The way they used to be

Spencer Warren writes about how Great Britain used to act when its citizens were captured by foreign despots:

Mad Emperor Theodore of Ethiopia seized British officials and missionaries as hostages when Britain refused his demands for aid, as told in Wikipedia. Whereupon an army of 13,000 was sent from India under the command of General Sir Robert Napier. Disembarking in the country along the Red Sea, they marched 400 miles across very difficult terrain and reached the emperor’s fortress at Magdala.

As I recall, Napier refused the emperor’s request to negotiate and stormed the fortress. All hostages were freed and the British then destroyed and flattened the place, as a lesson to all who would then think twice before trying to tweak the British lion.

Today, a statue to Lord Napier of Magdala stands at Trafalgar Square.

Another Briton flipping in his grave today is Lord Palmerston. Are you familiar with the Don Pacifico Incident, when he had Royal Navy vessels bombard Athens when the authorities threatened someone under British protection? That is when he told Parliament, as in the days of ancient Rome, Civis Romanus sum, so today, Civis Britannicus sum.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at April 05, 2007 08:13 PM | Send