suffer the mob to take the law into their own hands. It is about eight years since the first instance occurred at Vicksburg on the Mississippi, and we have now learned the extent of the danger. I shall show you presently, in speaking of mobs, that when a similar disposition, without the same excuse, shows itself elsewhere, as we have warning that it may, there is both the power and the will to put it down.

SUCCESS OF OUR FORM OF GOVERNMENT.

Captain Marryat tells you, in his second part, that we have made" a miserable failure" in our attempt at a republic; and others cry out the same. Mr. Dickens, in a late number of his "Martin Chuzzlewit," the book that he has now in hand, says," that republic, but yesterday let loose upon her noble course, and but to-day so maimed and lame, so full of sores and ulcers, that her best friends turn from the loathsome creature in disgust!" Hard words, these! to be applied to a republic that has stood firm in war; that, in peace, has honourably discharged every debt, as I have shown you, for which her national faith was pledged; that gives her citizens all the protection they desire, at home and abroad; and asks nothing of her friends but to inquire into the truth when they hear her reviled. They are odd words, too, to come from a writer who has been complaining of "ribald slander" from the presses of the daily journals. They even suggest the thought, that the greatest abuse of the art of printing, just now, may not be, after all, among cheap newspapers.

If we have attempted, as some people from Europe seem resolved to charge us with having done, and as some silly newspaper editors among us would make everybody believe, to present ourselves to the world as choice Greeks and Romans, with a patrician air, divested of its pride, among the rich, and every man at the plough looking as if he had the part of Cincinnatus to perform, we certainly have failed. But we have simply attempted to inhabit a country of vast extent, comprising all varieties of character, from the frozen North to the tropic, with as little government as is absolutely necessary to enable every man to pursue his own business in quiet, and to secure to him and his family the fruits of his

own industry. And I maintain that we have been successful in the attempt. It may seem presumptuous for any of us to make an assertion on that subject. But, since you ask for an opinion as to the justice of the charges against us, we may as well give one, as those who denounce us. Many of them, by the way, might have failed to discover in Cincinnatus, if they had seen him as he was, a character that was to be admired by the latest posterity; and although they can perceive nobody like him among us, it is quite possible that we may have men living in quiet obscurity, who would be ready and able to do all that he did, if there were need for them to act.

Conceding everything that the philosophers or politicians, who rail at us, can urge with justice against us, on the grounds of selfishness, love of money, dishonesty, coarse manners, tyranny of public opinion, insecurity of property, frequency of elections, disorder, violence, Lynch law and all, I assert that we are as successful, so far, in what we really undertook to do, as any people could ever reasonably expect to be in the same time, who pass from one form of government to another that was before untried. I really believe that if we had concluded to adopt the old form of king, nobility and commons, and had been only as successful with that as we have been with what was actually designed by our present one, our government would have been admitted to come nearer to what a monarchy should be than most others. It is remarkable that we have found but few changes of form necessary, where we might have expected that many parts would prove defective. We talk of scarcely any change but one which should prevent the re-election of the president; and that can easily be shown to be unadvisable, as those who framed our constitution decided that it was, after mature deliberation.

Let us see. Selfishness and love of money! I have already remarked that the eagerness for wealth among us is not altogether base in its nature, since its object is change and improvement of condition. The foreigner comes here prepossessed with expectations founded upon his own notions of an ideal republic, and is disappointed in what he sees. The people are all selfish," he says, "each one looking out for himself only, in a general scramble. Your republicanism

is all humbug." It might be so, if we had undertaken to alter the nature of man. But we have aimed at nothing so imaginary. They who framed our institutions knew that man is selfish. The histories of all republics and monarchies, and, if I may say so, the natural history of the animal, had taught them this; and they dealt with him accordingly. They knew that each one is likely to monopolise wealth and power, as far as he can, for himself; and they have left him at liberty to do so. But they give him no aid from the laws to perpetuate either, beyond that security for property to which every one is entitled. He may make himself as powerful as he can; but his power ceases with his office, and he can transmit nothing of it to his descendants. He may raise a mountain of wealth if he can; but the laws fence it with no entail that cannot easily be broken. They allow his children and grand-children to make molehills of it; which they do very soon, and go to work for themselves when they find it necessary. We know that nothing can ever cure improper selfishness in man, but the Christian religion. If any people have discovered a mode of bringing that into daily, practical use, as the rule of action, in its true spirit, throughout society, we shall be glad to learn of them. We believe that it will be sufficient to correct all evils in politics under any form of government, democratic or despotic, and render the manners of every individual, in his own sphere of action, whether it be high or low, strikingly appropriate. In the mean time, we leave with every man his own responsibility to his Maker; and only take care that he shall do no harm to any body but himself. Under this arrangement we see a vast deal to regret, and, if possible, to remedy. But it is not particularly when we reflect on what other nations have brought to pass, that we feel most humbled or anxious.

