THE UNCONQUERED EMPIRE. (Watchman)

Waikato Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 2010, 26 May 1885, Page 2

THE UNCONQUERED EMPIRE. ( Watchman)

Iv these warlike times, it will not bo uninstriii'tive to take a glance hack at English Histoty, and revive oui memories, as to the part played by our ancestors in upholding the " brave old British flag." We find that the number of HnUth virfurci l>ij lan I anil v<r, commencing with the battle of Cressy. in 1346 to the f ill of Sebastopool in 18.">5, a pciiol of .')00 years, is 286. During that period Britain has gained. '210 distinct victories over France. 33 . .. . . Spain 23 Dutch 6 Russians 2 . Danes 1 . Swedes Making a grand total of 286 distinct \ ic'ones. No other country in the worl 1 cm piol'iee anything to compare mth this fighting record. A careful atulyis of tl ese battles exposes the t.irt tint most of them were fought .i^nnst \astly superior forces, numerically considered. And the very remarkable fact ia also brought to light that Btitain alone of all the nations can cl.nm to be an unconquered nation. It is true the Americans fought with the Ui itish, and gained their independence, but that was more in the nature of a mil war, and the success of the \meriram on that occasion cannot fairly be taken as a victory over Britain. Since 10G6, th<> year of the invasion of Kngland, nniler William of Normandy, no nostile foe- has phced hia foot on England's soil, and London remains the only capital city in the whole civilized world, whoie streets have never been trodden by a foreign foe. Berlin, Paris, Vienna, Ro ne, Madrid, have all at various times, ■uid some several times, had to accept terms of peace dictated by a victorious enemy in occupation of their capital. It is a moot point as to whether the Norman invasion of England (mi be rightly termed a conquest. It is allowed by hi-jtmi-ins th.it the Normans Wtre of the same race as the Angles, Jutes, and Savons, who had arrived in Britain at ju. earlier period. Consequently it wai moie a consolidation of the people than a ( onquest by a foreigner Anyhow, as l)r Freeman points out in his History of the Norman Conquest, the old order of tilings was not always done away with by the Norman invaders, and a new oider of things inaugurated, but the old order became, through this invasion, more firmly established. He says — "speaking generally, we may say that the final results of the Norm in Conquest wore to call forth .-.gain the old English spirit under new foims, and to put a fresh life intolhe old English institutions! whit h for a moment might seem to have been swept away When we compare our history with kindred lands beyond the sea, w ith Germany or Denmark, we see that the final effi ot of the conquest by William of Normanby was to enable us to preserve more of the spirit and institutions of earlier times, to keep up a mom unhio'>eti continuity with earlier time, than fell to the lot of those who never under. vent such a momentary scourge : for instince : — We nave never had to build up again from the beginning : We have never had to draw up a Con* jtitution : We have never been left without a National Assemby : We can still say the laws by which we are ruled are the laws of Edward the Confessor, with changes made by the Norman William : We have never seen, as Denmark saw, the growth of a nobility whcp° privileges were so great, and so hateful, that sooner than any longer endure the yoke, the nation threw itself at the feet of the king, and clothed him by a legal act, with the powers of a tyrant Denmark is again free : but her freedom is a thing of yesterday : it is not .in unbroken inheritance handed down from the days of Svveyn, and Canute, but the grant of a patriotic king of our own day. We have never split asunder as Germany did, under the power of a crowd of petty princes, trampling under foot alike the lawful powers of tho Ciown, nnd the rig'its and liberties of the people. (Germany, too, like Denmark, has risen in our own day to atruri life ; but that, too, is not an unbroken life. It is a life which was kindled afresh by the presence in the land of enemies speaking the same tongue as those who overcime ns on our own soil seven centuriea-and a-half earlier. As the Norman Conquest of England preserved tiic old national life of England, so th» momentary Freni.li Conquest of Germany stirred up again the old national life of Germany. But there was this great difference : the one, as in our case, preserved ; the other, as iv the case of Germany, stirred up. In Germany the invader was ft foreign enemy, who had simply to be driven out as soon as the nation had gathered strength to do the good woik In England the invader was a disguised kinsman, who could be won over, and changed iuto a fellow workei." "Then it was," says Lord Ma can lay, speaking of the unification of the Angles, Danes, Saxons, and Normans in England, that the national character began to exhibit those peculiarities which it has ever since retained, and that our father* became emphatically islanders — islander* not merely in geographical position, but in thrir politics, m their feelings, and in their manners. Then first appeared with distinctness that constitution which has «-ver since, through all changes, pre« served its identity, that constitution of which all the other free constitution* of the world are copies. Early in the fourteenth century, the amalgamation of the race was also complete, and it wai soon made manifest by signs not to b* mistaken that a people inferior to none existing in the world, haj arisen in Britain."

As an instance of the fall in the value of land in the South of Scotland, property in the best part of East Lothian was lately sold for £16,600, which colt » £27,000 only a few years ago. Her Majesty has contributed £200 to the funds of the Royal Fund for the Relief of the Orphins of Sea Fishermen, and the Prince of Wales, who is President of the Society, has contributed 100 guinea*. Tub population of New York city it about 1,300,000, and of this number only 12,210, or fewer than one in 100, return personal property for taxation, and thit although the city is the great receptacle for personal wealth of the country. Em-kkimunts are now being made in the sinallarm3 factory of St. Etienne, France, with a new infantry rifle, the invention of M. Picard, a nephew of the French General of that name, the loading of which, so it is stated, requires only two movements, and which can be fired thirty times a minute. Tiih Indian budget shows that for the year ended March 31, 1884, tlieie was * surplus of over £1,000,000 ; for the year t end.ng Maich 31, 18S5, there will be %M deficit of £300,000, and that the esti-™ mated surplus for the year ending March 31. ISB6, will be £32,000. Thk English school system has dovclopul a novel form of State aid. According to a London paper a dentist ha 3 been appointed to the district school! at Emerley, England. He is to attend one morning weekly, and receive a salary — of £60 a year, the School Board supply* ■ ing instruments and materials. A VHoMiMAT military officer in Kingston, Canada, has received a letter informing him that there aro 3500 Fenianfl at Hutlalo drilling with a \iew of making a raid on Canada. All tho great rivers of Russia aie interlaced by artificial cauals, through which thousands of barges, some as high as 1000 tons burden, make their way every navigation season from the Volga to the Ne\a. The cost of maintaining these waterways reaches £240,000 annually.