Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1867-06-04

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Those Of our readers who have been
so fortunate as to possess themselves OF
the April number Of the Southern Re
Cieig, viii not be likely soon to forget the
wise and eloquent articles, entitled The
Origin Of the late War and, DE Toe
oUEvILLE on the Sovereignty Of the
People nor portions Of that on the Re
cent Histories OF JULIUS CESAR
OF course we estimate the wisdom OF
these articles all the more highly, be-
cause they agree in every point and par
ticular with our " opinions, snd seem
TO US only more forcible and eloquent
u-tterances Of our own thoughts. That is,
We suppose all mems test Of thelwisdom
of the men of their own day and gen
Grafton. We all think ourselves wise,
and those wise who agree with us.
The sadness caused by dark forebo-
dings and gloomy thoughts, however
heavyit may have been, becomes deepen
ed and intensified when we read our own
presentiments in words IS it were Of pro-
pheey, written by another. Iii for that
reason we have been 50 profoundly and
painfully impressed by the articles Of
the ReUietU.
Whose has read the Article on the
Recent Histories Of JULIUS CESAR, will
remember these sentences:
1.-THE saddest, but the most significant
period Of secular history is that which
records the extinction Of the Roman
Republic, and the establishment Of the
Empire on its ruins. The century be-
tween the Tubunate Of TIBERTUs GRAC-
CHUs and the battle Of ActiuG is an age
Of chronic CONFUSION and Of multiplied
misery. The vast frame OF
ancient freedom and OF ancient glory
sinks msngled and exhausted on the soil
whence it sprung, and there is NO distinct
prospect Of a coming resurrection. There
is but one present hope,-the dreamy
hope Of despairing anguish hope only
TO be satisfied by the descent of deity in
the approaching years. 10 the long
and feverish agony Of death, which
brought the sovereign people OF Rome,
with all their subject Provinces, into i'm
potent submission to q single Lord and
Master, the most ominous and the most
suggestive epoch is hat which is signal
lied by the definite resolution Of free
government into imperial rule. This is
the crisis Of humanity, the turning point
Of History
And yet, slnOst until the very
dawn Of the Empire broke, how many
Romans were there who were not wholly
unconscious Of its steady, solemn, terri
BILE approach. 1t was not long before,
that CICERO wrote his long lost Treatise
dc Repu5lica and when he pronounced
his invectives against CATALrNE, neither
he nor CARO- dreamed that CESAR,
whom some implicated in the Con-
spiraey, would change the Republic to
40 Empire, and render " his own family
name prouder title than that of En-
peror which he accepted, or that ofKing
which he declined"
They were as unconscious Of it as the
Statesmen Of the Court Of LOUIS XIV
were Of the Revolutionary e~sFthquake
that in 5 few years was to shatter royalty
into fragments; and as the Girondins
and Jacobins we're Of the coming Con-
sulate and Empire.
Was this because the people do not
nossess an instinct like that which
warns the horned cattle Of the West
T,s;as Of the approach Of a hurricane ?
orvss it because the signs and portents
n the approaching military despotism
go not Main enough to be read even
6v those wiser than the mere men Of the
psopie2
The author If the same articles, speak
inc Of 8 Les CssarsD Of the Comte DE
rEAwpAsSY, says that he " commences
- labours With ; rapid and striking de-
~lineetfon or the condition Of the Roman
world aDaer the dying Republic. lie
calls attention 70 the truth 50 rarely re-
coquized. that culture and Intelligence
and Constitutions and laws. and pateTial
prosperity, and ~pressnslons Of moral and
polificai iluminatioD, are 20 safeguards
against revolutionary tusaalH and stro'
ciiiss lie points to the lesson SO often
mustsased in recent times fhat he spssn-
doars Of the most brilliant civilization