incapable of discerning his merit, or indisposed, from a spirit of jealousy, to do honor to it. But after all, what member of the house of Hanover, coming to the throne, as Mr. Burke might say, in contempt of popular election, could be compared in point of abilities with the least illustrious name in the roll of our Presidents?

It is objected to popular institutions, that they foster a love of gain, and tend to make physical prosperity the goal of their citizens. Mr. Drummond, with facile calumny, declares that "they (the Americans) are utterly without private or public honor, and the only people on earth who ever avowed that gain was their sole object in every relationship of life." In what form and through what organs this extraordinary avowal has been made, Mr. Drummond has not thought proper to inform us. If he means to imply that our actions speak that language, we may be pardoned for applying the same test to his own countrymen. Are the English less moderate in their desire and exertions for gain than ourselves? Are they not emphatically the shop-keeping nation? If it be true, as is affirmed by one of the most charming of their poets, that

"Honor sinks where commerce long prevails,"

it ill becomes an Englishman to boast of any superiority on that score. Mr. Drummond is a scholar, and is, doubtless, familiar with the history of the aristocratic governments of Rome, Carthage, and Venice. As an Englishman and a member of Parliament, the annals of his own country have naturally attracted much of his attention; and he must know that there has never been exhibited by any class of mankind such rapacity, such eagerness to obtain riches, as by the governing class in aristocratic states. The corruption, the venality, and the "jobs" that have distinguished and tainted the English government in times past, are matters of familiar history.

That the citizens of republics are remarkable for the ardor with which they pursue gain, we do not mean to deny. But they seek it in the paths of business, in adventures by sea and land, not from the influence of a mistress or the favor of a minister. "The Athenians," says Thucydides, "con

tinue ever amid labors and dangers, enjoying nothing through sedulity to acquire, esteeming that only a time of festival in which they are prosecuting their projects, and holding rest as a greater evil than the most laborious business."

This boundless activity, this inextinguishable love of exertion, is indeed a characteristic distinction of democratic states. It is this which explores the mine, unlocks the secret treasures of the earth, whitens the seas with the canvas of unnumbered ships, diversifies industry, and stimulates intellect. Nevertheless, the passion of acquisition among such a people is not more eager than in a different condition of society; but it is more apparent, because the sources for its gratification are more numerous. More avenues are opened, the masses are not shackled by the habit of dependence, are conscious of their powers, and accustomed to rely on them. Their freedom gives them boldness, confidence, and a spirit of enterprise. Yet, if eager in acquiring, they are equally liberal in expending wealth. Nowhere is money more freely given for patriotic and beneficent purposes; nowhere do philanthropy and public spirit thrive so well as in republican soil.

Indeed, when we contemplate the benefits that flow from this description of polity as from a natural fountain, when we see the immense energies that are developed, and the immense advances that society makes under its auspices, what manly, generous mind would not wish it endued with an inherent strength, and fitted to survive for the good of mankind to the latest ages of the world? But forms of government, like every other contrivance of human wisdom, are mutable, and subject to decay. Time, which defaces the inscription and crumbles the marble, leaves untouched nothing beneath the

sun.

What is to be the future fortune of our own political system it is vain to conjecture. This much is certain, — to preserve our institutions, we must preserve and foster an habitual respect for them. Fleets and armies cannot maintain them. The foundations on which they repose are not of material structure. They are based on ideas, and will continue to bless, develop, and accelerate our country on its great career, so long as the principles and sentiments of their founders shall

animate their posterity. When these no longer hold sway, the form may indeed survive, but the animating soul of the. republic will have departed.

It has not escaped observation, that familiarity with European society has already led many of our social and literary dilettanti to regard European institutions with no unfavorable eye. The gayety and glitter of foreign courts and capitals have dazzled their imaginations, and they have come to undervalue the freedom which has given their country its position among the nations. They might remind us of some rigid Protestant, whose antipathy to Rome would do no discredit to a Presbyterian of the school of Knox; yet who, when he comes to tread "the long-drawn aisle" of a venerable cathedral, covered with "the awful hoar of innumerable ages," to listen to the pealing anthem, and to witness the imposing ceremonies of an earlier worship, abandons his life-long convictions to the illusion of the passing hour.

