The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1875-05-26
MO-. A..
Significant Mutterings.


The British government.is making
vigorous efforts to recruit it's army,
but with rather Indifferent success,
if we may trust what seem to be reli-
able accounts. Of late years milita-,
ry service, except in the volunteer
department, has been increasing in
unpopularity among the middle class
es, and even among the mechanics
and the better class of workinemen. y
Hence enlistments have been chiefly
drawn from the agricultural districts,
where the wages paid are SO small
and the privileges enjoyed so few
that the unfortunate tillers of tho
soil are ready to exchange slavery in
ragged clothes for slavery in a tidy
uniform-even though the latter in
wolves the chances Of bullet and
bayonet.
But this source of army supply is
in danger Of being cut on entirely, or
at least materially diminished. The
Laborers' Onion Chronicle is a paper
which represents what is called athe
agrarian movement" and is the or
gan of Mr.. Joseph Arch and his leu
tenants. A late number of tho
Chronicle contains an exceedingly
significant editorial, from which We
make brief extracts:
1--WE do not believe in the faintest
chance of the invasion of England by
any foreign foe. But suppose a for
eign foe did comc-suppose Germa
ny, which is often used as bugbcar,
was to land and conquer England,
why should the peasantry of Eng
land fight against them? Their lot;
under any circumstances, could not
be worse than it now is; and the
Germans would probably bring with
them their land laws, which would
at once place the agricultural labor.
ers in an immensely superior posi-
tlon to that which they now occupy.
Let our alarmists consider this; let
them think it well over; and then
perchance, from very fright, they
may grant to US some portion Of
those rights which a foreign invasion
might very likely secure. \
If the poor, toil-stricken, hungered
farm laborer of our western counties.
living in the most oppressed and
worst paid village of the land, be-
lieves that there can be no lower
depth to the life which he now leads.
he is terribly mistaken. There is d
lower depth than even this degrada-
ton, and he can find it in the British 1
army. 4 y We told the farn,i
laborers Of England last week that
they would be fools if they Joined
the army when they had nothing
whatever for which to fight. We
tell them this week that standing ar
mics are an abomination, asiti,g and
a curse to any land, and that, if they
were all to be made peasant proprie-
tors tomorrow, they would be acting
in foolish and wrong spirit to sup
port, either directly, or indirectly,
such mischievous institutions"
Those who think this kind of seed.
persistently planted and persistently
watered, will not produce an album
dant and appropriate crop in season,
fail to comprehend the nature and
extent Of the soil in which Mr.. Arch
and his friends are working. The
English sky looks very clear, and no
danger need be apprehended from
that quarters but English ground
has a hollow sound to- him who
treads it intelligently, and danger is
coming from that quarter. Light
ming may not strike England, but
unless all signs mean nothing an
earthquake will shake her-and that.
too, before very long time elapses.
The masses are moving; the bottom
rail is climbing towards the top, and
1t is just such mutterings as these we
have quoted which herald a convul-
sion that nothing short of the most
consummate craftsmanship can pre-
vent drifting into revolution.-TSt.
Louis Republican.
CoURlER-J JOURNAL: The Cincinnati
Gazette says that the President
heartily co-operates" with Secretary
Bristow in his war on the whisky
ring defrauders. AS this is the f,.s+