National Pot ana Mettle.

Manawatu Standard, Volume X, Issue 1460, 21 September 1885, Page 4

National Pot ana Mettle.

It is difficult (says the Sydney Morning Herald) for most of us to s^e ourselves as o'hers see us, and for others to see themselves as we see them. In private life, men have seldom any doubt about the purity of their own motives and the rectitude of their own actions; their tro-ible is that mankind wiil not feel and act towards them as they feel and act towards mankind. And the trouble m the smaller life of individuals is the tronble.in the larger one of commit nitie«. Here is the Anglo.-Rn.ssin complication. A« to the origin of that complication, the majority of Englishmen have not two opinions. The one aim of Russia, we are m the habit of x:>yin y, i<* tevri•lorial flgsrandisome.nfc, and our set*tl«l belief is that m seekine to accomplish that aan,i n , th e Muscovite sticks at nothing. In defiance of a!l rights he move* stealthily tnvaris the goal of universal conquest. We also annex territories. To say the truth, we nnnox more frepuently and more exteirnvelv than "Russia. Bub the difference i.i that while Russia annexes for her own benefit;, we ann°x for the benefit of mankind TtisW the trood of the worM, we persuade ourselves that shouM mnltinly our possessions ; hu I every new advance, of Russia, makes the world poorer and more, wretched ! Tliaf, we say, is the RetMed conviction of the majorifv of "Enjrlkhmen. The remarkable ihinp;, however, is that , o^act.lv whatKniTlish men believe about Rusf-in, Ru'sians believe about Ore-it Britain. During the whole of the negotiations of the last right, months, say the "Russians, the course pursued by the Government has been a pt early .and a stmishfyrward one, while that of tlie representatives oF GN-eflfc Britain lias Iwn a halting and a tortuous one. Moreover, strange' as it may appear, the Russians contend thar.ill that they want is to come by their own, and that Great Britain is meddling with things with which she has nothing to do And it is added that- the selfishness and the dishonesty that have nvirked our policy m ihe present, instances are characteristic of British policy generally. As for Russia, she is never thinking of herself, and never taking advantage of her opportuniM'S. The simpleminrled Muscovite is always being victimised by . pomeboily. and more frenuentlr"than rot by Gre.it Britain. That we git her from our correspondent, is the honest V>elief m St. Pet ersbwrg, strange as the fact may appear*