GERMANY AND ENGLAND.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 236, 5 October 1871, Page 2

GERMANY AND ENGLAND.

(Concluded from our lasf) If I speak to your Imperial Majesty from the German point of view how can I say differently ? Did your Majesty possess G-ermany and Great Britain — the valiant armies of Germany, and the superb fleet of England — you would leave to your descendants the proudest and mightiest empire in Europe. France, already severely shaken, could be so crushed that it would no longer think of recovery. Your Majesty could take its most beautiful provinces, and divide amongst your brave soldiers its fertile plains. Austria, bowed down and helpless, would retire from German ground, and your Majesty. Master of the West, would, like a new Charlemagne, send your orders from Paris or Versailles, whenever you were tired of London fogs or the sand of Berlin. I beg of your Imperial Majesty not to smile at my patriotic fancies. More strange things than the union of two great Germanic r.aces under one head have been seen in the history of the world. Proud as we may be this day of our race, our army, and our illustrious Emperor, our pride and satisfaction would be ten times increased if we saw in the hands of your Majesty the sceptre of an empire which would reach from the Donau to the Shannon, and would envelop Hindustan and Australia in its wide folds. Thus your Majesty would be the arbiter of all European States, as none could resist your arms. At the head of the united armies of Germany and the 800 vessels of war of England, you could place a vice-king in every capital of the West to carry out your policy. Only two other great nations would exist— the Russian aud the American, but they would uselessly fight against the brave warriors of our Fatherland, and the numerous fleet of England, which would no longer be weakened and checked by the Bhop spirit (kramergeist) and intrigue. I began my address with the assurance that my proposal should be as agreeable and useful to Englishmen as to ourselves. A short exposition will be enough to satisfy your Majesty ou that point. Your Majesty would dissolve the spell which the fear of an encroaching democracy has imposed; you would have the senseless election laws made by the Ministers

altered and corrected, which now leaves the fate of England in the bands of shoemakers and greengrocers; you would administer sharp and short justice to the peace-disturbing masses who now flaunt their flags through the streets of London oq God's holy day; you would punish insurrection and treason as they merit to For remainder of news see fourth page.

