The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1913-11-14

from generation to generation and by
some individual, or company, across
national lines. This is wonderfully
seen by the influence of Wycliffe of
England ON Jerome of Prague and
John Huss of eastern Europe, and
from them on Luther and Zwingle in
middle Europe, and how at the open
ing of the Reformation of the Six
teenth century the streams OF int1u-
ence from Wycliffe and his translation
of the Bible into the English tongue
in 1881, had run all over Europe, here
and there irrigating some spiritually
desert spot. And years ago the his
torian Froude in his essay on Calvin
ism showed how Ca1vin's philosophy,
permeated with religious zeal, had
everywhere produced desire for civil
liberty, which bore fruit in Switzer
land, Great Britain and Holland. The
struggle of the Dutch to throw off
the Spanish yoke famed the flames
of freedom in England, and the prin-
ciples at the fore through the Com
monwealth times embodied in Oliver
Cromwell, planted SO many seeds for
liberty among the English people that
it had to take root downward and
bear fruit upward;" and the currents
in both air and sea bore the seeds
westward; it is most delightful to {:
watch for the first signs of their
sprouting in the western world; in
Virginia, Massachusetts, and Connect
icut, Maryland and Western Pennsyl-
vania. Those English settlers of the
Seventeenth century in America were
possessed" with desire for liberty
in both church and state. The plant
grew and spread and covered the
western continent.
And one fact that has greatly in
terested me has been its reflex influ-
ence; after the currents struck the
shores of the western world they re-
bounded and turning back nerved the
English patriots in the mother land
for the Revolution of 1888. But its
reflex influence is most plainly seen In
the new life Of liberty in France;
whatever growth of love of liberty
there had been in France proceeding
the American Revolution was greatly
| accelerated by the return OF the
French army that had assisted Wash
| ington; if Lafayette and his Fellow Of
| tcers came here monarchists they re-
turned thoroughly imbued with DEM
ocracy; while it was inevitable that the
awful abuses Of power against the
common people of France should bear
fruit in the horrors of the French Rev.
oli1tion, the seeds of liberty were we'll
sown in that land, and although it was
almost a century plant" in blossom
| ing it has grown into a constitutional
government of Republic which
seems solid and it is one of the
strange facts of history that mean
time Louis Napoleon, usurper and
crusher of the peoples liberties,
should send the reflex wave from Am
erica on it's eastward way, and he
should help to overthrow tyrrany in
Italy; the unity of the Italian nations
into one nation is great epoch IN
the Nineteenth century; and Republi-
can sentiments have taken such root
in that formerly monarchally cursed
country that just now this autumn the
Italian government has extended the
franchise from three and half mil
lions to eight millions; by just so
much more trusting the common peo-
pie; and an election for new parlla-
ment has just passed off quietly; or,
as quietly as a Latin race can let such
an event happen! There were only a
few heads bro ken.
But that eastward flowing wave did
not stop with Italy; it struck Turkey
in Europe. The Russian bear was
ever stirring up strife in that land, al
ways planning and hoping to get it
for herself, and once her armies got
in sight of Constantinople, and were
strangely turned back by the Con-
of liberty took root in that land mean
nd Erct n nj n
with local government and then indie,
pendence; followed by Servia ahd
Bulgaria; then a spasm in Turkey
herself And before Italy perhaps
should have mentioned Greece who
got her freedom in 1880.
And now strangely the wave OF lib
erty has flowed over hoary and effett
Asia; giving Japan constitutions
China, while the millions of India are
smothered struggles, and the Spanish
ridden Philippines are learning self
government, while Australia and New
Zealand are leading the world in ex
treme republican institutions. Macau
lay once wrote OF the time when 9Th.
New Zealander might stand on thu
ruins of London bridge and muse OF
the causes which led to England
downfall" But that time is not yet
and | think see signs that the grea
nations will yet federate; doubles
there will be many commissions be
fore that time comes. For the OBJ
streperous Crown Prince of German,
may yet try being king when h
! comes to the throne; and others lik'
, him, may try it as did George III 9
England; but the wave that seems
flowing over the world bears on it
crest Christianity. educat,ol, the com
mon people and democratic principles
of government. There are now
score of ex-royal families floating
around in Europe "out of job" ant
: the events of the last century ough
to convince us that "the unexpected
may happen" and the most unexpect
ed may happen. Who at News Year
, 1870 could have guessed that Ma
| pO1eon Il would have been complete