KINGDOM AND AGE TO COME.
“And in their days, even of those kings, the God of heaven shall set up A KINGDOM which shall never perish, and A DOMINION that shall not be left to another people. It shall grind to powder and bring to an end all these kingdoms, and itself shall stand for ever.”—DANIEL.
INQUIRY CONCERNING THE TWO-HORNED BEAST.
Dear Brother: —I would like to know if the Two-Horned Beast is to go into perdition before the building of the Assyrian Image, or the setting of it upon its ferro-aluminous, or iron-clay feet. If so, what is meant by “the Beast, and the Kings of the earth, and their armies, gathering together to make war against Christ and his army,” and being taken, &c. —Is the Austro-papal constituent to be destroyed first by the judgment now working; and the Beast to be again organised in another form under Russia? Also are the three brittle Toe-Kingdoms, those of Lombardy, Hungary, and Bavaria?
WILLIAM OWEN.
Nottingham, England.
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THE FRENCH EMPIRE A HORN OF THE BEAST.
The Arms of France under Charlemagne.
The Two-Horned Beast is not a dynasty, but a dominion for a long time contemporary with the Ten-Horned Beast; and stands related to the latter as the Little Horn among the Ten on the head of Daniel’s Fourth Beast doth to the “Body” of the same. Daniel’s Little Horn that hat Eyes and a Mouth, is represented apocalyptically by the Two-Horned Beast and the Image of the Sixth Head of the Ten-Horned Beast—the Two-Horned dominion answering to the Little Horn, and the Image to the Eyes and Mouth. These are Two Powers, and both imperial—the one being secular, and the other ecclesiastical.
But, it might be asked, if the Little Horn without the Eyes and Mouth, be one secular imperial dominion, why is it apocalyptically represented by a beast with two horns? Would not a one-horned beast have been the proper symbol, seeing that the Eyes and Mouth are incorporated on the Image sustained by the two-horned power? There is no doubt some force in this inquiry, which deserves consideration. The solution I would offer is therefore the following: —
The symbol of imperiality, which ranks above regality, is a dragon in whole or part. This obtains in heraldry sacred and profane. The Two-Horned Beast is consequently an imperial dominion; for its voice was that of a dragon—“he spake as a dragon.” The Two-Horned Imperiality is terrene, not maritime in its origin. John saw it coming up out of the earth; whereas in regard to the Ten-Horned Beast, he says, “I saw it rise up out of the sea.” The terrene and maritime beasts, then, represent two distinct political organizations, which, of course, do not occupy one and the same territory contemporaneously. The Dragon, the symbol of the Imperial Roman Majesty before the beasts of the earth and the sea had existence, having surrendered to the Sea-Beast “his power, and his seat, and an extensive jurisdiction,” was then restricted to that part of the Roman territory now included in the Turkish empire. This restriction leaves the western Roman territory as the area of the two beasts—the inland part of it, “the earth,” for the Two-Horned Beast; and its maritime, for that with Ten Horns.
The horns of the terrene beast are like a lamb’s. “He had two horns like a lamb,” says John. Now a lamb in the book of Revelation, is representative of Christ. I need not cite the many texts found there that prove this. The reader cannot be unmindful of them. “Horns like a lamb,” then, are “Christian Powers,” so called. That is, they profess to be such. They are not christian in the sense of being Christ’s; but then, they are neither Mohammedan, nor Pagan, as was the pre-Constantinian government in Rome. They are papistico-christian, that is, papal powers, speaking like the old pago-imperial dragon. Hence, Revelation 13: 11, being interpreted, will read thus—“And I beheld another political organization make its appearance in the interior of the Roman West; and two powers pertained to it styling themselves Christian; and the nature of the dominion was imperial.”
“It had two horns like to a lamb.” The words are not “the two horns.” It had two horns; but there is nothing in the text indicative of their contemporary existence from the rise to the final destruction of the beast-polity. It is simply the fact that two horns pertain to it at certain periods of its history; so that if we were to give the beast an historic title, we might designate it by that horn which was proved the most enduring and permanent.
The power or strength of the beast is found in his horns. What is affirmed, therefore, of him in relation to the Image, Eyes and Mouth, is predicable of the horns. Hence, they compel the inhabitants of “the earth” over which they have jurisdiction, to worship, or do homage to, the Sixth, or Imperial, Head of the Sea-Beast; that is, they set up imperialities, or Emperorships, and compel those they make subject, to swear allegiance to them. They “make fire to descend out of the heaven into the earth in the sight of men.” This is the result of their policy, which astonishes the world. “Fire in the earth” signifies apocalyptically, war in the interior of the Roman West. It is caused by the beast’s horns, whose sphere of operation is its political heaven. Their disagreement results in war, which therefore descends like fire, as it were, from their heaven.
