The Shasta courier., 1870-03-12
SH HASTA COU RI Err.
The Great City of the Future.

1t may be opportune to ask, What will
be the effect OF the Suez Canal upon the
world and upon existing commercial inter
estsl WIN 1t raise up the fallen greatness
of Spain and Italy? Will it breathe lew
life into degenerate Greece? and may we
anticipate fourishing Athens, a new
Sparta, and restored Corinth-once more
the schools of philosophers and orasJls
Is the long sluniber of Old Egypt ever to
be broken? Can the wealth of Tyre, the
strength of Troy, or the glories Of Smyrna
aud Ephesus ever be renewedl May we
anticipate like glorious future from the
past for Seville, Genoa, Leghorn, aud Ven
ice-the grand and fourishing cities Of
medieval times? Will the Mediterranean
be once more the busiest highway Of the
globe, It's blue waves supporting the count
less vessels OF many nations, its shores
everywhere well cultivated, and teeming
with an enterprising, industrious and pro-
gIessive population? These questions, and
many oilers of like nature, will naturally
suggest themselves to every thoughtful and
intelligent person and indeed, although
they may have been in some measure the
promptlngs of sentlment-which, for hum
anity's sake, it is well that we all feel at
tilnes-yet they are not SO unworthy OF
receiving careful attention, nor SO unlikely
to extract from tuturity an affirmative reply
as they seem at first thoughts to be- That
the Suez Canal will bring about revou-
tlon In the commercial world is certain
the extent of the revolution must be left
to future times to decide Tie Mediter-
rancan is no longer huge inland sea,
completely shut out by narrow isthmus
of sand from the seas which wash the shores
of the richest, the most productive coun-
tries OF modern mes. 1t has now burst
its way into the Eastern Ocean 1t has
forever given up its exclusiveness-so ia
tally detrimental has it proved to be to self
interest; aud, in joining with the wide
world without, it has inausurated a new era
of commercial activity, vast increase in
wealth, mighty advance in civilization
not more for its. own shores than for those
of the Indian Seas. From the New World
it has never been excluded, the Straits of
Gibraltar connecting it with the wide
Atlantic aud, with the new direct passage
to the Fast, is there not every probability
of the ports Of North Africa and of South
Europe becoming the great commercial
emporlunis of the futurey The way is now
clear from North America to HIndostan,
and, with the exception of the detour made
by the Red Sea, the course is direct one.
The Mediterranean lies iu the line between
east and west, and may be said to connect
both. What an enviable position! On the
one hand, America, fourishing, young, and
activej on the other, India, surprisingly
wealthy, and itself the connecting link
whose shores, abounding with good ports,
are almost everywhe the fringes OF good
and largely yielding soil. Now is the time
for Trieste and Marseilles to bestir them
selves. The golden opportunity is offered,
and the earliest bidder will obtain the
greatest bargains, Who knows where will
be the London. the preeminent commercial
city OF future times? 1t would be odd IN
deed if, contrary to all modern anticipa-
tions, it should not be in North Ameria,
but in one of the oldest districts of the old
world. The old world is very much larger
than the new; is as rich, or richer, in mine
rails, and contains greater proportion of
richly productive soil After considera-
ton, then, it should not be surprising if
the commercial supremacy whichs success
sively left Tyre, Rome, and Venice, should
desert London-not for New York, but for
some place on the ancient coasts of the
Mediterranean. Should this really happen
(of course it is at present mere specula-
tion, and few years will decide the pro-
liability or improbabiiity of its ultimate
occurrence), there can be no doubt that
the Suez Canal will have been the great,
if not the sole cause of the r, generation of
the world of the ancients