he punished. You. would not buy the submission of Celtic murderers by bribing them through legalising robbery, nor shorten well-deserved punishment to treasonable Fentana. If the dregs of the people were to assemble to question your rigfets and to lessen your prerogatives, you.would not permit them to discuss the matter with a soft-speaking Minister with a godly shop-face. If the country were insulted by a great power, you would not with humility present your cheeks alternately to the offender. You would know how to preserve the conquest, and to protect those who acknowledge themselves as your subjects. But how can your Imperial Majesty , conquer this beautiful, this grand kingdom? That is the questioD. Your Majesty naturally fancies that the first hint of an invasion would inflame the whole country, and that every inhabitant would take a sword, a #un, or a revolver in hand? This would formerly have been my idea, but it is not so now. I have studied this people tod well and too deeply to make any mistake. I will ifot say that the army would not fight well if it got an opportunity ; but I will inform you of a fact which has been told me by more than one Englishman. The English army does not consist of the most warlike people of England. There are parts in the centre and north of England where the only amusement in the country and towns is fighting. They fight after work, they fight on Sundays, for the fun which they derive from it. Still not one of these persons could be induced to become a soldier. Military discipline does not agree with them, and the pay of the Boldier they despise. Thus it happens that the army only contains a few strong and fight-loving men, such as colliers and miners from Staffordshire and Yorkshire. Still the army is a good one, and its cavalry-might be made the best in Europe, for the people can ride. This army would do its duty if it were opposed to your Majesty's forces ; but I doubt whether they would ever he so opposed. Let us imagine that it becomes known that your Majesty is nearing the Eoglish coast, what would happen ? A dreadful confusion, a chaos of orders and counter-orders, marches and counter-marches. The Ministry of War would order this, the Commander-in-chief that, and the House of Commons something else. While the Duke of Cambridge prepared a line of defence on the heights of Surrey, the Secretary of State would think of another on the Plumstead Marshes. Above all, let your Majesty imagine the panic of the City of London, p a town which has no idea of a state of siege, and which has never seen within its' walls an enemy more formidable than its own roughs. Let your Majesty think of this town full of the accumulated treasures of centuries past and of all nations. Think of their rich, fat aldermen, who have never seen anything more warlike than a volunteer review ; think of the merchants and agents of the city, who have the profoundest faith in their city police — all at once threatened with bombardment and storming ! What a panic of fear ! what unending confusion ! bow tormenting their anxiety ! how loud their cry for help ! The Minister of War and the Horse Guards would be deafened by their acclamations," and amidst all these conflicting elements England's army — say 130,000 to 150,000 men— would be broken up'into half-a-dozen unmanageable little detachments. I say nothing of the Queen. Her Majesty would immediately repair to the mountains of Balmoral, and thus save her Ministers an unacknowledged part of their unutterable care. Let us now suppose that the valiant little army is thus broken up into ridiculous fragments; there remains only the militia and volunteers, also very brave people, but not much to be dreaded. The friendly senselessness of your enemy would save you all anxiety. Volunteers and Militia make together nearly 240,000 men— a strong and imposing army if it is well led ; but lam persuaded it will not be well led, or not led at all. All we know of the volunteers' strange inclinations and habits quite justifies this opinion. Amongst the many real English virtues they possess, a strong feeling of personal liberty must be counted, v This is admirable enough in its way, but very embarrassing in connection with military, discipline. ; The British volunteer has no idea of submitting to any man's orders. Such a thing is, as he says in his hardy language, "all damned humbug," or silly nonsense. His motto is, "Everyone for, himself, and God for all"— a noble motto truly, and full of independence, but one which is bardly reconcileable with 'military-' service or warlike achievements. Now, it might be possible— though not so probable as your Majesty * may suppose — for some 20 brigades of volunteers to be assembled on the line of march o f the advancing enemy; one of two things would certainly occur. Either they would, under the influence of their great idea of personal freedom,,

answer the order of the general of division with that decided but not very military formula which is now traditional amongst them, "go to the devil," or, under the influence of their fiery patriotism, would shoot each other down with the greatest possible precision. At any rate, your Majesty may rest assured that this brave mob — for the people are bravo — would do each other infinitely more harm than the enemy. But why talk of fighting, at all ? The whole thing would be' done without it. Hardly would Mr. Cardwell, in his plumed and three-cornered hat (kept in safety on his war-horse by a tall policeman) have finished his speech to the last of the volunteer corps leaving for the battle-field, or hardly woull Mr. Gladstone have fired the Council of Aldermen by a speech half borrowed from Homer and half from the ! New Testament, before a re-action would begin. The cost of resistance to foreign invasion would be reckoned up. "What will it cost ? " is the moral of every Englishman's political catechism of our time. Mr. Gladstone, who unites a commercial love of peace with an evangelical horror of war, would begin to perceive, with a subtle reason, that physical submission means real moral superiority. Mr. Cardwell would go to bed and take warm gruel. Mr. Lowe would frighten the taxpayers into a panic by proposing an impossible tax to cover the costs of the national defence. The Times which came out on Monday with a Demosthenic article, citing all the examples of heroism from the days of Marathon down to that of Tilbury Fort, to encourage the people in sustaining the old national frame of their ancestors, would begin on the Wednesday, to joke upon the whole affair in a very clever way. What its tone might be on the Friday would depend upon where its editor had dined on the Thursday. But on the following Monday its politics would take an entirely new direction. It would have a healthy and thoroughly sensible article, showing ahat really, after all, fighting was a very senseless and. .criminal proceeding, that nations must be allowed, like rivers, to follow their natural and predestinated course, and that if England and Germany wished to unite it would be very wrong indeed to hinder them. The whole article would finish up with a glowing description of the blessings of peace, and with a fanciful prophecy of the fortune and the harmony which the foundation of a great Teutonic empire would bring to England, Europe, and humanity at large. Tne talented author of Friends in Council, A.K.H.8., would publish a pamphlet dedicated to the Queen, wherein he would demonstrate more passionately than patriotically the respective duty of resistance and submission. The rest of the press would follow. The Houses of Parliament would be assembled to debate with closed doors. Mr. Gladstone — moved, excited, and exciting, but still with a stoic calmness — would deliver a speech of two hours' duration, declaring his complete willingness to die for his country, but at the same time expressing his conviction that it might, on the whole, be better to live for the Fatherland, and that, although the British Parliament would lose its prerogative if the country became a mere province, it would still be an honorable and distinguished task to discharge its duties conscientiously as a local board. And how metaphysically he would speak about nationalities ! — about the centripetal force by which separate branches of one race are attracted towards a common centre, and about that centrifugal force which tears them asunder, &c. In the House of Lords, Earl Granville would speak less philosophically but more openly. The whole contents and bearing of his speech would run upon the familiar, "How much will it ' cost ?" But how beautifully he would handle the subject — he, the inimitable master in the art of light and easy jest— light and easy in comparison to the weight of the theme he handles. If nothing special is meant be is quite lively enough ; but if essential interests are in question, and the great lord is ready to throw - them overboard — when colonies are to be given up and colonists are to be estranged — then he becomes irresistibly and most exquisitely comic. Nothing would be more pleasant than his humour as he joked bis country's honor and independence away, and nothing, would give a better idea of the cynical indifference of which the complaisant Epicurists of this patrician and Imperial Home are are accused. So amiably would he jeer and smile, so charmingly mock at patriotism, honor, nationality, and historical traditions ; in so polite a tone would he do this, that half the peers would forget that he was speaking of the submission of his country, .and ,the : other half would run away to supper. A more weighty help would be found in the educated and thinking men who- are now swamped by the ignorant, reckleae, and rough masses