The policy of the Beast is the policy of its horns. Hence, one and both of them when existing, cause the dwellers in their dominion to wander. This they effect “through the miracles it is given it to do in the face of the beast” of the sea—through the Earth-Beast’s victories, which are therefore gained during the life of the Sea-Beast. The result of these miracle-victories is the setting up of an Image to the beast (which has the sword-wound and lived) by its people after which all the westerns wander. Without the Earth-Beast’s Horns, the Image of the Sea-Beast’s Sixth Head is a mere dumb idol—a dumb dog of a prophet that can neither bark nor bite. It was therefore “given to the Earth-beast to impart breath to the Image, that it might speak, and cause to be killed all that would not do homage to the image.” Thus, the political life of the Image depends upon the Horns, or Earth-Beast. Destroy this beast, and the image dies. The Earth-Beast’s people were compelled to set up the Image by the horns or governments; and it is only by these that their obedience can be perpetuated. Let the horns leave the image to the affection and tender mercies of French, Germans, Hungarians, and Italians, “that dwell on the earth,” and it would be annihilated in the twinkling of an eye.
The Earth-Beast causes the Image to be made to or for the Sea-Beast—eikona to therio. The Dragon did not cause the Image to exist, and speak very great things against the Most High, to kill or wear out his saints, and to think to change times and laws. Neither did the Ten-Horns; nor any of the Heads of the Sea-Beast. It was the Imperial Earth-Beast alone that accomplished this. When, however, the Image was created in the likeness of the Sixth Head, the ten Horns come at length to accept it as the Lion-Mouth of their polity; so that in the judgment, they give their power to the terrene beast, and are found in association with him, and his image prophet, warring against the Lamb.
“In the judgment.” By this I mean, that judgment which “shall sit” when “judgment is given to the Saints of the most High;” who, as “his wheels of burning fire,” shall take away the beast’s dominion to consume and destroy it to the end. In that judgment but one beast is apocalyptically apparent. This is the Ten-Horned Sea Beast under an Eighth Head—one Leg in fact of Nebuchadnezzar’s Image. The beast of the earth having occasionally two horns, merges, so to speak, into the Sea-Beast, of which one of its horns becomes the Eighth Head; and then it stands related to the polity as the Little Horn of Daniel’s Fourth Beast to the other Seven Horns; so that it is the Eighth Horn, comprehending in its primary dominion the Three Uprooted Horns. The Little Horn or Eighth Head survives the overthrow of Gog in the Holy Land, who, as an imperial horn of the Earth Beast (not yet, however manifested as such) by his fall terminates the symbol, and leaves only the Ten-Horned Sea-Beast with his Eighth Head to continue the contest with the Lord and his Saints.
“The beast that was, and is not, even he is the Eighth.” A political organization of the Roman West, admitting the contemporary existence of two Emperors, is represented by the Earth-Beast and its two horns. But when by some notable revolution, that contemporaneity is finally (not temporarily as aforetime) but finally terminated, the Earth Beast becomes “the beast that was, and is not;” but then, seeing that a western emperorship still continues in the midst of the Ten-Horn-Kingdoms, it is styled “the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.”
The Seven Heads of the Sea-Beast were thus explained to John. “The seven heads are,” or represent, “seven mountains on which the woman (Rome) sitteth. And there are Seven Kings; five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh he must continue a short space. And the beast which was, and is not, even he is the Eighth, and is of the Seven, and goeth into perdition.” This shows that the Eighth Head is to be looked for in Rome; for “the Woman is that great city that reigneth over the kings of the earth.” Thus from the foundation of Rome to its final destruction, God has decreed the existence of Eight Heads, or forms of government. All the powers of earth combined cannot establish a ninth. Dynasties or Sovereign families, may change any number of times; but the form of sovereignty they administer in Rome can only vary from one to eight inclusive. When John wrote the apocalypse, he was living under the dominion of the Sixth Head. This was the imperial, the Emperor Domitian being the reigning Prince. The imperial form of government continued to rule in Rome until it was wounded by the sword of the Barbarians. The consequence of this wound was fatal to the empire of the west, which became totally eclipsed in A.D. 476. The dethronement of Augustulus, the last emperor, made way for the Seventh Head, which, says the angel, “must continue a short space.” This form was the Gothic Kingly which continued only 60 years—a short space compared with the previous duration of the imperial, which lasted about 600 years.
