Los Angeles daily herald., 1890-01-06
what vgill the Ninetcenth Century
Uvher ln ?

afterwards SO extensively known as
Monsieur de Voltaire, dared to tell a
French Duke that he, Voltaire, relied
upon merit and not upon the prescrip'
tions of birth for the distinction which
he enjoyed. The brutal Duke had the
man of genius beaten by his hired re-
tainers. Voltaire had no immediate re-
course for the cowardly outrage, but he
employed his consummate genius in un-
dermining the foundations of the exist
ing order OF things. When the head cf
the Princess Lambslle was carried on a
pike by Parisian mob an even greater
brutality was committed than that which
had been perpetrated on Voltaire, but it
wss probably correlative. The great
poet and arch agnostic lived to receive
a civic crown in the Paris which he loved
so greatly, and from which he had been
banished so long.
Rousseau and his Social Contract
played another part in the epilogue that
led up to the most dramatic and tragic
episode in the history of mankind-this
it undoubtedly was. no matter how great
it's resultant benefits may have been.
An immediate factor leading up to the
memorable tragedy was the incident of
the Diamond Necklace, in which Marie
Antoinette played an innocent but fate.
full part. Unfortunately for her, the
French court had been profligate 80 long,
and 30 UNANIMOUSLY ifresponsive to all
suggestions of decency, that her inno-
cence counted for nothing. She was At
best but jewel shining in toad's head.
The information which reaches the
United States from England shows that
profound impression has been created
upon the English people by the scandals,
in which the highest sristocracy are the
actors, which recall the most infamous
excesses of the later and most
degenerate days of the Roman
Empire. The government has done
its best to smother the impulse
towards an Investigation, and the Off
cials of Scotland Yard are said them
selves to have tipped the wink to the
titled prohigates to get out of the way,
but public sentiment has been aroused
that will not down. The correspondence
of the New York World says that the
Prince of Wales left for his recent trip to
the continent under the full conviction
that the authorities had succeeded in
suppressing the disgusting revelations.
During his stay in Paris he learned, to
his dismay, that no strainiog of the
power of the Home Office could avail !;
and, being a man of sense, he is said to
be exceedingly depressed.
1t must be borne in mind, to explain
the full gravity of these disgusting reve-
lations, that they follow fast upon the
heels of the celebrated expose of the Pail
Mall Gazette, which was given to the
world under the head of "Eugland's
Maiden Tribute to the Modern Baby.
lon." The titled and powerful aris-
tocratic crowd succeeded in fore.
ing Editor Stead into prison,
but this victory belongs to the class of
triumphs which are said to be worse than
defeats. The following of it up by such
an astounding revelation of deprsvity as
is embodied in this last disclosure, which
leads up to the household of the Prince
Of Wales himself, and which seemed to
entirely control that of Prince Victor. the
heir presumptive to the Grown, rocks the
very throne itself. The Prince of Wales,
who is generally credited with being q
gentleman, at once dismissed everyone
in his own service who was in any way
concerned in the matter, and the entour-
age of Prince Victor, who is now in
India, has been radically changed. New
ertheless, there is small wonder that
both the aged Queen and her eldest son
are in the Slough of the Moral Despond.
No philosophic reader of history can
doubt the gravity ofsuch Developments
80 indecent that even q sensational news
paper can only allude to them in gen.
eral way. Hitherto the world has been
simply amused by accounts of English
peers who have been 80 ennuyes
OF their rank aud fortune that
they have started coaches and driven
them for hire in order to feign to have
something to do, and that in an empire
in which large proportion of the peo pie
go to bed hungry every night. A useless
aristocracy is one thing. An eristocracy
corrupt and corrupting. and disregard
ing the ordinances of nature herself, is
another, and far graver problem.
There is fairly we'll grounded opinion
that the monarchieal constitution of
Great Britain will end with Victoria.
Those who know the Prince of Wales
best say that he has long been of the
opinion that he will live to see the end
OF the British monarchy. If he lives
long, he probably will. We have in
these later and disgusting developments
those indicia which have preceded great
political revolutions. England is today
agitated from John O'Groat to Lands
End by the strongest moral hurricane
which has swept her in centuries. The
last decade of the nineteenth century
may send to the lumber room, amongst
other things. the outlived institution of
monarchy.
IHE California Pioneers gave Col.