The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1845-03-18 00:00:00

COURSE OF CIVILIZATION

It is a singular fact, that civilization and the seat of
empire have progressed in a particular direction along the
surface of the earth, the line of progress intersecting the
equator at 80 degrees, east longitute, advancing in a north
west direction to near 60 degrees, north latitude, and then
bending southwards again, as if it formed the segment of
a zone entirely encircling the globe. The ern Aire of Nim-
rod was established at the Mouth of the Euphrates A.c.
2247 ; after a period of 1923 years, the empire which
had deserted Asia, established itself in Greece under
Alexander A.C. 324, at a distance of 27 degrees from Chat-
des ; from Greece its seat was transferred to Italy, a dis-
tance of 41 degrees. The Roman sway reached i•s cli-
max during the reign of Augustus at the Christian era.
Imperial power disappeared from Italy to establish itself
again in France in the hands of Charlemagne, A.D. 800,
having travelled 11 degrees. and passed Raulerna and
Lombardy in its way. Again it turned its hack on France,
and now after a lapse of 1043 years, we find it in the Is-
land of Great Britain, whose power extends from east to
west, and nearly engirdles the globe. It thus appears that
the causes determining civilization among mankind have
passed along about 4,000 miles of the earth's surface in
as many years, in a north west direction from the head of
the Persian Gulf, the respective intervals between the
Chaldean, Macedonian, Roman, Frankish, and British
Empires, being about 1,900, 300, 800, and 1,000 years ;
and the distances between the seats of those empires re-
spectively about 1,900, 300, 800, and 1,000 miles, giving
an equal rate of progress of a mile in a year. Nearly a
sixth pent of the earth's circumference has been already
traversed by this singular march, during the 4000 years of
history, and it should require 25,000 years to complete
one revolution of the globe, since the entire measure of
its circumference, is 25,000 miles. In a letter addressed
to the Athencetint, by Mr. T. Price, in which attention
is directed to these facts, he points to the probability that
in 2,000 years, Empire will have left our shores to take
up its passing abode near the ea,-tern coast of Labrador;
and he assumes that there is a subtle influence analagous
to that of magnetism, traversing the zone marked out like
a tide at a slow and even rate of progress acting upon hu-
man intellect, exciting and stimulating the mind to in-
creased activity, and extending itself round the centre of
its position but with decreasing power to about twenty
degrees. 'Whatever may be said of the theory of Mr.
Price, and whether the explanation of the mysterious in-
fluence be sought in some subtle physical agency, or in
the distribution of the various races of the Caucasian
family of mankind, the results cannot be otherwise than
of the greatest interest, and that interest is not diminished
by the singular coincidence of the rate of equinoctial pro-
cession with the rate of progressive civilization. The
cycle of both appears to occupy about 25,000 years.

No fewer than nine vessels, amounting in the aggregate
to 2,400 tons, were launched into the river Wear during
last week.