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THE PERTH COUNTY HE $2.00 per Annum WP ids 5 es STRATFORD? WEDNESDAY, JULY " 4ll extremes are error, the opposite of error is not truth but error; truth lies between the extremes." 2231863. in advance. NO. 4. Select Poetry. PARKER DOYLE. vr THE ROMAN EMPERORS. Aurelian and Zenobia. Zenobia, the Queen of Palmyra and the East, is one of the most remarkable char- acters of past ages. No one knew better how to combine imperial magnificence with rigid economy. With great sagacity she blended clemency with the claims of inex- orable justice. All the neighboring states dreaded her power and sought her alliance. The Emperor Claudius didnot venture to assail her, as all his energies were engrossed by the Gothic war. While she artfully as- sumed a certain degree of homage to im- perial Rome, it was manifestly her design to erect for herself an independent mon- archy, which should rival Rome in splen- The title she assumed was Queen of the East. dour, and bid defiance to its power. Aurelian was fully conscious of the for- midable character of the foe he was called Placing himself at the head of an army of veterans, he rapidly traversed to encounter. the broad plains of Asia, until he reached Mesopotamia, the central region over which | Zenobia extended her sway. Swarms of armed robbers hovered around the skirts of his army, annoying him with their intrepid but petty Palmyra. ble preparations for her defence. assaults. At length he reached The Queen had made all possi- emperor in person pressed the sidge, he was | wounded by a dart, which a strong arm hurled from the battlements. As the siege was protracted, with many reverses, the wags in Rome made themselves merry over the unavailing struggle of their emperor with a woman. Aurelian « vidently was stung by the sarcasm, for he wrote to the Senate : " The Roman people speak with contempt | people sf pt} of the war which I am waging against a of the It is impossible to enumerate her warlike pre- woman. They are ignorant both character and of the power of Zenobia. parations of stones, of arrows, and of every species of missile weapons: 1 with fire part of the walls is provide two or thre balistae, and a ial her military engines. rf i Luh ' ment has armed her with a desper Yet still I t deities of Rome, who have favorable to all my undertakings.' At last Aurelian was reduced to nominious rust in age. 10- the measure of offering terms of compromise. 3ut the haughty queen re- fused his proffered terms with disdain. Zenobia 1 trusted that famine As the | compel the. Roman.army to repass the desert. The perseverance and generalship of Aurelian triumphed... Large reinforee- ments, with abundant supplies, came to his aid. Zenobia, finding her fortunes desper- ate, attempted to escape from the city by flight. Mounting a fleet dromedary, at- tended by a few friends, she stealthily passed out of the beleagured city, at one of the | gates which the besieging army did not command. however, detected her flight. The vigilant eye of the foe; from Palmyra, and was just crossing the Euphrates, when she was overtaken by a troop of Aurelian's light horse, seized and brough back a despairing captive. . Her subjects now lost all heart, and the city soon surrendered. The conquerors loaded them- selves with all the precious spoils of the Kast. archers to hold the reconquered province in subjection, the remainder of the army | prepared by slow marches to return to Eu- rope. When the proud but humiliated | queen was brought into the presence of her Leaving a garrison of six hundred | captor, he sternly inquired how she had dared to rise in arms against the emperors of Rome. With adroitness indicative both of her firmness and sagacity, she replied : "Because I disdained to consider as Roman Emperors an Aureolus or a Gallienus. Aurelian alone I acknowledge | as my conqueror and my sovereign." But the doom which Zenobia knew to be before her was too dreadful for 2 woman to contemplate with composure. Her heroism in this terrible hour deserted her. The ferocious soldiers clamoured for her blood ; and she knew that if her life were spared it would be only that she might be carried a slave to Reme to grace the triumphs of her victor. She ingloriously betrayed her friends, and endeayoured to shield herself by imputing the resistance she had made to their influence. Upon their heads she di- rected the vengeance of the implacable Aurelian. Longinus was led to execution. Patientlvaig submitted to his fate, deploring that his pupil, the queen, had displayed so little of that magnanimity which he had ex- pected of her. The emperor, with the captive queen and a large train of prisoners, crossed the Hellespont, and was on the march to Rome, when he received tidings that the populace in