the feelings and morality of the age-to dignify the na ture of man, and to disseminate a correct and philosophical spirit among all classes of society. In England, the writings of Mr. Webster are calculated to do a vast amount of good, by placing republican institutions on their plain and undeniable principles— opposed to the headlong passions of a misguided mob; with deadly hostility to every form of tyranny, the true history of popular power, its fixed and eternal principles have been in these efforts fairly placed before the world. And when the Genius of American liberty shall weep over the grave of Webster, it will be in the bitterness of a widowhood, made desolate by the loss of her ablest and firmest supporter. But in his works, and in their influence upon society, he will have left a legacy for which America and the world will be his everlasting debtors. THE PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION. THE time has been, indeed, when fleets, and armies, and subsidies, were the principal reliances even in the best cause. But happily for mankind there has come a great change in this respect. Moral causes come into consideration, in proportion as the progress of know. ledge is advanced; and the public opinion of the civilized world is rapidly gaining an ascendancy over mere brutal force. It is already able to oppose the most formidable obstruction to the progress of injustice and oppression; and as it grows more intelligent and more intense, it will be more and more formidable. It may be silenced by military power, but it cannot be conquered. It is elastic, irrepressible, and invulnerable to the weapons of ordinary warfare. It is that impassable, unextinguishable enemy of mere violence and arbitrary rule, which, like Milton's angels, "Vital in every part, Cannot, but by annihilating, die." Until this be propitiated and satisfied, it is vain for power to talk either of triumphs or of repose. No matter In what fields are desolated, what fortresses surrendered, what armies subdued, or what provinces overrun. the history of the year that has passed by us, and in the instance of unhappy Spain, we have seen the vanity of all triumphs in a cause which violates the general sense of justice of the civilized world. It is nothing that the troops of France have passed from the Pyrenees to Cadiz; it is nothing that an unhappy and prostrate nation has fallen before them; it is nothing that arrests and confiscation, and execution sweep away the little remnant of national resistance. There is an enemy that still exists to check the glory of these triumphs. It follows the conqueror back to the very scene of his ovations; it calls upon him to take notice that Europe, though silent, is yet indignant; it shows him that the sceptre of his victory is a barren sceptre-that it shall confer neither joy nor honor, but shall moulder to dry ashes in his grasp. In the midst of his exultation it pierces his ear with the cry of injured justice; it denounces against him the indignation of an enlightened and civilized age; it turns to bitterness the cup of his rejoicing, and wounds him with the sting which belongs to the consciousness of having outraged the opinion of mankind. INTERNATIONAL LAW. This asserted right of forcible intervention in the affairs of other nations is in open violation of the public law of the world. Is the whole world expected to acquiesce in the principles which entirely subvert the independence of nations? On the basis of this independence has been reared the beautiful fabric of international law. On the principle of this independence, Europe has seen a family of nations flourishing within its limits; the small among the large, protected not always by power, but by a principle above power-by a sense of propriety and justice. On this principle the great commonwealth of civilized states has been hitherto upheld. There have |