Year: 1870

The year 1869 has witnessed the
completion Of some of the greatest
works of the century, and carried the
world forward with grander strides in
the pathway of material progress than
any other single year in the recollec-
ton ot the present generation. 1t has
rarely been given to any one man To
witness the realization of tlVo schemes
so important to the prosperity of all
civilized nations as the opening of 8
canal through the desert and a rail.
way across great continent; but that
these great events should have been
crowded into one short year is indeed
8 remarkable and significant eircum-
stance. The French engineer, with 8
rare combination of enthusiasm and
patience, has succeeded in carrying
out project as old as the ages of the
Pharaohs. In this fast land of ours a
project that is worth anything is never
suffered to grow old; and men had
scarcely begun to talk about crossing
the uninhabitSd plains and mountains
with three thousand miles of iron rail
before the pick and the shovel COM
meneed clearing the way, snd years be-
fore the most sanguine dreamed of see
ing the end, the work was finished. -
Thus BY two wonderful achievements
of engineering the distant East is at
the same moment brought next door to
America and next door to Europe; the
old currents Of trade are changed; and
with the change commerce prospers
and life is felt in desert and deeayed
countries.


These are the chief labors which
have been crowned during the year
1869. Others hardly less important
have been planned out or begun, As
France cut through the sands of Suez,
so America is preparing to cut through
the forests and mountains of Darien,
and open a new ocean route which will
be easier, safer. and more practically
useful than the dangerous path from
the Mediterranean to the Arabian Sea.
The year 1870 will doubtless witness
the beginning of this work, and date
by no means distant may be set for the
celebration of its close. By that time
perhaps all our Western wildernesses
will be crossed by the locomotive and
dotted with settlements; and great
American steamship lines will be
ready to take their freight at the At
lantic and Pacific ports and pass
through the new channel which will
be opened between the two oceans.


If few great political changes have
marked the year, the principles of po-
litical justice have made cheering pro-
gress in nearly all the great countries
Of the world, while no countries can be
said to have gone backward. In Great
Britain and France especially the
rights of the people have been more
fully recognized, and the despollsm of
centralized power and privileged castles
has been rudely shaken. At home we
have made some steps toward the reali-
zation of the American ideal of equal
rights for all, and have been cheered
by steady improvement in the faith
ful administration of our laws and the
regulation of our finances. We have
presented to the world a noble specta-
Gle of a people rising with unbroken
energies from devastating war, and
by hard work, economy, intelligence,
and the honest rule Of a good Presi-
dent, repairing with unparalleled ra-
pidity the ravages of four years of con-
ilict. We, at all eyents. have abun-
dant reason to look back upon 1869
with gratitude and satisfaction. May
the record of the year this day begun
prove equally brightly. r Tribune,
Jan. J.