It is not now, however, the question, what we think of ourselves, but what M. Poletica thinks of us; and it is gratifying to find the opinion of an impartial foreigner so favorable to our country and its institutions; the rather, as his education, habits, and situation naturally lead him to prefer a form of government so unlike our own. His opinions respecting the condition of the United States, are, with some few and slight exceptions, equally just and liberal; they do credit to his own candor and skill in discriminating, as well as to the manners and institutions which are the subject of them.

The following extract, from the "General Considerations," with which his book begins, will show the attention which the author has has bestowed on the causes of things.

"From the irrevocable recognition of the political independence of the United States of America, by the treaty of Paris, of 1783, until towards the present time, the world has seen them prosper with a rapidity without example in the history of the most civilized nations.

“Natural and immutable causes, joined to others entirely accidental and transient, have concurred in producing the extraordinary developement of industry, in a country so recently emancipated, and so far from the great focus of civilization.

"Among the permanent causes, we must assign the first rank to the geographical situation of the United States, which gives them all the advantages of an insular position, in regard to external security, without excluding those which result from the possession of a territory immense in extent, and susceptible of every species of culture. To be perfectly secure in the peaceful enjoyment of this vast and beautiful domain, the North Americans never had, nor have they now, any other but tribes of Indian hunters to contend with, which daily and visibly diminish by the necessary effects of their precarious and wandering life. The great extent of fertile lands, and the abundance of the means of subsistence in the United States are the more favorable to the population, as it is naturally active, laborious, and enterprising. Thus have we seen it double itself in the space of twenty years succeeding the war of their Independence. This single fact in their statistical annals has not since been repeated.

"To this principal cause of the so rapidly increasing prosperity of the United States, we should undoubtedly add the salutary influence of a government as imperceptible in its progress as in its operations. Here, locality has again been favorable to that country. The absence of all immediate neighbourhood that could be dreaded, enables them to afford to their republican institutions all the latitude

1

which the opinions and prevailing habits of the people could claim. Wisely judging that the existence of a standing army would badly accord with the genius of a popular government, they have reduced it to a handful of men, so that they have no cause to apprehend serious inconvenience to the safety or tranquillity of the American Confederation.

any

"Their civil and political laws have been conceived in a spirit eminently calculated to guard individual liberty. Such must be the case in a country, in which, since its first colonization, the hatred of political or religious persecution has been transmitted from age to age as a revered tradition.

"It is well known that the first colonist who came to the United States, were men who had abandoned their own country to seek refuge from the civil troubles with which England was agitated about the middle of the seventeenth century. Many of them fled from the religious persecution, to which the English protestants were exposed during the reign of the Stuarts. These colonists were the first legislators of the country. It is therefore natural, that all their ideas, all their solicitude should be directed to the adoption of the most effectual measures against arbitrary and religious intolerance. In fact, among the first institutions and municipal laws which governed the English Colonists of North America until their emancipation, we find the most protecting spirit of liberty, and the most unlimited freedom of conscience. The war of Independence, commonly called in Europe the American War, effected but little change in these matters, because the sole object of that war, was political Independence, and not civil liberty, which the Anglo-Americans had enjoyed in an equal degree with their English brethren.

"So true is this, that when the rupture took place between the mother country and the colonies, some of the thirteen confederated states retained their ancient constitutions granted by the British government; and, what is still more remarkable, these very states were considered more democratical than the rest. It will be sufficient to offer as an example the State of Connecticut, which, until the year 1818, had not changed its original constitution under which political power was delegated but for six months."

pp. 5-9.

While the author admits some advantages in the republican system, and allows, that "the apparent effects of these popular forms of government present the image of happiness and contentment," he finds in them "serious imperfections and anomalies; and distinctly expresses his belief, "that limited and constitutional monarchies better guarantee individual safety and public

tranquillity than democratical states." That this should be the opinion of M. Poletica, is not to be wondered at, and, perhaps, we should pass these remarks without further comment, if we did not believe, that there are still some among us who have their misgivings on this subject, and their doubts whether our polity is, on the whole, the best, or the most likely to be permanent.

