Daily Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1876-1884, 1883-06-08

MI n ~ nOluiiktNoftn - tut phntA AHA aHtnt |
Of the HERALD.
The spirit OF IsaS Only sleeping.
Time was when the people and states.
men Of the United States were SO genor-
ally in love with Republican institutions
that sort of Republican propaganda
existed in this country. Probably the
most marked representation OF the
American sentiment took concrete shape
in tho person Of Thomas Jefferson. Had
it not been for that gentleman and his
school of American public men there is
little doubt but that, under the influence
of New England, tho United States
would have been plunged into a war
with the first French Republic oven
while our debt of gratitude to the
French people was quite fresh. In our
later days we seem TO have lost that
acute sensibility which made us TAX o a
keen interest in everything which either
gave promise Of extension to Republican
institutions or threatened their curtail
ment. Only this theory can explain
the indifference with which the press
and statesmen of this country look upon
tripartite alliance between Germany,
Austria and Italy, which embodies even
n more formidable menace TO Republican
and constitutional government than was
bound up even in the old Holy Alliance.
To supplement this league of despotism,
Russia, n country which was the heart
OF the old Holy Alliance, and which has
been left ont of the present federation,
shows every sign of INDUCING in all the
excuses of absolutist way.whch charac-
orized Ivan the Terrible or Nicholas,
T 0 telegraph, the other day, advised the
world that the Mayor of Moscow, for
having ventured, alta banquet given to his
other Mayors at TINT city, on the
occasion OF the late coronation ceremo-
mails, to express the hope that Russia
would soon be accorded constitutional
government, has been banished to his
estates. The vulgar ostentation of alb
soutst state which characterized the
coronation ceremonies is thus capped by
an act which is far more in keeping with
the seventeenth than the nineteenth
century. 1t is fact not generally
known, but the Romanoif dynasty was
elected to the Czarship by Russian
national assembly, body which had
oil the characteristics of n constitutional
Legislature, and that was a couple of
centuries ago. There is remarkable
resemblance in the title by which the
Romanoffs hold the Russian throne to
the Act of Settlement which vested the
English crown in William and Mary, in
Anne and the heirs of the Princess
Sophia The Russian monarchy of to-
day, ordering Moscow Mayor into
exile for 30 much as limiting aspirations
for constitutional government, is thus
away behind its traditions of two hun
bred years ago. While, in reading the
news OF the world, one can hear of the
proceedings of delberative assembly
in Turkey and of the Skuptchina in
Servia, this Empire of eighty millions is
absolutely without the shadow of repre-
sentative government. In all the essen
tials of freedom and popular identified
ton with the affairs of the Empire, the
Russians are away bohind even every
quasi civilized people of Europe.
1t seems to us that such an
abnormal state of things can
} hot long continue. For the mo-
ment absolutism is swaying things with
high hand, but there are three factors
in the problem which will soon be essen
tally modified. In the order of nature
the Emperor Wilhelm, Bismarck and
Queen Victoria cannot live long, and
with their death an entirely new politi
cal drama will hold the boards. 1t can
not be that the spirit of ls49 is dead.
In truth, it only sleeps, and the eondi'
tons are such in Europe as to warrant
the belief that it cannot sleep long; and
TIM, tire genius of Revolution will awake
strong and vigorous, as though refresh
ed with new wine. During the thirty
four years which have elapsed since
ls49 the Republican sentiment of Eu
rope has strengthened and expanded,
rather than diminished. 1t has grown
both in wisdom and in the numbers of
its devotees. While it is true that the
enormous standing armies OF lSi9 have
grown even more colossal, the soldier is
no longer machine. When the French
monarchy toppled over Louis had a
splendid army, but the soldier had ceas-
ed to be a passive instrument. The in
ternational paradox will be accomplish
ed, some day, that the very top heavy
uperabundance of the armies maintain.
ed by European monarchs, to buttress
their oppressive systems of government,
will be the means of their overthrow.
With Wilhelm, Bismarck and Victoria
once of the stage, a subtle agitation
will begin which will afford spectacle
something the childish sport in which
row of bricks is set up ON end and the
toe of the boyish experimenter is applied
to the outer one; when, presto, they all
go down with magical CELEBRITY. Let
revolution once again burst out in
Europe and it will spread from the
Thames to the Nistula.
1T looks very much as ii the Sequel
oil region will shortly attract attention
as a petroleum producer. Mr.. Burdett
Chandler is theoretically sinking well
there, and the oil siratas were reached
at a depth of only twenty feet. There
are millions Of tons of brea-itself q very
valuable substance-in the Sequel. The