Year: 1869

America : gigantic workshop, as u in pre-
paration for the trade Of thousand mil
lions cf the human race which are now reused
nom their Asiadc lethargy by the echoes Of
our civilization. Railroad, telegraph, steam
boat and every modern appliance have trained
our energies to the task Of preparing for this
great India commerce. We press westward !;
but China, active under the coming storm Of
progress, moves eastward to meet US, Upon
our soil Ireland, the most western people Of
Europe, is advancing, spade in hand, towards
the Pacific Ocean; while eastward from San
Francisco twenty thousand Chinese laborers
are creeping up the slope of the Rocky Noun
tains to connect the Old with the New and
complete for civilization the orbit necessary to
make the population of the world homogeneous.


Europe may well feel the pressure, but she
must obey the impulse. England, great in the
glory Of her Indian conduesfs, enriched BY a
COMMERCE which at home has made her vast
mandatory and abroad has given her the
control of the ocean, must bow to progress
which she herself set on foot, and which she
must recognize as holding power great In
proportion to our geographical position when
compared to her own. France, whose sweep
ing intellect can almost compensate for lack of
geographical advantage, must also bend to
the fact that we are the centre Of the worlds
trade. France was the master mason at the
laying of the corner stone of our nationality.
We have never forgotten it, and our highways
to Eastern Asia are her transits also. 'sCome
and share with rs what we have" is the key
note of our greatness; and it is for this we
applaud the liberal treaties which China is
making with maritime Europe.


When we commenced the development Of all
our vast territory by our railway system the
efforts made were local and imperfect. The
lines were affected by petty interests, by rival
ries and jealousies They had very little bear
ing upon the question Of great through routes
and comprehensive principles. Up to 1861 we
went on with our systems, discovering that the
greatest embarrassment proceeded from State
boundary lines. Slowly we are emerging
from this narrowness of national development.
Our railway kings now take the map Of North
America and draw bold lines across 1t. Eng
land does the same, and thereby compliments
our future. We find that we cannot deal
with this great palpitating progress without
blotting out the narrow and the local to give
place to plans proportioned to the demands of
the age upon us. Short railroad lines are fast
disappearing, and great through lines, under a
single and cheaper management, take their
places. To-day great mania exists to reach
the Pacific, and West and Southwest our map
is covered with projected routes to San Fran
cisco, to Guaymas, to Mazatlan and San Bias.
Irrespective Of nationality we sweep across
Mexico, and she, dead to modern progress, Ia
Of as little account as feather in the track of
whirlwind.


All this impulse receives more or less force
from the growing cordial relations which
exist between us and Eastern Asia. When the
last rail is laid upon the Pacific Railroad the
world will ne |er"waIe We must own Pacific tele-
graph lines; for we must talk daily with this
great Chinese and Japanese people, with whom
we are to be so intimately connected and upon
whom depends so much Of our future great
ness. Asia in this century Is to receive an
impulse from the two youngest of the great
nations Russia and the United States-the
former steadily marching southeast and the
latter pressing already upon the shores of
China and Japan. These are the signs Of a
new era in the worlds history--an era which
will be marked by an extraordinary progress,
to which the past has been but the preface.


TURKEY AND GREECE.-Our latest news
from Europe regarding the Eastern question is
to the effect that Greece Is not willing to fol-
low the recommendations Of the great Powers,
and that Turkey Is hopeful that peace win be
the result Of the Conference. Rumors for some
days had been In circulation to the effect that
Turkey was heavily arming herself These
Il