1906-7. TRANSACTIONS. 67 



For right or wrong the great nations are resolved to make them- 

 selves as big, as formidable, as extensive, as rich, as science and 

 energy can make them, or at least to tolerate no other nation 

 bigger than themselves. " 



John Morley (also quoted by the Bishop) referring to Eng- 

 land's foreign affairs said that : — 



"The language of England hardly affects to be moral lan- 

 guage. It is the language of pride, of mastery, of force, of violence, 

 of revenge. " 



And Lord Dufferin, than whom no one had a better and more 

 honorable experience in diplomacy, told an audience in Belfast on 

 the 28th October, 1896, that 



"Force and not right is still the dominant factor in human 

 affairs. " 



These are the facts, now listen to Machiavelli's — I mean the 

 Bishop of Peterborough's justification of them: — 



" It is not possible for the state to carry out in all its relations 

 all the precepts of Christ, and a state which attempts this could 

 not exist a week. " 



"It is clear therefore that a state, in order that it may be a 

 faithful trustee, is bound, first to preserve its own existence, and 

 secondly to resist, restrain, and even if needs be to destroy, what- 

 ever and whomever assails its authority or attacks the interests 

 committed to its charge. Self-preservation therefore, and the 

 preservation of all that is entrusted to it, are the moral obligations 

 of every state " (a) . 



That is precisely what Machiavelli said. 



William Clark, recently writing in the Contemporary Review 

 says : — 



"For state ends anything may be justified — such is the real 

 opinion of nearly every statesman whatever moralities he may 

 indulge in coram publico * * * Without being laudator 

 temporis acti one may fairly say that the morals of Machiavelli 

 have become a more marked feature in Europe than a generation 

 g^gQ * * * T^g all incline to hold now, with the German doc- 

 trine, that the world movement is independent of morality" (a). 



Frederick Greenwood, one of the ablest and most respected 

 of England's publicists, recently writing in "Cosmo polls", said: — 



" The individual and the community are not, I think, equally 



(a) Fortnightly Rev., Vol. 53, p. 33. 

 {x) Vol. 75, p. 1. 



