Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1880-11-05
VOL. LIV. NEW SERIES, VOL. XNVII.
Accidents Of History.
GREAT EVENTS THAT HAVE SPRUNG Up FROM
LITTLE CAUSES.

GREAT EVENTS THAT HAVE SPRUNG Up FROM
LITTLE CAUSES.
1t was one Of the maxims Of Catherine
de Medici that "a false resort, ii bcii,ved
for three days, may he Of great service to
the Government" printers boy with
n bad memory was few days slrc' on
the point of doing the ministry S r1ice
by forgetting to deliver Lord Bc"c' MS
fields amendment to the liability hili.
Lord Redesdale gave it TO his seer 'ary :
the secretary gave it to the boy, WI" put
it in his pocket and forgot all about 1t,
and thus Lord Beaconstield's views failed
to reach the members of the House of
Peers in due time. The incident Ill itself
was tritiing, but it does not stand al"nem
history. NJ. Fournier wrote book on
events which never took place, and Lord
Beaconsfield's father was the author OF Il
learned essay on history which might
have been enacted. An equally curious
volume might be penned on the trites
which have determined great events. In
deed, though momentous historical incl
dents have been due to long concourse
of circumstances, all working towards a
common end, the final catastrophe has
often been precipitated by the merest trl-
fie. 1t was but triie that gave Spain
| for so 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 III
Europe. 1t is well known that Columbus,
dispirlted with the refusals which he met
with at so many courts, despatched his
brother Bartolomeo to ask aid from Henry
VII. of England But on the way the
messenger fell into the hands of pirates,
and blythe time he reached London was SO
destitute that he had to try and earn the
money to clothe himself in proper style
before he could be presented Mt court,
But by that time it was too late. Even
the fact that Ferdinand and Isabella sup
piled the funds to equip the expedition
was mainly due to the accident that Juan
Perez the Marchena, the queens CON
fessors, happened to be passing at the
moment when the weary mariner was
knocking at the door Of La Rabida Mon-
astery to beg little bread and water for
his boy Diego, and was struck with the
noble face of the dusty pedestrian. Had
Bartolomeo Colon reached London III
time, had Christoval been by any chance
little earlier or little later at the Mon
astery 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 revolu-
tionized, for i'll 1906 the English held
Buenos Ayres, and it is no secret that
Napoleon was almost persuaded to ahand-
Oh Europe as n field for his ambition and
try what he could accomplish in the way
of carving out an empire among the dis
e. Il SArttl mo- ga
When citizen Bonaparte seemed likely TO
sit on the throne of Louis Capet. he was
on the point of Offering his sword to the
Sultan, as, at later period, Won Moitkc
actually did.
1t is curious now to speculate what
would have been the present state Of III"
Eastern question had Napoleon carried
his intentions into effect, or suppoS!nG
that Moltke had remained Ill the Turkish
service, whether the Danish war would
have been fought or Prussias supremacy
been established at Sadowa or Sedan.
Had Bonaparte not had Il friend Ill the
Directory, would he ever had the good
fortune to keep his head on his should
ers; or had not General Grant accident
" been on good terms with the Governor
of Illinois, would he have been lucky
enough to have obtained that volunteer
colonelcy which transferred him from the
saddler's shop in Galena to the White
House in Washington. Thackeray used
to delight in similar speculations as to
what might have been had not tritie IN
tervened to prevent history running its
course. In 1115 the English crown was
much nearer the Stuarts' grasp than 1t
was thirty years later. Scotland might
have been the Pretender's had all his
friends had the courage of the earl OF
Mar and the eight thousand Highland
gentlemen who ralliedaround him. Edin
burgh Castle would undoubtedly have
been taken had not the men who were
to escalade it tarried SO long i'll tavern
that Winnie they we're Po"lerlng their
hair" their confederates under the fort
ress grew weary of waiting, and the rem
devious was reached to late. But for that
pulreris erigui .jacta of the jovial con-
spirators all Scotland might have been
King James's, and Northumberland and
the North of England would have risen
in force In that ten minutes King James
lost his crown and was doomed to die a
French pensioner atSt. Germans. Prince
Charlie to attempt to regain 1t 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 pluces in India? If Lord John
Russell had not shown an unwonted firm
ness when Louis Philippe WAS displaying
q suspicious 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 might or the Prus-
slams" had not come at Waterloo, what
would have been the result-albeit Wei
lington always declared that lie never cx-
pressed his longing for either?
War clouds have burst, and millions OF
stout men have been slain owing to the
veriest trifles. The cropping OF Lonis
Wis chin brought on three centuries OF
bloodshed, and sarcastic remark OF
Frederick the Great on Elizabeth Pc
trovna Of Russia, reused that vlrtuous
empress to take such vigorous part III
the seven years war that at one time
Prussia seemed weli-nigh stricken unto
death. Even Catherine ll.-profoundly
| suspicious of Potsdnn after the 'scand;tl
about Queen Elizabeth carefully cX-
amined her husbands correspondence he
fore she concluded an alliance with the
royal letter-writer. Perhaps had she found
Frederick III. condoling with Peter Ill,
Europe might have been spared much
misery and undismembercd Poland been
vet III existence to hold the balance be
tween the northern empires. Nor have
We been much wiser i'll our generation.
The fourth Catire war began about a
stolen hatchet, and the cuttinG down of Il
flagstaff at the Bay of Islands involved
us in the wretchcd Maori troubles. The
Crimcan war ostensibly arose out of tho
disputed ownership of Il church key, and
as late rs 1854, some men who were con
s.dorcd wise enough to sit in Parliament
were ready to spend a considerable sun
Of money and many lives III order 10 sottl,
the ownership of some long-legScd hog.
III the Falklnnd Islands Porkers, indeed
have among good Christians been alway'
tetireD,a cauSa beAj. 1t is hardly fort
years since Louis Philippe threatened Wal
against the Texan Republic because N
of the French ambassador. As it was, IL
| prevented i'''i
floating their European loan, and thu
/ the kings and thepigs combined hastene'
the annexation of Texas to the Unite
States. The battle of the Nile WAS a turn
, ing point in history. But it could neve
have been fought had not Nelson's ilee
, been permitted to revictual ut Syracuse
and into Syracuse it could never hav
r gone had not the wife of the English am
r bassador at Naples been accidently awar
that King Ferdinand was very foolish
and his Queen very much the reverse
States before now have been ccdc'
through the accidents Of ignorance. Th
Dutch are said to have ''jockeyed Us ou
of Malacca i'll exchange for Java by rrl
resenting on the map, which our SIMPLE
minded envoys took for granted, the ON
territory as large and the other as small
and among the most firmly rooted trad
tions of American diplOmacyis one vino
represents the English commissioner Il
agreeing to the surrender of Oregon 'h,