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Untitled Article
profound conviction of the Southern Americans touching the buccaneers . In most invasions of England , though the ruling powers have of course been losers , the mass of the people has essentially benefited . The Roman invasion was a good , inasmuch as it introduced many useful arts , and gave something of a shock to
the Druidic barbarities . The Danish invasion was a good , inasmuch as it infused into the people something more of energy , and induced them to join with the Saxons to make an effectual resistance . There is no doubt that the Saxon rule was an improvement on that which had gone before it , and though the Saxon nobles suffered from the Northan invasion , there can be no doubt
that many a Saxon serf thereby gained his freedom . To suppose that the whole population were reduced to a worse condition than before , and yet remained content with foreign taskmasters , is to suppose almost an impossibility , and the probability is , that their condition was much bettered . Most people are sensitive as regards their personal comforts , few interest themselves much in
their political institutions . The minds are few , and their echoes not numerous , which give rallying cries to nations ; and to produce much effect , to overcome bodily torpor , they must bear closely on bodily welfare , at least such has been the case hitherto . The people of Buenos AyTes were infinitely benefited by the invasion of Beresford , for it pointed the way to a progress which before they had not dreamed of . It enlarged their sphere of knowledge .
Till that time they had no foreign commerce , whose sweets being once tasted paved the way to freedom , which none but Tories will deny to be a good thing . Much has been said of the tyranny of Europeans in the east , but it must not be forgotten that it has removed worse tyrannies of native growth . A handful of Europeans could not rule India unless their rule offered greater advantages to the mass of the population than that of their native
princes . The rationale of impressment is this . The English aristocracy possessed the government of the island of Great Britain , which was a very pleasant mode of subsistence to them . They knew that an intimate union with other nations would open the eyes
of the people , and ultimately destroy their authority , therefore they taught them to consider the French as a kind of frightful bugaboo under the name of ' natural enemies / To keep the French away , the best expedient was * wooden walls / and to man the wooden walls , the most brutal human beings were preferred ,
and the naval system was assuredly that best calculated to destroy the human mind , and render the man a mere sensual agent . The mass of the community , frightened at the empty sound of the word * invasion , ' became blinded to the atrocities committed on a portion of their fellow creatures , and the barbarism has continued even unto this day . We may , it is true , glorify ourselves in the reflection that our
Untitled Article
Civilized Barbarism . 289
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1834, page 289, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2632/page/57/
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