Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-02-28
CITIES AND THEIR GoDFATHERs.

Most cities were founded by accident.
There was no deliberate plan. A hut or
two grew into village, village into
town, and town into a city. London,
for instance, had no godfather. The first
barbarian who landed from his canoe and
| fixed his habitation under the hill now
crowned by the cathedral of st. Paul, little
knew he was founder of city to which
Rome at the height of its glory was insig-
niicant in its proportions, its numbers, and
its wealth. A place sometimes derived its
name from the physical features which dis
tinguished it. Oxford, Cambridge, Mil.
ford, Newport, Redhill, Blackwater, Var
mouth, are instances in point. At times
some natural advantage it possessed was
the occasion of its name. Thus the Span
lard, Pedro de Mendoza, named the capital
of the State he founded in South America
Buenos Ayres, to celebrate the excellent
climate and Valparaiso was so called as
an intimation that its position is such as to
be the very Valley of Paradise.
The cities founded by the godfathers
famous in existence. No man seems to
ating himself in this way Alexander the
Great gave his name to the Egyptian city
which he founded, and which the Ptolemies
made one of the most magnificent of the
ancient world. In Candahar, too, we
recognize the Asiatic name Qskander) of
the great conqueror who founded it. Co.
logne (Colonia Agrippina), which has come
to be regarded as the symbol Of German
unity, owes its name to the incestuous
mother of Nero, who was born there.
Saragossa, capital of the old kingdom of
Arragon, is only corruption of Cesarea
Augusta, so called after Augustus, who
rebuilt the Carthagenian town formerly on
its site, and named the new city after him
self. This refounding an old town and
giving it a new name was common in an
tiquity. When Adrian restored what the
ancient writers called Uscudana, he i'm
posed upon it his own name, and thence
forward it was knows as Adrianople, just
as when Philip Ill of Macedon, formed a
new city on the site of Eumolpias, it was
converted into PhiEppepohs. In the same
way Constantine, when transferring the
seat of empire to Byzantium, renamed the
city ON the Bosphorus Constantinople.
The representative of the modern Byzan-
tine Empire has his seat in a city also
called after its founder-St. Petersburg.
When adventures from this country
named the chief town in Nova Scotia, they
were virtually addressing PREDATORY dedi-
cation to the Earl of Halifax. First Com.
missioner of Trade and Plantations,
Charlestown was so named in honor OF
Charles H., the reigning monarch. Balti-
more received its name in l76S after Lord
Baltimore. 1t was only just that when, in
1893, the foundation stone was laid of the
Federal Capital of the United States, the
ortbcoming city should be named after
the Father of his Country Washington.
In the same way the capital of Victoria
was named after the Prime Minister of the
time Melbourne that of South Australia,
Adelaide, after the Queen Dowager; that
of New South Wales after the then Sec.
rotary for the Colonies, Sydney; and that
of New Zealand after Lord Auckland.
THE AMGBoID PROCESSES OF PRoTo.
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