ENGLAND ON THE DEFENSIVE.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2854, 8 April 1878, Page 2

ENGLAND ON THE DEFENSIVE.

The following passage is taken from an admirable but little known sermon preached by Dr. Farrar, Cation of Westminster, to the volunteers at Wimbledon camp on Sunday morning, Julj 17th, 1870, a few days after the declaration of war between France and Gcnncny. The position of the country has not so materially changed, in the iasfc seven years as to render the extract uninteresting. The sermon was, at the request of the Council of the National Eifle Association, and, wo may add, of many of the volunteers present on the occtsion, printed sad published by Messrs Longmans:— £r Farrar said : " What is the political, what the social and moral condition of England now P If it be such as to kindle our apprehension—if like some rank mist from the sea there are gradual ctHs which begin to poison the springs of he-lthy life, then shall we as men or as a nation acquiesce in those evils—or hare we the eyes to sec, the manliness to acknowledge, the courage to face, the energy, so far as in us lies, to amend them end ameliorate? Politically, I need not speak. The poti< tion is patent to every thoughtful man. Our general foreign policy is now unalterable, and what began in expedience has developed iuto necessity. Whatever dignity we may derive from character — from a wide yet .temperate development of generous institutions—from an obvious desire to do what is right were it even to our own hindrance — from a temperament sin-

cerely, yet let us hope, not pnsillaaimously pacific—thit dignity may still gi?e us ft weight of moral influence in the council* of Jjuiope; but where the passions of nations are once furiously kindled, itneeda the experience of the last few days to ■how us that we must not be surprised if moral influence unsupported by material strength, is as powerless as a king's word to stay the march of an ocean ware. It may be Rood for us, and good for the world, that we cannot and will not maintain the terrible unwieldly burden of large standing armies—a burden which most already be dangerous to liberty, and injurious to peace. It may be right for us in the face of Europe to' declare that ike people of Ko*Ia«4«MU •*»«•« mere army, or, their country, a mere icamp; and-if-to, if d«f views are deliberately more sober and less imperious - —if the. lordly dominance and lion-heart, of the Plantagenets be. as obsolete in on policy as their battle-axes mouldering in some forgotten tower—'then; we must be content to know that the daysof'Creiy, and Agincourt, the days of WenlMisa an* Oudenarce, the days of Talavera and Waterloo—it may be> eren.the dagrt<of Alma and Inkerman—are of the past. But if it be our wisdoaa or our rigktaooa* } ness to adopt an insular policy, let us at the same time remember that we are no > longer an island. . • v ■;- ■ ■. 1;/ "■" *;; ~ '"■: ' That white, that pale-iaced thorp, Whose foot •paras bock the ocean's iworinj tMtoe ; ' ho longer as in the days of the poet. ' Keep from other landr her kaMUrta.' ■"■ I. "\ Powerless for, aggression,, powerless for armed interference.in the: Mnse.bjTlfarb* pean right; England most nerer, t& least, be powerless for the mightiest sclftbfonea. If the little town of Sparta needed no walls save the breasts of her citisens, yet for three centuries never saw the .fires of an enemy's camp, let us determinethatr for England also the same living bastion, ■hall be an impregnable defence. If we can no longer sweep the seas with an irresistible fleet—if the days of the Nile and Trafalgar be but memories' of A former pre-eminence—let us at least declare that the days of the Armada shall be possible as long, as the .sea heats., on our shores. - If no' longer^ the'.wfcrlii, over, can our ancient and royal nation be the'6kiv*Js6ds ehantpion of the oppressed, let her at least be as the strong man armed whose goods are in peace. If she can assume no other attitude as she gases in uneasy neui^tyon thcbatta'fisjdsof Europe, at least let' her haad graip the cross hilt as abe r.taads bailing upon her sword. Otherwise she.is not safe. "Lei, her once become' weak as she is wealthy/ hated as she ii envied—let b«r once become not only disregarded „bul despised—why then in an avjey which has almost seen the paititionofPoland, lie must be indeed simple 'thinks that prelcnees would : long, be; .wanting for her annihilation, or,,that,mere considerations of honor and justice would not snap and shrivel in the minds of her enemies like tow before the flame. Two days ago a great warwaa impossibi*;, to* day is a fact. ; The embers have long smouldered-r-tb-dajp they have 'burst into a lurid blaxe; *nd ?f we be caught in that whirlwind, of battle;' are we so exempt fromthecommon destiny of nations twfe any one should dare to prophefliytiiat ow* millennial tradition of. civil liberty might not perish in. the storm P