Daily Los Angeles herald., 1878-11-05

boasted that the sun never goes
down on the roll.call of its battal-
ions. Alta time when England is
posturizing theatrically with her
Sepoys on the malarious island of
Cyprus, to impress Europe with q
sense of her unbounded resources,
O disaster in the Khyber Pass may
shiver her Aslatic realm to pieces.
However England may fare from
a military standpoint, there are
other developments which menace
the primary sources of her wealth
her commerce and manufactures.
Already the cotton spinners of New
England are underselling the Brit
ish manufactures in Manchester,
while American iron and steel
manufacturer are "crowdlng" our
English cousins In Sheffield and
Birmingham.
1t may be said that con-
siderations Of trade have moth
ing to do with those of EN-
pire. 1t is now about seventy
years since the first Napoleon fir I
sneered at the English ~ "a ma
tion of shop-keepers." Yet the vic
tor of Jena and Austerlitz went
down before the sleuth- hound per-
sistence and pecuniary resources Of
those shop.keepers. 1t was those
very shop-keepers who prevented
Napoleon from being the undlsput-
ed master of the European, African
and Asiatic continents. That Won
derful soldier always had African
and Asiatic aspirations. His men,
ory and his imagination teemed
with projects which related to the
storied East, and it was only the
ships of the shop-k eepers and theil
money, arising from their thrift
which prevented the realization o
the Napoleonic dreams. AS soon
as England's distinctive character
of the shop-keeper of nations ha'
departed her power will depart
with il. In this view far more i'm
portant than the possible military
failure of England in the Khybel
Pass is the revolution in trade
which is rapidly sending the ingen'
ious and resourceful people of the
United States to the front.
We do not know-we shall soor
know if we have Congress Demo
cratic in both branches-whethel
the present Democratic party il
characterized by the nerve and sa'
gacity of the old organization. II
it is, we can soon become the "shop'
keeper of nations" By imposing
an export duty on cotton, and
building q canal through the 18th.
mus of Tehuantepec, we could soon
command the trade of the immense
multitudes of the East. American
commerce and the American fish.
cry interests were the products o.
the policy of the old Democratic
party. The restoration of that
party to power ought to be, ant
probably will be, charact erized by
a revival of American commerce
through the repeal of absurd lawl
which have choked our marine in
terests to death.
Thirty years ago Geo. NJ. Dallas
. Democratic statesman, painted th,
benefits which will flow to Ameri
can commerce through the build
ing OF u ship canal through th,
Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Will
the ability to sell our manufactures
| goods In England itself, the con
struction of that canal would max,
US masters of the trade of the East
1t is veritable fact that th,
United States to day needs but {
tithe of the audacity and sagaciou,
policy of the England of old to con
stitute herself the shop-keeper O
the world. With an export duty
on cotton, which would give us
monopoly of Its manufacture, anC
a canal cut through the American
continent, which would give oul
goods short and cheap water tran
sit, the Isthmus of Suez would
count for nothing to England, and
the day on which the traveller from
New Zealand, to adopt Maeaulay't
conceit, would stand on dilapidated
London Bridge, and gaze upon the
ruins of st. Paul, would be very
much hastened.