Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1866-07-26
VOLUME XVII.

their moral interests and natures. Those
of William of Orange in Holland, those Of
Queen Anne with Louis XIV, those of Fred
eric III, of Prussia, each and all, served to
hit some oppressive weight from the crush
ed spirit and open to it pathway nearer
the throne of its Maker, to let some light
into the soul benighted by the ecclesiasti
Cal darkness of a thousand years If Pru
sia is victor in this contest, which may
God grant, such a result is inevitable for
Prussia is Protestant and intelligent, while
Austria is ignorant and stepped in the foul
est dregs of Romanism.
Italy is also party in this war She
goes into the struggle to recover Veni ce,
a state that is purely Italian handed over
to the tender mercies of Austrian rule by
the Congress of Vienna and Paris, in 1914,
and 1915 No one can blame Victor En-
anuel for the part he is about to take. The
people of Venice have besought him
through long years to come to their aid
Deserted by Napoleon III at the very mo-
ment when the door seemed opening for
their enlargement, they have mourned their
sad fate without the power to free them
selves from it. There are not words in our
language to describe the utter hopeless
ness OF their situation, unless released by
this war, and no pen nor pencil can por-
tray the depth of their debasement, as Italy
now is. She maintains large army of her
own sons to enslave herself,-she is sub
ject to grinding taxation to fill the Golfers
| of the Austrian State, her sons are torn
from her hearthstones to fill the ranks of
the Austria Army. Austrian officers des-
ecrate her firesides and affairs, robbing
beauty of its bloom and purity,-in truth,
the slavery of ancient times had no fea-
lures so revolving as that has which now
curses the proud city Venice.
If Germany were united under one head,
with a government like that of the United
States, her law would be the law of Eu.
rope. Her population would then equal
sixty millions, occupying a territory hav-
ing most fertile soil and healthy tenn
perate climate. The largest rivers of Eu-
| rope would water her provinces, bestow-
ing upon her sites for great centres Of pop
ulation and commerce But here stands
| that eternal, everlasting, bug-bear of ty-
| rants, the balance of power - the theo-
ry of which is, that these crowned robbers
having spent their lives in robbing their
subjects, and acquired the habit of rob-
berry, to prevent mutual encroachment have
fenced themselves within certain bounda-
ries and limitations, outside of which they
have agreed to rob no more, and to exer-
else their talent at robbery within their
own borders, or in a direction which will
not intrude ON each others territory. Thus
England has agreed to rob no Continental
Power, but to bestow her attention upon
helpless, famine stricken Ireland, or upon
her Indian subjects in Asia. France, hav-
ing been so great robber in the time of
Napoleon the First now obliged to dis
gorge some of her plunder and confine her
self to her old limits though upon Algiers
and Mexico, neither of which seemed to
tempt her predatory appetite much then,
she might try her cunning hand. Russia
was to perpetrate no robbery upon Turkey
she might rob all around the further
coast of the Black and Caspian Seas, all
over Asia, and particularly China, but she
must play no tricks of her trade upon any
portion of the Mediterranean or Atlantic
coasts. Austria, having acquired all her
possessions by wholesale robbery, agreed
to be satisfied with the plumber of Lom-
hardy and Venice, with now and then an
inroad upon the Turkish Principalities
and Prussia, overjoyed to retrieve her
Rhenish Provinces, felt we'll paid for the
dozen drubbings BOnaparte had given her.
| Denmark was to keep the DuChies now in
dispute, but to her and to the lesser king
doms and sovereignties, were given no for
eign field to steal in, the greater Powers
solemnly agreeing to respect them as make
weights in any bargain they might have
on hand, or wanting that, to protect them
as they were.
These self-imposed restrictions and agree
ments constitute the treaties of 1914 and
1915, and in them we find the far-famed
balance of power" which became the pub
lie law of Europe in the policy of each
state, as regards its intercourse with the
rest 1t will be a study for the historian,
furnishing dark chapter of human deprav-
ity and greed. 1t has crushed the spirit of
the people, resting like dead weight upon
their moral aspirations and hopes. 1t was
league of tyrants, conspiracy against
truth and right pledge to hunt down each
effort of the nobler nature to rise in the
scale of humanity and to assert its equal
claim to the free air of Heaven 1t has
banished Mazzini from the land of his birth,
set price upon the head of Garibaldi, and
loaded kossuth with chains The hopes it
has crushed, the blood it has spilled, can
only be known in that day, when the ty
rant, stripped of his power shall stand