Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1870-10-04
The European Cauldron.


and victories, new order of religious and
social principles. Christianity extended
itself westward and claimed the European
continent for its own heritage. There it
has worked out new forms of civilized life
and fulfilled the predictions of its found
ers, 81 came not to bring peace to the earth,
but sword" For eighteen centuries the
leaven Of this wonderful religion has been
working in the mighty races of the CONT
nent, generating new conflicts, new social
forms, new Congratulations and higher
conditions of progress. For centuries, tia
ly led the vanguard of civilization and ush-
cred the nations, by force or persuasion,
along the highways Of Providence. But
after having established the feudal system
of the medieval period and run out religion
into the puorilities of asceticism, cramping
its active and manly powers with the ideas
of the cloister and the monastery, it had
to give up the leadership to others. For
a while Spain, for centuries the first lieu
tenant of Italy, carried the sword which
had fallen from the hand of its leader, but
she was unable to WELD it successfully
long. Then France became practically
the head of Europe its ascendancy, quest
Toned and often disputed by force of arms,
yet was never decidedly overthrown With
all her reyerses and defeats, with her many
wars with England and Germany and Aus
tria and Russia and Spain, in which she
has been alternately yanquished and vic
tor, she has yet maintained her practical
supremacy on the political and military
arena of Europe From the time Of Char
lcmagne to the days of the First Napoleon,
she has had in the main, the practical
leadership of the continent. And for the
last fifty years, though her policy has been
changed in a measure, she has been Of in
valuable service in the work Of destroying
/ those teudal ideas she had done so much
to establish. The Napoleonic conquests
broke up feudal institutions and made feu-
dial ideas ridiculous. Every victory that
/ Napoleon won by the aid Of those splendid
Marshals of the Empire, whom he had
raised from the ranks, taught a lesson in
human equality which was carried to every
home in Europe But with this and with
his remarkable Code, the political value Of
. France has come to an end. The third
Napoleon, unable to build up a better or
der Of ideas, or reconstruct a better polity
On the medieval ruins which his uncle had
effected made the preposterous attempt to
revive in France herself the old system
which had been broken in pieces; a des-
potism resting on brute force a CpsaIism
both Of Church and State. The French
nation gave him his way. and permitted
him to use all the powers of great empire
for the enlargement OF the despotic princi-
pie. They surrendered themselves to his
extraordinary genius. They placed them
selves their army and navy, their political
social, educational and religious iustitu-
tious in the hands Of an adveuturer and
usurpcr. They allowed him to lead their
sons into one war after another; TO put. a
Spanish bigot at the head of his Court; to
prop up the falling temporal power of the
Pope with the bayonets that had pierced
the teudal system through and through
They gave him an army Of 500, 600 men
with which to regulate the affairs of theil
continental neighbors. With such a mag.
nifcent power, furnished him by a people
who had stood at the head Of civilization
FOR five hundred years, he became the ar
bitter Of Europe. He separated himself
from all the liberal ideas which would have
given France the lead for another half de-
cade Of centuries and by the will of thu
people dispossessed the people of all theil
political rights. 1t seemed IS if under hi
lead the French nation had surrendered
the last hope of republican freedom on the
continent.
But what has been the result? Whatha,
become of the Emperor who two months
ago made Prussia retract her consent t.
the candidate for the Spanish throne:-
What has become of the nation which ha
never been Inundated and disgraced be
fore?
In 1913, when Louis Napoleon was i'm
prisoned at Ham, he published some strik
ing remarks on the government of Loui
Philippe, which contained the followiu,
sentences: Some years ago, there was il
the United States q man called sam Patch
who went into the following trade: he con
structed, with a great deal of art, a scat
folding above the falls of the Niagara, an,
after having raised heavy contribution
from the immense crowd assembled iron
the whole neighborhood to see him, h
mounted majestically to his platform, an
then threw himself headlong into the boil
ing waves at the foot of the cataract. II
> repeated this perilous experiment seyera
times, till at last he was swallowed up b
a whirlpool. Alasl there are some GOV
i ernments whose appearances on the seen
Of the world are in every respect analogou
20 that Of the American juggler; their his
tory is summed up in these words-'feal
full scalIolding, terrible fall ? Only fe,
stakes planted in the ground, they raise
shapeless building composed of fragment
and bits borrowed from the ruins of tn
past; and when their task is finished, the
bastard building, as without utility as it
without foundations, has only served t
throw them headlong from q greater heigl
u into the abyss" And such has been h
J, fall and the fall Of France with him.
> 1t is perhaps as melancholy and sugges
i've a series Of events as has occurred
human history, that has been passing b.
S fore our eyes for the last two years. FRS
, the Queen of Spain is driven forth fro
{ her palace to take refuge in Paris. III
= old handmade of feudal.sm throws it o
D. and feels the mighty impulse Of model
= ideas. She searches in vain for some It'll,
J. prince to wear the abdicated crown. /
l. last she is ready to drop it on the head
- a Hohenzollern, when Napoleon forbid
l. Prussia even bows to the imperial manda
70 and accepts the veto. Unable to obta
~ further guarantees, France pushes on n
poleon to declare war He leads forth h
IS armies Of nearly half million of men
e. the banks Of the Rhine. But those armi
d have been rolled up like scroll. The vi
a. torious Prussians have swept their WI
~ clear of all foes, and now encircle the ca
xt ital of the world. 1t seems to us that Pa
i'll is cannot be defended that probably
or serious attempt will be made to defend
of that it will be taken almost at once by t
Prussians, or that terms of peace will
made under its walls But in no event c.
-, Eranca asca,a tho +o.-;L1, rosuIts Of Z