, 1881-01-19

Every day the means of communication
improve, every day the exhaustion of the
European continent is more felt, while
every day, as intelligence spreads, the
masses fret more and more under their
monotonous daily toll, with it's want of
chances. and the insecurity of which they
have only just become aware. That is
to say. the Union is already the second of
White Powers of the world in population,
and might expend German army a year
in slaughter without feeling an impedi.
ment to her progress. Nor are these
multitudes as yet pressing on the means
of su bsistence. It 10 a special feature OF
the condition of the American Union that
there are within it few 'scongestioDs," thst
as men grow thick 0n the ground they
nov off OF :heir own will. to more attrac-
tive soils, that migration has become an
automatic law, till the sweep OF the popu-
lation towards the West-that 10, towards
an area of profitable agriculture--is gra-
dually transferring the control of the Union
to the Western treeholder. All who will
work obtain q living, and the immense
majority OF the population secure ore
which, though not without sordid features
10 it and an element Of grinding anxiety,
Is, as regards food, clothing, lodging, and
education, distinctly better than that OF
any large population in the past or present
OF the old World.
The economic condition of the Union is
marvellous, and q just source OF Pride to
its people, but Americans must not forget
that much of their trimming prosperity Is
purchased at a heavy moral price. They
do less for the world involving selfsacri6ce,
deliberately do lees, than any great people 10
it, unless itbe the Germans, who may fairly
plead that their gigantic armaments' 1t
they produce unrest, still save Europe
from the ambition alike OF Gall aud
Slavs The American Union is rich be-
yond compare, first, because it Inherited
the richest estate but one 10 the world
Brazil is possibly richer, as men will
see when the Germans take possession
and secondly, because it spends SO little
of the rational fortune on either Army
or Navy, because it refuses to maintain
order in any Asiatic dependency, because
1t looks on the struggles of the Old World
with the halt amused glance OF an lndltter-
ent spectator. 1t has the strongest, the
f%reest, and the most prosperous OF peoples
within its borders; but no nation 10
bonds.looks upwards to the Great Repub'
lie. for aid, no strugglingIpeople turns to
her Fleet with longing, no peIlShlng
race 80 much as hopes that the Western
rife will drive away the oppressor. Que
American shell would liberate the Atmen-
isns, but it will not be fired. The world
may die of despair, for Washington. The
most generous individually Of races will
collectively fstrike no blow for foreign
freedom, send no feet. issue even no COM
mand. There is a legend current, which
we have never been able to trace fully,
that America once interviewed In the most
decided way to save Switzerland from an
invasion; but unless that be true we know
of ~no::great service.she has done to mankind,
except in offering the distressed a home
and that repays her. Yet, with her neces.
sary disinterestedness, and her magnificent
reso urces, and her detached policy, the
Union might often be the best OF a%rblters,
might arrest a war, and hurry on a work
of mercy to mankind like the erasure OF
the Sultanet. She, however, does nothing
even ON her own continent, where State al
ter State is rotting down or falling backfrom
civilisation, unaided, unguided, and uncon-
trolled by the mighty people who claim TO
b ,ssand are, distinctively 4" the Americans"
and who endlessly accumulate the strength
they use politically only for themselves.
The Union does not even insist on order
in Maxico. will not keen forces sufficient