wars, and seriously weakened even the colossal | not in form merely, established; that selfishness strength of the Muscovite Empire. The ani- often directs its measures, and corruption stains mosity of the Celt against the Saxon is undimin- its members, is no real reproach to that form of ished by five centuries of forced amalgamation; government-it is only a proof that its powers and when independence had become visibly hope-are wielded by the sons of Adam. No one need less, the bulk of the race fled across the Atlantic, be told that the same vices and weaknesses atand sought in the wilds of the Far West that in- tach to other institutions: the page of history dependence of which they despaired amidst Eu- unhappily teems with too many proofs that sovropean civilization. The revolution in Paris, in ereigns often rule only for the gratification of 1848, spread the seeds of revolt to the Austrian their passions and pleasure; and aristocracies, capital; but the wars of races did not expire to farm out the industry of the people for their with the capture of Vienna: the Magyar con- own profit or advantage. The real question tinued in arms against the Sclave, the German is, whether greater scope is not given for the against the Italian; and the dominion of the house indulgence of these selfish propensities under the of Hapsburg would have been torn in pieces by representative form of government than any the passions of its own subjects, if it had not been other; whether it does not end in the establishrescued from ruin by the arms of the united Scla- ment of a class government, more unscrupulous vonic race. in its measures, and oppressive in its effects, than the rule of a single sovereign could possibly be; and whether the hope of checking iniquity in the administration, by admitting numbers to participate in it, is not, in fact, expecting to extinguish sin by multiplying the number of sinners. Perhaps future ages may arrive at the conclusion that it is the representation of interests, not numbers, which is the true principle; that the former, if duly balanced, is always safe, the lat ter always perilous; and that it is the extreme difficulty of preserving the equilibrium for any length of time which justifies the observation of the Roman annalist, that it is slow to come, swift to perish.*

63.

Doubts as to the wisdom

tive institu

tions.

65.

Great effect of

the social passions of Europe in pro

pelling its inhabitants to

These facts, which have been so clearly brought forth by the events of late years, have awakened a very general doubt among reflecting men, in every part of representa- of Europe, whether representative institutions are the form of government best calculated to insure general felicity; or whether, at any rate, they can exist for any length of time among any people, but one of a homogeneous race and temperate practical character. Certain it is, that, though generally established in Europe by its northern conquerors, amidst the ruins of the Roman Empire, they every where fell into decay except where they were sustained by the min- But whatever ideas may be entertained on this gled energy and slowness of the Norman and speculative point, upon which exAnglo-Saxon race; and that, when re-establish- perience has not yet warranted the ed in our times by the influence of English An- forming of a decided opinion, one glomania, or the united force of French and En- thing is perfectly clear, that the conglish arms, they have either speedily perished, tending passions of the Old World, or produced such disastrous results that, by com- the mingled hopes and fears, wants mon consent, they were very soon abolished. and desires, expectations and disapCertain it is, that they are evidently and univers-pointments, of ancient civilization, ally inapplicable to any nation in which, like the all tend powefully to promote the settlement and Austrian, several distinct and hostile races are peopling of the New. Already the emigrants mingled together in not very unequal propor- who landed at New York alone, from Europe, tions; and probably the most enthusiastic sup-have come to approach 300,000, of whom 163,porter of representative institutions would hesi- 000 are from Ireland, and 69,000 from Germany tate before he would affirm they could have the two countries perhaps most violently agi. flourished in the British empire, if the Celtic race in both islands had existed in nearly equal numbers. If the present annual migration of above two hundred thousand from Ireland should continue a few years longer, and there is any truth in the assertions now generally made, that there are two millions of native-born Irish in the United States, and four millions of Irish descent, the Celtic race may acquire such a preponderance there as may ultimately render the maintenance of representative institutions impossible in some parts of the Union.

64. Real charac

stitutions.

That the constitutional form of government is now on its trial, both in the Old and New World, is a common observater, good and tion on both sides of the Atlantic; evil, of repre- and it will be not the least important sentative in- part of this History to trace its working in the different countries where it has been established. Such a survey will probably damp many ardent aspirations and hopes on the one side, and demonstrate the fallacy of many gloomy predictions on the other. That many evils have been found to flow from the representative system when it is really, and

the New World.

tated by political and social passions of any in the Eastern Hemisphere. The total emigrants from Europe to America now exceed 500,000 annually. In ten years, if the present rate continues, they will amount to 5,000,000, and, with their descendants, more than double the already far-famed marvels of Transatlantic increase. It is hard to say, in this wonderful transposition of the human race, whether the spread of knowledge or the passions of democracy exercise the most powerful sway over the minds of men, or are the most powerful and visible agents in carrying into effect the objects of Divine administration; for the last is perpetually leading to the indulgence of visionary and chimerical expectations of social felicity, from political change

tion.

