Grand River times. [volume] (Grand Haven, Mich.) 1851-18??, 1854-10-04
HISTORICAL CHANGES.

Nothing more strikingly illustrates the muta-
bity of human affairs, and the complete change
which few years often serve to bring about in
the relations of people to each other, than the
present alliance of France and England, and we
may add Austria, against the Autocrat of all the
Russians. Not quite forty years have passed
away since England, Austria and Russia with
other powers of Europe, were banded together
against France, cementing their alliance with
their best blood on the fatal field of Waterloo.
To the readers of the journals of that period, it
must certainly have seemed as if the friendship
between England and Russia was to be eternal.
The Emperor Alexander was almost deifed
by the British tories; Sir Walter Scott wrote a
hymn in which the choicest blessings of Heaven
were invoked upon his head while curses were
showered on that of the A." fallen tyrant," as Ma
poleon was termed. The other performers in
the closing act of the sanguinary drama also re-
ceved their full share of honor. The Prussan
brute, Blucher, coming to England reeking with
blood and brandy, after celebrating his successes
bv going drunk to bed in his boots and spurs,
at the Chateau of st. Cloud, received the honor
ary degree of Doctor of Laws from the Univer-
sity of Oxford. Since then what changes! The
nephew of the man who was driven from France
by million of allied bayonets, now sits upon
the throne, and is recognized by the British
sovereign us her ally and brother.
The tri-colored standard, which the fate Of
Waterloo trailed in the dust, now valves side
by side with the red cross of st. George. What
would the Iron Duke" now moulderng in his
grave, have said, if he had been told, in 1915,
that his military secretary, Lord Fitzroy Somer-
set (now Lord Raglan), would in few years
be acting under the general orders of French
Marshal, the servant of the deadly enemy of the
Bourbons, and armed against his trusty friends,
the Cossacks of the Ukraine and the Don! Was
it for this, that England poured out her blood
and treasures in twenty-five years of battle on
sea and land I! Was it for this, she sent armies
into the field, and assassins into the heart Of
France!
The humiating feature of this phase of histo-
ry for British statesmen is the fact, that the
great political interests involved are the same
now rs in 1915, when they espoused so ardent
lv the other side. Russia then, as now, had her
eye fixed on Constantinople and the East
Catherine the Great and her successors marched
to the same point. Alexander would never
have broken with Napoleon if the latter had ia
vored his design on the Turkish empire. Then
as now, the people of France had pronounced
emphatieally against the Bourbons--a fact suf.
ficently proved on the return of Napoleon from
Eba, by the abandonment of the royal cause by
the vast armies of Frencbmen assembled to op
pose his progress; by the joyous surrender ol
the throne to the man of the people, without
shot fred or a blow struck for the Bourbon Ill
les.
Napoleon the Great held the throne of France
by a far less questionable title than Napoleon
the Little Yet the latter Immediately after the
Infamous affairs of the second of December was
recognized by Great Britain, and his alliance ca
gcrly courted. Verify, Napoleon the Great is
avenged, Waterloo atoned for, No greater hu