" THE PRESENCE, NOT TO SAY ASCENDANCY, OF ENGLAND IN
THE COUNSELS OF EUROPE."
(TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.") SIR,—This pretentious phrase of our Caucasian Premier sounds like a mockery, when we contrast it with the position, naval and military, to which we have been brought at the end of his six years' administration. The First Lord of the Admiralty admits that far from being able to encounter combined Europe on the seas, as in the olden time, it would be dangerous for us to en- gage in maritime warfare without an ally ; and as to our mili- tary resources, it is sufficient to refer to the delay and difficulty in sending six or seven regiments, half-made up of raw recruits, to South Africa. Any delusion that might have been created on the Continent by the calling-out of the Reserves, and the bringing of six or seven thousand Sepoys from India, has been completely dissipated by the Afghan and Zulu wars ; and any attempt to dictate to Europe on the score of our military strength would be simply preposterous. Our moral influence—the influence resting on real re- sources—is quite a different matter. I have no fear but that our voice will be listened to, when the occasion shall arise, whatever party may be in power; but it is my firm conviction that its force has been fatally diminished, instead of augmented, by Lord Beaconsfield.
Every well-informed person knows that England did abso- lutely nothing to check the advance of Russia prior to the Treaty of San Stefano, and that it was simply through the in- terposition of Germany and Austria that the Treaty was not signed in Constantinople.—I am, Sir, &c., ONE wuo KNOWS.
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