Of the people of India, it may be said, that their hands have been against all men, and all mens' hands have been against them. Security has been consequently unknown.

The following scale gives, we think, a tolerably accurate view of the extent to which security in the enjoyment of personal rights exists in those nations.

The United States,

England and Wales,

France,

India,

100

85

40

10

Upon a retrospect of their history, it will be seen that they enjoy the rights of person in nearly the ratio in which they have been disposed to permit others to do the same. An individual that employed himself in assaulting and plundering others, could expect but little security for himself. If he understood his own interest, he would find a more productive mode of employing his labour, and would permit his neighbours to enjoy in peace that which they produced. So is it with nations. In some we find that passion for assaulting and plundering others which keeps themselves poor and renders them a nuisance to their neighbours, and an obstruction to the course of civilization, while in others we find a disposition to labour themselves and to permit others to do the same. The consequence is that the latter live in security and enjoy a high degree of productive power.

"God hath made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions." We find in the United States comparatively few of those inventions, and there we find that with increased population there is a constant increase of security, and that in Massachusetts, where population is most dense, security is most complete. In proportion as we find in other nations the inventions of man abounding-as we find existing the disposition to assault and plunder others rather than to labour themselves— we find a constantly increasing insecurity.

CHAPTER III.

SECURITY OF PROPERTY.

ENGLAND. THE UNITED STATES.-FRANCE-INDIA.

WHEN the population of England was small and thinly scattered over the land, property was highly insecure. It has already been shown that, as recently as the reign of Elizabeth, bands of plunderers roamed over the kingdom, whom the authorities dared not bring to justice. Property in the northern counties was so little secure, that they were termed "the debateable lands." The people of both sides of the border were always ready to carry fire and sword among their enemies, and no man could retire to rest without the apprehension that his house might be burned before the return of day. From that time to the present, with the increased facility of obtaining subsistence from the inferior soils, enabling men to live in closer intercourse, property has become daily more secure. The fear of border wars has passed away; order has succeeded to disorder; and the proprietors enjoy a security unknown to other parts of Europe.

The total number of persons convicted for offences against property in 1834, of a character to entitle them to punishments exceeding one year's imprisonment, was 4647, being one in 3120 of the population.*

• Porter's Tables, Part IV. p. 394. In this Table one column is devoted to punishments of one year and exceeding six months, in which are more than 1400 convicts. Being unable to discriminate between those of one year and under, we have limited ourselves to those exceeding one year.

The following statement shows, that even in the vicinity of some of the most densely peopled portions of England, security is still far from complete. "In August, 1837, a gang of robbers was dispersed that had, for several years, infested the neighbourhood of Peckforten Hills, Cheshire, and who sustained themselves wholly by plunder. The farmers in the neighbourhood were fully aware who were the parties who committed the depredations, but for fear of further molestation they never uttered a complaint. The gang became so fearless and desperate in their marauding excursions that even in daylight they entered the farm houses and possessed themselves of the articles they desired. Success rendered them fearless, and in a measure affluent. They purchased donkeys for the transportation of their plunder, and extended their operations to the distance VOL. II.-8.

In the United States we find a similar state of things, as we pass from the period of the settlement at Plymouth to the present time. We find the same, at the present day, in passing from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic; from the country now occupied by the aborigines, to the State of Massachusetts with a population of eighty-one to the square mile. In the new Territories we find the squatter and the purchaser of land disputing the title to property, and not unfrequently resorting to the law of force, while in the old States the right thereto is guarantied by laws, the execution of which is secured by an unanimous public opinion.*

Of crimes against property, involving punishments of one year's imprisonment, or more, we find, in Pennsylvania, one in 4400; in New York, one in 5900;† in Massachusetts, one in 5932, showing a constant decrease as population becomes more dense, and as man is enabled to derive a larger return to labour, with the increase of capital, enabling him to cultivate the inferior soils.

In both countries there has existed that feeling of the security

of fifteen miles from their establishment. On many occasions the farmers of the neighbourhood saw the heavily laden animals driven to the place of resort, where the booty was equally divided."§ This appears to us the most extraordinary fact we have recently met with, and we doubt exceedingly if it can be paralleled in the United States, widely scattered as is their population.

