Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1866-09-20
CHANGES IN POLITICAL POWER
AND DOMINION.

with peculiar satisfaction men OF rank and
station, and who nave attained to political
power and eminence, being found to enter
and adorn the walks Of literature. Con-
spicuous among these are Earls, so long
Familiarity known as Lord John Russell,
late Prime Minister Of England, and his
associate, Mr. Gladstone, Chancellor OF the
Excheouer. Their political rivals and
successors in office, the Earl OF Derby
and Mr.. Disraeli, are also men Of letters;
the former having lately given to the
world a translation of the Had, and the
latter long known as a successful novelist
We have been led into these thoughts by
seeing a synopsis Of an inaugural address
by Earl Russell before the Devon Asso-
citation for the advancement Of literature,
science and art, of which he is President.
In touching on history, the speaker said
he had no fear that the nations Of Europe
would fall into decay and perish as had
been the fate Of ancient Empires and
| States, such as Corinth and Carthage, and
Rome herself. Among the changes which
the three last centuries had seen there
were scarcely any, it appeared to him,
which did not tend to improvement n
stability. The best hopes for the perma-
nence of civilized communities in Europe
must depend upon the maintenance OF
their independence and the progress Of
their liberties. While we admit the gen.
eral correctness of the propositions ad-
vanced in these two sentences, we
must allow ourselves the liberty Of point
ing out some memorable exceptions
to the position taken in the first.
Within the period mentioned by the
noble Earl, Poland has ceased to be a
kingdom, has lost her independence, and
is now in great part q province of Russia;
and thus was broken down the barrier
against the aggressions Of the latter power
on western and southern Europe. Where
is active sympathy displayed for parti-
toned Poland. the country of John So
bieski and C%opernicus? Hungary, SO
long the shield of Europe against the hith-
er,o conquering Turks, was cheated out
of her independence, and fell under the
t~reacherous and tyrannical rule OF Austria.
Will her people be allowed to pray in ram
for a second Matthew Corvinus to be their
ruler and savior?
Spain, at one time the dominant power
in Europe, and mistress Of the wealth OF
the two Indies, has shrunk into her origi-
nal boundaries and lost all political inlu-
ence among nations. She has never re-
covered from the terrible shock Of her
industrial wealth and progress BY the exile
and Punishment of the Moors, in all two
millions, with their advanced civilization
and refinement. To this day, Spain has
no city that can make an approach to the
population and magniicence of the Moor
ish cities Of Cordova and Grenada. On
the same line Of blind fanaticism and big
o,ry, and attended with similar loss to
the nation, was the expulsion OF 100000
Jews.
Dimmed now is the lustre Of Portuguese
commerce and dominion in the East.
There was q time, which soon followed
the doubling Of the Cape Of Good Hope
by Vasco de CANA, and and the opening
of a new route to India and the far East,
when the rule of the Portuguese extended
from the Straits Of Babelmandel to those
Of Malacca, and along the intervening
coasts of Persia and India. They estab-
lished factories in China, and the ports oil
Japan were open to their merchant YES
sells. Ceylon had become theirs BY con.
quest. They determined the price OF mer'
chandise in all the European and Asiatlc
markets. No foreign vessel could take a
cargo in Indian ports before the Portu.
guese ships were ~freighted. Lisbon, fol
the first half of the sixteenth century, wa
the greatest commercial city in Europe
But all this magnificent panorama has
disappeared, and we must look in the
Western world, to the new Empire Of
Brazil, tor an extension Of the Portuguese
name and people.
We turn from the changes wrought in
monarchies, unto those which have taken
place in Republics and free cities during
the last three centuries, and in doing SO
we shall meet with equally humorous and
more melancholy exceptions to a tendency
to improvement and stability supposed by
Earl Russell to mark this period. The
Italian Republics Of Venice, Genoa and
Florence have fallen from their high estate,
lost their enriching commerce and their
independence and, until OF late years, their
freedom. Their decay was not less signal
in arts than in arms. The like fate has
fallen on the great Netherland cities Of
Bruges and Client, Malines and Louvain.
The first two were the seats Of manufac-
lures and marts of exchange for the pro-
due. of distant climes. 1t was the boast
of Client that she could send forth 40, 900
weavers in arms for her defense against
an invader. We might add to the dreary
list the names of Nuremberg and Angus
burg, once free and imperial cities, and
the great marts for the commerce between
the north and the south Of Europe. We
must close these remarks by a simple res
erence to the Hanseatic League and its
chain of cities, from Lubec and Bremen
on the west to Novogorod, with her once
400, 900 inhabitants, to the east, once all
powerful in the North and the Baltic seas,
and the carriers and suppliers for a large
part of Europe.
CoMsrocK STATISTICS. - In 1855 the
~"paying" mines on the Comstock lode,
according to the Mercantile Gazette,
yielded $l5, 900, 1000. Of which only $l,-
900, 900 were divided among shareholders.
In the same year the assessments on the