第171章

For that reason the principle must be firmly maintained above allby the European nations, that no exclusive commercial privilegesmust be reserved to any European nation in any part of Asiawhatever, and that no nation must be favoured above others there inany degree.It would be especially advantageous to the extension ofthis trade, if the chief commercial emporiums of the East wereconstituted free cities, the European population of which shouldhave the right of self-government in consideration of an annualpayment of tax to the native rulers.But European agents should beappointed to reside with these rulers, after the example of Englishpolicy in India, whose advice the native rulers should be bound tofollow in respect of the promotion of public security order, andcivilisation.

All the Continental powers have especially a common interestthat neither of the two routes from the Mediterranean to the RedSea and to the Persian Gulf should fall into the exclusivepossession of England, nor remain impassable owing to Asiaticbarbarism.To commit the duty of protecting these important pointsto Austria, would insure the best guarantees to all Europeannations.

Further, the Continental powers in general have a commoninterest with the United States in maintaining the principle that'free ships cover free goods,' and that only an effectual blockadeof individual ports, but not a mere proclamation of the blockade ofentire coasts, ought to be respected by neutrals.Finally, theprinciple of the annexation of wild and uninhabited territoriesappears to require revision in the common interest of theContinental powers.People ridicule in our days the fact that theHoly Father formerly undertook to make presents of islands andparts of the globe, nay even to divide the world into two partswith a stroke of the pen, and to apportion this part to one man andthat to another.Can it, however, be deemed much more sensible toacknowledge the title to an entire quarter of the globe to vest inthe man who first erected somewhere on the earth a pole adornedwith a piece of silk? That in the case of islands of moderate sizethe right of the discoverer should be respected, may be admittedconsistently with common sense; but when the question arises as toislands which are as large as a great European kingdom (like NewZealand) or respecting a continent which is larger than the wholeof Europe (like Australia), in such a case by nothing less than anactual occupation by colonisation, and then only for the actuallycolonised territory, can a claim to exclusive possession beadmitted consistently with common sense.And it is not clear whythe Germans and the French should not have the right to foundcolonies in those parts of the world at points which are distantfrom the English stations.

If we only consider the enormous interests which the nations ofthe Continent have in common, as opposed to the English maritimesupremacy, we shall be led to the conviction that nothing is sonecessary to these nations as union, and nothing is so ruinous tothem as Continental wars.The history of the last century alsoteaches us that every war which the powers of the Continent havewaged against one another has had for its invariable result toincrease the industry, the wealth, the navigation, the colonialpossessions, and the power of the insular supremacy.