The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1882-04-19

IT HAS been said Happy is the country
OF nation which has no history an apo
thegln which may be taken TO mean
happy Is that country whose history IS one
of internal progress. without hindrance
from or complication with external in
fuences. Few countries have ever achieved
this enviable happiness. The ambitions
of monarchs or ministers generally result
in attracting to themselves first the anx-
ious attention which they coveted, and as
a consequence the interference which,
when too late, they find themselves to have
challenged The taste for power and i'm
portance. the desire to be considered for
midable as a foe or indispensable as an
ally, is too apt to become a ruling passion.
and many are the monarchs and many the
statesmen who have sacrificed the reality
of peaceful if inglorious prosperity, for
the terrible risks to which they commit
themselves when open to a suspicion of
aggressiveness. or even an undue amount
of self assertion. But that this self sus-
tanned and home made happiness may yet
be found. even among the great warlike
monarchies of the old world. let Us look at
the past history and present condition of
the little italian Republic of San Marino.
This happy little state, of 2l square miles
Of territory and 7,400 inhabitants, self
governed and self dependent. though sur
rounded on all sides by powerful and not
always peaceable neighbors. has existed in
its quaint little integrity and sturdy little
independence for centuries. The demon
of imperialism or militarism has never
cursed this little country by reason of the
ambitions Of its rulers or the greed of its
neighbors its twelve hundred militiamen
serve all the purposes of the state, and are
not made the excuses for extravagant out
lay for the purpose of parade and run no
risk of being laughed at as caricatTe of
the force of neighboring powers Secure
in its rocky eminence of 2000 feet above
the surrounding plain, ike an island in
mid ocean, its Notifications are much what
they We're some hundred years ago; its
revenue, though small. is amply sufficient,
and its single town and dozen or two vii
lages thrive without the stimulus of a ma
tional debt. Even when thrones. princi-
palities end dukedoms by the dozen were
upset. annexed. apportiOned out into het
erogeneous groups by the crushing and
ruthless imperialism of Napoleon BuOna-
parte. or more recently, when Italy was
still only regarded as a geographical ex
preston, neither the King. Kaiser or
Pope has destroyed the independence
of this the least, though probably
the oldest, of existing Republics Its
present democratic form of govern
ment with its Grand Council of Sixty. and
its Interior or Ministerial Council of
Twelve. has already stood firmly for more
than one hundred and forty years Now
look at a picture of Imperialism which
had reached its height under the old re-
gine of France. when Louis Quatorze
exclaimed " L'dGt c'est D,0i.n his selfish and
degraded successor said, "-ipres moi le de-
i9ge" His unhappy successor was over
in the deluge. On look at the
great military empire of Napoleon, raised
by the greatest military genius the world
has seen. and behold the effects Of impe-
riaism or personal government. Cross
the Atlantic and see how the same causes
produce the same results. even when dis
guised under the forms of popular gov
The various SO called Republics
of Central and South America have spent
the whole period of their independence in
war with one another whenever two neigh
boring states were sufficiently free from
civil quarrels to enable them to put an
army of few hundred half clad ragamuf-
inns IN the field. and the short intervals of
peace We're invariably devoted to borrow
ing money, raising loans for the deveI-
opment of the country is the stock
phrase, so that to-day it is not too much
to say that. with the single exception of
Chile, there is not Spanish American
Republic that is not hopelessly insolvent
Some political agitator raised to power as
President, devotes his time between drill
ing his awkward squads for possible ser
vice against his neighbors or his own
fellow citizens, and floating loans, the pro
ceeds Of which go for the most part into
the pockets of himself and his friends who
carry out his schemes. Imperialism under
the guise of constitutional government.
militarism under the grise of tender re
gard for the defences of the country, ma
tional Indebtedness under the pretence of
developing resources, have made wleok OF
many q state The citizens ot SaE Warno
may look around and congraiulsie them
elves OF then ernst ~ breed Gnf Eh