Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1885-01-03
THE oLD YEAR ~ EURoPE.
summary ct The Pr~srss Of Evesss D1ciuz
she past Twrivr s1osshs.
frhiladelphia Times.l

Europe is gradually growing to mean
Asia ard Africa as well, ard the man
who takes an isolated view Of its poll
tics or social upheayals is sure 10 be
wrong. A merely English, French.
Russian, or German Interpretation OF
the actions Of any one European nation
during the past year will be false in
terpretation. Much less will the Ameri-
can who is absorbed in our party poll
tics at home, or who irnaginrs that per-
sonal and political scltishness. iatrigu-
ing. and corruption are the exclusive
property Of American statesmen. haze
any just or adequate idea Of Old-World
history for the year just closed. Eu-
rope during the past twelve months has
been the same universal jangle Of ambi-
tious nations that it has been for two
thousand years, only the ruling con-
q,iering race has con9ntrated IN new
centres, with ncw ambitions under way.
To know just what these are, md just
what has been done toward their ac-
complishmcnt, is to get and hold the
KEY Of the worlds history at this hour.
At the opening Of the year in Eng
land the great yexing questions were
How could England complete and hold
her rule over Egypt without annexing
il. and so hold the gateway to India.
which is all that England wants with
Egypt, withsut prccipitating war with
France and giving her pretext for an
nexing part Of China; without giving
Germany a prctext for annexing large
portions of Africa; without giving an
excuse to Russia for the execution of
its long-cherished schemes of conquest
through Merv and Afghanistan to po-
sition of easy menace on India and
clear. final outlet in the Arabian
Sea. for share of the great
southern commerce Of the Old World?
At the same time. how could England,
while aiming to do at least so much
with her foreign policy, pass her fran
chise bill over the opposition OF the
lords; shift to a redistribution of seats
in Parliament without at the same time
shifting the balance of party power,
and. above all, how could the Liberal.
Gladstone Government, through the in
finite detail. side-issues, and confusion
of all this. keep its hands on the helm
of State and in the purse of the British
nation? Bearing all the detail of this
work in mind, with the added English
issues Of Gordon in the Soudan. of tho
Congo and its relations to Portugal, Of
Canada and its propositions of grand
british confederation, of Ireland and i,s
Homc-Rulers. and of irritated little
bothers with ourselves on treaty and
canal questions, il will be seen that the
tasks on Mr.. Gladstone's hands at the
beginning of the year 1884 were sim
ply herculean Qarger than those that
any Englishman before ever had to han
dlc). and it is clear 20 those who keep
the issues in mind that had not the Pre-
mier Of England acted with more than
ordinary caution, patience. foresight.
and international principle, he would
have plunged his nation in war, and
have set back thN civilization of Eu-
rope at least 100 years.
England has passed her franchise
bill, adding two million voters to her
national politics she has virtually Sc
cured q good scheme for the redistri-
button of seats in Parliament, AMI so
has reconcied lords and commons
once more and united the popular voice
of the nation in favor of liberal, popu-
lar government. And England has sue
ceeded so for in her Egypto-India
schemes. She has also held France in
some check as regards her movements
against China. But she has failed to
check Russian ADVANCES southwark in
Western Asia. and how much she has
halted or thwarted Bismarck in
his African ambitions nobody but
Bismarck and Gladstone and their
respective rulers and subordinates know
or need pretend to know. No other
nation in the world has had such bur
dcns to carry during the past year, and
it is very doubtful if any other man
alive, not excepting Bismarck himself,
could have carried them as well and
still have held the world in peace. Any
blusterer can blunder into mere one
sided criticism and any butcher can
play the game Of war, but England,
under Gladstone, especially during the
last year, means something more than
this. and. on the whole, deserves the
praises rather than the sneers Of all
men.
With Germany at the opening of the
last year there was no yexing question
of home policy or Of patriotism. Ger
man unity, as made up of nearly all the
old Teutonic States, besides what Ger
many has plucked from Austria OH the
southeast, and from France on the west.
is an established fact of European his
tory. 1t is the fixed basis from which
Bismarck constantly acts on all parts
Of the world. What Bismarck had to
consider for his nation at the opening
of the year, was how he could reconcile
and hold to himself for all purposes
against Liberals and Socialists the Cath
olc party, more or, less disaffecte
by previous anti-Catholc, tyranui-
cal legislation; how far Germany
might safely 60 in an anti-English
alliance with Russia, encouraging the
latter in its western Asiatic advances
how far it was safe TO play with France
as an English irritant, without commit
ting Germany to any fixed alliance with
France. which would be hateful TO both
nations and practically impossible, and
how, by playing these cards with Aus
,ria and possibly Italy as lesser aids
Bismarck could formulate and set il
motion his new and great colonial pol
icy Of settling Southwestern Africa with
German subjects and so make Germany
no longer merely Prussian, Protestant,
scholarly, and mechanical, but com
mercial empire after the pattern o.
Norman England, only with nc
Liberal Gladstonian nonsense to weak
en- the same. Up to this hour
Bismarck has not reconciled the
Catholic party. 1t is loyal to Ger
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