PROGRESS IN THE NEW WORLD. 209 



share. It now holds between the two oceans, from the fifty-fifth to 

 the thirtieth parallels of north latitude, a fertile and life-breathing 

 territory, well fitted to be the cradle of great empires ; the flourish- 

 ing Confederation of Canada, the colony of British Columbia, and the 

 mighty republic of the United States. Virgin forests have fallen 

 before the restless axe of the hardy pioneer ; hundreds of populous 

 cities have risen as if by enchantment in districts haunted within the 

 memory of men by the bear and the wild buffalo ; a network of 

 railways spreads from the Atlantic almost to the base of the Rocky 

 Mountains ; crops of waving corn bloom over wide prairies that a 

 few years ago yielded only the tall grass and waving reed; the 

 aboriginal tribes of the Red Indians have melted away before the 

 impetuous tide of an ever-advancing civilization ; and the exhaustless 

 energies of our race have already raised in less than a century two 

 mighty empires on the Mississippi and the St. Lawrence, destined to 

 a marvellous, a changeful, and doubtlessly a glorious history. And 

 both these empires have sprung from the loins of England, are 

 governed in the main by the same laws, hold the same religion, are 

 animated by the same aspiring and unwearied genius, and 



" Speak the tongue 



That Shakspeare spoke ; the faith and morals hold 

 Which Milton held ; " 



in everything, as we believe, 



" Are sprung 

 Of Earth's first blood, have titles manifold." * 



Southward from the thirtieth parallel stretches the domain of the 

 Latin races, already mingled with and being absorbed by the Anglo- 

 Saxon, in Canada, California, and the Southern States of the Union. 

 Vast as this region is, for it comprehends all Central America and all 

 the Southern Continent, it is infinitely less prosperous, less powerful, 

 less peopled, than what we may call Saxon America. Mexico is a by- 

 word and a reproach for savage anarchy and murderous license. 

 Neither Chili, nor Peru, nor even Brazil approaches Canada in solid 

 power and the auspicious promise of future greatness. The Latin race 



* Wordsworth, " Poetical Works ;" sonnet xvi., vol. iii., p. 61. 

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