Preble County Democrat. [volume] (Eaton, Ohio) 1857-1859, 1858-09-02
A Hundred Years Ago.

Although tho hundreth year is a
era in the life of a man which few ar
favored to see, a century is but a shor
period in the life time of nations. Ye
what wonderful and political change
have been crowded within the last hun
dred years! -
Just one hundred years ago. Civ
laid in India the colossal foundations o
English power, and began that career
of conquest which has made England
to India what Spain was to Mexico an6
Peru.
Just one hundred years age, the Sew
On Years War which begun in the wild
%erness of America, was beginning to
rage in Europe. 1t ended in the year
1765, after one of the most desperate
struggles recorded in history, with the
recognition of the rights Of Prussia as a
first class European power, and the
transfer of the empire of North Amcri-
can from Franco to England-a change
preceding a yet greater change soon to
come.
A hundred years ago Spain was still
q great power though then in her de-
cline. The empire of the greater part
of the New world was hers. Its gal
Icons still filled the royal treasury at
Madrid with gold from its mines.
4 hundred years ago, a Bourbon still
sat upon the throne of France. The
reign of feudalism and the degradation
ofthe masses seemed established forever.
A profigate court, emulating the wick
edness of a proAigate King, (Louis
XVI knew not that it was a merry
making on ground which would soon
open and swallow it up. 1t saw not the
handwriting IN the walls of its chamber
of revelry.
A hundred years ago, America was a
wilderness, peopled beyond the central
line of longitude of the States of New
York and Pennsylvania, only by ira
ders and trappers. Pittsburg was a
French trading post. Lake Erie was a
French inland sea. The Indian and
the Buffalo roamed free and untram-
meled through the wild western wilder
ness, whose lakes and rivers sometimes
reflected for a moment the wandering
faces of the missionary and French ira
der. Much less than a hundred years
ago--in 1769, We belicve-Lord Hills
borough, the English Colonial Sccreta-
ry, issued an order prohibiting the ex-
of English settlements beyond
the Allcghanics.
What revolutions has the last centu-
ry witnessed? 1t has seen the most
magnificent conqests made in India the
world eYer saw, and now sees the con-
querors trembling in their palaces. 1t
has seen America peopled, England re-
formed of many abuses, the Bourbons
expelled from France, France revolu-
tionizcd, and greatest of all, the coming
of a new world into being. 1t has seen
an obscure Corsican rising to the yirtu-
al dictatorship Of Europe, h~umbling in
the dust the crowned heads of dynas-
ties of a thousand years, and taking to
wife a daughter of the Caesars. 1t has
seen the rise of a great republican en-
pire, founded upon the principles Of
eternal justice, moro glorious than
Rome in the palmiest days of her vast
whose founding struck the
knell of aristocratic rule, and preluding
the triumph Democratic principles the
world over. Last and best Of all the
changes it has witnessed, it has seen the
masses everywhere awakened to q sense
of their rights, and becoming u great
power, whose good will even despots
Bayonots ruled the world u
hundred years ago. Public opinion
rules it now. That is the difference be-
tween 1853 and 1858.