New-York tribune., 1885-01-01


defamation any previous contest was oeciaeu
by something over thousand votes. Inc
margin was 90 narrow that shifting or SIX
hundred votos would have reversed the result
and q Clergyman could be charged with inao-
vertently changing the course OF empire py
careless phrase. Yet how tranquil and patient
the. country remained In this crisis OF it's polti
cal fortunes In Franco there would have
been barricades in the streets and the great
army would have been on guard. Here thero
was only O cOmmOn-sense recognition OF Tue
sanctty of public law.
In the United Kingdom another branch OF the
EnglIsh-speaking race has also passed through
critical period of agitation and excitement
and given tokens of civic courage, sell
restraint and practical wisdom. A conflict
between the Houses Of Parliament has been
averted, and peaceful revolution has been
wrought through compromise which mas
opened an era OF good feeling between hostile
parties. No year since that which recorded tho
passage of the great Reform Bill has witnessed
legislative action of such magnitude. Two
millions of tho Queens subjects have Dcch
armed with the ballot, and by the redistribution
scheme the electoral system has been recast from
the bottom. English democracy has suddenly
awakened from dreams of future agitation and
continuous campaigning to find itself already
supreme. Two landmarks in the enfranchlse-
mont of the English people have been estaD'
lished within tho compass OF single year J
and now that tho work has been DONE the
constituencies are fairly startled with the mag
nitude of tho results effected in single week
by the joint efforts 6 rival leaders. The COM
promise is recognized as u more radical measure
than either party would have vcntured 10
propose when acting alone. 1t is triumph OF
practical wisdom and sterling English sense,
and democracy is sobered by its new rcsponsl-
bilities. Where on the Continent Is similar
capacity for political government displayed
Certainly neither in France nor in Germany.
LII one country there ia so little confidence III
the permanence of republican institutions that
It is thought necessary in revising the COnstl-
tuition to invent phrases against m0narchlcai
usurpatOu In the other an irresponsible
Chancellor despises Parliamentary institutions
and is pursued with mean aifronts Dy the
helpless representatives, OF the German people.
There is one aspect of the year, however,
which can be considered equally well either In
London Paris or Berlin. This is the increasing
tendency to enlarge colonial domains. The
German Chancellor himself has become infected
with this feverish desire for foreign anncXa-
ton He has acquired a long strip OF territory
near Angra Pcquena, has raised the German nag
in the South Seas, and has been dissccting the
heart of Africa in the operating ng-rooms OF the
Congo Conference France. likewise, has been
converting Tunis into a province, betraylng
none of the hesitation and sensitycncss shown
by the English in Egypt and on the borders OF
China a war of menace and reprisals has been
recklessly carried on. England itself. after
making persistent efforts TO eyade the responsi-
biities Of conquest, and abandoning cowardly
garrisons and hordcs of brave Arabs to the
cruel fate of massacre has been drawn into the
! Soudan. Even Italy is planning new colonies
on the lower coast of the Red Sea, and intrigu-
ing for protcctoratc of AbyssinIa. Scarcely 4
| single section of the barren African coast
remains to be occupied. orat least clamcd. by q
civilized State and the high seas are secured
for now possessions. Ii Is the Gordon which
| Europe il drawing about the scml-clyllized ana
| barbarous races of the world