Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1880-09-30

l bade goodby TO the anvil forever, and at
las, struck the supreme JOY Of my life as a
preacher and pastor.
Accidents Of History.
Gress 4seass that Have apraag -
frea LissIe Cs.ses.
II wAs one Of the maxims Of Catherine de
Mediei tha, "a false report, il believed for
three days. may be Of grea; service to the
Government" A printers boy with bad
memory was few days since on the poin,
Of doing the ministry service by forgetting
to deliver Lord Beaconsfeld's amendment
to the liability bill. Lord Redesdale gave
i, to his secretary the secretary gave it to
the boy. who put it in his pocket and forget
all about IL, and thus Lord Beaconsfcld's
We've failed TO reach the members Of the
House Of Peers in due time. The inciden,
IN itself Was uifing. but it does no, stand
alone in history. VI. Fournier wrote book
on events which never took place. and Lord
Beaconsheld's father vas the author Of a
learned essay on history which might have
been enacted. An equally curious volume
might be penned on the trihcs which have
determined great events. Indeed. though
momentous historical incidents have been
due TO a long concourse Of circumstances.
all working toward a common end, the final
catastrophe has often been precip!tated by
the merest triile. IL was but a triie that
gave Spain for many generations the
lordship Of the New World. and enabled her
by the wealth which she derived from that
source to become the most powerful nation
in Europe. II is well known ,ha, Columbus
dispiri,ed with the refusals which he met
with a, many courts, despatched his
brother Bartolomeo 10 ask aid from Henry
VII. Of England. But on the way the mes
senger fell INTO the hands Of pirates. and by
the time he reached London was so destitute
that he had to try and earn the money to
clo,he himself in proper style before he
could be presented a, court. But BY tha,
time it vas too late Even the fac, that
Ferdinand and Isabella supplied the funds
TO equip the expedition was mainly due 10
the accident that Juan Perez dc Marehena.
the queens confessor. happened to be pass
ing at the moment when the weary mariner
knocking Al the door of la Rabida
Monastery to beg little bread and water
for his boy Diego, and was struck with the
Bar,olomeo Colon reached London in time,
had Christoval been by any chance little
earlier or a little later a; the monastery
door. the fate of Europe might have been
changed. and the destiny of the Anglo
Saxon race altered. Three centuries later
it was again nearly revoutioniked, for in
iso6 the English held Buenos Ayres. and i,
is no secret tha, Napoleon was almos; per-
suaded to abandon Europe as field for his
ambition and Try what he could accomplish
in the way Of carving out an empire among
the dissatisfied provinces Of South America.
When citizen Bonaparte seemed little likely
TO sit on the throne Of Louis Cape,, he was
on the point Of offering his sword TO the
sultan. as, at a later period, Won Moltke
actually did.
IL is curious nov TO speculate wha; would
have been the present state Of the Eastern
question had Napoleon carried his intentions
into effect, or supposing that Moltke had re-
manned in the Turkish service, whether the
Danish war would have been fought or
Prussias supremacy been established at
Sadowa or Sedan. Had Bonapar,e not had
friend in the Directory. would he ever had
the good fortune to keep his head on his
shoulders; or had not General Grant ac-
eidently been on good terms with the Gov
ernor Of Illinois, would he have been lucky
enough TO have obtained that volunteer
coloncy which transferred him from the sad
dler's shop in Galena to the White House
in Washington. Thackery used to deligh,
in similar speculations as 10 what might
have been had not ,rife interviewed to pre-
vent history running its course. In l1l3
the English crown was much nearer the
Stuarts grasp than it was thirty years later.
Scotland might have been the Preiender's
had all his friends had the courage of the
earl Of Mar and the eight thousand High
land gentlemen who rallied round him.
Edinburgh Castle would undoubtedly have
been taken had not the men who were to
escalade il tarried so long in q tavern that
while they were ''powdering their hair"
their confederates under the fortress grew
weary Of waiting, and the rendezvous was
reached too late. But for that puireris
eriqm jdctd Of the jovial conspirators all
Scotland might have been King James's,
and Northumberland and the North Of Eng
land would have risen in force. In that ten
minutes King James lost his crown and was
doomed to die q French pensioner at st.
Germans, Prince Charlie to attempt to re-
gain it under less favorable circumstances,
and Cardinal York to end the hapless Stuart
line amid the wealth Of song and story
which their misfortunes have evoked. Had
Give succeeded in his attempted suicide,
would not the English and the French have
changed places in India? II Lord John
Russell had not shown an unwonted frmness
when Louis Philippe was displaying a sus-
picious anxiety about "priority Of discovery"
At the antipodes, would our colonists have
been enjoying to-day that peace which the
absence even Of such amiable neighbors as
the French affords them Suppose "night
or the Prussians" had not come at Waterloo,
what would have been the result-albeit
Wellington always declared that he never
| expressed his longing for either'
War clouds have burst, and millions of
stout men have been slain owing to the
veriest triaes. The cropping of Louis WIS
chin brought on three centuries Of blood
shed. and q sarcastic remark of Frederick
the Great ON Elizabeth Petrovna of Russia,
reused that virtuous empress to take such
vigorous part in the seven years war that al
one time Prussia seemed well-nigh stricken
unto death. Even Catherine u.-prOfound-
ly suspicious Of Potsdam after the scandal
about Queen Enthusiastically examined
her husbands correspondence before she
concluded an alliance with the royal letter.
writer. Perhaps had she found Frederick
II. condoling with Peter ILL.,, Europe might
have been spared much misery and undis-
membered Poland been vet in existence to
hold the balance between the northern en-
pires. Nor have We been much wiser in our
generation. The fourth Caffie war began
about stolen hatchet, and the cutting down
of flagstaff at the Bay of Islands involved
Us in the wretched Maori troubles. The
Crimesn war ostensibly arose out Of the dis
puted ownership Of church key. and q
late - 1854, some men who were considered
wise enough to sit in Parliament were ready
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