There is a perpetual stream of emigration from the older states to the unoccupied lands in the west, while of the emigrants newly arrived from Europe, a great number are employed in the older states as labourers. Thus there is plenty of employment. The feeble and infirm may be overlooked and outstripped in the race, but the bold, active, and persevering, who either make or mar the prosperity and peace of a country, can provide for themselves. The people employed in manufactures, and liable to be suddenly reduced to idleness and want by reverses in trade are few. If any are dissatisfied with their lot, they can readily change it. Thus the most frequent causes of discontent and tumult are obviated. Those elements of discord which, in more densely peopled countries, come into angry collision, are harmlessly dissipated in the United States.

M. De Tocqueville met with a French refugee in the wilds of America, who, in his native country, had been a violent republican, and in embarrassed circumstances. During several years of prosperity in his new condition, his opinions were entirely changed. As a prosperous landholder, far removed from the political strife of cities and revolutions, his violent prejudices and animosities had expired, and he had become an advocate for the rights of property and the principles of order and good government, which he formerly endeavoured to subvert.

And here it may be observed, that how propitious soever to the internal tranquillity of America this mode of Occupancy may be, it is far less favourable to the proper cultivation of the soil than the English system of landlord and tenant, a contract between two parties, the practical tendency of which is to improve the land to the utmost. In order to obtain a good tenant and a high rent, the landlord must employ his capital in substantial improvements and repairs of the

farm; and by the conditions of his lease he binds the tenant to cultivate it in the best manner. As the tenant is prevented from injuring the land, so he can only make it yield enough to pay the rent and his own profit by diligent, economical, and skilful culture.

Hence the superior husbandry, the fine corn fields, the rich and well stocked pastures, and the comfortable homesteads of our native England. But in America, where land is abundant, and the owner is also the cultivator of the soil, it frequently happens that he endeavours to make the most of it during the period of his occupancy, and the land is consequently impoverished by waste. If we have not plains of immense extent and natural fertility, and vast primeval forests undisturbed by the axe and the plough, has not the all-bountiful Creator bestowed on our nation blessings of another kind;-superior skill in arts, manufactures, and agriculture, commerce which brings to our shores the produce of every climate; and colonies where many of our countrymen have found competency and wealth? In England there is great inequality of condition, the consequence of a very advanced state of civilization; and there are sudden changes from great commercial and manufacturing prosperity to adverse times. These are extensively and severely felt by all classes, especially by those dependent on the wages of labour, who are too often as improvident in the day of prosperity, as if adversity would never come. Still, let a fair comparison be made between the condition of the people of England and those of other countries, and it will be found that none of them possess the elements of social happiness in greater measure than our own highlyfavoured nation. Above all, we hope to shew that Great Britain is pre-eminently blessed in the enjoyment of true and well regulated freedom, and in the provision made for the religious instruction of the people.

Another important point in which America differs from England is, that she has no great overgrown metropolis like London.

Here malice, rapine, accident, conspire,
And now a rabble rages, now a fire;
Their ambush here relentless ruffians lay,
And here the fell attorney prowls for prey;
Here falling houses thunder on your head,
And here a female atheist talks you dead.

DR. JOHNSON's London.

When Mr. Jefferson was in Paris during the French Revolution, he remarked, that if his country had a city like the French capital, it would soon be the ruin of her institutions. Yet Paris was the birth place of French republicanism. But it is curious and instructive, that when the self-styled "Friends of the people" in Europe were exulting at the nativity, as they supposed, of universal freedom, so able a man and so fervent a democrat as Jefferson, beheld in those horrid scenes of tumult and slaughter what made him moralize and tremble for the future destiny of republican America, if ever it should contain a great metropolis, where democracy might concentrate its energies, and display its unbridled licentiousness. Jefferson doubtless foresaw that republican anarchy could not last long, and that the tyranny of the many would swiftly resolve itself into the tyranny of one. The reign of terror in Paris was quickly followed by the despotic reign of Napoleon, who had the art of gratifying at once his own ruling passion and that of the French people. His victories were theirs; he might freely indulge his own pride, vanity, and boundless ambition, so long as the citizens of Paris were delighted with the pomps, shews, and shadows of military glory. His police and soldiers overawed the mob, his conscriptions drew off the fiery youth from the provinces, and his soldiers were ready

to die by thousands at the bidding of their victorious general, for the love of fighting, pay, plunder, glory, and licentiousness.

We have considered three very essential points of difference between the condition of America and that of Great Britain. First, in consequence of the remoteness of America from Europe she is less liable to be involved in foreign wars, or to be affected by the political convulsions that agitate European society. Secondly, she has at present abundant employment for her population, and an ample territory in reserve. And Thirdly, she has not a great overgrown metropolis like London. These circumstances greatly tend to promote internal tranquillity and to prevent the excesses of democratic violence. From these preliminary considerations it may be inferred, that political institutions under which America has prospered, might nevertheless prove disastrous to England.

The origin and progress of the constitutions of the two countries were also widely different. The republican sentiments of the first colonists had been encouraged and strengthened while the colonies were rising into importance; and the only link which bound them to a monarchy having been finally broken, they were at liberty to frame for themselves a form of government congenial with their original character, their early history, and their existing circumstances. During the war, Washington had painful experience of the evils arising from a feeble executive. The several states of the union were independent republics. Congress could only recommend them to tax themselves, but had no power to raise money for defraying the expenses of the war. The army was ill appointed, often without pay and provisions: Congress had recourse to issues of paper money, which soon became almost valueless. The troops mutinied, and nothing but the

high character and influence of their great commander, and their ardent enthusiasm in favour of independence and against England, kept them together till a loan was obtained from France.

The degree in which the popular will should predominate under the new constitution was the subject of much consideration and debate, and gave rise to two great parties. The Federalist party comprehended the ablest and most illustrious Americans, as Washington, Hamilton, Adams, Madison, and Jay, who were convinced of the excellence of the British constitution and of the necessity of a vigorous executive. The ascendancy of the Federalists was of short duration. Washington was elected the first President of the United States in 1789; the next was Adams; and in the year 1800 Jefferson was appointed his successor. Jefferson's election as President at the commencement of the present century may be considered as the æra of the ascendancy of the democratic party, which is now entirely dominant.

The constitution of the United States was prepared by a body of the most eminent citizens, on a great and sudden emergency. But without disparagement to their talents and integrity it may be affirmed, that a government so formed can only be a legislative experiment. That experiment is with how little restraint and controul can a great nation continue to exist in social order and happiness? It has been made under the most favourable circumstances, in a newly discovered continent, remote from disturbing causes; and were it successful, it would not be a precedent for European kingdoms. A democratic government has doubtless in many respects been well suited to the developement of the resources of America, during its colonization by persons of all nations, conditions, and characters, scattered over its wide domain, dwellers often in solitary