Omaha daily bee., 1888-12-22
conquer absolute supremacy, or abandon the

ShNSi pihSo'
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The Panama canal company has &C
knowledged its bankruptcy, and the French
government refused to shoulder its RESPONSE
bilities, or to afford relief. The number of
shareholders in this scheme of monumental
folly was $500 almost a million, all of
them belonging to the lower classes. There
s no nation more industrious or more thrifty
than the French, and the success Of the Suez
canal emboldened this enormous multitude
TO stake the whole mass of their savings
upon the new scheme of a man whom they
regarded as the greatest engineer in the
world, The French have n proverb that
money wounds are not mortal, but 1T is
greatly TO be feared that the wounds from
the Panama canal company's failure will
prove an exception. This is a worse blow to
the nation than the surrender at Sedan, for
this will strike at the very roots of national
life. Tn French have great elasticity
of spirit, which enables them to
TO bear misfOrtuues with actual gaYety, but
they have neither the doggedness of the Brit
ish in the hour of defeat, nor the ferocious su.
periority TO disaster of the Poles, and when
their mercurial light heartedness fails them
they are in danger of utter collapse. This
was the case with the great revolution of
lTg3 which was the consequence neither of
noble tyranny, nor of royal despotism, nor of
priestly greed, but of bankruptcy. The
financial wheels were all clogged, and there
was an utter giving up the ghost by all par
ties concerned. Agriculturalists ceased to
labor, taXgatherers did not even try to col
lect the internal revenues, tradesmen
dropped their tools and h~araugued on the sit
uation, and then they all flew at each Others
Threats like so many wolves. The French
national debt has become SO enormous that
the revenueS are utterly insufficient to pay
its interest, and meet current expenses, and
the fall of the Panama company will, with
out any doubt plunge France again into bank
ruptcy. The beginning of the end has come.
-
Various straws in motion indicate that
Italy is by no means as firm in its alliance
with Germany as its own government is.
The Berlin correspondent of the Diritto Of
Rome has been expelled from Germany be-
cause his paper has shown more and more
antagonism to Germany as the time for prob
able action has drawn nearer. Also at the
very time when all Germany is enraged
against Russia on account of the undisguised
hostility Of the entire press, the pope has
seized the opportunity to display his sympa-
thies by making remarkable concessions to
the car. The Russian plenipotentiary,
Mons. Izvolsky, was sent some time ago to
Rome to demand the appointment of Mons.
Simon, Rector of the Catholic seminary in
ST. Petersburg, to the bishopric of wilma; to
demand the filling of the bishOprics of
Lublin and Plasko; and to obtain
the privilege of using the Russian
language in all non liturgical services in
Little Russia and Lithuania, These nave
been granted. Also the statesmen who are
most identified with conservative politics in
Italy are strenuously urging an alliance of
fensive and defensive between all the men,
bers of the Latin monetary ~league-France,
Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Belgium. The
league is simply an arrangement for the
maintenance of silver money at par, and for
the recognition of the silver money of each
country as possessed of the same value.
Thus each of the countries belonging to this
association has a coin equivalent to our own
dollar which passes current in all of them as
money. So at present there are two well
defined parties in Rome, the Turin party,
composed of the government and the army
who are for the Emperor William, ana the
Roman party headed by the pope against
him. 1t is the Guelfs and the Ghibllines
over again, and in the long run the pope will
triumph.
ALPS well that ends well. The president
of Hayti, LegItime, has not waited for the
arrival of the Galena, the Yantic and the
Richmond to surrender the Haytien Republic,
but has sent her home under her own cap
tain, and a crew sent down especially for
the purpose by the Atlas steamship company.
The steamer people were very wise, and
Legitime also showed.a level head, for if he
had surrendered the vessel to a hostile force,
his rival Hippolyte would have held the age,
so to speak, and his own supporters would
have deserted him. Whereas now when the
three American terrorS steam into the har-
Dor of Port-au-Prince and run up their flags,
and run out their cannon, there will be in
vitations and hbations and determinations,
and every man, officer and boy in the three
steamers will spend his last coin in the
port, with the result that there will
be more ready money in the place
than was ever known before. This
will greatly strengthen Legitime's admins
~tration, and will rally to him the doubtful
people who always wait until events nave
happened before they declare themselves.
Also it will make the Americans jealous for
Legitime and opposed to Hippolyte. But the
Atlas company has been The smartest. If
the government had rescued the Haytien
Republique, she would not have been
turned over to the owners for a dogs age,
and there would have been a bill of expense
which would have been terrifying. Now
there is nothing to pay what bliss! And the
steamer can go at once into the coffee bust
ness, as innocently as If her hold had never
been polluted by cartridges and rifles and
other contrabando of war. But how grateful
the Atlas Co. must be that the government
corvettes are so slow, for otherwise they
would AVE been too late.