As to the first of these points, we are thorough believers. It seems to us, that the democratic form has its foundation in certain eternal and immutable truths, and that, though there may, and must be, some imperfection in the details, the system is, on the whole, the true one. It is possible, indeed, though certainly highly improbable, that our government should become monarchical or aristocratic; but even supposing such a thing to happen, it would not shake our belief in the rightness of the popular form, or our persuasion, that such will ultimately become the only form existing in the world. The monarchical is doubtless the most natural system, in the same sense, as it is more natural for men to obey their passions rather than their reason, and to blow out each other's brains and cut each other's throats, than to love their enemies and to return blessing for reviling. But few will support the theory of following nature in the latter case, and we believe it to be as downright heresy in politics to defend it in the former. The violent introduction of the republican form, indeed, into most countries of the old world, would be productive of much present evil; to be beneficial, it must be the result of gradual progress. In this matter, the inhabitants of the Eastern continent are children, and have many steps to take before they can reach the point at which we are arrived. We assert openly, at the risk of incurring the charge of a shocking degree of national vanity," that, in this respect, we are far before the nations of the earth. "Though the country is new," says our author, "its civilization is old." It is truly so in this particular. What, though the Federal constitution has stood the test of but forty years' experience;" the spirit which framed it, dates, to seek no earlier period, from the Magna Charta of England. Not to go over the successive encroachments of the people upon the fancied rights of their monarchs, which appear in English history before the reigns of the Stuarts, we may look at the spirit of a small minority in the House of Commons, during that of the last of the Tudors, and see in it the same democratic tendencies, which have ever distinguished our countrymen. Under the wicked and feeble princes of the house of Stuart, it shone out with distinguished splendor. Out of the mouth of their most powerful enemy, the Tory histo

rian, the Puritans may be judged, without being found wanting in the true spirit of civil liberty and republican institutions.

Happily for us, our fathers brought this spirit to a corner of the earth, where it could flourish unobserved and unobstructed. In its native soil, it was crushed for a while under a military despotism, whose natural result was the restoration of the ancient régime. While our ancestors were enjoying in the wilderness their republican forms, and yielding little more than a nominal allegiance to the mother country, that country was sunk under the sway of one of the most contemptible of those who have sat upon thrones,the misnamed "merry monarch," the pensioner of Lewis, the dastardly deserter of every principle of virtue, gratitude, and honor. Time has seen England shake off some of her fetters, and retrace many of her steps; but we have no chains, and few other impediments to retard us. It is unnecessary to speak of our Revolution, a bloody contest for a mere principle, and a successful resistance to the first postulate of oppression. We came out from this war with a scattered population, a feeble government, an unpaid army, and a successful and revered leader. What result could political experience predict, what had the world seen, from the same circumstances? Did the magnanimity of Washington alone preserve us from a military chieftain? Had he even, for a moment, thought of such a result, he would have been too wise to dare it. For the spirit of liberty was no transient ebullition of a vexed populace; it formed a part of the settled and permanent character of the nation. And what are the circumstances, which are, at length, to crush and exterminate this spirit, that has thus been growing and strengthening for ages. They must be powerful indeed, and are as yet far beyond the political horizon.

On this question of the permanency of our institutions, we may quote the following remarks.

"A foreigner, known generally in Europe by the extent and variety of his acquirements, as well as by the sprightliness of his mind, Mr. Correa de Serra, Minister Plenipotentiary of Portugal near the United States, who resided a long time in that country, and who traversed it in every direction, maintains, that the American government, to the prejudice of the individual state governments, tends strongly to consolidation.

"He even goes so far as to say, that it contains already all the elements of a monarchy, and only wants a head; he therefore called it the headless monarchy. Notwithstanding my respect for the intelligence of this savant, I am bold enough to entertain a contrary

opinion. It appears to me, that in proportion as the territory of the United States is enlarged, and as the population, as well as the number of the confederated states, increases, the general government will gradually lose its strength.”

pp. 66, 67.

Thus, it appears, that, while two intelligent and observing foreigners, who have visited our country, agree in predicting the termination of our government, they are directly opposed to each other in regard to the manner of it. One must necessarily be mistaken, and both may be so. The truth may, as we trust it does, lie in the middle, and experience may prove, that our confederation will neither divide nor consolidate, but continue, modified indeed by the wisdom of ages, but still free, happy, and, as far as it now is, purely democratic.

There are several other subjects touched upon in this work, on which we might be tempted into a dissertation, as long, and not much more novel, than that in which we have just indulged ourselves; but this would be a transgression of our limits, and we shall accordingly content ourselves with a few remarks on the subject of the Penitentiary system.

Our author supposes it to be generally admitted in the United States, that the experiment of Penitentiaries has completely failed. We, at least, are not disposed to admit it. That it has not answered the expectations of some of its enthusiastic projectors, is true enough, and this, for two obvious reasons; the first, because those expectations were unreasonable; and the second, because the practice under this system has too frequently lost sight of the conditions of the theory. The wicked are always very troublesome people to dispose of. It has been found so in this country, as well as elsewhere. They have been, and will be, vexatious and expensive burdens to the community. It was a dream of some philanthropists, that the idle and the vicious might be removed from society, and caused by their labor to support, not only themselves, but the various functionaries necessary to guard and direct them. Moreover it was hoped, that, by this process, some would be completely reformed, and most of them be made better. Nobody believes that Penitentiaries have fulfilled these expectations. But many contend, that they have done much good, and might do more; and for ourselves, we are of opinion, that, of all the inventions for securing society from evil doers, Penitentiaries are the best, and, what is important in a republican country, the least expensive. This is not the place for a fuller consideration of this important subject; we remark only that our author seems to