The Nashville Daily Union

European Prophecies
Concerning
America.

Some time since a prominent English
Wesleyan divine suggested that a most
entertaining volume might be produced
by collecting the various prophecies
and prognostications made by hostile
European journals concerning America
during the progress of our conflict,
and comparing them with the actual
results. Such a book would certainly
afford much amusement. We question,
however, whether the London Times
and other journals of that stripe would
learn any lessons from it. For,
notwithstanding their previous ridiculous
failures, they have continued, since the
close of the war, to prognosticate and
presage in regard to this country with
all their accustomed assurance. This
has been especially true of our financial
affairs. The European Times remarks
on this point:

There is one feature of the present
period which has commanded much attention—the large amount of specie
which is now reaching us from the
Western world to rectify the state of
the exchange. Every recent packet from
America has brought considerable
quantities of gold. No less a sum than
two millions has come to hand during
a short time from that country. So far,
the commercial panic, which many
writers on finance on this side of the
ocean declared must inevitably overtake
the Americans on the termination of
their great struggle, has not yet made
its appearance. It is a remarkable fact
that almost all the dismal prognostications
which were indulged in here, both
during the war and since its end, have
been signally falsified by actual events.
There were to have been sudden collapse,
universal bankruptcy and other deplorable
evils; and the answer to these misgivings
is the millions of gold from America
which now prove so useful in the coffers
of the great English monetary establishment
in Threadneedle street.