form the marriage ceremony, and consign her to a husband, and disgrace, and misery, for life.

There is no such relation as master and servant in the United States: indeed, the name is not permitted :"help" is the designation of one who condescends to receive wages for service. This help is generally afforded by free blacks, and Irish; our natives seldom lowering the dignity of free-born republicans so much, as to enter a house in the capacity of servants. Even Mr. Birkbeck, who is so much enamoured of our democracy, is somewhat troubled at what he calls the bigotted aversion of the Americans to domestic service; and that they, confounding the term servant with that of slave, should prefer keeping their children at home, in idleness, and often in rags, when they might be profitably and pleasantly employed in attending upon their more affluent fellow citizens. He concludes with the discovery, that if a gentleman wishes to be waited on and served in the United States, he must wait upon and serve himself; which is true enough. I remember, at Boston, a few years since, the mistress of the house where I lodged desired her negro man to go on some errand for her: the answer was, "I cannot, for I am engaged to meet some gentlemen and ladies (all negroes), at an assembly this evening, in street." And the lady was obliged to have her service unperformed, while a stout fellow, to whom she gave twelve dollars a month wages, was regaling himself at a black ball in the neighbourhood.

The national vanity of the United States surpasses that of any other country, not even excepting France. It blazes out every where, and on all occasions, in their conversation, newspapers, pamphlets, speeches, and books. They assume it as a self-evident fact, that the Americans surpass all other nations in virtue, wisdom, valour, liberty, government, and every other excellence. All Europeans they profess to despise, as ignorant paupers and dastardly slaves. Even during President Washington's administration, Congress debated three.

days upon the important position, that "America was the most enlightened nation on earth;" and finally decided the affirmative by a small majority. At the breaking out of the late war with England, General Moreau, who then resided in this city, was asked if our officers did not seek to avail themselves of his military skill and experience, by propounding questions to him? He replied, "there is not an ensign in the American army who does not consider himself a much greater tactician than General Moreau." And our present President, in his recent tour through the Union, told the people of Kennebunk, in the district of Maine, "that the United States were certainly the most enlightened nation in the world."

The causes of this national vanity are obvious; our popular institutions, vesting the national sovereignty in the people, have a direct tendency to make that people self-important and vain. Add to which, the incessant flattery they receive in newspapers, and public talks, about their collective majesty, wisdom, power, dignity, and so forth; their unexampled prosperity in the occupations of peace; and lastly, their actual achievements in war. Twice have they grappled, in deadly encounter, with the most powerful, the bravest, and the most intelligent nation in Europe; and twice have they triumphed over the most skilful commanders, and best appointed troops of that nation, in the battlefield, and on the ocean.

The result of all is, that the American people possess physical, intellectual, and moral materials of national greatness, superior to those of any other country; and in order to render the United States the greatest nation in the world, they have only gradually to augment the power of their general government; to tighten the cords, and strengthen the stakes of their federal union; to organize a judicious system of internal finance; to provide for the more general diffusion of religious worship; to enlarge and elevate their system of liberal education; to increase the dimensions, and exalt the standard of their literature, art, and science.

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CONCLUSION.

In order to show the necessity of radically strengthening and vigorously administering the general government of the United States, the remaining pages will be devoted to exhibiting an eye-glance of the present condition of Europe, and its probable consequences to the world at large, and to this country in particular.

What portion of Europe, insular or continental, promises a continuance of repose? Does France, with a feeble throne, recently reinstated, amidst a discontented, mortified, vain, unprincipled people, torn to pieces by contending factions, and bent to the earth by the increasing difficulties of her finance? Can England alone, reeling as she is beneath the weight of her own burden, stem the tide of that revolutionary fury which pervades Europe from the Tagus to the Neva, and threatens, once more, to dissolve the elements of social order, and roll into ruin those principalities and powers which have been so recently restored or elevated to their present eminence? In Italy, in Germany, in Poland, and in the United Netherlands, all seems to be disjointed; every thing is afloat; the ancient boundaries and landmarks of kingdoms are removed; the people are transferred, like herds of cattle, from one master to another, and all their feelings, passions, and prejudices kept in a state of continual ferment and exasperation.

