The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1882-08-10
LONDON LETTER.
Irregular Correspondence.)

| LONDON, England, July &c. 1882
| In few days the long voyage, or rather
| the heightened travels of the two sailor
sons of the Prince of Wales viii be ended.
The "B acchaute" will soon be in English
waters, after having passed many months
| in traversing the great oceans of the world,
and visiting scenes of interest upon the
mainlands and islands of the two hemis-
pheres. Never could the youth of princes
be more profitably spent than in travelling
| far into the world and viewing the wonders
and beauties which clothe its surface
There is no other way of cultivating the
spirit of cosmopolitanism which the prog
ress of society makes every day a
more imperative condition of great
careers or of exalted stations. One
glance at an ebony savage, magnificent in
feathers and petticoat of cocoanut leaves
is larger social revelation than is contain
ed in many books There is much fine
writing eXtant, notably of what is called
the picturesque school, but no combination
of all that is eloquent, melodious and sug-
gestive in words can equal, as a sketch of
a scene, the description which that same
scene prints upon the eye, no matter how
fugitive may be the glance. The immense
range of education the princes have re-
.ceived by their voyage around the world.
cannot be realized. They have viewed the
performance of life on stage whose ex
tent is the surface of the globe. HUI
mainly has acted its manifold parts before
them in all the countless arrays in which
vanity or tradition forces it to clothe itself:
and the scenery of the vast drama has been
the shores, the cities, the forests, islands,
and mountains of the earth. The play has
taken many months to act; but the fall of
the curtain has left a thousand inspirations,
and the two august spectators have brought
away with them a wisdom that should
make the knowledge of many an old man
but puerile toy in comparison. The pro-
gramme of the voyage could not have been
better devised. All the races of the world
so to speak. have come under the
review of of their Royal Highnesses and
much of the instructiveness of
the journey must have been contained in
this comparative inspection. In the cities
and towns of Australia they would wit
ness form of life purely English, struc-
lures which would remind them of London,
streets and districts with names pathetical
ly Illustrative of the colonlsts' devotion to
their oldhome traditions. Again, the
South Sea Islands would fascinate them by
the beauty of their coral strands, their
towering inland mountains, their Pacific
atmosphere fragrant with the perfumes of
the vegetation of a delicious zone The
passage of the Horn would be pregnant
with the memories of the early
circumnavigators, and as their fine
ship labored in the heavy SEAS which
ceaselessly roll, of that barren, iron-bound
coast, they would recall the adventures of
the primitive mariner in quest of new
worlds, and realize the grandeur of the |
and the hardihood of the spirit |
which made light of the frost and snow |
and surges of that desolate region in YES
sells not very much larger than the launch |
and pinnace of the ."Bacchaute. Indeed, |
of the Princes it may literally be said that
they have surveyed mankind from China
to Peru. And perhaps of all the scenes
they viewed, China diverted and interest
ed them most. There is, indeed, some
thing in the ways, habits, houses and be-
havior of the populations of the Celestial
Empire, that offers more points for curios-
lty to catch hold of than any other nation
on the face of the earth presents.