The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-08-03
THzE EMPIRE OF THE ORIENT.
LDrtl HseaCOnsfield's Foreign Policy Fore
sshadOwed i'm "FanCren."
fLODdOn spectatorI


There is q story going about, founded, we
believe, on good authority that when some
one quoted "Tancred,' two or three months
ago, in Lord Beaconstield's presence the
prime minister remarked: "Ahl I perceive
you have been reading Tancred That s @
work to which [ refer more and more every
year-not for amusement, but for instruc-
ton And Ii any one will take the trouble
just now to refresh his memory of "Tancred, -
he will see how much Lord BeaConsfield has
borrowed from it in relation to the policy OF
the day. Turn, for instance, to this passage
"sIf were an Arab in race as well as in re-
ligiOE, said Tancred, I would not pass my
life in schemes to govern mere mountain
tribes I'll tell you,' said the enr, spring
ing from his divans and flinging the tube of
his narghile to the other side Of the tent, the
game is In our hands, If we have energy
There is q combination which would entirely
change the whole face OF the world and bring
back empire to the East Though you are
not the brother Of the Queen Of the English,
you are nevertheless great English prince,
and the Queen will listen to what you say,
especially If you talk to her as you talk to me,
and say such fine things in such beautiful
voice. Nobody ever opened my mind like
you. You will magnetic the Queen as you
and arrange this. You see, gloze it over as
they may, one thing Is elear-it is finished
Of the English collect great fleet; LET her
SbOW AWAY dill HSL GLSbStIe, DuluOu
gold plate; and precious arms; be
chief people, and transfer the seat Of her en-
pire from London to Delhi. There she will
find an immense empire ready made, first
rate army, and q large revenue. In the mean
time, I will arrange with Mehemet Ali He
shall have Bagdad and Mesopotamia, and
pour the BedOun cavalry into Persia / will
take care OF Syria and Asia Minor. The only
way to manage the Affghans is by Persia and
L,1,t ba A he No xr,;iI
press OF India as our suzerain, and secure for
her the Levantine coast. II she like, she
shall have Alexandria, as she now has NAL
ia. It could be arranged. Your Queen is
young. She has al orenir. Aberdeen and
Sir Peel will never give her this advice; their
habits are formed. They are too old, too
rMses. But you seei the greatest empire that
ever existed; besides which, she gets rid Of
the embarrassment Of her chambers. And
quite practicable; for the only difficult part,
ander, is all done.'"
Who can avoid seeing that Lord Beacons-
field has been quite recently referring to this
passage-"not,' as he said, ''for amusement,
OF his recent policy in germ, especially the
treatment Of the British Empire as having its
true centre Of gravity in the far east, the use
Of the Indian army for conquests to be made
in Western Asia, the acquisition Of the Levan~
tine coast for Great Britain, the active alliance
medan power-and last, not least, the getting
rid, to 6, great extent, at least, by the help Of
Indian leverage, of ''the embarrassment of
the chambers" For the last eight months, at
least, our policy has evidently been borrowed
from *Tancred." The monarch, for any
thing We know, has been 'tmagnetized."
The Cabinet assuredly has been mag
netized. Lord Derby and Lord Carnarvon
have been treated much as the enr In ''Tan-
cred'' would have treated aberdeen and Sir
Peel''-thrown aside as too "ruses." An ORR
entail policy has been inaugurated. The pos
session Of India has been made the origin Of
a new start In British history. From first to
last, Parliament has been completely ignored,
and the future determined for as without
even sounding it's Wishes. much less asking
it's will. How this marvellous vision has been
translated from the dream of the widest of
rhodomontade and romance writer's into the
accepted policy Of the solidest and most prac-
tical-minded Of all European States is O. ques
ton, to our minds, rather for the philosophy
Of magicians to determine than for any strict
ly political explanation.