ENGLAND AND THE CONTINENTAL POWERS CONTRASTED.

Evening Star, Issue 3085, 8 January 1873, Page 2

ENGLAND AND THE CONTINENTAL POWERS CONTRASTED.

To the Editor.

STft,—-In your paper of the 4th you quote what you call a most instructive letter by a correspondent in Berlin, to the Daily Telegraph He reports that, with the exception of Germany, Great Britain is more hated abroad than any other European power. But then comes this important difference, Prussia enjoys toe advantage of being feared as well as hated, which is by no means England's case, bach and every one of the leading Continental nations owes us a grudge. This in the full sense of the expression is not quite true : England is also feared, but not so generally hated, not more so than other powers hate or love one another, from being rivals to each other in trade, which in the meantime, and for these last 25 years, the (Jont nental powers have been preparing for, and which a war in blood would destroy. Since free trade, nations have become, as it were, extensive ma ufacturing and trading companies, by which their intercourse with each other has increased twentyfold, and that spirit of rivalry and envy exists equally keenly between them, as between rival merchants or manufacturers of the same trade; hence the talk of dislike to England. It any one nation is going to the wall, each of the others may uive io a push downwards, not out of hatred to the nation, but with the hope of seeing its commerce and maunfactures decline, that in consequence their own may bo increased, Tbo continental

powers have taken the true method to enrich themselves and conquer England, or any other nation that may follow her example and delay, or refuse to educate her people. They have succeeded so far, by their educated skill, as to shut up many sources of industry in England, the centres of which are now in France, Prussia, Switzerland, &o. This they have done by education, not by the teaching of the repetition of words or ancient traditions, but by the cultivation of the people, by a national system of education in arts, in science, and in manufactures, that their whole people might be taught in them, not only in arts in science, but to be able independently to think out for themselves new knowledge, new ways, leading to selfrespect and self support, and the true value of other men’s opinions, whether ancient or modern. In Austria, Switzerland, Prussia, and countries independent of Churchmen, such schools have been widely spread, and are being adopted by other nations, as Russia. All established have told for the benefit of the pupils and the country in which they lived. Borne of these countries, twenty-five years ago, were known only as scattered patches of land, their in poverty, ami without unity. That education has lifted them greatly among the nadons, their people from being helpless and depea dent, to be industrious and thriving agriculturists, manufacturers, and merchants, who now (most humiliating to England) buy from her the raw material."and supply her from it with goods tetter and ch aper than she can supply herself with. That is true ;is it any wonder, then, if foreign workmen exult oyer the purse-proud and hitherto boasting Englishman, whom they have warred with in arts and in science under many local disadvantages, and threshed out or the market, and that they uow speak of them with contempt ? The late Sir Robert Peel, when advising on education, uttered the m• unusable words—"You are inferior in skill, knowledge, and intelligence, to the manufacturers of other countries; the increased facilities of intercourse will result in transferring the demand from us to others.”— 1 am, &c., Humble.