The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1876-02-07
THE OLD WORLD
PLOTTING FOR POWER.
THE NEW YEAR IN EUROPE
The Shrewd Scheming Of the Great
Powers for Territory and Ad-
vantage Over Each Other.
CAsTELAR's CONCLUSIONS.

CASTELAR'S CONCLUSIONS.
THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE AND THE EASTERN
QUEsIIoN-THE SPREAD OF COMMUNISM
IN RUSsIA-RUssIA AND ENGLAND IN
INDIA-THE MEANING OF THE CONQUEST
OF KHIvA-THE QUESTION OF SLAVIC
NATIONALITY.
The New YORK Herald of Tuesday con
tains a communication from CASTELAR,, ex-
president of Spain, in which he sums up the
situation in Europe in his characteristic way.
The letter bears date OF Paris, January 2,
1876, and is as follows:
There is nothing more difficult than to under
stand and apprec ate the general laws OF events
we turn to the past we discern the leading idea
which survives Is ruins. The pecullaTltes, the
ace zen Inc sne prRnepes ana the spirit that AMI
mated them during centuries. Ia our time the
multitude OF conflicting events that appear ON
the surface dim the clesrness of the back
ground, just as the intense passion deadens the
Judgment. And yet events are governed by
soul now as they have been in the past. The
idea is the consistent, continuing idea which
animates all life. 1t is like the atoms that form
star-lit heavens that lie even beyond the reach
of the telescope eye of man. In order 10. ascer-
tain how ideas arise 1t is sufficient 10 compare
those nations imbued with a spirit o. progress
with those that are prey 70 reaction The
deeds, the mind with their creations, the seas
with navies. The forces, of the earth be-
come their slaves. The latter. deeaying and
OF civil wars and the inertia OF despotism. In
the sixteenth century the region which row
tined to become the mistress of Europe. The
territory that now forms the great American
republic was hardly known, or was traversed by
a few heroic adventures, who were led forward
to the virgin forests and the mysterious rivers
by the impulse of adventure. Now, the alb olute
authority Of a military empire has dried mp the
fountains of life on the shores of the BosphOrus.
In the forests of North America free conscience,
TrafFQ fhcV OHGa nj ri n0 cd
the pilgrims, have founded republic that
seems destined, by an ever increasing strength,
virtue of honest effort and labor found the era
OF peace. The earth like time. Is divided into
past, producing inert societies. the despot at the
apex and the serf at the base.
AMERICA REPRESENTS THE FUTURE.
Here the aristocracies OF the past are not to be
seen. The chiefs of Asiatic castles called kings,
the official churches where the reoollections OF
q theOcracy are sacred, the absurd privileges di-
viding human societies into hierarchies-all
these are and viii be unknown. The liberty of
the individual will be in fpll harmony with the
liberty OF all, awakening the warmth of a multi
plying, progressive life. And between the
slavery OF Asia and the liberty OF America, be-
tween the castles of the old world and the e.
mocracies OF the new, between the deepening
shades of the past and the bright dawn of the
future, the Europe of the present is placed be-
tween two opposing forces, two contradictory
prineip es. Itls between the monarchies or rep
reSeHtatives OF caste, which, though weak
and decaying. still retain sufficient strength
10 live, and the democracies that, strong, ag-
gresslve and robust as they are, have not yet
acquired the culture necessary TO completely
assert their power. Thus, as Asia is the land of
monarehies and America the country OF repub-
lies, so Europe seems destined 10 be for some
time TO come the region OF constitutional sys-
of monarchy and republic as the present is the
medium between the past and the future. 10
fulfill with greater fidelity that which have
undertaken, l will endeavor 10 Intervene
events past and present, and to foreshadOw, so
far as events will permit, the future. AS every
man is the SOn of an extended genealogy, and
every organism the result of other and anterior
organisms, so every leading event is sur
rounded By numerous preceding affairs regula-
ted by logical law. The connecting OF the
events Ofthe day with their antecedents will,
therefore, be NV special Study in the present
letter aud in following commune gtions. In
nature fatality reigns; IN history liberty gov
ems. In nature we can demand no response
or burns, because he complies with inevitable
laws; but we can ask from the history OF maa
an account OF the good or evil he does. Man is
free, and, consequently, responsible under the
moral law. For this reason, whenever we find
man who takes leading part in the develop
ment OF human incidents we study him, his
temperament, his character, his intelligence, his
public career and award him the glory or the
occupy
THE CONTINENr OF EUROPE TO-DAY.
The North the Scandinavians, descended
from such races as the Normans. who exercised
an enormous influence in the development o,
civilization during the middle ages, by the in
cursions, the iastO of the eruptions began by the
German nations The East is held by the slaves
whom Eastern pride calls Slavonians, great
slaves, Serves or Serviaus, aud who cause the
East to tremOle with terror by their confedera-
ions and projected alliances, threatening more
n the Southeast dwell the Greeks, the philoso
pliers, artists and lawmakers old world, each
day receding further and further from their
pristine splendOr. Near them are the Turks,
he successors to the Grecian empire, who
conquered by the scymttar, but who. havir g
allied to sustain liberty, are now preparing
toleave the territory to some younger nd freer
freedom. Inc Germans, the Latin race and the
Anglo-Saxons in their spacious Isle occupy the
center. And the two great sninSulaS of Italy
end Spain, which, with Greece, have con-
tibuted most TO human culture, the one at the
south and the Other at the West, contain races
IA whom the Italian spirit and character still
nents OF difference that Centuries have intro
suced In this immense sgglomeration of races
there are intermediate Communities having
tempers peculiar to themselves, like the
nagyars for instance, situated between the
Ike the Celts, who held Ireland under tue
saxon rule. Again, there are the Roumanians,
eographically belonging to the Slaves but by
splendor is the Russian empire, which,
snce the Crimean war, hes been devoted to
and since the Franco-Prussfan campaign has
been mainly seeking foreign prep Jnderance. If
resembles The cenutries Of the sncient Asatics,
whose inhabitants only awaited signal at any
Lale 70 plunge INTO WsrIarei we sna' nnd those
V)lcanlc aSplratioos which demonstrate the fe
verlsh activity OF young races, gifted with am
btion and hope. At the blush we only a
car on the throne and people in the dust, but
a1eeper study unfolds the genesis of a new
spirit. The difficulties OF the obscure Russian
tongue generally deprives Russian writers OF
tlefr merited fame, and yet there is no iitera-
trre more appropriate 10 our own age than the
Russian. because there Is none 20 marked
with the spirit of social trankcendentallsm
Even now Russian literature mourns the death
OF an eminent writer, Count Tolst0i. His prin.
cioal title TO the rememb fance and gratitude OF
posterfty is his -
TRAGEDY OF SWAN THE TERRIBLY"
resembling the historical dramas OF Schiller
In Ivan we have terrible personidcation Of
aUtocraey-wise, like Augustus, and cspricious
asNero, superstitious as Calgula, suspicious as
Tioerius, cruel like all tyrants. Toward the end
of his life. at the pennic.e of his omnfpc ten
sway, we find him prey TO remorse. The sati-
ETY. of power embitters even life. He c0ntem.
plates interment in an obscure cioister. He be