The Gothic Kingly Sovereignty was finally suppressed by Belizarius and Narses, the generals of Justinian, emperor of Constantinople, who reigned there as prince of the sixth head of the Dragon. The fall of the Seventh Head of Rome was marked by the forcible evacuation of the city by all its inhabitants; so that for forty days it was deserted of every living thing. From this time until Christmas A.D. 799, about 240 years, Rome had no sovereignty at all; but on the settlement of Italy by imperial decree from Constantinople, it was reduced to the rank of the second city of the Dragon-empire which at this time included Italy within its bounds. During this long period, it was still the residence of the Bishop of Rome, who being without political life could neither wear out the saints, kill, nor change times and laws. There was then no imperial image, nor any rival emperor in the west. There was one in Constantinople, and he was the only one on the Roman territory.
Thus affairs continued until A.D. 799-800. “I saw,” says John, “one of the Sea-Beast’s heads as it were wounded to death.” It was certainly a severe wound, the effect of which was to put the head hors du combat from A.D. 476 to A.D. 800, a period of three hundred and twenty-four years. It was truly “a deadly wound,” and would be considered by the generations of the period as so deadly as to be beyond prospect of recovery. But to the eye of faith divinely enlightened, its recovery was certain, though how it might be effected would not so obviously appear. “His deadly wound was healed,” says the apostle; by which is to be understood, that Rome would become imperially sovereign again. The wound put an end to this form; hence the healing of it required its restoration. It was restored accordingly. A Franco-German dominion arose out of the interior west and spread into Italy, where it has had the ascendancy unto this day. It was founded by the renowned Frenchman Charlemagne, one of the sons of Pepin, the usurper of the throne of France. Like his father before him, he was a great benefactor and patron of the Bishop of Rome, who intrigued with him against the rights of the Constantinopolitan emperor, and procured him to set up for Roman emperor himself. This was not difficult to effect. The emperor on the Bosphorus was weak in Italy, and Charlemagne was ambitious of becoming a successor of the renowned Caesars. The manifestation of the plot was therefore duly planned between the Bishop and the King—the Bishop was to crown and proclaim him emperor of the Romans on Christmas Day, A.D. 799-800; and the new emperor was to do great things for the Bishop and the Church, which he did, much to his regret and annoyance before he died.
The day having arrived Charlemagne proceeded to St. Peter’s church where he assisted at mass. In the midst of the ecclesiastical ceremonies, and while he was on his knees before the altar, the Bishop of Rome advanced, and put an imperial crown on his head. As soon as the people perceived it, they cried, “Long life and victory to Charles Augustus, crowned by the hand of God! Long live the great and pious emperor of the Romans.” During these acclamations, the bishop conducted him to a magnificent throne, which had been prepared for the purpose; and as soon as he was seated, paid him those honours which his predecessors had been accustomed to pay to the Roman emperors, declaring that instead of the title of Patrician, he should henceforth style him Emperor and Augustus. He then presented him with the imperial mantle; with which being invested, Charlemagne returned amid the acclamations of the populace to his palace. The bishop, continues the historian, had surely no right to proclaim an emperor; but Charles was worthy of the imperial ensigns; and although he cannot properly be ranked among the successors of Augustus, he is justly considered as the founder of the New Empire of the West.
Thus was the deadly wound of Rome’s imperiality healed. Though Charlemagne did not reside there, his residence being at Aix-la-Chapelle, he established in Rome an image of his own authority, or that of the Sixth-Head revived. There was now an Eighth Sovereignty with the Bishop of Rome turned into its image or representative. This Eighth “is of the Seven,” that is, of the same form as one of them, namely, imperial. The dominion thus uniting in the emperor and the pope is known in history as the Holy Roman or French Empire; and in the days of Charlemagne comprehended all France, all Germany, part of Hungary, part of Spain, the Low Countries, and the Continent of Italy as far as Benevento. This was its original manifestation when it “came up out of the earth.” Since that time it has passed through various phases, but its main features may be traced in the German Empire, until it shone forth as the French Empire again under Napoleon the Great, who used to boast himself of being the successor of Charlemagne. When he fell from his high estate, the House of Hapsburg became in 1815, the sole horn of the dominion, and has continued to monopolise the imperiality with the pope, until 1852, when a second horn has shown itself in the French Empire revived under Napoleon III. This man’s model is his uncle, whom he imitates in all details. He is heir of all his uncle’s claims, and therefore of Charlemagne, whose empire stands revealed in the greater part of its original extent under Two Imperial Horns instead of one, and both of them concentrating their influence for future developments upon Italy, the Pope, and Rome.
