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" UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLES /' A . HTD THE DOCTRINES OF INTEEVENTION AND NON-INTERVENTION . THE PAST CONSEQUENCES OP THOSE DOCTHOTES . Letter II . ( To the Editor of the Leader . ) SIEj—Principles of universal national faith have long usurped the place of reason and experience . Starting from the belief that there # is a perfect principle upon which each tenet is individually grounded , our public men and private writers have settled their bases upon vague generalities , and founded their structures upon sand . For to render a great political tenet perfect , it must evidently be believed in , and faithfully observed , not only- by one country , but by all countries whose weight in the political world is such as to enable them , if so disposed , to render that principle inoperative . This is precisely where our principles have failed us , and where they will fail us still . But aphorisms are ever more dazzling than veracious . " We admire their brilliancy , and receive their logic upon faith . One moment ' s reflection suggests the impossibility of these universal principles . Impracticable in the present day , where national culture is so irregularly distributed—where intellects are so various—where civilization is so unequally diffused—such allcomprehensive beliefs must be postponed to future acres , when knowledge more universal ,
prejudices diminished , and minds more upon a level , shall admit of their possibility . Speak to that tangled-haired , gleaming-eyed , fierce and impulsive Magyar of universal brotherhood , ho would look upon you with a smile of contempt and incredulity . " Expatiate to that Turk upon the beauties of Christianity , he would fell you with his seimotar . Dilate to that Arab upon the rights of property , travel with the next unarmed caravan , he would give you a practical exemplification of bis conversion . Preach the law of
nations in Japan , non-intervention in Russia , ownership of one ' s-self in Africa and America , what replies would you receive ? The impossibility of universal principles , then , ia clear . And must we , after years of painful effort , return upon the policy of expediency P Expediency has been an ill-used word for the paternal consideration with which we might treat infant states , tho condescending support that we might render them would be utterly out of place when they had increiweil in power and riches , caution munt
take the place of support , distrust that of confidence ;* and this in not expediency , but necessity , and it is necessity alono with altered circumstances and relations that must guide our proceedings . We cannot fix stable , universal principles in presence of instability and variously diversified beliefs . Let us in theory . «¦« w <) a ™ to 11 great degree ; in fact , be guided by necessity , and we shall avoid the grave errors of past failures , and the probability of future disgraces which would be ludicrous , if their effects were
not ko terrible . The . Htihuico of Power dogma dates from the Home <»("( ) raiif > c , I . he non-intervention aphorism * L < lo not Uoro alludo to our own colonicH and rtepoiiuoricioB .
from the changes wrought by the first French Revolution . Kings had conducted mighty wars for the maintenance of the limits accorded to royal houses . Royal alliances , royal ambition , royal hatreds , seized the people s arm , and bade it strike . It struck once too often ; and hundreds of millions of debt , and , what men estimated less , hundreds of thousands of lives paid the atonement of outraged humanity . Unfortunately
where the people decides , it decrees m ex tremes , but never balances its decisions . The edict ot intervention fulminated against liberty had led to mighty evils . Public opinion became a Colossus , and amidst the applause of vociferating multitudes non-intervention was proclaimed the rallying point of Europe . But the despotic rulers of mankind have always known how to avail themselves exclusivelv of new principles . These unhappily
half enlightenedpeoplesof the West , thesehall-cuitivated communities , struggled against the rapid and subtle wiles of irresponsible powers wielchng the ignorant obedience of their subjects . The rapidity andunitedness of despotism overwhelmed the hesitations and doubts of disunited freedom , and Poland , Cracow , Hungary , by a deep red blood-line , were blotted out from the list of nations . " " Non-intervention , " said Marshal Soult in the French House of Peers , "is henceforth our prinfiinle _ we will respect this religiously , but upon
the essential condition that it shall be respected by others . " Soult did not perceive that the people never attaches conditions to its beliefs I Lafitte only expressed the opinion of rulers when he said , " France will not permit the principle of non-intervention to be violated ; " andDupm , the organ of the Court , only uttered the thoughts of statesmen when he declared that " France would not permit intervention , " and that " this was the most noble attitude that could be assumed by a strong and generous nation . " Alas , this attitude had been only assumed , —when the people had
grown powerful , —when public opinion nad become omnipotent , —when the grossness of past intervention stood revealed ; the people , always deceived , and always deceiving itself—the people hugged non-intervention as the serpent that was henceforth to sting and wound its dearest hopes and principles . And yet , sir , let us tell this poor suffering people , kings have not foregone the faculty of intervention . Again and again has non-intervention been violated , and but thrice , ostensibly , for freedom ; in Belgium , in Portugal , and in Greece . But this Portuguese interference was only
England ' s contre coup in retaliation of the French entry into Spain in 1823 . This shameful entry into Spain , this crushing of Spanish freedom , was one act of the restored dynasty of France . Tho intervention in Portugal was to hurl the troops of despotic Ferdinand , and the royal Portuguese rebels back upon Spanish soil . They were hurled back ; but when a revolution in Portugal itself established tho brutal Miguel upon the throne , England did not move . Greece was delivered from tho Turkish yoke , but Greece was not rendered , nor was it intended
she should bo rendered free ; Bho was delivered up to internal anarchy , to a despotic administration , and to Russian intrigues . The European Powers wero supported by Russia in the Greek Question ! And now , in 1853 , arises the Patriarch and tho Holy Places disputation , and Prince MenzschikofF is received by the Grecian population of Turkey with the ovations due to a God . Russia does not forget her mission !
