New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-03-07
CRR4TER BRIIAIN.

w
highest historical place and its fullest spiritual
and intellectual development on this continent
ia q ouestion the consideration of which might
perhaps. be iudiciously postponed for century
or 60. There are themes of more Immediate
moment awaiting discussion than those to the
elucidation of which we have to bring the
aid of prophecy. But the subject mas peen
mooted, and we may well, in the midst OF
more pressing themes OF consideration, pes,o"
a side glance upon 1t.
The number of people gifted with any aptl,
tude for thinking is small in every age and
country. Neither England nor the present
century affords an exception to this rule.
Among the small class of thinking Englishmen
a reluctant conviction appears to assert ltseil
that that Power has reached its highest point
that it has III fact passed it, 1t has gone
through its splendid forenoon and passed
its meridian it is now in its afternoon; ana
the night cometh apace-not hurriedly but by
mild and euuable declension. 1t is apart from
our present purpose to accumulate and reclte
the evidences that she has passed her highest
point of strength and influence. Enough oil
them lie upon the surface and are visible to
all men to exempt us from the need to do so.
1t is observed that the first symptoms OF fail
ing vitality in the human body are a feeble
ness of the extremties and rally of
the vital forces about the citadel of life.
The analogy holds good in the case of States
and Empires. Great Britain is numb at her
extremitics. Her colonies are lifeless members.
They neither receive strength from her nor
impaIt it to her. Ireland is like withered
limb in which the Intermittent STRINGS of life
are merely pulsations of pain. Even about
her heart are ominOus inquietudes sluggish
concessions of life of which she must be de-
pleted by the phlebOtOmy of emigration. Her
most pressing need now is to get rid of the
Overplus of her hungry and unemployed people
And so stern and crying is this need that it
has summoned to unwonted tasks the philoso-
pher from his study, the scholar from his
tones and mpalipsests. the historian from his
library, and the poet from his gardens. Froude,
and Mill, and Spencer, and Tennyson, and
host of their co-workers in the higher fields of
intellectual effort, unite their influence in the
endeavor to help Great Britain get rid of the
swarming population which she can no longer
employ or maintain.
But, notwithstanding, that the old homestead
fails to supply an arena for all the energies
of the family, it does not follow that the race
itself is in decline. 1t is merely transferring its
Astounding and undiminished vitality to new
fields. Whether it is to continue and carry to
lofticr nights the distinction which it won
among its islands is question which time must
solve. If it does, that distinction will be
achieved upon this soil and by this people.
This truth has extorted recognition from few
Englishmen one of whom, Mr.. A. H. Louis,
a, IL Eu-
glish journal of great ability, signifies the earn
estness of his conviction by coming to abide
among us. 1t seems to be his belief that this is
the greater Britain, that the primacy of the
Saxon family is to he usurped by the United
States of North America, and the ultimate and
highest destiny of the race wrought out here
between the eastern and western oceans. a
similar conviction has long possessed the minds
of able men OH this side of the water; but
they have generally recognized the futilty of
prophesy and been content to await the results
of tine, without a vain attempt to prefgure
them
But Mr.. Louiss sound and judicious convic-
tons are not shared by the journal with which he
was formerly connected; it makes haste to dis
avow participation in what it deems his heresies.
Upon subject the solution of which is re-
mote, and speculation upon which is necessarily
vague and cOnjectural, the opinion of an in
dividual or n newspaper derives all the cOnse-
quence it can have from the inherent pr0ba-
bilitles OF the case. And what are the prOba-
bilitiesY Does The Spectator think that Great
Britain Is going to increase in population,
wealth, and power as fast as the United States
for the ensuing three or four centuries2 Or
does it think that she is going to hold the first
position which she once held and which she
still arrogates to herself without maintaining
an equality with us in wealth, population, and
pOwer2 These are the elements which newt
ably, determine precedence. The wealth md
power of nation are not TO be greatly ill.,
creased without a corresponding increase in
population. How is Great Britain to increase
the number of her peoples Upon her islands
Her chief anxiety lis To get rid of a hungry
and unemployed surplus, and no judicious econ.
omist can well fOIesec an industrial condition
which will enable her to maintain more than
she has now. BY building up her colonies and
strengthening the ties between thcmq The
editor Of The Spectator with all bis patriotism,
can scarcely deludc himself with an expecta-
ton so baselcss as this. If he admits that
Great Britain must at best remain about sta