"DOWN WITH ENGLAND."

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2498, 14 July 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

"DOWN WITH ENGLAND."

A work with the above title has been published in France, and translated into English. We have not yet met with a copy, but from a review of it learn that that the author lias written one of the cleverest bits of future history that has appeared since " The Battle of Dorking." It is a vigorous account of a supposed successful invasion of England by the French. England, spread as she is all over the world, is represented as the common enemy of Europe, and is denouneed as such in the French Legislature. Finally war breaks out, and the way in which this occurs is most cleverly accounted for, so that the narrative reads, as, indeed, it does throughout, like a record of actual events. How the news is received in London and England generally, the tremendous excitement caused, the paralysis of business, the crashes in the money market, the crowding of steamers with foreigners and others clearing out of the country, furnish a lively chapter. Ireland becomes at once a factor On the 1 side of France by detaining a large British force. The English fleet is defeated in a well-told naval battle, and a hundred and fifty thousand French are landed at Hastiugs, the melinite shells being, we are told, of very essential service. A decisive battle is fought near Hastings', and of course, as the book is written from a French point of view, the " battle of Hastings " ends in a decisive victory for the invaders. The engagement is well and vividly told. In reference to the melinite shells we are told " They had not only quickly silenced the English artillery, but within a radius of 300 yards their explosion mowed down everything. Men without any sign of a wound were picked up dead— a postmortem discovered that a few grains of metal had penetrated some vital part. " A proclamation follows in the name of the French Republic stating that the invaders have no desire to "conquer your land," but they wish to obtain reparation for insults and injuries ; and one result of the landing is that, the workshops and factories being closed, the lower and wage-earning classes are at once on the brink of civil war, and have to be held in check by the Volunteers. Waterloo is fought over again at Tunbridge Wells, but the issue is° reversed. London falls and the Queen abdicates, and a peace is made, stripping Great Britain of most of her colonies, of her ships of war, and taking from her an indemnity of £500,000,000. It is pointed out all along that the democracy renders a prolonged resistance impossible, and stress is laid on the helplessness of Rngland directly an active enemy obtains full command of the sea. The reviewer cannot help smiling at many impossibilities which are forced to the aid of the supposed successful invaders, but he admits that there are many things in the book that are by no means laughing matters. The British army is very fully discussed, and whilst its many good points are fully admitted, its defects are made use of in working out the story of defeat at Hastings and Tunbridge. On one point the an tlior is quite at "sea, namely, in supposing all along that the democracy would aid the invaders by their turbulence. The people would assuredly sink all differences and unite against any invader. But at the best, it is useless to bliuk over the fact that even an attempt to invade Engiand would produce a commercial cataclysm of a most tremendous character, and as social order now depends so much upon commercial factors, distress might lead to fearful disorder.