The Lansing state Republican. [volume] (Lansing, Mich.) 1855-1874, 1861-06-05

Fromth be London Daily News, Mays
The outbreak Of civil war in America has been
the signal and pretext for an Outcry in this coun-
try against popular institutions. We are hidden
TO look across the Atlantic, at the greatest repub
lie the world ever saw, broken in pieces by trea-
son, and in the agOnies of bloody conflict. and
we are asked whether an hereditary monarch
and an hereditary aristocracy would not have
averted this great calamity? The eyes of tories
giisten with Gelight as they point TO the disrup-
ton OF the United States as an argument against
meddling with the franchise and timid politicians
are content to pause, in order to see how Mat.
tiers will end. The jubaton of political reac.
tonists is surprising In the midst of those
marvellous events which have taken place in Eu.
rope, and especially in Italy, during the las. two
year, and which have incontestably proved the
selfcontrOl of which the multitude is capable,
the dssensions in the United States are welcom-
ed almost as an interposition of Providence
Hitherto they have had to invent the facts upon
which Popes and Emperors rested the superiOrl-
ty of their merit over republics and COZ stitution
al governments. Now there is some faint hope
that the admitted condition of America NAV fur
niph an argument in their favor. II, indeed his
tory had supplied an example of any government
which was secure from the possibility of treason,
there might be some truth in the charges made
against the Government of the United States-
Such a claim has never been eet up or even sug
gested. No government, indeed, the world has
ever seen, has had to deal with elements go dis
cordant as those of America, has shown so much
wisdom and forbearance in dealing with the diff
6cultes to which those elements have naturally
given rise, or has managed to ward off that ca
tastrophe which to most men has long seemed
inevitable. When the East India Company was
abolished, its advocates justly claimed for it the
merit Of having governed with success a vast
territory teeming with men for more than cen
tury; nor was the occurrence of . gigantic mu-
tiny allowed to obterate all remembrance of the
past Let only the same justice be done to
American institutions. 1t is impossible to deIy
that for nearly a century the Government Of the
Tn;.~d C..s~-. ---rE.-l \ :. -i-.. II. =,
has maintained its authority over a heterogene-
Gus population recruited from every corner OF
the earth, without impairing local self govern
ment, or curbing that spirit Of expansion, which
has peopled the continent from the shores of the
Atlantic to the slopes of the Rocky Mountains
Up to the time when Mr.. Lincoln wac elected
President, il would have been the merest para
dox to assert that popular institutions had failed
Nor is the observation less absurd now that the
civil war has broken out. To hear people talk
it would seem as if such a crisis had never Oc
Cured under any other form Of Government
Have Kings, or Popes, or Emperors never los
any portion of their domnions? Did not Eng
land lose those very States? Did not Spain lose
Mexico! Did not Austria lose Italy and Hun
gary ? And has not France experienced the like
disasterss At what period of the worlds histo
~ have such disasters been deemed conclusiv,
evidence against the form of that Governmen
which sustained them? No doubt the conduc
which President Lincoln and his Cabinet adop
will furnish cogent proof of the wisdom and en-
ergy which can be obtained in the American Re
public. II ia a favorable maxim with some, ths
| the present political system of America exclude
the best men from the highest Offices; and tn
opinion is not unsupported by plausible reasons
The present crisis will test this theory. Few VII
dispute that more difficult task never was i'm
posed upon any ruler than that which is now i'm
posed upon Abraham Lincoln. To many, pei
haps 10 most, it seems impossible. In this re
spect it forms strange contrast to the tas
which was imposed on the Ministers of Georg
III, at the end of the last century, or, the Otne
day, upon the Government of Austria or Maple:
1t is universally admitted that if these monarch
rad conducted themselves with ordinary commo
sense and justice, they might, instead OF losin
provinces have long ruled over a contented pei
pie. There is not a man of reflection, scarcel
foreign Minister, who was not ready to profft
advice to the benighted sovereign, which, if
had been followed, would have rescued him frol
his difficulties. Yet there is not statesman
Europe who does not congratulate himself th
he is spared the responsibility OF occupying Il
White House at Washington at the present tim
But while every man. of the least political exp
! rience forbears to offer advice 10 the Americs
Government, it is remarkable that since the a
cession of Mr. Lincoln to Office, no plan has be-
mooted. no act has been done by the Cover
, ment Of the Z. S. which has not been dictate
, by moderation and political wisdom. Difficult
the situation has hitherto been, it has now b
come much more complicated. If the Cabin
at Washington succeed in restoring harmo
! to the country, or in terminating the contest vi
satisfaction to the people, they will not only &C
: er themselves with glory, but will exalr popu
institutions
8 How TO SHoor.-In shooting a rifle, il Y