New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-10-17
TIE ENGLISH MIDDLE.

There il an unusual unity of Specification in
the items of news brought to US from England
by our recent exchanges. All the petty signs
point one way. Royal Princes and Princesses
have taken to indiscriminate speech-making
and dancing, as if suddenly impressed with
the expediency of bidding for popular favor;
Gladstone, Lord Derby, and Cardwell, instead
of going to the moors, are devoting the
holidays to propitiating the great I'M
washed all the available military force in
the island has been brought out at Aldershot to
satisfy the people at home of its efficiency
and to convince the Germans that an actual
Battle of Dorl1ing is impracticable. In short
the efforts made by the Government We
hement, if tardy, to hide the two facts that
England has sunk into the place of second
rate power, and that she is drifting quietly
hut irrevocably into republcanism. So far the
efforts are singularly unsuccessful. The Alder
shot army, all told, amounted to 10000 men
and 90 guns, an array eft" we are told, "to
contend with any enemy" but which,
as the Brton pays fifteen millions per annum
for it, may be regarded as a rather costly
plaything. The Royal PRINCES were snubbed
In their late endeavors by significant silence,
and the speeches of Mr.. Gladstone, in which
Liberalism "hedged" skillfully, are replied to
by the belligerent outcres of Mr.. Odger, who
announces at Lancaster that in event of the
Queens deceaSe he and his colleagues will
never permit the Prince of Wales to mount
the throne.
Odger's blatant zeal is rebuked by the very
papers which for the last year have been
adroity preparing the public mind for the
probability of republic after the present
reign. "Britons," they assure us, 81 like fair
"pay and decency, and will accept no Presi-
" dent at anybody's hands pending corona
"tion." To our inexperienced eyes, fair play
and decency would rather insert the President
into power pending coronation than
after it. Very probably Mr.. Odger does lack
discretion but there were owls that hooted in
the streets before the fatal ides of March, as
well as lions that roared in the Capitol.
There is no hiding the fact that the English
Government is sick unto death, and Mr..
Odger's vociferous threats are symptom not
to be sighted in taking the diagnosis of its dis
ease. Just now it's ailment reminds US Of
the old fable of Esop, in which the members
of a certain body, each strong in itself, re-
fused to act together, and only when Death
was imminent found the expediency and
method of harmony. The pauper population,
as weghty and useless burden as any pair
of equity feet, have no road open to them
but vice or starvation; the only hope offered
them is that they may die out in gene
ration if they will stop child-bear-
ing; then we have an Army which costs
Etc, 900 and numbers 10000 men Church
which draws one half its support from class
who denounce it ruling order yoked and
guided by the class beneath it; and lastly, q
Royal Family kept up for the especial purpose
of maintaining o show Of pomp and power in
the eyes of subjects and foreigners and which
is seldom seen by either one or the other, and
when seen is despised for its lack of dignity
and even decent morality.
"The Republican Idea" says Auerbach,
"works silently but irresistibly until some I'M
"looked-for, trifing event demonstrates its
presence and brings about Its accomplish
"ment." Odger is looked upon as mad
fanatic, as was John Brown. Yet one as the
other only utters the common sense of his
time with more violence and boldness than
other men. No revolution has ever yet taken
place without some violations Of decorum, as
England ought to have learned through her
own experience.