The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1866-12-07
Tho Revolutionary Crisis in ENGLAND.

Tho Revolutionary Crisis in EnafAnd.
In late number Of Blackwoofs Magazine
there isA remarkable article showing the help
less condition to which England has been
brought BY various causes. The masses are
reduced TO pauperism, the finances Of the
country are in so critical position that it
hampers its foreign policy, and its navy is pro-
nounced worthless. The picture Is as gloomy
as 1t can be, but il cannot be pronounced over
strained. II is but Q re-echo Of what we have
so long been saying by way Of warning to the
statesmen, both whig and tory. who have been
seeking to cultivate trouble with this country.
The fact can no longer be disguised that the
changes which OCCUR periodically in the lives
OF nations Since the time of tke Common
wealth II has enjoyed q term or fictitious pros
perity which, while II has enriched the ruling
classes, has beggared The great mass Of the
people II Il now at point where this arti-
fcial system refuses to work longer. Il II, in
fact, in an analogous condition to that IN which
France found itself Immediately prior TO the
first revolution. From the time Of Louis XII
down to 1889 that country had occupied
position of seeming prosperity and greatness,
while in reality all was poverty and wretohed-
ness within. Too much church and too much
feudalsm were the direct causes Of its miseries,
and 1t required bloody ordeal to enable 1t to
free itself from them. 1t is precisely the same
Influences which have brought England to her.
present wretched condition. A selfish and
unprincipled aristocracy and q greedy Church
have so eaten up her resources that nothing Is
left to sustain even the machinery Of govern
ment When 1t is confessed that nation must
renounce its foreign policy because Of Its
inability to 60 to war, all is said. 1t has either
to submit to ACKNOWLEDGMENT or to pass through
the fires Of revolution In order TO- regenerate
ITSELF
II is in this situation that the British empire
now finds ITSELF The movement commenced
by John Bright ia but the first throe Of Its
political agony. When Mr. Bright set out
in his present career Of agitation we are
persuaded that he had no clear conception Of
where it was leading him. He is the Mirabeau
Of the new northumberland, selfwilled
and passionate, and acting from his impulses
rather than from his Judgment Like the
French demagogue, he finds himself on the
brink Of q precipice, the depths Of which he
has not ventured to measure, but down which
he will assuredly be carried by the avalanche
that he has assisted to unioose. Let his posi-
ton not be mistaken. He Is the creature, and
not the originator, Of the new revolutionary
movement. Had he not happened to be in tho
van, some other head would have been found
to plan and some other hand TO point the way.
There can be no stronger evidence Of the
correctness Of these views than the pressing
manner in which the leading English journals
are again beginning to urge the settlement of
the Alabama claims. II the articles from the
London Post and Tines which have just
reached US do not exhibit . degree of
alarm that Is inconsistent with anything but
q sense Of extreme danger. we do not read
them rightly. The urgency of coming at once
to an amicabfe settlement with this country Is
apparent In every line; and this arises not
from feeling Of justice or consciousness Of
wrong-doing, but from the fear Of still further
complicating the dangers which threaten the
empire with dissolution. Whatever may be
the motive, 80 far as we are concerned, we shall
be glad to have these claims disposed Of If
England has to pass through the ordeal Of such
q convulsion as we anticipate, It will be better
forjts government to insure our forbearance
than our resentment