The Woodville Republican, and Wilkinson advertiser., 1853-08-30
From the New York Times.
The Fate of Asia.

All those gentlemen whose a pellatiOns end
in OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES, ethnohra-
ph RS, ographers-shouId feel peculiar in
terest in the present condition and promise of
that eldest continent of the elder world. Asia
is actually devoured by Its own children Men
are busily at work at demolishing their prim-
tive home The cradle of nations they are
knocking to pieces for kindling wood, that
may go to inhame their own ambitious quar-
rels. Less than three hundred years ago Russia
treated its infant appetite to Siberia, that vast
region at the north where the disciples of
Boodh, the Dalai Lama, and Jesus Christ, are
now blended in fellowship, mingling their orr
sons to their deties and the Gar The reign
of Catharine IL witnessed a renewal of the
spirit of Asiatic annexation. Towards Per-
sia the Russia boundary has advanced a thou
sand miles since the days of the Great Peter.
Persia, indeed, is a mere Isthmus between the
two invading oceans of British and Russian
arms. The prominent and almost the only
seat of diplomacy on the continent is Teheran,
where the ENJOYS of her British majesty and
of the Car wrestle for bits of the crumbling
monarchy, each jealously resisting the raven
Gus cravings of the other. England has par
ticular objections to seeing the Russian from
tier confront her own on the shores of the
Indus. Then in Syria and Asia the less, the
spiritual authority now arrogated by the Car
is essentially conquest of those heroic climes
for if strong and vigorous states of christen-
dom are obliged to watch the encroachments
of a foreign spiritual influence with apprehen-
sion, as interfering with their political unity,
how much greater must be the danger for
Turkey, political body in the last stages of
decrepitudel 1t was, moreover, but few
years since Fapier was laundering at the gates
of Beyrout.
At the sonth England is eating into the
continent like sizeable rat into rich old
Stilton cheese. The Indian peninsula has
been seized, kingdom by kingdom, province
by province, town by town. Much of the ap-
preparation has been effected by force and
arms-much by busy intrigue and manage
ment. The friendship of the Englishman
has probably been more mortal than his bay
onets. A happy device has been employed to
render potentates smaller and larger, trbuta-
ry to the honorable East India Company; AID
any deficiencies in the privy purses produced
bv tribute so heavy, have been generously,
and even lavishly, supplied in the way of loans,
the payment of which is eventually secured
by seizure of the debtors dominions. Could
anv thing be more just Is it not the law Of
civilized communities that obligations to pay
shall be enforced upon the property of the de-
linquents9 The conquest and annexation OF
the Puniaub was the work Of yesterday. To-
dav we learn that large slice Of the Nizam's
territories has been secured for the culture OF
cotton chiefly Birmah is in process Of absorp-
ton. Its more important provinces have al
ready been annexed. China was tapped IN
1890, and exposed to sort of civizing and
chrstianizing influences, including million
ponnds of opium per annum, preparatory to
a more conclusive treatment. The ante-mun
dane empire of the sun and moon is actually
in state of galloping dissolution. What
damaos It does not in a suicidal spirit infiict
upon itself will be left for the ready hands OF
the foreign traders-British, American, Rus
sian. who stand in patient waiting, to gather
the fragments. and reconstruct tributary en-
pires for themselves. As for the islands about
the shores, they were long ago partitloned
among the nations of the west--Dutch, span
ish, Portuguese, and English. The Japan ar
chipelago are left alone, and only left because
he Jealous reserve has excluded those CONNER
ciai beginnings of ruin which have swept away
all their companions. Even now the design
is definitely formed for their subjection.
With any respectable map before the read
er, and red line marked about those portions
of Asia not invaded by Europeans, and actually
appropriated, OF in course of approPnatiou'
some idea may be formed Of the minuteness
and worthlessness ofal that is still aboriginal
ly Asiatic. Trade and policy are no less
mighty conquerors than Alexander or Ohen-
ris or Tamerlane That they work hardly
less rapidly, the history Of hundred years
demonstrate and their work stands iorevei'
Another century, and the plains Of Iartary
WILL perhaps, offer the only exception to 'he
universal presence of the Frank
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