the pressure of barbarian valor upon the scenes Gibbon tells, incapable of being resisted by the of civilized opulence is felt with undiminished whole forces of civilization, found 70. force. It will be so to the end of the world; for an impassable barrier in the narrow Correspondin the north, and there alone, are found the channel of the Hellespont. The ing moving privations which insure hardihood, the poverty maritime incursions of the Saxons propensities which impels to conquest, the difficulties which and Danes were confined to the in the maturirouse to exertion. Irresistible to men so actu- neighboring coasts of Britain and of civilizaated is the attraction which the climate of the Gaul, no distant settlements were south, the riches of civilization, exercise on the formed by the sea-kings of the north. The Atpoverty and energy of the native wilds. Slowly lantic can be bridged only by the powers of but steadily, for two centuries, the Muscovite civilization; but these powers are equal to the power has increased, devouring every thing which undertaking, and they are called into action at it approaches; ever advancing, never receding. the time when the necessities and passions of Sixty-six millions of men, doubling every half aged societies require their operation. Multicentury, now obey the mandates of the Czar, tudes nursed by the industry and opulence of whose will is law, and who leads a people whose former times, but now crowded together, require passion is conquest. Europe may well tremble a vent, and eagerly look for new fields of settleat the growth of a power possessed of such re- ment: the powers of steam furnish them with sources, actuated by such desires, led by such the means of migration; the passions of demoability; but Europe alone does not comprise the cracy render the transportation an object of dewhole family of mankind. The great designs sire. As strongly and irresistibly as the nomad of Providence are working out their accomplish- tribes are impelled into the regions of opulence, ment by the passions of the free agents to which and the daring hunter into the wilds of nature, their execution has been intrusted. Turkey is the civilized European urged to commit himwill yield, Persia be overrun by the Muscovite self and his family to the waves, the ardent rebattalions; the original birthplace of our reli- publican to seek the realization of his dreams gion will be rescued by their devotion; and as on the other side of the Atlantic. Insensibly, certainly as the Transatlantic hemisphere, and under the influence of those desires, the frontiers the islands of the Indian Sea, will be peopled by of civilization are extended, the seats of manthe self-acting passions of Western democracy, kind changed; and a new society is formed in will the plains of Asia be won to the Cross by regions unknown to their fathers, in which the the resistless arms of Eastern despotism. different members of the European family find a cradle for future generations of their descendants.

ization.

It would appear that, at stated periods in the history of nations, the passion for 69. Migratory migration seizes upon the minds of propensities men; and these periods are at the of men in the opposite ends of their progressyouth of civil- at its commencement and its termination. We read of the first in the wandering habits of the Helvetii, of whom Cæsar has left so graphic a picture; in the irruption of the Cimbri and Teutones, whom it required all the vigor of Rome and all the talents of Marius to repel; in the successive settlements of the Celts, the Franks, the Saxons, and the Normans, in the decaying provinces of the Empire; in the perpetual inroads of the pastoral nations of Central Asia, into the adjoining plains of Muscovy, Persia, Hindostan, and China. We see proof of it at this time in the ceaseless movement of the European population of America toward the Pacific, and the ardor with which the semi-barbarous pioneers of civilization plunge into the forests of the Far West. It is by the force of these passions that the first settlements of mankind were effected, and that the human race has been impelled by a blind instinct, of which it can neither see the objects nor withstand the effects, into the most distant parts of the Old World. It was thus, too, that the whole continent of America was originally peopled by its savage inhabitants; and the tales of tradition, as well as the more certain evidence of language, point alike to the period when the hunters of Kamtschatka, cast by accident, or impelled by restlessness, on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains, spread over the adjoining forests, and their descendants gradually penetrated the boundless wilds of North and South America.

But an insurmountable difficulty checks all these early migrations of mankind; the ocean restrains their incursions. The Tartar horse, as

71.

Not only is the democratic passion in this way the great moving power which expels, as by the force of central heat, Necessity of civilized man into the distant parts republican inof the earth, but it is the most ef- stitutions to colonial setfective nurse of energy, progress, tlements. and civilization, when he arrives there. The pastoral tribes, whose passion is conquest, require a military chief to direct their movements; but the agricultural colonists, whose warfare is with Nature, invariably pant for democratic institutions. Left alone in the woods, they early feel the necessity of relying on their own resources; self-government becomes their passion, because self-direction has been their habit. All colonies which have flourished in the world, and left durable traces of their existence to future times, have been nurtured under the shelter of republican institutions: those of Greece and Rome, on the shores of the Mediterraneanthose of Holland and England, on the wider margin of the ocean, attest this important fact. The colonies of Great Britain at this time, though nominally ruled by Queen Victoria, are for the most part, practically speaking, self-directed; and where the authority of the central govern

