The Portland daily press., 1878-02-01
England and War.

Austria is naturally dstrustful of England,
and declines to commit herself to an offensive
movement from which the English ministry
may be forced at any time to withdraw. Her
caution is wise and amply justified by ex-
perience. She remembers how England en-
couraged Italian conspirators for many years,
and then when the war of Italian liberation
came in 1853 turned from Italy and gave her
sympathies to the Austrian oppressors and to
the Bourbon tyrants of Naples. She remem-
bers too how England deluded Denmark
with professions of sympathy and assurances
of support until the little kingdom rashly
went to war with Germany, and then how
England stood back and refused to lift a
finger to arrest the work of spoliation. Nor
has she forgotten the manifestations of popu-
lar feeling in England in favor OF the Cfetans,
and how for all that England did nothing
while the Turk went on with his massacres.
So Austria is not disposed to place the most
implicit confidence in English promises of
support.
Yet England's seeming inconsistency
should not be attributed to fckleness nor to
bad faith. The reproach she has brought
upon herself is one of the penalties which
attach to free government. The policy which
her ministers adopt may prove unacceptable
to the people and so must be abandoned,
much to the wrath and disappointment of
foreign powers that believed it would be
carried out. Or an influential section of the
press representing a powerful party may
assert with great warmth and confidence,
after the manner of newspapers in countries
where government by discussion prevails,
that England will interfere in some conti-
mental quarrel; and those unused to free dis
cussion are frightened or encouraged by the
great noise and readily believe interference is
to come. But majority of the people may
hold other views or may not choose to go to
war, aud The noise passes for nothing. Then
too every movement of the Government is
known and causes or allays apprehension.
In countries where the king or chancellor or
cabinet absolutely rules the steps by which
the countries are led up to war are unknown.
Germany, for example, quietly gets ready for
war, and then strikes. But in England the
whole machinery is exposed and everybody
sees the wheels go round. Other Europeans,
unused to this sort of thing, judge by great
popular meetings and the menacing tone of
influential newspapers, or angry debates in
Parliament or Cabinet explanations that
England is going to war, or by demonstrations
on the other hand that she will keep the
peace. Then if they are disappointed they
charge their mistake to English fckleness
or treachery.
Russia was mistaken this way in 1854, and
Judging by the peace meetings and the peace
journals, thought England would not fight.
will be if she reckons without the English
premier. Beaconsfeld is man of lively i'm
agination and towering ambition. He sees
an opportunity TO connect his name with one
of the greatest wars in European history.
Perhaps he aspires to rival the fame of Pitt.
If he can get strong vote of confidence he
will not hesitate to go into the conflict. With
Austria as ally and with Germany neutral he
could press Russia hard. Such conflict is
not impossible. Germany may think it best
to stand by until the combatants exhaust
themselves, and then to step in and seize the
spoil. If that be her mind war is among
the probabilities. The war feeling is growing
in England every hour, and an impatient
move or an angry word from Russia may
render it irresistible and give the English
premier the opportunity for which he seeks.