AVhen a young la-.ly offers to hern a cambrio. handkerchief for a rich bachelor she ineaas to sewthat; she may reap.
IMPKNCMANCKS. \V r <» are on the thrusl!'i ot ,'mother century, and must mould our future by the wan- ; in r.s ;imi I I,lie lessons of I,lie past. No one who reads the si' Mis of the time-i can fail f;o f/I;at, -,ve ;ire on the eve of'great changes, , jin'l {»»• r* 11=• [> h in time of a u New Departure in (,he history of (Lie Kngdish race on this (y ,n|.incrit. Already (he beginning of the en I is at hand. The Oil World in billbig fare w (; l| to the land, and to tho dieam of the liniicd rn|>ii'e Ijoyal'sts. While instinetiV'dy clinfill'/ to her .skirts, the last hold on them ; is slipping IVorn our : and when the; last IJritish soldier is called upon to do a last act " for th ; encoura'gem mt of trade-," by , the IJritish flag", and carrying it away with him from our shores, he will leave, lis a nation. While IJritish statesmen are doing 1 s . little to readse the idea of a United Umpire, and so much to reu ler it impossible, there is an unexpected hope from a i[Uur t.:r whence we mi'ght least look for it, from a new and mysterious influence that during the pa-it few ye.rs is everywhere miking itself j lull, and obeyed. The lon lency to a ro-uui m ; of races is sit Idenly developing itself throu : out the civilised world in an unsciwtab'e an I irresist, ible way ; and languag-e is exerting .. . -ui... .1....;,.:,,, r.f ti,«
a If.'.v power on the ties: lines °r nations. mat il, must ultimately rnalco itself folk am nig ; ourselves vvn cannot d mht. Thu languige, of commerce is now tlui iviglish tongue, ft fact ! Iliiil, was strongly impressed upon the writer : during si rivoit visit to St. Thorn is, tt mta ■ ( Kista< ih, St. Bartholomew, St.: Martin's, ilii«l oMhm- c donies in ihe foreign West Indies, where the Dutch, Swedish, • itn| French languages have been swall > -ved ii|> l.y our own; those c immunities being Hughs'i in everything except in name. Tlie Knglish tongue is now more or less spoken t liimii ghont a large port ion of tho civilised world, ami more than one-half of the c >m-in.-ree -anti shipping of the world is controlled 1)y |,he Kuglish race, the United Kingdom, in
p',,inl of tonnage, standing first, the United States, second, an I the British Colonies, third, the new Dominion alone ranking next I, > Kr nice as a maritime power. A re-union of (,he. Mnglish race may well startle us by its magnitude and its grandeur, for, realised, it would dwarf the greatest nations of antiquity iiud become one of the wonders of history. IS'or need we believe that the problem is a hopeless one, or that the language winch has elsevVhero accomplished such marvels will be powerless to unite the w de spread biaiiC.iesof Uie English race by its influence. In our day
the magic power of the German tongue has realise T tl 0 (Iroam of a United Germany, while Austria is torn asunder by the tendency of ils Selavie and (Jormanie races to gravitate east and west towards their kinsmen. As barbarism is elevated into civilisation, its tribes ,>nd clans arc merged int.) nations. The nations of civilisation themselves seem about, to realise a new stage of development; and their future seems destined to be regulated, not by trade or geographical boundaries, or historical traditions, but by a voice that, coming to them from the very cradle of their race, seems destined to revive on a o-randtr scale the very same rivalries that marked tho early history of tne wot Id. fs there not reason to behove that future contests for supremacy will have a wider and grander theatre, that the wars of the litans will be revived, and that a struggle of the races is awaiting us? Tn looking forward to the future of the English people, we may have little to hope for from the aspirations of our statesmen, hue we have much to expect, from tho spirit of the age and from the example atul influence ot other races. AVdieu we seo languages that have no past national history to'appeal to breaking down the barriers that a thousand years of rivalry and division have built up, we carmot believe that the English tongue, that is identified with the birth of liberty, and with the growth of commerce .and civilisation, has in one short century of disunion lost its virtue ; nor can we suppose that it alone is unable to re-echo the voie ' f there-union of races which has gone forth among the nations, and which nature itself seems to have learned at this late date—" those whom (Jod has y,lined let no man put asunder." —St. James' Magazine."
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Bibliographic details
Waikato Times, Volume I, Issue 47, 17 August 1872, Page 2
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816Untitled Waikato Times, Volume I, Issue 47, 17 August 1872, Page 2
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