HONORS TO THE AMERICAN NAVY 



83 



lords and dividing them into farms for 

 the peasant farmers and in building them 

 comfortable homes. More than three hun- 

 dred million dollars have already been 

 spent in this work, which will make a 

 total of more than nine hundred million 

 dollars contributed by the British treas- 

 ury to the peace and prosperity of the 

 Irish people. 



The venerable Francis Joseph of Aus- 

 tria celebrated the sixtieth anniversary 

 of his reign by adding to his empire the 

 former Turkish states of Bosnia and 

 Herzegovina, which have been under 

 Austrian protection since the war be- 

 tween Turkey and Russia in 1878, and 

 while there are remonstrances from 

 Servia, Bulgaria, and from some of the 

 European powers, the opposition will 

 finally concede the right of permanent 

 possession. 



The advance of constitutional govern- 

 ment during 1908 has been extraordinary. 

 The last of the autocrats has handed 

 down his scepter to his subjects. The last 

 of the absolute monarchies has collapsed. 

 The political reformation of the world is 

 not yet complete; sinners still sit in high 

 places. But revolutions do not go back- 

 ward, and authority once relinquished 

 can never be recovered. 



By reducing the number of voters, as 

 has been done in the south, the revolu- 

 tionary element has been eliminated from 

 the Russian Douma, and the sessions of 

 that body are now conducted with dig- 

 nity and order. A budget has been voted ; 

 government loans have been authorized ; 

 the courts are being reformed ; millions 

 of dollars have been appropriated for 

 education ; the laws of the empire are be- 

 ing revised and codified, and although 

 deprived of universal suffrage the Rus- 

 sians have a fair share of representative 

 government, which experience will im- 

 prove. 



The Sultan of Turkey in July restored 

 the constitution to the Turkish Empire 

 and called a parliament to be elected by 

 the people. The "Young Turks," led by 

 his own nephew, now control the Sublime 

 Porte. They have given Turkey freedom 

 of speech, freedom of the press, and many 



liberties and political blessings that were 

 never before known in that country. Pro- 

 testants and Catholics, Greeks and Arme- 

 nians, Jews and Gentiles, will have seats 

 in the parliament, will participate in the 

 administration of the government, and 

 will probably be admitted to the army, 

 both as officers and privates, which will 

 forever prevent a Moslem fanatic from 

 ascending the Ottoman throne. 



The young Shah of Persia, who tried 

 to repudiate the constitution and the 

 parliament granted by his father a short 

 time before his death, is now as much a 

 prisoner in his palace as the Czar at 

 Peterhof. Neither one of them dare pass 

 outside the walls that surround him ex- 

 cept in the center of a military guard. 

 And while the Shah may interrupt the 

 progress of reform for a brief period, his 

 fate has been read in the stars, and it is 

 only a question of time when his brief 

 reign will be abruptly terminated. His 

 situation is hopeless. The supreme eccle- 

 siastics of the Established Church of 

 Persia have declared that a constitution 

 and a parliament and a complete change 

 in the personnel at the palace are neces- 

 sary for the well-being of Persia. They 

 have excommunicated their sovereign, 

 and the nominal head of their church, for 

 violating an oath he took upon the Koran, 

 and for profaning the sanctuary of two 

 mosques in which members of parliament 

 who were fleeing from his soldiers had 

 taken refuge. There has been a good 

 deal of comic opera mixed up with the 

 tragedies at Teheran. 



The first Persian parliament was not 

 an ideal assembly. No business was 

 transacted, no laws were passed, no legis- 

 lative action whatever was taken, and the 

 most important issues were ignored while 

 the members relieved the pent-up indig- 

 nation of a thousand years in vehement, 

 attacks upon their sovereign and the sys~ 

 tern of tyranny he represents. Instead of 

 gently eliminating the insurrectionary 

 element by restricting suffrage like the- 

 Czar, he hung and shot the Liberal lead- 

 ers, he dispersed the parliament at the 

 point of the bayonet, and thus scattered; 

 the sparks of revolution all over the land* 



