The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1847-01-15


the most remote parts of the world !;
in India, Iceland, and the Cape of
Good Hope. Inrepublics, the Press
was the safeguard of freedom in
monarchics, the dread Of tyrants.-
What precious lcgacics for modern
times would have been newspapers
contemporary with the great events
of the ancient world-a Gazette of
Sparta when Xerxes was on the
Hellespont, or Lconidas at Their
mopyla
Newspapers furnished the true
history of the times Historians
were silent upon matters most inter-
eSting and most important to posteri-
ty. They dwell upon the acts of
kings, mobiles, senators, deeds of
broil and battle, but told us nothing
of the private life Of the people, their
domestic condition, their hopes and
fears and acts. We could not thor
oughly know the aEcients, because
they had no printing press-no
newspapers.
After describing the progress of
morals and of political science, the
lecturer marked the progress Of the
physical arts which had been signal
lied by as rapid an advance. The
splendid monuments that remained
to us from remote antiquity show ed
that in sculpture and in architecture
the ancients had arrived at a won
dcrrul cminencc. But the great pub
lie edifccS told us nothing OF the
homes Of the people. They were
splendid monuments of power and
extravaganza, but magniGcently use.
less. I he boast Of Augustus that he
had found Rome a brick and left it
marble city, was the boast of ty-
rant, and stood in painful contrast
with the benevolent wish Of Henry
". of France, that every peasant in
his realm might Lave a fowl in his
pot for his Sundays dinner. The
pyramids Of Egypt testified to the
power and tyranny of the few and
the misery of the many they mark
ed the existence Of a community of
slaves.
We know very little Of the pro-
ductivc industry of the ancicnts.-
Very little reliance could be placed
upon the statements Of the numbers
engaged in their military operations,
"Io count" says DR.. Johnson, SIS a
modern practice; the ancients guess
ed"
For the ages succeeding tic de-
cline and fall Of the Roman Empire,
the twilight Of the world, we had lit
tie precise information of the social
condition. The fact, however, that
the houses of Britain were made of
mud and wattles, indicated a very
low state, and when we read Of its
being a mans duty 20 furnish straw
for the Kings bed, we had a positive
indication Of the mcagrenesS of their
domestic comforts. The floor of the
presence chamber OF Queen Eliza
beth was covered with rushcs-v hat
then must have been the condition
of the houses of the people?
The discovery Of the polarity of
the Needle brought a new world in
to existence. The shore. that was
the safety of the ancient navigator,
was the terror Of the modern; and
for the latter, though Orion and Are
turus were obScured by clouds,
brighter star guided his path across
the stormy ocean. The ignorant
man, locking on the armament BY
night, saw in the stars nothing but
lamps to dispcl the darkness scatter
cd over the cxpansc in cXtricable
confusion; but the telescope reveal
ed TO The man of science in the myri-
ad points Of matter, the stupcndous
works of Omnipotencr, worlds on
worlds rolling through space in their
appointed orbits in obedience to the
harmonious laws of heaven.
The mind became confused when.
in contemplating the discoveries of
science, it sought TO measure the
Limits of its range or calculate the
magnitude Of its future triumphs.
In steam again man has discover
ed an agent more powerful than any
other, steam, which prepares the ma
terials Of our dwellings, food which
we cat, the clothes we wear, the
books we read, which draws IN
treasures frum the mines, and far
more powerful and enduring than
the Ship of the Desert, conveys us
with the speed of the wind, across
continents and oceans. TO the &C.
MUS Of our countryman, Fulton, We
owe its application to the purposes
of navigation, and now a few days
suffice to transport us from New o..
leans TO Pittsburgh, when formerly
a keoI-boat, requiring q crew Of 80
men, consumed nearly half q year in
the making the same VOYAGE.