NOTES ON THE CABLES

Evening Star, Issue 15140, 24 March 1913, Page 1

NOTES ON THE CABLES

Gekmwy and h?r Kaiser do well to remember 1815. Last year Russia 1313. celebrated (ho anniversaries of Borodino and the retreat from -Moscow. The second of these will live in lijstory >w hen the retreat of the 10 000 (.reeks is forgotten. It was not, only the most appalling militnry. disaster in" history, but it marked the lieeuuiinj: of the rnd ot the Napoleonic fvram.v.' When Bonaparte, witu the. remnant 180,000) o c his mighty hewt (600.000) of six months tietore straggled bade into ths France. bis ambition had mined, all Europe , w in ins rear. But, neither Austria, nor nor Sweden, nor, England surpassed in intensuy the popular enthusiasm that swept through Germany. Thn heel of the onpie.for had pressed cruelty on the men and women of the Fatherland. -The atmies conqueror had crossed and rccrossed irussian soil, and conscript Germans had been forced to serve under the banner of the tyrant, 'The retreat gave birth to a glorious hope. Napoleon was not invulnerc. f, • le I<? S lons Wl '« not invincible, fco Prussia, rose, never to lay down her arms nor to take h er ease until Waterloo had been fought and won. Thiot; W hout 181 c. the cry " To arms !" ran through tlie land. The King railed on the vonlh of the country to rife in defence of their libevtv. **^y er w:is mol e cagctly answered. Oitios_v,-ere turned into hospitals, and. universities into centres whence the war evangel was proclaimed. Class and rank were temporarily forgotten. lhhice and peasant, philosopher and art-'san, merchant and banker swelled the ranks of the new aimy of liberation. At the University the renowned Fiehte. the while his beloved wife was _\vorking early and late in the hospitals, inspired the youth who crowded his lecture hall with stirring addresses ''on the idea of a true war," and announcing as his motto, in response to the demands of Napoleon, "a stout heart and no peace." Small wonder that -the Corsica!! adventurer" read the handwriting on the wall, and still less wonder that the German of to-day remembers 1815.

* * * Oxr, of the most dramatic and arresting

episode? in tlii? history of modern exploration, apropos the .Livingstone Centenary, has received but the scantiest, briefest, and most imperfect mention during the. past week. YVe refer to the late Sir (then Mr) H. M. Stanley's finding of Livingstone after all hope, had been abandoned of the missionary-explorer being alive. Not that the English people have much to be proud of in connection therewith. .Stanley was shabbily and by some savagely treated. Kis claims were derided, his personal history (clean but lowly) raked up and Hung ai liim. and his supposed nationality made a cause of offence. A humiliated minority, or majority, might well hang its head in shame over the sorry plight poor, foolish, temporarily riis-* fraught dolni Lull then presented.' But it was only for a time. Stanley became the hero of the hour. The story' of his meeting with the great, lonely, indomitable explorer in the heart of Africa, of how the two parties looked at each other, of the raising of the helmet and ihe immortal words N 'for such they i>rc in be); "Br Livingstone. 1 presume'." of the hand grip that followed, of the converse through the night, of the exchange of vi- <. and the entrusting ••■f -'■■■ rrv : t i■■ >.:■•. l!,,'V ■'' tii ■: ;o the intrepid iournaiist who went ni and did things, while others talked, all this, and these, and more, have made of thitt meeting, something unique in history, whether, it be of missionary adventure, or scientific geographical inquiry. Moffatt and Livingstone, and Stanley are gone, but their spirits and their work live. on. We can recall hearing David Livingstone's famous father-in-law, Dr Moffatt, tell some of his own experiences in the heart of Africa, and his fine personality, his hair, his'beard, his kindly lace, are as fresh to-day as they were some 37 years ago. Happily, though a. man passes hence and his poor frame remingles with the dust, that which made, him man and differentiated him from his kind lives 0)1.

" Dr Livingstons, I presume."

