The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1884-04-05
Royal Bulldoaing.

President of the Reichstag and informed thai
officer that vote cast against the bill to con-
tinue the Anti-Socialist law will be regarded
as an act against His Imperial Majesty. So
the bill. which was virtually defeated, will
now be successful.
In a single day these instances of royal and
autocratic bulldozing occur. What an illus
tration of the liberty enjoyed by the people
of Europe! A Queen, to hush up scandals
coming very near to her family, if not involv-
ing some of them, seals up the doors OF a court
and the lips of all its officers. A Kaiser,
finding public measure liable to defeat, bull
lies the Parliament of the people into passing
it by making vote against it an offense to
the Crown. An insolent Minister orders a
Senate to do his bidding and it is forced to
comply
So writes our esteemed contemporary
the Neso York World Freedom of speech,
freedom of the press, trial by jury, the
habeas corpus, and liberty Of conscience,
are great cardinal principles of magma
charta. No people on earth understand
these principles better or cherish them more
highly than the English. From them we
derived them, and made them the very
foundation stones of the political super
structure raised here by our fathers in these
western wilds. But liberty and licentious-
ness are two very different and opposing
principles. In these modern times the
liberty of the press is SO unrestrained that
it has often run into the most unbridled
license. Nothing escapes its Argus eyes
Like SANDER it invades the sanctity or pri-
vacy of every place and of all ranks of peo
pie. 1t enters the household, invades the
family circle, the cloister, the church. Nc
person or place is secure from it. "Kings
queens and priests, maids, matrons, nay the
secrets of the grave" are not respected by
it. 1t must lay its unhallowed hands upon
the most sacred things, the inner life Of
social existence, things which should nevel
be profaned under any circumstances, dras
them into the light of day and blazon then
to the four winds. The Queen is to be
commended for her special command il
this case Why should the world wish tc
feast its eyes upon family scandals which
may possibly be revealed in the progress Of
this trial? 1t is grievous enough to know
that such scandals exist, without having
them heralded to the world in the columns
of the press. A recent case in one of Oul
own courts, in the city of Baltimore, not i
divorce suit, but one involving the dispose
of a large sum of money, brought out many
painful and humiliating family secrets
which the press seized upon with the avid
ity of the vulture for its most disgusting
and abhorrent food. Why should the pres
be the scavenger and collater of all that il
foul and filthy in society? If it will be so
it is well. as in this case of England's vir
tuous Queen, that there was not only re
served power and authority sufficient, bu
the will to restrain it.
With respect to the alleged offences
against liberty of the Emperor of Germany
and of Prince Bismarck, it may be sale
that the laws OF edicts governing thes'
cases are not so well understood as those Of
the former, and that Il clear and intelligent
opinion cannot so readily be arrived at. II
is not, therefore, the province Of fair crit
cism to pronounce Judgment without
proper understanding of the facts and cir
cumstances governing the case. We can
not, at this distance from the scene, under
stand the exigencies of the Empire which
require the PRONUNCIATION of orders such as
these. We know som ,thiny of commu-
nism or socialism, SO called, and if we are
to judge it by its demonstrations, we know
that its hands are against social order, the
rights of property, and everything that So
ciety holds dear. We are not surprised
therefore, that the Emperor should feel a
lively solicitudc for the maintenance OF
such laws as will conduce to the preserva-
ton of order, and the peace and welfare Of
the empire.