The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-09-03

Lonefellow. Emerson, Kennedy, Bird, Simms,
Mrs. Child, Miss Sedgwick, Willis, Nerplank,
and Percival are of this class. Cooper belonged
more to this generation than to its immediate
predecessor and Irving as much; and Bryant,
who vet lives, has labOred throughout its
course. To science the country has
contributed many eminent men since
the beginning of 1884 and in sculpture
and painting not few Americans in
that time have achieved eminence Much
has been done for education and the pure
fame of Horace Mann belongs entirely to the
generation now so near its end, but coming
time will preserve it. Most that has been
accomplished here in periodical literature
belongs to it, the North American ReUie,o being
the chief exception. The newspaper press
has risen to gigantic proportions in thirty
three years, and among its conductors are
numbered many distinguished men-Greeley,
Bennett, Raymond, Dix, Monroe, Morris,
Nugent, Morse, Godl1in, Blair, Prentiss,
Greene, Conrad, Morton, Bryant, Haughton,
Buckingham, Hill, Gales, Garrison, Hale,
knoWlton, FOrney, Bonner, Dana, G.. w. Ken
dali, Leggett, Dow, Hudson, Ripley, Anthony,
Robinson, Crosswell, Weed, Bowles, and
others; while host of unknown writers have
labored for and on it, who are in the predica-
ment of soldiers who fight hard and die in
bitches to make fame and fortune for the few
men that resemble the bard,
"Who noteless as the race from which he
sprung,
Saved Others names, but left his own unsung"
The cheap press is one of the glories of this
generation, and it includes books of all kinds
as well as newspapers. Looking North, we
see Canada risen to importance in the last
thirty-three years, and promising to become a
mighty nation by the close of the century.
The dominion" is emphatically the child of
the generation, as the movements out of which
it grew were at the height just after the gene
ration began, and then Canada attracted the
worlds attention, and ever since has steadily
increased in wealth, power, and influence.
Looking to the South,.w see in Mexico pic
ture exactly the opposite of the pleasing one
presented by Canada; and this, too, is a pro-
duct of the generation, and one that does
it no honor, as it was in 1885 that
the constitution of 1924 was abolished,
since which time the Mexican ship of
state has been borne on a sea of troubles, till
our ''sister republic has become a relative of
whom we are ashamed; and the massacres of
which she is now the scene remind us of the
worst countries of the worst times of the
Middle Ages-and we regret she was not Sab
sorbed' by the United States in 1848. Mexico
has gone backward as much as Canada has
gone forward. In South America there has
been much improvement, but there is room
for much more. Brazil has become power
full country, and is well governed; Chill is
orderly and prosperous; Paraguay is stout and
strong, as her recent deeds testify; Peru is not
so orderly as she. was under Spanish rule but
on the whole she has gained considerably
through independence-and speaking gene
rally, there is nothing in the condition of
meridiOnal America that leads us to regret that
most of it is no longer under European rule.
The project of abolishing slavery in Brazil
is talked of as the generation closes. The
West Indies have been freed from slavery in
this generation, with the exception of the
Spanish possessions. 1t was in 1888 that the
British Emancipation act was adopted, but it
was not till 1888 that the work was really
completed. Cuba has been much sought by
the United States since 1884, but in vain; and
it has been assailed by pirates from the South,
many of whom were executed at the Havana
in 1851, which put an end to flibustering in
that direction. The whites in Jamaica COM
plain of being ruined through emancipa-
tion, and say they cannot raise anything,
whereby the price of tropical produce is much
increased-but it is better to have free souls
than free sugar. The Eyre butcheries, deeds
worthy of Percy Kirke, were the outcrOpping
of the old slaveocratic spirit, and show what
we should have to expect were we to leave any
power in the hands of our ex-slaveholders.
Passing across the Atlantic, we see that Europe
has changed immensely in thirty-three years,
| the consequence of great events that there
have occurred in almost every country, from
Cape North to Cape Matapan, and from the
mouth of the Shannon to the mouths of the
| Volga. In 1884 Great Britain had fairly got
under the government of the ten-pounders,
| because of the passage of the Reform bill.
| Many other reforms were the consequences OF
| the great political change that had been
! wrought in 1882 Colonial slavery was abo-
! ished, municipal reform effected, religious
| institutions were considerably iberalized,
| the law was relieved of some of its burdens,
| something done for education, taxation made
more equal, the fiscal system improved, the
press freed from odious imposts, and much
other good work performed. Still, the Libe-
rails lost ground, and the Tories returned to
power in 1S4l; but in 1896 occurred the
Irish famine, the result of the potato-rot, a
peculiar evil of this generation, and the effect
| was the abolition of the Corn laws, whereby
fell the bread monopoly of the British aris-
| tocracy. The Wings returned to power, and
held it with brief Interruptions down to the
summer of 1866, when the present Tory Gov
ernment was formed, which has carried
through Parliament Reform bill that confers
the suffrage on about a million of men who
had small hopes of receiving it two years
since. Ireland has been the scene of her
usual troubles in this generation. The power
of Mr.. O'Connell was shaken before his death
| Gin 1S46), in consequence of the proceedings
against him by the British Government, and
Young Ireland made itself heard. An attempt
at insurrecton in l84S failed utterly but
during the last three years Fenianism has
given ''the SaxOns'' much annoyance, partcu-
larly as it operates in America as we'll as in
Ireland, and even made an attempt to invade
Canada i'm 1866 Great Britain has been en-.