The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-07-06

tends that this colonization of the opening of
the Suez Canal, like the great work itself,
shall be one of the wonders of the modern
world
We live in an age of wonders. The print
ing press, the steam engine, and the electric
telegraph, in their amazing transform mations
in human affairs, moral and material are
eclipsing the miraculous powers of the magic
lamp of Aladdin. Throsgh the public press,
steam, and the telegraph all the nations of
the earth and the isles of the sea are coming
into immediate rapport. Hence Austria,
which but yesterday was DOING and dreaming
among the effete institutions of the Middle
Ages, stands to-day in the front rank of mo-
dern progress, and distant China, which but
yesterday was closed on all sides as by Chi
nese wall against "outside barbarians" and
especially 'the red-headed and sandy-haired
barbarians of the West, is throwing open her
gates to the world-subduing Caucasian Her
civilization, which was grey when Europe was
but wilderness of savages yields TO the
pressure of the newspaper press steam, and
the telegraph. And now, it appears, the
Viceroy of Egypt, from his contact with these
potential agents of modern progress, is so far
advanced as to eclipse even the observing and
sagacious Bsmark in his recognition of the
pervading influences of modern journalism
The Viceroy learned something of this, we
dare say, from the late Abyssinian expedition.
Such are among the marvels of the age we
live in. 1t is the new golden age. 1t is re-
markable, too, that as the way was opened for
the golden age of Rome by the decisive vic
tories of Octavius in Egypt, so now in one of
the greatest events towards the consummation
of the new golden age Egypt is to be the scene
The idea of a ship canal across the desert 18TH
mus of Suez, between sixty and seventy miles,
is older than the Pyramids; but like the mys-
terry of the inundations and the sources of the
mighty Nile, it has passed down to our
nineteenth century for its actual solu-
ton. An English explorer, Sir Samuel
Baker, having completely solved the
Nile sources, its unfailing stream and
its annual overflow, has been commissioned
by the Egyptian Pacha, on a large and liberal
scale, to head an expedition to the great Nile
lakes of the Equator, in view of making the
length of Egypt the length of the river, Which
flows through some thirty five degrees of lati-
tude. On the other hand, some French engi-
neers having shown the feasibility of the
Suez Canal, the Pasha engages the French to
excavate it, and draws upon the wild Arabs
for their workmen, thus bringing the infiu-
ence, the foremost minds, and the best appli-
ances of the two greatest European powers
into his service with the children of the
desert. The Sultan of Turkey, then, who
owes the preservation of his empire to Eng
land and France, has reason to be proud of
his progressive and sagacious Egyptian
Viceroy.
We have had our celebration of the opening
of the Pacific Railroad, which, in some mea-
sure, taps the industrious, swarming millions
and exhaustless trade of Eastern Asia; but
this road, after all, is rather a local than a
cosmopolitan work. The Portuguese dis
covery of the shipway to the Indies around
the southern end Of Africa in the fifteenth
century was hailed by the Western powers of
Europe as the most important discovery of
many centuries. 1t was in searching for q
western passage to the Indies that Columbus
stumbled upon America and hence the name
of the Indies given to the islands of the Gulf
Of Mexico. The trade of her East Indies is
to-day to England what Cuba has been to
Spain, great source of her supplies. This
Suez Canal, in dispensing with the circuit of
Africa, brings this boundless traffic of the In
dies, including all the islands of the Indian
Ocean, by way of Egypt into and through the
Mediterranean, and thus promises to revive
something ofsthe old commercial prosperity of
all the States bordering that sea from Egypt
around by Palestine, Turkey, and Greece to
Spain. Hence the pervading Southern Euro
| pean interest in this Suez Canal But, again,
| by this canal will pass the trade of the East
Indies with the Atlantic coast of the United
States, until we shall have provided shipway
across the isthmus, say, of Darien.
This work properly devolves upon the
United States, and we know not why it should
be delayed. A million of cheap and efficient
| Chinese workmen may be engaged on two
months notice, and the canal may be made
in year. 1t is the only thing that will give
us the commercial balance of power in Asia,
and to complete a convenient ship circuit
round the globe we must cut off the doubling
| of Cape Horn as the French are cutting of
the Cape of Good Hope.