New-York tribune., 1867-05-20
OPENING THE WORLD.

The day is not likely ever to come when Mr..
Seward like Alexander, will weep because
there are no foreign countries left for him to
acduirc but there is fair prospect that there
will soon be no strange lands to tempt the adj
ycnturous footsteps of explorers, and no distant
territory so little known as to justify one in
making a book about it. We have solved
pretty nearly all the great problems of geo
graphy. We have found the NOrthWest pas
sage and the sources of the Nile. We have
proved that there arc no Mountains of the Moon
where the old physicists said there were, and
no cold weather in the Russian Possessions
near the North Pole. Our missionaries have
trayerscd the length and breadth OF China;
our merchants have forced their way through
the jeal0usly guarded gates of Japan. The Son
of Heaven has been compelled to flee from his
palace at Peking before the armies OF outside
baIbarians Even the sacred precincts of
Mecca have been profaned by the foot OF the
infdel and there is now newspaper reporter
in almost every part of the habitable globe.
Fast steamships are making regular trips be-
tween San Francisco and Yokohama and Hong
Kong. Chinese labOrcrs are building our Pa
cifc Railway japanese acrobats are tumbllng
and posturing in the New-York Academy Of
Music [; and it is only the other day that the
journals reported the appearance in the streets
of one of our cities of genuine
Chinese lady, small feet and all. An en-
bassy from the most secluded of Eastern courts
to the gay capitals of Europe and America, is
no longer q matter of wonder. The brother OF
the mysterious Tycoon himself is to-day gazing
at the glories of the Paris exhibition, and at
the same time official representatives of his
Govcrnmentare shaking hands with Mr.. Andrew
johnson in Washington.
We are lorcibly reminded of the vast progress
made during the last quarter of a century III
extending that free intercOmmunlcatlon which
promotes the universal brotherhood OF nations
by the publication of two curious communica-
tions from two of the most interesting
countries of the far East The steamer
brought us, the other day, two newspapers
from japan, one printed in the vernacular, and
the other in English. That there should be an
English and American population in that cx-
elusive island large enough TO support news
paper is of itself significant fact; but our
interest is excited chiefly by the native
periodical. The Ban KOE Shin lBtm Shi or
All Countries News Hearing Paper" this
pages filed with news and advertisements, its
snowy title page, decorated with the picture
of steamship, its excellent summary of in
teigcnce from all parts of the world. and its
description and explanation of the electric
telegraph, is proof in itself that the old wall
of exclusion has been broken down, and the
strangely contrastcd civilizations of the East
and the West are about to greet each other
On the same day that we received the first
number of this Japanese paper Mr. Seward
gave 20 the public translation of a History
of America, written by distinguished Chinese
scholar and statesman, to whom, in recognition
of the appreciation of the character of Wash
ington cvinced in that curious work. our State
Department has ordered "a copy of Gilbert
Stuart's portrait of the Father of our Country
to be transmitted The translation will be
found in another part of this paper, and though
our readers will hardly repress a smile at some
parts of it, the mere fact that it ever was
written at all shows an advance in the pro-
gress of ideas just in that part of the world
where a few years ago we all thought advance
was most hopeless.