The New York herald., 1878-11-24
Assassination and the Italian Electoral

against the upper world of prosperity AMI
authority, but the further fact that some one
or another propaganda Of this nature seems
always to have the attention OF the neither
side of life III Europe; that they lap over
at their points Of contact, and that new po-
litical theories for the murder Of monarchs
and new school OF reasons for such MUIR
der are fairly on the stage before the adopts
of an older school have passed away. Thus
Hodel and Modelling were certainly the
product of the German theory that
the people, as the victims of the
social order must protest in SAN
culinary way against their sacrifice on the
altar of military glory. They believe they
can make this protest most effectively
against the life Of the German Emperor,
whom they regard the head and front of
the military spirit, and they assail him just
as the Communards in Paris assailed the
column in the Place yendome, declaredly
for the purposes of this protest against
glory and victory. 1t was good time just
then for Frenchmen to protest against vic
tory, and they cast down the column for
that purpose excepting only Courbet, who
acted conscientiously as an artist and be-
lieved the column villanous with respect to
art.
But Passanante, it appears, comes down
from an older school Of cutthroats. He is
a remote remainder of those Italian reds
who believed in assassination not to be
used in any mere vague social protest, but as
an effective political instrument to clear the
way for the universal democracy. He is, in
fact, one of that school of revolutionists that
burned more charcoal than powder, and
used 10 make Illuminating grenades to throw
at Louis Napoleon because he sustained the
Pope. Perhaps their theory Of regicide
commends itself more to the Italian mind,
while the one in which the ferocty Of
the act is softened with quasi
philosophical reason for it finds
reader favor in Germany; but the notable
circums tance is that one or another notion
in regard to this sort of murder is always
before the world and that with variations
in opinion rs to points Of detail the pur-
pose aimed at finds favor in all Kingdoms.
Russia was formerly the only country in
which the occasional murder Of the SOW
ereign was regarded as legitimate consti-
tutional device. In that country this crime
had a natural relation to the structure Of
the State. There was no political remedy
for abuses: no recognized institution to
limit the royal will, and SO limitation
was found in the fact that after all the most
terrible monarch in the world is human
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dent steel.
Has the recent frequency in Europe of
appeal TO assassination as political rem
edy any relation to a similar train of
thought? All the States of Western Europe
possess nomnally those limitations on
abuses of authority which Russia was con-
fessedly without; but are they practically Of
any more value to the people in the States
where they nominally exist than they were
in Russia where they confessedly did not
exist when assassination supplied their
place as a common moderator Of imperial
tyranny? Are not all the devices of politi-
cal machinery failures in so far as they
might be looked to for the protection
of the people from even common
everyday expressions? Have not the
developments of society under the
application Of economical principles
subjected many millions of the people in
European countries generally to condi-
ton practically as bad as that they were in in
feud.,l times, and for which political allevia-
tons afford them no equivalent? People
in the full possession Of all political rights,
universal suffrage and all else, rise in re-
volt nowadays because they are as sorely
pressed by the weight of the world above
them as ever. Universal suffrage does them
no good, but affords them the capacity to
do harm. Deputies in Italy will scan very
closely, no doubt, this point of the relation
to the State of popular troubles in the con-
sideration of the proposed changes in the
electoral law.
For it is fact they must already note
with attention that the proposition Tor a
change in the body of voters has awakened
Lively interest in what they believe to be
the natural enemy of good government.
Papal organs in Italy come forward Justify
in support of the newly taken position that
the abstention from political activities for
merly urged upon Catholics was not per-
r,anent moral rule, but an expedient
adapts1 to certain circumstances, which
should now. therefore, be laid aside, as the
circumstances are likely to be changed so
as to make a change of cond net in this par
ticular point of paramount consequence
for the welfare of the Church. Ostensibly
the organs urge this view upon the Vatican;
but it is thought the Vatican first inspired
the organs.
Inasmuch as the agitation thus initiated
with regard 10 the attitude Of the Church
has relation to renewed struggle for
power. and has behind it the hope that the
government of Italy may once more be con-
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