MR. STANLEY ON ENGLAND.
PEOPLE dispute whether Mr. Stanley is an Englishman or an American by nationality—as a matter of law, he is, we suppose, both—but he certainly retains more than a kindly feeling for the land of his birth. Speaking at the Guildhall on Tuesday, after receiving the freedom of the City, he expressed an even passionate regret at the way in which England had neglected, or rather thrown away, her opportunities of aggrandisement in Africa. He evidently thought that she might, had she but chosen, have made herself mistress of the greater part of the vast continent. We hold South Africa in full sovereignty already ; we occupy Egypt, and could have retained the whole Valley of the Nile southward to Khartoum ; we have claims on all the Lake country, and might have garrisoned Equatoria ; we might, says the speaker, who knows that subject personally, "have had the Congo State ;" and, but for delays, the whole of East Africa, which we now share with the Germans, would have passed into our hands. In fact, the Queen might, had her subjects chosen, have become Empress of the African Continent, perhaps the richest of the divisions of the world. It is all true, in a way, and The second alternative, which would be more acceptable the speaker, who is enraged because England has missed to the Panslavists, and lead more directly to the conquest so magnificent a chance, is certainly not wanting either in of Constantinople, would be the partition of the Balkans, affection for her, or belief in her capabilities ; but Mr. Austria absorbing Bosnia, Servia, and half Macedonia, Stanley, though patriotic, is a little blind in his anger. while Russia remained content with Roumania, Bulgaria, He forgets that this country is still governed by statesmen, and Macedonia east of the Rhodope, thus planting and that they may not be so eager to concentrate on their herself within sixty miles of Constantinople, and reducing country all hatreds by monopolising all careers throughout its ultimate fall to a mere question of time. This the world. It might have been wise to accept the Congo project has been the object of Russian diplomacy and State ; and it will be wise one day, if we keep the Valley of arms for at least half-a-century, and it has been the Nile, to try to rule East Africa from Alexandria to baffled only by opposition which, if Russia entered the Natal; but it would be folly to attempt to govern both. League of Peace, it would be nearly hopeless to renew. There are limits to the powers at British disposal, though, Austria could not interfere, for she would be a sharer in no doubt, Major Wissmann is teaching us a sharp lesson the spoil. France and England will not repeat the Crimean in the rapid creation of black armies ; limits to the strain Expedition, or if they did, they would have to fight Russia it is expedient to put upon the energy of the British with her armies doubled in strength, and her railway people ; limits, above all, to the envy which it is safe to system so far complete that her regiments would no longer excite in nations as powerful as ourselves, and more perish on their march from the interior. Failing those clamorous for careers. The greater part of Africa can never Powers, there would be only Turkey, Roumania, and be colonised, and with three more Indias on her hands— possibly Bulgaria to defend Constantinople, and though the Congo State, the enlarged South Africa, and East they might together make a gallant fight, they must be Africa—the "weary Titan" would, indeed, run the risk defeated in the end. They have not the resources for of sinking beneath her burden. The Spanish-American protracted war, and two of them at least, Turkey and example is not one which encourages statesmen; and the Bulgaria., are honeycombed with corruption, and with the Spaniard, when he tried to monopolise "the Americas," doubt, always visible in every Bulgarian plot, whether the was not ruling forty or fifty Colonies and Dependencies might of the great Slav Power can successfully be resisted. besides. It is possible even for England, with her deep It may be asked, and will be asked wherever this story reservoir of governing capacities, to grasp too much, and receives attention, what motive the German Emperor can to claim more of earth to rule than she has the power of have for admitting Russia into the Alliance, even if she is ruling beneficially. Mr. Stanley mistakes moderation for willing. We might answer that question sufficiently by weakness, and shows in that, as in one or two other has nothing to gain by war with Russia; cares little, as It was a blunder, for example, and a grave one, to be Prince Bismarck once said, about the future of the Balkans ; grieved, over the loss of the Congo State, because, had we and has no quarrel with the Czar such as might induce taken it when it was offered, it would have "paid 100 per him to run a great risk rather than terminate the kind of cent." The English do not acquire dominions as invest- armed truce which now exists between the two Courts. ments ; they have never yet exacted annual tribute from That answer, however, though it is most pertinent, is any Colony or any conquered country ; and they regard entirely needless. The relief to the minds of his people the wealth which pours into their coffers as an incident in is an all-sufficient reason for accepting the Russian offer. their country's career, and not its end. They are eager For the last ten years at least, they have, so to speak, slept for commerce, they love their possessions, they exult when under arms, have