Evansville weekly journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 184?-18??, 1848-05-04
RECENT EVENTS IN EUROPE.


The Louisville Journal of Wednesday has
long article under the above head from which
we extract the following. 1t is eloquently
written:
The American .reyolu-
ftion threw bright bow of promise across the
clouds in the political armament, and on its
glorious arch millions have looked and sighed
and hoped, until at length their hopes are mel
ting into fruition and their vague dreams are be-
coming fond realities. The greatand essential
truths asserted by our forefathers in legislative
council and contended for on every red field of
battle from Lexington TO Yorktown, namely,
that men are brothers and entitled to equal
rights and that governments are to be tolerated
only when they do not interfere with life, lib
erty, and the pursuit Of happiness. are becom
ing the fundamental articles in the creed Of all
the thinking men of Europe from the Black sea
to the base ofthe Pyrenees, and from the shores
of the Baltic to those of the Mediterranean
Over these vast regions, where despotism has
reigned unquestiened for centuries, men are
everywhefe rising to claim their long lost rights,
and millions of unshackled hearts are now ma
king the heavens vocal with the stirring hymns
of freedom.
On the 22d day of February last, Europe was
hqshed in profound peace. 1t was not the
tranquility OF hope, but the stagnation Of des-
pair. The fearful heavings of no earthquake of
!. popular passion then rocked the thrones of
that continent. Each despot clutched his
spectre firmly, while before him stretched a
glorious panoramic view of the spendor, the
pomp, and the reageantry of power which the
future would open up to himself and his pos
terity The stars looked serenely down on vale
and field and thronged city There was no as
trologic sign in the heavens portending. the
downfall of dynasties to startle monarchs on
the soft couches on which they reposed. The
I hrewdest eye whose vision swept the skies
could discover no cloud frowning even in the
most distant part of the horizon from which
soothsayer could foretel that a desolating
whirlwind was marshaling its energies for
i conflict that woold shatter systems mantled
with the ivy of ages and smeared with the sac
rifcial blood of millions. The door of the
temple of Janus had been shut for more than
the third of a century, and peace seemed to
promise that her olive branches should long re-
main unwithered.
Such was the condition of Europe on the
anniversary of that glorious day on which was
born our political savior. One short month
passed away, and what change had it wit
nessed The oldest dynasties in Europe had
been rocked violently to and fro by the volca-
mic energies OF the people resolved on achiev-
ing their deliverance from the old bondage
: Royalty i'll some countries had fed from its
palaces, and Everywhere it was appalled, and
suppicating safety. Its armies had refused to
do It's bidding. and, fraternizing with the peo-
S pie, United with them in demanding the most
thorough reforms. Monarchs shivered and
were pallid with fear as the wild huzzas of
their subjects reached their ears on which no
: sounds but those of adulation had before fall
: len. The people, inspired with new life, ey-
Q erywhere rose in their majesty and demanded
? extensive concessions, and emperors, kings
and potenates, who had previously derided
r such demands made hot haste TO grant them.
The millions, who, since civilization began its
o proud career in Europe, had been ground down
to the dust under the relentless heel of oppres-
: sion, were emancipated from miserable letters
E on which the rust of antiquity was thick, and
felt for the first time the glorious thrill of free
dom tingling along each tiny nerve. Thus IN
one short month was accomplished a revolu-
ton in the relations of rulers and subjects such
: as the most ardent supposed would require an
t age to bring to protection
What makes this month of wonders still
more remarkable is that its mighty events were
wholly unexpected. While no traitors were
: plotting treason against the State, while no
r whispering conspirators Were meditating on
scenes Of blood, a revolution took place with
out any preliminary crimes. This revolution
J TOO is the mightiest BY far that ever shook the
foundations of European society, and yet it
was brought about without generalization or
concert. 1t was as if some wild dream of the
morning had been suddenly crvstalized into
| truth The French revolution was wholly ex-
temporaneous. The gods. designing the de-
Istruction of the rulers, had demented them,
but that was the only preparation for an event
that promises in It's results to eclipse all other
events, and to make by far the grandest page in
the great epic of our race which is to be COM
pleted when
''Suns and stars shoot madly from their spheres"
On Sunday morning, a million of Parisians
awoke, the subjects of Louis Philippe, with
: out suspicion that the foundation of monar-
chy was thoroughly worm-eaten and insecure;
and yet, before the chime of the vesper bells
had summoned the grateful TO prayer on the en-
suing Saturday evening, the citizen King of
France had abdicated in terror, was an exile
from the Tuilleries, and making exceeding haste
to escape beyond the borders of that country to
which for eighteen years he had been deeply
and designedly traitor, while his throne was
IN thousand fragments, and the brilliant dy-
nasty he had for years been striving TO build up
for his family was an absurd and cast off Wis
ion ola foregone time.
The four weeks which succeeded the events
in Paris are without parallel. Among all the
wonderful deeds recorded in authentic or in
icabulOuo AAtoioi liiS
ments of denigods and heros of the ancient
world and the varied facts that have marked
the history of Europe since the star of Rome
went down ingloriousy in a cloud ofblood and
infamy-there is no event which even fore
Swallowed the great popular achievements that
have just taken place in Europe. So strange
is the spectacle that Juvenal himself would be
puzzled to decide whether it should most COM
mand the tears of Herculius or the derision and
broad glee of Democritus. Thrones reeled with
out blow, and the Oldest and strongest and
most dreaded governments in the world, whose
| history ran back to that of he imperial Caesars
tottered and fell before the breath of mob
There is nothing in history so startling in its
grandeur and SO admirable Units simplicity as
that.
Three short months ago, Louis Philippe,
| the super servicable, though brilliant and pro-
+ found, Guizot, and Metternich main tanned
correspondence remarkable for its cool audacl-
ty and spledid arrogance in which they pro-
posed to extInguish the flame of freedom that
blazed on Mount Blanc and threw a radience
over the pleasant valleys Switzerland Little
then did of