The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-09-10
sRxRxx or EHn PRESS.
Editorial Opinions Of the Leading Journals
upon Current Topios-c Compiled Every
Day for the Evening Telegraph
THE POSITION OF ENGLAND.

THE POSITION OF ENGLAND.
From the N. Y Times.
There is something ominous in the criti-
cisms which are heaped upon Queen Victoria
10y the recognized exponents of moneyed
and mercantile opinion in England. Attacks
upon royalty are not new, and, in the quarter
from which they have almost invariably pro-
ceeded, not specially significant; but when
the organs Of capital echo complaints against
the Queen and pass severe judgments upon
the attitude of the monarchy under the in1u-
ence of shock which shakes Europe to its
centre, we may conclude that the public feel
ing on the subject is neither slight nor
evanescent in its character. The war has
everywhere brought discomfort to the surface
The possibilities of the Crimean war led the
late husband of the Queen to declare that
representative government was on its trial.
Now, the probabilities of the Franco-Prus-
sian struggle compel English responsibility
to arraign the apathy of the Queen as dis
grace to herself and q source of weakness to
the country
The heart of England is given over to what
is called neutrality, which, practically in
terpreted, means the systematic proiting by
the calamities of others. While the ocean
outlets of Germany are closed by French
fleets, and Germany in turn is tearing the
throat of France, England proposes to make
money at the cost of both. She tried it once
before, when the American Union was battling
for its life, but the experiment on that occa-
sion was not remunerative. England made
enemies of North and South, and ran up an
account which she would be very unwilling to
settle. Despite that experience, she has PLAYED
the same game now, and, according to pre-
sent appearances, with prospect of a similar
result. One power sees in Englands cold.
calculating spirit a sorry return for the fidelity
with which French statesmen have cultivated
an English alliance The other resents as a
wrong, to be hereafter redressed, version of
international law which renders neutrality
cloak for sinister and unfriendly transactions.
England will probably for the second time
discover that her theory of neutrality ''does
not pay"
The prospect of reckoning of the most
unpleasant kind is net the only consideration
which renders England uneasy. She is NOR
tilted and humbled by a consciousness that
her influence in the councils of Europe is on
the wane. The avoidance of the RESPONSE
bility which attaches to power has been con-
strued as sign of want of spirit; the eager
ness to assume an attitude of seeming fair
ness to the belligerents has been rewarded
with contempt. The conviction spreads
that the England of to-day is not the Eng
land of other days. In its worship of
mercantile interests, it has sacrificed
ness. Its business ledger has absorbed its
attention until the grand idea of national
obligations has been lost. The sneer of the
First Napoleon has become fact. The
England which once played proud part in
European affairs has sunk into "a nation of
shopkeepers." The policy of the Govern
ment is characterized most of all by timidity
it is policy in which fear never ceases to
be apparent. And the sovereign who might
L. b. oh. 1.A.1 r a.
national responsibility thinks more of her
German relatives than of the English people,
and hurries off to Scottish moor with
disregard of impending danger which scarcely
comports with sanity. Governments based
on principles dictated by ''shopkeepers' have
at last brought England to pitch of degra-
dation she has never touched before.
We state the case as it looks at this dis
tance. and as it appears both in Germany
and France. The Hamburg BorSenhaHe
alludes to ''that social decomposition which
now threatens the social existence of
England as something which Germans have
been slow to acknowledge; but the course of
the English Government during the last
two months has made further skepticism i'm
possible. What others see, England begins
to feel. And the feeling manifests itself in
the first instance by complaints against the
Queen and attacks upon the Government.
cal moment are tauntingly represented as
having succeeded in restraining Greece
from hurting her vast energies into the con-
test" That seems to be the measure of
Epgland's diplomatic influence. A hint that
it contemplates an attempt at mediation
elicits from Germany a defiance which
frightens Mr. Gladstone and his colleagues
out of their wits. There is now no Pitt, no
Palmerston even, to suggest a policy. Mr..
Gladstone's soul shakes within him, and his
knees tremble. Prussia might swallow
France, for aught that England dare say or
do to prevent it. At the same time, England
has not made friend of Prussia. In fact,
she is without friend in the world.
The English people are complaining of the
humiliation their rulers have invited While
the Government stands with folded arms, and
the Queen slumbers in the seclusion of Bal
moral, the people begin to realize the dan
gers which the spoliation and subjugation of
France may entail upon themselves The tide
of popular sympathy is turning. For time
it flowed towards Prussia. Now it ebbs in
the direction of France. The meeting at
Newcastle-on-Tyne, is but one of many
tokens of the change. The sympathy is
partly with republic for its own sake.
When will republic be declared in England?
She will never be great again until that new
era arrives