been aware that if a single man of in- the order they have produced reveals unexpected treasures calculable impulses gave the signal, Germany would be to be won by digging or felling or manufacture ; but they flooded with hostile armies advancing from two sides at shrink with no hypocritical reluctance from conquering for once, armies each of which might prove in battle the equal the sake of cash. Such an appeal only makes them of her own. Mere respite from such a strain would be a doubtful of their own motives, and by depriving them of Nor is Mr. Stanley less short-sighted in his diatribe against the English Press. He calls the journalists "namby-pamby," accuses them of "seeing everything through an opaque glass "—which we should have thought an impossible feat even for Sam Weller—and broadly intimates that under their malefic influence, a new Drake or Raleigh has become impossible in Great Britain. Is there so much difference between Drake and Stanley, or is it the Press which has refused to the latter either recognition or support? We should have said that, of all classes, the journalists had been most generous in acknowledging the merits of the new" man of enterprise," and had rather urged on than discouraged the statesmen in the work of profiting by discovery. We will not, however, take advantage of that argument. We know quite well what Mr. Stanley means, and there is truth in his idea ; but he greatly exaggerates that truth. Hurried men in an age of fluid benevolence and surface scepticism about all things, are apt to write " namby-pamby ; " and it is quite true that a part of the Press often falls into a tone of sickly criticism, more like that of a well-meaning curate talking to a female congregation, than of a man who understands that most of the useful work of the world—the distribution of justice, for example—is disagreeable and "hard." They do not, however, express the opinion of the people, which, though it reads their benevolent platitudes, remains entirels unaffected by them. Heroism is worshipped, firmness, approved, imperiousness pardoned, as much as ever they were ; and success is desired, as Matthew Arnold said, with, a passionate longing. The journals deprecate war, hut the people vote more guns ; the Press is all for meekness, but the community never pardon defeat ; the hero is criticised for killing even when killing is needful, but he never fails of his reward. To read some of the more popular papers for the last few months, one might believe that Englishmen had almost been converted to the Quakerism with which Mr. Stanley is so bitterly and so unfairly enraged ; but the Army never was so strong, the Fleet never so efficient, the inclination towards dangerous enter- prise never so pronounced. The people have become more emotional, but not softer. In this very exploration of Africa, though it is watched through a microscope, harder things have been done than in the whole conquest of India ; and more was said twenty years ago about the sufferings of Maories than is now said, with ten times the means of publicity, about the whole Negro race. Our black brother, we should decidedly say, is shot with a readiness which requires no stimulus at all, and which certainly indicates no increase in the softness of those who look on, never moving. The truth is, the influence of the Press is absurdly overrated. It has assumed to a quite extra- ordinary degree the functions of the pulpit, and, like the pulpit, it is heard by a vast congregation, which is apt to content itself with listening most respectfully. It has tried, deliberately and energetically tried, to get up sympathy on one side for the victims of the Land League, and on the other for the evicted tenants, in whose name so many crimes have been enacted ; and in neither case has the success been more than partial. The evictions go on in spite of sentiment, and agrarian criminals, though they are occasionally hanged by the pro- cesses of law, are in no way special objects of popular indignation. The thousands of journalists, bound. as they are to preach six times a week, often without texts, have taken, no doubt, to lecturing on abstract principles, and sometimes to rather minute criticism ; but their success is not greater than that of other lecturers. They probably check the disposition towards many evils from growing more dangerous, but they do not alter human nature, or, for that matter, British nature, in any percep- tible degree. Whenever the occasion recurs, the people show that they remain as they always were,—energetic, courageous, and full of enterprise, free from cruelty, but when the enterprise has begun, by no means over-careful of human life. Certainly they are not careful to avoid responsibilities. Mr. Stanley scolds them for not being greedy enough of territory ; but during the last ten years they have annexed at least five Frances to their dominion, one morsel being an ancient Empire swallowed whole ; and even this week the German journals accuse them, as regards their demands for more of Africa, of "insatiable egotism." They are not more egotistic than they always were, and, in truth, remain much what they always have been, a self-seeking people, yet with consciences, full of energy, audacity, and perseverance, and so fortified by an inner pride, that Mr. Stanley's attack on them for their decadent spirit will not diminish his popularity or their admiration of his better qualities by one hair's-breadth. It is their calm he is really censuring, but calm is not always weak.
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