Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-08-12

% the Editor of TEE EVENING STAB
Under the above heading there appeared in a
late issue of your interesting paper an article
intimating that England is generally single
handed in her wars, and therefore will succeed
In her latest step In Egypt; and, by implication,
that we should admire her exceedingly
While there Is no question about England's
material resources and enormous naval strength,
people may De pardoned II they do not agree
that she Is almost always unsupported or If
they believe that she is not invariably success
fui; while there Is good ground for thinking
that her meddlesOmeness-inyariab when she
0ares-sO lar from being truly glorious, has
been almost without exception induced by self
ishness. greed and the worship of trade; and
that her acts often go far to disprove the exist
ence OF what has been absurdiy called English
fair play
Your correspondent has given a number of in
stances in which England has, he evidently
thinks, sngle-handed. covered herself with
glory We propose, by your leave. TO comment
on his instances and to suggest some others.
Commencing with the beginning of this CEN
tpry. he relates now England IA nation some
Twelve or fourteen times a. pOpuleuS as Den
mark proceeded to bully that little power and
destroy her fleet. After acknOWied EinI that
this act aimed against France your CORES
pendent says: But ENGLAND was oil alone
In this exploit" He will find. in looking
up the facts, that, in 1891. the date
he mentions the fourth coalition AGAINST France
was still in force, and consisted of England,
Russia. Prussia, and Saxuny: so that as against
France England was by no means acting singly.
your correspondent was guarding his TANKS
and front from the attacks Of Brown Jones and
Robinson, he would scarcely think that Smith,
In striking the small boy who was Covering his
rear, deserved credit for acting all alone Your
correspondent in his admiration for poetry. con-
POUNDS two distinct occurrences Gamblers ac-
ton In 1877 and Nelson's in 1891 but it will
require much more than the stirring song" of
. third-rate poet to justify the morality or true
bravery of either,
He continues that England unsuDported"
commenced the Peninsular war at Lisbon, and
In five years drove every Frenchman out of
Sfiain and Portugal History states that when
Wellington began that campaign. Austria
had made the fifth coalition with England and
before the end OF the campaign Russia and Prus-
STA had formed the sixth coalition against
France. Your correspondent mentions Vine
fra-did Trant's Portuguese give no Support
In the victory which led to Fimeira !? And did the
moral and material support OF Portuguese and
SpaniardS elsewhere amount TO nothing? Here
again. ii was France rather than England which
was acting singly.
Your correspondent declares that England
alone met Napoleon at Waterloo. History states
that OF the allied army of British Hanoyerians
Brunswickers. Nassauers. Dutch-Rel rians and
the German legion. the British formed less than
One-thlrd. The Dutch. so far from quitting the
Held before the battle began. suffered heavily in
outstanding cavalry charges As TO the mart
which Bucher contributed to the victory and
which yonr correspondent doesn't think much
Or-hlstOrians are still arguing in modest doubt.
Tor the knowledge of Butchers approach had in
calculahle moral effect upon both armies
At this point your correspondent makes
great stride from the Napoleonc wars to that of
1854 VIII he permit reference being made to
the glory with which England covered herself
In a certain war of 1912? We do not aIlude to
the defeats.-sad to be sixteen-which she sus-
tanned ont of the twenty-three pitched naval
battles fought; nor to the un@race1ul surrender
of the principle of the right of SEARCH but to the
burning of Washington.-an exploit of which
5 the English were so proud. that one of their pa
pefs said: THE CosSacks spared Paris but we
spared not the capital of America"
JOreturn TO your correspondent: he proceeds:
I'm 1884 England atOne blockaded the
HACK Sea The Crimean war followed" The
facts are that treaty of alliance was concluded
between Great Britain, France and Turkey be-
fore war was declared. and the Sardinians after
wards joined them; also that the allied fleets of
England and France entered the Black Sea evil
IDENTIFY in company on the 4th of January 1854
Your correspondent does not state hat glory
England reaped in that war: how after siege
which threatened TO be second in length to that
OF Troy, she, with all her allies captured one i'm
pOrtant fort,-Sevast0pol; and how her two
Baltic fleets, after much talk of what they were
going to do, returned safely to tell what they
hot3eHOttionea But stop! We We're near forget
ting another battle of the Baltic in which an
Engisa boat, taking soundings at Hango. under
cover Oh 3 nag OF truce. was properly fired upon
We believe no stirring song" has vet been
written about this exploit, though it caused a
great howl at the time
Now Mr. Editor it il a Noteworthy fact that
the Russian. some twenty -eigtlt wears aro seems
20 have been the last white IGan that England
backed by three other powers. iss struck
with only one exception to be mentioned pres
entity. and in which England being really un-
supported, got the worst of the fight
Your correspondent goes on to state in effect
mat m $50 one hundred and eighty millions of
natives IN India uIassacred nearly all the Eng
Ilsn. but that IN less than two wears England
u'i0lded stamped out the military rebellion
Passing over the trifiing facts that the above
figure exceeds by some thirty millions the total
population of British India and that the mu-
tiny was in 1851 we note the confusion of ideas
In calling the mutny of part OF the Sepoy
REGIMENTS massacre by hundred and eighty
millions OF people. And We're the Enr!ish quite
nnalded: 1T seems that all the Sepoys did not
mutiDy: that not a few Of the surviving men
women anu children owed their lives to the
coneeahnent and aid given them 10y friendly
Ia]ahs aud common people; and that re y ards
were gwen To those natives who remained faith
ful- We t0ncede. iiG-s2.rr. that tine English
after gallant lighting. recovered then u.s. ground
and seized much more: blew their unfortunate
prisoners from guns. and enhanced British glory
by clubbing their old and new territory an ,.Em-
pre- Your correspondent Challenges cornpar-
1sOn between the condition Of Iudia morally
and materially in 1852 and 1851 True there is
great difference: in 1851 the condition of
India could not have been much worse thanks
TO the rapacity of the English. They. not con-
tent with having ruined the H5otuffct,n-es of
The country, did not even keep in repair the
magnificent water-works Constructed by the
Mohammedan rulers they had displaced and
thus by lack of irrigation during those months
OF the year when there IL no ain so affected
agriculture as to cause the well-knOwn famines
which destroyed Bumberless lives. IN lSS2the
are canals. railroads and tanks in mauy parts of
the country-not for the good of The natives
alone. but because cotton, the growth of which
our civil war caused to be commenced in India
must be cultivated and then brought down to
the sea-ports-not to forge. also the opium
which this Christian people forced first at the
mozzies OF their guns and afterwa-d by treaty
upon the Chinese As to education il would
De remarkable indeed if the Parsees Mobamme-
oai,s and Hindoos had built oil the schools and
coieSes IN India As to religion while mis-
sonarles have worked wonders the merchants
ana the military, who are largely in tn. major
ity, give the natives the impression that reiie-
Ion ~ by no means as material as making money
and acquiring territory.
Your correspondent relates that after the
Crimean war Napoleon Ill. would have called a
Paris hrtfE En-,