The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-01-06

am not meaning to say anytnihg apout the little moralities, as the French say, of nations. This article has naught to do with women, a somewhat attractive sub ject, confessedly. l have pondered much of late over the situation at Panama ana have striven to arrive at detached view of the events that have happened there. In this searching of heart, l have often recurred to Lord Actons introduction to Burd's edition of Malchiavellfs I'll Prin. cipe." l purpose to put down some Of the axioms Lord Acton has gathered from all modern literature bearing on the poi- icy of States He himself has not conde- scended to translate any of his selections and as these are expressed In many ian- guages, there are a deal of them that are in truth all Greek to me. Among others besides those in English, l find some as to which will hazard stumbling translations.
 Lord Acton was known, believe, as the most learned of modern Englishmen, a devout Romanist, whose intimacies were largely among Protestants, or unbelievers. It will be remembered that his library was purchased before his death by An drew Carnegie and when Acton died the Scottish-American presented the colleo- ton to John Morley. It Is one of the cu- rious revelations Mir. Morley makes abou Gladstone in his biography of that states man. that Gladstone could never be per suaded to talk about Macchiavelli. He was deeply repelled by the Italian. Mr. Morley has spoken so entertainingly and profundity of Macchiavelli that he must often have been tempted to moot the question of the morals of "The Prince, but 'the great Christian statesman, as Salisbury termed his dead rival, shied and thus, a most rare thing in his life, had nothing to say
 1t is to me wholly incredible that the administration at Washington fomented the Panama revolution. They stood ready to profit by 1t without doubt. and made sure of their profit. The revolution ists. with as little question, would never have budged if they had had any douot about the course this Government would adopt Tn the event the existing govern ment on the lsthmus should be over thrown. They knew to a moral certainty the United States would intervene ana head should be broken in the process Our conduct has smart air about 1t and the hoary saint from Massachusetts is naturally in an ebullient rage before the vote.
 What does Macchiavelli say that is per- tinent to the trick we have played upon Bogota, leaving those half-breeds down there wild with rage at the failure of their own hold-up scheme? What docs history have to say worth while!
 In what follows I shall in the main use Lord Actons own text thinking that to array such body of opinion on the mor- ality of nations as may furnish meat not, 1t is true, for babes, but may be for men.
 
 ordinary objects cannot be accomplished under ordinary rules he recorded the ex- perienee of his own epoch. but also 1ore- told the secret of men since born."
 Micheiet has said: Let us turn for one moment to an object that was more Mac chiavelistic than Macchiavelli himself, the Republic of Venice. Before his day. and long after down almost to tNe time when tender and Of Pontiac, Venice employed assassins. And this was not the desper- ate resource of politicians at bay. but the avowed practice of decorous and re- ligtous magistrates. Macchiavelli enjoyed season of popularity even at Rome. Clement confessed to Contarini that hon. esty would be preferable, but that honest men get the worst of 1t. Whilst these principles were current in religion as wei as in society, the social censuses of the church and the protests of every divine since Catharinus were ineffectual. Lin guet was not altogether wrong in suggest ing that the assailants knew Macchiaveil at second hand. Every time glance al the writings of this great genius, l can. not conceive, I confess, why he should have been buried under such load oi obloQuy. l strongly suspect his greateSl enemies are those who have never reac him. When we say that public life is moi an affair of morality. that there is nc available rule of right and wrong, that men must be judged by their age, tha the code shifts with the longitude, that the WISuOm WHICH EOV0THb tH0 event superior to our own, we carry obscureiJ tribute to the system which bears so odl ous a name. Few would scruple to main tain with MT. Morley, that the equity oi history requires we shall judge men o1 action by the standards of men of ac ton: or with Retz: The vices of aI archbishop, can be, in the wide variety of circumstance, the signal virtues of | party chief. The expounder of Adam Smith to France, J. B. Lay, confirms tht a m hffiOIfS rnadinfnr. OIIiQ XIV and htf deSpotism and wars have never caused the evil which would have resulted from the counsels of the good Finelon, tht apostle and martyr of the virtue ant men deprecate what Sir Henry Taylor calls much weak sensibility of conscience | and approve Lord Greys language tt
 Princess Lieven. I am great lover O.
 morality, public and private, but the in l tercourse of nations cannot be strictly regulated by that rule. While Burke wal | denouncing the revolution. Walpolt | wrote: No great country was ever saved
 by good men. because good men will no
 go the lengths that may be necessary. All which had been formerly anticipated | by Poole: Just to the extent one governs his life by the precepts of Christ. jus
 to that extent will be deemed in the judg mont of men incapable to rule The mail | principle of Macchiavelli is asserted by hI ] most eminent English disciple: It is thu | solecism of power to think to command
 the end. and yet not to endure the means.
 And Bacon leads up to the famiiia
 Jesuit: The end being permitted, thu
 means to that end are permitted.
 | The austere Pascal has said: There f | nothing of justice or injustice that doe
 not change it's quality in changing it | climate (the reading presque rien was tn
 precaution of an editor.) The same un | deriving scepticism Is found not, only Il | philosophers of the Tltonic sort to whom
 remorse Is a prejudice of education an,
 the moral virtues are the political off
 spring which fiattery begat upon pride
 but among the masters of living though