race in history has had any thing similar to this right. The republics of ancient times were merely the aristocracy governing the plebs. The nearest approach to it, however, was found in the immunities. enjoyed by the citizens of the Free-towns of Europe in the middle ages, as Antwerp, Bremen, Lubeck, &c.; but even here the suffrage was limited, and lay in the hands of a few.

And, lastly, an American should demand from every foreigner, as an equivalent for the hospitality extended to him, a full recognition of the supremacy of this same Anglo-Saxon race. There is nothing degrading in the admission, for it is justified in the existence of the very freedom he comes hither to enjoy; and it is essential, because until he does acknowledge it, he is scarcely likely to imitate its virtues, its heroism, and its veneration for the institutions of freedom. Every man who comes to America with the intention of cherishing his own nationality, is an enemy to the Constitution, and abuses a hospitality which should be sacred. The existence of a population. thus disposed must be pernicious and dangerous. It is calculated to lessen the love of the American for his own home, and to render the nation less imposing and distinctive in the eyes of foreign powers.

There cannot be a doubt that Providence has selected the AngloSaxon race to spread the blessings of liberal institutions throughout the world. It is the only one, of modern times, which has been able to colonize with success, and firmly establish its character, its language, and its customs upon the new territories. What the English have gained by the rights of discovery, or the aggressions of war, America seems destined to organize and perfect. It is therefore that our country displays to the world a power and a success characteristic of no other age or clime; a liberty, of which the Grecian and Roman philosophers never dreamed, and which, next to Christianity in effulgence, shines through the earth as the light of suffering humanity. But this freedom is the victory, the hard-earned conquest, of centuries of struggles against oppression. Men of other races, individuals of other peoples, have declared the great principles of freedom-have, in thousands of instances, died in their defence-but the nations to

which these men belonged have made no universal response, but left them exceptions, and not characteristic examples. Not so with the Anglo-Saxon; the race has acted, and its heroes have embodied, only what its heart cordially responded to-what was the very instinct of its nature.

THE HEROES OF THE FOUNDERS OF LIBERTY.

"The present age is benefited by the experience of the past. We have in fruition what thousands hoped for, and vainly suffered to possess."-GOETHE.

THE wisdom of king Solomon will ever be perpetuated in the one declaration, "There is nothing new under the sun." Homer remarks that we always take the liberty of thinking ourselves wiser than our ancestors. Whatever we do, whatever idea illuminates our mind, whatever progress we attempt, the conclusion always is, that we are by so much abandoning the past and approaching a future more radiant and ennobling than any preceding epoch of the world's history. It is doubtful, however, whether civilization, like the emblem of eternity, be not in the form of a circle; whether we do not simply diverge from a point, to converge to it afterwards. Modern philosophy embraces the idea that the earliest era of man's existence was the most perfect; and that what we lost then, is but now being slowly recovered.

Be that as it may, there can be no reasonable doubt that the modern idea of freedom is of very early inception. All freedom, indeed, is the result of long agitated reform, based at first on an individual idea, permeating afterwards as a principle, and accomplished finally as a necessity of the times. Reforms usually commence with argument, and end with bloodshed. The comparative few who think, appeal to those who feel, and the two constitute leaders and revolutionists.

There is no error more common than that which attributes to the principles of the war of American independence an original character. Many well-informed men entertain the belief that in the Declaration

of Independence were conveyed startling and entirely new ideas of liberty, and that the men who achieved it were indebted solely to the inherent greatness of their natures for a civil and political triumph, whose equal has yet to be found in the world. Whoever has studied the history of the world-its constant yearnings for religious and political freedom-and observed the slow but certain progress of reform, needs scarcely to be told that this is an error. The American war of independence consummated a preconceived idea; gave vitality to a principle which has from time immemorial occupied the attention of thinkers. It was not a sudden, unexpected dispensation of liberty; it was not a patriotic suggestion of the moment, but the accumulated result of centuries of effort.

Wherever reform begins, revolution must, sooner or later, follow. It will be objected, that England is an exception to this rule. It must be borne in mind, however, that the best revolutionary spirit of England that is, the spirit most tenacious of prerogative-left the mother-country for America in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It was the strong, stubborn Saxon spirit that had risen in rebellion against the idiotic misrule of James, which first scaled the rocks of Plymouth Sound, and explored the inviting banks of James River. Congenial natures followed, and England rapidly lost the foremost men of her time,-men who had been the centre of all reforms, and who brought with them the most elevated opinions of the century. In speaking of America as a new land, it should always be borne in mind that, practically, it is as old, if not older, than any nation of Europe. The mere consideration of centuries is of little importance. Intelligence and civilization are the characteristics which stamp manhood on a nation's brow. The Chinese in their chronologies go back far beyond the period when we are taught to believe the world was created. It is said that in their school-books it is customary for the teacher to insert a pencil-mark opposite the year in which the world is popularly supposed to have been made. But notwithstanding their extensive line of progenitors, the Chinese are the youngest, the least informed, most frivolous people on the face of the earth.

The progress of humanity may be likened, says an eloquent writer,* to the successive necessities of repairing the ancient homestead of our fathers. We are unwilling to disturb the old framework, and yet the decay of parts imperatively calls for repairs. But every attempt to add and beautify, by comparison, discovers defects, and the skill of the mechanic and artist stands in permanent requisition. The homestead of our American forefathers was found too seriously dilapidated to admit of repairs. It was vacated, and a new one erected on the Atlantic shores of wild America. Bu the men who erected that homestead were no untutored pioneers. They knew precisely the defects of the old homestead, and avoided them-falling, however, for a time, on others equally great and pernicious. Their new house was, in all important respects, put in order with the best of all judgments-that which had been tutored in bitter experience.

The perfection of earthly happiness is freedom, and that, as we have before asserted, is the slow result of gradual reform. If we penetrate the darkness of remote antiquity, we find minds of a superior order striking initial blows at the root of tyranny and oppression. In Dr. Abbot's Egyptian Museum (New York) there is a remarkably curious illustration of this fact. A rude artist of the earliest Egyptian period (3000 years B. C.), caricatures the priesthood for their low, fox-like cunning and rapacity. This exceedingly curious work of art is executed on a tile, and was doubtless in its day a missile of some weight. Thus we perceive that there were religious reformers even in the days of the first Pharaoh. It is not unreasonable to suppose that there were political reformers also.

The men who have made sacrifices in the holy cause of Freedom,— particularly those who come from the same stock as ourselves,are assuredly worthy of our best remembrance. To them we are indebted for the prosperous consummation of a free country. They are not only our lineal ancestors, but the parents of our best and most noble thoughts. Without their example and their spirit, we should be, even now, a colony, cursed with Church, State, and

* History of Democracy, Vol. I. page 34.