The British Empire

England is, at the present moment, immeasuriibly the most powerful naiion on the globe. lt is difficult to compute with any accuiacy Ihe millions subject to her sway. Her colonies girdie the globe. And every year sho is making i.iimens accessions to her territories. - Witli lier North American colonies, the Cañadas, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland, all are familiar. - These colonies, containing now as inany inhabitants as the U. S. contained during the Revolution, are rapidly increasing in population and power. At the West Indieswo see the British flng waving from n hundred different stations, and a popwlation of more than a million in those verdant iskrnds bon missively to Victoria's sway. VV hen we coma n sight of Australia, a world by ilself, aficf the luxuriant islands interspersed through the Souihe-n seas, we find that English entorprise and industry are fast transforming them nlo ihe abodes of civilizotion and refinernent. New Zealand. a few years ago, was bul another narne for cannibalism, and every conceivable barbarity. The Engüsli had recenlly con verted the Bny of Islands rito one of ihe most lovely spo;s which could be fuund upon the surfane of the globe. A rapidly rising community were diflusing wealth and inielligence; and where but a few years ago nothing was to be heard but the howlingsef the naked savage, of late the printing press has been busy, and in the New Zealand Gazeite could be found advertisementa of most of the luxuries vvhichcan bo oblained in London or New York. A few months ago the natives, provoked by oppression, rose n their united might, ond afler a bloody conflict, burned to the ground every house but one in the colony. The inhabitants, in number about a thousand took refuge on board some American and English ships then in the harbor, and wero trarsported to the English culony in South Asutria. - j Thissevere check, however, is only 1 porary. Victoria's flag will soon be unfürled again over the forts and dwellings of Englislimen, as the natives of thnt mngnificent sumd fade rapidiy nwny i before the invading hosi from iheir Caucasinn eradle. It is but about seven yeirs since the colony in South Anstialia was commenced: and now it contains an European population of upwarjs of twenty thousnnd. The town of Adelaide alone hns a [jopulatlon of soven or eight tbousand, with churches, ehapels,schoo)s, a college, ihree or four newspapers, and various societies. This ihrivmg town, on soil still marked wiih the foutsteps of heathen,isni, contains a bank, an exchange, a tlieatre, I regret to add, shops and Wttrohuuses, together wiih numerous iustituliuns beariug witnessto the completeness of the suclety there established. Precisely the same influences are transpiring in those regions through the euergy ol England, wliicli have already chauged ihis continent firora a forest raugtd by wandering tribes of Indians.into a pupuluus country, of well-cultivated lielda and crowded cities, energized witli all the elementa of intelleciua], and physical and moral power. One alter another these islands are fust falling into the hands of Lngland,becoming her prop erty, peopled by her citizens, and swellng her commerce, and ihus her revenucs and her power. If we leave these islands and go to Soulhern India, the mind isoverwhelmeü with astornshinent tliat the litlle islaud of'Gieut Britain, some fitteen thuusand miles distant, can control the ununuuibered millions of tliis vast coniinent. A body of English merchunts, the Directors of the East India Coinjmny, liave under their control apopuluiion of one hundred millions ofsubjects, a population six times groater thun tliat of the Uniied States, and tliey draw from these subjects i! is said, anunnual revenue ol' from filty to one liundrcd milliuns of dollars. - ïhey support powerl'ul standing armies, form trenties, declare war, and subjugnte vast nutions. The British power in India is conslantlyon the increase. Al most every year makes imporiant ac cessions to ihoir territor) t as ihey push their so'dicrs up the rivers, and over tlie mountains, and bring ncw empires with their uncounted millions under thcir sway. VVhere this aystem is to ter.ninate, it is rt)possible to imagine. And thougli it is ofien said ihat ihe Biitish empire in India is a bubble which is liuble to burst at any moment, that bubbla must be a strong one, which can remain unbroken under so many and such heaVy blows. Before Congreve looketsand Paixhan guns, the timid troojjs of India flee in terror. - The Englisti have marched in triumph up the banks of the lndus almost to its Western &hore. They have, aOer fearful faken AfFghonisian, and placed England's sutwnigsive slave and looi upon her throne; and nre now preparing for iho onslfiight wiih the armies o!' Russia, on the plnins of Peii And Trom thesummit of the Himloya mountains her troops are looking down with o wist ful eye upon tha asf, mysierious, unexplored regions of the Chinese empire, waiting but an opportuniiy tcrpour down lite an Evalanche opan ihose inviling plains. And f the past