Chamberss Edinburgh Journal, No. 429 | Page 3

at that period will not be short of a
hundred millions. What an amount of letter-writing and printing will
this produce! And, after all, how small that amount in comparison with
what will be seen a hundred years hence, when many hundred millions
of men are on the earth, English in speech and feeling, whatever may
be their local and political distinctions! The gratification which one
experiences in contemplating facts of this kind, transcends the power of
language. To all appearance, our English tongue is the expression of
civil and religious freedom--in fact, of common sense; and its spread
over the globe surely indicates the progress of civilised habits and
institutions.
In referring to the qualities which are usually found in connection with
the prevalence of English as a vernacular, we are led to anticipate
prodigious strides in the popularising of literature during the next
twenty years. What, also, may we not expect to see done for the
extension of epistolary correspondence? Intercourse by letter has
advanced only one step of its progress, by the system of inland
penny-postage. Another step remains to be effected: the system of
carrying letters oversea on the same easy terms. That this Ocean
Penny-Postage, as it is termed, will be carried out, at least as regards
the larger British colonies, within a period much under twenty years, is
exceedingly probable. When this grand achievement is accomplished,
there will ensue a stream of intercommunication with distant lands, of
which we can at present form no proper conception, and which will go
far towards binding all parts of the earth in a general bond of
brotherhood.
Such are a few of the things which we may be said to be warranted in
looking for within a reasonably short period of time. Other things,
equally if not more contributive to human melioration, are less
distinctly in expectation. The political prospects of the continental
nations are for the present under a cloud. With all the glitter of artistic
and social refinement that surrounds them, the bulk of them appear to
have emerged but little beyond the middle ages; and one really begins

to inquire, with a kind of pity, whether they have natural capacities for
anything better. The near proximity to England of populations so
backward in all ideas of civil polity, and so changeful and impulsive in
their character, cannot but be detrimental to our hopes of national
advancement among ourselves; so true is it that peace and happiness
are not more matter of internal conviction than of external
circumstances.
Unfortunately, if there be something to lament in the condition of our
neighbours, there is also something to humiliate on turning our
attention homeward. In a variety of things which are required to give
symmetry and safety to the social fabric, there appears to be an almost
systematic and hopeless stoppage.
Nearly the whole of the law and equity administration of England
seems to be a contrivance to put justice beyond reach; and whether any
substantial remedy will be applied during the present generation may
be seriously doubted.
It is universally admitted that, for the sake of the public health,
interment in London and other large cities should be legally prohibited;
and that various other sanitary arrangements in relation to these
populous localities should be enforced. Yet, legislation on this subject
seems to be beyond the grasp of statesmen.
The system of poor-laws throughout the United Kingdom is, with the
best intentions, a cause of widely-spread demoralisation. These laws, in
their operation, are, in fact, a scheme for robbing the industrious to
support the idle. But where is the legislator who will attack and
remodel this preposterous system?
The prevention of crime is another of our formidable social difficulties.
Every one sees how young and petty criminals grow up to be old and
great ones. It is admitted that the punishment of crime, after disorderly
habits are confirmed, is no sufficient check; and that, if the evil is to be
cured, we must go at once to its root. But when or how is this to be
done? Again, there is a call for that scarcest of all
things--statesmanship.

The bitterness of sectarian contention is another of the things which
one feels to be derogatory to an age of general progress. No longer are
men permitted to kill each other in vindication of opinion, but how
mournful to witness persecution by inuendo, vituperation, and even
falsehood. Individuals and classes are seen bombarding each other in
vile, abusive, and certainly most unchristian language, all ostensibly in
the name of a religion which has for a fundamental principle, an utter
repudiation of strife! Whether any amendment is to be looked for in
this department of affairs within the next twenty years is exceedingly
uncertain.
In the roll of disheartening circumstances in