LESSON 15

A POLITICAL PAUSE

一场政治暂停

Charles James Fox, 1749-1806, a famous English orator and statesman, was the son of Hon. Henry Fox, afterward Lord Holland; he was also a lineal descendant of Charles II. of England and of Henry IV, of France. He received his education at Westminster, Eton, and Oxford, but left the University without graduating. He was first elected to Parliament before he was twenty years old. During the American Revolution, he favored the colonies; later, he was a friend and fellow-partisan both with Burke and Wilberforce. Burke said of him, “He is the most brilliant and successful debater the world ever saw.” In his later years, Mr. Fox was as remarkable for carelessness in dress and personal appearance, as he had been for the opposite in his youth. He possessed many pleasing traits of character, but his morals were not commendable; he was a gambler and a spendthrift. Yet he exercised a powerful influence on the politics of his times. This extract is from a speech delivered during a truce in the long war between England and France.

“But we must pause,” says the honorable gentleman. What! must the bowels of Great Britain be torn out, her best blood spilt, her treasures wasted, that you may make an experiment? Put yourselves—Oh! that you would put yourselves on the field of battle, andlearn to judge of the sort of horrors you excite. In former wars, a man might at least have some feeling, some interest, that served to balance in his mind the impressions which a scene of carnage and death must inflict.

But if a man were present now at the field of slaughter, and were to inquire for what they were fighting—“Fighting!”, would be the answer; “they are not fighting; they are pausing.“Why is that man expiring? Why is that other writhing with agony? What means this implacable fury?” The answer must be, “You are quite wrong, sir, you deceive yourself,—they are not fighting,—do not disturb them,—they are merely pausing! This man is not expiringwith agony,—that man is not dead,—he is only pausing! Bless you, sir, they are not angry with one another; they have now no cause of quarrel; but their country thinks that there should be a pause. All that you see is nothing like fighting,—there is no harm, nor cruelty, norbloodshed in it; it is nothing more than a political pause. It is merely to try an experiment—to see whether Bonaparte will not behave himself better than heretofore; and, in the meantime, we have agreed to a pause, in pure friendship!”

And is this the way that you are to show yourselves the advocates of order? You take up a system calculated to uncivilize the world, to destroy order, to trample on religion, to stifle inthe heart not merely the generosity of noble sentiment, but the affections of social nature; and in the prosecution of this system, you spread terror and devastation all around you.

【中文阅读】

“我们必须暂停，”那位尊敬的绅士说。何其乃尔！难道大不列颠的国体必定是，鲜血淋淋，宝藏殆尽，这就是你们的一场实验吗？还是让你们自己亲身进行实验吧！你们都亲身上战场，学会对激起你们荣誉感的事情做出判断。在之前的战争中，一个人至少还有某种情感，还有某种利益纠葛，在他心里抵消了这种印象，就是必须承受大屠杀和死亡场面带来的痛苦。

可是如果一个人现在置身于大屠杀的战场，被问到为什么而战的话——“就是战斗而已！”会得到这样的回答。“他们不是在战斗；他们只是在暂停。”“为什么那人要断气了？为什么其他人因极度痛苦满地翻滚？这种无法平息的狂怒意味着什么？”答案必定是，“你大错特错了，先生，你在欺骗自己。——他们没在战斗——不要打扰他们——他们只是暂停！这个人并没有因为嫉妒痛苦而奄奄一息——那个人也没有死——他只是暂停而已！愿上帝赐福与你，先生，他们不会生别人气的，现在他们不会因为什么事情而争吵了；可是，他们的国家认为这就是暂停。你看到的一切一点也不像在战斗——没有伤害，没有残酷，也没有流血；毋宁说这是政治上的暂停。这只是尝试做一场试验——看看波拿巴是否会比以前表现得更好，与此同时，我们是否会同意暂停，纯粹出于友谊！”

这是你们向现有秩序的拥护者指明的道路吗？你们提出了一种旨在使这个世界退回到野蛮状态的制度，来摧毁现有的秩序，践踏宗教，不只是扼杀慷慨这种高贵的情感，而且还有对社会本质的爱。在对这个制度进行控诉的过程中，你在自己周围传播的都是恐怖和破坏。