Warnings About Imperial Expansion
A Warning.—The London (England) Economist utters this note of warning to the English people: “The general unfriendliness of Europe will, if we are wise, teach us moderation, and a more careful consideration both of our resources and of the objects we are seriously desirous to secure. We are spending vast sums without reflecting that by and by we shall pass through a period, possibly a long period, of economic distress. We are largely increasing our army and navy without remembering that when enthusiasm has died away, or ambition has been satiated, it may be most difficult to keep them up without an expenditure which the great body of the people will resent.” Then, mentioning the increasing territory, which may be a burden, and deprecating the unhealthy unanimity in the present situation, which shuts out discussion and deliberation, it concludes: “The country is, therefore, rushing forward on a course which may be expedient or otherwise—we are not discussing that just now—but which involves large consequences, that the public, at all events, have never fully thought out. They will, in any event, lose nothing by counsel to be moderate, and to remember that the successes in which they naturally and properly exult will excite a fury of jealousy and annoyance throughout the European world.”