[Note 26], [p. 174].—The wit of this passage consists in its use of the expression “out-door relief.” In England the poor laws provide for two kinds of relief—that afforded in the work-houses and that afforded to the poor in their own homes. The latter is popularly known as “out-door relief.”
[Note 27], [p. 175].—When the claim of Denmark to the Duchies of Schleswig-Holstein came forward, in consequence of the death of the last ducal peer, England decided that she had no right to interfere, though the claims of Denmark were earnestly pressed by the Crown Princess of England, a daughter of the Danish king. The question was finally taken up by Prussia, in opposition to the claims of Denmark, in a manner that aroused the hostility of Austria, and brought on the war of 1866 between Austria and Prussia.
[Note 28], [p. 176].—In 1830 the governments of Great Britain, France, and Russia entered into a treaty, establishing and guaranteeing the constitutional monarchy of Greece. This was in effect acknowledging the independence of Greece from Turkey, and guaranteeing to defend that independence. Mr. Bright could hardly mean to be understood as objecting to such a guarantee. A loan, furnished by the Rothschilds, of £2,343,750 was also guaranteed by the three powers, each being responsible for one third. As the Greek Government did not pay, the guarantors were held responsible; and in 1866 the amount that had been paid by England was £1,060,385. This, of course, was held as a claim against Greece. In 1866 a convention of the powers agreed that the Greek Government should pay £12,000 a year till all is liquidated.—Martin’s “Statesman’s Year-Book for 1873,” p. 285.
[Note 29], [p. 176].—“Animated by the desire of maintaining the integrity and independence of the Ottoman empire as a security for the peace of Europe,” is the avowal of the object of the treaty of July 15, 1840, entered into at London by all the powers except France. The occasion of it was the revolt of Egypt under Mehemet Ali.—Phillimore, “Int. Law,” i., 86.
[Note 30], [p. 177].—As indicated in Note 22, the diplomatic act which precipitated the Crimean War was the offensive alliance of England and France against Russia. The cause of this alliance was the attitude of Prussia, which at that time was very weak, and was under the powerful influence of Russia. After the practical withdrawal of Prussia from her treaty obligations to protect Turkey, Austria decided not to venture upon war without the coöperation of Prussia, unless her own Danubian principalities should be threatened. The withdrawal of Russia from the mouth of the Danube, and the transfer of the seat of war to the Crimea, left Austria free to decline to act with England and France. Some of the diplomatic correspondence was spirited, though perhaps it is going too far to call it either “offensive” or “insolent.”
[Note 31], [p. 177].—It is an established principle of international usage that no nation is obliged to accept or retain a foreign minister that is offensive to it, and any nation has a right to request the recall of a minister who is for any reason offensive to it. In 1789 Jefferson requested the French Government to recall Count de Moustier because he was “politically and morally offensive.”—Trescott’s “Am. Dip. Hist.,” 34. America requested the recall of Genet, and France in turn requested the recall of Morris, in 1794, for political reasons.—Hildreth, 2d series, i., 477. America also requested the recall of Poussin in 1849.—“Ammaire,” xl., 665. In 1872 the Russian minister Catacazy engaged in writing political articles for the New York Herald offensive to the government, and his recall was requested. In 1809 the English Government was requested to recall Minister Jackson from Washington, “for questioning the word of the Government.” The case alluded to by Mr. Bright was doubtless that of Sir John Crampton, whose recall was requested in 1856, because he was found to be enlisting troops in the United States for the Crimean War.—“Am. Reg. for 1856,” 277; “Ex. Docs. Thirty-fourth Congress,” 107. In all these cases the request was acceded to without delay. According to Phillimore, ii., 149: “It is in the discretion of the receiving state to refuse the reception of a certain diplomatic agent.”
[Note 32], [p. 177].—This is a very immoderate statement, certainly not justified by the facts. Everybody conceded that “Don Pacifico” had a claim that was not “false.” The only question in dispute was whether the claim ought not to have been first presented to the Greek courts. See [Note 19].
[Note 33], [p. 177].—In 1856 the conduct of the King of Naples toward political offenders was so tyrannical as to be a scandal to all Christendom. The governments of England and France addressed a remonstrance to the government of Naples “upon the general maladministration of justice in that country, and upon the danger thereby accruing to the Italian peninsula especially, and generally to the peace of Europe.” As the remonstrance was rejected by the King of Naples, England and France showed their condemnation of the internal policy of the Neapolitan Government by withdrawing their ambassadors, as under the law of nations they had a perfect right to do. See Phillimore, ii., 148, and iii. Preface, ix.
[Note 34], [p. 177].—In 1856 Lord Dalhousie, Governor-General of India, annexed the kingdom of Oude under the following circumstances: The East India Company had bound themselves by treaty “to defend the sovereigns of Oude against foreign and domestic enemies, on condition that the State should be governed in such a manner as to render the lives and property of its population safe.” Lord Dalhousie found on investigation that “while the Company performed their part of the contract, the King of Oude so governed his dominions as to make his rule a curse to his own people, and to all neighboring territories.” McCarthy (“Hist. of Our Own Time,” Eng. ed., iii., 61), though an extreme Liberal in his sympathies, speaks of Lord Dalhousie’s act as “not only justifiable, but actually inevitable.” The act was only one of many causes of the Sepoy rebellion. The language of the orator seems altogether extravagant and unwarranted.
[Note 35], [p. 178].—The “Opium War” of 1839, and the “Lorcha Arrow War” of 1856, are now generally and justly condemned. But to say that “no man with a spark of morality in his composition,” or “who cares any thing for the opinion of his fellow-countrymen,” “has dared to justify that war,” is scarcely less than an absurd and amusing exaggeration. The election of 1856 turned expressly on the justification of Lord Palmerston in the “Lorcha Arrow War,” and it was Bright’s opposition to the war which caused his defeat at Birmingham, and obliged him to take a seat for Manchester. The causes of both of these wars are given with admirable spirit in McCarthy’s “History of Our Own Time,” chapters viii. and ix. Cobden also lost his seat for opposition to the war.