DISINTEGRATION OF EMPIRES, AND ITS CAUSES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 827, 16 August 1864, Page 6

DISINTEGRATION OF EMPIRES, AND ITS CAUSES.

" The disintegration of Empires is the spectacle of the time now passinsr," s>ys Isaac Taylor, one ofthe most thoughtful write-s of thepresent .day. And in proof of this interest ing fact, he point's successively to the internal condition, at this moment, of China. Eussia, North America, aud Great Britain. In China we see the process of dieintegration going on, which;is the consequence of a slow decay of the forces within a political body. In Ru'sia there is witnessed the breaking up of a crazy and cumbrous machine—the falling r 0 pieces cf an unwieldly and outworn imperialism. In America there is the disintegration which is caused by an internal explosion. But there is a fourth kind of disintegration which is, in'its nature, auspicious and fruitful of good. It i« something like the domestic disintegration which ensues when fche younger branches of the family come to manhood, and emigrate from-the paternal roof,- to set up in the world for themselves. This process of dismemberment is going onin the lan'l ot^our fathers now In Mr Taylor's singularly abl« and thoughtful paper, recently published, the first three instances of contemporary imperial dismemberment are alotie discuss-d -the fourth instance being beyond his immediate object iv the essay. Recent events seem, however, to have given a fresh unmilse to emigration from Britain and Europe generally, and as the subject under all its asprcts is one of permanent interest to all British colonists, we may take the opportunity of dwelling a little on that part of his theme left undiscussed. We may indicate some of the less obvious links of connection between the emigration of mankind and the ultimate fate of empires. Sir H. Davy suggests.that the original dispersion of the human race, and its diversion into several marked varieties, may have been benefical io mankind, simply by affording a means ofthe subsequent admixture of fche races, In this way the degenerating effects of too cJose interna: rriages may be prevented, and the excess of any marked peculiarities descending to, and accumulating in, particular offsprings, may be interrupted. Besides, he supposes that refinement and civilization may be carried Too far, so as to produce too great an excitability of cons', itution, and an effeminacy and corruption of habits and morals ; bufc an intermixture with a, barbarous race again restores the equilibrium. • The past history of the world has certainly confirmed the latter supposition.. The history of nations hitherto has been a gradual ad vanes to the extreme point of refinement and intelligence, then a gradual decay, till afc last they h »ye been overrun by some more savage but more powarml tribe, which has at last become incorporated with tbe conquered. But this intermixture appears to have been confined to the various tribes and subdivisions of eich particular race; in proof ot ihis, the great primary varieties remain, distinct and separate to this day. Undoubtedly, how ever, admixtures of tbe same primary races in various stag3s of civilization have frequently taken place ; and thus it has beon supposed that the reported amalgamation of different tribes of Saxons, Normans, and Danes among the original Celts of Brivnin, may h-ive contributed tb the mental superiority of its inhabitants. The present great exodus from Europe, maybe also one of tho?e salutary operations of nature by which the effects of a too refined and artificial existence may be remedied, aad thus the crowded and luxurious of Europe are yearly pouring oat their thousands, who spread themselves over the uncultivated wilds of Amerioa, India, Australia, and New Zealand. ? ' ' We may mark, however, a difference between the early and fche later migrations of the human race. Formerly ifc was an operation of division and dispersion, feuds and animosities—no less than seas and mountains rent nations asunder, and kept them separate.; : With emigration*

