Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1878-10-26

eautfonary measures / should call them I
pulses which have brought us into the {
present complications and troubles viii
almost certainly lead us 20 still more deei- !
sive movements unless very speedily check !
ed by the people of England.
Yours faithfully, LAWRENCE.
All these are weighty considera-
tons, but in the face of all of them
we do not see that the British Gov
can afford to act upon them
as Lord Lawrence advises. What
ever might be the expediency of
despatching an envoy at first to
the intrigues of Russia in
the Ameer's court, the peremptory
Introduction of his approach to Ca
bull cannot be submitted TO with
safety. The empire of the British
in India is eminently one of pres
tige; a few thousand whites main
tanning a political predominance
which is sustained by few British
regiments, together with an army
of native troops which is counted
by hundreds of thousands-this is
a state of things which needs to be
sustained by an unbroken tradition
of irresistible power. Once let that
tradition be interrupted, once let the
power be successfully resisted, and
the spell is broken, its magic dissi-
pated. The allegiance of thousand
tribes would be fatally shaken by the
successful resistance of one. The Brit |
ish rule in India is like what we |
have all seen in menageries, where
. man undertakes to enter the den |
of tiger and control the brute with |
no more efficient weapon than a
horse-whip. The experiment is a
safe one just so long as the tiger
knows not his own strength or the
weakness of his master; let him
discover it in one savage impulse
of rage, and the death of his master
is instantaneous. So in India pass
ing over the insult offered by the
Ameer would be looked upon by all
the tribes between the Himalayas
and the Indian Ocean as a confession
of weakness on the part of the Brit
ish Government, and the continued
subsection of the HindOO tribes
would be impossible for a hundred
fold the white force which now
dominates among them. England,
then, as we look at it, cannot re-
main quiescent in the matter, and
! yet there are dangers in action as
menacing as those of inactiOn.
1t has for some time been the con-
viction of all English politicians
that the British Empire is as large
at present as the British Govern
ment can conveniently handle, and
her recent acquisitions have been
accepted not as triumphs SO much
as untoward events forced upon her
by the exigencieS of her frontiers
and yet those exigencies have been
| incessant; every war with confer
minous tribes has ended with annex
alton as the only solution of the
complications arising from her vic
tories. This, indeed, is an exigency
of all great empires to hold what
they have it is continuously neces-
sary to acquire more, and the one
consideration which limits the du
ration of all empires is that a time
comes when the central power is
not strong enough to WELD the
whole and yet cannot recede with
out endangering the whole. From
the time of Trajan the Roman EN-
pire ceased to extend itself, and few
years after his death began even to
contract its limits. AS soon as the
IegiOns were withdrawn from Brit
ain the Gaul assumed the offensive
in Italy; as soon as they receded
from the Rhine they had to meet
the Germans on the Pc and, not
long afterwards, on the Tiber. So
when Napoleon received his first
check in Russia, he whose troops
had overrun all Europe, soon found
himself waging a defensive war
within the original frontiers of
| France.
Now the British Empire seems to
have attained that stage correspond
ing to The the reign of Trajan, at
which her statesmen are instinct
lively occupied in making her from
tiers stationary, if possible. She
has already yielded to Canada and
Australia autonOmic powers Estate
rights, as we should call them,)
which render those countries
friendly allies rather than subject
colonies. Her acquisition CT terri
tory in South Africa was most I'M
willingly made, and only consented
to as a means of protecting her
diamond fields from the incursiOns
of savages, while nothing would
have rendered acceptable the Occu-
patton of Cyprus and the protectO-
rate of Asia Minor except the dread
of Russian intervention between
her and her colonies in Asia.
The problem is now before her
whether she can maintain her from
tier where it is without either adj
vancing or withdrawing it, and fate
seems adverse to her doing so. Lord
Lawrence in the above letter evil
IDENTIFY thinks that she has the al
tentative of either submitting to her
affrOnt or waging war, the only
successful termination which would
issue in the acquisition of territory
from the Amer. The former of
these alternatives would shake her
Indian Empire to its foundations,
the latter would increase its present
difficulties and complications, and
moreover would bring it into col
lisiOn with the Russian Empire,
that same rock from which the adj
vancing tide of NapoleOnic conquest
recoiled, and then commenced its
ebb and reflux, which never ended
! l., Il E.,AI r.wn