Wisconsin tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1847-1854, 1850-03-08
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From the Illustrated London AeIGs.
SIGNS OF DECAY.


been,sna be again-that all things revolve in
an Old appointed eircle-that for empires as
well IS for individuals there is period of
growth and period OF decay-and that neither
the mighty nor the humble can escape the op-
erations or invariable law that fixes penalty
for every transgression, and which Furnishes
with the same severity the high and the low
Ily.
A modern writer, struck with the power of
these cd truths, and tracing in the past and
present history of Great Britain the operations
of causes which must, in the fullness of time
/ produce its fall, has drawn vivid picture of
the New Healander, sitting upon ruined arch
I of London Bridge, and moralizing upon the
! fall Of the once mighty empire, become as
much thing Of the past as Rome, Greece, and
! Assyria- Bot when we read the eloquent
page, We smile at the prediction of the writer.
We cannot believe that Babylon, that mighty
city who glorifed herself and lived delicious
lly," who said in her heart. Il sit as Queen
and shall see no sorrow,' shall ever fall from
+ her high estate. We think ofthe wealth, the
enterprise, the indomitable courage, the entel-
! Iigence, the zeal, and the piety of her sons
we see her wondrous progress in arts that
Greek ard Roman never knew-the triumph
of her sciences, and the blessings of civili-
cation superior to any ever enjoyed by the ear
Iier ages Of he world, and we fancy that in all
these things there are germs Of stability and
progress which shall grow up and flourish in
afteItime, bearing the name and fame, the pow
er and the glory. of Great Britain to the reno
test generations.
1t is wtll, however, that we should some
times view the other side of the picture, and
ask ourselves more calmly whether our empire
is indeed 50 firmly rooted-so endeared to the
world By sts justice, humility, and benefcence
so SUPPORTED by its own integrity-so much
removed f-om all possibility Of rivalry, as to
defy the agencies Of decay and ruin, and stand
70 the most distant times the Queen and
the Model Of Nations. The picture is not
quite SO brilliant when il is thus considered.
The golden: image is found to have feet Of
clay The fair peach Of prosperity is seen to
have a worm within It, and the mighty empire
to be menacad with perils from within and
from without. We see that we have no ex-
elusive claim to the possession of the virtues
which haze raised US to the high position that
we hold that what we have we share; that
men If cgs own blood and language have per-
lneated with our intelligence, our industry,
and cur eqterprlse, the remotest ends of the
earth; THAI our sons have founded new en-
pires, at present as brilliant, and promising in
the future to be more brilliant, than our own.
. five calculate the growth of population, we
shall ind that, in fifty or twenty years hence,
OF even earlier, Great Britain will no longer
be the Principal seat Of the vigorous race of
the Anglo SaXons and that, although that
race nav continue TO rule the worlI, It may
not be fron the banks of the Thames, or from
any pa-t oC the old country that gave them
birth An empire twenty, thirty, or fifty times
as extensive and as rich as ours, has already
arisen On TIE other side, Of the Atlantic, to en-
tice into its bosom the best blood which re-
mains 70 NJ. The young, the hardy, the per
severing q our country and of all the countries
of Europe. that groan under the weight of
debt, Of Ilt:iculty, and OF a surplus population
and that cannot say 10 their sons, as the New
World does, that every man is a man, welcome
for the sake Of his manhood, to the great feast
Of Nature, where there is enough and to spare
for the nlaanest, are daily invited to leave the
shores of e8ete Europe, and settle in more vig-
oTous America. The growth Of the United
States, IS in reality the downfall Of Great
Britain. All the unhappy circumstances that
,-are ofpraJajice to US, are Of benefit to them
With rs, the mouths that clamor to be fed
are causes Of decay. With them, every addi-
tional month is an additional pair of hands,
and every additional pair Of hands, is an in
crease of wealth. power, and affiuence. Let
US ToUr oGy millions into the great valley of
the Mississippi, and It will hold and feed
them all. were their numbers quadrupled.--
Such Is DIR great rival in the West. In the
South there Is another rival equally formida-
bic. equally splendid, fed in the same manner
from oar entrails, and rising daily upon our
fall. Who shall tx the bounds of the future
prosperity OF the great Australian continent
While in this old country the paupeF vegeSa-
tes or dioz accursed of the land that produced
him, in tha. new country the pauper becomes
a laboTeT; he no longer vegetates, but lives ;
and If he lives long enough, he may become
patriarch, sitting under the shade Of his own
hg-tTee. aud counting by thousands and tens
Of thousands his flocks and herds-a new
Job IN Land Of plenty. Fertile soil, delicious
climate. elbow room. and freedom from TAXA
tion-these are the blessings Of the Australi-
an. The Englishman enjoys the first two in
knows them not, and will never know them
while England holds her place among the na-
tious.
Nor arg these the only dangers which me
mace US. Although our empire stretches TO
the east and to the west, to the north and TO
he sonth--Ehouuh we have onr hands in ASH