Since 1815, and until the recent proclamation of the French Empire, the Earth-Beast was known as the Austro-papal dominion; for the time being, however, and until the French Horn is broken, and gives place to the Bourbon Horn of the Ten Horned polity, the Earth-Beast imperial sovereignty may be styled the Franco-Austrian Papality. The elements of this are two emperors and the pope—emperors as yet uncrowned, and both from the necessity of their position, claimants upon Rome as the throne which confers Eighth-headship upon the crowned. Which will he anoint as successor to Charlemagne? Will he crown them both? Will Napoleon, whose soldiers garrison Rome, prevent this? If the pope crown Louis Napoleon emperor, will he of Austria acknowledge his pre-eminence, and consent to be crowned by an inferior hand, or to remain uncrowned at all? These and similar are questions whose solution must result from the working of the “three unclean spirits like frogs.” They can only be determined by the sword, which will cut the knot that cannot be untied.
The Earth-beast imperiality has now existed 1052 years, having arisen out of the earth after the beast of the sea. It is a dominion that has nearly always had an emperor with a pope, but with a jurisdiction not always of the same extent. It has not, however, always been two-horned. An emperor and pope are one, as a man’s eyes and mouth are one with his face. When two emperors or horn-powers, having relation to Rome and Italy, appear at the same time, their continued peaceable existence, is impossible in the nature of things. One pair of eyes and a mouth to two faces is a deformity that cannot endure. Were there a pope to each horn, and two Romes, things might get along tolerably well; but two of diverse interests coquetting with one and the same harlot, cannot fail of bringing the two adulterers to blows. Two horns are therefore the anomaly, not the law of the dominion, which, when it obtains must result in a struggle between them for the ascendancy. This was illustrated in the case of Napoleon the Great and the Austrian Emperor. Their powers were the two horns of the Earth-Beast. Their contest was bloody until the House of Hapsburg succumbed, and the French Empire ruled over all; or Napoleon and the Pope made a Concordat between themselves.
The Beast of the earth and the Beast of the sea are both destined to “go into perdition.” But before the perdition comes, the combat between the two horns of the Earth-Beast must be decided; so that one of them may be finally planted on the Sixth-Head of the Sea-Beast as its Eleventh, or Three-Horned Eighth Head, as represented in Daniel. Which Earth-Beast horn, then, will become the permanent “Eighth” of the Scarlet-coloured Beast on which the Woman sitteth? Will it be the French or Austrian? I should say the Austrian, seeing that in Revelation 11: 11, France, the plateia or broadway is there styled “the Tenth Part of the City”—a tenth kingdom of the Sea-Beast. It was originally a Sea-Beast Horn before Charlemagne founded the French Empire. French imperialism is a preternatural or anomalous state of affairs. It is very congenial to French ambition, but not to the foreign relations of France. This country can only maintain harmony with its neighbours as a kingdom, with a dynasty having common interest, and in good fellowship with the other sovereign families of the West. The French imperial horn will doubtless create a great uproar among the nations, and perform great miracles with the sword. Austria may be expelled from Italy, and reduced to great extremity at home; but, backed by Russia and Prussia, the fortune of war will turn in its favour, as in the days of Napoleon the Great, and the French Empire will wane to its irrecoverable and final overthrow. On the fall of the French Empire the Kingdom of France will appear again; and the Charlemagne dominion under one emperor, sovereign of three Horn or Toe-Kingdoms previously plucked up by the roots, and surrounded by seven satellite thrones, all having the papal superstition for their state-creed, and the Pope for their Lion, or Babylonish, mouth or prophet—will, I conceive, be the political constitution of the Roman West, contemporarily with the Russian autocratic sovereignty of the East.
