with Imperial duties, with honour, glory? What have you to do with generosity, with liberality, with science? A tradesman thou, and hope to go to heaven! But, indeed, is it really money only that has made England what she is? Not a bit of it. It is not the bankers, the brokers, the manufacturers who have made the great name and honour and renown of England. When a foreigner exclaims of England, 'Ah, she is a great nation!' does he simply think of her wealth, of Lombard Street or Cornhill? No; her glory is more associated with those to whom money-grubbing had no attraction-her men of science, her grand old mariners, the glorious deeds of her soldiers and sailors, her warriors and statesmen-these are the stones with which England's glory and greatness were built. England, with her colonies and possessions, is a giant amongst nations. Deprived of them, she is a dwarf. Her Empire comprises nearly 5,000,000 of square miles, with a population of over 250,000,000 of inhabitants. Shorn of her colonies and possessions, Great Britain sinks into comparative obscurity, with an area of 120,000 square miles, and a population of 32,000,000. But Gladstoneism looks with no pride on such figures. According to many of its supporters, the Empire of England was acquired by fraud and force, and is maintained by tyranny and extortion. The warriors and statesmen who built it upClive, Hastings, Wellington, and Nelson-instead of deserving the foremost places in the capitol, should be veiled and put in a dark room, out of sight. Gladstoneism would make Britannia, like Jane Shore, do penance in a white sheet for the sins of empire. Gladstoneism induced the English people to accept the disgrace of the Alabama Conference. Gladstoneism induced the English people to sneak out of the Transvaal like whipped hounds. Gladstoneism would now induce the English people to desert their Envoy, and holds that his life is a matter of 'secondary, very secondary' importance. What further disgrace Gladstoneism is preparing for England the approaching Conference will soon disclose. How immediately has the poison circulated through our veins! How quickly can the national spirit be debased! Could Gordon have been deserted five years ago? No; it required the gospel of the Transvaal to familiarise us with dishonour. A thousand years scarce serve to form a State, Of course in all stages of our history we have had amongst us faddists,' extremists, revolutionists, fanatics, who have cried Perish India!' who would let Ireland, India, Australia, and all the colonies go; who deny the right of property, who would abolish the Church, the Throne, the House of Lords; who would have no army, no navy; who oppose the Contagious Diseases Act, the Vaccination Act, &c.-who have, in fact, Ni foi, ni roi, ni loi;' such men have always existed; but hitherto they have not been considered practical politicians; they have either been chaffed or rated into silence: but now this has all changed. Gladstoneism pats them all on the back and calls them very fine fellows; there is not at this moment a 'faddist,' a revolutionist, a nihilist, an atheist, who, if he can bring votes, is not welcomed into the Gladstonian fold, and does not look upon Gladstoneism as his creed. Talk of the Cave of Adullam. Was there ever such a cave as this? It is quite possible that Gladstoneism may have no sympathy with extremists and 'faddists' of all kinds. But whose fault is it if they believe it has? It is the apparent impossibility of using plain words, the incessant employment of language to conceal the truth; it is the perpetual hair-splitting and torturing of words, childish distinctions between beleaguered' and 'surrounded,' between 'wars' and 'military operations,' between a 'prohibitory' telegram and a 'dissuasive' one that are more suited to Some peaceful province in Acrostic Land, Where they might wings display and altars raise, than to the vocabulary of statesmen ! The Northern half of America said to her wayward sister, 'You shall not go; you shall not break up the grandeur of the Empire.' Gladstonianism said to Ireland at Kilmainham, and says it to her again now, 'Do as we tell you, and you shall go; you shall break up the Empire. There is a thing that is much more odious to us than Repeal, than Disunion, than severing the ties between Great Britain and Ireland, and that is Imperialism, Toryism, Conservatism; only help us to crush out this pest, and you may have what you like-even to half the kingdom!' Gladstoneism has no vigour, no backbone. It knows no hard-and-fast line between order and disorder; between what is within the Constitution and what is without it, between national dignity and national humility; between common sense and sentimental nonsense; there is nothing in it to rouse the pride of our race; the refrain of Civis Romanus sum' jangles on its ears as the church bells do on those of Mephistopheles; it is unnational, humble, undecided, squeezable, and above all things it is apologetic; it apologises for anything and to anybody; it apologises to the peace enthusiasts for maintaining a sufficient army and navy to keep off invasion, to the Dissenters for maintaining an Established Church, to the Democrats for maintaining a House of Lords, to Republicanism for preserving the Throne, to Mr. Parnell for maintaining the Union, to the Baboos of Calcutta for retaining India, to the Boors for remaining in South Africa, to Mr. Stansfeld for the Contagious Diseases Act to Mr. Hopwood for the Vaccination Act, and soon, apparently, it is going to apologise to Europe for the ruin of Egypt and to pay the bill. |