who crawl in the dirty decs of our (owns, and threaten to destroy our civilization. The fear of a civil war, worse than that of the French, of an invasion worse than that of the Huns, would lead them to seek the protection of an authority which would not hesitate to use force against force, and would be determined not to let anarchy crop up. At theend an arrangement would be come to, the crown of William the Conqueror, and of William of Orange would be offered to your Imperial Majesty, and your Imperial Majesty would, I trust, deign to accept it, after baviug insisted on the abolition of certain forms which seem to stop the way like a turn-again alley, and, after having secured a handsome pension for Queen Victoria. This excellent lady, who always wishes more for sympathy than state, would gladly buy the peace of the nation by giving up her crown. The Prince of Wales would be compensated by a yearly income and a eulogy in The Times. From this glorious day would begin, I .hope, an era of real happiness and self-respect for the British portion of the German Empire. With a good system of education for the young, a regular and well disciplined army, and with a well-kept-down proletariat, England would greatly help in the work of modern civilization. One essential point I have forgotten — the landing of a considerable army on the coasts of England. This, I must admit, would be difficult. It does not require the hypothesis of the clever author of the Battle of Dorking, nor does it want his torpedoes to disable the English fleet. Audaces fortuna juvat,&nci not only would Fortune help yon. The faults, incapacity, and disunion of your Majesty's enemies would help you far more than that capricious goddess. You may rely upon it, the English fleets would be at the wrong points or would sail in tbe wrong direction ; that the ironclads would be over-masted and sink in the Channel, or float too deep in the water, aod be wrecked, or run over their own gunboats. The commanding admiral would not mind the orders of the Ministry of Marine, and the Minister of Marine would mislead the commander of the army. In one word, there would be such a chaos of misguidance, misunderstanding, misgovernment, and mistakes, (hat your Imperial Majesty could land comfortably, and, once landed, pursue quietly your bloodless march to tbe Palace of Westminster ! — Your Imperial Majesty's, &c. John Michel Teutz Baumwoll.

High Water at Nelson. Morn. Afternoon. Thursday Oct. 5 ... 12 54 1.16 Friday „ 6 ... 1.44 2.12 Saturday „ 7 ... 2.40 259 Sunday „ ' 8 ... 350 4.31 Monday „ » ... 5.8 5.47 Tuesday „ 10 ... 6.16 646 Wednesday „ 11 ... 7.6 7.27