Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 March 1893 — TOPICS OF THESE TIMES. [ARTICLE]

TOPICS OF THESE TIMES.

HOME RULE PROSPECTS. The presumption generally held in regard to the success of Gladstonian home rule is that the bill will pass the House of Commons in April or May, going at once to the House of Lords, where it will be summarily rejected by a large majority. There are precedents in English history for the creation of a sufficient number of new peers by the Premier to overcome, the adverse majority, but it is not believed that Mr. Gladstone will resort to this expedient. His course will more likely be to dissolve Parliament, and go to the people on the question of the right of the Lords to nullify the popular will as expressed by its representative body. Indeed it may be said that the continued existence of the House of Lords is threatened by the issue that is likely arise by the dissolution of the English Legislature. Should the Liberals then be returned to power the Lords would hardly dare to reject the measure a second time, and Liberal success would mean the realization of the hopes of Ireland's friends. The right of the. Crown to veto all measures passed by Parliament exists in law, but has not been exercised for a century, and is not likely to again be used in any case. The right of the Lords to reject bills passed by the Commons also is a mere theory that will not much longer be tolerated. The people are the paramount authority in Great Britain, as in the United States, and their form of government permits a prompter execution of the popular will than even our boasted institutions.

' BEAUREGARD. Gone! How large a place in the public attention he once filled. How the public pulse was thrilled with a portentious fear as it followed his movements along the southern border. His was a name that filled ’with dread for many a day the timid hearts of Northern “mudsills” yet unused to war. His was a fame that loomed across the. gathering clouds of civil strife as darts the lightning's vivid flash athwart the black and threatening vortex of a summer storm. His was the hand that fired the shot “that echoed round the world” and plunged a nation into fratricidal strife. His was a mission to salute the god of war in the greatest drama ever played before His throne. He it was that hurled the shaft that bathed in blood a million firesides and freed four million slaves. Beauregard! Chivalrous the sound! Promise of

mighty things to come. How great the hopes of conquest that clustered about his name. How small at last the realization of the rebel dream. Of all the Sou tern leaders at the begiring of the war, none were so conspicuous for ability, none were so feared at the North, none were so inexcusably disloyal. Reared at West Point, in command of that great institution, he left its sacred portals that-had sheltered him so long, and struck, like the fabled snake, at the hand that warmed him, achieving for a time a transient success to go down at last in gloom and dishonor and defeat, as of right he should have done. So passeth the heroes all. Patriot and traitor, conqueror and conquered—rebel and the loyal heart-—all will soon have ceased to claim the recollections and the homage of the people North and South, and the memories of that awful contest will have passed from the tablets of the human mind to the more enduring records of the written page and monoliths of bronze and stone.

NEW MEXICO. Gen. Kearney took possession of Santa Fe in 1846, with the declaration that it was the intention of the United States to provide for New Mexico a free government with the least possible delay. Relying on ; this official assurance, the Territory, ' annexed by force and as a i-esult of ■ the treaty cf Guadalupe Hidalgo, formed a State constitution and chose a member of Congress in 1850. and the. Legislature selected two United Senators. But Statehood was not conferred upon the applicant, and the country was forced to be content with a territorial form of government. In 1876 both Houses of Congress, by an overwhelming majority, agreed to make New Mexico a State, but a minor amendment to the act prevented its becoming a law. In the next Congress the Senate again passed the measure, but action in the House was delayed by parliamentary tactics. Again, in the present Congress, the motion to take up the bill for the admission of New Mexico failed in the Senate by a largo majority through methods best known to the enemies of the Territory. So that for more than forty years, a Territory which has in all respects conformed to the Ameri-

can system, has been denied admission to the Union on one pretext or another. Even in 1860 New Mexico had a population of 93,516, or more than Wyoming has to-day. Since that the Territory of Arizona has been establish©! from its area, depriving it oL6(l,000 inhabitants at the time of its creation, and yet at the census of 1890 it showed a popuatien more than three times that of Nevada, and exceeding by 8,500 that di Wyoming and Idaho combined. The natural resources of ' New Mexico are vast. The assessed valuation of property in 1891 was $45,329,563. The fruit crop is very great. Enormous herds of sheep find a congenial climate in her borders, and the annual wool crop has been estimated at 16,000,000 pounds. Silver, lead, gold, iron, marble, onyx are found in great quantities, and coal mining is one of her most important industries. Unaided by the United States government, as other Territories have been, New Mexico has built a university, agricultural college, insane asylum, and a handsome, capitol building. This last was destroyed by fire last year, and was not insured. These facts, and many others, have been set forth by Governor‘Princein a special communication to the Senate committee on Territories. In answer to the objection that has been raised against admission, on account of the Spanish origin of many of the people of New Mexico, Gov. Prince responds that she sent more men into the Union army than Nebraska, Oregon and Nevada combined. What have been the real influences that have prevented the admission of New Mexico in the past is not for us to state, but to an impartial observer it. would seem that the end so long sought for by her people should be no longer delayed. There is to be a movement inaugurated by the Governors of a number of Southern States looking to a systematic encouragement of immigration to that comparatively undeveloped section. This is well. Ts the Southern people, however, really desire an increase of population from the North they will make greater progress if they will for a time forego the amusement of negro lynchings and roastings. Such savage orgies as have prevailed in various sections of the South within the past six months will not attract the better class of emigrants, no matter what material inducements may be offered.