THE BRITISH EMPIRE DRIFTING.
WHILE declaring that he intends to take advice in his demeanour towards Turkey, Prince Danilo of Montenegro justifies his method of warfare against the Turks and distinctly avows that he places his hopes in the Government of the Emperor of the French. His language, as quoted by the Moniteur, is almost the language of a vassal—like that of a chief in the middle ages who was transfer- ring his allegiance from one suzerain to another. It was under- stood lately that the western Powers were about to interfere be- tween Montenegro and the Porte ; war-ships were converging in that quarter, the peace of Europe was threatened ; but if the flame is subsiding there, for a moment, the immediate effect ap- pears be to concentrate a new and undefined power in the s of the one man who sits upon the throne of France.
It is indeed most remarkable that on each of several points on the surface of the globe, all distant from each other, there is a spark of war which seems likely enough to burst into flame, while its subsidence is almost sure to increase the power of some impe- rial antagonist of this country, the power being the greater and the more dangerous because it stands confessed and avowed. For example, it is reported that our late Ministers, no doubt influenced by the state of India, had withdrawn their demand upon Persia for the evacuation of Herat ; Persia, therefore, has been officially informed through our public departments that we are not in a position to maintain a contest with her ; d fortiori we cannot be in a position to maintain a contest with that greater power upon which Persia has throughout rested, Russia. Here, then, is a premium for Persia if she should choose to fan still higher the lame of Indian conflagration.
To come nearer home we have as yet no security that our Ministers have taken a course to maintain peace in Italy. It is, as Mr. Disraeli would say, " not a question of months, or days, but of hours," whether war shall break out between Sardinia and Naples, a war that would unquestionably bring Austria upon the scene. Quite lately our Government has done as much as in it lay to estrange Sardinia, by pressing upon her " arbitration " according to the wish of Naples, while the Government of Sar- dinia is waiving the rigour of its laws in order to facilitate a gift from the Empress of Russia to a Turin hospital ; and it lies within our own information that the advances made by France to the Go- vernment of Turin are painfully tempting,—as compared with the demeanour of an ally in whom Sardinia would feel greater
trust, if she could really communicate with the people of that ally, England. In two quarters of Italy, therefore, lie the sparks of war, and we, the English people, have not the faintest insight as to the course that our own Government is taking. It is the same if we turn to the other side of the lobe. The other night in calling attention to the state of certain questions between the United States and this country, Mr. Lindsay declared himself " one of those who could not contemplate the possibility of war between two countries, so nearly allied by commerce"; bet he admitted that something ought to be done "to allay the
angry feeling which existed in the United States." Now in that quarter there are several sparks, each of some considerable
nitude. The one to which our attention is specially directed, arises out of the measures taken for the forcible suppression of the Slave-trade. Trading ships in harbour at Cuba have been boarded by English men-of-war. The American masters complain that not only are they illegally boarded, but treated in a very contemptuous manner ; and the tendency of English commanders to assume that trading vessels in certain quarters, sailing under the American flag, are slavers, may perhaps account for a de- meanour which is asserted to be offensive or mischievous. It is well known that stringent measures have been taken for putting an armed check upon the operations of slavers near the coast of Cuba, but it is also a fact that no small portion of the tra- ding community in the most thriving Cuban towns is Anglo- American ; and it is quite possible that an indiscriminate activity on the part of English officers may give serious offence. That is one spark.
English ships are also accused of boarding American vessels under full sail. The apology is the same, the possible conse- quences are the same. There is another element of danger in the relations between Spain and Mexico. Should war break out between these two powers, it is possible that the American Government might be drawn from its habitual neutrality, and this would be the more probable if our Government shoidd take any part whatsoever in the conflict. .What is our Government doing ? The published declaration by the Presidents of two Central American States, against the Government of the United States, is the smoke arising from another smouldering fire ; those Presidents having assented to an interoccanic canal, which is to be executed, under the pro- tection of the European powers, by a French company, under the exclusive protection of two French war-ships.
Yet another class of difficulties arises from the slave-trade sup- pression on the coast of Africa, where American traders say that while notorious slavers are permitted to go on their voyage, pro- duce traders are treated as if they were slavers ; the official agents not altogether disliking some continuance of a trade which insures their continuance in office, while British traders dislike American competition in the produce trade. Some awkward claims for compensation have arisen out of seizures said to be illegal. We have only the ex parte case; with reference to our present object the abstract justice of the matter is scarcely in question : we are pointing out the twofold fact that sparks of war exist, and that we have no information with respect to the conduct and position of our Government. It will not diminish the rate of the wax insurance upon future prospects if we admit the fact that the relations between the pre- sent Governments of France and America are decidedly of rather a friendly turn. It is notorious that the Emperor of the French has behaved with marked courtesy to distinguished Americans who visited him ; he has paid them " attentions " which they do not obtain in some other countries. It is also notorious that the " good offices" of the recognized American authorities in Paris are valuable, and an American passport is confessedly a much better aegis than that which our countrymen enjoy. Thus the in- fluences which tend to counteract war in America, also tend to make the Napoleonic eagle the arbiter rerum.
Nor does it strengthen our confidence when we observe the fact that no authenticated reports contradict the rumours of a con- tinued and serious decline in the Emperor's health. While the Government at Paris is trying to raise the wind by a sort of con- fiscatory sale of charity property, it cannot keep its own army m order even to the prevention of brawling ; that army being no- toriously impatient for an experimental crusade against " perfidy Albion." And all this time in both Houses of Parliament the de facto Government is endeavouring to prove that we were on the verge of war when Lord Palmerston went out of office ; while the Opposition is equally insisting that the prospects of peace are no better now than they were when Lord Derby entered office ; and at the same time all authentic facts and information on the subject are studiously concealed by the disputants from the public of this country, to whom such information rightfully belongs.
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