The Sun.
London, England, 1866-03-27 00:00:00

TBE "GREAT POWERS."

The New York herald writes as follows :—" The
United States, Russia, and France are the three
great Powers of the world, and the three men who
are now at the head of them—President Johnson, the
Emperor Alexander, and the Emperor Napoleon—
are in a remarkable manner the representative men
of the ideas and characteristics of the nations over
which they preside. England, too, is a great power,
but not in the same sense as the others, and not so
much at present as in the past relatively to the
other three. England is great in manufacture,
in commerce, in the strength of mind and
character of her people, in many of her institu-
tions, in her colonial empire, in her power of
colonising new countries and building up new
states, and in other things that might be men-
tioned ; but at the present time her weight is not
so great in the affairs of the world, nor does she
represent those mighty, active principles of national
life which exercise a powerful influence upon the
fate of the world as do those other Powers. She
has not in her what the United States and Russia
have—the germs of a grand future destiny. She
may console herself, however, in this, that the
greatest of all—the United States—is her offspring.
In speaking thus proudly of our country we do so
in anticipation of its inevitable grand destiny as
well as in view of its present position. The vast
area of the United States, little less than that
of all Europe, with a variety and boundlessness of
productions not found in any other part of the
globe, would make it a mighty country if peopled
by any other civilized nation or under almost any
form of government. But when we look at the
character of our people, their intelligence, their
energy, their industry, and their ambition, there
appears to be hardly any limit to the future over-
shadowing greatness of the republic. No form of
government stimulates the energies and ambition of
every class of society so much as the Republican.
Class or other adventitious distinctions do not exist
here to bar or obstruct the way to wealth or fame
to the poorest and humblest. This state of equality,
freedom, and rivalry puts the faculties and industry
of the whole community into intense action. A
few millions of population, under such circum-
stances, do as much as many millions under different
circumstances. In 1860 the population of the
United States was about thirty-three millions. In
1870, four years hence, it will be forty millions,
probably, notwithstanding the war. This is greater
than the population of Great Britain, equal to that
'of France, and only less than that of one of the
great civilised Powers of the world—Russia. Forty
millions of free, independent Americans are
equal to sixty or eighty millions of the class-
ridden, oppressed, and poor of Europe, either
in material development or in war. In
every point of view, then—in the variety and
boundless resources of the country—in the nature
of the people, and in the character of our institu-
tions, which stimulate activity and ambition, we are
to-day the first Power in the world. The only
doubt about our future was as to the cohesiveness
of such a large population spread over a great
continent. That is settled now. The war has
shown our ability to hold together. Though we
occupy a continent we have an insular position on
the globe, and are all the stronger, for our own
peace and progress, from being separated by vast
oceans from other great nations. At the same time
the railroads, telegraph, steam navigation, and
our magnificent system of interior rivers and lakes
enable us to concentrate our power and preserve
our unity over thousands of miles of territory."

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE.—This Day.

LBY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. I
GRAVESEND, Tuesday Morning.

Arrived, March 26—Chanticleer, from Nagasaki; Queen
of Clippers, from Terceira; Star of the Seas from Jamaica;
Urinus, from Palermo ; Eroyle, from Trieste ; Charle-
magne, from Sines ; Gladiator, from Taganrog.
Arrived, March 27—Mary Elizabeth, from St. Michael's;
Rhine, screw steamer, fram Boulogne.
DEAL, Tuesday Morning.
Passed—Gladiator and Star of Devon, from Ceylon;
Hero, from Alexandria ; Tinnevelly, from Tuticorin ; Syd-
ney Hall, screw steamer, from St. Michael's ; Alert, brig,
from Nassau ; Thomas Brown, bark, from Launceston ;
Rifleman, from Sydney—all for London.
Passed in Tow Great Australia, from Callao, for
London.