The Minnesotian. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn. Territory) 1851-1852, 1852-04-17

for the last twenty years before.
-o----~-o--->---o-o-o-~---~
WILL ENGLAND BE INVADED:
1t was a !avorite fancy-or as Dr.. Fer
guson. his friend and PLY sician, termed it,
superstition "-of Sir Walter Scott,
that 1.-THE middle Of every century had al
ways been marked by some great convuI-
sion or calamity in The British islands
and this belief he re-afiirmed in 1881, a
few months before his death, on the eve
OF his last melancholy voyage to the Med
iterranean in the frigate Barham. 1t was
the dread Of his lucid and the torment of
his delirious moments ; and he even VEN
tured what may be deemed prediction
in relation to the then far distant fatal pc
Rod, saying 10 DR.. F., Il shall not live to
find it so; you my" We shall leave
our readers TO decide for themselves how
far Sir Walters opinion is justified by
the past history of Great Britain but,
in the meanwhile, the sweep of years has
brought us to the middle term of the GEN.
fury, and it is very clear that. if his
words have passed from memory, there
is an impression on the minds of his
countrymen, that the moment is pregnant
with danger.--Philad. North finer.
The influence of superstition upon the
strongest minds has often been observed.
Napoleon, with all his dircctness of pur-
pose. clear-sig htedness and selr-slstain-
ing powers-qualties that he possessed
in an extraordinary degrce-was notori-
ous'y superstitious and partly through
egoti>m, that was so prominent trait in
his character, and partly through hi,
quick, accurate perception of the motives
that influence men, instead of striving to
conceal his weakness in this respect. as
most men would have done, he proclaimed
it, AMI skill 'ully appealed to the supersii-
lious belief of others as an element of
power. Scott deserves scarcely less re-
nown for his strong, masculine common
sense, than for his brilliant imaginative
powers, the exercise of which has de-
lighted his myriads of readers but his
fancy alluded TO in the above extract is
but one of many evidences that might be
adduced to prove his tendency to super
stiiious belief. Without attempting to
follow the North American in its specu-
lations as 10 the probability of an invasion
Of Eng and, we choose rather 10 recur TO
the past, that affords singular confirma-
ton of SCOTS notion. Hi Oh Tory as Scott
was, and yet man full of all kindly,
genial sympathies, if he had lived to this
time he would have found in the great
change in British policy since 1910, and
The famine that afflicted Ireland and the
Highlands Of Scotland in Al and '48,
followed as it has been by the death and
expatriation Of millions of British sub
jcc,s, abundant facts to sustain his the.
Dry.
If we go back to the middle of the last
century We find the great rebellion of
l74o, which had hardly been quenched
in the blood Of many OF Rritain's noblest
sons, when the troubles began that ended
in the di>memberment of the British en-
pire and the independence of the thirteen
united American colonies. England has,
undoubtedly, proiited by both of these
great events. The rebellion of AS,
bloody as was its end, extingui>hed for
ever The pretensions Of the exiled Stuarrs,
and by SO doing, while it consolidated the
Hdnoverian succession TO the throne. gave
peace TO the country. The independence
OF the United States, also. though regard
ed at the time by Englishmen as a deplo-
rab'e event, has proved of incalculable
advantage to the mother country.
The same may be said Of the great re-
bellion of the preceding century, in 1910
so, the beheading of Charles l., and the
establishment of the Commonwealth nm
der the Protectorate OF Cromwell The
Affections that England then endured,
terrible as they were, were but the ago.
nizlng throes attendant on the birth of
grand living principles of civil and reli-
gious liberty.
The history of England from 1910 to
the accession of Elizabeth in 1858, in
Guiding the brutal despotism and butch
cries Of Henry WILL, the weak reign of
Edward W., the execution of Lady Jane
Grey, of Cranmer, and other pure and
holy men who suffered during the perse-
cuiions of ''the bloody Mary" is but lit
tie more than a record Of CALAMITY ~
crime. The reformation, so called. that
Henry attempted TO make in the Church
IN the first half of this century, can
hardly be considered an exception. 1t
was undertaken, on his part, in that spirit
OF imperious despotism that, with his
unbridled lust, constituted his most prom
lnent characteristics. Failing to bring