The Earth-Beast imperiality, then, does not “go into perdition” before the manifestation of Nebuchadnezzar’s Image in all the terribleness of the “latter-days” exhibition to that monarch in his dream; though one of the horns now existing does. The iron, latter-day, element of the image, is the Sea-Beast with the then one-horned Earth-Beast for its Eighth Roman imperial Head, with Eyes like a man, and a mouth speaking great things. The Head of Gold is like Nebuchadnezzar, not Roman, but Assyrian, rising into view from beyond the Roman limits, far into which he protrudes his power until he becomes the Chief of the Image-Polity in the Feet-period of the times of the Gentiles. The power of the latter-day Assyrian Head being the cementing principle by which the constituents of the Sea-Beast are held together (for unless the Horn-toe governments, and Eighth Head are sustained by Russo-Assyrian potency, the French Horn-Sovereignty, essentially and necessarily revolutionary and democratic, would prove too strong for their cohesion) is not only the Head of Gold, but the Clay-element of the Feet, combining their parts with fragile union into the Leg and Feet polity of the Image, answering to the Fourth Beast of Daniel. The latter-day Assyrian, “ladeth himself with thick clay,” “because he spoils many nations”—Habakkuk 2: 6, 8. He is therefore the golden head of those nations—the clay with which he combines their sovereignties into a political fabric standing erect upon its feet. Among these nations are those of Macedonia, Syria, Egypt, and Persia; so that he will then be the Head of the Silver, and Brazen parts of the image-polity as well as of the Roman.
The manifestation of such a political organization as this argues a great conflict among the powers. This is inevitable, and necessary for the formation of the premillennial crisis. The French imperial horn of the Earth-Beast—THE FROG POWER—is created for this very purpose. No matter what Louis Napoleon may profess, its mission is to involve Austria, and Turkey, and Russia, itself, Britain, and all their allies, in war; that, as the result, the polity represented in Revelation 17 and Daniel 2 & 7, may be brought out. When the conflict with the French empire, as a principal in the war is ended, the ten-horn governments “receive power as kings one hour with the Beast;” that is, “God puts in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree to, give their kingdom to the Beast”—to that horn of it which survives the war, “until the words of God be fulfilled.” This they will do with unanimity; for, “they have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the Beast.”
The symbolical period during which the Ten Horns of the Sea-Beast give their kingdom to its Eighth Head, is styled “one hour.” This is representative of thirty years, upon the principle that a Jewish day of twelve parts, or hours, is sometimes representative of a time or year of years of twelve parts, or months, or hours, of years. A year of 360 days is representative, then, of a time or 360 years, which being divided by 12, yields 30 years, or one hour of a time. It is during the last hour of their existence, that “they make war with the Lamb who overcomes them.” Before, however, the war begins between the belligerents, the Lamb descends from the right hand of God to “the white cloud,” whence he reaps the harvest of the earth—Revelation 14: 14-16—in smiting Nebuchadnezzar’s image with the stone upon the mountains of Israel. This accomplished, he descends to Mount Zion where he appears with the 144,000 “who follow him whithersoever he goeth. These are the redeemed from among men, the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb”—Revelation 14: 6-7. The righteous dead raised, and the Dragon bound, the next thing is the proclamation to the world of the judgment-hour having arrived, with an invitation to the nations to submit to God—Revelation 14: 6-7. But the invitation will not be regarded. The cry of them who had once been slain, and had for ages lain unavenged under the altar, at length prevails, and the Lamb yields to their earnest solicitation to thrust in his sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth—Revelation 6: 9-11; 14: 18-20; 16: 6; 19: 15. The clusters of this vine are the ten kingdoms clustered around the Eighth Head, gathered together to make war against the Lamb and his army—Revelation 19: 19. The war is initiated with the fall of Rome, the throne of the Eighth Head, which sinks like a millstone in the sea—Revelation 14: 8; 18: 21. During the continuance of the war, the goat nations subject to the Eighth Head polity, or Sea-Beast carrying the Harlot, are tormented with terrible defeats, and all the horrors of pestilence, and famine, and of fire and sword, “in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb” eis aionas aionon, until, or “unto ages of ages”—Revelation 14: 9-11, 19-20: that is, to the end of the hour of judgment, or thirty years aforesaid, which terminate in the commencement of the thousand years reign. This judgment-hour is the period of Israel’s restoration; and the time in which the Saints “execute the judgment written” against Daniel’s Fourth Beast, and John’s Beast of the Sea. They slay him, and destroy his body with the burning flame; or as John expresses it, “cast him alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone”—Psalm 149: 5-9; Daniel 7: 11, 22, 26; Revelation 19: 20. Thus, by the end of the war perdition will have triumphed over the Eighth Head, the False Prophet, and the Kings of the Earth; the constituents of the Scarlet coloured Beast, upon which the drunken mother of Harlots now sits amid the nations she has intoxicated with her mystery and abominations.