* Gertrude of Wyoming.

ment has made itself felt, it has generally been only to do mischief, and weaken the bonds which unite its numerous offspring to the parent state. Wherever democratic institutions do not prevail, colonial settlements, after a time, have declined, and at length expired; and it seems to be impossible to engraft republican self-direction upon original subjection to monarchical institutions. It must be bred in the bone, and nurtured with the strength. The Portuguese settlements in the East are almost extinct, and exhibit no traces of the vigor with which Vasco da Gama braved the perils of the stormy Cape; the attempt to introduce republican institutions, after three centuries of servitude, into the Spanish colonies of South America, has led only to anarchy and suffering and the decisive fact, that the republican states of North America, though settled a century later, have now more than double the European population of the monarchical in the South, points to the wide difference in the future destinies of mankind of these opposite forms of government. Certain it is that, great as the British military empire in India now is, it will leave no settlements of Europeans behind it among the sable multitudes of Hindostan; and possibly future times may yet verify the saying of Burke, that, if the Englishman left the East, he would leave no more durable traces of his existence than the jackal and the tiger.

gress.

existence, each has been provided with a fitting stage for the exercise of his peculiar powers, and found around him the elements in nature adapted for their development. The AngloSaxon found in the forests of England the oak which was to give to his descendants the empire of the waves; the coal which was to move the powers of steam; the iron which, in a future generation, was to renew the age of gold. The Sclavonian found in Central Asia the redoubtable horsemen who were to add strength and speed to his battalions; the naked plains, where they could act with resistless force; the enameled turf, which every where provided them with the means of subsistence and migration. The free aspirations of the first impelled him into the career of pacific colonization; the ocean was his bridge of communication: the despotic inclinations of the last prepared him to follow the standards of conquest; the steppe stretched out before him, to facilitate the migration of his conquering squadrons.

73.

in reference to

When Providence gave the blessings of Christianity to mankind, their diffusion at the appointed season was intrusted Destiny of the to the acts of free agents; but a par- race of Japhet ticular race was selected by whose Christianity. voluntary co-operation its design might be carried into effect. Beyond all question, the race of Japhet was the one to which Observe, in this view, how the character of this mighty mission was intrusted. The energy 72. the races to whom the development and vigor, the intelligence and perseverance, Adaptation of of this mighty progress has been which have so long rendered it pre-eminent the Sclavonic intrusted, and of the institutions among men, bespeak its fitness for the underand AngloSaxon charac- which they have created for them-taking; and it may be doubted whether any ter to the parts selves, is adapted to the parts severassigned them ally destined for them in it. It in their pro- might have been otherwise. The character of the two great families of the race of Japhet might have been reversed, or the place assigned them on the theatre of existence different from what it is. The AngloSaxon, impelled by a secret impulse to effort, to commerce, to freedom, and to colonization, might have found himself in the plains of Muscovy or Siberia; the Sclavonian, with his submissive habits, roving propensities, and lust of conquest, might have been located in Germany and the British isles. What would have been the result? Could the European family have spread the European influence as it has done? Could the race of Japhet have performed his destined mission, to replenish the earth and subdue it? No: by this simple transposition of race, the whole destinies of mankind would have been changed; the accomplishment of prophecy rendered impossible; the spread of Christianity arrested. The Anglo-Saxon, with his maritime inclinations, his aspirations after freedom, his industrious habits, would have been swept away in Scythia by the squadrons of the Crescent; the Sclavonian, with his roving propensities, his thirst for conquest, his aversion to the ocean, would have been forever arrested by the waves of the Atlantic. Crushed in all attempts at colonization or settlement beyond his native seats, the Anglo-Saxon would have pined in impotent obscurity in the plains of Muscovy; restrained by the impassable barrier of the ocean, the Russian would have been forgotten in the forests of Britain. Placed as they have been respectively, by Providence, on the theatre of

other family of mankind will, for a very long period, be fitted for the reception of the faith which it bears on its banners. Experience gives little countenance to the belief that the race of Shem and Ham can be made to any considerable extent, at least at present, to embrace the tenets of a spiritual faith. Christianity, as it exists in some provinces of Asia, is not the Christianity of Europe; it is paganism in another form; it is the substitution of the worship of the Virgin and images for that of Jupiter and the heathen deities. If Christianity had been adapted to man in his rude and primeval state, it would have been revealed at an earlier period; it would have appeared in the age of Moses, not in that of Cæsar. Great have been the efforts made, both by the Protestant and Roman Catholic churches, especially of late years, to diffuse the tenets of their respective faiths in heather lands; but, with the exception of some of the Catholic missions in South America, without the success that was, in the outset at least, anticipated. Sectarian zeal has united with Christian philanthropy in forwarding the great undertaking; the British and Foreign Bible Society has rivaled in activity the Propaganda of Rome; and the expenditure of £100,000 annually on the enlightening of foreign lands has afforded a magnificent proof of devout zeal, and British liberality. But no great or decisive effects have as yet followed these efforts-no new nations have been converted to Christianity; the conversion of a few tribes, of which much has been said, appears to be little more than nominal; and the durable spread of the gospel has been every where co-extensive only with that of the European race. But that race has increased, and

