The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1896-07-16

the most capable woman that ever
welded the sceptre of power, was with
consummate ability raising Russia
from a state of semi-Asiatic barba-
rism to front rank among the nations
of Europe. With her eyes southwark
to heed the command of Peter the
Great to reconquer the capitol of Con-
stantine, she saw in the fleets of Eng
land the obstacles to her ambition, and
as her interests clashed with England's
her policy favored the success of
America.
OF the German states Frederick the
Great still ruled Prussia. Estranged
from England by a long list of broken
promises he welcomed the American
revolution as the political opportunity
to humble the pride of his faithless
ally and rival. Without unity, COM
munity of interest or strength of
nationality the remainder of Germany
was split up into petty, discordant and
often warning states, with dubious
regulations for political morality. Of
all continental states the all-powerful
French monarchy ranked next to Eng
land as the worlds leading power. The
peace of 1863 had robbed her of her
colonies, but, with the recuperative
powers inherent in her national life,
she stood again, as of yore, the for
midable enemy of England with an in.
tensity of hatred far deeper than that
now borne for Germany over the loss
of Alsace and Lorraine. The rising of
the English colonists was the French
opportunity for revenge, and, though
the military spirit masked its eager
ness for war with an affected sympathy
for the rights of man, every step was
taken to advance the American cause
with clandestine loans, munitiOn of
war and promise of future aid. Spain,
then ruled by the Bourbon Charles
ILL.,, and under French influence, con-
tributed, through Minister Grimaldi,
money to further the troubles of Eng
: land.
In the dissected Italian Peninsular
| America expected nothing but neu
trail sympathy which was pledged by
+ Naples and promised by the vatican.
/ Like all similar great movements
the revolution found it's worst enemies
at home in the conservative, uncom
/, promising royalists, who, Throughout
: the struggle, furnished no less thar
3 twenty thousand men to sustain Brit
3 ish authority. But this was counter
t balanced by the services of Burke
S Pitt and Chatham making the war obi
f Gus among the masses of England.
e Ireland, always the recruiting grount
g for the British army and navy, wa
l. appealed to by the ministry to suppor
j. the crown in its war with the Ameri
d can rebels. Following the battle o
l. Bunker Hill, the servile Irish Hous
y of Commons, in an adulatory addres
# to George I'LL, declared it's abhorrenc
# of the rebellion and voted eight reg
10 ments for service in the revolted co
onies. But among the Irish peopl'
it terrorized by oppression since the day
n of the Protectorate and seething wit
D. the flames of discomfort which som
q twenty years after was to break out
D. open rebellion, this action was O.
le ecrated as an additional rivet to taste
co their own chains and sink deeper the
al nationality in subservience to En-
I'd land. To Russia, George ILL.,, with col
n- fident expectations, applied for twent
n thousand men as proof of Catherine
q. acquiesence to the inviolability
he monarchial institutions. But Cat
On crime, after playing with her Engli'
tn supplicants, refused the dubious hon
of of warning against America with II
nd intimation that just treatment was
h this case more potent than armies.
er In the Brunswick princes and Il
to landgrave of:Hesse-C -Cassel the Engli
We ministry found willing listeners
re their ignoble proposals for the Ell
ployment of foreign mercenaries. Sui
m in the lap of proaigacy and slaves
sy every courtly vice, these petty Germ'
he potentates ruled their miniature stat
,ly with duplicity as an art, treachery as