The Evening Star. FRIDAY, APRIL 21, 1871.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2551, 21 April 1871, Page 2

The Evening Star. FRIDAY, APRIL 21, 1871.

Every revelation concerning the .way in which European monarchs play with the world’s interests, tends to disgust all right-thinking men with their domination. Every revelation ought to convince mankind that Great Britain has taken the right course in i-esolutely refusing to be drawn into European quarrels. Why nations submit to be ruined, trampled under foot, and the flower of their population murdered, is oue of the most inexplicable of problems. Ever since the world’s events began to be recorded, the abuse of force has been prolific of evil to conquered and to conqueror. Legitimate only when used to protect life and property, physical force has been made the engine of tyranny, and nations have been passed from one man’s rule to another, without the governed being thought worth consultation. A pretty quarrel would have sprung up if England had been allowed by her rulers to interfere in the Prussian-French war. As we pointed out a few days ago, instead of having been brought to a close, it would have been just beginning, The terrible disasters that have come upon France would have been reenacted in other countries of Europe ; and instead of the prospect of a return to peaceful industry, there would have been anarchy and distrust all over the world. The strangest feature in the whole matter is, that notwithstanding the evidence of treachery on the part of the different monarchs—for these secret treaties are neither more nor less—men can be found in all parts of the world to advocate that England should have allowed herself to be drawn into playing the game of oue or other of those unprincipled dissemblers. If Napoleon had been assisted and Prussia driven back, then Russia would have joined Prussia, and most probably found occasion on some pretence or other to quarrel with Austria. Then Italy would have been drawn in, and possibly Sweden and Denmark would have taken part in the general scramble. It is bad enough as it is; but then matters would have been infinitely worse. Yet into this worse abyss Mr Disraeli and his retrograde friends would have pushed the world—not having the prudence before going to war to count the cost. Let those who think it a light matter look at »France now, and let them trace step by step the causes that have led up to this state of affairs. They must not content themselves with looking back twenty years, nor fifty ; but they must go back a century, and learn how the ruling classes laid burdens too heavy to be borne upon the governed. They must follow out the consequences of the efforts of the people to shake off those impositions, and learn how the kings of Europe combined to crush the rising spirit of liberty. Amongst the foremost in this unholy effort was the King of Great Britain, Had the Minister of that day possessed the knowledge and firmness of Mr Gladstone, instead of yielding weakly to the promptings of an insane king, France might at this moment have possessed a settled government, and her people have been free and prosperous. But through that interference, in the course of twenty-five years four millions of men were slain in battle, tens of thousands of millions of money were wasted in war; and tens of thousands of millions of money, besides millions of lives, have been sacrificed since in fitful endeavors to undo what those plotters against liberty -succeeded in doing. Precisely in this spirit would Mr Disraeli have acted. He would have used the mighty power of Great Britain to perpetuate a system fraught with so much evil and misery to mankind, apparently not perceiving that true liberty was never yet achieved by the war of ouo nation against another ; and that where it has been gained in civil war, the first result of victory is military despotism over the vanquished tho subsequent liberty being freely conceded by the conquerors. This is the secret of Great Britain’s Colonial, African, and Indian rule. It is not so much that she has power to compel submission, as that tho spirit of liberty and self-control is encouraged—that force, in fact, is only used to compel man to do his duty to his fellow-man ; and until other nations learn this truth, to which reason and history alike point—and we learn it,

too, in our conduct to the Maoris—the world will not succeed in achieving internal nor external peace. France, ill-governed and conquered, has a more difficult task to achieve than has yet fallen to the lot of any nation since the breaking up of the Roman Empire. It has come upon her suddenly, and found her without leaders in whom the nation can trust. Accustomed to depend for government on an arbitrary ruler, without an army to overawe the discontented, and without generallyacknowledged authority to compel civil obedience, it is to be feared that years will not efface the consequences of the insane and rash war now ended.