South Canterbury Times. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28, 1882.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2888, 28 June 1882, Page 2

South Canterbury Times. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28, 1882.

Prince Bismarck is reported to have recently said that things were now tending towards a crisis, and that at no distant date, there would be a general upheaval in Europe. The great Chancellor may bo regarded as an authority on European politics, and it is not therefore to be wondered at that his remarks have created a profound sensation in the Old World. The sensation is probably not caused by there being anything astounding in this utterance, anything expressing a new idea. It is simply the formulation of universal opinion. This idea has been wide-spread for a long time past. But there are some ideas which are latent in everybody’s mind, and are secretly prevalent throughout the community long before they arc put forth in the shape of a proposition ; people half dread to express their anticipation of coming disaster in words. This is a case in point. No man of intelligence can disguise from himself that the “ signs of the times ” are more than usually ominous just now. The German Chancellor merely gave utterance to the general feeling when he predicted a “great upheaval.” Europe may be truly said to be on fire. There are nations which have passed through their “ baptism of fire,” France and Italy for example, and have emerged from it into freedom and peace. But there are others which have yet to achieve their liberty or have incorporated with them communities in which law and order have not yet attained their proper supremacy. And in these the elements of strife are in various stages of activity. Turkey, sunk into slavishness, lies helplessly in the power of the West, But, despite its corruption, misrule, and impotence, it has in it some of the elements of greatness. The Turks are brave, and not without energy and ability, and once they are delivered from the yoke of a fanatical religion and a rapacious government, they will revive and take a prouder and greater position among European nations. Before this deliverance is accomplished, however, Turkey has some terrible experiences to pass through. Russia, the home of serfdom, enslaved through centuries by a despotic government and a no less despotic priesthood, is now called upon to deal with a startling rebellion which threatens to overturn society more completely than it has ever yet been overturned in any part of the world. The lowest stratum of Russian society, the serfs upon whom the iron heel of oppression had been firmly set for hundreds of years, makes a terrible move, it suddenly turns upon its masters and “ rends ” them with the weapons of the weak—murder and assassination. Germany has no sooner unified herself, no sooner has the dream of her patriots been fulfilled and the various branches of the German nation come together as subjects of one grand Empire, than she, too, is threatened. Her unification was accomplished, and it is maintained by despotism. And at the moment of her triumph, lo! she is confronted with the threatening figure of socialism, which rises from amidst her glory, like the spectre at the banque t t, and menaces her with social overthrow. And Great Britain, so long the mistress of nations, the mother of empires, the centre of all that is good and great and glorious, whose career, in spite of all that the envious and the hostile have advanced to the contrary, has been a grand and glorious one : she, too, like Naaman of the olden story, has one sad feature, one circumstance which throws into the shade and renders joyless her general prosperity and greatness. Her appanage, Ireland, is now the seat of a bloody and frightful rebellion whose end no man can forsec. On every hand throughout these disturbed countries murder, assassination, treason, are rampant. Those who maintain the laws are threatened hourly with death. Anarchy and rebellion are in full swing, and the minds of the populace arc filled with hatred of authority. This is the social condition of Europe to-day. An intelligent examination of the general condition of Europe just now yields matter i'or serious consideration, and will well repay those who desire to observe the progress of humanity. It is hardly possible for the actors in these stirring scenes to divest themselves of prevailing prejudices or to stand aside and watch the strife, like those who arc not mixed up in it. But those whose good fortune has placed them outside the disturbances, may look on, and learn the lessons that History teaches. There are certain distinctive features about these revolutionary disturbances. One is antagonism to property; a second, hatred of authority ; a third, a savage personal ambition. Property has been held with so tight a hand, the masters have reaped so much and the servants so little, the condition of the laboring classes is so hopeless and they arc so ignorant, that, when the utterances of those who plead for them come to their ears, they at length venture to give

expression to thoughts hitherto only dimly realised by them. The deference they used to pay to property was a hypocritical deference, not an intelligent one, and it was easily exchanged for implacable revenge. As for authority, most people in the countries we have referred to, have suffered so much from tyranny and oppressive authority, they have experienced so much of its penalties and so little of its mercies that they have conceived a bitter hatred of it, and have begun to examine it as to its status. There is also a sort of savage personal ambition. The upheaval of the lower strata brings up many men of the most worthless life to the surface, and to eminence. These obtain leading positions ; and, finding agitation favorable to their purposes, they do all in their power to foment it. These arc the salient features of social disturbance as we now behold it. Unsightly as they are they are inevitable. For the disorder we deplore so much, is but the concomitant of progress. Liberty, the birthright of humanity, has been long denied ; sometimes the superior force of tyranny has shut out the inliQritance ; sometimes the folly and blindness of the people themselves have kept them from profiting by it. From whatever cause, there are several countries in Europe where liberty docs not yet dwell. She invariably obtains entrance and becomes domesticated at last. But not until blood and tears have been profusely shed ; not until the wildest excesses have been indulged in. There is much to be grieved at ; in fact we mourn over the present, unreservedly,—and all suffer from it materially. But of the outcome of it, wc have no doubt. This tierce conflict between power and the people will have its true result, in doing away with privileges, and traditional rights. And, though the means the revolutionists employ are such as we canuot approve, it is none the less sure that the final result will be glorious.