"Certain it is that a new law of nations is gradually taking hold of the mind, and coming to sway the practice, of the world; a law which recognises independence, which frowns upon aggression, which favours the pacific, not the bloody settlement of disputes, which aims at permanent and not temporary adjustments; above all, which recognises, as a tribunal of paramount authority, the general judgment of civilised mankind. It has censured the aggression of France; it will censure, if need arise, the greed of Germany. “Securus judicat orbis terrarum.” It is hard for all nations to go astray. Their ecumenical council sits above the partial passions of those, who are misled by interest, and disturbed by quarrel. The greatest triumph of our time, a triumph in a region loftier than that of electricity and steam, will be the enthronement of this idea of Public Right, as the governing idea of European policy; as the common and precious inheritance of all lands, but superior to the passing opinion of any."
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Prime Ministers of the United KingdomPoliticians from EnglandTheologians from EnglandAcademics from the United KingdomNon-fiction authors from England
Original Language: English
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Sources
‘Germany, France, and England’, Edinburgh Review (October 1870), quoted in W. E. Gladstone, Gleanings of Past Years, 1843–78. Vol. IV. Foreign (1879), pp. 256–257
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Ewart_Gladstone
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William Ewart Gladstone
1868 – 1874
William Ewart Gladstone (29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British Liberal politician and Prime Minister (1868–1874, 1880–1885, 1886 and 1892–1894). He was a notable political reformer, known for his populist speeches, and was for many years the main political rival of Benjamin Disraeli.
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