The daily Mississippi clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1866-1866, 1866-05-10


Thursday ::::;:::::: May 10, 1866
~The province Of a Southern
editor is somewhat circumscribed.
We can select and arrange for the in
formation Of our readers, the news
which the mails and the telegraph
bring us, and we can watch over, and
to the best Of our judgment and abil-
ity foster the home interests and dis
cuss the home policy Of the State;
and there, for all present useful pur-
poses, our business stops Whatever
ucubrations We may indulge in con
corning national politics are Of no
avail either to shape the policy Of our
people or to influence the course of
their rulers, and must be considered
only as esthetical exercises or at the
furthest as practice lessons by way
of keeping our hands in. For at
present neither have our people q
voice in the government nor do their
wishes or interests stand the least
chance Of being regarded by the party
in power For any use that it would
subserve, we might as well write
about European as American pol
tics; and, indeed, weary and dis
gusted with what is going on at Wash
ingtOn, we are fain, for relief, to cast
"a glance across the Atlantic and see
if there is not there something to in
terest US and distract the mind from |
unpleasant and Improbable themes.
In truth we find European affairs !
at present growing extremely inter
esting, aud there Is something in the |
condition Of things which strongly |
reminds us Of the situation thirteen |
years ago. Then, as now, the atmos
phcre was filed with rumors of APP |
preaching war, and heads and pens
everywhere were busted with spec
ulations as to the probable result
The general opinion, We recollect, in
clined to the belief that peace would |
be preserved. The memory of the |
wars Of Napoleon the First was too
fresh in the minds of people and |
statesmen not to lead them to depre
cate disturbance of the gnneraI re
pose, and we believed then, and we
still believe, that all the statesmen of
Europe were sincerely in earnest in
endeavoring to avert war; but we
did not think they would succeed. Al
most every arrival from Europe
brought the report in stereotyped
phrase, lit is not believed that there
will be any war and yet the great
powers were drifting hopelcssly into
the vortex of hostilities. Nor, when
the war at last commenced, did we be
heve that it would soon end; nor did
we regard the peace, which was in a
short time patched up, as anything but
a truce.
And such it has proved. When the
conhagration was stamped out in one |
place, 1t broke out in another, until, at |
last, everything seemed quiet
seemed so to all eyes save those of
the far seeing ruler of France. He |
found it impossible to persuade his |
fellow sovereigns and their advisers !
of the necessity for a general congress.
and hardly was this project of his re
luctantly abandoned, when an explo-
sion took place in an obscure corner
of the continent
That spent itself; Denmark was hui
INFLATED and dismcmbered, and words
of peace again reached the general
ear-nothing but words The en-
bers still smouldcred, and now they
are all aglow. A renewal of war is
imminent-we might say inevitable.
Still the same pacific intelligence as
in 1858 is repeated almost every week.
but the former lesson has rather sha-
ken the confidence Of the sooth savers.
and their predictions are less conf
dent than they were Yet. they en-
deavor, with all the frmness of utter
ance they can command, to pronounce
assurances of a peaceful settlement of
difficulties, but hardly have these as
surances reached us when another ar
rival brings news Of fresh compiled
tons, or rather that the parties are
still helpIessly entangled in the old |
ones.
We fully believe that we shall soon
enjoy the luxury, if it may be so con-
sidered, of the grandest kind of a war
viewed from a considerably more dis
tant point Of view than that which we
have lately witnessed