ENGLAND FIFTY YEARS HENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 94, 21 April 1881, Page 4

ENGLAND FIFTY YEARS HENCE.

Clumsy narrow, bigoted, unreasonable as Englishmen are, they still love their old traditions and do not mind being guided— kicking a little all the time— into Rentable paths and to generous ends. They would not follow Louis Napoleon into all his schemes as to the map of Europe, they would not recognise the Southern States, they did not refuse the Treaty of Washington, they will not, as we lope, turn away from the last chance of dealing loyally with Irish questions. A great iuture is before vs — at least an Englishman may think so. Our language is spoken { more widely, we think, than any other language on earth. We hare possession in every part of the globe, ana our flag floats on etery shore. What will the; future historian of our children's time have to say ? Tritj years hence, will there be a great English Confederate Empire, with its truly Imperial Legislature, and the principle of self-govern-ment established in all its States ? Who will bathe Gladstones and Beaconsfields, the Tennysons and Brownings, the Trollopes and Blacks of tho da y? What will be the issue of our continual j progress to a more pronounced democracy, and, more than, all, what, will be the outcome of the keen spirit of investigation into religious matters which now characterises our population? the national life is us vigoions as ever —may its -futorfr developments^ bemarked by the love of truth and of justice, the abandonment ot absolete prejudices, the sacrifice of ahuurd claims, and the reparation of ancieut wrongs ! The volumes before us reveal many dangers, and the possibility of many c'alamitießr-for they record^ the, intror duction of new elements' into our political -system, while outside par own boundaries; the laws of nations ore trampled under foot, and the earth (.is barthened by the weight, of colossal? armies/ The generation now rising, into manhood may have many perils, internal and external to cope with* which we have been spared.. The future seems to be full of gloom ; Jet us; at least hope that Englishmen will not hie so foolish as to bring, on, by their, own acts, the ruin of the comparative prosperity and stability with which they have for so long been blessed !— 'Month -j and Catholic Sevieu).