true. The ancient Roman Empire during the time of its supremacy, was accustomed to observe with anxious and jealous eye, the neighbouring nations. Even those nations which were not made tributaries or allies, were watched and virtually controlled as to their settlements, alliances, wars, &c.; lest their movements should injuriously affect the Empire. The modern principle of non-intervention was not then, either practised, or advocated. To say that intervening or controlling power is a blessing when its intervention is not guided by equity, truth, and goodness, would be, indeed, untrue. Nevertheless, controlling power is needed, for experience teaches us that nations, no less than individuals, when enslaved by prejudice or blinded by passion, are ready to mar even their own prosperity, and to immolate their own dearest interests. Nor can it be admitted that the principle of non-intervention is one that is abstractedly To say this, would be to admit that the world is happier without government than with it. It may, indeed, happen that no right controlling centre can be supplied. It may be true that "the foundations of all things" are so out of course, that it is impossible to find any centre from which the influence needful for the rebuke and restraint of evil can be made healthfully to flow: but if this be so, it should not be gloried in, but confessed as a clear evidence of what the world has become under the hand of man. It should be owned as a proof that rectification is needed from the great Governor of all. In the mean while, we may be sure that the principle of non-intervention will not long be cherished. It has seldom been found to satisfy the expectations even of its advocates. Again, and again, it has been departed from in practice. Indeed, a sufficient proof of its failure is found in the fact, that whenever nations sufficiently strong, and sufficiently numerous, and sufficiently friendly to each other, have been willing to act in concord so as to make interference safe and effectual, the principle of non-intervention has been abandoned. A desire after such united action has been very manifest of late in relation both to America and to Russia; and we see in such desire, the acknowledgment of a need which will (perhaps, at no distant period) produce that federal union of the nations of the Roman Empire which will make them competent to hold in check, and to control the nations of the whole earth. At the present moment, probably, there is scarcely an individual in the Roman World to whom the thought of such federal union would not be repugnant. The failure of past attempts at confede ration as seen in Germany and elsewhere; the paralysis of power resulting from federal restrictions, and many other like reasons would no doubt be, with much shew of reason, urged. But it must be remembered that the failure of certain principles in spheres in which God has not definitely appointed them to be exhibited, is not a criterion to guide us in respect of other spheres in which God has ordained that they should, for a season, be established. He has said, for example, that constitutional or popular monarchy shall prevail throughout the countries of the Roman World, and that there (unnatural as the combination of clay and iron is) He will, nevertheless, by His own power preserve the strength of the iron: but He has not said this of countries external to the Roman World-such countries, for example, as Prussia, He has not said that such principles of government shall flourish there. So with respect to the federal union of which I speak. When the appointed time shall at length have come for it to be developed in its destined sphere, in that sphere it will flourish. The causes which have elsewhere operated injuriously, will, in this case, be modified or removed. Counteracting agencies will be overcome. An individual competent to work the complex system will be permitted to arise; and men's hearts will be influenced to obey; and all will seem to prosper with a prosperity unequalled by anything that has hitherto been seen in the world's past history. The earth was once unexplored-its resources undeveloped and unknown. But now it is so no longer. Commerce, which has, for the present, fixed her chief seat in Western Europe, thence visits every clime -her object being gain. Wherever, therefore, she establishes herself, she has her "interests;" and those interests need to be watched. They are quickly affected by war, or misrule, or revolution; and therefore she requires that such disturbing influences should be restrained. In a word, the interests of commerce demand that the whole earth should be, as far as possible, effectually governed. We can easily understand, therefore, that this necessity (which becomes increasingly felt every day in proportion as commerce extends itself more widely) will greatly tend to reconcile the minds of men to the creation of a central power sufficiently strong to arbitrate effectually among the nations. And when we consider that the Roman World, which is to be the home of this power, is but as a speck in the earth (looked at in a map of the World its territories seem little more than the mere coasts of the Mediterranean) we can easily see, that if the countries that fall within