Great Britain, at the present moment, occupies a position of dignity, of
grandeur, and of RESPONSIBILITY, unparalleled in either her own history,
or that of any other nation ancient or modern. Let him who is inclined
to doubt this assertion, of whatever country he may be, and whether
friendly, hostile, or indifferent to England, glance for a moment at a
map of the world, and having at length found out our little island,
(which, perhaps, he may consider a mere fragment chipped off, as it
were, from the continent of Europe,) turn to our stupendous possessions
in the east and in the west--in fact, all over the world--and he may be
apt to think of the fond speculative boast of the ancient geometrician,
"[Greek: Dos pou sto, chai ton chosmon chinaeso]," and to paraphrase and
apply it thus--"Give the genius of Great Britain but where she may place
her foot--some mere point peeping above the waves of the sea--and she
shall move the world." Is not this language warranted by recent facts?
While our irritable but glorious neighbour France--_pace tantae
gentis!_--is frittering away her warlike energies in Algeria, and Russia
is worried by her unsuccessful and unjust attempts upon Circassia,
behold the glorious monarch of this little island, Queen Victoria,
roused by indignities and injuries offered to her most distant subjects
in the East, strike single-handed a blow there, which shakes a vast and
ancient empire to its very foundations, and forces its haughty emperor
from his throne, to assume the attitude of a suppliant for peace,
yielding her peremptory but just demands, even at the cannon's mouth,
and actually relinquishing to her a large portion of his dominions.
Events, these, so astonishing, that their true character and
consequences have not yet been calmly considered and appreciated by
either ourselves or other nations. Look, again, at recent occurrences in
British India--that vast territory which only our prodigious enterprise
and skill have acquired for us, and nothing but profound sagacity can