The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1860-08-14

National Morality.
We suppose there ts such thing, Al any rate
there ought to he, as national morality. The
princtples Of truth, right and justice are as
binding upon nations as individuals. Accord
Ing to both Revelation and Reason, nations
are Justly held responsible for their actions TO
God and to the public opinion and moral sense
ei mankind. Treaehery, oppression. false
hood, rapine, plumber and injustice do not lose
sheir moral quality when performed by ma
zion collectively, any more Than when perpe-
trsted by the men who compose 1t. individ-
ually. In the great Book OF Divine records
The crime. of governments AZ well AS OF iuu.
y,auals are set down and however men may
dtsnute about the punishmsntof the ia''er 1"
,h,s world all history proves that, sooner or
t.tsr ,ns former meet with their reward. Inc
n.rth ts strewn with the ruins OF empires
whose srsres.iveness and rapacity deprived
Wa. ker nations OF all security and peace, but
who are now themselves weaker and more
contemplate aud degraded than those whom
they once piundered and despoiied.
But these admonitory facts speak to deaf
ears aud appeal TO blind eyes when they are
addressed TO empires in the flush and fullness
OF visor and power. 1t is often in vain that
youth, in its excess of ardor and vitality, Is
pointed to the effects of unbridled passions
aud appetiies In the wrecks which dissipation,
iutemperance and other species OF vice have
strewn around it on every side. And equally
difficult i. il to make n prosperous and power
fal government believe that II will be held ac-
countable a, the tribunal of Heaven for its
crimes, and that, as other empires, equally po-
tent and equally incredulous with itself OF the
responsibility of nations to a higher power,
have passed away and become the jest and
scorn of the world, so 1t, In It's turn, Will nave
TO come down from position II has abused,
and become so poor and ab)eot that none Will
90 II reverence.
The prophet who would have predicted
futnre Judgment 10 Rome in the fullness Of
her pride and arrogance, or 10 Spain In the
helgat of her opulence and grandeur, would
moi have been more hooted at and treated as a
Inadmau than one who should now predict
the same degradation for Great Britain, If she
persists in her career of hn3ns tice, spoliation
and crime towards the other nations Of the
earth Individually and personally, her peo-
Die are as Just honorable and manly as any
other people, and nominally, her government
is Chris tan government But In the FOL elgn
policy OF that government there is not only no
vestIge OF Christian principle, but even the
ordinary rules Of morality and humanity are
as completely ignored as they ever were by
Pagan Rome in the meridian of her ferocious
power AT the shrine of that Moloch, Com
merce, every chivalric impulse-to which no
men are more sensitive than that heightened
par, of her population, her gallant nobility
and every law of right and justice are ruth
lessly sacrificed. See what this Christian na-
tion is doing at This moment III various parts
OF The world.
In India, after careful discussion in Parlia-
ment, she deliberately decided that the hun
dred aud fifty millions of heather subjects
shall never be converted through her influence
TO The Christian religion, and that she will not
alter the policy under which Sepoy soldier
who becomes a Christian loses his chances of
military promotion. In Syria, she stands
listlessly by, and haw. and hens, and SIAM
mers, whilst the Druses are Strengthening
Christian men, women and children, by tie
ten thousand, nor does she bulge an inch 10
the rescue, till France takes the lead and till
the Indignant spirit of Russia threatens. unless
some action is taken by the Western Powers,
to oyereap all bounds, aud sweep every Druse
and Turk il common aud deserN ed des II uc-
ton. In Africa. she has large squadron
hypocriIcaiIy guarding the coast against
traffic OF which she was the principal lnstlga-
tor and agent till il became Improbable, whilst
IN China her market ships are openly stealing
and carrying away cargoes of white men. as
civilized and Intelligent as the same class
among her own subjects, TO a bondage so
terrible that the unhappy victims CON-
nit suicide by hundreds 10 escape the
sgony and despair Of their condition.
Inc mention OF China suggests history OF
wrongs and injustice which are enough OF
themselves to bring down upon their perpe-
traitors the avenging bolts OF Divine JUS uce.-
Was there ever more lniquitous war upon
the face OF the earth than the Opium war of
le4V, war TO force upon vast community
against the DEGREES OF It's government, and in
Tie teeth of every principle OF common moral
iIy and Christian charity, an accursed drug
that every year was destroying multitudes
BODY and soull But what was all this to
BRUSH commerce Itsucceeded in that war
IL forced the Chinese Government to throw
wide opeu the gates of death and hell 10 It's
vretched subjects, and TO pay for the expenses
o. the war AMI the ransom of the city of Can
ton, seven millions OF pounds sterling. But II
did hot succeed in reGonciling the Chinese
mind 10 a Country which could inf1ict such an
injury, and 1t lett behind a ranking hatred
and thirst tor revenge which has at last found
vent IN the conflict just begun, and for the
expenses OF viii CHI the English have Just been
called upon TO pay the first instaiment, in the
handsome sum of f3, 000,0OO or Sl9,OoO,OU0.
We do not pretend that the government OF
England is at all more selfish and unprinci-
pied than other governments, and we believe
that her educated classes are among the no.
biest specimens Of humanity in the world -
Bat, as a nation, she is as arrogant, domineer-
ing and Is passionately fond Of power a.
Rome in hsr palmiest days. She differs, too.
In this from other nations, that she is Excess
sively Humanitarian in her professions and
se.s herself up as an example to the rest of the
world OF morality, justice and benevolence
With this deluslon she may blind her own
eyes, whilst her commercial and maritime
prosperity may blind the world, in whose
eyes success is the only test of merit. But,
unless there be such thing national mo-
rality; unless the Almighty winks at those
crimes IN nations which he Furnishes with I'M
failing uniformity and severity in individuals,
ths day will yet come when that people, nto
whose hands He has given the heather for a
Possession will give them in the hands Of the
heather, and they that hated them will rule
over them.
The Prince of Wales.
AT St. Johns, New Brunswick, the people
embarrassed the horses from the carriage of |
the Prince Of Wales and drew him ,hronoh