The shock occasioned by twenty-five years of revolutionary conflict has been too violent, to permit the mere re-establishment of the old dynasties to produce a secure and permanent repose. Two of the main props of European society have been grievously impaired; namely, the influence of the intermediate bodies, or orders, and the balance of power. The importance of the clergy and nobility, as component parts of the state or commonwealth, has been too much diminished, ever to recover its former weight and strength. For want of the influence of these intermediate bodies, which, prior

REPRESENTATION AND REVOLUTION.

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to the French revolution, served at once to secure to the sovereign the respect and obedience of his people, and to the people mildness and moderation on the part of the sovereign, it is to be feared that Europe now will perpetually oscillate between the struggles and triumphs of sedition and despotism. The only ground of hope for European peace would be the extension of the representative system,which might enlighten the executive councils, strengthen the authority of the sovereign, establish and preserve the liberties of the people.

For political revolutions are always occasioned, or preceded by disaffection in the great mass of the community; and ambitious and profligate men, consulting only their own interests, would in vain labour to produce a national convulsion, if the people were contented, and at ease. By what possible means could any unprincipled demagogues incite the American people to a revolution, in their present happy, and prosperous state? Moderation, justice, and an easy yoke can, alone, give stability and permanence to governments. But the danger is, that, after so terrible an explosion, a spirit of distrust or resentment, and the predilection for arbitrary power, which is too common with all rulers, whether imperial, or monarchal, or republican, may lead the governments of Europe to adopt maxims of severity and restraint-the necessary consequence of which, in the present feverish state of the world, must be a perilous popular reaction, that nothing but magnanimity and mildness in the ruling powers can either avert or disarm, when once excited. This revolutionary reaction, an incident of human nature, in all ages and countries, but peculiarly characteristic of the present period of insurgency and turbulence, the wisdom and forecast of every good government will labour not to provoke. In the present generation, certainly, and perhaps in the next following, there will be great danger of this reaction. Its symptoms, in various gradations of violence and force, have already broken out, under the popular monarchy of England, the, as yet, undefined sovereignty of France, the senseless, imbecile despotism of Spain, the limited and guarded government of the United Ne

therlands, and some of the smaller Italian and German principalities. The military sway of Russia, Austria, and Prussia, have, hitherto, kept down this natural insurgency against all arbitrary rule in their subjects, whose reaction, however, will be the more terrible, in proportion to the protracted resistance of their respective governments, to the introduction of a representative system and popular institutions.

Notwithstanding the re-establishment of the old dynasties, the balance of power, in Europe, cannot be restored, as it existed prior to the French revolution, when Austria, and England, and Russia, were generally ranged on the same sides, in order to counterpoise the ascendency of France, and the growing greatness of Prussia. The system of equilibrium is, at all times, and now more than ever, merely a system of provident jealousy for the great powers; than for those of a secondary order, it arises out of the necessity of a mutual support against the encroachments of over-bearing neighbours. A slight eye-glance at the present condition of Europe, will show at once that it is not easy to regulate the balance of power in that quarter of the world; nor probable that peace and harmony can be long maintained among its different sovereigns.

The course of the smaller states will, as heretofore, be determined by that of the primary powers. Prussia has only a population of ten or eleven millions, scattered over a disjointed territory, that has neither frontier nor centre; a population too, multiform and dissonant, not bound together in themselves, or towards their government, by long habits of kindred feeling, and loyal attachment. Its government is purely military, and, consequently, ill adapted to the present tendencies towards popular representation and sovereignty, that prevail all over Christendom. The Emperor Joseph the Second used to say, in reference to Prussia, "if she be ever pressed vigorously by a powerful neighbour, she will find that an army and an exchequer are not a nation."

Austria numbers a population of nearly thirty millions, but her dominions are scattered over Germany, Poland, and Italy; her Italian and Polish subjects are not well