ONE of the great providential purposes for which England was raised up amongst the nations of the world, was discharged, when she gave birth to America. Proudly may she exult in the consciousness of being the mother of a new world. Why should we think of distinctness of government, where there is an almost perfect identity in laws, in literature, in manners, and in institutions? In these important respects, America never has, and never will, swerve from her allegiance. She will always be proud to claim consanguinity with the country of Shaks peare and Milton, of Newton and Locke; and wherever the English tongue is spoken, a moral and social tie has been established, which defies the accidents of time and change, and which promises to Great Britain a perpetuation of renown in her noble progeny, even when she herself may be blotted from the list of nations, and made to experience those vicissitudes to which kingdoms, as well as individuals, are exposed, from the follies of governments, or the course of nature.

Nothing, in the history of mankind, is more remarkable, than the sudden growth of North America. Our fathers almost remember it an uncultivated desertt-a refuge for wild beasts, and a place of banishment for convicts. Behold it now, presenting a counter part to the trade, the wealth, and the civilization of Europe; and vindicating its claims to national consideration, by the lofty and determined bearing of its diplomatic intercourse with one of

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the proudest and most powerful monarchies in the world.

"When I consider," says Edmund Burke, "the extraordinary progress of that wonderful country, in all that constitutes national greatness, I can scarcely persuade myself that I am not rather contemplating an ancient people, who have risen into renown through a succession of ages, and a long course of successful industry, than a set of miserable outcasts, not so much sent, as cast, upon

the bleak and barren coast of a desolate wilderness, three thousand miles distant from all intercourse with civilization."

But, these miserable outcasts were British subjects; they were bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh; who carried out with them the spirit and the enterprise, the indomitable vigour, and the persevering industry which distinguished their noble ancestors at home; and who, moreover, went forth imbued with a spirit of enlightened religion and rational liberty, which very soon manifested their blessed influence, in causing "the wilderness and the solitary place to be glad for them, and the desert to rejoice and blossom as the rose." Yes. Let any impartial and intelligent man compare the progress of the Spaniards in South America, with that of the British in North America, and he will not be at a loss to understand the wonderful superiority of the latter, in all that is calculated to improve society, or give an impulse to civilization. In the one case, the whole might of the govern

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was put forth to subjugate and appropriate those vast domains, which contained within themselves every imaginable natural advantage to be derived from navigable rivers, soil, and climate. In the other case, a country by no means so highly favoured, was abandoned, as it were, by the government, to the occupancy either of convicts or adventurers, who were posterior to the southern settlers by nearly a hundred years, but, whose progress has been such as to distance them in all that constitutes the greatness of a nation, even in a manner more striking, if possible, than the contrast which is presented between Spain and England, by the spirit of despotism, and the spirit of freedom.

In the one country, slavery was, as it were, stereotyped upon the people, by the whole system of the government as established by the mother country, and by the usages and institutions which were introduced and cherished, and which would almost seem like a kind of systematic warfare carried on by the folly of man against the bounty of nature. In the other, a free scope was given to human energy, and human intelligence, by which the truth of the maxim" omnia vincit labor," was soon made manifest, and the very difficulties with which our colonists had to contend, furnished but an additional stimulus to their efforts, to overcome them. In the one case, true religion was placed, as it were, under ban and interdict, and a gloomy and debasing spiritual despotism extended its influence over the human mind. In the other case, the book of God was the manual of the pilgrim adventurers, and by its light they were guided in all the changes and chances to which they were exposed, until its spirit not only influenced their characters as individuals, but animated their counsels as a nation, and caused them to revere that wisdom from above, without which no external prosperity can ever give rise to solid or lasting national exaltation or renown. Indeed, we know of no facts in the history of the world more strikingly illustrative of the difference between Protestantism and Popery, in their effects upon the progress of society, than the two great experiments, if they may so be called, of which these two extensive regions of the world were, respectively, the subjects. And we may, surely, rejoice at having been so far favoured by Providence, as to be exempted from any participation in the guilt and the dis

grace of being the propagators of wretchedness and of spiritual darkness, in the one country, while our kindred in the other gladly recognise us as the sources of all that they deem most valuable in social improvement, and moral and religious illumination.

