New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-07-11

TO go to work against faith, against charity
against humanity, against religion" and there.
fore European mankind sent him to die IN conc
fnement on hot rock in midocean.
What, after all, was the policy that Machia-
velli thought so wise, and which ever since ms
time has excited such intellectual admiration
even in those who utterly condemn! III Is ohiy
the policy nowadays defined Opportunism
carried straight out to its logical conclusion, IN
different alike to morality and humanity ana
religion, IL only it may attain success. But Is
that Opportunism, though it may for moment
make an individual prosper, ever the road TO sue
cess for q State which has, even in MachiaVellIS
design, to outast the individual? He wished
for the State, above all things, strength; but can
a State be strong If its promises are never
trusted? 1t certainly cannot be rich for nobody
will lend it money cheaply; it certainly cannot
have a strong army, for the first condition or
discipline is that every promise and menace 10
a soldier shall be unswervinsly Observed ana
it cannot have strong alliances, for alliances
depend upon the confidence OF neighDors In the
States good faith. Even internally there IS no
prosperity without law, and in law, as we nave
said there is no Opportunsm. Grant Machia-
veis condition that in public affairs there can
be no wrong or right. or at least that they
must not be permitted to override the expedl-
ency of the hour. and still wherein consists the
revealing wisdom. Of his counsel? II it Is fol-
lowed it will make Of a ruler supremely crafty
man, but then, in great affairs. Is 1t the
doubt it, holding that Catherine de
Medici who a Machavelli in pet
tcoats had in her the root of failure and not
OF SIC cHSS III al tne prInceIy
OF the Italian Renaissance, men who worked
on Mactiaveilis lines and who were many or
/ them 1t :he highest capacity ever seen on
| thrones. not succeeded in his main object,
which vas to found an enduring dynasty. while
| the rat her stupid but fairly straightforward
| house OF Guef, which was no stronger in terry
| tory subjects than they reigned in Hanover
for seven hundred years, and fell at last only by
! irresistible external violence. 1t will seem, or
| course TO most Of our readers quite absurd Tor
a mere journalist, and in our day, to question
| Machiavelis intellectual power, but 1t appears
! to US that when counsel is intended solely TO
make conduct pay, and 1t does not pay the c0un-
sci IS not wise or the counsellor man OF WISDOM.
| Mr.. Morley eloquently says as his peroraton:
at is true to say that Machiavelli represents
certain living forces in our actual world; that
| science. with it's survival OF the fttest uncon-
| sciously lends him illegitimate aid; that he Is
not a vanishing type. but a constant and con-
temporary influence (Acton). This is because
| energy force will, violence, still keep alive In
the world their resistance to the control Of justice
and conscience, humanity and right.
| Most true; but is not something else true also,
| that to develop energy to strengthen VIII, 10
| make violence effective it is essential for men
| Of sense-we are not talking Of bellevers-to rely
| on axioms Of honor, which Machiavelli would
| have accounted childishy weak? We wholly
! agree with him that the Prince the ideal
| State, must be strong; must not hesitate for ex-
ample, to punish when punishment Is necessary;
but "the strength of kings is in the men who
gather round the throne" and they do not gather
round the Prince who believes in Machiavei
Napoleon was a stronger man than William
| of Germany but who Of Napoeon's encourage
can be compared with Bismarck or Won Moltke
or Won Room? Machiavellis Prince, when all IS
| said is nothing but supremacy shifty man, ana
| we feel unable TO recognize in the creation or a
| supremacy shifty man a grand intellectual feat