Palmyra had risen in insurrection, mas- sacred his garrison, and had again assumed an attitude of defiance. | Without one mo- ment of hesitancy the energetic emperor wheeled about his army, retraced his steps, and with all the rapidity indignation could inspire, traversed the wide plains of Asia, until he again reached the doomed city. His vengeance was appalling. The city was laid in ashes, and the whole population, old men, women and children, were surren- | dered to glory of the East, thus destroyed, sank into massacre. Palmyra, once the an obscure village, where a few despairing and impoverished peasants were huddled miserably together. After the ruin, about thirty fugitives returned from their disper- | sion, and reared their mud hovels upon the | spot previously occupied by the magnificent idolatrous temple of the Sun. While these scenes were transpiring, an energetic and wealthy Egyptian, Firmus by name. raised the banner of independence. At the h | Alexandria, invested himse 1 of a numerous army he seized the | perial purple, and with reckless violence bade defiance to the still formidable power | of Rome. capable of tremendous struggles in its death Aurelian, like the lion at bay,turn- ed upon Firmus, and with one blow of his lf with im- The empire was a wounded lion, throes. w..struck him down. The unhappy man, > of his followers, after the most 8, put to death. Thus the energy of Aurelian, in [three 1d restored union and peace to the rid. 1ad a Roman emperor more rich for heroic deeds. 2 ay im such as Ron tigers. and two hundred of the 'ious and rare animals of Asia and tnost ct A fri d the procession. The wardrobe ;ewellery, and gorgeous adornments of the Fenobia had reached about sixty miles | palace of Zenobia, were conspicuously dis- | have revealed the existence of another and played. A long train of ambassadors, ob- sequious and humble, from the unnumbered subject. nations dwelling in the East, dressed | in the most brilliant costume of their vari- ous courts, riveted the gaze of the millions who crowded.' the pavements of Rome. They were followed by an almost intermin- able of Rome slaved all her captives.' 'The victories of Au- In this wretched throng were to be seen young men concourse slaves--for en- relian had swept around the world. and maidens from nations whose ferocious bravery had more then once caused Rome to tremble. There were Goths, Vandals, Samaritans, Franks, Gauls, Rome paid no re- Alemanni, Syrians and Egyptians. gard to the colour of the skin, or to intellec- tual culture, or to opulence, or to social rank ; but indiscriminately enslaved the captives taken in war. As the captives of each nation passed by they bore a banner expressive of their na- tionality. There were ten herculean wo- men, dressed in the highest trappings of who were designated Amazons. They were selected as Goths, and the assumption was that they had been military art, as seized from amidst the carnage of the field of battle. But most conspicuous of all, in this tri- umphal procession, was Zenobia herself, Every eye was She toiled along on foot, dressed richly, exceedingly fixed upon her. richly, in the Eastern costume, with flowing trowsers, a yellow tunic, and a robe of im- perial purple. Her form, of exquisite sym- metry, was shackled and, at the same time, decorated with fetters of gold. golden chain was suspended about her neck, by which she was led by aslave. Her dress was so profusely embroidered with glittering gems that she almost tottered beneath the weight. | While she thus toiled along on foot, the chariot in which she had formerly rode through the streets of Palmyra, embel- lished with all the luxury oriental art could command, was drawn empty behind her. The triumphal car in which Aurelian sat supreme was drawn by four stags and four A heavy The Senate in their robes of office, and the nobles in the regalia of their rank, followed. elephants. Then came in solid column a countless throng of Roman citizens. Games and festivities of all kinds were blended with this gorgeous triumph, and sixteen hundred gladiators, for successive days, amused the Roman populace in the This was the last of Rome's great triumphs. cruel spectacles of the amphitheatre. The dying flame flickered in the socket. American "Notions" of Fredom. oe Apart from its horrible incidents, which, in kind if not in degree, are common to all civil war, the great interest of the fearful struggle in America, to European eyes, is the ordeal by which it is searching out and exposing the real strength and weaknesses The idea that was formerly entertained of the American of the American character. people was that, though unscrupulous, they were sagacious and long-headed, much too far in the van of civilization to be deluded by martial passions or dreams of empire, and