their especial friend, and their enemies were England and the
unspeakable Turk; it strengthened among the Greeks the impression
already made by Palmerston's action in the Don Pacifico case,--that
France was their friend, and England their enemy; and it created
everywhere the impression that the Congress was a theatrical piece of
business, merely enacted as a pageant on the Berlin stage.
England has not yet paid the full penalty of her stupid acquiescence
in the rule of Disraeli and Salisbury; and it will cost her yet far
more than she paid for the results of Tory infamy and Whig senility in
the "Alabama" business, for she has enemies to deal with who are far
less generous and far slyer than the people of the United States. It
was under the Beaconsfield-Salisbury cabinet that Sir Bartle Frere
made that infamous declaration of war against Cetewayo which led to
the defeat of Lord Chelmsford's British troops by a lot of half-naked
savages. It was under this ministry that the stupid expedition to
Afghanistan led to the massacre of Sir Louis Cavagnari and the members
of his staff. It was under this ministry that the soul-stirring anthem
of Thompson,
"When Britain first at Heaven's command,"
was superseded by the rant of the Tory street-walker,--
"We don't want to fight;
But, by jingo, if we do,
We've got the ships, we've got the men,
We've got the money, too."
And the manner in which the government used the ships, the men, and
the money, proved that there was one thing needful which the Jingoes
had not got; and that is manhood.
To this Jingo ministry it was, then, that Sir William V. Whiteway had
to apply for the imperial sanction to the railway; and sanction was
_refused_. For what reason? The _pretended reason_ was that the
western terminus of the line at Bay St. George would be on that part
of the coast affected by the French treaty rights. It may be open to
doubt whether the French claims which interfered with the
establishment of a railroad terminus at Bay St. George were just or
not; but there is not the slightest doubt that Lord Palmerston, in his
note of July 10, 1838, to Count Sebastiani, had maintained that they
were not justified, and that the Tories were and are of the same
opinion.
But when a whole colony of Englishmen were wronged according to the
statements both of Palmerston and Salisbury, the Beaconsfield-Salisbury
administration _dare_ not maintain the rights of these Englishmen
against the French. That is the courage and the bravery of British
Jingoism, which bullies weak China and little Greece in support of a
Sir John Bowring or Don Pacifico, but dares not maintain an
Englishman's rights against the French republic.
The question might easily have been settled without offending France
by making Port aux Basques, which is less than eighty miles south-west
of Bay St. George and beyond the French treaty limits, the terminus of
the line.
There must, then, have been some concealed reason behind the pretended
one. It is absolutely certain that there were two influences at work
in London which were directly antagonistic to the true interest both
of Great Britain and Newfoundland. One was that of the Canadian party,
who are determined to boycott every scheme that would make any
Newfoundland port a rival of Halifax. The other is the British, or
mercantile, party, who for two hundred years past have consistently
and successfully opposed the introduction of any industry into the
island that would enable the fishermen to escape from their present
bondage.
If either Beaconsfield or Salisbury had really cared for England's
interests, they must have foreseen that, even if they were willing to
sacrifice Newfoundland, the position they took in this matter must in
the highest degree be damaging to the European prestige of Great
Britain. When republican France was threatened by all the tyrants of
Europe, the terrible Danton said, "Il nous faut de l'audace, et encore
de l'audace, et toujours de l'audace." To-day the Frenchman requires
no Danton to teach him the lesson; for the extraordinary confession of
weakness made by the Jingo government of 1878 in refusing to sanction
a line that could have been built without touching the French shore
question at all was a direct encouragement to the French to persevere
in that policy which they have since so successfully pursued in
Madagascar, in Siam, in Africa, and in Newfoundland.
No matter whether the French claims in Newfoundland be right or wrong,
the Beaconsfield-Salisbury government have practically surrendered the
matter; and the only thing left for the British government is to
compensate Newfoundland for its loss, as America was compensated for
the "Alabama" damages. But they will not do it.
