The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1873-02-01
Foreign Retrospect for 1872.

is now run, though not so distinguished
for great events a. many within the
limits of the nineteenth century, will
yet be remembered i'll history. 1t has
been said that those periods are the
most prosperous and happy whose his
tory is least Obtrusiye and least attract
i've to the student, when the arts OF
peace are cultivated with most success,
when bOunteOus nature yields abundant
harvests, when manufactures and COM
merce are most extensive and most re-
muneratiVe, and when nation vies with
nation, not in producing havoc and
blOOOdshed, but in Cultivating feelings
of friendship, and in imparting to each
other the results Of civilization which
each has achieved for itself. tits with
nations as with families. Ordinarily,
when all is peace, when each succeeding
day is like the last, when the light and
warmth OF affection are not dimmed or
chilled, when the sunshine without finds
it's reflection within, times move on
swiftly and with landmarks by which
bearings and distances may be Teck-
Oned. But when misfortune oyertakes
us, when the pestilence that walks in
darkness, or the more unseen and I'M
heralded approach of the destroyer
breaks into the circle and snatches one
and another from the happy home,
leaving a blight and a chill behind
them, We1are startled into painful con-
seriousness, and events like these be-
come the dies NefaSti, and black marks
in our calendar, which we would not
forget, but every incident connected
with whose recollection is a pang.
Those days of sorrow, of distress, of
gloom, make the epochs in individual
and family history. Occasionally, too,
bright CLEANS of good fortune, the ma
tai and the bridal day-days of supreme
joy equally with daysOf supreme sorrow
stand out in relief, and form eras to
which we recur with unmingled salts
good that we enjoy far outweighs the
evil which we suffer, and hence the
biographies of most men and women
would be but a tedious repetition of
commonplace experiences. But with
nations it is not so. Generally speak
ing, hitherto at least, history has been
made up of long catalogues of national
atrocities, recOunting the exploits OF
"royal bandits y the desolatiOn of prov
inces; the sack of cities; horrors in the
field and miseries and wretchedness in
the home. When Wearied from ex-
haustiOn " glutted with spoil, cessa-
ton necessarily comes; but, nOtwith-
standing the homage paid to Janus, his
gates are continually reopened and
BeleOna rules again and revels in des-
truction, lamentation and woe.
France, upon whom all eyes were
turned at the close of 1871, has been
steadily recovering from her prOstra-
ton. The veteran statesman whom
she called to her councils in the time of
her distress has worked steadily and
successfully to repair her ruined
finances, reOrganize her army, antici-
pate the payment of the exOrbitant in
demnity which her relentless antagO-
mist eXacted as the price of peace,
strengthen her foreign relations, and
give quiet and contentment at home.
Notwithstanding these successes, NJ.
Theirs has had a fierce and turbulent
opposition to contend with in the AS
sembly. With no constitutional ma
jority of partisan supporters, his par
~liamentary success has been in a great
measure due to the skill and address
with which he balanced faction against
faction, ~neutralizing. opposition by time
ly combinations of rival sections in Or
fearedy Happily, the crisis which late
III LII y CG4 III OCIC1CN w OfC4 U41AON III
moderate Republic, and reintroduce the
war of Communist and MOnarchist, Re-
publican and Aristocrat, Orleanist and
Bonapartist, has for the time passed
The good senseOf the Centers triumphed
over their mutual animosities, and in
duced a temporary support, at least, OF
the Executive in the interest of law
and order.
But the great event of the year in
France and in Europe is the unpreee-
denied success of the French loan ne
gotiated by M. GOulard, the most stu
pendous financial transaction on record
The next in point of Importance, and
whose results we may not see fully
realized for years, is the meeting OF
Emperors at Berlin. It was more
than q formal exchange of imperial
courtesies. Interests which eachyalued
in the working of his own ideal, but
which no n could realize apart from
the concurrence or acquiescence of his
| neighbors, brought Alexander and Fran.
| els Joseph to be the guests of the most
| successful, if not the greatest, of the
HohenZ0lleFAs. There were the Danu-
bian, the Baltic provinces, the CZECH
questions to be considered, each OF
which interested all the others
What was ~reciprOcally pledged has
not yet TRANSFERRED, but enough il
known to warrant the belief that some
| common ground asreached from which
| the imperial triumvirate will be able tt
control the march of events in Contra
and Eastern Europe. Within certain
limits each is by imperial agreement
left free to work out its own destiny
a qstid pro quo being given to each o.
the other two contracting parties by thu
third. Some of the fruits of the inter,
view are already apparent. The Ger
man empire is left untrammeled in it,
contest with the Ultramontanes, anG
Papal bulls, allOcutions and rescript'
fall upon deaf years at Vienna. Russia
freed from all disquietude on the Baltic
coast, pursues, unmOlested by Austria
and Germany, her schemes of cOnques
in Central Asia, where Khokan an(
B0khara have already fallen, the Alta
leigh Ghazee has become a Russian de
pendent and Russian legiOns are nov
laundering at the gate of Khiva. Rus
sian and British interests come in col
liBion from the Dardanelles to the Hin
doc KOOrh, along a line Of four thou
sand miles, and, If we may believe lat'
news from st. Petersburg, Warnins
has already been given that any attemp'
to penetrate farther in the direction o
the Indian Caucasus, menacing the in
tegrity of Afgilanistan, viii be deemed
a casus beti by John Bull. Though hi
policy is pacific as regards Western
powers, the magnificent Asiatic empir,
of Great Britain must be defended a
all hazards, and for this men and none,
would be lavished as they have neye
been before. Austria, the third trium
viz, freed from Sclavonic agitation, &C
duiesees in Russian ACKNOWLEDGEMENT il
the East, and, guaranteed in the pos
session of her German provinces, re
lnapniZas the German amnira. rattle