Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878] Being the extended title of the Wairarapa Daily, with which it is identical. MONDAY, MAY 16,1892. WHO SHOULD BE HANGED?

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XIII, Issue 4114, 16 May 1892, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878] Being the extended title of the Wairarapa Daily, with which it is identical. MONDAY, MAY 16,1892. WHO SHOULD BE HANGED?

In 1870 the Emperor Napoleon 111 began to feel how insecure the throne wag becoming which he had built in a day by mewa of liia celebrated coup- | d'elai. For twenty , years he had held the position .which the triumph of a moment had gained for him; but the same means which procured bis power must needs be employed to • maintain it. The Emperor owed his ' Empire rather to cannon in the > streeia than to a dynastic claim as ' "nephew to'his uncle"; and, bow- ; ever magnificent might be the im- • provements which lie effeoted in the | city of Paris, however salutary the municipal reforms which he introduced in every part of France, how- ' ever profitable the commercial r position which he seemed for his r subjects at the cost of many a breach j of faith with other nations, it wax i nevertheless apparent tohis unocrupu- ' lous sagacity that the note to be sounded most deeply and continuously was a call to arras—"to glory"—if f hp. would retain the afiection—no, the outward loyalty—of his country men, 0> er and over again he played 3 upon this string, and not unsuccess- , fully. But even while Frenob • bayonets were supporting the Imj perial prestige, the fruitsof his policy of humbug were ripening. Beneath the brilliaijpy of court functions and the glitter of French Society, there lay the most frightful official corruption and departmental maladministration. At I last the world knew it, The Emperor picked a deliberate quarrel with tbe King of Prussia, and picked it with thp sole design of giving another taste of military glory to a fickle and j discontented people, Thistime,hewas r himself deceived, .The characteristic :l craving of his countrymen was still c them; but twenty years of his rule had taaghb dishonesty to his most s trusted servants. On the eve of the b wicked war which was to fling him into an unpitied exile, the Emperor , 0 spoke to his War Minister about the a Army, "Sire," replied Marshal Le r Ropuf, !' wp ei)ier upon this war II with a light heart. Men, |ind arms, ti ipd stores; and munitions pf war are o ready," Jt was a lie. Half the batI! taliriqs existed.pnly qn piiper; and army contractors had learpt die value of briok-batß bb a substitute for victuals, In shoddy shoes/with mouldy , provender for horses, themselves illfed, the hapless consoripts went oat to be shot; Their offioers travelled with Parisian women as their companions. One brigade, in full retreat V before the enemy, is recorded to have halted to glva q, fell. Treachery and incompetence did the work whiph had been preparing for years; and sometiling ipore Jihaji the Empire fell, France fell j pdtfce world was pry. ~ Although perhaps the cpsp of qqited Germany was a.righteous one, it can hardly be said that English sympathies were given with any upeoial ardour to the side of righti And of this we feel oertfin, that Germany has not really gained popularity in English hearts'daring the twenty years whioh have Biicoeeded. !• We have indulged ourselves in.'this rather Iflngthv retrospeot, -in-order J that we may aireot attention' to the " irony of fate which (if wa may judge at all from bur European telegrams) seems jto be bringing on Germany some of the yerypvi's which led to the (Jowfjfp jtf Franco, Who so i, military-minded sS'he present I(in» apS of Germany ? WJio so fier.ee in : his fulmjnations againgt ft)i foea ? Not even „ Napoleon 111, m his most carefully ] calculated appeals to patriotic vanity, used irre inflammatory language to his people, Not even Napoleon-111 relied mora on tho rifle and the yd

piece: to make'him,popular with hie subjeots, There is,:indeed, ! a strange I parallel between the two men, Each prides himself upon his commercial f and internal policy; each seeks to t throw the glamour of spectaonlar { royal progress over a people brooding with discontent. Each finds the ■, muttering discontent is growing to ] a roar; and eaoh relies upon his soldiery to hold him secure. For r some time past the German Emperor i has been oasting about for a oause of ( quarrel, that the Fatherland may for- I get its legitimate grievances and his ' own miwulein .he-excitement of osing its sons in 'be field of more or ' less successful b'l ]«, c , ' To make tba -rallel perfect, we ! are now fold that adta-million use less rifles h«e be:ii sold-to the-Ger> man army, and that the authorities had been hoodwi iked. " Deßpite the general clamour, Count von Caprlvi regain's silent in the matter," Quite so; he is the Empeiors pet and nominee just as Le Boeuf was the protegs' of the French Emperor. And he wad—let us bo charitable—possibly ignorant of the wicked fraud whioh would send bis soldiers out unarmed that a few contractors might grow rich. Here,, the parallel stops. , For Germany—if Germany oan be said to be represented by her Empwor—bas not yet found her casus belli. One horror has been discovered in time; may the discovery of others, or the interposition of Divine Providence, postpone the European war upon which one young man would enter "with a light heart,"