Mr. Whiteway had to find another means of helping the colony. He was
obliged to choose between two alternatives,--either to build no
railway at all or only one which would avoid the very districts which,
for the benefit of the settler, ought to opened for settlement.
So the line to Harbor Grace was built. But even this the wealthy
British did not build. It was left to an American syndicate. P.T.
McG., writing of this line to the New York _Weekly Post_ of Jan. 2,
1895, says, "The contract was given to an enterprising Yankee, who
built a few miles, swindled the shareholders, fleeced the colony, and
then decamped, leaving as a legacy an unfinished road, an interminable
lawsuit, and a damaged colonial credit."
I happen to know another side of the question; and it does not become
the Englishmen interested in that railway matter to talk of "Yankee
swindlers."
When Sir Robert Thorburn became Premier of Newfoundland, he took the
first step necessary to make this line of some value to the tax-payers
by extending it twenty-seven miles to Placentia, the old French "La
Plaisance." This line was of immense value to St. John's, because it
gave the people of that city a convenient winter harbor which is
always open, by which they have an easy communication with Canada and
the United States; and I hope the time will soon come when we shall
have steamers running from Boston, touching at the French Island of
St. Pierre, and then going to Placentia.
What were the English diplomatists doing meanwhile? In 1890 they were
arranging a _modus vivendi_ with the French government about the
lobster fisheries. The Tories were in power, and Sir James Ferguson
was the Under-secretary of State. This gentleman's sentiments towards
the United States have been recorded by the Hon. James G. Blaine. In
his "Twenty Years of Congress," Vol. II., page 481, foot-note, he
writes: Sir James Ferguson declared in the House of Commons, March 14,
1864, that "wholesale peculations and robberies have been perpetrated
under the form of war by the generals of the Federal States; and worse
horrors than, I believe, have ever in the present century disgraced
European armies have been perpetrated under the eyes of the Federal
government, and yet remain unpunished. These things are as notorious
as the proceedings of a government which seems anxious to rival one
despotic and irresponsible power of Europe in its contempt for the
public opinion of mankind." These words need no commentary to-day.
They show us pretty clearly the character of the man who then spoke
them, and will prepare us for his treatment of the Newfoundland
question. On March 20, 1890, he made the following statement in the
House of Commons:--
"The Newfoundland government was consulted as to the terms of the
_modus vivendi, which was modified to some extent to meet their
views_; but it was necessary to conclude it without referring it to
them in its final shape."
Five days later the Governor of Newfoundland telegraphed to the
Secretary of State:--
"My ministers request that incorrect statement made by Under-secretary
of State for foreign affairs be immediately contradicted, _as the
terms of modus vivendi were not modified in accordance with their
views_. Ministers protested against any claims of French, and desired
time to be changed till January for reasons given; but that was
ignored, and _modus vivendi_ entered into without regard to their
wishes. Ministers much embarrassed by incorrect statement made by
Under-secretary of State."
Of course the Secretary of State supported the statement of Sir James
Ferguson, and refused to correct it. But on page 54 of the case for
the colony, published June, 1890, we find the words:--
"Two facts are placed beyond dispute by the above-quoted
correspondence: (1) that the consent of the 'community' of
Newfoundland to the _modus vivendi_ was not obtained by laying it
before the legislature, which the 'Labouchere' despatch declared to be
the proper action to be taken in such cases; (2) and that even the
government of Newfoundland was not consulted as to the adoption of the
_modus vivendi_ as settled."
The Labouchere despatch alluded to above, and called by the
Newfoundlanders their "Magna Charta," had been sent by the Right Hon.
Henry Labouchere on March 26, 1857. But Mr. Labouchere was not a Tory;
and there is the whole difference. So Newfoundland still has to suffer
for the criminal negligence which British Tories have displayed from
1743 until to-day.
