REPUBLICANISM IN ENGLAND

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 197, 9 November 1871, Page 7

REPUBLIC ANISM IN ENGLAND

(* l San Francisco News-Letter")

To the careful and unprejudiced observer, it must seem very clear that Eepublican ideas are rapidly gaining ground in England. There can be no doubt that the sympathies of the English masses were decidedly with the French as against the Germans, from the hour of the proclamation of a republic. It seems clear, beyond dispute, that the great majority of British mechanics and arfcigans are to-day out-and-out Eepublicans. It is well to understand that these same progressive artisans are men of altogether a different stamp from the French Communists. They are not enthusiasts, or dreamers, or fanatics. They do not rave about " Liberty, equality, • and fraternity," nor do they contemplate a raid against vested interests or the rights of property. They are wellinformed, cool, practical, sensible men. They are not fanatics against monarchy, or wild enthusiasts in favour ot republicanism. They have come to the conclusion that monarchy is cumbrous and expensive, while republicanism is simple and cheap. This is all. Good sense — we admit it is purely selfish good sense — and intelligent class interest lie at the root of the democratic movement, and the democratic sympathies of the English working men. We repeat that these men are not republican through ideal notions or theoretical speculations. In all their ways of thinking they are eminently practical and utilitarian. They object to monarchy, not on the ground that it is opposed to the eternal verities, but on the ground that it is unnecessarily expensive. They do not depreciate ' kings and queens, princes and princesses," because they do not harmonise with the theories of the good, the beautiful, and the true, but because they have coolly reckoned them up on the utilitarian principle of profit and loss, and have arrived at the conclusion that they cost more than thgy come to. But tho Engligh working man ia widely different in principle and temperament from the French Communist. He is no believer in violent revolutions. He is patient, cool, and practical. Nevertheless, he is a firm believer hi republicanism, as the fairest and cheapest form of government; and he is none the less likely to achieve a final success because he is patient, cool, and practical.

A patent diving apparatus, consisting of a diving dress and helmet, is to be, tried ou the Shotovev, It is expected that by this means crevices in the rock which could not. otherwise be reached can be worked.