is increasing, with unexampled rapidity; its universal growth, and wide extension, bespeak the evolutions of a mighty destiny; and it has now become apparent, that the Anglo-Saxon colonist bears with his sails the blessings of Christianity to mankind.

rope.

74.

that of the

eventful period in the history of Europe which it is proposed to embrace in this 75. work. Less dramatic and moving Differences of than the animated era which term- the era of this inated with the fall of Napoleon, it history and is, perhaps, still more important; last. The influence of Christianity is obviously in- it contains less of individual agency, creasing in all the nations of Eu- and more of general progress. There are some Increasing in- rope, and to nothing has this in- incidents in it second to none that ever occurred, fluence of reli- crease been so much owing as to in tragic interest: the Affghanistan disaster, the gion in Eu- the irreligious spirit which occa- passage of arms in the Punjaub, the revolutions sioned the French Revolution. Vol- of 1848 in Europe, will forever stand forth as taire was the author of the second great crusade, some of the most heart-stirring events in the he was the Peter the Hermit of the eighteenth annals of mankind. But these are the excepcentury; without intending it, he, in the end, tions, not the rule. The general character of roused all nations in behalf of religion. He con- the period is one of repose, so far as relates to ferred one blessing of inestimable importance on the transactions of nations; but of the most fearmankind-he brought skepticism to the test of ful activity, so far as the thoughts and social inexperience. He forever revealed its tendencies, terests of the people are concerned. The heroes and demonstrated its effects to the world. The of it are not the commanders of armies, but the Reign of Terror is the everlasting commentary leaders of thought; the theatre of its combats is on his doctrines; Robespierre is at once the dis- not the tented field, but the peaceful forum. It ciple and the beacon of those of Rousseau. No- is there that the decisive blows were struck, where has this reaction been more apparent than there that the lasting victories have been gained. in France, the very country where infidelity was The volumes of this History, therefore, will first triumphant. The increasing spirit of devo- differ much from those of the one which has pretion in its rural districts has long been a matter ceded it; they will be less dramatic, but more of observation to all persons acquainted with reflecting; they will deal less with the actions French society; and the proof of this is now of men, and more with the progress of things. decisive-universal suffrage has brought it to In the former period, individual greatness delight. Louis Napoleon has seized supreme pow-termined the march of events, and general hiser; but he seized it by the aid of the clergy. tory insensibly turned into particular biography; His first step was a solemn service in Nôtre in the present, general causes overruled individDame, the theatre of the orgies of the Goddess of Reason; and the votes of seven millions of Frenchmen demonstrated that the vast majority of the people coincided with his sentiments. In England, the influence of religious opinion has increased to such a degree as to become in some measure alarming; it begets, in the thoughtful mind, the dread of a reaction. Christianity, in Russia, is the mainspring both of government and national action: the Cross is inscribed on his banners; it is as the representative of the Almighty that the Czar is omnipotent. In no country in the world is religious zeal warmer, religious impressions more general, than in America, though unfortunately they have not had the effect of restraining their public actions. These appearances are decisive as to the future progress of the Christian faith, and its diffusion by the spread of the European race. When France and England. America and Russia, differing in almost everything else, combine in this one impression, it needs no prophet to announce the future destinies of mankind.

Such are the views which occur to the reflecting mind, from the contemplation of the

ual agency, and the lives even of the greatest men are seen to have been mastered by the progress of events. It is a common complaint in these times, that the age of great men has departed; that the giants of intellect are no longer to be seen; that no one impresses his signet on the age, but every one receives the impression from it. But the truth is, that it is the strength of the general current which has swept away particular men; the stream, put in motion by greatness in a former age, has been so powerful that it has become impossible for individual strength in this to withstand it; it is not that the age of great men has departed, but that of general causes has succeeded. But the ascendant of intellect is not thereby diminished: its triumphs are only postponed to another age; its sway begins when the body to which it was united is mouldering in the grave. The prophet is even more revered in future times than the lawgiver; when time has placed its signet on opinions, they carry conviction to every breast; and he who has had the courage to defend the cause of truth against the prejudices of one age, is sure of gaining the suffrages of the next.