* * * * *
"Westward the course of empire takes its way;
The four first acts already past,
A fifth shall close the drama with the day:
Time's noblest offspring is the last."
This extraordinary prophecy may be considered only as the result of long
foresight and uncommon sagacity; of a foresight and sagacity stimulated,
nevertheless, by excited feeling and high enthusiasm. So clear a vision
of what America would become was not founded on square miles, or on
existing numbers, or on any common laws of statistics. It was an
intuitive glance into futurity; it was a grand conception, which they
have hitherto so hopelessly mismanaged, you must expect to go on from
had to worse; you must expect to lose the little prestige which you
retain; you must expect to find in other portions of the world the
results of the lower consideration that you occupy in the eyes of
mankind; you must expect to be drawn, on, degree by degree, step by
step, under the cover of plausible excuses, under the cover of highly
philanthropic sentiments, to irreparable disasters, and to disgrace that
it will be impossible to efface. LORD SALISBURY.