The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-07-06
The Invasion of Asia by the Forces
OF the West.

Our latest news from Europe regarding
Asia is startling and strangely suggestive
Russia has centred her thought and her enter
prise on Central Asia; and the presumption
is that Russia, by her conquest of Khiva, will,
at no distant day, give the world good reason
to believe that she is mistress of the better
part OF ASIA north of the Himalaya range,
from the European boundary line to the
shores of the Pacific. Great Britain, as our
readers have seen, has been watching Russia.
The Persian concessions to Baron Reuter- are
proof of this; but the Chinese railway move
ment revives the old story that English gold is
a dangerously aggressive as well as obstructive
power in the modern world.
English capitalists have an eye on China.
The meeting convened at Stafford House is
sufficient proof of this. China is big baby;
but the baby is rich; and to get at the baby
and so to lay hold of the riches the baby
must be humored end presents must be
offered. It was William Pitt with English
gold at his back, who killed the First Napo-
leon and the first French Empire Then
it was England against France and
the revolutionary elements of Europe, and,
rightly or wrongly, England won. Now it is
England against Russia, and it Iemains to be
seen whether English gold can play the same
game and secure the same result We know
no good reason why the game should not
be fought, and fought out It is game in
which the contestants have each reasonable
chances of success, and in which both may
exhaust their resources beyond expectation;
but it is undeniable that the contest must re-
suit in the interest of what we are in the habit
of calling modern civilization.
Russia and England on the one hand, and
the United States of America on the other, re-
present, SO far as Asia is concerned, the ag-
gressive forces of Western civilization For
Japan we have done much, and promise to do
more (; and Japan under our tutelage gives
fair promise to take her place at no distant
day among the civilized nations Of the world.
Our intercourse with ASIA has been brief but
it has been marked and decisive. It is now
long since the world heard of Give, and
Hastings the names antedate the first French
Revolution, and, of course, the first French
Empire; but England has held on to India,
and Hindostan to-day, according to one of our
own greatest statesmen, justifes British pos
session for the last hundred years. Russia is
not hindered in taking her course and doing
her best In the conquest and civilization of
Northern and Central Asia she hos work
enough on hand, and it is our belief that both
America and England wish her God speed.
England's proposal for the present touches
China The proposal may not be free from
the faint of selfshness, but if the Chinese
authorities assent to the proposal China may
in few years leap into newness of life
which will surprise and startle the nations.
We owe much to Asia. All or almost all
that we are and have we owe to the East.
The East gave us life and art and science. We
have improved on their gift, and the time has
come when we can offer it back with interest
China, although the largest Empire in the
world, is as yet the unknown land. The time
has come when China must open her long
closed doors and submit to the aggressive
stranger with the railroad and the telegraph.
For q time she may resist, but in the long
run resistance must be vain. 1t is an old
prophecy that nations will be born in day.
All things indicate that this prophecy is on
the eve of fulfilment. The railroad and the
telegraph carry with them the cross, not the
crescent, and when the teeming millions of
China hear the whistle of the one and the
click of the other the long-promised day can
not be far of.