Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1881-02-18
rs ENGLAND WANING ?


that her best friends and most ardent admir-
ers are specializing upon the probable issues.
The marked success with which "the little
Island in the Ocean," as she is fondly called,
after constructing so wonderful a common
wealth in herself, has sent forth colonizing
| forces to subjugate and rule so many depend
encies upon the globe is one of the maryels
of history.
! The vital forces in the centre of the system
must have been singularly grand, to have
diffused themselves through so many chan
nels to the ends of the earth.
The tenacity with which she maintains
her grasp upon the most distant portions
Of her dominions, and the vigorous currents
of natural life with which she infuses her
own mother life into their veins and beauti-
fies savage ruggedness with her own noble
civilization, increase the grandeur of the
problem presented to our consideration.
We are rot called upon to admire or APP
prove all the means employed in accomplish
ing such ends. Many dark stains of posi-.
tive crime blot the records of her develop
ments. Many doubtful measures weighed in
the balances of impartial justice, have writ
ten wanting" in her palatial halls. In
nocent blood from thousand fields down
trodden by her mighty armies, is pleading
trumpet-tongued against the excuses mar
ring the power other arms. This must beck
pected from all the outworkings of human
energy on so wide scale, in the intense ag-
itations caused by the action OF such power
full forces
But the fact still faces lis that there must
have been extraordinary vital force from so
diminutive centre to reach and control so
wide circumference
The best proof of the amount of her own
life-force presents itself in the fact that it
became irrepressible, demanding outlets
through which to discharge itself upon dis
tant points Nor did the discharge seem to
} diminish, either in quantity or quality, her
own strength. The excess of her population
pouring over the globe under the folds of
her triumphant flag, carried with it the re-
ligion, the law, the literature and the COM
merce, whose combined influences made
England power on earth. The language
, Of King James Bible, and of Shakespeare
and Milton repeated in noble strains her
, ideas and perpetuated her principles around
the globe
! This great American Republic of the
; United States, whose far-reaching shadows
!, across the ocean are falling so portentiously
upon her own marble halls what was it in
its first outbreak and continued upbuilding,
but the development of her own fiery resolve
implanted in the hearts of our fathers?
/, Perhaps the Declaration of Independence
was but another voice OF Magma Charta re-
peating itself at n later date on this side OF
the Atlantic. Certainly the spirit, and tone
/ and very uttcrances of the immortal state
E papers and speeches of the first American
Congresses, Numbered back to England the
echoes Of her own Parliaments.
This is the true point at which to repeal
5 the question with which we opened; Il
= England Waning
n The causes leading to the separation ant
5 independence of her thirteen American col
: onies, seem of late years 10 be repeating
themselves with accelerating force in hei
$ present history. Commercial and agricultu
r raj distress, uprlsings Of portentious nature
S in her manufacturing and mining districts
: theoutbreaks in unhappy Ireland, rebellion:
: in distant provinces demanding and scatter
| ing all her forces; are these the indications
D OF waning power in her great central self
e unable to circulate any longer with equal
: vitality at all points? Or is her present fe.
verish condition only one of those stages Of
: morbid disease often breaking out in the
c healthiest life, by which nature, both in
, states and men, throws off poisonous OBJ
S structions preparatory TO healthier action
: Perhaps the period has arrived in hol
a grand old life, when by the operation o
: the law of growth in the universe the pa
$ rent life must wane, and much of her off
Il spring life must, as in the case of the Amer
;. lean colonies, start off into the development
c of their own organic life Perhaps some o
Y the sources of her own internal life are beins
@ SO powerfully affected by the new currents
IS Of the great worldlife now pouring in tida
n waves through modern politics and states
e craft, as to demand the surrender Of the un
d natural and obsolete in her system, tia
proper pruning OF rotten branches may pre-
n serve In its majesty the towering oak.
r. Ii is dangerous in States to make unwis
/. opposition TO the necessary advances Of on
;, ward world-life. We of the South, in tn
h late civil wal, found the institution of sa
II very, however pleasant and profitable, a
I. element in our civilization to be in its r,
II moter relations to wider policy a dangerou
n breakwater obstructing the current of PR
is gress in its deepest channel. 1t was swer
- away by the accumulation of forces, an
,e we were swept With il,
y The House of Lords and the element {
l. conservatism in English politics should be
Al ware Of being merely obstructionists agains
s. the inevitable influences now trying all tn
old foundations.
England may renew and perpetuatc he
Is youth by wisely casting out of her system
II thecauses ofpremature decay. Ifshe wane
r, like planet in some of her aspects only Il
II ill up again to the measure of glory, sh
Z. may long revolve in her orbit to enlighte
e the world; but if her central fires go on
r from exhaustion, or are eEtinguished b
;, revolution, she will be sadly missed IS
c bright particular star in history.
N ----->s~
h Judge Daniel II. Magruder has been ap
h pointed by Gov. Hamilton Chief Judge q
:. the Seventh Judicial District TO ill the va
$ cancy caused by the death of the late Judg
?. Brent Richard b. Chew, Esq, a promi
!. net member of the bar of Prince George
9 county has been appointed Associate Judg'
/. 10 al the vacancy occasioned by the promo
4 ton Of Judge Magruder.
Judge Magruder is gentleman Of fin,