ANCIENT REVOLUTIONS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 218, 9 June 1919, Page 4

ANCIENT REVOLUTIONS

SPIRIT OF REVOLT FLOURISHED IN 2000 B.C. Wo are rather npt, writes a correspondent of. tho "Manchester Guardian," to treat revolutions as though they began for tho first time in 1789. As a matter of fact, a recently deciphered ;papyrus shows a pretty revolutionary spirit among tho Egyptians in the year 2000 bofore Christ—that is, nearly four thousand years before tho French thought of an upheaval. The period is between tho old and the middle kingdom, nnd an Egyptian sago plaintively invites the king to eavo his peoplo in tolling him of the conditions of tho country. Ho tolls him that "that is past which yesterday could do seen. Tho land turns like a potter's wheel. The noble cry out and tho poor are .full, of joy. Each town soys:. 'Lot us drive the strong from without our midst!' Thoso who wore olothes aro now in rags. Noblo women tvail through the land, and housewives say: 'Had we only something to eat!' . . . The poor possess lordly things, and thoso who could buy themselves no 6andals now have treasure. . . . Tho peoplo have dethroned tho king nnd persecuted his officers." That tho revolution was a success 6eems hardly to havo been Iho case, for the papyrus goes on to say that laughter has gone; misery is, in the land; big nnd small say, "If only I were dead." But, thou, tho' recorder was a professor, and liked quiet, perhaps. .