The Sun.
London, England, 1852-11-23 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1852.

A remiukable estimate of the present age in
ate political significance, is advanced by Sir
ARCHIBALD ALISON, in that noble continuation of
his " History of Europe," upon which he has re-
cently adventured. However much we may differ
from the annalist in his opinions, we must per-
force concede to them the attribute of sublimity.
It were as idle to deny to them the possession of
this attribute, as it would be to gainsay the
daring of the attempt by which the historian is
now bringing down his narrative to the time of
his immediate contemporaries. According to the
view taken by ALISON of the nineteenth century
—the great change now going forward in human
affairs, and of which change the author reminds
us that we are the " unconscious instruments," is
the second dispersion of mankind ! Pointing, to
the emigration in one direction to California, and
in another to Australia, our annalist calls upon
all intelligent observers to reflect that there are
now advancing " over the hitherto desert and
unpeopled parts of the earth"—what?--" the
spread of civilisation," and " the extension of
Christianity." He impresses upon the attention
of the educated community the extraordinary
circumstance, that for the first time in the
annals of the . human race the stream of
emigration is setting steadily eastwards—
a hundred thousand Anglo-Saxons annually pro-
ceeding to the ports it Australasia 1 He calls
upon the more reflective to note the still more
surprising fact, that, while this movement is pro-
ceeding, no less than half-a-million Europeans
yearly land upon the shores of the American Con-
tinent ! And, after bidding them weigh these
occurrences in their especial remembrance, he ob-
serves that "it is hard to say whether the pas-
sions of civilisation, the discoveries of science, or
the treasures of the -wilderness, have acted most

powe4fully in working out this great change."
By the passions of civilisation, he implies the
visiowiry schemes of the Communists, the fantas-
tic projects of Soatlism, the principles inculcated
by Foupann, and die specious aspirations of the
St. Simonians. By the discoveries of science, he
esPecially refers to the virtual annihilation of time
and spate by the electric telegraph, and to those
applications of the steam-engine, by land and
water, which have so very marvellously increased
the facilities of locomotion. By the treasures of
the wilderness, he would have us understand the
the gold-fields now being rifled of their abounding
fiches, simultaneously in the south of the eastern
and ill the north of the western hemisphere.
of the Europeans, and
)3eholding these truths, seeing the discords agitat-
jug the ancient family
perceiving the eagerness with which so large a
pqrtiOn of the civilised community. is hastening to
°pled. regions of the
the remote and unPe . globe--
Sir AUCHIBALD ALisoN asserts, that in all this he
. .
Dispersion of mankind.
• As the Second
reeognis--
powerful causes" (as those above
"No such
enumerated), he remarks,e "producing the disper_
have
come into operation since
.1
Y
pion of the species,
separated upon the
mankind were origi.nal
AssYrian plains :" adding,
"and it took place from
aft attempt, springing from tae pride and ambition
. of man, as vain as the building the Tower of
Babel." That attempt he immediately afterwards.
"the
defines n language of much solemnity, and of
equal explicitness. He declares that it
was
endeavour to establish social felicity and ensure the.
fortunes of the species, by the mere spread of
knowledge and the establishment of democratic
institutions, irrespective of the moral ' training of
the people." Although we can by no means
acquiesce in the justice of these deductions,
drag them in the aggregate, we cannot