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with as much facility, and in as short a time, as the partners of a Joint Stock Bank could agree upon their bye-laws. What people on the earth could do this, but the Anglo-Saxons? Those fortune-hunters were not the most enlightened citizens of America, nor her choicest subjects; and she was, with some few exceptions, as well pleased with their emigration as they were themselves. Yet they have put to shame the Prussian statesmen, the German philosophers, and the most learned and enlightened politicians of the Old World. They were accustomed to the work, aware of the extent of their wants, and well acquainted with the best method of establishing and securing order. They were practical politicians; having first provided a law for the protection of property, they set themselves in all haste to work, to acquire it, and the document they had prepared was no sooner duly sanctioned, than they were to be seen wading with naked legs into the river, and digging sand, and washing it in a cradle to

separate the gold from the dross. The nature and position of the country, and the character and temperament of the people (independent of all

VOL. II.

S

other considerations to which I have alluded), are of themselves of such vast importance to the success of a republic, that after giving the Anglo-Saxon race all the credit it deserves, and ascribing to the Gallican nation all the valuable qualities (and they are very numerous) to which they can in any way lay claim, it may be well doubted on the one hand, whether, if France was evacuated and given up to the Americans, they could long maintain in Europe, either their institutions, or anything like the amount of freedom they now enjoy; and on the other hand, if the French were put into possession of the territories belonging to the United States, with all its advantages of position, and all the necessary institutions constructed to their hands, whether the complicated republic would not be found so uncongenial to their habits, and so little adapted to the genius of the people, as to fail of success in a very short time. I offer no opinion as to the durability of the government of the United States. The federal constitution, we have seen, is an admirable production. Those of the several States are inferior to it, and their tendency is to retrograde. How far this deterioration will hereafter communicate itself to the other, time

alone can show. Our hopes for its safety, however, are by no means unmixed with fear. It has many an unforeseen contingency and crisis to pass through, before its strength or durability can be said to have been fairly tested.

With the Constitution of England, to say the least of it, we are content. As we cannot obtain a better one, we may well forbear from unnecessary experiment. The Reform Bill, the Emancipation Act, and the repeal of the Navigation Laws, have taught us to place a proper reliance on the wisdom of our forefathers, and to entertain a great distrust of the hasty and inconsiderate legislation of our contemporaries. "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread." France having voluntarily plunged herself into the cauldron of democracy, after infinite suffering, has learned that licentiousness is not freedom, and émeutes and insurrections are not republicanism; that the right to make laws is of little value, without the disposition to respect, or the power to enforce them; and that that which began in confiscation and plunder, will inevitably be overtaken at last by the retributive justice of an inscrutable Providence. Her experience has also taught her that whatever be the

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form of government, despotic, monarchical, or republican (and that which is best administered, is best), the only sure and solid basis on which it ever can be built is religion, which at once makes us good men and good subjects, by teaching us our duty to God and our neighbour, and renders our institutions, our country, and ourselves worthy of the protection and blessing of Heaven.

THE END.

LONDON:

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Published on the 1st of every Month, Price 3s. 6d.

COLBURN'S UNITED SERVICE MAGAZINE,

AND

NAVAL AND MILITARY JOURNAL.

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