Dishonesty! So far as we are guilty, let us be scourged without mercy. But to the question how far dishonesty exists, I answer that, in my belief, of the millions of contracts that are daily made among us, as large a portion are faithfully executed as in any country. Recollect that everything is in action here, and engagements more numerous than elsewhere; that thousands of needy European adventurers, from the time of the first settlements, have been pouring in among us to

find subsistence; and that the contest for property is open to every one here, with the hope of elevation; while, under other forms of government, the great mass of the people have little to do with bargaining of any sort. After all that is said against us, I believe that the faithful performance of engagements, according to the fair understanding of them, is as generally the standard of action here as elsewhere; and that the tone of feeling in that respect has, on the whole, been rather raised than lowered, in the last fifty years.

As to coarseness of manners, there certainly is room for improvement; and if travellers can cure our people of the unnecessary trick of spitting, and of talking of dollars and business before ladies, they have free leave to abuse us to their own satisfaction, in all such matters. But there is one distinction that deserves notice. In Europe, vulgarity is classed by itself, and is generally to be found where one would expect nothing better. In this country, where there is no difference of caste strongly marked, and where many people are in a kind of transition state, it is likely to be met with out of place, and, from mere mixture in the mass, it gives an impression of a more general want of refinement than can justly be charged to us.

PUBLIC OPINION.

I

The tyranny of public opinion is matter of triumphant outcry against us in Europe. It is very likely that you may be puzzled to know what is meant by this; for, as on political matters, so, on almost every other subject of any public interest, we generally have two or more parties, who stoutly maintain their own views in opposition to each other. should suppose that any peculiarity that exists among us in this respect, amounts to nothing more than this. In Europe, where everything appears to stand firmly upon established forms, a man may find fault and give his opinion freely, for the very reason that it goes for little or nothing. In this country, where public action results from a combination of individual opinions, people who assume positions opposed to others are expected to maintain them, and to hold themselves in readiness to act consistently. They therefore speak with something of caution. It is not that they have less personal

independence than people of corresponding stations in Europe; but that it requires more to take a separate stand, where there are but few of the old entrenchments of society for them to retire within, if pressed.

The foreign traveller sees, for instance, what seems to him to be wrong among us, and asks the next man whom he meets about it. If they are alone, it is likely enough the man may agree with him, yet do nothing. If there are others present, very likely the man may speak with something of reserve, instead of open censure; and the traveller notes down "selfish indifference" in the one case, or "want of freedom of opinion" in the other. So many particulars of these cases have been given us by travellers, that it is not difficult for a careful observer to understand to what class the unlucky respondent may belong; and although little attention ever seems to be paid to that circumstance, it is an important one.

The man is most likely to be one who has newly risen to his own position, and who has hardly yet secured so firm a foot-hold that he is ready to set the world about him to rights. He probably remembers the matter, however, and subsequently uses his influence to produce a change; unless he discovers, in the mean time, that there are reasons which had escaped his sagacity, and that of the foreigner, why a sudden change would not be productive of good.

It may be, that the man is of high standing in society, but of little political influence; disappointed that his own opinion, and that of his friends, should have less weight than seems due, and therefore ready to complain in private, though not inclined to interfere with the course of affairs; a member, for instance, of the old Federal party, whom travellers are particularly fond of quoting, the party of which Washington was the head, out-voted by the followers of Jefferson. That party stood on the principles that are probably the safest for our institutions; principles to which all parties, since, are sometimes compelled to resort. But its elder members, since their defeat, have been too ready to despair of our eventual success; for, although we are not doing the best that we might, it does not follow that we are going headlong to destruction, as some of them apprehend. It is natural