The contrast between Athens and England, as it regards their dangers, is suggested in a remarkable passage of Xenophon. He remarks that—“Athens rules the sea; but as the country of Attica is joined to the continent, it is ravaged by enemies, while the Athenians are engaged in distant expeditions. If the Athenians inhabited an island, and besides this enjoyed the empire of the seas, they would, as long as they were possessed of these advantages, be able to annoy others and at the same time be out of all danger of being annoyed.”
The benefit of an insular position, which Athens did not command, is possessed by England; and, as Montesquieu observes, “We might imagine that the Greek historian and philosopher was speaking of our own country.” Athens was finally crushed by the Turks; but whatever apprehension there once was of the invasion of the West by Mohammedan arms, no such apprehension can ever be felt again; and if any likeness be traced between the old Turkish and the present Russian Empire, the latter threatens the East rather than Europe, and an invasion of England by an army that must march through the German States, or by an armament sailing from the Baltic ports, is among the wildest dreams of fear. Then, going back to the fall of Tyre, under the desolating hand of a Nebuchadnezzar and Alexander, peril like hers, in reference to ourselves, seems next to impossible; for the days of such conquerors are gone by for ever. Even the career of Napoleon was not the counterpart of them, nor could be in the modern state of the world, with its large community of civilized, powerful, and independent nations.