ENGLAND AND RUSSIA.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5319, 13 April 1878, Page 3

ENGLAND AND RUSSIA.

TO THE BDITOE OP THE NEW ZEALAND TlMESglltj—lt seems almost cruel to attempt to attempt to persuade “ Pax” that Russia was actuated by other than pure philanthropise motives in her past conflict with Turkey, and that she is now only desirous o£ making such terms as will benefit the whole human race. If one may be allowed to test a nation’s feeling by the tone of its Press and the speeches and writings of its public men, Russia, judged by this test, is above all things anxious to humble Great Britain. A celebrated Russian writer on political economy, Mr. Vernadsky, has recently published his views on the present crisis, and thus delivers himself the position held by England “England is a menace to the safety of Europe. She is the great aggressive Power of modern times. There is no part of the world in which she has not established her garrisons or her colonies. Her fleets dominate every sea. What power is there but has suffered from her insatiable ambition ? She has torn Gibraltar from Spain, Malta and Canada from Prance, Heligoland from Denmark, the Cape of Good Hope from the Dutch, the Gold Coast from the Portuguese, and Hongkong from China. She has built up by the sword a military despotism in Asia, which denies constitutional government to the two hundred millions that inhabit India. At Aden she holds the gate of the Red Sea, at Singapore she commands the road to China, from Fiji she dominates the Pacific Archipelago. Her territory is vaster than that of Russia, and greater in extent than all Europe without Russia. Russia annexes no population but Sclavs and a few tribes in Asia, while of the two hundred and fifty millions of England’s subjects only twenty million are Englishmen. What nationality has not some of its members under English rule 1 Italians at Malta, Spaniards at Gibraltar, Arabs at Aden, Germans at Heligoland, Dutch at the Cape, Chinese at Hongkong, Malays at Malacca, Hindoos in India, Kaffirs in South Africa, and Maoris in New Zealand, England is a spider whose web encompasses the world. She is a' standing menace to all the other Powers, and her increasing strength destructive of the balance of power. Nevertheless, unsatisfied and insatiable, she is still grasping for more territory. Yesterday she seized Fiji, the day before she took the diamond fields, to-day she annexes the Transvaal, and to-mor-row she will clutch at Egypt. Is it not only too clear that the power of England is too great to be compatible with the general safety, and that the aggressive Empire,unless speedily checked, will establish a universal dominion over all the peoples of the earth ?” , So much for England as seen through Russian spectacles. The following is from a French paper: tinents, Biek. an inhabitated or uninhabited spot where she (England) has not planted her flag. All lands newly

discovered she unhesitatingly annexes to I herself. Where will this insolent assumption cease? What balance can exist in the world in the face of this ambition, which increases with conquest, and becomes extravagant by dint of impunity ? It is not one nation but every nation that should open their eyes. It is essential not for one people but for every people to know whether the ocean is free, and if the universe is to fall back in presence of the shopkeeping Ciosars who avail themselves of the disunion of States to turn them all to account and to aggrandise themselves on their common ruin. When will this insolent assumption cease ?” So much for the French view of England’s position. Another distinguished Frenchman, M. Heine,* writes : “ Never again will I visit that detestable land (England), where all the men are like machines and all the machines like men. The din and the silence there are alike desolating. When I was introduced to the Governor of Heligoland, and this stick of an Englishman stood motionless before me without speaking a word for several minutes, involuntarily the idea came into my head to look at him froin behind to see if somebody had forgotten to wind him up. My heart sinks within me when I think that after all Shakspere was an Englishman, and belongs to the most repulsive people that God in his anger ever created.” This gentleman takes a more personal than political view, but personal jealousy and hatred is stronger even than political.—l am, &c., Neutral.