The morning call., 1893-07-17
How England Regards the
Republic.
ASHEN MARK OF DESTINY
Hatred Growing Up i'm Response to
the Imperturbable Attitude of
Great Britain.
Special TO THE MORNING CALL

LONDON, July 16.-The Times says:
There is something curiously character
istic about the patient and lahoriousy
temperate way in which the English are
taking this Franco-SiameSe embrogllo
Their papers reflect with quite remarkable
fidelity popular British feeling on the sub
ject, und this feeling is the must interest
ing and significant feature in the whole
strange situation. II either Russia or tue
United States, two of the mightlest powers
on earth, had done anything approaching
in gravity what the French Admiral,
Human, did on Thursday, all England
would have been by this time f0amlng ana
boiling with bellic0Se excitement. AS IL
is. there is such studlOuS avoidance every
where, alike in the English press and Par
lament, of anything like sign OF per-
turbation. that one might we'll suppose the
whole nation was in conspiracy to dis
sem bic its emotions.
This unnatural calm under such provo
cation has both its pathetic and its dam
gerous aspects. The root of il all lies in
the profound. instructive pity which Eng
Iishmen feel for France and the French.
Through a combin alton of varied reason
ings-some wise, some perhaps mistaken
England has reached the molrDful c0nvIc-
ton that Its ancient neghbor across the
channel lies under an rrevocabe ban of
doom. There is no other opinion OF any
sort upon which the En- glish are so thor
oughly agreed as that France wears the
fatal ashen mark of destiny on her fore
head
Deeply convinced OF this, John Bull as
I'd q
badly she behaves-an anxiously artificial
patience, like that of kindly strong man
toward fretful, unhappy woman of light
character who is diving of consumption.
This well-meant attitude has its nice
side, no doubt; but it has the demerit of
infuriating the French beyond measure.
To this almost comieal and quite tragic
phase of historic inability of these two
peoples to understand each other are
much more than half the internal troubles
now veXing civilization to be charged
One can hardly catalogue the outstanding
grievances between Paris and London, so
ceaselessly do they cron up in all quarters
of the globe, so tireesslv do they evade
settlement. To-day in Siam, yesterday in
Newfoundland, the day before in Egypt.
tomorrow in Constan tianpie, So il gees
4 an endlsss. sxaSperating ronnd j. hss
become imposs.b bic 20 keep q British En-
t.ssBEIor q f-aris =, aif. 50 stca Jffsy DOES
taa scurEilous portion Of the Partisan press
.9Gr insults ana abase up8n him sud his
country. Even the serious statesmen In
France find themselves carried along by
this current into p0stuTes of enmitv and
defiance of England, for all the world as
if it were she and not Germany that won
Sedan and starved out Paris.
These perpetual sparks of friction would
have struck blaze long since between
any other two nations on earth. Only
England's imperf rbable resolution not to
be provoked under any circumstances into
hitting poor France has thus long kept
peace. This very attitude of commisera-
ton, of course, keeps French blood ting
ling with rage, and is rapidly breeding an
universal nti-English cult among young
Frenchmen. This is still an extremely
humane world. For a moment there is
more apprehension about the behavior of
Bangkok itself than about the possible
European complications in this quite mod
eTn hive Of orientals, which is said now TO
have nearly a million bitants, and
contain more elements of disorder than
any other great Asiatic city. There is
huge Chinese population of the most de-
based and violent variety which that race
is capable of producing, and sen, n,blance
of Siamese rule is only maintain ed because
these Chinese are split into factions which
hate one another more than they do the
natives. Murderous riots between these
factions are the most prominent feature of
life at Bangkok.