Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-08-06
MONARCHY IN ENGLAND.
The Drift Toward Republican InstItu-
tIOns-vIews Of an Eminent English
Liberal

The Drift Toward Republican InsGItu
tIOns-vIews Of an Eminent EBgIIsl
Liberal.
Hon. John M. Francis, of th,
Troy Times, now visiting England
sends to his paper an elaborate ar
ticle on the political situation il
England, which was written at hif
request by one of the prominent
Liberals and political economists OF
England, closely allied with John
Stuart Mill, Mr.. Francis writes, in
advocacy of political reforms. The
views of this gentleman are very
bold, as will be seen from the fol,
lowing, which is the conclusion OF
his article:
Americans may ask what are the
chances that republican institutions
viii rise in England? That is the
question to which the most sa-
gacious and best informed political
student may hesitate to give an an
swer. Without offering a positive
reply, l shall set down one or two
considerations which present them
selves to Ethe minds of thinking
men.
In the first place, as l have al
ready said, it is only a fraction of
the people, only the philosophical
Radicals, who manifest any ardent
wish to subject the monarchical in
stitutions OF the country to revo-
lutionary change, and the great
bulk of the people are staunch ad.
vocates of the throne. The causes
that brought about the French
Revolution, it is true, have no exis-
tence in England, where no one
dreams of anything like a revolu-
ton. Such a calamity is utterly be-
yond the bounds of probability.
At the same time, the institutions in
which the English monarchy is
based are one by one crumbling
away. The day is not very far off
when the House of Lords shall be-
come an elective chamber. The
superstitious veneration which
once formed the buttress Of hereA
ditary rank is undergoing rapid
decline. Thanks to the American
civil war, which taught us that a
republic might display almost unex-
ampled self-sacrifce, and at one
bound attain a prodigious military
power, American institutions have
ceased to inspire our people with
contempt if not with dread. Year
by year, also, the power of the
House of Commons is growing, and
that of the Peers and the Grown is
declining. With as much truth as
wit, it has been said that for centu-
ries the English people have been
engaged ain eating up the King"
Bit by bit they have been masticat-
ing him; he lost his head long ago,
and all that remains is a piece Of
the scepter, so small that it can
hardly be grasped, and an ample
display of kingly robes, which it
has not been thought worth while
to cut away. The question is, there
fore, whether an institution which
has lost all but q fraction Of its
old power, and which is rapidly
losing its old props, can look for
ward to long lease of life in days
when every institution has, sooner
or later, ta give . reason for its eyr
istence. Some thinkers cynically
say that i memorable incident in
your own war foreshadows the fate
of the English crown. Long before
the fall of Richmond, it was declared
that the Confederacy was like an
an egg, with hard but bitter shell,
and a soft inside. Break the shell,
it was said, and the great slave
State will at once collapse. By
marching through Georgia, Shero
man did chip the shell; and the
whole world knows the result.
Now, it is possible that the British
monarchy is little more than shell
which, through a combination OF
circumstances that may easily come
about, may unexpectedly and sud
denly yield to a very slight pressure.
If, while a weak and profigate
Prince were seated on the throne, a
powerful and popular Minister
swayed the House of Commons as
completely as Mr.. Gladstone sways
that assembly at the present mo-
ment; if the country were agitated
by some such question as the expe-
diency of taking away legislative
power from the hereditary peerage;
and if the Court were to set itself
against the country, the regal pre-
rogative would not be worth many
years purchase. And none Of the
contingencies which l specify is
improbable. Each may yet be
translated into fact, end all be
translated into fact at the same
time. But whatever form the gov
ernment of England may ultimate
lp assume, one thing is clear, that
England is drifting away from her
old constitutional moOrings, drift
| ing with a rapidity which increases
every year, and drifting toward a
a great democratic future.
A CASE IN PoINT-The n. Y. Tribute,
while it thinks the exchange of cable
eourtesies between Napoleon and the
President was an instance of an intercon-
tinental politeness excellent in itself
saws the salu tation of his Majesty is SC
formal that it half regrets that the Pres
ident' reply is SO cordial. The Tribune
onght to recollect, in extenuation oI
Napoleon's apparent formality, tn al
the gushing style is not custom,
ary in Europe in the exchange oi
International courtesies, and that prob
ably the Emperor of the French mean
as much, by his congratulations as the
President of the United States by his re-
ply. 1t would seem, however, that Gen
Grant had forgotten the case of ReVerdl
johnson, in which anything like reciF
rocating the pOliteness Of a foreign peo
ple with some degree of warmth was Sc
down as flunkeyism, if not dislOyalty t.
American institutions.
|