Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1857-09-04
B Why it is that from the first dawning of history

BP Why it is that from the first dawnng of history
up to the present time Asatcs should have been
quished by Europeans when the disparity of members
was not beyond all reason is something which needs
explanation 1t is not difference of The great
majority of the inhabitants of Asatic Turkey and the
Persian Empire classed Caucasians So are the
Hndoos Yet the vast armies of Darius and Xerxes were
recruited from the provinces of the present Persian and
Turkish kingdoms and they fell before handful of Greeks
twenty-five hundred years ago. and at the present day
few British troops forced the Shah of Persia to terms
while in India, some seven or eight thousand British
troops beseiged Delhi occupied by forty thousand
Sepoys, drilled according to the European discipline
It is hardly climate The Saracene burst from his
blazing deserts, and swept Asia and part OF Eu-
rope like aresisess torrent Even yet in wild tastne
es Of the Arabian Peninsula the burning plains OF
Mesapotama the Arab race maintains is warke ener-
gy even after the scepe has passed from it. and its glory
has departed The Tartar and the Turman of the high
er and colder tabeands of the interior fight well, and
maintain real independence even while acknowledging
nominal subjection and Mahommedanism itself, bad as
it is gives superiority to its professors who are the
lords wherever they have settled and have not given
place to European Christians
The institution of caste seems to be at the root Oh
the feebIeness of the Hndoos and other permanently
subjected and conquered Thesupremacy ofthe
its progress in civilization and the arts dates back to its
freedom from these bonds and shackles;- the unity OF
action thus obtainedthe freedom and energy secured
by the power of choosing that calling and profession to
which natural powers and impulses point has been the
handspring of success and the true of power and
even Mahommedanism, which threw open to all true
believers in the doctrines of the Prophet the avenues to
advancement had that great advantage over the forms
of social life with which into contact and the
cIassriden masses of the Bszantine Emprethe caste
confined millions of India and Persia Immediately sue
cumbcd while Europe ITSELF bound up in the shackles
of euaism trcmbed for centuries before the stern fan
atheism of the egions of the Calphs or the Sutans.
All that the world has known greatness, achieved
in the direction of real progress has owed to the abro
CATION of the petty distinctions Of class cato the
contempt of narrow boundaries and petty prejudces
To the unrng industry and dauntless enterprise of her
Commons England owes all that she has of solid great
ness Uneudalzcd France sprang forward, the leader
and the conquercr of Europe, until with the Empire
Napoleon introduced the ideas and the notions which the
nation had cast off.
1t thus appears that the secret of Asiatc weakness has
been less in the people themselves in the tyranny
of their rulers than their social barriers to human pro-
grcss and the free Development of mind underline social
operation of the doctrines of caste, however modified
under whatever name disguised and the same causes
would have produced the same effects elsewhere.