A Passion for Meddling, by Richard Cobden

By Jean-Baptiste Isabey (1767–1855), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Congress of Vienna in 1815, a coloured engraving of a painting by Jean-Baptiste Isabey (1767–1855). It was here at the Congress that the trouble started: European powers released from Napoleon’s grip gathered at Vienna to divide up his short-lived French Empire with contemptuous disregard for peoples and traditions, thinking only of the rights and interests of governments. Sir Sidney Low believed that mistakes made at this Congress contributed significantly to the Great War in 1914-18: see Bungling Tinkers!. Unfortunately, none of the countries that meddled so disastrously at that Congress ever doubted their own wisdom or right to meddle thereafter.

A Passion for Meddling

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WE shall here be encountered with a very general prepossession in favour of our maintaining what is termed a rank amongst the states of the Continent — which means, not that we should be free from debt, or that our nation should be an example to all others for the wealth, education, and virtues of its people, but that England shall be consulted before any other countries presume to quarrel or fight; and that she shall be ready, and shall be called upon, to take a part in every contention, either as mediator, second, or principal.

If we go back through the Parliamentary debates of the last few reigns, we shall find this singular feature in our national character — the passion for meddling with the affairs of foreigners — more strikingly prominent in every succeeding session. Our history during the last century may be called the tragedy of ‘British intervention in the politics of Europe’.

by Richard Cobden 1804-1865

taken from two pamphlets, one written in 1835 and the other in 1836

The first part comes from ‘England, Ireland and America’ (1835), the second from ‘Russia’ (1836), both written by Richard Cobden (1804-1865) and collected in ‘The Political Writings of Richard Cobden’ (1867, 1903) with a preface by Lord Welby, introductions by Sir Louis Mallet and William Cullen Bryant, and notes by F.W. Chesson.

Précis

In another pamphlet written shortly afterwards, Cobden addressed those who saw in military interventions a way to maintain Britain’s global profile. A country may earn respect by doing justice at home, he said; but Victorian Britain would not be remembered fondly for appointing herself as judge, jury and executioner for the wrongs of other nations.

Questions for Critics

1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?

2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?

3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?

Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.

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