The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-11-12 00:00:00

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*tourbriby Obietter.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12th, 1881.

SOVEREIGNS AND STATESMEN.

LORD Beaconsfield's declaration at the Guildhall

banquet three or four years ago, that the world
is governed by sovereigns and statesmen, has
been accepted as a saying the truth of which it
is impossible to controvert. Soule countries,
more especially within the pvst century, have
uninaged to get along without sovereigns; but
statesmen have always been found indispensable.
When, in 1776, :,he United States of America

were pronounced to be i:2dependent of British
rule, they did not set up a sovereign lord, but
declared in favour of an elected Pr2sident to hold

office for a limited number of years. In South
America the Republics are numerous ; and some
of them are often at war one with the other, the
conflict between Chili and Peru, which came to
a close a few months ago, being of a peenlie.rly
protracted and sanguinary character. In fact,
throughout the whole of the North American
continent, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and
from Labrador to California, there is not a single
crowned head. The attempt to establish one in
Mexico fourteen years ago ended in a disastrous
failura. The Emperor Maximilian was shot, and
the collapse of the enterprise was the first warn-
ing of what, three years later' happened in
France. It is true that British North America
is a part of the dominions of the Queen, who is
represented there by a Governor-General; but
tt) all practical intents and purposes Canada is a
self-ruled province. Royalty is a plant which
has never taken root in the New World. With
no depth of earth it has invariably withered away.

Europe presents a strong contrast to Arneri
in this respect. As the width of the Atlantic
separates the two continents, so they seem to be
wide as the poles asunder in their modes of
government for the various countries. Taking
England as the home of liberty and the mother
of free Parliaments, it is found that while states-
men of all sorts and parties have been called to
the guidance of affairs, the monarchy is an insti-
tution of a thousand years. There was a slight
interregnum between 1649 and 1660; but that
is brief enough as compared with the ten centur-
ies of crowned heads. During that time there
has been many a wild period of political commo-
tion, and even within the remembrance of those
now living, popular excitement has spread like
a flame throughout Europe, and constituted
authorities in other lands have trembled. But
here it has been the exception to find the de-
struction of the monarchy suggested as the
remedy for existing ills. Popular commotion
has been visited upon the statesman and not
upon the sovereign. rhe Constitutional motto
is that the King can do no wrong; but it is the
Minister of the day who is held to be responsible.
The destruction of an institution under which
England has grown great, and prosperous, and
free, would cure no political evil, and remove no
grievance of which any particular class com-
plained. fne mere suggestion of an English
Republic has only to be mentioned in order to
show that it is not within the range of practical
politics. It is not a matter which concerns the
present generation; and there is no doubt but
that the British Conititution, as now established,
will flourish for aces to come.
By vat of contrast, if we look across the
Straits of Dover, there is presented to the view
a land in which three Republics have existed
within ninety years. When the people of France,
goaded out of all patience by the tyranny, and
exactions of the monarchy, rose against it at the
close of last century, the Republic which suc-
ceeded it went to such violent extremes that
Napoleon, as First Consul, had little difficulty
in scouring power and reversing its decrees. In
endeavouring to stamp out all respect for the
Christian religion it bad obliterated the names
of the months and swept away the Christian era.
The chronicles of the world were to be dated
from the establishment of the French Republic ;
everything which had previously happened was
to be a blank. Grotesque levellings of this kind
brought about a reaction and paved the way for
the restoration of the sovereignty. It would not
be easy to say how many forms of government
France has had within the past ninety years. It
is Republican to-day, truly; but it would require
a sanguine man to predict what it :might happen
to be next year. In Spain, within the past few
years, the Republic has again given place to a
monarchy. The Swiss Clnfederation, with its
President at its head, is the only State in Europe
which has long preserved the Republican prin-
ciple intact, With monarchies all round it,
which sometimes come into collision one with
another, Switzerland preserves at once its integ-
rity and its form of Government, and the Sover-
eign or the statesman would be a bold one who,
by external pressure, ventured to change its
system of government. The truth seems to be
that each country must be the best judge of the
particular form of rule most applicable to the
wants of its people. If France or the United
States of America prefer a Republic, well and
good ;in England there is no di.position for a
change, seeing that with our form of government
the rule of the Sove-eign is judiciously blended
with the ethninistratioe of the statesolau.