The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-11-16
BULLET AND BALLOT.


port of which is insufficiently compre-
hended, that all governments exist
either through the expressed will or the
tacit consent of the people, in whom,
terrestrially speaking, ultimate political
sovereignty resides. The Russian
masses could speedily overthrow the
rough paternalism of the Car. The
Germans could easily revolutionize
their government. Even the Chinese
have the potency, if they chose, of in
augurating an Asiatic Republic.
What men could do, what they will
do and what they are deferred from
doing by ignorance of their own power
or by lack of unanimity, are different
things. The bottom fact is that they
possess sovereignty when they agree
and see fit to exert it, This is the truth,
old as the race, which is formulated
and energized by the government of
the United states, and, whatever the
defects of administration may be, the
IL SeCuIcs DSCduSS II 10 IL NC
TO human nature.
Within the last hundred years. the
artificial doctrine of the Divine Right
of Kings has been torn to shreds. The
conception of governing power trans
mitted by God to chosen men, planted
in the higher stratum of conventional
IL .Slc,
through successive layers of humanity,
is derided by every Intelligent person
on earth, who has experienced educa-
tional emancipation. It is doubtful
whether this sum of absurdity is be-
lief, except within the breast of the
German Emperor. The English Edward
would scout the proposition that he is
anything more than the tolerated head
of the British Empire. The House of
Hapsburg has long since awakened
from it's royalistic dream. Italy, in
its present aspect, does not even profess
the exploded delusion. Everywhere
mankind is penetrated by the con-
seriousness of individual authority,
which is practicalized by the American
ballot.
The rude struggles towards the
American example, and to solidify gov
ernmental edifces with popular cement,
that have spasmodically occurred in
Europe, within the last century, would
be amusing, if they were not often so
tragical. Institutions that sprang from
the claim of Divine Right cannot. we'll
The attempt, however, has been FREE
quently made. The Balkan States fur
I,ish examples of sovereigns chosen and
fieposed by ballots, although in the
matter of deposition, the returns from
the ballot have been occasionally de-
Iivered in the form of bullets. In Ser
witch became the ruling prince by the
vote of the national assembly, and
served under that election until 1899,
when he abdicated. In 1912, son of
George Petrovich or Black George.
who had been notable Servian char
acter, was elected Prince and, within
a short time, by vote of the Skupsh-
tina or national assembly, he was de-
posed, and Prince Milosh recalled.
After Servia had been changed from
a princedom to kingdom, Milan was
elected to be sovereign, and reigned
until 1889, when he abdicated and pro-
claimed a regency until his son, Alex
1893, two years before the due date,
Alexander captured the throne by
coup d'etat, and, in April of this year,
adopted Sir Boyle Roche's notion of the
fundamental law of Great Britain, set
the Servian constitution temporarily
aside, amended it to suit himself and
1903, when the soldiers by vote had
determined on the deposition of him
self and wife, refused to receive the
return of the ballot, shot one of the
commissioners VINO tried to deliver 1t,
and Immediately, together with the
Queen, accepted the result in the form
of cold lead. After that Peter Kara
georgevitch, son of the prince who
had been deposed by vote in 1S43 or
1874, was elected King.
Charles the First, King of Roumanfa,
was a young German Prince, who be-
came a monarch by election The
Prince of Bulgaria in 1887 was elected
by the local national assembly Beyond
the Balkan States, there are many
other instances of election within a
century, to which it is unnecessary to
refer in detail. For example, King
George, who has filled the throne of
Greece for forty years, was a young
Dane, who acquired his sovereignty by
election.
Changes of dynasty in Great Britain
were substantially carried by election
before the American revolutiop Put