The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1869-08-10
The Suez Canal ns an Agent Of Civil.

no more be done than can law make good
and moral citizens. The process in both cases
must be gradual. People cannot be made
religious by means Of Sunday laws they
can not be beaten into civilization The
process that the original inhabitants Of this
country have undergone is most striking
evidence of the failure of the compulsory prin-
ciple. We, or rather the European races
and their descendants, have succeeded, after
having spent nearly four hundred years in the
effort, in almost exterminating the unfortunate
victims and have in return given them only our
worst vices Who can trace in the now lazy,
Ignorant, good-for- nothing native inhabitant of
Mexico or Peru the descendant of those men
who built the marvellous cities that Cortez and
Pizarro so effectually civilized out of exist
ence? Granting the Indians Of Cooper to
have been fair types of their race, what has
civilization done in turning one Of the Mohicans
into the thieving vagabond that infests our
Western frontier? 1t is true that the races
not OF the Caucasian type seem to have
reached their final development long ago and
that for many years they have been retrograd-
ing. Some of these races are undoubtedly
doomed to extinction; but contact with higher
civilized types has almost invariably fastened
the inevitable result.
A different policy has, however, been inaugu-
rated; we are pursuing more humane course
towards our Indians England is commencing
to see the necessity of doing more justice to
her countless subjects in the East she is also
about to give up the ''gunboat policy in her
relations with the Chinese, thanks to the eff
forts of one of our citizens; Japan is feeling
the effects of an enlightened intercourse with
more civilized nations, thanks again to the
movement inaugurated by our government.
Egypt for years past has felt the invigorating
effect of intercourse with more highly devel-
situation for the fact that the compulsory course
of treatment has not been insisted on in her
case; the control of the overland route to the
East has been of such great Importance that
no one Power has been allowed to monopolze
it; her treatment has been dictated by the
mutual jealousy Of the doctors, and the same
with Turkey.
An illustration in one of the late English
pictorial papers marks new era the subject
is an immense boat load of Mohammedan pill
grims on their road to Mecca, being towed by
steamer through the Suez Canal What an
immense field of thought this subject presents
to the political philosopher! The highest ap-
pliances of modern skill brought to bear to aid
the descendants of the very men who for ages
were the greatest terror to the ancestors Of
those who are now helping them on their pill
grimage-the Frank helping the Turk. What
would the shade of Charles Martel, that'hero
who saved France from the fierce followers Of
the false prophet, say to this? And what
effect will this have on those very pilgrims
what effect upon Egypt herself-Egypt, the
very mother of civilization, rich above all
other lands in records of remote great
ness? What effect can it not fail of havingf
Fanaticism can never be subdued by force.
There is no truer saying than ''The blood Of
the martyrs is the seed of the Church )" but men
are always most open to material arguments,
and none could be more convincing than those
which the Christian races are now putting
before the East. Christianity to day certainly
possesses the monopoly of power, of intellect
and of influence in the world. Christians are
physically better off than the followers of other
sects, have better houses, better food are bet
ter paid for their work. The best argument
with the heather is to show him the condition
of Christians compared to his own. 1t must
be better than our system, he naturally says,
since these men enjoy the comforts of life in
so much higher degree than do.
The Suez Canal, by showing them what
Christian enterprise can accomplish, is worth
hundred missionaries. It produces respect
for the system whose followers can produce
such results it excites their ambition by hold
ing forth to them the most tempting rewards
should they embrace the religion whose disci-
Piles rule the world. And the great enterprise
which will mark a new era in commerce, which
will produce news developments of the utmost
importance in tire political relations of the
world, will also,be most potent agent in the
regeneration and conversion of Egypt, Asia
Minor and Turkey, and through them will react
on the vast interior regions of Africa and Asia.
Court ETIQUETTE IN THE ANrIpoDRs. 1t
appears by our late news from New Zealand
that the Maori King refused to see the English
Governor of the colony because the Duke of
Edinburg, Prince Alfred of England, had not
made a farewell call upon his Antipod can
Majesty on the occasion Of his departure from
that country or had not consented to an inter-
view with him. The New Zealand sovereign,
therefore, leaning upon his dignity, and imi-
tating the example Of his European brethren,
resents the affront Of the English Prince in
true courtly style by refusing to pay bis re-
spects to the English GoverSSk. TAls MSs 30
regarded as another phase Of the progress Of