There was one Englishman, and that the Governor of Newfoundland
itself, who had a clear and honorable notion of the imperial
government's duty to its unfortunate colony. Sir G. William des Voeux,
writing from the government House, St. John's, Jan. 14, 1887, to the
Colonial Office in London, after reciting the circumstances, says: "If
this be so, as indeed there are other reasons for believing, I would
respectfully urge that in fairness the heavy resulting loss should
not, or, at all events, not exclusively, fall upon this colony, and
that if in the national interest a right is to be withheld from
Newfoundland which naturally belongs to it, and the possession of
which makes to it all the difference between wealth and penury, there
is involved on the part of the nation a corresponding obligation to
grant compensation of a value equal or nearly equal to that of the
right withheld."
Nothing can be fairer than that, and it is written by the trusted
official of the British government.
Sir G. William des Voeux continues, "In conclusion, I would
respectfully express on behalf of this suffering colony the earnest
hope that the vital interests of 200,000 British subjects will not be
disregarded out of deference to the susceptibilities of any foreign
power," etc.
The best interests of those 200,000 inhabitants can be served without
touching the French shore at all. Even if France concedes all that
Newfoundland demands, the bounty question is in the way; and
Newfoundland cannot compete with that.
France gives this bounty--and quite rightly--as a protection to her
sailors. A similar protection to England's fishermen would not be
permitted by the Manchester men.
The other way is to build a railroad connecting the mining and
agricultural districts along the French shore with Port aux Basques.
Of course I do not mean such railroads as are built in England. They
have been taxed to the extent of more than seventy millions of pounds
sterling over and above the real value of the land sold to them by the
rapacious land monopolists. They have been taxed to the extent of many
millions more for legal expenses, which, if the House of Commons were
equal to its duties, could have been saved. They have been taxed in
many cases to find sinecure berths for the dependants of rich men; and
so, in order to pay a fair dividend to their stockholders, they must
reduce wages to the lowest point, and screw the utmost penny out of
their customers.
It is, then, the American way which I recommend as a model, and which
the Newfoundland government have tried to imitate in their contract
with Mr. Reid, of Montreal. They could have made a far more
advantageous contract with him if England had done her duty; but
neither Mr. Reid nor Newfoundland is to be blamed for England's fault.
The contract signed on May 16, 1893, by Mr. R.G. Reid binds him to
construct a line about five hundred miles in length, connecting
Placentia Junction and the chief eastern ports of Newfoundland with
Port aux Basques, and to operate this line as well as the Placentia
Branch Railway for a period of ten years, commencing Sept. 1, 1893.
After that the line is to become the property of the Newfoundland
government, and will be an interesting experiment in the State
ownership of railroads. For every mile of single 42-inch gauge built
by Mr. Reid he is to receive the sum of $15,600 in Newfoundland
government bonds, bearing interest at 3-1/2 per cent., and eight
square miles of land. The increase in rental value of this land will
give a large revenue, even if the line should not pay its working
expenses.
The land grant for 500 miles of railroad would amount to 2,500,000
acres. If Newfoundland were one of the United States, capital enough
would be subscribed to enable Mr. Reid to finish his contract in the
allotted time; but, as it is under England, and must therefore suffer
from the awful burden of England's diplomatic incapacity, capital
holds aloof from it.
Where does British money go? The Tory of 1878 sang,--
"We don't want to fight;
But, by jingo, if we do,
We've got the ships, we've got the men,
We've got the money, too."
It is interesting to see how that money, which is withheld from
Britain's oldest colony, has been spent.
We will begin with Mr. Blaine's "Twenty Years of Congress." On page
479 he quotes Lord Campbell as saying in Parliament on March 23, 1863,
"Swelling with omnipotence, Mr. Lincoln and his colleagues dictate
insurrection to the slaves of Alabama." (That fatal word, "Alabama"!
Will it ever cease to trouble the British conscience?) And he spoke of
the administration as "ready to let loose 4,000,000 negroes on their
compulsory owners, and to renew from sea to sea the horrors and crimes
of San Domingo." Mr. Blaine says, further, that Lord Campbell argued
earnestly in favor of the British government joining the government of
France in acknowledging Southern independence. He boasted that within
the last few days a Southern loan of L3,000,000 sterling had been
offered in London, and of that L9,000,000, or three times the amount,
had been subscribed.
