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Untitled Article
Publications of the Polish Literary . Society * 58 &
Untitled Article
Never has there been a worse-chosen period than the present for the government of this country , in an unqualified manner , to c preach peace . * God forbid tha , t we should advocate a war-po * licy : we do not ) but we would have ministers show manfully to the world that our national sympathy , friendliness ^ alliances , identification , are with those countries which are free—with all countries as they become so ; and that we hold ourselves bound by no treaties which are not held sacred in all the provisions which they make in behalf of subjects , as well as in those which are for what is deemed he advantage of sovereigns and governments . Talk of peace as
we may , it is not preserved . Europe is in a state of warfare ! The potentates of Russia , Austria , and Prussia , are at war with all states that are free , or striving to become so . National move * ments which are only repressed , and edicts which are only enforced , by the dread of military execution , or by its actual applicationwhat are these but war ? What is the condition of the Italian states , —what that of the minor states of Germany , —but subjugation ?
They are practically as if conquered . There are on one side all the advantages of war , and on the other all the restraints of peace-Let the British government forswear war , if it so please , but let it fairly deal with things as they are . If we cannot afford , or hold it inexpedient , to raise our banners for the enforcement of treaties to which we are guaranteeing parties , —for the defence of countries which it is our duty to protect , and for the repulse of
aggression by the powerful upon the feeble , —at least let there be no mystification , no complimentary and conventional language , no cajolery or vacillation , but a plain assertion of the principles of justice and the rights of humanity , and a corresponding conduct towards all courts and people with which we have to do . There can evidently be no security for a decided course on the part of the government so good as a strong expression of publiG opinion . To that opinion Mr . Campbell thus eloquently appeals : —•
* We conceive , that the barbarity and perfidy of the Northern Autocrat towards this brave and blameless people has been a mockery of all laws and principles that ensure the safety of nations , and the civile zation of men . We defy the subtlest casuist to give his cruelties the slightest shadow of justification . They are crimes which pollute our sight , and on which it is criminal to look with indifference . They are sins which must be expiated . They are stains on the annals of our species . They are an affront to the civilized world ; but , above all , they are an affront to Great Britain , whose government is solemnly bound by treaty to protect the last remains of the Polish nation :
By the treaty or Vienna , Cireat Britain made some small atonement ( and small it was , indeed ) to the once glorious kingdom of Poland for the robbery of her national greatness , and for three guilty past par * titions of her territories . It was stipulated , by the treaty of Vienna , that all the portions of that Polish population , amounting to nearly twenty millions , which had been seized by Russia , Prussia , and Ausr * Ida , should retain their nationality in representation and civil instill * - *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1832, page 589, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1820/page/13/
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