We have been led into these remarks, because the very progress of the Americans in arts, and in improvement, has engendered a spirit by which the good feeling which it is so desirable should subsist between them and the mother country, may suffer a fatal interruption. America has so far outgrown her condition as a colony, that she stands in the relation of a rival; and, instead of distantly copying the manners and the habits of the English, she lays claim to an equality with them, in all the attributes by which a great nation is distinguished. This has given rise, on the part of many of our writers who have visited America, to strictures severe and sarcastic, by which the national pride of the Americans has been provoked, and a feeling of national antipathy engendered, which, if it be not removed or mitigated, may be the fruitful cause of innumerable evils. No one hears of any such cause of disagreement between South America and the mother country, Spain; simply because such a distance has always been maintained between them, as to forbid the notion of rivalry, causing the one country to be very well satisfied to be looked down on with approbation, while the other naturally expected to be looked up to with respect. But, with our brethren in North America, the case is quite different. By their enterprise, energy, and intelligence, they early achieved an independence which enabled them, in the proud attitude of freemen, to take their stand as competitors with the mother country, in all those arts, and all those enterprises, by which human life is improved and adorned. And, hence, the testy and captious spirit, by which the notion, that they are inferior in any respect to the British, is resented in the one country; and the sly, sarcastic, and sometimes contumelious character of the comments and descriptions, which are provoked, in the other, by their overweening, or exaggerated pretensions. To both parties we would say, remember your common origin, and the identity which still subsists between you in laws, in language, in literature, and in religion; and let not the folly or the impertinence of man put asunder

ristic of American manners, is a degree of seriousness, which, at first, might almost be taken for want of sociability. An American is almost from his cradle brought up to reflect on his condition, and, from the time he is able to act, employed with the means of improving it. If he be rich, and have consequently a larger stake in the public weal, then every new law, every change of election, (and there are many in the course of a year,) will make him reflect on the future: if he be poor, every change may offer him an opportunity to improve his circumstances. He is ever watchful, ever on the alert, not as most Europeans, as a mere spectator, but as one of the actors, engaged in maintaining or reforming the existing state of affairs. Something like it may, at times, be felt in England, and perhaps even in France; but this cannot be compared to the effects of universal suffrage in America.

"The whole mass of the population is

constantly agitated; an expression of public opinion is constantly demanded, constantly hoped for, constantly dreaded. There is no man so rich or powerful but can be made to quail under its influence; nor any one so humble, in whom it may not raise hopes of success and preferment. It is an all-powerful organ of public justice, sparing none, from the president down to the most obscure citizens; elevating, humbling, or annihilating whatever it meets in its progress, if justly the object of its reproach.

"This state of incessant excitement gives to the Americans an air of busy inquietude, for which they have often been pitied by Europeans; but which, in fact, constitutes their principal happiness. The Americans have no time to be unhappyand this is saying much in favour of their government. The duties of republicans are more arduous than those of men living under any other form of government; but then their performance is pleasing and satisfactory; because it is connected with consciousness of power. No American would exchange his task for the comparative peace and quiet of Europe; because, in the words of Franklin, he would be unwilling to pay too dear for the whistle.' He finds his solace and quietude at home; abroad he is up and doing.' Peace there would be death to him. He would not, for the world, exchange his political activity for the speculative inertness of the Germans; the glorious privilege of having himself a share in the government of his country, for the dolce far niente' of the Italians; the busy stir of an election, for the idiot noise of a Vienna prado. Let those who are so prodigal of their compassion for

the melancholy restlessness of Americans, but remember the painful stupor which befel the Romans after the overthrow of the republic, when, all at once, released from their active duties of citizens, they found in tranquillity' the principal punishment of their abandonment of virtue."

Truly, Mr. Grund has observed to very little purpose the working of the system of universal suffrage, if he supposes that it impresses any inward degree of seriousness upon the character of a people. Not one in any five thousand of the electors give themselves the trouble of five minutes serious reflection, as to the real merits of the candidates to whom they give their votes. Where they are not corrupted by a bribe, they are almost uniformly under the influence of passion or imagination; and instead of their consciousness of individual responsibility franchise is multiplied, an effect prebeing increased, in proportion as the cisely the reverse takes place, and all anxiety about any remote result is drowned or dissipated in the tumultuous excitation with which they rush to the accomplishment of immediate objects. In fact, it is of the very essence of an unmitigated democracy that men live in and for the present; and thus the birth-right is often forfeited for the mess of pottage.

The difficulty, if not the impossibility, of establishing for years to come any thing like an aristocratic caste in America, is thus truly pointed out. Our author exults in it more, we apprehend, than will many of our readers.