it are indeed to hold in check and virtually to control, not only such countries as Russia and America, but all other nations throughout the globe, it is needful that they should not only cease to wear out one another by internecine conflicts, but that they should unite and weld themselves together as closely as is consistent with the maintenance of their national individuality. It is obvious too, that the territorial aggrandizement that in all probability awaits France, as well as Spain, Austria, and Syria, will be less dreaded by smaller and weaker States if membership in a federally united body prevents the effects that would result from isolated aggrandizement. The corporate power of a federal body being necessarily greater than that of any of its separated parts, the lesser countries who share in this union will find in it a compensation for the diminution of their individual influence. They will gain corporately what they may lose individually; and will find in the federal shield that is thrown over them, a safeguard against the dread of their more powerful neighbours. Nor is it likely that the susceptibilities of those whose chief object is commercial gain, will be very lively in respect of questions that affect the individual influence of this or that particular nation. Their great end is security-security for property; and if that be effectually and permanently attained, they will be more than satisfied; especially, if they should be alarmed by the rise of any great danger, such as an universal war, or extended commotions which should threaten to overwhelm their prosperity. The manifestation, (I might almost say, prevalence) of desires and motives such as these, seems another reason for believing that the time is not very distant when the Roman nations, either after war and convulsion, or else under the operation of more gradual and peaceful agencies, will be brought into that appointed position of strength which is to terminate their lengthened history of pride and evil. Many have cherished the thought that our own country is not included in the Roman World; but on what ground can its inclusion be questioned? The period from Augustus Cæsar to Hadrian is that during which the Roman Empire obtained its full development; and during that period Britannia became a formally enrolled province of the Empire. England has shared, and will continue to share, the power and prosperity of that Empire. Does it not also share its responsibilities, and shall it not partake its doom? The place held by England has been one of peculiar privilege. A few centuries ago, when almost the whole Roman World, Eastern and Western, was sinking under the judgments of God; when cow-herds and shepherds were feeding their flocks and herds in the deserted and grass-grown streets of Papal Rome, in England, civilization was permitted to gather up new strength, and with increased power to re-act upon the nations. In Egypt, Asia Minor, Greece, and the coasts of the Mediterranean, the renovating power of England has been especially felt. Just at the moment when the commercial energies of England began to diffuse wealth and civilization throughout the earth, she was visited by the light of the Reformation. England received the Bible. The Bible in England ceased to be a book proscribed; it became a read, consulted, honored book-owned as the Word of the living God. In England martyrs died for it. It was both privately and governmentally acknowledged. Edward VI. loved it and its testimonies; for he knew that it revealed the one only way of salvation in the atoning. blood of the Lamb of God. How great the amount of spiritual and everlasting blessing that has resulted to myriads in England from the diffusion of the Holy Scriptures, will never be known till that last great Day which shall reveal all things. But in the meanwhile, who cannot discern the great and peculiar mercies that have been vouchsafed to England as a nation since the time that the Scripture was governmentally and nationally acknowledged as being, and alone being, the Word of God? How different has been the history of France, and Italy, and Spain (not to speak of the Mahommedan countries) during the three last centuries! How different is their condition still! Infidelity and revolutionary socialism have been but consequences of the darkness and debasement of soul caused by Romanist priestcraft and intriguing Jesuitism. During the revolutionary wars and subsequently, what waves of woe poured over those countries! How volcano-like are they still, whilst England has been shielded and delivered. But what return has England governmentally made for these distinguishing mercies? I say governmentally, because it is by deeds done in their corporate and collective capacity that nations and all corporate bodies are judged. England, from the time that she began under William Pitt to educate, and pay, and honour Roman priests for teaching in Ireland what she knew to be falsehood, has in her Colonies and in India pursued such a course of careless latitudinarianism that even the poor Hindoo has been led to question whether the English can really have any religion at all. England has received first in Affghan * See the evidence of Sir Herbert Edwardes on this subject. |