The Minnesota pioneer. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn. Territory) 1849-1855, 1851-09-25
From the Boston Post1
The Worlds Fair and the s'Slnmber.
ing LiOn.'


Recently the English papers have fre-
quently alluded to that government as the
"slumbering lion." Now, nothing can he
more true than that the English lion has
been "slumbering" for, at least, half a CEN
tury past; while we, on this side Of the pond,
have been particularly wide awake-with
our eyes peeled-and every faculty of our
bodies and minds stretched upon the very
tenters of qui Utue! No one will pretend
To deny or doubt that the statesmen of Eng
land are far-seeing and sagacious men,
She has always had such in her councils. -
In proof of this, witness her greatness-for
she has been great as well as guilty. With
an almost instructive perception, for which
her statesmen have ever been remarkable.
her leading men have for years past seen
and felt that the power and influence of
England, on sea and on laud, in arts and in
arms, in short, in everything that tends to
place and keep a nation in the advance rank
of civilization, had received an unprece-
dented and most alarming check--one
which, If not counteracted, would assured
ly prove a check-mate. The plain and sim
pie truth is the zenith of her career of
"glOry and shame'' has been reached. As
a nation, the days of her most vigorous
manhood are passed-and this great "giant
empress Of the isles" as the poets have
called her, must soon dwindle into the lean
and slipper'd pantaioon. Her s'hose'' are
getting somewhat ''too wide'' already,
while her lusty rivals greatest trouble
seems TO be TO procure material enough in
which to encase the superintendent and Wig.
orous bone and muscle of his sinewy
"shanks." She begins to feel this, and the
memory OF what she was, if not indeed the
thought OF what she might have been,
causes pang of keen and bitter anguish:
and we are not surprised to see her strain
ing every nerve and fibre to protect herself
from her impending fate. She feels the
cold, unyielding hand Of time laying heavi-
'y upon her cruel, selfish, and wicked heart.
and, as ''the flesh will quiver where the
plncers tear" we are not disappointed in
Witnessing her spasmOdic throes and violent
contortlOns. Her old system of holesale
plunder and butchery is at an end now, and
she cannot relieve herself, vampre-ike, as
she has heretofore done, 10y that means any
more-for there is not another country left
on the face of the globe which she dares TO
rob. Her crime-crlmsoned flag encompass
es the earth already. But, thank God, the
"broad sway" Of the piratical and bloody
cross of St. George has reached its utmost
bound.
This English lion" is great, huge
paved, fellow still; but since he has been
''slumberlng" a new race of inen has sprunp
up in the western misphere-"sinar,"
men, as they sneeringIy call us-inade up
of spriDkliug of all the other races and
varieties Observation-Disclosures Caucasian.
and Mongolian. This mingIing of strange
and distant blood, under the united inf1u-
ences of our soil, climate, and laws, has
produced, and is producing an effect upon
the animal 10 which tie world has forever
before been stranger. The long, living
leaders in the London Times and Black.
wood, and o:her kindred tory prints and
books have kept Europe generally but th.
people of great Great Britain in particular.
in utter ignorance of America and of The
American people. The English govern
nent has been as successful in propagating
its falsehoods regarding this country, as in
any other thing which her bad and power
full minds have attempted. They would
have strangled this nation in its cradled in
fancy if they could. They tfisl it twice,
but failed; and having failed in this, they
next sought to destroy us by that weapon
which has been truly said to be "michtier
than the sword"
We were TOO Indifferent, and too much
occupied III sul'dung wild rugged coun-
try, to contradict or counteract their SIAN
ders. Our forests were TO be freed from
savage beasts, and more savage men-the
forest itself TO lie removed--Our new conn
try to be penetrated and traversed, and its
resources developed. This has been. and
Is still being done. We have .thrved in
spite OF England's jealous hate, and great
power to do US harm. Our tonnage, to-
day, is greater than her own. Our ships
better, and better manned. Our manufac-
lures compete with hers, successfully, in al
most any market IN the world. We are
distancing her IN everything-ercept oppres-
s'on and 'rrong. She stands on that ''bad
em'nence" without rival in the worlds
dark catalogue of crime. We have pro-
duced philosophers, statesmen, mechanics,
mariners and artists equal TO hers--and
leaving the name of Shakespeare from the
list, she can point 10 no name for which we
have not paralel-,o no pursuit in which
we have not equaIled or surpassed her.
Having twice S gnally failed TO crush US
with the whole physical power Of her navy
and army,-having failed, also, to stop our
progress through the aid of an unprinci-
pied and venal press,-in the employment
of paid spies and secret emissaries, to SOW
discord and disunion amongst us-she now,
IN 1851, gets up a scheme to steal from us
that which she has not the courage nor the
strength to seize. 1t was shrewd plan,
worthy of the brain that coined it; but, alas,
even that means Of injuring or retarding
our progress seems likely to prove failure
also. She bats hook, of some ten acres
of Hyde Park, with garish crystal palace
enough to cover it, and very politely and
atfab'y, like skiltul angler, invites all ma
tions, Brother Jonathan included, to par
take. But, thanks to the intelligence and
foresight of our ingenious and scientific me-
chanics, manufacturers and chemists, they
were not to be so easily caught. The hook
was ainple-the bait most entcing-but no
sooner presented than the signal was passed
round, like the old Scottish cream tarigh, or
fery cross, from state to state, from town
to town, not to exhibit to the English, and
other European workmen, the beauties and
secrets of our workshops I'd our labrato-
ries. This signal went over the country
much IN the same manner as the fiery cross,
and has been in many instances as implicit
Iy obeyed. Weare every day driving some
article of English manufacture, not only