by Persia and by the Arabs. We will acknowledge the Empress of India as
our suzerain, and secure for her the Levantine coast. If she like, she
shall have Alexandria, as she now has Malta. It could be arranged. Your
Queen is young. She has an _avenir_. Aberdeen and Sir Robert Peel will
never give her this advice; their habits are formed. They are too old,
two _ruses_. But you see! the greatest empire that ever existed; besides
which she gets rid of the embarrassment of her chambers! and quite
practicable! For the only difficult part, the conquest of India, which
baffled Alexander, is all done.’ Who can avoid seeing that Lord
Beaconsfield has been quite recently referring to this passage—‘not,’ as
he said, ‘for amusement, but for instruction?’ These are all the ideas
of his recent policy in germ—especially the treatment of the British
Empire as having its centre of gravity in the far East—the use of the
Indian Army for conquest to be made in Western Asia—the acquisition of
the Levantine coast for Great Britain—the active alliance between the
British power and the Mohammedan power—and last, not least, the getting
rid, to a great extent at least, by the help of Indian leverage, of ‘the
embarrassment of the chambers.’ For the last eight months, at least,
English policy has evidently been borrowed from ‘Tancred.’ The monarch,
for anything we know, has been ‘magnetised.’ The Cabinet assuredly have.
Lord Derby and Lord Carnarvon have been treated much as the Emir in
‘Tancred’ would have treated ‘Aberdeen and Sir Robert Peel’—thrown aside
as two ‘ruses.’”
England has indeed adopted an Oriental policy, and forward she must go to
execute Jehovah’s purpose. Russia is preparing on a gigantic scale. In
Prussia the most flourishing branch of trade among the Germans at present
is the manufacturing of arms for Russia. Though the late war be over,
still Russia is buying ships, and fitting them out in this country. She
feels bitterly her defeat through English diplomacy: England taking
Cyprus, assuming protection over Asiatic Turkey, and making Russia yield
back to Turkey 30,700 geographical miles which was contained in the
original Treaty of San Stefano. The following from the Government organ
of Russia will give you some idea of her chagrin.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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