Year: 1866

the warning in regard to the Merchants Ma
tional Banks According to all reports the fact
that it was under cloud was known and talked
about for months past. There is evidently great
negligence somewhere, and 1t looks very much
as though Comptroller Clarke Is the person re
sponsible for falling to notify Secretary Nc
Culloch of the shaky condition of the bank


The English Reform Biil-The state or


Europe.


The English Reform bill went through the
House Of Commons by majority Of five votes.
Thus 1t is nominally carried, but in fact 1t is
lost; for the small vote in its favor in the Com
mons is an unmistakable evidence that 1t will
be beaten IN the House of Lords. It's defeat in
the latter house may be assumed as certain, and
this defeat will involve the resignation Of the
present Ministry. The question Of new Minis
try will be one Of great difficulty. With the
country on the one hand demanding large
liberty with so much Of conscious frmness in
its tone, and with Parliament on the other 80
little disposed to meet the popular requirement,
there is difficulty apparently almost insur-
mountable in the way Of any newly formed
Ministry. 1t would seem impossible to organize
Cabinet that would get on satisfactorily in
circumstances Of such delicacy, and it is likely
that we may have several new Cabinets in
rapid succession. Indeed it is possible that
the change of Ministry, dependent upon
the defeat Of the Reform bill, may carry
with it the dissolution of the present Par
lament. Then we shall see in England q
remarkable spectacle-the direct appeal to
the people on a question of larger liberty OF
popular rights-an appeal on mooted change
of the constitution destined to modify materi-
ally the relations between the classes into
which the people are divided. Such an election
may induce social convulsion, and even the
disturbance of the national equilibrium must
be considered as in the number of possibilities.
Exactly such an election, direct appeal to the
people on the state of the nation, has not oc-
CURED in Europe since the Convocation of the
States General in France in 1889.


An appeal to the people of England to settle
the question started by the Reform bill will
show the people their power and widen
and deepen the movement for enfranchsemcnt.
1t will be social revolution, and if the people
of England should come to see and appreciate
their strength as the people of France did
theirs, this revolution may be of such
sweeping character that we shall see Q new
England start up as the world saw q new
France, when the delegates of the people, out
ragged by tho stubbornness Of the aristocrats,
declared that they alone were the National As
sembly. An ill-advlscd stubbornness on the
part OF the English aristocracy will force
extreme measures; for the movement in Eng
land is not little or accidental, nor is 1t merely
. result of partisan clamor. II Is the move-
ment Of the age-a grand consequence of
the better perception by the people of
their true position in the nation. The
great examples OF the operation of
liberal institutions in other countries
have not been lost upon the English people.
For four years their attention has been con-
centrated on the grand trial Of popular institu-
tons in this country. Our enemies In England
hav. pointed out to the British people day by
day all the events In . struggle that they be-
lieved would prove the failure of free govern
ment, and suddenly the conclusion of the great
struggle showed the contrary result, and
proved above everything the greatness and
the strength Of this system OF government.
Hence 1t is that the English people demand so
positively that their system should come
nearer to ours. Nor has the example Of
France been thrown away. Half the British
tempt to keep the French people down; and
to-day there Ii no man in France but has
voice in the government and can, as a voter
look down upon the mooting Englishman az
the slave of political system. Every English
man is taxed tremendously yet for the money
spent in the attempt TO keep France in the old
monarchial systemic keep her just where
England Is; and she could not be kept there.
II France could rise against 30 much repression
why cannot Englands This is the argument Of
the English liberal of to-day.


But the movement of the people seen in
England is not confined to that country; il is
European in its proportions. II is seen In the
disturbed conditions Of Germany, Italy, Spain,
and even far down the Danube, almost at the
doors of tie once absolute master Of the East
ern World. 1t is best seen in Germany, tor in
that country the people are called upon The
appeal to the people that seems imminent in
England is not less so in Germany. Count Bis
mark has proposed to the Frankfort Diet to
call an Assembly by direct election by the
votes of the whole German people. This is, at
the outset, recognition Of universal suffrage,
upon the denial of which all aristocratic sys-
tens stand. But what is this Assembly, thus
to be chosen by universal suffrage, to do ?
Nothing less than discuss the thorough reforma-
ton of the Federal constitution thorough
reorganization Of Germany. Here, also, is the
Convocation OF the States General, especially
in respect to the purpose in view. This is
broad proposition Of revolution, to throw down
forever all the pitifnl nrincinalilies and