The Washington union., 1857-06-02

schemes of conquest as additional security n 4
Asiatic possessions, for the safety of which ths
but steady advances of Russia from the west tbrou.
Persia from the east through Mauchchuria. cive 4.
serious cause for alarm. Russia too has as Dr..
ing reasons for outward expansion RUSSIA 4,
fears lest her immense populations should sagnt
into an apathy hostile to her future great dostr.
or awakened at home into an activity danceron.
her system Of government. Russia has certainly
deep and controlling an interest as Engands IN A
mastery of the human hive called the east.
But the appeal of interest and the demands or Il.
future do not go to these alone In the seeming AZ
tance, though in relative proximity through her M,
sessions existing, or hereafter to be-throU,,
the embranchments and prolongations of our =,
roads, and through the daily multiplication Of On,
ocean steam navigation America, we mean, copv,,
ing our political appeation the America Of he II,
ted States, the inheritor of the parent instinc,
daring, energy, and enterprise, is even now on 4,
march of progress, leading TO the East in the mos,
cution of system of industry and commerce NM.
which, for all her dowagcr airs of waning majesty A.
old mother may well look appalled, Hence, bothGm
the New and the Old World the tendencies of mode,
times point to the original dwelling places Of man
kind. The cry of the crusader-''God wills il i
again heard and again the nations are up and on h
march from the West to the East in the old bemi
sphere, through the canal of Suez soon TO be and
the railroad Of the Euphrates (; and in the new bea
sphere, across the isthinian transiis aid Over t
waters Of the Pacific. Indeed, we have All idea III,
the great struggles which have So long diited i, /
surface of Europe fast passing away to remots
theatres. The Crimean war readily justfcs tbr
thought The future battle-ields on which the p,
the resources of their subjects win mostly be marked
about the Himalayah, Ceussan, Kerdossan and
China.
This great eastern question, which keeps all the
cabinets of Europe in fever of political excitemen
and watchful jealousy, is not one of yesterdays
growth. Fourteen centuries ago. between the regn
of Marcus Aurelius and Of Justinian it commando
no little degree of interest. Hegabaal and his mon
ster reign the offspring of this question of h
East 1t called Julian the Apostate to Persia, whe
horseman solved for him the questionings of impeg
1t seems to be wound up in lurking and undyig |
instinct, which sends man. in the heat of excitement
under the whisperings of hope, to those solemn rt
gions of ASIA as it in search of the vestiges
his primitive origins and rights Alexander lines f
the Ganges with phalanxes flushed with counties |
victories. The Roman Dominion, in the very hour
its agony, was transformed into eastern empire |
Christian fcudalism, with the impulse of single
man, wended its way to Syria to retemper the sword
of its chivary in the waters of the Jordan and BATH
under the walls of Solyme. Within the period
our own experience, Napoleon crowded the very
base Of the Pyramids with his republican cohorts
Had not momentary check, aided by visions of i'm
peral honors, sent him suddenly back to France who
can now surmise what the Hgreat child of destiny
might among nations, themselves the blind worship
psrs of fataism, have left for the action Of England
Russia and France at the present day?
There are men at this day, and they Of no inferior
reach of mind, and no mean experience in statesman
ship, who sincerely believe that the great enigma d
the East may yet be solved at the expense of modern
civilization and peace. We repudiate any such be
lief. That the East is in imminent danger we have
not the slightest doubt. That, even after contact
of one hundred and fifty years with higher civil
zaton, it is on the path of scf-regeneraton and
progress every contemporary fact forbids to admit
That not only Turkey, but the whole East also is
very sick man. and that the European doctors will
~ a|
fully convinced. But that it should so recover
as to exercise any selfdirected influence that CA
tell on modern western civilization, is dream wnH
could hardly find shelter in the fancy of even Tie
most inveterate commander of the past History /
the contrary, has handed to us both an example and
proof of no little weight. When Rome as we have /
already adverted, was passing away last strugSN
turned her energies toward the East. She creaS
Byzantum, which finally substituted Persian soSa
egns for Roman emperors. Did Byzantium hA |
change the face of Europe Why, she groPed
decay through life of imperial corruptons and ~ys
tic quddities leaving no sensible result and no Nv
ing mark to tell Of eight centuries of power. oa
many and Gothland, Teutons and Huns, and h
whole North--the Caucasus and the very IartarS' ~
recent, unknown, and barbarous tribes -conVlSD
the world, and beat down her walls for the inroaD
of the followers of Mahomet, when the tortuouS VD
cy of crowned heads still maintains on the SOL
Europe. The times for such inroads are irrevoc'O'
gone-thc hoof of Attila is not again destlpeu
crush civilization in Europe. Those nations NV
run their allotted course in the great cycles ol ~
manity. Modern progress is too firmly staycu