Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 66, No 409, November 1849Various
History
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 66, No 409, November 1849
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
When, therefore, not only a considerable portion of the press of this
country, but the government itself, is found espousing the cause of
revolution in the south of Europe, we need not be surprised if other
governments, at a period of so much danger and insecurity, regard
Great Britain as a renegade to the cause of order. Our position at
present is, in reality, one of great difficulty, and such as ought
to make us extremely cautious of indulging in unnecessary bravado.
The state of our financial affairs is anything but encouraging. We
are answerable for a larger debt than any other nation of the world;
and our economists are so sensible of the weight of our burdens, that
they would fain persuade us to denude ourselves even of the ordinary
means of defence. Our foreign exports are stationary; our imports
immensely increasing; our home market reduced, for the present, to a
state of terrible prostration. Free trade, by destroying the value
of agricultural produce, has almost extinguished our last hope of
restoring tranquillity to Ireland, and of raising that unhappy country
to the level of the sister kingdoms. It is in vain that we have
crippled ourselves to stay the recurring famine of years, since our
statesmen are leagued with famine, and resolute to persevere in their
iniquity. The old hatred of the Celt to the Saxon is still burning
in the bosoms of a large proportion of the misguided population of
Ireland; and were any opportunity afforded, it would break forth as
violently as ever. So that, even within the girdle of the four seas,
we are not exactly in that situation which might justify our provoking
unnecessary hostility from abroad. So far we are entirely at one with
the Peace Congress. When we look to the state of our colonies, the
prospect is not more encouraging. Through Whig misrule, our tenure of
the Canadas has become exceedingly precarious. The West Indies are
writhing in ruin; and even the inhabitants of the Cape are rampant,
from the duplicity of the Colonial Office. Our interest is most
clearly and obviously identified with the cause of order; for, were
Britain once actively engaged in a general war, it is possible that
the presence of her forces would be required in more than a single
point. Of the final result, in the event of such a calamity, we have no
doubt, but not the less, on that account, should we deeply deplore the
struggle.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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