Evening star., 1895-05-28
The Lesson of the Hour for the Peo-
pie Of This Country.
The DANGERS FROM ABROAD
Folly Of Depending on British Pro-
fessions Of FraternaI Feeling.
A n ARMY ON PAPER
Written for The Evening Star.

OF dIn1uDle OLD tOSSiIS ana the D0aStinSS or
Young America, if we wish to avoid some
of China's woes and to be safe from foreign
enemies. and especially England. AS all
Angomaniacs would protest against the
last assertion. we will glance at the reasons
generally Civ N to throw off guard.
1. We are told that we Englands
flesh and blood. Admitting her step-moth-
erly relationship to be unfortunately true
to a certain extent, the sentiment that
blood is thicker than water is purely
Yankee notion-EE gland has never acted
upon it. On the contrary, she paid Indians
to help her in the revolution; she burned
Washington in the war of 1872 (after the
Cossacks had spared Paris. and prolonged
the OF the rebellion by characteristic
acts of purely British neutrality" But in
spite of theoretical assurances of her car
dinal virtues England is the same Chris
tian nation which pilaged Badajoz for two
days, fired sepoys from the muZzles of
guns and bayoneted wounded Egyptians
at Tel-el-kebir-all for the crime of un-
successful patriotism against the Chris
tian intruders. 1t is the same nation which,
in return for Cyprus, saved Turkey from
the consequences of Bulgarian massaeres.
and so made those of Armenia possible. l
believe the English called it peace with
honor" If any persons suppose that the
days of bombardment, village burning, re-
prisals and summary military executions
among Christian peoples have passed away
tuey TCdu d little DOOh Cdlieu MILL
tary Manners and Customs by Farrer.
1887, showing. amCrg other modern in
stances. how the Germans acted in France
in answer to the only method of free-shoot-
ing warfare which would be open to Amer
leans in case of foreign invasion, provided
we did not increase our uniformed forces.
The average English commander will be
only too glad to try his guns at Yankee
targets.
2. We have just been assured that our
friend, the enemy, has all the land she
nral ic Iii r1, faa
being that she is at this moment consider
ing the necessity of seizing the valley of
the upper Nile with a strip of land on each
side of the river (fOr fear the French might
take iD OF keeping Cbitral and an indefi-
mite territory thereabouts (to prevent the
Russians from doing sol; of getting part
of Morocco, and so holding both sides of
the entrance to the Mediterranean Qest
that body of water should become a
French, Italian or Russian lake instead of
an English one); of holding on to Chusan,
so to dominate the middle of the Chi
nese coast. and, through the Yangtse, the
whole central interior Qn order that Japan
may not reap the full fruits of her vic
tory; of getting bare foothold in Hawaii
for telegraph cable, so as to raise pro
consular" questions, levy fines and col
lect debts ending in occupation of the
group and command of every cross-road of
Pacific trade Ito prevent that key to trade
and invaluable outpost for military opera
tions from being ceded by the Hawaiian re-
public to the United States). Every page
of England's history shows how utterly un-
trustworthy her assurances are. Give her
lodgment anywhere and she will foment
disturbances; let the people rise when it is
too late and they become rebels an
English journal admitted few days ago,
she annexes a Kingdom every decade, in
answer to a strange destiny which drives
her people on. Destiny, indeed! Like the
thief who blames the Almighty for having
made him what he is. England was the
worlds pirate in the time of Queen Eliza
BETH she is the worlds land grabber in the
time of Queen Victoria. and will be the
worlds hishwayman until she breaks up
into the Independent governments of Aus
tralia south Africa, Canada, India, etc.
From such nation none is safe, and we,
owing to circumstances, least of all; for we
are immensely rich, though under a tempo
rary cloud; we are her Commercial rival.
though at present pouring wealth into
her lap in return for things we used to
make for ourselves, and We are we'll nigh
helpless as China, though in somewhat
different ways. If We are reminded that
England has voluntarily given up three
spots she once occupied We are bound to
confess that she did so, and made the orig
inal owner pay roundly in one case, made
bribe of another. and is about to ''repos-
sess" the third to keep Spain from get
ting it.
3. We frequently hear that we are quite
safe from England, and that she dare not
fight us because We could raise a million
of men to take Canada, and would fit out
a swarm OF priVatsers to sweep her flag of
the seas. That is magnificent but 1t isn't
common sense at present. The first inti-
nation of war would be the rush of British
gunboats and torpedo boats, always on
hand in the dominion for that purpose,
through the canals and rivers and into the
lakes. Let us not lay the flattering unction
to our souls that will be forewarned
and given time for preparations: the day of
formal declarations of war as first cere-
mony is past. The blow will be struck at
the lake trade, which we boast Is greater
than that Of the Suez canal Che very rea-
why the British want it captured or
destroyed; those fine cities, which never
tire of prociaiming their wonderful growth
in population and wealth, will be sum-
moned to pay ranSoms commensurate with
their boastings or be bombarded within
twenty-four hours; the fleets of trading
steamers and coasters will be seized and
converted into hostile gunboats or else
sunk and our single, venerable war vessel
torpedoed. In short. there is no doubt, as
matters are at present, that the first blood
will be Tor Canada, and the first round al
so. "But,' it may be asked: What will
we be doing all that time. with our mil
lions of meng' Fighting men do not now
spring ready-armed from the brain of
Minerva or even of Columbia; our unsur
passed regulars, only 26,0o0 in number.
will be frittered all over the country; our
splendid national guard, some 10000. Will
be pursuing all manner of daily avocations
at distant points, and the 9Oo10oo available
men will be chiefly on paper But let it be
granted that in the process of time after
the mischief on the lakes has been COM
pleted and all the towns which have not
enriched the enemy have been laid in
ashes-we will be ready to march north
ward in order to cut the Canadian Pacific
railroad-built to out trade us in peace and
to threaten in war. AS the enemy will
be in possession of the lakes and rivers we
must swerve considerably to the eastward
and westward of the former Let sup
pose that we seize the road at two widely
distant points and roll each way toward its
eXtremities We will find 1t necessary at
length to lay siege to places like Quebec
and Halifax at one end and Esquimault
at the Otner. We may even, after infinite
labor and loss, increased by a hostile popu-
lation tthe country is not yet ready for an
neAationl, 10000 militia fighting for their
homes, and rigorous ciimate-take or
render unworkable the coal mines of Nova
Scotia, etc, near one coast, and those of
British Columbia near the other-but, hav-
ing fleet so vastly outnUmbered as TO be
really not worth mentioning. and most
probably destroyed or crippled by that