He had thus set the mischievous example of abandoning
the methods of law and order, and resorted to those of force.
Non-interference had been laid down as the basis of our conduct towards
other nations, but the policy of Lord Palmerston had been characterized
by a spirit of active interference.
Mr. Gladstone's words were in part as follows: "Does he [Lord
Palmerston] make the claim for us [the English] that we are to be lifted
upon a platform high above the standing-ground of all other nations?...
It is indeed too clear ... that he adopts, in part, the vain conception
that we, forsooth, have a mission to be the censors of vice and folly,
of abuse and imperfection among the other countries of the world; that
we are to be the universal schoolmasters, and that all those who
hesitate to recognize our office can be governed only by prejudice or
personal animosity, and shall have the blind war of diplomacy forthwith
declared against them."
Again: "Let us recognize, and recognize with frankness, the equality of
the weak with the strong; the principles of brotherhood among nations,
and of their sacred independence. When we are asking for the maintenance
of the rights which belong to our fellow-subjects, resident in Greece,
let us do as we would be done by, and let us pay all respect to a feeble
State and to the infancy of free institutions.
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