ENGLAND'S POSITION AND POLITICAL PROPHECIES.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Issue 47, 24 August 1878, Page 3

ENGLAND'S POSITION AND POLITICAL PROPHECIES.

(New ZealaniHerald, July 29.) Until the details of the treaty between England and Turkey are received, with the discissions and'reflections thereupon of the English Press and statesmen, we shall not be able to-form afitting conception nf F.nr,l„nrtS. nnnfinn nf t'■,,-. ~a-

tion of hnglands position —of.the responsibilities she has incurred, and of tho new career opolied to her as one of the great Powers of "the world. •'• Doubtless very different views -will be entertained and expressed at home on tho subject, and the spirit of party and of rivalry will be zealously employed to illustrate the situation; to"shew on the one side tiie dangers to England of the -important step which has been taken, and tiie risk that she may»be.\brought into conflict with the Powers.of Europe and of Asia ; and on the other to shew what glory and advantage and safety she will gain by pursuing the path of the duty which sh--owes to herself and to the world. We have confidence that aright docision will bs cyme to at this, perhaps the most, importing crisis of England's history. At present it is di:";qu|f.. to assail England's power, except by'contesting her superiority at sea. .In Jjnrope, her possessions are confined to the grand little island itself, and a few powerfully-fortified stations which are sate so loii s ' as we maintain our maritime Buperi irity. India could not be touched by sea. and the possibility of invasion by Russia is a very remote contingency in any case. Britain's Colonies, peopled by emigrants from her shores, orthr.se of other nations who havo east in their lot with tho colonists an I become Anglicised, can never fall into the hauls of any other nation. Bat with the occupation of Cyprus, an i and a protectorate;- not kn »w ye: exactly of'whafimture ;ov*er AsiaMinir aud, guarantee' of the whole of Turkey in Asia, Great Britain commences a now cour.ia. _Ssho has v tak'eu -some kind of charge of Turkey in- Asia, and sun a connection seems likely to us to lead to. an occupation, aud to ultimately assuming the government of tho country. We cannot permit massacres to be perpstrated; weoannot permit Christians to be treated eyen with contumely, or to be debarred from rights enjoyed by Mahommedans; we cannotperriiit brigandage or oppression, or disorder. Hitherto few have seriously contemplated tho assumption by England of such power in Asia, however-.esalted might be their notions regarding the spread of the Anglo-Saxon race and the extension of England's power.lluro is a brief but brilliant statement from De Quincoy, of England's position as a colonising nation : " Again, in the other element of col >- nisation; races of men become known for what they ire ; the furnace has trie I them all.; the truth has justified itself; and if, as at some great memorable review of armies, some solemn annilustrum, the

colonising; nations, since 1500, were now by name-called up—Franoe would answer not at all; Portugal and H>ila:il would stand apart with dejected eyes—dimly revealing the legend of Fuit Ilium; Spain would be seen sitting in the distance, and like Judea on the Roman coins weeping ,under her palm tree in the vast the Orellana; whilst the British race would be hard upon every wind, coming on with mighty hurrrahs, full of povjr and tumult, as some "Hailstone Chorus," and crying aloud to the live hundred nations of Burruah, China, Japan and the infinite Islands, to make ready .their paths before them." It is ■ exceedingly difficult, to form an idea of- the change for the whole world which would result from England's predominance in Asiatic Turkey, and with that country containing perhaps a largo number of permanent English settlers. The programme of India might be repeated, ami the mixed peoples who for so many oenturies have had to submit to the rule, of the pabhas might, as did the natives of India from their rajahs, find relief and quiet under the equitable sway of England. Districts which have lain almost wosto for centuries under the hopeless 'government of the Turk, will againVcome the' fruitful gardens of the wirth. It mutt not be forgotten, too, a» in onMriewdt is one of the ujwst important ilxtsiderations, that from these regione,.- <li JwLioh Great Britain i» now. j"int;govornor. have emanated all the religion* ideas aud modern sanctions that rid* th« Christian' and Maliyinuiedan worhta It-will greatly aid tho promulgation of English notions M polity and government .throughout tho who'" if