much too sordid to persist in any popular caprice when its commercial unsoundness had once been demonstrated by experience. This view of their character, both upon its lighter and darker side, has turned out to be They have yielded to the whispers of national vanity with more facility literally untrue. than the Grand Monarque himself; and eat they are prosecuting a hopeless enterpri a fabulous cost, with a combination of earn- estness in the method, and levity in the motive, of which the world has never seen a specimen before. The two opposite ex-| tremes of character whicl distinguish the | inhabitants of England's two sister king- doms appear in America to be welded into They are staking life and fortune for a dream of national aggrandizement, with a ty of | is a vé ry great one. ot il ference as to the possibi and yet ther the resolution with which they | sacrifices, and bear | up against continuous disaster. The arrest of Mr. Vallandingham, and the other acts of submit to accumulating violence with which it has been accompanied, still more surprising ingredient in this strangely compounded character. To reck- ! lessness and doggedness of purpose it now seems they add' the servility of Russians. Perhaps it is doing injustice to Russians to name them as examples of the intense disre- gard and contempt of liberty which is now prevalent. in' the North-Western States. The condition of mind which aequiesces in a despotism that has existed for centuries is a far milder form of servility than that which contentedly stretches out its neck to recieve a yoke new and unheard of before. The most daring patriot may shrink from overthrowing an ancient form of government unless he sees some security for the charac- ter of the new institutions that are to fill the void. But a community that submits, with- out striking a blow,'to see the most essential liberties which it had long enjoyed wrenched from it by a military officer, can have very little love of liberty left. The acts of Gen. Burnside and his subordinates have been as despotic as acts could possibly be. They haye wanted no single circumstance of ag- gravation. Districts that are in a state of actual or threatened insurrection have often been placed under martial law. But this is not asserted of the States of Indiana or Ohio. If it could be, the cause of the Federal Government would be lost indeed. In any case, it has been usual to confine the operations of martial law, at least in all the freer countries of the world, to acts of dis- tinct rebellion. It has never before been heard of, in any country professing to be free, that a representative of the people, who was liable to punishment at the hands of a people professing to be free, for making a speech to his constituents hostile to the party government of the day. An additional shade of culpability is cast over the transac- tion by the utter lawlessness of those who are charged with the administration of the law. The declaration of martial law, ex- cept in places where a hostile force is actu- ally operating, is forbidden by the Constitu- tion. It was in utter defiance of their oaths that the power to proclaim. it.was invested by Congress in the President, that it was proclaimed by the President, or acted on by General Burnside. | But all their misdeeds are insignificant by the side of the base ser- vility of the Judge. |The Judges who con- demned Hamden had at least the letter of The Judge who consigned Mr. Vallandingham to the tender the law upon their sides. mercies of a military tribunal, in order that he might secure some of the good things which 'the Lincoln Administration have to dispense, sinned against the plain and unmis- takeable provisions of the law. Perhaps the only point in which the old predictions con- cerning the operations of American institu- tions in times of trial have received a com- plete fulfilment is the worthlessness and meanness of the Judges who owe their office It is difficult to find any explanation for the marvellous acquies- to popular election. cence of the Americans, who were reputed to be a freedom-loving people, in a tyranny such asthis. The Marquis Wielopolski and M. de Persigny have done nothing more at variance with the first principles of personal liberty... Yet even crushed Warsaw and much enduring Paris haye been able to sum- is mon up a spirit of independence which wanting to the rough citizens of Indiana and Ohio. personal liberty and at political liberty with The measure is one that strikes at the same blow. To prevent a representative from giving an account of the views he has maintained to those who selected him for the purpose of giving effect to their political opinions, is to cut off the channels through which the wishes of a people are brought to To imprison a man for condemning the