New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1871-11-30
The Political Outlook in Europe


bic speech about the cost of supporting the
royal household, only serve to show how efiec-
tually he has hit the point. They cannot dis
prove his statements, and therefore-as all who
have bad cause to defend will do-scream and
rage about what they pretend to be gross
breach of decency and dccorum. The facts are
SO overwhelming that the attempt to refute and
whitewash them would only result in ridcule.
1t is shown by figures that the people are taxed
FIVE million dollars annually to support in lux
ury not only one rather unattractive family,
true parasites of society, who have never rem
dered any service to the country, but also an
army of idlers, for performing merely nominal,
and highly absurd, duties. The enume-
ration alone, as given by Sir CHARLES dixie,
is an unanswerable argument against royalty,
and this is it, particularly, that causes the an
ger of the Conservatives. There are the Royal
Guards, mere show troops, of no more use than
the leaden soldiers which are sold by the box /;
the FIVE royal yachts, that are not fit to cross
the channel, with the seamen whose whole oc-
cupation consists in painting all year round
the lion and unicorn on them; the palaces in
which nobody lives with their gamekeepers !;
further, the royal household, with all ;ts Mar
shals, High, Sub, and Hereditary Almoners,
the Hereditary Grand Falconer, thirty-two
Doctors, the Master of the Buck-hounds, Clerk
of the Check, Clerk of the Closet, Exons in
waiting, the Board Of Green Cloth, the Green
Office men, and the army of subordinatss who
all show such monstrous state of affairs that
the endless list you'd rather seem to be taken
from parody or buresque than from the
stately Court Almanac. Besides the story
which is told by these names and figures, there
is yet the very'ugly fact that about half mil
lion annually out of the civil list of 81, $685.
600 is pocketed by the avaricious and parsimo-
NOUS Queen, who spends perhaps not 100000
a year, and yet takes the sweat and blood of
the laborer, in the shape Of donations, for her
daughters. To be sure, all these abuses NIL ht
be easily remedied, if there were will to do
SO, and the Queen, by resigning voluntarily the
extrayagant amount of money thus wasted,
would even regain much OF her lost popular
ity; but since besotted royalty and its wor
shippers and stpendiaries have never yielded
n lot of their power, or farthing of their plum
der, unless the knife was put to their threats,
the mere suggestion of such course would be
an absurdity Yet those advocates OF old
abuses and nusances would serve their cause
better if al least they would observe diplo-
matte silence instead of aggravating it by heap
ing yituperation and denunciation on the head
of a man who, after all, has given expression
TO the sentiments entertained by the most in
telligent and enlightened men, as well as by
the masses Of the poor laborers; and if those
representatives of the past choose to shut their
ewes and earssto the significance OF the applause
and enthusiasm with which CHARLES dixie s
speech was received and in it, above all, his allu
sion to Republic as the future form of govern
ment, they will only accelerate the tide OF
events, which will visit them with effects the
more disastrous to them, for stubbornly en-
deayoring to resist it. With the enlightened
and advanced English people the orthodox
LOYALTY and love for the hereditary
sovereign, and the traditional belief in the
unsurpassed excellence of their institutions are
altogether things of the past. Because they
obtained certain constitutional guarantees some
what in advance of other nations, they thought
themselves the freest, most advanced and most
happy people in the world, until suffering from
strong irksome grievances, borne down with
intolerable taxation, under form Of govern
ment that denied representation to the major
ity, they have opened their eyes to stern re-
ality, and have found to their dsmay, that
they have run behind some of their neighbors,
on whom they formerly used to look down with
complacency. With q progressive people, the
discovery OF old abuses marks the beginning OF
o new era. Reform is the watch word and he
who foelishly shall assume to put obstacles in
its way, will be crushed in the attempt.
When we turn our eyes on the European con
tinent, We cannot fail to notice in the general
peace just now reigning, the dissatisfaction,
trouble, and interior discussions growing from
a state of affairs that has no elements Of sta
bility in it; compromise between the past
and future and therefore temporary in its very
nature. In Spain the representatives of con-
seryatism and Of everything antagonistic to the
spirit of the age, seem determined to run their
heads against the stone walls, and the King, as
il appears, foremost in the foolish race. Since
the success Of SAGAsrA's ard SERRANo's in
trieue. by which the former became President
of the Cortes, and ZoRRILLA was deposed from
his position of Prime Minister, complications
and difficulties have steadily increased.
Cabinet, consisting entirely OF Conservatives,
and appointed in disregard Of the wishes and
sentiments of the people, could not stand any
length of time, and fell even earlier than was
anticipated on the first occasion, when test
ouestion arose, involving vote of confidence
in the Ministry. The Government was in
rloriously beaten, whereupon MALcAxPo, the
head of the Ministry, immediately dissolved
the Cortes by royal decree, kept ready as it
seems, in anticipation of the emergency. After
this emphatic and unmistak able expression the
v;ll Of the nation, sound policy would have di
rectea the King to espouse their cause and win
their good will by appointing Cabinet of pro-
pressive and popular men yet is asserted that
Ia intends TO retain bis old Ministers, odious
as they are to the people. 1t need not be
aadei that the consequences of such course
will fall most heavily on himself, and con-
tribute to diminish the small amount OF popu-