But the great body of our citizens, all those who constitute the strength and ornament of their country, are devoted to its institutions with a warm and earnest attachment. They contemplate the past with pride, they anticipate the future with hope. The strictures that reach them from the Old World, whether clothed in the considerate phrase of a Russell or the envenomed language of a Drummond, do not abate their confidence or disturb their equanimity. They know that a successful republic is a pungent and ever-recurring criticism upon monarchy and aristocracy; that it awakens mankind to reflection, and engenders a love of liberty; that it is, in fine, at once an argument and an example, whose persuasive force summons the nations to demand institutions that shall recognize and guarantee their rights. They are not surprised, therefore, that those whose repose is thus disturbed, and whose power and privileges are endangered, should seek to disparage a government whose silent operation is productive of such results.

But they are neither so blind nor so prejudiced as not to know that perfection is unattainable in human affairs, and that evils are inseparable from every form of government. They have the sense and sagacity, however, to perceive that,

while there are faults in the details and the practical working of their institutions, they possess excellences peculiar to themselves. It is not occasional irregularity, violence, or maladministration, whether state or municipal, resulting in whole or in part from the ordinary machinery, as it were, of their system, that can disaffect them with the general principles on which the system itself is founded. The essence of republicanism does not consist in the ballot and universal suffrage, as many persons seem to suppose. Doubtless, it is in the theory, as it should be in the practice of a republic founded on just principles, that those from whom it is derived, for whose benefit it was established, and whose contributions support it, should, by their suffrages, have the control of it. But every political society necessarily possesses the right of self-protection; and if any portion of its members, from vice or ignorance, from mental or moral defects, are incompetent to take a part in the administration of its affairs, they should be disfranchised. It would be well if our legislators would. give a little more heed to this obvious truth.

In towns and cities where population is largely concentrated, and where a considerable portion of that population were the former subjects of England, and bred under a system which makes no provision for the instruction of youth, and keeps the great body of the people ignorant of political duties, it is highly impolitic to confer indiscriminately the privilege of election. The compatriots of Mr. Drummond should continue in statu pupillari until they become familiar with political rights, and imbibe a proper sense of political duties. Hereafter, when the British system shall have been reformed, they will receive that preliminary training at home which will qualify them for more immediate admission to the privileges of citizenship upon their arrival in this country. With a proper restriction of the right of suffrage, a proper check upon the unwise multiplication of elective offices, and a more discreet and attentive exercise of the privilege of election on the part of those who are most interested in a politic administration of affairs, we shall guard against that municipal misgovernment, wastefulness, and corruption, which have tended to bring reproach on our whole system.

But whatever the defects which a friendly or an unfriendly criticism may point out either in the foundation or superstructure of our institutions, in the organic law, or the details of legislation, the general result of the system is obvious. The generation of our countrymen now passing off the stage of action are nearly as old as the government under which they live; yet what prodigies have they witnessed! They have seen our boundaries enlarged, our resources developed, our weakness converted into strength, and our power acknowledged and respected by the most distant nations. Our territory, which even at the outset was deemed by European statesmen too vast and extended, is now washed by the waters of two oceans; capacious harbors indent its shores; immense rivers bear the products of thriving industry to the seas; populous towns and cities are scattered over the land; thought is unshackled, education diffused, and liberty insured. With a vast confederation of States, comprising every variety of climate, soil, and production, with innumerable cities, the natural centres of commerce, manufactures, and arts, with immense lines of railway stretching across the continent from ocean to ocean, and with such an administration of the government as will give us contentment at home and respect abroad, we shall present to the world an instance of beneficent power unparalleled in the annals of mankind.

ART. IV. Correspondence of CHARLES, first MARQUIS CORNWALLIS. Edited, with Notes, by CHARLES Ross, Esq. London: John Murray. 1859. 3 vols. 8vo. pp. xvi. and 560, 577, 621.

LORD CORNWALLIS played a conspicuous part in the history of three continents. In the American war he held an independent command in this country; and after ravaging the Southern Colonies he closed his career here by the capitulation of Yorktown. Returning to England, he was subsequently appointed Governor-General of India, where he gained several