAGH consorted
at Vienna, in 1915, of a more harmless class of
desnots than he? Is FRANCIS JOSEPH peradven-
tnre a more genial cultivator of the Gigs and
sgrapes,,' that suit the British palate? II not
WHY had the Laureate no place for him, in the very
indifferent ode from which we have quoted? Why
place the despotic ar5oreum just across the Cham
nell Such things, it seems to us, are altogether
unworthy of a great and brave people They are
not manly, nor are they honest, and the rest OF
the world is not deceived by them. Should col
lision occur between France and England--which
Heaven forbid lit will forever be of record, that
WINE LOUIS NAPOLEON has been faithful, frank and
ioyai m ms conduct as an ally, the British press
and public have never ceased to traduce his mo-
u'ss' r'di0uls his person, question his integrity