Great Changes

Rodney and Otamatea Times, Waitemata and Kaipara Gazette, 5 March 1941, Page 8

Great Changes

Fkom Small Events

A few moments consideiation will convince anyone that some of the most momentous crises in history have hinged upon very slight circumstances. A glass of wine, for instance, changed the history of France for nearly 20 years. Louis Philippe, King of the French, had a son (the Duke of Orleans) and heir to the throne, who always drank only a certain number of glasses of wine because even one more made him tipsy.

On a memorable morning he forgot to count the number of his glasses and took one more than usual. When entering his carraige he stumbled, frightening the horses and causing them to run.. Attempting to leap from the carriage, his head struck the pavemeut and lie died. That glass of wine overthrew the Orleans rule, confiscated their property of £20,----000,000, and sent the whole family into exile. -

If, in 1765, Mr Grenvilla bad not carried his memorable resolution as to the expediency of charging stamp duties on the plantations of America, the Western world might still have been under British rule. In connection with this matter there is another slight, albeit remarkable circumstance' which maybe told in Thackeray's own words:

"It was strange that in a savage forest of Pennsylvania, a young Virginian officer should fire a shot, and waken up a war- which v\as to last for 60 years ; which was to cover his own country and pass into Europe ; to cost Fiance her American colonies; to sever ours from us, and create the great Western republic; to rage over the Old World when extinguished in the New ; and of all the myriads engaged in the vast contest, to leave the prize of the greatest fame with him who struck the iirst blow."