I SrunusK, r-ays ti-.o cable, is expressed by

A Humiliating Incident.

tiif Press that- a recontly-ir-o.ied White Paper make? known tin 1 hitherto nnknown fact that it was Sir I'idward fnw and not iitissia who was responsible for the tec-ill of Mr Morgan fShitster, whoso duty it wa> to rmignms? Persia'* finance*. Surprise- is a mild word. Hie information, if continued, will cause niiiiiy Englishmen to lilt, their heads in amaze. Mr Shirs! :-r was doiir; splendid work in Persia; itussia. did not want that work done and demanded hi.s recall, which demand, amid alino;',. universal }Jjiti t-}i indignation, was aco.-ded to. Tie.- ino.it frequent, accusation in ! hose daws was that England was wa : . (some say "is") t! 10 exploitation of Persia, it speaks miuh for the patiem eof the modern Jiriton tint ids disgust, of British policy in Per.-ia did not move him to practical an-rer, lii<> Liberals had to back their Government or tnev would iiava bec-n put out of ..tilc\ Kvon'had the n-ngry ones ran id ihc-ir ii].h, : ;,;,tion into the Opposition divi-ion lobby the Tories would have saved the MinistYv hv voting with it. Tlie Tories hav-e m>' line semi. meats about P.ussian poliev. Pw this as it- may, no on.- last vo.tr dreamed that 'it was fin- Kdwaid (.Ij-v and not luissia who had digested Mr Shuster's r, .-ill. Yet, thl< is what li.ipr.vned. a ecrdi !:■., t„ the cable If tn. n . it ma.-k, o,dv one word, or a choice of two words, i.v'wav of comment. They err "scandalous '- and "iitiamoii.s.' Sir M-fJ--- :, ? -..-J inn.-i decide whi-h Meanwhile. Mr ShnsUrs indictment stands. JI ere ii hj ; Only the pen «f a Maoadav or t ! >e lin.Khofa portray the rapidlv eliiftin K j.-enos at', tending the downfall of thi.-, ancient nation—scenes in which i\v,, j.:;-,viMltil and presumably enlightened Christian countries played fast and loose with. I ruth honor, decency, and law : . nh , ,- lt \ ? „ g l hesitating not even at the most barbarous cruelties to a.coomphtdi j; s political designs and to put Persia beyond hope of sc'lf-regeneraf ion.

* * # In- politics it is the unexpected that happen?. Who 2o veais ago Would h; u -o pm!tKed that "Radical Jo," of Birminu- ,. , "™<- would rj 0 ?c his political career as the inspher of the policy c. a party at whom he h ; ,d flung hi bitterest gibes, and .the defender of a House of whose members lie had srd '■J hey toil not, neither do thev spin''"' And n-no 20 years ago would have been bold enough to affirm that. Richaid Olnev Uiiet secretary of State in (irnver Cleveland s second Cabinet, and .author of that lanious Venezuelan despatch to Lord Salisbury, that set the heather in a blaze from Maine to California and cent the shout of "war ' ringing ac>oss the piairies—who would nave thought that this same Mr I.ichard Olney would live to be offered the United States Ambassadorship at the Court of St. James? Should we be far wrong in searching for the unaligned cause of'his refusal of this, the highest office hi i.lw gift of the President, among the /still nesli and surc-10-be-recalled past? Or who, at or about the same time, could have foreseen the silver-tongued orator from Nebraska, not an resident (for raniiv believed that), but ns Secretary of State (lorcign Secretarj) in the Cabinet of the

Bryan and o,'ney.

first Democratic President since he (Mr Bryan), to it* e his '.voids, "began to TJ° r J V 17 yeara n «°' ? When wi"i«™ dc-.rmngs Bryan sprang from the reporters' l;i 7 ;lt , t . 1 " 3 Wiicago Convention of 1896 nnd, ruslung 10 the platform, made his cross of gold * speech, literally sweeping the ten thousand human brings around him on to their feet, turning the ball into pandemonium, and securing the presidential nomination, he from that hour was anathema to the orthodox, and more reviled tnan any man of his generation. The lory vituperation of M r Uoxd George is jK'tty and childish in comparison. But JJryan, in addition to brains, had character, and character wins throiioh. Qn Monday last.-what he said at a 1?t. Potrick's banquet was no more than he has paid 20 times before, only to-day he fs not alone a popular orator, but an ofiicial whose words carry fer. Nor will pishing and pshawing mend the matter. England simply cannot ignore the overwhelming sentiment on behalf of lii.sh Home Eulo tnat exists in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand (pace Sir Joseph Ward). The question is not What are you going to do with Ulster? but, aa Lord .Morley asked. What are you going to do with Man.-ter, Leins'ter, and Connaught?