perience of the world. In briefly recording the prominent events attending the career of the race from which we are descended, it is impossible to overlook the fact that the Anglo-Saxon race absorbs, but does not assimilate with other races;-borrows nothing from their sentiment; derives nothing from their nationality. What it was a thousand years ago it is to-day; Civilization and Education have not modified, but intensified its characteristic aspirations for Freedom and the Institutions of Freedom. The same unconquerable energy; the same indomitable courage; the same inflexible determination to accomplish destiny, individualize the Anglo-Saxon people of to-day, as on the advent of the race under the victorious banners of Hengist and Horsa. The genius of the people has always been manifest; their susceptibility for the highest achievements of the human body or intellect, undeniable. Wherever they have penetrated, Freedom, Religion, Arts, Sciences, and Literature have found a home. Colonization, which has been a ruinous experiment with every other nation, has prospered with the Anglo-Saxon, and for this reason: The latter retain, no matter what the difficulty of doing so, and cherish, their nationality. It is never laid aside or forgotten for one moment, and always rises superior to the circumstances by which it is surrounded. The colonization of other nations has failed for the reason, that the colonists, lacking force of character, have been too anxious to assimilate with the people amongst whom they settled. The Spanish, French, Dutch (Hollanders), &c., have at various epochs in the world's history made successful attempts at settling on distant shores, but after the small end of the wedge has been inserted, the leverage has been thrown away by a degenerate imitation of the worst characteristics of the people amongst whom they settled. The Anglo-Saxon stands alone in that repellent force which, concentred in itself, throws off all inferior bodies, but ever widens with opportunity to embrace what is most desirable and advantageous. In a word, it looks forward, never backward; upward, but never downward. What is beneath it, it passes by; what is above it, it aspires to, strives for, and achieves!

We have remarked that the Anglo-Saxon absorbs other races, and this too, without suffering any apparent deterioration. Its characteristics have not changed, because the infusion of one race with another of stronger and better defined characteristics results in a general assimilation of the infused with the people amongst whom they settle, unless a spirit of caste prevail. Thus the Franks, after driving out the Romans from Gaul, soon lost their national characteristics, and became blended or lost in the immense majority of the Gaels. Thus, also, innumerable races may assimilate with the American, if, in their earnestness for what is desirable, they imitate the characteristics of the Anglo-Saxon. But if on the contrary they retain a spirit of caste, establish clanships or race distinctions of any kind, as the Tartars in China, assimilation is impossible. The national spirit will eventually drive them out. Before long the Tartars will cease to exist in China. The present revolution numbers their days.

At

In all strongly individualized lines of descent, there is a persistency of type which is not affected by an admixture of foreign blood. the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, thousands of French refugees settled in England, but the controlling majority obliterated their national peculiarities, and few traces now remain of their origin. Races preserve their characteristics, but individuals assimilate. They are absorbed into the dominant race-particularly if it be AngloSaxon.

The important consideration of race cannot be too vigorously impressed on the American mind. No other country in the world is so besieged with opposing elements of caste, sect, and foreign nationality. In the pulpit, in the senate, in the street, and in the home circle, we find representatives of other races than our own. In the majority of cases these representatives have imbibed a certain amount of American sentiment, sufficient perhaps for an easy passage through politics or society, and are consequently in process of absorption. But too frequently we find them tenaciously adhering to Old World doctrines of government, religion, and social life. It may not be easy to abandon a life-long theory, but it should be no more difficult than

abandoning the land of one's birth. When the latter becomes imperative, the former should be absolute. The American, by attaching due importance to every circumstance of race, learns precisely whence freedom sprang, and inversely to appreciate his own glorious birthright, and to guard against encroachments from inimical sources. No sentiment that is not thoroughly Anglo-Saxon can he entertain, for it is his Anglo-Saxon principles that make him what he is. Montesquieu remarks in his "Spirit of Laws "—"The English (by which of course is meant the Anglo-Saxon race) are the people who have best known how to preserve in full vigor those three great things (principles), religion, commerce, and liberty." This important avowal from such a philosopher should be studied word for word, and justified from the pages of history; as indeed it is briefly vindicated in this chapter. If we ask ourselves why it is so, we shall find that it is because in religion the Anglo-Saxon is always sincere in obeying his own conscience without extraneous dictation. Piety is an instinct with him, not a sensual gratification, as in Southern lands; or an intellectual exercise, as in Northern ones. He has no dependence on any one but God and himself; and needs no mediator but his own conscience. It is for the simple reason that the Anglo-Saxon is no hair-splitting doctrinarian that he has preserved his free religion. Speak to him about his faith, and he may hesitate in its exact definition; but speak to him of his conscience, and he knows precisely what you mean. If we would learn the secret of his success in preserving and fostering commerce, we must turn to that other source of his greatness-his faith and confidence in the transactions of his fellowman. He does to others as they should do to him. He begins by inviting confidence, and ends by securing it. The American people is the most trusting on the face of the earth, and the most enterprising for that reason. The low vice of trading nations—meanness— is unknown to him. He is shrewd enough in securing a good bargain, but he forfeits nothing of his integrity in doing so. The advantage he obtains is strictly a commercial one; bought at no sacrifice of independence or morality, but such an advantage as he would

appreciate in others, if they could gain it over him. The same characteristics are the features of his political history. He is free, loves freedom, appreciates it, and asks every one to come and share it with him. A little less confidence in the miscellaneous guests he has invited to his home might be desirable. It would be well if he noticed the peculiar characteristics of races, and remembered that they were inevitably the result of local circumstances, which, although they may be changed or removed, are for the most part difficult to eradicate.

But these things the American should never forget:

That the Anglo-Saxon race is the only one which has proved itself capable of sustaining free political institutions;

That the representation of the people, of the whole people, is of Teutonic origin, and can be traced up to the earliest time of the race;

That the government of the Anglo-Saxons (and also of the Danes and Northmen) was never monarchical; the chieftainship was never hereditary. A chief had power only in the field. The battle over, he was but a simple warrior, claiming no immunity and no superior portion of the booty taken in battle;

That the chief was chosen by universal suffrage. Alfred the Great came to the throne not in virtue of his birth-though de facto king of the Heptarchy, he was not so de jure. The Saxon constitution never thought of divine or hereditary right: that absurd fiction was the result of tyrannous combination and Rome;

That the Representative system is purely Anglo-Saxon. It was not instituted by Edward the First, but merely revived by him after it had long lain in abeyance. The king was struggling against his Norman barons, and in his necessity claimed the assistance of his Saxon people; they remembering former constitutional rights redemanded and once more obtained them. This national assemblage of the representatives of the people was called in the legal Norman French of the time, Parler le ment, signifying to speak one's mind. Thus freedom of thought and speech was a recognized right among the Saxons. The feudal system strove in vain to ignore it. No other

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