The Abbeville banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1847-1869, 1858-01-14
A ARuNDRED YEARS AGO


!. Although the hundrcdth year Is mn era in
tic life Of man which few are favored to scc
a century is but short period in tho life.
time of nations. Yet what wonderful and
political changes have been crowded within
the last hundred yearsl
Just one hundred years ago, Give laid in
India the colossal foundations of English
power and began that career of conquest
which has made England to India, what
Spain was to Mexico and Peru.
Just one hundred years ago, the Seven
Years War which began in the wilderness Of
America, was beginning to rage in Europe.
1t ended in the year 1863, after one of the
most desperate struggles recorded in history,
with the recognition of the rights of Prussia
as first class European power, and the
transfer Of the empire of Ncrth America
from France to England-a change prelu-
ding yet greater change soon to come.
A hundred years ago Spain was still a
great power, though then in her decline
The empire of the greater part Of the New
World was hers. Its galleons still filled the
royal treasury at Madrid with gold from its
mines.
A hundred years ago, Bourbon still sat
on the throne of France. The reign OF lcu-
dalism and the degradation of the masses,
seemed established forever. A proAigate
court, cmulating the wickedness of a profit.
gate king, QLouis Xv,) knew not that it was
mcrry-mak'ng on ground which would soon
open and swallow it up. 1t saw not the
handwriting on the walls of its chambers of
revelry.
A hundred years ago, America was will
derness, peoplcd beyond the central line of
longitude Of the States of New York and
Pennsylvania, only by'traders and trappers.
littsburg was French trading point. Lake
Erie was French inland sea. The Indian
and the buffalo roamcd along the Mississippi
whose lakes and rivers sometimes reflected
for moment the wandering faces of the
jesuit missionary and the French trader
Much less than a hundred years ago-in
l768 we believc-Lord IIiIlsborourh. the
English colonial secretary, issued an order
prohibiting the extension of English settle
ments beyond the Allcghanies!
What revolutions has the last century wit.
messed! 1t has seen the most magnificent
conquest made in India tho world ever saw,
and it now secs the power ofthe conoucrors
trembling in the balance. 1t has seen
America peol led, England reformed of many
ancient abuses, the Bourbons expelled from
France, France revolutionized, and greatest
OF all, coming of a New World into being.
1t has seen great empires overturned. It has
seen an obscure Corsican rising to the virtual
dictatorship Of Europe, humbIing in the dust
the crowned heads ofdynastics of thousand
years, and taking to wife daughter of the
Caesars. 1t has seen the rise of great re-
publican empire, founded on the principles
OF eternal justice, more glorious than Rome
III the palmiest days Of her vast dominion,
whose founding struck the knell of aristo-
ratio rule, and preluded the triumph of
democratic principles the world over. Last
and best of all the changes it has witnessed,
1T has seen the masses everywhere awaking
to sense of their rights and becoming a
great power whose good will even despots
court. Bayonots ruled the world hundred
years ago. Public openion rules it now.
That is the difference between 1857 and
ls57--Rock Island Aryus.
Ill.,, a.. TIT.y