The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, MAY 14, 1885. ENGLAND HUMILIATED.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1340, 14 May 1885, Page 2

The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, MAY 14, 1885. ENGLAND HUMILIATED.

The prestige lost by England through the policy recently pursued by the Gladstone Ministry will take the expenditure of millions of money and the loss of many a human life to regain. England has secured peace for the present, but the war must comp—and a terrible war it must be too —before she is again reinstated in the position she once held. Had the Gladstone Ministry adhered to the “ Peace at any Price policy” consistently, those who differed from them would respect them now. They could now hold up their heads

and say, “ Our rule has been one of peace. The barbarous, disastrous policy of shedding human blood has never pceived, and never shall, our sanction, for henceforth we are determined that all differences shall be settled by peaceable arbitration.” This, however, the Gladstone Ministry cannot say. As Lord Randolph Churchill recently told them, “ their pathway is crimsoned hr the blood of innocence.” Hitherto they have acted the part of the bully : now they have taken up the role of the coward. Wherever during their term of office a weak, half-civilised nation has attempted to bn-alc its shackles the Gladstone Ministry have rivetted its fetters tiiiliter than before ; but now, when required to uphold the prestige of the Empiie in India, when justice calls upon them to draw the sword ; when the cause of God and man is at stake, they beg of the enemy to submit the dispute to arbitration. They suggested no such course to the Zulus ; nor to Arab! Pasha ; nor to the Soudanese: yet all these had no object in view except to improve their native lands. Mr Gladstone himself said that the Soudanese were people who were “justly struggling to be free,” yet he sent an English army to crush them into subjection to Egyptian tyranny. The Russians are people who are unjustly struggling to obtain dominion over countries and peoples beyond their own territory—their object is to plunder and rob their neighbors, and Mr Gladstone treats them with the utmost urbanity, and is satisfied to give them anything sooner than go to 'war. Ho is, as a French paper told him, ready to feast on humble pie. There is no one who takes any pride at all in the land of his birth but must feel humiliated by the way England has been made the laugh-ing-stock of Europe lately. The Russian question is not the only one .on which the Gladstone Ministry have been weak and vacillating. Not long ago Prince Bismarck nude a speech in the German Parliament, in the course ot which he accused them of having published documents of a private nature ; and also of having made false statements regarding himself. The next hear! of this mater was that Earl Granville, in a speech in the House of Lords, had apologised to Prince Bismarck—a proceeding which perhaps has no parallel in the history of political institutions. The following extracts from French papers will give an idea of what these proceedings are thought of:

The Paris journal, La France, under the humiliating title of u L’AgenouUlce" (On Her Knees), says “ Yesterday England was more insolent than the proud Sicambre; to-day she bovra down her head to kiss the hand that strikes her. The great agenouilUe is far from the time when she boasted of making Louis Phillippe and Guizot pass through a mousehole. This humiliation avenges many of the affronts we received from her. The ingratitude of England towards ns has received a terrible punishment. Proud Albion comes repentant to the tribune of penance ; she makes amende honorable. She lowered her flag at a nod from M. Bismarck. .... And yet we are

nob far from the time when England braved the whole world, trampled on the most sacred rights, disdained all advice, and repulsed the most disinterested offers. The charlatanism and intimidation which were successful with the ignorant populations in India deceive no one in Europe, the secret of her weakness is known to everyone now, and her pitiful aspect today makes her resemble the character in the Vaudeville, who says : l N’avmcez pas ouje remit. ” The Repubhque Francaise, founded by Gambetta, says “Our neighbors have a sentence as signiheative as it is impossible to translate it to characterise the language of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. They say that the orator had eaten humble pie, that he had avale tousles crapands de I'humilete (a sentence equally impossible

to translate into English). . . . Those who have not forgotten, as they seem to have done in Downing street, the traditions of England, of Pitt and Wellington, will perhaps regret in a point de me pictoresqxie that the humble language of Lord Granville replaces the proud accents of ‘ Rule Britannia.’ ”

Another paper begins an article with the following The German Jupiter. When Jupiter frowned, according to the Olympian mythology, the univeise trembled. A political Jupiter has turned up who seems to have conquered the Pagan legend attributed to the ruler of the gods. His every word is order that even the strongest dare not resist. England has given the proof of this truth, as strange as it is incontestable,” etc., etc.

It is thus the blundering of the antiquated old fossils who guide the destinies of England, have made her a subject for the sneer and the scoff of all Europe. Jiarl Granville brought it all on himself by misrepresenting Prince Bismarck and then apologising to him. Never, probably, in the history of political institutions, has there been known an instance of a Government of one country apologising to that of another, but that, however, is very small compared with other transactions. The Germans insulted the English flag in Africa, they settled it amicably ; the German broke the treaty of joint protectorship in Samoa, it was amicably settled ; for suppressing a little newspaper in Egypt the French became violently bellicose, but the matter was smoothed over quietly ; Italy has taken up a position on the died Sea, England bad no objection ; Russia has committed an unprovoked assault on the Afghans, it is settled by p eac(,a blfl arbitration. Swallow the leek from the powerful enemy ; crush, brow-beat and oppress poor, half-civilised, halt armed people, “justly struggling to be free” : that is the policy of England under the Gladslonian regime. If we, here in the Australian colonies, desire to annex any of the South Pacific Islands, England will not dare to allow us do so

unless she can get Prince Bismarck’s consent, Samoa has sent prayers and pelilions to be annexed to New Zealand, but, though Germany has broken the treaties of joint protectorship, England dare not accede to the Samoans’ prayer. And yet there never was a British Government had more spontaneous and patriotic promises of support. Parliament has voted to them £15,000,C00 to defray the expenses of the Egyptian campaign ; it has recently added to this £11,000,000 to meet present difficulties; Canada has been forcing her assistant on them ; the Indian princes have all promised most loyal support ; and all Australasia has risen as me man to defend the integrity of the Empire. What more could they want ? What more could they expect ? One would think the loyalty, devotion, and enthusiasm, which the people at Home and in the colonies have shown would inspire a Ministry composed of logs of wood. Yet it has not moved the uladstone Ministry, and, what is still more strange, a ra jority of the House of Commons appears to approve of their action. They are, however, only putting off the evil day. The war must come, and it will be when the Russians have fortified the position they have taken up on the frontier, and when they will be far more difficult to repel than they are at present. England gains time by the transaction, but time is more valuable to the Russians, because they can render their position impregnable and then fling defiance in our face. However, we have no power to settle the difficulty, and it is therefore useless to pursue the subject further.