These liberal interventions disposed of , let us cast a retrospective glance upon Italy and Spain . Naples had revolted in 1820 , and Ferdinand had agreed to receive the lately liberalized Spanish Constitution . Hut the nllied ' sovereigns of Russia , Austria , and PrusRia interfered . An Austrian army rapidly occupied the Neapolitan territory , and the popular Government was abolished . Piedmont and Genoa introduced the same constitution , " but the old Government was everywhere
restored by the Austrian army . France momentarily hesitated whether Rho would support Italian independence ; but presently Colonel Ravinotti proclaims to the Pupal troops , — " Good news ! The King of France , by express courier , assures the Holy Father of his assistance and intervention to maintain the pontifical ^ states under the Government of the Holy See . " But Austria wan about to enter flic Duch y of MVxlena , rind you -who stand appalled Jit the ialfiity of the pretexts of mankind , glance upon tho foundations of her right ! The existence of Modona as an
independent State bad been guaranteed by the treaty of Vienna . To justify her interference , therefore , Austria asserted that the possession ol a reversionary right conferred upon her the faculty of intervention during the reig _ mng -Uuke s Government ! Strange assertion . What attention would our British courts of law devote to a claim of the right of interference during the life-time of the possessor , in the management of an estate in which we held a
reversionaryinterest P But absolute sovereigns require pretexts and pretexts only ; if they do not enst , they create them . Right is not always to be had , but pretexts can ever be found . Yet France declared , through M . Lafitte , " that if Austria persisted , there was but one reply , and that reply was—War . " All the ministers applauded , and M . Sebastiani , Minister of Foreign Affairs , engaged to answer the Austrian note in this sense : " Marshal Maison , the French Ambassador at Vienna , is charged to present a declaration Austria the
which formally interdicts to entry of the Roman States . " Austria replied not only with firmness , but with insult . "Up to the present moment , " said M . de Metternich , " have permitted France to put" forward the principle of non-intervention , but it is time she were taught that we do not intend to recognize this principle in what concerns Italy ! We shall advance our armies wherever the insurrection extends , and should war follow , why , let it follow . We would rather run the chances of war than be exposed to perish in the midst of dmeutes . " But war , nevertheless , did not follow ,
and the year 1823 saw a French army stifling the liberal constitution of Spain ! So much for fixed principles of policy—so much for the universal principle of non-intervention ! It ; was in vain that Lord Brougham ' s powerful voice reprehended the policy of the Continent and the inactive and timid conduct of the British Government . England did not awake until 1826 , and her sleep had been so long that her dream was scarcelythought to have ceased , and it was even believed that a long lethargy would soon succeed . This
might have happened had not the Grecian question re-awakened her . It would be useless to recount this mournful history ; freedomleading to anarchy , support leading to dependence ; the Russian , Austrian , and British alliance to the exclusion of the French , and , what ought never to be forgotten , the separate treaty that Russia dictated to her humbled adversary under the walls of Adrianople , the second city of the Turkish Empire . Is this long list not yet complete , and must I refer to more recent enormities—to
Cracow , to Hesse-Cassel , to IJungary , and to Rome , to convince statesmen and the people that absolute principles in diplomacy are destructive to the prosperity of nations P Must I cite the long list of melancholy evidences to prove what we have lost by this absolute principle of non-intervention , and what despotism has gained by it P To prove to the people that it has been mistaken and its policy misguided . This list , sir , is a very long and mournful one , the facts it preh these facts
sents are startling , and vet althoug , sown thickly over the history of Europe , have boon admonishing us for years , their warning has been in vain . Dullards as our liberalists were when they gave tongue to this unhappy cry , they have been sutained and strengthened by the dulcet tones of the Peace Society , whose notes , so to say , rounded the harmony which has filled our ears and ravished away our senses , while tho ruin of our " principles" was being forcibly accomplished .
In my next letter I shall give a short resume of tho strange doctrines here animadverted upon , and I shall endeavour to prove tho imperative necessity of a change in policy so one-sided in its O 2 > erations and bo disastrous in its effects . Alpha .
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" A STRANGER" IN PARLIAMENT . Some member ought to move for a select committee to inquire into tho origin of the institution of Eastor and Whitsuntide recesses . There is a traditional belief thnt ( i session of Parliament should commence about February , nnd should never lost over tho 1 st September , nnd that traditional notion is so firmly established that notwithstanding what might bo urged an to tho consequences of hurry and bustle in public business , it would bo qnito in viiin to attempt to disturb tho accepted theory . Hut why an adjournment at Easter , wlien a fortnight is lost ; why Ioho another week afc Whitsuntide ? Lord John Russell would refer you to
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Giusti represents the little tyrant Duke of ] Vf odena as envying the sovereign whose country was blessed by so inventive an engineer . " ' Ah ! perchfe , ' dice al Canosa , Tin Tiberco ill diciottesimo , ' Questo genio non m ' e nato Nelducato ?"' "Why , oh ! why , my chief policeman , Only guardian of my peace , man , — Why , alas ! was no such great man Born in our own little State , man ? Born to settle patriots touchy In one ' duchy ? Shall Prance be denied what Modena envies and Florence imagines P Is there no gallowswise engineer to introduce the improvement ? It would save time where there is much to * be done . English capital has already helped Louis JSTapoleon at a pinch ; why not help him now at a chop P The investment would prove a safe one , for the steam guillotine could soon be tried in Prance—the police could find a traitor and jury at any moment , to provide the raw material for the experiment ; and once successful , no doubt it would' be on demand throughout the Austrian dominions , with good prospects in other countries gradually recovered to the dominion of Absolutism .
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THE LEADER . [ Saturday ^
492
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 21, 1853, page 492, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1987/page/12/
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