The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1850-05-24
The Erect OF European and California
Emigration.

IRON the LOuuon Ilmer way
There have been times within the last thirty
years, when il seemed general opinion that we
were TO have no more considerable changes. The
age Of gold the age of heroEm, the age OF miracles,
the age Of romance, have all passed away; and Il
thought probable that the age of novelties would
soon belong to history. No more great events no
more commissions Of nature or Of men no more
tides Of population, and new creation OF empires /;
no foundation Of great families, no new fountains
of wealth. The dull wonders Of science and the
slow achievements Of art were to occupy the place
of human as well celestial prc,ligies. There
was time when the granite ceased TO heave, and
ner IL believed that we had passed the period
Of sudden Transitions and had entered one Of gra-
dual development. All these antcipations have
been rendered void by events which throw us sud-
denly back to the Crusades, to the conquests Of
the Mortimer, the invasion Of the Saxons, the ir-
ruption Of the northern hordes upon Rome, the
foundation Of Grucia Magma, the return Of the
HeraclIda the rovings OF the Pelasgi, and the OBJ
the past. There are passing before eyes two
events which for grandeur, for suddenness for the
strangeness of their manner and causes, and for
their probable consequences, surpass any whereof
history can tell. Every year quarter Of million
flying from these isles to the New World, while,
IL happens, third, or perhaps half Of that num-
Der, are Fastening from the eastern to the western
shores OF that continent The necessities OF exis-
tence drive the former across the Atlsntic cupidity
draws the latter through every isthmus, pass, OF
track by which they reach the golden sands
Ii is hard To say which race is the erccst, the most
painful, and the most calamtous; but the exes
Of poverty do not undergo less misery and peril
than the dupes Of wealth. In their origin and cir
cumstances nothing can be more different and in
dependent than the two mgrations. What can be
more wonderful, then, than the coincidence by
which two events, either Of them the establishment
Of an age, should happen together, and happen so
to neutralize the i'll effects Of one anotherl
The American emigration to California is already
felt, in the dsproportionate withdrawal Of men, of
skill and of capital Such loss would tell any
where. but nowhere so severely as in young and
enterprising community spread over vast conti-
ncnt and employed az much in opening communi-
cations as in cultivatng the soil. The population
Of the Western States, whose very idea Of progress
is the "far West, are smitten with the Californian
fevereven more than their older settled fellow c-
zens on the Atlantic. They are throwing up their
farms. relinquishing improvements, and sacrificing
their property any terms, to join the mad race.
Crops have been left TO rot. for land whose harvest
u gold. Michigan, which, the other day, was will
derness is now populous State, with cities, ports,
railways, canals and lines of communication
eastward to the Atlantic, and southwark TO the
Gulf Of Mexico. Never was there so rapid rise,
and so sure promise OF prosperity. Yet large
proportion Of The people assured, actually
preparing To quit their new country for a newer
sill, and TO encounter hardships, perhaps not much
greater than they now endure, but more speedily
productive. Even the old States feel the drain 81
their better blood. Were there nothing TO com
rensate for this check on the increase Of Popi-
lston, the United States would by this time
wohshly be ON the eve OF some great social cstas-
iroyhe; for such there will generally be whenever
the relations Of capital and labor are seriously -