Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-03-02
LOCAL INTELLIGENCE.
ENeL lNp,s JUDGMENT DAY.

Lecture OF EEOleSSOI NOTION before the
Sacramento Literary Institute.
Professor Norton delivered the fourth
lecture of the present course before the Sac
ramento Literary Institute last evening. He
had f5r his subject "England's Judgment
Day" He secured and maintained the close
attention which always attends his lectures.
The lecturer began by announcing himself
to be teacher, who had only come to give
lesson in history, derived from such sources
as are accessible to all. The worlds history.
he said, has many records Of iudgment-days
descending upon nations. Wrong doing brings
inevitable Te6ributions in its train. There is
no escape from the penalty Of violated law
Babylon, Jerusalem, France, America, were
instanced as nations upon which destructive
or purifying judgments have descended.
There are two Englands-oue represented
by Shakespeare and Milton, Hampton. Sid
ney and Wiberforce; the other the England
of Henry VIII. and George ", Hastings,
Laud and Jeffries. Out of the same fountaia
have flowed sweet waters and bitter En-
land, the worlds great civilizer, has also been
its mightiest robber and oppressor.
The lecturer briefly reheaTsed the story of
the Indian Empire. The Eass India Com
pany was originally but an association of
merchants, organized to carry on trade with
the nations of the East. II rapidly increased
il power, raised armies, conquered kingdoms,
and built up an empire of 200 000. 600 people.
It has always been a favorite axiom of GER
tain English journals and statesmen that
there could be no such thing as national or
corporate morality. Men might be moral
or unselish on their own account, but when
representing a company or q nation they
must look to It's selfish interests, irrespective
Z II \
of England has largely been built up out
of the systematic spoliation and plumber of
India. According to the statement of Lieu
tenant Colonel Osborn, of the East Indian
service, the law of India provides that FIVE
sixths of all the net profits of producers may
be claimed as due the Government and, as
a matter of practical fact, one.haf of all
such produce has been actually collected for
a century. This has been committed in the
form of an annual money tax, the payment
of which has always kept many millions of
people lowering on the very brink of starva-
ton. The late cruel and causeless war with
Afghanistan cost some $50, 000 900, and this
money, in a season of famine, was wruug by
mereiless methods from population already
starving. The collection Of this tax cost
more lives than all the sickness and battles of
the war. The Indian Government collects
some forty millions from its opium monopoly
the opium wars with China, were told with
some pal ticularity. The history of the
British Empire in India is enc Of the
blacklist pages of time.
The history Of the war in Transvaal was
next told. Cape Colony was settled by Dutch
farmers. Our word boor" has a secondary
and derived meaning. The Beers are race
of sturdy Calvinists, educated, industrious
and Independent in spirit. Their colony fell
under the yoke of British conquest, and many
thousands Of them abandoned it, and made
new homes at Natal and in the Orange Free
State. But the diamond mines Were discov-
cred ia the Free State, and these, with Natal,
were annexed by proclamation. Refusing to
be taxed or ruled by a c0nqueror, they once
more abandoned their homes and iourneyed
far to the northeast, into the Trans
vaal. It was a wonderful jmmigra-
ton, $4,000 moving more than thou
sand miles in a single year. For
nearly forty years they lived unmolested, and
their country became fruitful and prosperous.
But, in 1879, Lord Bsacousfeld's Govern
ment annexed, by one stroke of the pen,
without any reason or provocation except the
rule of the str0ngest, a tract of country, in
GLIDING the Transvaal, as large as half of
Europe. Against this gigantic robbery the
Beers have risen in righteous revolt. The
men who have lately beaten and captured
two British armies IN the Dragon Mountains
are fighting for cause as Just as that which
was defended at Bunker Hil.
The story of Ireland followed. The con-
quest begun in 1172, by order of Pope Adrian
". There wers some 400 years of almost
incsssant partisan war between the times OF
the Second and the Eighth Henry. Ireland
by this time was thoroughly Romanized
and partially Anglinizsd. Then came the
Protestant reformation in England, and her
sovereiEns have for three centuries been trying
to undo their too unsuccessful missionary
work, and convert the Irish people back to
Protestan tism. The story of those three
centuries is most sicBsning and horrible. In
the great rebellion and massacre of 1641, it is
said that 600 600 people persisted. For
nearly century the whole aim of England
was apparently to cripple and torture. Ire.
land had extensive woolen factories but they
were suppressed. The people we're forbidden
to pillow muye than five acres out Of each hun
bred They were required to devote almost
the whole island to the pasturage of sheep.
but were not allowed to sell the woolst0 any
country but England, and received, on the
average, only one-hfth of its value in the
worlds markets. They were not permitted
to bear arms, own ships or build even fishing
boat. They had no civil rights, could not be
admitted to Protestant schools, and their own
priests were forbidden to teach. Their linen
manufactures were taxsd almost out of exist
ence all expectation of fresh or sailed meats
was forbidden; taxation was so adjusted as
to rest almost wholly upon the Catholics !;
they were obliged, by a forced tribate, to
support . church which they hated No ma
ton on earth was ever so harried, starved
and tortured. Mr.. Froude regards the treat
ment of the Scottish settlers by the British
Government as one of the blacklist features
of the case. Probably enough of them were
driven out of Ireland into America, Just be-
fore the Revolution, to turn the scale Of vic
tory. The lands, universally cOnfiscated, are
still largely held by nonresident proprietors.
find that, in 1879, rents to the amount of
about s60, 900, coo were sent from Ireland
into England. No nation in the world was
ever so stepped in misery and crime. Il is
impossible TO here adequately reproduce this
part Of the story, for which NJ. FEou1e was
named as the principal authority.
England has not sinned above all other
nations. In the Spanish Inquisition and the
Story OF the French Huguenots we have
records perhaps more terrible. But terrible
retributions have fallen upon these nations.
Can Eosland escape? Wonderful echoes
ring in our ears from the prophets of cid.
. There was tree in the midst of the earth,
and the hight thereof was great; its leaves
were fair, its fruit much, and ali flesh was
led OF it. And in visions watcher and
: holy one descended, saying, Hsw down
the tree Shake off its branches and scatter
It's fruit - The great empire, which has filled
the world with light ard yet girdled it with
a zone Of oppressed nadonalities, England,
the buccaaeer and highwayman OF the ma
lions. shews evident signs OF dislntegratlon !;
but there shall yet be an England, the hon
qred homestead, the historical museum. the
S{xhaustless Fountain of heroic inspirations,
for the gigantic commonwealth OF the Eng
.hsh-speaAing people whose power Is over
shadoEing The globs in her decadence more
than ever loved and honored as our dear old
mother.
REPUBLICAN MEETING. In accordance
with call made, there viii be q Republican
meeting held this evening at Turner Hall,
commencing at halt-past o'clock. All Re.
publicans who are opposed to the test :"
made BY the City Central Committee for the
Ginning primary elections are invited to at
tend,
BUSINESS CHANGE.-The commission and
fruit business of K. Levy was yesterday
transferred to s. Gerson & Co., who viii con-
tinue in the same line at the old stand. The
new 6rm intend to keep full stock OF fruits
and vegetables at all times, and TO transact
e6neralcommission and local market business.
e-
ALARM CLOCKS Call and examine our