17 MARCH 1917, Page 15

AN HISTORICAL PARALLEL.

[To Tit EDITO1 OP TES " SPECITT01:"1 -Sze;The recent Constitutional- deadlock in the United States Senate raises a curious comparison with • the- state of Poland in the-seventeenth century under the fatal confusion wrought by the Liberom Veto. Now that the knot• has been cut, it may be per- missible to• suggest that there-must have been- moments when -President Wilson% feelings must have run on- lines -strangely like :those of Casimir, King- of Poland in lea,. reproduced for our ,instruction is Lord' Eversley's recent booki The Partitions of -Poland:—

"Magnanimous Polish gentlemen, you are a glorious republic, and have Nie pozwalam and strange methods-of business and of behaviour to your Kings and others. We have- often- fought 'together, been beaten together by our enemies and by ourselves; and at last' I, for my share, have had enough of it. I intend for Paris; religions literary pnrsuite, and the society of Ninon de d'Entloe. I wish to say before going, that according to all rebord, ancient and modern, of the way of God Almighty to the world,

there was not heretofore, nor do I expect there can henceforth be, a humaneociety•thet:would stick•together on those terms. Believe me, ye Polish Chevaliers, withouteuperior, except in heaven) if your glorious republic continue -to be managed in such manner, not good will come of- it, but evil. The day will arrive, and the day perhaps is not far off, when this glorious republic will get torn into shreds hither thither; be stuffed into the pockets of :covotouse neighleonrso Bilindenbarg;: Muscovy, Austria, and finti _itself 'reduced to zero, and abolished from the face of the world. I speak the words-fronothe -fullness of my heart and on behest of friendship and, conviction alone, having the honour at this moment to bid you and your republic a very long farewell. Good

morning for the time."