Here, then, we have a means of accounting for $15,000,000. Another
$15,000,000 is accounted for by the money which America forced England
to pay for the "Alabama" depredations. On that point Mr. Laird, the
builder of the "Alabama," deserves to be immortalized. According to
Mr. Blaine, on March 27, 1863, Mr. Laird was loudly cheered in the
House of Commons when he declared that "the institutions of the United
States are of no value whatever, and have reduced the name of liberty
to an utter absurdity."
Another large lump of Jingo money has gone into the Russian loan; and,
of this loan, $4,000,000 is coming to Bethlehem in Pennsylvania. O
shade of John Roebuck, look back to the earth you have left, and see
what your words have done for the armor plate manufacturers of your
Sheffield constituency. While still among us in the flesh, you said on
April 23, 1863, on some trouble: "It may lead to war; and I, speaking
for the English people, am prepared for war. I know that language will
strike the heart of the peace party in this country, but it will also
strike the heart of the insolent people who govern America."
And on June 30, 1863, you said: "The South will never come into the
Union; and, what is more, I hope it never may. I will tell you why I
say so. America while she was united ran a race of prosperity
unparalleled in the world. Eighty years made the republic such a power
that, if she had continued as she was a few years longer, she would
have been the great bully of the world.
"As far as my influence goes, I am determined to do all I can to
prevent the reconstruction of the Union.... I say, then, that the
Southern States have indicated their right to recognition. They hold
out to us advantages such as the world has never seen before. I hold
that it will be of the greatest importance that the reconstruction of
the Union _should not take place_."
The United States have given England the war you hoped for,--not a war
against soldiers and sailors, who, unlike those who followed Colonel
Pepperell and Washington and Isaac Hull and Grant and De Grasse to
victory, require the protection of a contagious diseases act, but a
war of protective tariffs.
The State which gave its name to the pirate ship "Alabama" now votes
for tariffs to exclude the iron, steel, and coal of England. Sheffield
is in sackcloth and ashes because Pennsylvania has taken away from her
the Russian order for armor plates, and countless millions of British
dollars are invested in American factories, giving high wages to
tariff-protected American workmen instead of sweaters' wages to the
beer-sodden lunatics who sing to your honor the Tory strain,--
"By jingo, if we do,
We've got the ships, we've got the men,
We've got the money, too."
In almost every case in which a British investor has lost his money in
the United States it can be proved that some British expert or
financial agent earned a large sum by inducing him to invest.
At any rate, these immense investments in American railroads, loans,
and lands, have one great advantage for the United States. They bind
over England to keep the peace toward us. There is no more
unpatriotic, no more unmoral, no more cowardly man than the British
financial agent and money-lender. If only the security is good, he
will rather lend money at 4-1/8 per cent. for the most devilish than
at 4 per cent. for the most divine purpose. It is due to the influence
of the money-lending class that England has so completely lost the
grip of heart and brain on her imperial duties.
It is said that John Bull pays a tax of $700,000,000 a year to the
liquor interest, to say nothing of the indirect damages resulting from
the fact that the liquor interest is the chief supporter of the
brothel, the baccarat table, and the Tory Democracy. The beerage has
proved of late years also a highway to the peerage; and it has also
served to deplete the pockets of a good many British fools, who were
misled into the insane delusion that they could earn as much from the
profits of American guzzling as from those of British beer-drinking.
America has been infested for some time by a crowd of Englishmen, who
came here hunting options on American breweries, which they sold at a
high price to their English dupes. In one case some breweries, which
cost the owners less than $2,000,000, were sold in England for
$6,000,000, the Englishmen and Americans who managed the transaction
making enormous profits at the expense of their dupes.
On investigating the published accounts of some twelve American
brewery companies in which Englishmen have been induced to invest more
than $41,808,000, I find that the depreciation in selling price of
shares, taking the highest rates of November, 1894, was no less than
$21,917,280, or 52.42 per cent. on the paid-up capital; and, taking
the common stock alone, the loss exceeds over seventy per cent. on
the paid-up capital.
