The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1866-10-16
From the Charlottesville IGhronicle.

III humanity, duu we never ala nave, anu tuat
was our great error. We hear now constantly
talk about history knowing in cycles and ere
peating itself" the meaning being Republican
Government is failure, and that are going
to have, Military Government here, and that
some form of despotic government will follow
upon any republican government that may be
developed in Europe. For long time (and a
sreatsdeal during the days of the Confederaey)
it was fashionable in the South to sigh for the
British Constitution, and to euloeize England as
the happiest society on the globe. But Eng
land is beginning, like the rest of Europe, to
show iens of wear and tear in the heavy demo-
cratic seas of the past century. That tight old
Conservative ship is beginning to leak, and the
indications are that she must speedily put into
port for repairs, or she will be oRerwh elmed by
the waves. England is no longer one of 'the
FIVE great powers" The decrepitude of age
seems to have seized upon her. There is ma
terial prosperity the upper classes are cult
vated and refined; the press is more able than
it ever was there are abundance of religious
and charitable associations her soldiers aad
seamen have lost none of their hereditary cour
age; but the State is sick. France, in the last
ten years, has overshadowed her; Russia Is
growing every day; the United States has passed
her; and now Prussia is prepared to bully her
whenever the occasion may offer. Thoughtful
English men must look with serious concern
upon the recent sudden collapse of Austria-and
ask themselves the reason. What would Eng
land do 10 the event Of a.war with the United
States, or France, or Prussia Her army is
small, and as iue ficient as that of Austria her
navy is pronounced worthless; and she has no
means of raising an army, while the illiberal ad-
ministraton of her navy renders it difficult for
her to procure seamen. The Church Establish
ment IS constant source of internal chickering's;
she has never been able to devise any system Of
National Education and Ireland is more dis
contenteG than ever; while Canada is grasltating
towards the United States, and Russia menac~
ing the durability of her empire in the East.
These things are now felt in England, and
although the English people are slow in moving,
they are apt to act thoroughly when they do
move The present agitation for Reform
threatens the most radical changes in the British
Constitution. England cannot poise herself any
longer upon the conservatism of the eighteenth
century. She escaped the French Revolution );
she has escaped the Democratic fermentation
which has prevailed on the Continent since that
period but her hour has come-and woe to her
aristocracy if they hesitate what to do
There is but one way o. maintaining the ma
tional position of England and that is by making
the foundations Of the government as broad as
her whole people. England must cease to be a
close oorporation-else the fate of Austria awaits
her as nation, or the fate of the French no
Jtesse awaits her aristocracy a class. Timely
1eform may give new lease to the life of that
aristocracy but it cannot in any event endure
beyond another generation.
England, in other words, is drifting into a
democracy as is all Europe. This is too plain
to be coGtradicted Il time ,ciU come aohen all
ChustendoSs viH be democratic.
- 1t is at this point, that the class of thinkers,
to whom We referred in the beginning, apply
their theory of "cycles" They allow that
modern civilization is driving everything into
democracy; but they say Rome was but king
dom, then republic then military despotism;
and that modern democracy, succeeding upon
monarchy, will likewise be succeeded by des-
potlc government.
Where is the thing then to stop? Do We live
on wheel? Will human society never achieve
position which it can maintain Are We to
have a return of the ''dark ages 2" The falacy
is in this, that the mass of mankind iD the an
cient world were utterly degraded and utterly
ignorant. The best society in the Roman EN-
pire was corrupt-not in the sense 10 which
London society is corrupt, but in the manner
that society is corrupt in India or China.
The world is not going to turn back again it
has advanced too far ; it is not going to plunge
into another night-unlcss We can suppose that
Christianity is going otake wings and fly away
unless all the science Of this wonderful age is
going to be lost-uDless our railroad lines, and
telegraphs, and ocean-steamers, and iron foun-
dries, and cotton factories, and reaping machines,
and sewing machines, and cylinder printing
presses going to be overwhelmed like Egypt
or Assyra. Does anybody believe that all the
L NJ lp1r at Is in he wort m
be lost s~.--. ..~-.----- ---= -.s-~1
tragedy of Cslvery, and built up a new Chris
tan world, with all its growth of religious af-
fections, and wealth of knowledge, to eStinguish
it again. .-..-->. .....f
But how will these Democratic societies govern
themselves says the objector They will do
1t by the diffusion of moral and religious infu-
eoces, which will be forthcoming at just the
right point. Ever since the advent of Christ,
the world has been steadily advancing in reli-
gion and morals. The middle ages did not have
the art, nor the culture, of Greece and Rome !;
but society was purer. Those old knights were,
in many respects very beautiful characters, and
the life OF that day was, in many aspects, also
very beautiful. TIE world is now immeasurably
|" advance OF any preceding age There is no
reason to doubt that human society shall still
move on-and may not the millennium of which
dIvlnes speak be just period Of great moral
activity, as the present century has been period
of intellectual activity The blaze Of science
which has burst upon mankind in the past
seventy five years is as startling an event as if
in the next seventy FIVE years there could be
fame of spiritual activity of equal brightness
And 1t is extremely significant that the whole
christian world is now On The p-tee of expec-