The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1860-05-03

Our Cspsxal Pssstis. N shs worl<-rAv
Prince - Wales ssA the Prt.ce - Dss-
zea Messang - the aaff-Wsy OreunAs
When some clear sighted gessrapher. years
ago, publishsd map of America On Aeroassr's
projection, placing this continent in the oentrs
Of the world, and showing ON either hand the
Atlantic and Pacific oceans, bounded BY the
shores of Europe and Africa On one side,
and those of Asia and Australia on the other,
the English journalists tried to get up . laugh
at what they called Yankee vanity in supposing
that America was the centre of the world.
What then was laughed at a. q funny
idea Is now being contemplated - an sd-
mitted fact. Within few weeks the heir
spysrent of one Of the oldest monarchies Of Ea-
rope, sad the ambassadors Of one Of the most
snciant and exclusive of the Asistic empires,
will arrive in America with purposes that have
Q remarkable similarity. Each comes with
train Of philosophic observers, students, artists
and future statesmen, to see and to know, BY
practical observation, the country whose rising
interests have IN immediate and intimate
connection with those Of their own. Each
comes to study the relations Of America
one towards the British empire, which
he ID hereafter to be called to rule,
and the other towards the crowded com
munities of Asia, which are again opening
their long closed ports TO commerce. There
was NO concert between them. The fact u
simply part OF the natural development Of
tAe nineteenth century, pregnant with mighty
changes.
America to-day stands in every sense Is the
next neighbor, the true mediator, between Eu-
rope and Asia. The oceans that roll between
us and the widely separated shores Of the
greater continent are the open highways
of commerce and International intercourse.
No vast mountains, or broad rivers, OF
wide deserts, interrupt the tide Of human
transit on them. No engineering difficulties
there have to be surmounted. Our ships pillow
the watery plain eastward or westward with
like facility. There il no natural barrier be-
tween US and either people. The natural re-
suit of this geographical position Is, that our
friendly relations are. becoming equally as i'm.
portant to Japan a. they are to England. One
of the duties Of our position is to bring the two
oceans which are the scenes of great CONNER
cial Developments, into easy communication
with each other We have built the Panama
railway; we are striving to open routes
across the isthmus of Chiriqui, Nicaragua and
Tehuantepec; we are building telegraphs and
railroads across the continent; and We are pre-
pairing In thousand ways to unite the traffic
of the Atlantic and Pacific. As these new
bonds develope themselves the geographical
fact of our central position in the world will
become more and more practically evident.
1.-THE Prince OF Wales would hasten bis visit
few weeks, or the japanese ambassadors
were to delay their departure from among US
for short time, they might meet and shake
hands in New York or Washington, as the CEN
trail and neutral ground between them. As It
s, there Is plenty Of matter for thought In these
two visits. It shows the growing desire of
both Europeans and AsisticsNto know u bet
ter and to be friends with uA The day Il not
far distant when the English and French Minis
ters ct Warrington will hob-nob with the
Chinese and japanese ambassadors there, and
the diplomatic circles Of the United States will
be the true cosmopolitan circles Of the world.