Note 23 — JOHN BRIGHT. ON THE FOREIGN POLICY OF ENGLAND; DELIVERED AT A BANQUET GIVEN IN HONOR OF MR. BRIGHT, AT BIRMINGHAM, OCTOBER 29, 1858.

Note 23, p. 169.—The so-called doctrine of the “balance of power,” whatever may be said against it, has been generally held by Europe ever since it was so energetically advocated by Henry IV., of France, at the beginning of the seventeenth century. The doctrine may be said to exercise the functions of a general European police to prevent any inequitable disturbance of territorial limits. It is difficult to see what but that doctrine could have prevented France under Napoleon from getting and holding two thirds of Europe; what would have prevented Russia long since from destroying Turkey; indeed what would prevent the strongest power from ultimately absorbing the whole. It did not prevent the destruction of Poland, partly because there was a general conviction that Poland was hardly worth saving, and partly because the partitioning powers were so strong as to make interference at least a very costly operation. These facts are enough to show that there is a very important other side to Mr. Bright’s attractive doctrine of non-interference. The question is not simply whether Europe has been made better, but also whether she has not been prevented from being made worse.