"But how can it be possible for the American aristocracy to lay claims to superior distinctions, when the people are constantly reminded, by words and actions, that they are the legislators, that the fee-simple is in them, and that they possess the invaluable privilege of calling to office men of their own choice and principles ? Are not the American people called upon to pass sentence on every individual whose ambition may prompt him to seek distinction and honour at their hands? And what is not done to conciliate the good will and favour of the people? Are they not constantly flattered, courted, and caressed by that very aristocracy which, if it truly existed, would spurn equality with the people? Is their judgment, expressed by the ballot-box, not appealed to as the ultimate decision of every argument and contest? Aristocracy, if it shall deserve that name,

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must not only be based on the vain pretensions of certain classes, but on its public acknowledgment by law, and the common consent of others. This, however, is not the work of a generation, and requires an historical connection with the origin and progress of a country.

"Why, then, should the Americans recognise a superior class of society, if that class be neither acknowledged by law nor possessed of power? How shall they be brought to worship those from whom they are accustomed to receive homage?—who are either men of their own election, and consequently of their own making, or the defeated and unhappy victims of their displeasure? The aristocracy of America may claim genius, and talent, and superiority, and they may be ambitious; but it is an ambition of so airy and light a quality that it is but a shadow's shadow' a sort of fata morgana reflected from beyond the waters, whose baseless fabric can neither excite apprehension, nor arrest the progress of democracy.-Coteries there always were, and always will be, in large cities; but they need not necessarily be connected with power. moreover, they exist, principally, among the ladies; there being, as yet, but few gentlemen to be called of leisure,' or exclusively devoted to society. The country is yet too young, and offers too large a field for the spirit of enterprise and business, to leave to the fashionable drawing-rooms other devotees than young misses and elegants of from fourteen to twenty years of age. That such companies may, nevertheless, have their attractions, no one can reasonably doubt; but they are not composed of elements capable of changing the manners and customs of the country; and, as long as their composition does not materially alter, must remain deprived of that influence which the higher circles in Europe are wont to exercise over all classes of society."

In America,

Of the American ladies he thus writes, and, we believe, with perfect truth:

"The forms of American ladies are

generally distinguished by great symmetry and fineness of proportion; but their frames and constitutions seem to be less vigorous than those of the ladies of almost any country in Europe. Their complexions which, to the South, incline towards the Spanish, are, to the North, remarkably fair and blooming, and while young, by far the greater portion of them are decidedly handsome. A marked expression of intelligence, and a certain indescribable air of languor-probably the

result of the climate-lend to their countenances a peculiar charm, to which it would be difficult to find a parallel in Europe. An American lady, in her teens, is, perhaps, the most sylph-like creature on earth. Her limbs are exquisitely wrought, her motions light and graceful, and her whole carriage at once easy and dignified. But these beauties, it is painful to say, are doomed to an early decay. At the period of twentyfour, a certain want of fulness in her proportions is already perceptible; and, once passed the age of thirty, the whole fabric goes seemingly into decay. As the principal cause of this sudden decline, some allege the climate; but I ascribe it more willingly to the great assiduity with which American ladies discharge their duties as mothers. No sooner are they married than they begin to lead a life of comparative seclusion; and once mothers, they are actually buried to the world. At the period of ushering their children into society, they appear, indeed, once more, as respectable matrons; but they are then only the silent witnesses of the triumphs of their daughters. An American mother is the nurse, tutor, friend, and counsellor of her children. Nearly the whole business of education devolves upon her; and the task is, in many instances, beyond her physical ability. Thus, it is customary with many ladies in New England, not only to hear their children recite the lessons assigned to them at school; but actually to expound them, and to assist them in the solution of arithmetical and algebraic problems. There are married ladies who apply themselves seriously to the study of mathematics and the classics, for no other purpose than forwarding the education of their children; and I have known young men who have entered college with no other instruction, in any of the preparatory departments, than what they received from their mothers. But this continued application to the most arduous duties, the increasing care and anxiety for the progress and welfare of their children, and the consequent unreasonable confinement to the house and the nursery, undermine constitutions, already by nature sacrifice of health and beauty that Amesufficiently delicate; and it is thus by the rican ladies pay to their offspring the sacred tribute of maternal affection. No human being can ever requite the tender cares of a mother; but it appears to me that the Americans have, in this respect, obligations immeasurably greater than those of the inhabitants of any other country."

Nor is the following most pleasing account of their domestic purity less