Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1859-09-29
T'ae success Of che Great Eastern---A
RevoIutfon IN Trade and War.

On the 7th of September. the Great East |
ern steamship started on her first ocean voy- |
age-a voyage which is to inaugurate r. vo- |
luton in nav igation, trade and intercourse
between the world-scattered members OF the
human family.
Her passage down the Thames and her first
breasiing of the ocean wave have demoDstra-
ted the truth of the principles involved in
her construction. and. whether her career be
cut off by accident or not, have rdi~sipated
every lingering dnubt that may have hung
around the idea of navigating the ocean in
ships sufficiently large to be impassiye TO the
oceans roll. While descending the Thames
the mighty mass was as perfectly under con-
troll and as docile to command, as the steed
that knows his rider and when the fair
course of ocean was opened to her. she gave
at once proof that in speed she surpassed cv-
erytbing that is aflOat. We are not surprised
at these results, for we bad confidently an
| ticipated them. Whoever has watched the
development of the power of man over mat
ter during the last quarter of century-and
| all who are i'm active life can scan that pc
riOd in their mPmory-knows that every en-
terprise that charact erizes our age has been
lecrived with doubt, and that many of the
! things now most common among us were not
! long since Looked upon as dreams OF crack
Drained enthusiasts.
A river steamer was Knocked by every one
but Fulton and Livington since the present
century began. Twenty milrs an hour on
railroad was secuted as rushing breathless to
| inter destruction at still later period. The
hulding of the Great Western. to inaugurate
. ocean steam navigation. was looked upon as
creating an instrument utterly beyond the Ca
pacity of the world TO employ remunerative-
ly. and even the possibility OF ocean steam
navigation was doubted. For urging the
construction of an electric telegraph Morse
was held tn be visionary theorist. The
| Atlantic cable is still looked upon by many
as an unattanahle project, and until ycster-
day millions believed that the Great Eastern
wonld never leave the Thames. Capitalists
refused to advance money on her. self-confi-
dent men Of science laughed at her, under
writers refused to insure on her. and the
world generally are inclined to believe that
men and goods enough to fill her will not
| be found as yet But there are men of larger
| grasp of mind than the selfsatisfed multi
tudc, and these persevercd in putting a
| steamboat on the Hudson, in running rail-
car twenty miles an hour, in getting the
| Great Western ont of the dock at Brist oil. in
| running q wire from Washington to BalIi-
more. in LAYING a cable from Europe ia
America, and in sending the Great Eastern
| to sea. Most of these are already looked
| upon as sold fngies.' as men behind the
times" and as slow coaches " for the pre-
sent fast age. Yet each of them. in the midst
of diSheartening doubt and opposition, in
augurated material revolution in the minds
of men, which is already complete that
the present generation wonders how those old
fools, onr fathers, got along without steam
railroads. telegraphs and big ships.
1t is not difficult to see in the aggregate
although the details are hidden to us, the
revolution that the Great Eastern is 10
| achieve. Her ultimate destination is to run
| from England to the AntipOdes. This OF it.
self will bring the two hundred millions OF
| civilized men who live en- one corner OF the
shore of the Atlantic into intimate contact
with the six hundred millions of barharians
who reside on the shores of the Indian and
| Pacific oceans. Commerce will soon a; tain
such gigantic proportions under this new
development that the Great Eastern. as with
the Great Western, will be put aside before
| her life is ended, on some out OF the way
| route, as too slow and small for the wants a
trade and travel. Cities that are now looked
upon as monsters will grow in like proper
ton. If Sandy Hook is too shallow for the
entrance Of the worlds new carriers, New
York will turn round and sit itself down on th,
other end of Manhattan Island, pairing away
the headlands of the Sound and the rocky
pass Of He'll Gate. The apprenticeship o
ocean steam navigation, which has just ended
on the Atlantic. will bloom into maturity oT
the Pacific. Empires will grow up on it
shores, and the cry that is already beginning
to be heard in few places will res"unt
throughout The earth-men, more men, T.
till the soil. to drve the mine. to plough Tia
deep. 10 build empires. Nations will b
moved to and fro. the races mingled. and th
power of the earth rest where man Is mos
, free and his energies most untrameiied.
| In war. as IN commerce, the revolution vii
! be equally great. The ocean will cease L
be safeguard A feet of steamships, FAC
of which can carry ten thousand men. wit
/, river STEAMERS hung at their davits
and able TO cross the ocean in five or seve
days can invade any country and overthrow
any empire. They can chonse their point c
attack with impunily. lie off at sea and SEN
their light steamers into any river, aud carr
, their armies to any distant point at vii
, All this must change the nature OF war an
commerce, or rather it will hasten that yer
change that is now going on aroun
us. 1t has already been announced That
soon "a the success of the Great Eastern
demonstrated, the proprietOrs of the Cnnai
, line will build a still larger ship, TO run b.
tween New York aud England. and we ma
soon expect to see regular line in full OPT
: ration. Whoever does it, New York mus
: be the greatest gamer. for here is the grei
. centre where the big ships will find the mr.
= trade and travel to employ them.--N.
. | Herald. trs#