I am glad of it. The Englishman who, knowing the influence of this
infernal traffic on his own countrymen, would make money by extending
its curse to the United States, deserves to lose his money quite as
much as the Tory investors in the Confederate Loan deserved their
loss. Now suppose this $70,000,000 thus invested in "Alabama damages,"
Confederate Loan, and American breweries had been put into
Newfoundland roads and railways, what would have been the result? An
immense amount of traffic which now must pay toll to American
railroads would have gone over purely British lines, all the way
through British America to China and Japan. All the mining and
agricultural lands of Newfoundland might have been developed. The
French shore question would have ceased to occupy the diplomatic
wiseacres, because the people would have found so much profit in other
employments as to care nothing about French competition in the cod and
lobster fishery. Newfoundland itself would have become an impregnable
arsenal for the British navy, commanding the entrances to the St.
Lawrence, and, in case of war with the United States, giving that navy
the power of practically blockading all the Atlantic coast.
All this has been thrown away, because the British Jingo supports a
Tory cabinet, which, while making theatrical demonstrations of
imperialism, neglects imperial duties and betrays imperial interests.
And look even at sober free trade Manchester, the community which is
supposed to understand the worth of money better than any other in the
world. Has it really gained by its Jingo policy? Professing to be the
stronghold of free trade, it rejected the great free-trader, John
Bright, when in Sir John Bowring's war he asked for justice to China.
It rejected Mr. Gladstone when he sought the suffrages of South-east
Lancashire that he might relieve Ireland from the insolent domination
of an alien church.
And now the great makers of cotton machinery are coming from
Lancashire to establish factories in New England, and her spinning and
weaving mill corporations are losing their markets and their profits.
Of eighteen such corporations whose shares are quoted in the
_Economist_, the highest November prices of common stock show a loss
of $2,553,294 on the paid-up capital. Supposing that, instead of
supporting the Jingoes, Manchester had sent men to Parliament who
would support a wise and conservative policy in the colonies,
Newfoundland included, would it not have been better for her
interests, to say nothing of principle?
The Newfoundlanders in Boston, Mass., held a public meeting there on
the 16th of February, at which the Rev. Frederick Woods, their
chairman, said: "If we could only take our old island, and lay her at
the feet of Uncle Sam! I wish we could." And every suggestion of
annexation to the United States was applauded by the Newfoundlanders
present.
The Newfoundlanders on the island desire annexation just as much, but
they dare not say so, for they are starving; and those who venture to
suggest separation from England would be punished by the withdrawal of
charity, if not by even sterner means.
They are justified in their desire; for England has been disloyal to
them, and holds the island by no better right than that by which
Turkey holds Armenia.
Let that England, who expects every man to do his duty, do her own.
Let her, first of all, relieve the suffering.
Second. Let her press on the completion of the railroad at English
expense to Port aux Basques as quickly as possible, and subsidize a
mail line between England and the American Continent by way of a
Newfoundland port, holding the railroad property as security for money
expended.
Third. Let her modify her fiscal system so as to give a real _free
trade_, not only to the Newfoundland fisherman, but also to those of
Great Britain and Ireland, so that the foreigner shall not be able to
deprive British subjects either of their home or foreign markets. A
small import duty on all fish imported into the British Isles, except
from Newfoundland, and a bounty on the exports equal to that given by
France, will suffice.
Fourth. Let her aid the unfortunate victims of her Lord Clan-Rackrents
to find comfortable farms and holdings in those parts of the French
shore and along the railroad which are suitable for settlement.
If she does this, she may derive some comfort from at least one
passage in her Prayer Book,--"When the wicked man turneth away from
the wickedness that he has committed, and doeth that which is lawful
and right, he shall save his soul alive."
APPENDIX.
NEWFOUNDLAND'S RESOURCES.
PROVIDENCE, R.I., U.S.A., Feb. 18, 1895.
Since I wrote the foregoing pages, some papers have come into my hands
referring to Major-general Dashwood's attacks upon the credibility of
those who are trying to make the resources of Newfoundland known in
Great Britain.