The Sun.
London, England, 1867-05-04 00:00:00

ON, SATURDAY EVENING, MAY 4, 1867.

or walrus, or Esquimaux, or cod, or whale ; but
there is the thought that America shall be the most
overshadowing nation the world ever saw—and that
by destiny.

NEW ENTERPRISES-TREIR TRUE POINT OF

DEP.IRTIIRE.

The real cause of the failure of so many new enterprises
is, after all, quite simple. Those who originate thorn mis-
take their true point of departure. They forget that it is
indispensable to begin at the beginning. They heed not
the wisdom of the old couplet—
Great oaks from little acorns grow;
Large streams from little fountains flow.

Finding always people with more money than brains
ready to invest their surplus capital in some new scheme
suggested by the success of similar schemes, they ig-
nore the fact that the latter have reached their actual
prosperity only by the slow but sure processes of
grow th, and they deem it sufficient to dazzle out-
siders by merely emulating the external show of those
well-established rivals with whom they are ambitious
to compete. With marble fronts and glittering signs, and
with desks and safes and counting room, and all the ap-
proved paraphernalia of business, they try to start at a
point which their prototypes have reached only after pass-
ing through a long and difficult ordeal of experiments.
Now, the credulous public may be temporarily dazzled by
such illusory appearances ; but the reality too often, and
usually too soon, is found by the unhappy stockholders in
such enterprises to be naught but failure ; and the public
quickly learns the result. Such is the case with those
splendid failures which have been directly occasioned
by the success of the older well-established express
companies. The most ingenious combinations, with
the military fame of General Joe Johnston and an
army of ex-officers to boot, could not prevent failure
in ono conspicuous instance; and in no other in-
stance can success be predicated in violation of the rule
which we have indicated. Such is also the case with
numerous unsuccessful newspaper enterprises on this and
on the other side of the Atlantic. Enough capital is
secured to issue a few numbers of a journal which confi-
dently announces its intentions to vie with—nay, to sur-
pass—theold favourites of the pubic that have won the dis-
tinction only after long years of persevering efforts. to

satisfy the increasing demands of our progressive ago_
The new claimants for public favour dreg on a weary and
precarious existence for a few brief months, and .finally
sink beneath accumulated difficulties. The spell of wind
they fondly deemed their " open sesame" is broken,
and the doors to success remain closed and her-
metically sealed. They learn that magic is im-
potent, and that they must succumb to the painful
pressure of facts. In London, for instance, the Daily News
began with a capital of two hundred thousand pounds
sterling, and with the prestige of genius as well as talent
in its favour; but, neglecting from the outset the simple but
essential prerequisites of success, it has gradually dwindled
to its present insignifiance, which is all the more striking
by way of contrast to its "great expectations" in com-
mencing its career. Nor can wo safely predict any better
fate to the journal which, we have been privately in-
formed, is to be started as a rival to the London Times.
We have not yet been made acquainted with all the
details of this new enterprise, but we have heard enough
of its extravagant anticipations of surpassing the Times as
an organ of news and public opinion on both sides of the
Atlantic to inspire us with distrust of its splendid pro-
mises. Competition, however, is the life of trade, and
whether the new journal shall live or die will depend upon
its observing the simple but invariable law which we have
laid down. In France the success of Le Petit Journal,
which was founded not long ago, and which still holds its
own, enjoying a prodigious circulation throughout the
empire, is altogether exceptional. In its turn it has bad
competitors whose name is legion ; but very few survive
to illustrate, like it, the principle under consideration
And in New York several nondescript evening journals
have recently been started, which, we fear, will only swell
the number of exceptions that prove our rule.—hewn York
' Herald.