Asia, and in Europe too, if England U the influencing power at Mecca, and can carry out her will on the sabred height* of Zion. The grand poMtbiliUea opened up for our race and for civilisation by the Treaty we cannot, however, at piBMBt discuss. Our chief object is to poi it out that the recent ]>o!itieal action of England is the Result of ideas dwelt upon in fancy by Plhe Prime Minister many years ago. L>rd Beacooatield is now carrying out in his old age what were deemed to be the , fantatic dreann of his youth. It will 1 be remembered that in his speech justifying the assumption by the Queen ef the title of Empress of India, Lord Beaconsrield uttered several columns of feeble, and even twaddling reasons, and then closed by stating, in one sentence, that the title bad been taken as a barrier against Russian advance towards India and towards dominion in Asia. People : were puzzled at the time, and many laughed; but, in taking possession of Cyprus—the first design being to hind in Syria—we see the second step. In 1817, thirty-one years ago, after a lingthenedtour in the East. Mr. Disraeli published the novel of " Tancred,'' iu whii hj he makes one of the characters, an E;iiir ul Lebanon, speak thus: — " You must perform the Portuguese scheme on a great seale : quit a pretty and exhausted p jsiti >:i for a vast and prolific empire. Let the Queen of the English eolloit a great fleet, let her Stow away all her treasures, bullion, gold plate,

and precious nrms, he accompanied by all her court and chief people and transfer the seat of her «ni|ii I m Loudon to Deilii. There sue will find an im uensa empire ready made, a lirstrate army, and a large revenue. In the meantime I will arrange with Mehemet Ali. lie shall have Bagdad and Mesopotamia, and poar ■the Bedouin cavalry into Persia. I will take ca.e of Syria and Minor. The only way to manage the Afghans is by Persia and by the Arabs. We will acknowledge the. Empress of India as oui ..suzerain, and secure for her (he Levantine coast. If she .like, she shall have Alexandria as she now has Malta: I could be arranged. Your Queen is young; she has an avenir. Aherleenan .Sir Peel will never give her this jilvi . , their habits are found. Thev iretoiohl to ruses. But, you sec! th • greatest o pire that ever exist' J; besides, slid ge s rid of the embarrassment of ii •. Co i i. c. t of her Chambers' An I guite pr.iciii able, for the only difficult pait, lhe con quest of India, which b.iIH.M Alexander, is ail done."' As far as we know, this is the first men tion of the Empress of India. That pari of the Emir's progm ime has been carried out. . The (rausferen e of the Court fro London to Jjvihi it is imp wsible to think • of, but who kn >w.s if at som • future time the Sovereign of the E i,dish ra.e mav not hold Court at.! :u, 1 •in and opei Parliament oh the s.t-j of >Solo.uoii: Temple! Perhaps when Macaulays New Zealandor leaves Auckland (by the Suez route, which will then, no doubt, be the favourite; to take his stand on a broken arch of London Bridge tu sketch .. the rub.s of St. Paul's, he may h'ud a Greater Britain in Syria, an . thai re longer does "the Baal adorer bow on . Sinai's steep." We have to crave par I• - , of our readers for bringing up ugiim tiii abominable Now Zealander, wil • >\.\* lie . come a nuisance to literature. W. ■ promise to try and do without him for-" least six months. We can see from . "'fancied ' that it is Disrael's idea that England should become a ,rutt 1' >.vor i Asia, which quarter of Lie world he lie-