can ihrow any light upon the future, this time must invitably soon como. Even now the British fleet reposes tnumphanlly in ihe harbors of tha Celestial Empire. Her gur.s have humbled to the dust this prour] but powerless people. The mud waïïa of the emporium of Chinese cominerce are knodted to pieces, her gun-boats fuac. England is now exuliing as the conqueror of China, and China is a bloeding suppliant at the fuot of the Britisli lion. The rnurderous war which England recently waged ngainst the Chinese empire, was perhapa as unjustifioble a war ns a civilized nation ever engngcd in. - Yet the Lord, even from thesins and outrages of man, educes good ; and He will doubtless overrule this event for ilie furtheranco of civilization and the gospel. The merchants of Europe and America have, year afier year, vvaited at the door of the vast empire of China, teeming with a population of three hundred milllons, and in vain sought admiltance. - They would gladly send their ships op every river, and sell the producís of their manufactories in evnry village. But the Chinese have kepl tliem waiting ttt their tlireshold, have reached out a cautious hand, and taken a few goods and lianded out a lit'.le tea, while the people at large have been secluded from inlercourse with the nations of theeaith - liave been shut up to barbnrism. This cannot continue. Now, when ihe smoke of tlie stenmer is seen upon the bosom of the Atlantic nnd the Pacific, and is flonting over the streams, not only of Europe ind America, Lut also of Asia and África; - when tlie raüroad bridges the gulf and Lores the granita of eterna! motmtains, nnd hi-ings tlie world's extremities into jux'aposition; when machinery seems alimst invsted with a living intellect, and a sensitivo conscience, and manufactures nre flooding the world with comforts and luxurips ; when many run to nnd fro, and knowldge is tnukipJied, no despotic efforts can stay the onward nrogress of any nation or tribe. The wall of China has crumblcd. Tliat iron denotism lias yielued. The millions who crowd the vnllies of the Ilcango, the Yantase and the Hongking, those mighty Missis-ippies of Eastern Asia, ore openod to intercourse with the L.rent nations of Christendom. - Thesteamer will soon triümphantl v ascend those majeslic strpams, and carry in its train the refinements and the arts of civilizeJ life. Steam navigation is nou' opening a new era upon Inuia. From England to Ëombay, by vay of the Medi'erranean sen and the Euphrafes, which riverthe English government have nlready explored by stenmers, the dis!ance is but seven thousand miles. In all this route there is but one liundred and twenty miles of land carriage. This by raiU road seerns but a trifling obstocie.The distance lo India around the Cape of Good Hope is about fourteen thousand miles. The routo through Egypt and the Red Sea isalso contemplutrtl with inucfa interesl. From Cairo on the Nile to Suez on tf.e Red Soa, the distance is but sevenly miles. Tlie remalns of an ancient ' canal connecling these walers, can riow ! be distinctly traced. The French j gineers under Napoleon estimated the ! expense ofopening this canal for ship navigation to be but tliree millions of dollars. One of these routes wil! soon.doubtlets, become the grrat thoruughfure to India. By either of them the distance, in time, from London to Bombay, isnbout thirty diiv?, ntead of from four to six montlis, vvhieli was the avernge passage by ihe Cape. VVhen it is rememl)e-ed at Englnnd has In ludia teiTÍtory about as large as the whole of Europa, that she has thore over ono hundred millionsof sul'jects; that India now consumes English products lo tlie amoiint of twentyfive milli.ins dollars annUally, and that this consumptfori is so rapidly increasing that it is confidently expectod that il willsoon amounttofive hundred millions; and ihñ animal revenue draWn from tliat country is eslimated by some of her statesmen as high as from fifty to a hundred millions, we c:innot wonder nt her anxiety to retain these possessions and to render tbaiTi as easily occessible as possibl. If we lurn our attention lo África we theresee the same progressivc movemenl "f the Caucasian race, irr gnining possesion of the territoria of the barbarían races, onci n transferring to them tho láws and ir.slitutions of civiüzaiion. Ir ij not yet SAy years since England first took posscssion of a point of land at the Cape of Good Hope'. Now she ovvns ', territnry th ire, some lwo or t!iree times as large as the island of Great Brta n. - Every few years we he.ir that she has puslied hor boundary line some hundreds "f milfs furtber into the country of the Í riatives.bringingmany chieis, and populous tribes, int o subjection to the British goiernment. The land of the Hcitentots, the land of the Zulus,nnd alarga part of the land of iheCaffre nation, hnve now becorae the temtory of England. And the same progress of gradual' and irressilible encroacliment is tvitnessed at a dozen other points on the coast of tliis vasi, ben'ghted continent; on Fernrndo Fo, ; t Cape Coast, at Sierra Leone and at Gambia.