measures } , : bear upon the machine of government. of an Administration is to destroy the one crucial distinction that marks the difference between a despotic State and a free State, And to do all this in the face of a written | Constitution, by the authority of a military officer in a State that was loyal and at peace, and to do it through the agency of soldier acting pe artly as policeman and partly as spies, is an a ivation of the offence which even the despotic Sovereigns of the European the ceremony of an avertissement, and the disarming of the people, executed in plain defiance of the Constitution, are only less The calm submission of. the: Americans in; the heinous instances of the same tyranny, States which are assailed, is an instructive lesson. In New York and New Jersey protests are loud enough, for the protestors are safe under'the protection of the author- When ;they can serve a party pur- the wire-pullers, ities. pose, and are dictated by we hear again something of an American citizen's claims to free writing and free speech. But the great Western States in which the grievance has arisen scarcely _,ap- pear to be conscious of anything wrong. The enormous extension of the suffrage does not seem to have made the American peasantry more sensitive about their political and per- sonal rights than the peasantry of less ad- vanced portions of the world. It would seem as though it were only at rare and ex- ceptional epochs in the world's history, and under the pressure of great physical misery, that the masses will show any spontaneous jealousy for their freedom. The more edu- cated middle and upper classes are the only guardians whose vigilance can be relied on. Their influence with their neighbors, in countries where wealth carries its due poli- tical weight, furnishes a ready-made organ- ization; and it is only by such an organiz- ation, which can be called into play at afew days' notice, that' the sudden onset of an armed usurper can be repelled. Even in America, however, it can scarcely bé con- ceived that the present strange patience can be permanent. The mass of people have been too long taught to believe that liberty consists in an abject submission to the will of the majority to have much sympathy left But it is likely enough that the personal violence of the unruly soldiery, who have become their masters, will destroy the apathy with which they are contemplating the suppression of for freedom in its true sense. newspapers and the arrest of statesmen. Eyents may of course take the other. trrn. The inhabitants of Indiana and Ohio may sufex Burnside and his troops to maintain " order,' as itis maintained in Venetia and was maintained in Poland. But it is barely conceivable that even eighty years of un- bridled democracy can have so rooted out the last instincts of freedom from the breasts of men of Anglo-Saxon race. A Wonver or THE Desurt.--One of the most interesting events which have recently transpired in California is the' dis- covery, in the southern part of the state, in the neighbourhood of the Colorado, of an immense pyramid of hewn stone. It has a leyel top of more than fifty feet square, though it is evident that it was once com- pleted, but that some great couvulsion of nature has displaced its entire top, as it evidently now lies a large and broken mass upon one of its sides, though nearly coyer- ed by the sand. This pyramid differs in some respects from the Egyptian pyramids. It is, or was, more slender or pointed, and while those of Egypt are composed of steps or layers, receding as they rise, the American pyramid was, undoubtedly a more finished structure ; the outer surface of the blocks were evidently cut to an angle that gaye the structure, when new and complete, a smooth or regular surface bottom. sands that surround it, there from top to of the are fifty-two distinct layers of stone, that will ayerage wo feet each; this give s its present height two hundred and four feet, so that. before the top was displaced it must have been, judging from an angle of its sides, at least How far it extends beneath the surface of the From the present level twenty feet higher than at present. sand it is impossible to determine without Such the of thig immense structure that the perpendicular joints between the blocks are worn away to great labor. is acre the width of from five to ten inches at the bottom of each joint, and the entire surface of the pyramid so much worn by the storms, the vicissitudes and the corrodings of cen- turies, as to make it easy of ascent, par- ticularly upon its sides. A singular, fact The suppression of the newspapers without even | continent generally contrive to avoid. connected with this remarkable structure is that it inclines nearly ten degrees to one side of the vertical or perpendicular.