"In no country does crime more rarely elude punishment. The reason is, that every one conceives himself to be interested in furnishing evidence of the act committed, and in stopping the delinquent. During my stay in the United States, I witnessed the spontaneous formation of committees for the pursuit and prosecution of a man who had committed a great crime in a certain county. In Europe, a criminal is an unhappy being who is struggling for his life against the ministers of justice, while the population is merely a spectator of the conflict: in America, he is looked upon as the enemy of the human race, and the whole of mankind is against him."-De Tocqueville, Vol. I. p. 132.

+ In New York, the minimum of punishments among the convicts included in this statement, is two years' imprisonment; whereas, in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts it is one year. Were the returns from New York and Massachusetts constructed alike, it would be found that the former would bear a proportion more accordant with the diminished density of its population.

In the statement previously given in regard to England, we have omitted those whose sentences were only one year's imprisonment; whereas, in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania they are included. The real disproportion is, therefore, much greater than is given above. For further information see the Report of Messrs. De Beaumont and De Tocqueville, page 244.

London Examiner, September 3, 1837.

of property which results from the knowledge that its possession and enjoyment are guarantied by the law, and that it can be taken from the possessor only by legal action. Full confidence has been felt in the stability of the respective governments, and every man has felt safe in using his property in such manner as he deemed most likely to yield him the largest revenue, when permitted so to do. Notwithstanding this general security, there have existed many cases of insecurity, resulting sometimes from acts of government, at others from acts of the people and want of power in the government to enforce the execution of the laws, as we shall proceed to show.

A declaration of war by one nation is a license to its citizens or subjects to plunder the citizens or subjects of an other. The plunderers obtain booty and glory; the plundered are reduced, perhaps, to beggary. That the practice of robbing innocent merchants, and carrying the unoffending crews of their ships into captivity, should have continued to the present time, is evidence of the slow progress of civilization; but it cannot be doubted that better times and better feelings are approaching, and that no long period will elapse before the robbery of merchant ships, by public vessels, will be placed on a level with highway robbery, and privateering be regarded as little better than petty larceny.

We have already shown that, during one half of the last one hundred and fifty years, England has been engaged in war. Her merchants have seen their property liable to plunder; they have been compelled to pay heavy insurance against the risk of capture; and they have been obliged to forego the advantages of prompt despatch to avail themselves of the convoy of armed ships. If they sailed without convoy, the rate of insurance was enormously heavy; if they waited for it, the loss of time and interest was immense. It would be difficult to imagine any circumstance that could tend more to repress improvement than the knowledge that no advantage could be derived from it. During the late war it was useless to build fast ships, because they could not make their voyages in less time than the slowest vessels of the convoy. It was useless to make exertions to give them despatch, because they could not sail until the fleet was ready. The system tended to produce sluggishness in the ship

builder, the merchant, the master, and the sailor, because exertion could bring with it no reward.

We have also shown that the United States, with slight exceptions, have abstained from war during the whole period of their political existence. They have endeavoured to promote the introduction of a new code of laws for the government of civilized nations during war, under which the property of individuals, wherever found, shall be respected, and reprisals shall be confined to public vessels. That such a system will be adopted, and perhaps at no very distant period, there can be now no question.

Having never been placed under circumstances that rendered it necessary to take convoy, by which the careless and indifferent-the lazy and inactive—were placed upon the same footing with the active and intelligent-the industrious and enterprising-they have had every inducement to exertion, and the consequence is seen in the extent of their mercantile marine; in the superiority of their vesssels; their rapidity of sailing; and the prompt despatch which is given to them, enabling their owners to pay high wages and obtain large profits of capital. Had they been cursed, during a period of thirty years, with a convoy system, they would, perhaps, be now about to commence the improvements which they have long since accomplished.

With the exception of the period of the revolution, security has not, in the United States, been disturbed by civil wars or tumults of material importance. Instances have, however, occurred, of riots, disgraceful to the parties engaged in them, and to the communities that permitted them. Thus in Baltimore, but two years since, several houses were nearly destroyed, and for two days the rioters, though few in number, had uncontrolled command of the city. In Philadelphia, on two occasions, the property of unoffending blacks has been destroyed. In New York, similar occurrences have taken place, and in Charlestown, Massachusetts, a nunnery, occupied by a body of useful and meritorious females, was destroyed without opposition from the respectable portion of the citizens of the town.

In Maryland, the county was compelled, by a special law of the Legislature, to make amends for the damage that was done; and in Pennsylvania, a similar law compelled, on one occasion, a similar compensation; but in New York, no such remedy was