Year: 1871

the fisheries, the st. Lawrence navigation


question, &C., marks the future policy of


England as the policy Of peace. Meantime
the people of Great Britain are much ex-
ercised in mind about their foreign and


military policy. Those two old established
organs of opinion, the Edinburg and Quar-
tea{y Reoieaos, have elaborate articles in their
January numbers concerning the military and
naval forces of the country, and their voice is
clear upon the point that practically speaking


England has no system Of home defence that
would enable the country to stand up for


week against an invading army such as Ger


many now, or regenerated France, perhaps,


hereafter, might direct against her. 1t seems


to be settled that the session of Parliament
just opened will be devoted to the discussion


of this subject, and that the fate of Mr. Glad
stones administration will depend upon the


manner with which it deals with this para
mount subject of national defence. The press
of the country, moreover, is unanimous that
the whole defensive forces of the country must
| be reorganized and made an effective whole,
instead Of q jumble of regulars, militia and
volunteers, as at present, without connecting
links or administrative services. 1t is pro-
| bable even that, as has been suggested by the
most able of English soldiers, Sir w. Mans
field, plan will be adopted which will restore
in new form the old English rule that every
man must directly contribute by the bearing
Of arms to the national safety. In short,


England, according to all the signs, is about to
make new departure in her military policy


SO far as the home soil is concerned


The moment, therefore, on the Threshold of
this joint High Commission, is proper one
to consider what her position and principle of
action has been for the last thirty years, and
how far she is likely or ought to radically
modify these. There is no difficulty in pro-
nouncing upon this point. Great Britain has
adopted in this century policy of peace,
| economy and domestic progress, commercial
and political, and endeavored to set her face
steadily against war, either on the part of
other nations or her own. She has been
busily engaged in remodelling her constitu-
ency at home and in striking off fetters from
her commerce. She has consolidated her
empire in India and endowed that country
with every sort of liberty short of the repre-
sentative institutions, for which that country
is not ripe, but which she hopes to introduce
even there as soon as possible. She has lived
in the faith and endeavored to prosecute the
works of peace so exclusively as to deprive
herself of every ally for the moment and vir-
tually to surrender all direct participation at
present in the remodellng of Europe. In ad-
herence to this policy she has reduced herself,
in spite of her overwhelming resources, to a
state almost of temporary defencelessness,
and, as is natural, drawn upon herself the
hatred and contempt of the fighting nations.
She stands charged with selfish abstinence from
international struggle, and, according to the
latest accounts, an Englishman is scarcely
safe in the streets of humiliated France in con-
sequence.


Nevertheless, this policy has been neither
hateful nor contemplate, although it may
have been, if pushed too far, very danger
ous-as the English are now beginning to see.
Nobody can doubt that, however inevitable
or necessary wars may be at present between
some nations, peace, and not war, is the ideal
state to which the world is steadily tending.
And it is quite certain that if the nations are
to disuse war eventually some nation must
begin by setting the example. This is the feel
ing which actuated the dead Golden and has
actuated his great friend, most illustrious Of
living orators, John Bright, in their steady ad-
vocacy Of q policy Of peace, at all hazards
and at any price except in the one case of
q nations life being at stake. How truly
they excepted that case is shown by the ardent
and eloquent sympathy with which both these
great men cheered us on in our great civil
| war. And there can be no doubt that the
voice of John Bright, if Englands safety were
at stake, would be the most powerful of all in
urging all men to the front of the battle But
| in the meantime they have done their best to
hold their pugnacious countrymen down and


bind them to the strictest lines of self-defence
and self-defence alone. John Bright once


spoke of the British lion in surprising way,
declaring that he wished the brute was dead


Well he has done his best to kill him. He
survives only in those illustrations in which
| Punch still maintains the lingering tradition
| of the day when England was ready and will
| ing to fight all corners. But his day is gone.
England is out of love with slaughter. She
| will fight to hold her own, no doubt, but she
will not draw the sword for balances of
power or dynastc objects again. After all,
this is great gain to the cause of
democratic humanity. The world has had
enough Of war, and is sickened at the elabo-
rate process by which Germany has had to
strangle France. And it is clear that Eng
land will bend all her energies to such an ad-
justment of international affairs as will, if
possible, prevent war hereafter. At this
point her policy becomes coincident with that