New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-09-21
pPTCEDFNTS or RFPTDIATION

There il nothing novel about initiation and
reDudiation. They are two of the commonest
follies of history, always advocated by short
sighted knaves when the path of honesty is
difficult. and readily accepted by ignorance,
which is usually knavishly inclined. Fortu-
nately they do not often have an opportunity
of being put in practice, as 1t IA extremely
rare that the ignorance and the rascallty
necessary for the propagation OF such schemes
get admitted to the high places of government,
where government is in the hands OF few,
or are able to poison majority OF the COM
munity in commonwealth ruled by popular
suffrage But once In while in the course OF
ages, by a fatal concurrence of circumstances,
the experiment has been made possible, and
the result has been always the same. 1t was
tried by two successive kings of Spain in the
DAYS when the king of Spain was the greatest
of mortal men, and when his edicts ranked
next in authority to the utterances Of OmniDO-
tence. Philip III. considered himself as much
beyond the operations of natural laws and
scientific truths as any statesman OF our day
considers lis country or his party. lie
WAS q dull and ignorant bigot, who
thought just as the repudationists of to-
day think, that he could afford TO treat
with contempt all the traditions of trade, all
the maxims of public law, and all the obliga-
iions of public morals. He had wasted money
layishy and borrowed it at high rates of inter-
est 1t began to grow burdensome and irk-
some to pay, and so the anointcd monarch,
very much as if he had got his ideas from
Democratic mass meetings in Ohio, came to
the conclusion that creditors were malefactOrs,
A. tbo nf a
deserving exemplary punishment. On the goth
of November, 1896, he issued long and pious
proclamation, saying in substance that he had
been to great expense in butchcring Protest
ants, and that he found 1t hard to pay 1.-THE
! " crieyOns damages, discounts, and interest
(which had been forced upon him" (making it
seem, just as his imitatOrs do to-day, that the
loan was put upon him originally in an out
raceOus manner; that his creditors would not
advance him any more money without secur-
ity. and that he was so much in debt that this
was embarrassing; that he therefore cancelled
all such obligations, reserving for himself to
decide whether he would hereafter pay any of
them. and took again into his possession all
his mortgaged property.
We do not know but that we shall be en-
couraging the bedlamitcs of Ohio by relating
the consequences of this infamous act. They
do not appear to object to ruin and disaster
provided it makes things lively in the Hooking
Valley and on the James River, But we will
at all events quote few lines from Mr.. Mot
lev as to the result of Philips work. "The
effect of the PRONUNCIATION of this measure was
instantaneous. Two millions and half OF
"bs of exchange sold by Cardinal Albert came
"back in one day protested. The chief mer-
chants and bankers of Europe suspended pay
"ment Their creditors became bankrupt. AT
81 the Frankfort fair there were more failures in
" one day than there had ever been in all the
"years since Frankfort existed. There was a
general howl of Indignation and despair upon
"every exchange, in every couniingrOOm, in
every palace, in every cottage of ChristendOm.
%. Such crime as this had never been
conceived by human heart before" All this
would perhaps not warn our bedamites. They
would only gloat over the prospect of taking
| it out of the moneyed class in this fashion.
But they may possibly think it worth while to
consider that this tremendous crime did not
pay. A year later Philip found that house.
keeping was impossible under this load, and he
was obliged to revoke his proclamation and
pay his debts to evado which he had incurred
such infamy.
To Philip II. succeeded his son Philip III.
The greatest bigot and murderer who ever
sat on throne gave place to one Of the great
est imbecilcs This paltry creature was sur
rounded by greedy court of thieves and pan
ders who wrought their own foul wills with
the public treasury. There were millions for
these vicious favOsites but not enough for
their avarice, and from their vast needs and