The International Magazine, Volume 2, No. 2, January, 1851Various
History
The International Magazine, Volume 2, No. 2, January, 1851
Various
Art, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- History -- Periodicals
appreciating and defining for themselves their own life, and governing
themselves in accordance with their own appreciation of it. And I cannot
believe that it is well for you or for Europe that such things can be
accomplished in the eyes of the world, without one nation arising out of
its immobility to protest in the name of universal justice. This is to
enthrone brute force, where, by the power of reason, God alone should
reign; it is to substitute the sword and poniard for law--to decree a
ferocious war without limit of time or means between oppressors rendered
suspicious by their fears, and the oppressed abandoned to the instincts
of reaction and isolation. Let Europe ponder upon these things. For if
the light of human morality becomes but a little more obscured, in that
darkness there will arise a strife that will make those who come after
us shudder with dread.
The balance of power in Europe is destroyed. It consisted formerly in
the support given to the smaller states by the great powers: now they
are abandoned. France in Italy, Russia in Hungary, Prussia in Germany, a
little later perhaps in Switzerland; these are now the masters of the
continent. England is thus made a nullity; the "celsa sedet in Eolus in
arce," which Canning delighted to quote, to express the moderating
function which he wished to reserve for his country, is now a
meaningless phrase. Let not your preachers of the theory of material
interests, your speculators upon extended markets deceive themselves;
there is history to teach them that political influence and commercial
influence are closely bound together. Political sympathies hold the key
of the markets; the tariff of the Roman Republic will appear to you, if
you study it, to be a declaration of sympathy towards England to which
your government did not think it necessary to respond.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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