Untitled - 24grammata.com

INTERESTS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 363not only be in the highest degree useful to themselves,, butmay also serve as an example to others ;and that in ourquarter of the world it has done so, is sufficiently proved bythe history of modern Europe. Moreover, the existence ofsuch a power gives greater security to the political systemto which it belongs, against the occurrence of a revolution,which would at one blow annihilate the whole : since thesituation of such a state will either altogether exempt it, orat least enable it more easily to escape the shock. But thepeculiar importance of such a state to the whole system,consists in the necessity which its own maintenance imposes,of becoming a naval power ;and thus rendering it impossible that land forces alone should decide the supremacy. Inevery system of states, the pre-eminence of one over therest must eventually ensue, (especially when there is a considerable difference of power among the members,)if thepreponderance depend upon land forces alone. Even theexpedient of the balance of power., however carefullyplanned, will prove but a weak security against the occurrence of some favourable opportunity by which the statewhose resources, or the talent of its leaders, or both, haverendered it the strongest, may be enabled to take that powerinto its own hands which in the common course of affairswill at some time or other lead to oppression and tyranny,although it may not at first assume so decisive a character!The rise, therefore, of one or more naval powers, by providing that in the political balance no single interest shallhave the preponderance, is of itself most beneficial to thewhole ;and the more so, because from the very nature ofsuch a power it cannot itself become dangerous to the independence of the rest. But to the reflecting observer, theexistence of naval powers acquires its chief interest from theconsideration that they can only result from an advancedstate of civilization.Barbarians, it is true, will fit out shipsfor piracy; or if they are sufficiently powerful, for the purpose of conveying their armies into foreign countries andsubduing them ;but a naval power, in the true sense of theword, arises only from a participation in the commerce ofthe world, and has for its proper object the protection of itsshipping and its colonies in distant seas. This presupposes,therefore, that both shipping and colonies are already inexistence; and as they cannot exist except under a high