for tlie most part, followed ultimate degradation. Seldom, indeed, did colonies go forth, carrying improvement and civilization in their train—owing perhaps in a great measure to the imperfect means of communication to distant regions existing until recently. A very different state of things, however, seems now to have taken root The human family «*_. to be consolidatine rather than dispersing. The extraordinary facilities of intercourse between nations, both hy land and sea, is producing wonders in this respect. Who cou^d have dreamt two centuries ago of crossing the Atlantic in few. lye days'? or traversing tbe I-land of Great Britain in as many hours'? The time was in the annals ot the human race that the eo.igradon of Britons to Noith America would have given rise to a distincfc colony, having n different laii»ua_-e and manner ftom the present stock; but a common literature, tastes, and interests, and incessant intercourse, have aii tended to pres'-rve them the same—a vast nati-m now, far exceeding in mimhers that of the parent stock where they migrated. . Ifc is scarcely within the bounds ot possibility to cooceive another complete state of isolation over the habitable globe. Changes will inevitably occur wars and commotions, and temporary interruptions • but hope bids uvlook for-tbat period when knowledge shall extend from sea to sea aod illuminate all corners of the world. Yet, pleasing as it is to contemplate this nrobahle diffusion of intelligence, the analogies of the past, had we no better grounds of hope, are not without forebodings for the future Hitherto we have seen tha nations of the earth rhe in succession into power and intelligence, and sink a*_ain into sloth and ignorance. The fci-;e nf intelligence and national greatness has flowed in successive waves—here swelling out for a time, and again subsiding, instead of pouring onward in an uninterrupted and increasing current. Where are now the ancienfc and mighty cities of the earth ? Babylon. Nineveh, Thebes, and Luxor, possessed their tlousands of busy, ingenious and refined inhabitants; all the. arts calculated to benefit wire known tofheiri. They liyed in luxury,and raised mighty mohumehts to perpetuate their greatness, and palace tombs to enshrine their en balmedLbodiW' But time; has scattered all tp oblivion, and the rude, unlettered Arab stalks over the solitary desolation. Where the Etruscan capitals, shown cnly to pot-ferity by the remnants of fcheir.tombs ? Where, the, Greek and Roman Commonweal lbs. where'taste and refinement, fostered by wealth and power, rose to the most exquisite pitch of excellence 1 All are faded from the earth, and vanished as though they had never been. The history of the progress of nations is like that of the individual; tbey begin with a youth of struggles, and increase to a maturer age in the path of improvement;.but some law of their constitution forbids a further advance, and they grsdually sink into the dotaare and imbecility of old age. But perhaps a wore permanent.prosperity ■« ould nofc be compatible with the destiny of man. A universal diffusion of intelligence-^ certain means of acquiring knowledge, and an'uniform progress of society, would interfere with that probationary arrangement — that mixture oe good and evil—which we are led to believe is the inevitable lot of man on earth. If ever there was an era which he:d forth the promise, by the opsration of n-.tural means, of a general diffusion of intelligence over the globe, it is the present Ths bish perfection ofthe aiK the facilities of rapid conveyance, the influence of printing, and the awakened enei"d<*s of (society— all 'point'in this direction. Thafc these things . must tend to benefit the great mass of s-»ciefci, there can be no doubt. But we must beware of allowin. ourselves to imagine thafc man in the agregate is a beintj capJb c of unlimited improvement, or that all the knowledge to which he can possibly attain will ever raise the mind of the species above that point at which the Infinite fixed its limits. Wifch bis present facilities of miad, his physical attainments must have a boundary which it is by no means difficult to conceive or even define. These facilities are adapted for the app ehension of facts or phenomena—not for the comprehension of ultimate causes. Witb all our knowledge of the facts of nature, we are totally ignorant; of a single cause. We spsak of ; .gravity and attraction, and organic foices—but these are mere sounds to take the place of actual knowledge As long as effects are cognisable to man. he may go on aceumu'ating his store of information, varying his pleasures in th« comfiovts and necessaries of life, and diversifying in imaginative powers by turainer them into various channels; but in the meantime his mind has not made a single step beyond its boundaries. Ifc has acquired a wider field to expand upon, and more numerous parts and analogies on which to luminare, but its conceptions of ultimate caves and its powers still remain the same. The pro babitity is that, a* great and powerful minds existed in times, past as may ever yefc fill the future records of fame. The mind of .-.Socrates was as great as that of Newton, though the former wrs ignorant ofthe fact that, the planets; rolled r. und the sun in certain orbits and in certain periods. Archimedes probably had as-much inarenuifcy of invention and pracfciol sagacity as Watt: and Homer luxuriaced in his fertile fancy with as exquisite a richness as even Ihak-peare.'--" the great; protagonist." as De Quincey finely terms him, "in the intellectual arena.''