, 1896-02-26

Mons or dCtlNG OOClallSCS ana Tie EWpe1Or
whom no one opposes, speaks always as if
he expected one day to meet his people in
arms. The idea of Heine's Revolution,
which was to he so much more sweeping than
the French one, is fostering in the commu.
nifty, which nevertheless. if it saw It's way,
would postpone all its discoutents to engage
in some great project of oversee acquisi-
ton. There are signs in Germany which
are omiuous Of coming trouble to the world.
The situation il. Austria is little better, with
these differences, that there is deep liking
for the Emperor. that the people do hot
think of c%olauics, and that, though over
governed it is by men who, at bottom. are
careleGsly good atured. In Russia, though
nothing stirs. there is yet no content; the
population increases like that Of Germany,
and with y it he feverJsh wish for more room
and freer access to the sea, while the people
show in the outbreaks against the Jews, III
the new agitation against corporal punish
ment, and in the local displays of resistance
to the payment Of arrears of taxes, a sense
that they are administratively overprcssed.
In Italy no one is happy, and III Turkey the
dominant race is SO stirred by fears and
furies. that it is deliberately threatening all
it's Christian subjects, and eXtlrpating one
ancient people with hoGrid incidents OF
cruelty and lust. In the United States the
unrest is as great, but it comes from a differ
ent origin. There is economic trouble pro-
ducsd by the great change in tie value of
silver, but the unrest in the main is that Of
the peasant, who has become a great man,
and longs pot only for a larger sphere, but
for a higher place among mankind. Ever
growing larger, richer, and more active,
never meeting with neighbours as strong as
itself, and tormented by unSatistied pride,
the American nation is half tempted to fore
90 old polici,s s. and declare itself sole arbiter
and mistress of two great Continents. That
would be rank in the world, and TO the pros
porous and the strong, rank always seems
the next thing to be sought. Even IN Eng
land, with all her external calm, there
are grave signs Of restlessness. An I'M
easy idea that the world IS hostile, and a
pessimist idea that the people multiply
too fast to be easily provided with hot sup
pers, have taken hold Of The ruling classes
and ruling men, and while the country
under both parties has been silently armlng,
those classes have also been strailllHg them
selves to acquire more wealth, wider estates,
and greater command over the metals, which
now, as ever since the days OF Isabella OF SPAN
seem to rulers the most attractive, because
the quickest, SOuICcS VI HhV lOHdl "CdAblI' ~
also are troubled, uncertain of ON way, ready
for war, yet hating war, straining all OF us
in q leash, yet with no clear perception OF
the quarry we wish to strike. Even econo-
mically nothing is settled, and though, being
unideaed, Englishmen scoIn the dreamers.
there is scarcely an EngIishman who has
made up his mind It's to more than one condl-
ton Of the endless struggle between Capital
and Labour. How much for the mind? how
much for the body 1? that is the English pre-
occupation, every man giving q different re-
ply, though all men admit IN their hearts
that mind must be paid for first. We say in
economics that we only desire Justice, and never
settle what Justice Isl foreign politics we say
we only desire to be let alone, but we mean in
our hearts that we only desire to increase IN
peace-and that aspiration oxcites in the re-
marnder Of mankind a keen resentment.
The civiIised world in truth, which for
neatly a century has advanced so rapidly
on the path Of material progress, is at this
point of it's strenuous labours seethlng with
discomfort, ready to risk all it has attainedsln
an outbmst Of furious wars, intended to Sc
cure objects which it only half perceives In
the distance. and is by no means certain that
it really at heart desires.
The ultimate outcome of this res~tlessness de-
bends Of course upon the question whether it
is a passing phase of feeling made general
by the new S0ladarit6 of the nations, or is the
result of deep-seated and so to speak perma-
xou+ oOnditionS and that is q question which