396 [Assembly 



We may gather the policy of England towards her manufactures 

 from the following notice -which was issued from the Lord Chamber- 

 lain's office in 1842 : " Her Majesty's State Ball. — All persons invited 

 to^he ball at Buckingham Place, on the 12th of May, dre expected to 

 appear in dresses of British manufactures. Ladies not to wear 

 plumes or trains, gentlemen to appear in costumes, uniform, or full 

 court dress." 



I am no eulogist of England as some are : no admirer of that 



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sickly philanthropy which traverses the world to discover objects for 

 her sympathy whilst thousands are suffering at home for its support ! 

 — no advocate for that protection which exhausts itself in preserving 

 wealth to the wealthy, and entailing poverty and misery on the poor 

 and wretched. But look at England as she is, with all her faults — 

 there is in her history and policy much to admire and much to imitate. 

 With a small territory scarcely as large as that of some of our states — 

 with no peculiarity or variety of soil or climate, producing an msuffi- 

 cient supply of the necessaries and but few of the luxuries of life, 

 and but a portion of the raw materials that sustains her arts — yet she 

 promptly meets the interest on her immense national debt ; disburses 

 for her annual expenses upwards of fifty millions of pounds sterling- 

 sustains an army of a hundred thousand men — a navy over five hun- 

 dred ships of war — the most extensive commercial marine in the world ; 

 gives laws to a hundred and sixty millions of subjects, and rules over 

 one sixth of the globe. It has been well said of her, that the " Sun 

 never sets upon her territories" — that her "military posts are dotted 

 round the entire globe ; and their morning drum-beat, following the 

 course of the sun, sends forth a continuous strain of the martail airs 

 of England." 



Yet in comparison with her shuttle and loom, her machinery and 

 steam engine— all her martial array are but the "pride, pomp, and 

 circumstance of power." Those may overawe her own subjects — 

 overthrow the hordes of Asia, or battle against some prouder foe — 

 but these serve the products of her power throughout the inhabitable 

 world and paralyze the energies of mighty nations; and, if England 

 were blotted out of existence to-morrow, the historian could a thou- 

 sand years hence, write from the medals and devices of her manu- 