lieves to have l*on <.-i>.' tally favoured , by God. Napoleon m i .lis., 11 i ideal i.i . Europe was used up, i.:d that the iml\ s chance sor a gran i jreer was m the hast. He trio*] tu realise that idea, but was "stuok-up" by Sir Sydney Smith al \ I Acre, aud ha I to give up Asia as a bud i job. An eminent Jew merchant in Loudon, ' I who talks in Disraeli stylo, as indeed du \ all the characters the author having no , dramatic cnpai ity. says:— rj "The Urunides .••■• •:■■ . La*ladvttntn.jc to Europe, and renovated the spiritual . hold which Asia lias always had Upon the ■ i North. It seems to wane at present, but ; | it if "nly Ihe decrease that precedes the ■ ' new development." 1 The hero of the story, Tancred, the ' son of an Fnglish duke determines to go to the East to drink in inspiration, where ! alone, according to Mr. Disraeli, inspira- ' tion was ever vouchsafed to man, hut is 1 delayed, having been seized with an aT- ! .feition {strictly Platonic and <itrtitinvut.il, 1 for another muius wife, and inns moraKses I i after a dineer at Greenwich : , I "The being who would be content with [' nothing less than communing with celestial powers in uttered climes, stan ling at a tavern window gazing on the mo-mlit , iiiudbanks of tho barbarous Thames, a river which neither angel nor prophet \ ' had ever visited'l .Before him, softened .I by the hour, was the Isle of Dogs ! Tho .1 Isle of Dogs I v It-should at least be , J Cyprus." ' II : There is in the book abundance of r writing'which U Lsditlicilt for a healthily i' canstituted inijad'ttf have phtience with. >!; Disraeli's characters'- iiVe eithor dukes, I fearlsvJews or ltuiike'oVand we have, long ) .«MLHaiv's coul#iniugc/)h\VMaUm>»betw*Siv i :V»eu3i booKo&out ,'"ilnuaiitg"tho tab**!"" • I ft***&MM&;'■ wfco . I ought lo'kirfJfiKrfciftifrg of the •MJee.t, r.l'does not tS?c| wflh' tftWo am*ring i ! people w.ho^Ven^eh' ; >jiMd withaoal t'fnr thnt the i Anglo-Six'toS<iV''iW' W' I-**'' ■&*•«• - He does not Vrftvei'lor ofic iliiilff, that 1' we are oleve/«pontfh\ is f r phi "Bv .1 highly t'imitej) '■ I

female that Tancred fall* in with, and of course I alls in love with, at Bethany, thus — '• \\" wart originally a nation of twelve tribes; ten, lung before tho advont of Jesus, had been carried into captivity and scattered over the East and Mediterranean World. They lire probably the source of the greater portion of the existing Hebrews ; for we know that, even in the time of Jesus, Hebrews came up to Jerusalem at the PaxMVer from every province of the Roman Empire, I hold that, to believe that the Hebrew communities are in n principal measure, the descendants of the Ten Tribes, ai:d of the other captivities preceding Christ, is a just, and fair, and sensible inference, which explains circumstances that otherwise could not be explicable." But to return to the Forehadowings in ' Tattooed," of the present policy of England in the East. We have one of the characters stating thai "the English, want Cydrus," that "the English will not do the business of the Turks again fori nothing. They will take this city (Jeru- '. Baleni), and keep it." By-the-way .Disraeli was wrong here. We did do the business of the Turks again for nothing at the Crimea, and moat people have regietted it ever since. Agaiu vvu have the Emir declaring:—

"If the English would only understand their own interests, with my co-operation Syria might be theirs. Why should England take Syria? asks Tancred. Something must be done, said the Emir, the Porte never could govern it. If the Egyptians had not disarmed the mountain, the Turks would be driven out of Svria in a week."

This 3ame gentleman puts forth the statement , which is cordially acquiesced in l>v Tancred, "God has never spoken to a European," and so we are all at one swoop, even those who hail from the Islaud of Saints, put on a much lower level than Asiatics. Here are the Sepoys and .heir work :

"And* the Turks have artillery, and ami t use it, said Lord Moutacute. Why, the most favoured part of tho rlohe at thi-> moment is oiitirely defenceless there is nol a sol lier worth firing at ii Asia except the Seypoys, The Persian Assyrian, and Babylonian Monarchies ..i.Liiit he gained in aiuorning, with faith mil the H. mrisn of a sabre." [u leed, Disraeli draws a very gloomy picture of the future of England, unless we send our rulers to Asia to get inspiration which be says is a local quality. Tancred again speaks: •The Government of this globe must be divine, and the impulse can only from Asia. The world, since the weation has owned the spiritual supremacy of Asia which is but natural, since Asia is the only portion of the world which the Creator of that world has deigned to visit, and in which he has ever conferred with man." We confess we find it difficult to maintain ourselves at this high and painful stretch of sentiment. We feel ieclined to say a word for Europe, aB not being utterly God-forgotten : and although Disraeli might think it. too ridiculous, we would put in a claim for New Zealand too, although probably it is in the same position as "the barbarous Thames," and that "neitoer angel nor prophet has ever