Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1876-07-13

delusions Of . visionary Be eommen-
surats with the history q the human
race-but they maintain not uniform
sysasns q government and law.
TGesnnuasuf: ~, = eeanay exalt !.
Mahomet 10 the throne Of . |" Prophet.
Priest and King''-but the star Of Is
lam is fading from the horizon of Eu-
rope and the Empire Of the Saracen
has been n evanescent Is the mirage Of
the desert-leaving nothing to sue
ceeding sges but the meseorie yet beau
tifal history Of its one idea which ran
its race and spent its force in an era OF
one thousand years. The scholastic
graces Of the Caliphs does not prevent
the mosque and the Alhambra from
mingling their ruins with those Of Jupi-
ter Capitolinus.
It's fixed. unchanged and un-
changeable law Of political ethics that
the success, the advancement and the
propagation Of all those great princi-
pies, Of political and civil polity. which
tend to the progre. sive amelioration
Of the human race or to the establish
ment and perpetuation Of dominion and
power among meh, depend entirely
upon the organized powers and political
abilities to advance with the law of
progress which controlsssthe course
Of empire.
The annals Of all powers-kingdoms
empires -creeds and dynasties-all
systems Of government and law which
required the agency OF human power
to establish-all teach by the space
they occupy in h,story-,hat abstract
virtues in the cabinet-like undisci-
plined valor in the field-are powerless
against the concentrated powers which
the law Of progress Yields together.
The dark pages Of sorrow and crime
the fall Of empires-the revolutions OF
States-the supremacy Of races-the
ascendancy Of sects-all teach that
victory is to those who practice the
the law Of strength'-the crown To
the crafty and the axe to the outwitted
that the intellectual as well rs the
material means must be adequate to the
end-that the most mastery combina-
tons Of strategy in the field. unsus-
tanned BY corresponding power Of ex-
ecutive policy, are nothing more or less
than those brilliant failures which
mark the imbecility Of rulers, the de-
cadence of States and the dissolution
Of political systems.
Those warriors who have revolution
lied nations and ruled mankind-tho>e
"Bourbons"'of all ages, types and ma
tionalities, who have ruled nations-to
ruin succeeding generations-those false
prophet. who deluded mankind with
visionary day-dreams-those Macchia-
villi-those Sismondi-those Gibbons
who have instructed mankind in their
histories of human error-all teach.
directly and indirectly, that there must
be an adequate combination Of physical
with mental power Of human agency
with abstract principle comfor-
nifty to Lar-that is-the law of pro-
gress-dating from the creation OF mat
ter to end only in annihiiation Of the
sasse, to maintain given political >y>-
tens apace with knowledge.
Zone Of the most important conclu-
sions that men can draw from the study
Of history" says Sismondi-is that their
government is the most infallible index
to the character Of a people-that III. ir'
virtues or their vice.-their energy or
their imbecility-their intelligence ~
their ignorance are nerer the effects OF
climate but the work Of laws-and tina,
SO long as their political system dev-'
ops the qualities with which they ar"
endowed by God-they progress-o.h-
erwise they retrograde.
| First by becoming stationary-then
they begin to decline and fall from their
rank as political power-then as
nation they disappear from the msp al
the world-then As a people they di.-
appear from the face of the earth and
leave nothing behind them but thu
monumental ruins Of . historic age
that dust Of empires which lies thick
and deep upon the bosom Of the habita-
bic globe.
When do powers become stationary
when they cling tensciously TO writ
ten constitutions which have become
obsolete in their operations-oat Of time
and place.
No history proves the operation al
this Law asd the grasaeur Of its moral
and political missioa better than that OF
the Angio-Saxoa.
The legislative history Of England.
in i'd entirety, il the glorious strugg
Of freemen in defenee Of the rights ci
the subjeet-sgainst the encrosckments
Of the royal prerogat;ve. The same
may be said Of the colonial history Of
Maryland. From the rout Of Hsstine,
10 the day Of the Crest Delivesane,
when james II. 6ed-svery free act
of the nrool> AZ Eneiana. through their