But before the Roman Babylon sinks like Sodom into the subterranean, and before the Ten Horns make war upon the Lamb and his army, they will “hate the Harlot and make her desolate and naked, and eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.” This will occur before the Lamb descends to “the white cloud.” Now the problem to be solved here is, How will the ten horns be brought to make the throne of the Beast desolate, seeing that they agree to give their Kingdom to the Eighth-Head? “The woman which thou sawest is that Great City which reigneth over the Kings of the earth”—the ten horns: What shall cause them to make their own imperial capital desolate? My reply is, because it is in the hand of a common enemy. That enemy, I believe, is the imperial French horn, which is even now in possession of the city. It sent its troops there under pretence of devotion to the Pope, but really to look after French interests in Italy. Those interests, which are imperial interests, need as much looking after now, as when the Frogs first swarmed in Rome. It is these interests, which are not the interests of the Ten Horns and their future Head, that will kindle a flame in Italy, and bring the power of the Horns and Head against Rome for the expulsion of the French, in effecting which she will be burned with fire, but not entirely and finally destroyed; for that destruction is the glory of the Lamb and his 144,000, who judge her rejoicingly—Revelation 18: 6, 8, 20.
The conflict between the two existing horns of the Earth-Beast for the Eighth Headship, brings Rome’s pre-adventual calamities upon her. The hatred of the kings against the city continues so long as she remains in the hand of the French horn; which it is probable, will avail itself of the cooperation of the malcontents in all their countries in furtherance of its ambition. This will make them hate Rome with the most cordial hatred as a focus of an influence and power, seeking their overthrow or subjection to its will. A sense of common danger will unite them to Austria, Russia, and one another. Without these two sovereignties, they could not continue the war with the French horn, being weakened by the disaffection of their people. Hence, self-preservation works unanimity; and causes them “with one mind to agree to give their kingdom to the (Austro-Russian) Beast.” By this Ferro-Aluminous power they are enabled to stand in spite of Democracy and the French Empire; and even to expel their hated antagonists from Rome, and to suppress for ever French ambition, and the revolutionary spirit in all their dominions. When they have accomplished the work of suppressing the French empire, and the conquest of Rome, their hatred is converted into affection for the Harlot, as is clear from this saying that is written, “And the Kings of the earth (the ten horns) who have committed fornication, and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning, standing afar off for fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.” Their “Eternal City” having gone thundering into the abyss, her destroyers will come upon them, and tread them as ashes under the soles of their feet—Malachi 4: 3; for the day of vengeance is in all their hearts to give them blood to drink because of all the righteous blood they have shed in the service of the detested Harlot in all their several lands.
These ten horns “agree and give their kingdom to the Beast.” By this is not meant that their governments cease to be. Their kingdoms continue to exist until broken in pieces and consumed by the Stone-kingdom of the Saints; for they make war upon the Lamb and his army by whom they are destroyed. They do not, then, cease to be kingdoms by becoming republics, or by merging as provinces into the Austrian or Russian empires; but they continue as independent monarchies under an emperorship, as New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and other States, are independent republics under a presidency. These States have given their dominion to the general government; so that they can no longer act constitutionally in relation to foreign affairs in making treaties, war, &c., without it; and should they be unable to maintain order within their own limits, the federal government would enable them to do it, and so become “their power and strength.” They cannot wage war with each other. If they were to try the experiment would intervene with the forces of the Union to compel peace between the belligerents. A similar arrangement between the Ten Horns and Eighth Head for mutual safety and preservation, is what I understand by the Kings “agreeing to give their kingdom to the Beast”—an agreement brought about by the perils created by French ambition, and the revolutionary spirit of the Democracy.
Of these ten horn-kingdoms three become the imperiality of the Eighth Head—the Columbia-district, as it were, of the Sea-Beast confederacy. The man occupying the imperial throne is the King of three several kingdoms, which gives imperiality to his official character. They are “plucked up by the roots,” as Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia would be if merged into the District of Columbia, and subjected to its constitution and laws. The Horns plucked up by the roots are subdued by the Eighth Head; and will, I believe, prove to be Lombardo-Venetia, Hungary, and Sardinia. The Protestantism and constitutionalism of the last named mark it as a victim of the Beast. Of this, however, we shall not long continue in suspense.
February 23, 1853. EDITOR.
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