my conduct in the discharge of my public duties. My conscience, at least, assures me that I have followed them; and, although in examining again the acts of my administration, I am not conscious of any intentional faults, yet I am too deeply sensible of my defects, not to be convinced that I have probably fallen into many mistakes. Whatever these may be, I fervently implore the Almighty to remove or dissipate the evils to which they may have led. I shall also carry with me the hope that my country will never cease to look upon them with indulgence, and that after forty-five of my life devoted to her service with zeal and integrity, the wrongs of my humble merit will be forgotten, as I shall soon myself be gathered to the house of all living."

years

After the death of one of his two children, Jefferson writes from Monticello, as follows:

"The loss which I have experienced is really great; others may lose of their abundance; but I have to deplore the loss of the one half of my whole portion. The evening of my life is only held together by the slénder threads of one human life. Perhaps I am destined to see the last bond of paternal affection broken!"

Philosophy, which is rarely affecting, is so here in the very highest degree. This was none of the indolent grief of a man who was exempt from the active occupations of life: Jefferson died on the 4th of July, 1826, in the 84th year of his age and the 54th of the Independence of his country. His mortal remains repose, covered with a simple stone, on which, as his only epitaph, is engraved the following inscription: "THOMAS JEFFERSON, Author of the Declaration of Independence."

Pericles and Demosthenes pronounced the funeral orations of some young Greeks, who fell for a people which disappeared soon after them; in 1817, Brackenridge celebrated the death of some young Americans, whose blood has given birth to a people.

There exists a national gallery of portraits of distinguished Americans, in four volumes, 8vo.; and what is remarkable is a biography containing the lives of more than a hundred of the principal Indian chiefs. Logan, the chief of Virginia, spoke the following address to Lord Dunmore: "Last spring, Colonel Crasp, without any provocation, slew all the kindred of Logan; there no longer flows a single drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature. It is this which has called me to vengeance. I have sought him; I have slain many. Is there any one who will now come and lament for the death of Logan? None."

Without loving nature, the Americans have applied themselves to the study of natural history. Townsend set out from Philadelphia, and explored on foot the whole country between the Atlantic and the Pacific, and enriched his journal with numerous observations. Thomas Say, who travelled in the Floridas and to the Rocky Mountains, has published a work on American entomology. Wilson, originally a weaver, became an author, and has furnished some very finished delineations.

In reference to literature, properly so called, although there is little worth notice, there are some names which cannot be altogether overlooked. Brown, the son of a Quaker, is the author of "Wieland," which Wieland has become the source and model of the novel writers of the new school. In opposition to the tendencies of his countrymen, Brown alleges, that he prefers wandering in the forests to beating out corn. Wieland, the hero of his story, is a Puritan, whom heaven has commanded to kill his wife: "I have brought you here," says he, "to fulfil the commands of God; by my hands you must die :—and I seized her two arms. She uttered the most piercing shrieks, and attempted to get free:- Wieland, am not I your wife? do you wish to kill me ?—to kill me ?-mercy! mercy! As long as she could utter a sound, she continued to beg for mercy and for aid." Wieland strangles his wife, and experiences unspeakable delights beside the dead body of his victim. The horrors of our modern inventors are here surpassed. Brown had formed his taste by reading "Caleb Williams," and in his "Wieland," he has transferred into his book a scene from "Othello."

At the present time, the American novelists, Cooper and Washington Irving, are obliged to come to Europe to find materials and readers. The language of the great English writers has been creolised, provincialised, and barbarised, without having gained any thing in energy in the midst of a virgin nature; it has been found necessary to publish lists of Americanisms.

As to the American poets, their language has something pleasing; but they rise but little beyond mediocrity. However, the "Ode to the Evening Breeze," "Sunrise on the Mountain," the "Torrent," and some others, are worth reading. Halleck has sung Botzaris dying, and George Hill has wandered amongst the ruins of Greece.

It is a pleasure to me who have been a traveller on the shores of Hellas and Atlantis, to hear the independent voice of a country, unknown to the ancients, lamenting over the lost liberties of the Old World.

DANGERS INCIDENT TO THE UNITED STATES.

WILL America retain its present form of government? Will not the states separate? Has not a representative from Virginia already maintained the cause of ancient liberty with slaves, the result of paganism, against a representative from Massachusetts, upholding the cause of modern liberty without slaves, such as Christianity has made it?

Are not the Northern and Central States opposed both in feeling and interests? Will not the Western States so far removed from the Atlantic, desire a government of their own? Is the federal bond, on the one hand, strong enough to maintain the union, and to constrain the obedience of the neighbouring states? On the other, if the power of the executive be increased, will not the presidential power become a despotism, with the guards and privileges of a dictator?

The isolation of the United States has been favourable to their origin and greatness; it is very doubtful whether such a state could have sprung up and grown to maturity in Europe. Federal Switzerland existed in the midst of us; why? It is small, poor, and girdled round with lofty mountains; the forcing-house of soldiers for the use of kings, and the scene of excursions of plea

sure.

Completely separated from the Old World, the population of the United States still dwell in solitude; its deserts have constituted its freedom; but even now the conditions of its position begin to change.

The existence of the democracies of Mexico, Columbia, Peru, Chili, and Buenos Ayres, all in a state of disturbance as they are, constitute a danger. As long as the United States had no other neighbours but the colonies of a transatlantic kingdom, there was no probability of any serious war; at present, the rivalries of the new states are a subject of apprehension. In proportion as recourse is had to arms among them, and as the descendants of Washington become imbued with the military spirit, there is danger of some great captain springing up, who will aim at a throne; glory always has a desire for crowns.

I have already observed, that the interests of the Northern, Central, and Western States are different; each of them is aware of the fact. Should any of these divisions violate the union, will there be an attempt to reduce it to obedience by force of arms? Then what a multitude of enmities will be spread in the social

union ! What discords will immediately break out in these emancipated States! These transatlantic republics being broken up, will only form weak units, of no weight in the social scale, or they will be successively subjugated by some one amongst them. In these remarks I lay out of view the serious question of foreign alliances and interventions. Kentucky, inhabited by a race of men more rustic, hardy, and warlike than the rest, seems destined to be a conquering State. In such a State, if it should prove successful and victorious, the power of an individual would not be long in gaining a complete ascendancy, and in rising upon the ruins of the power of all.

So much for the dangers of war; those of a long peace ought also to be borne in mind. Since their emancipation, the United States have enjoyed, with very short exceptions, a period of the most profound tranquillity; whilst hundreds of battles were shaking Europe to its centre, they were engaged in cultivating their fields in peace. The consequence of this has been an immense development of population and weaith, with all the inconvenience of a superabundance of riches and population.

Should hostilities arise amongst an unwarlike people, would they know how to resist? With their wealth and habits, would they consent to make the necessary sacrifices? How could they bring themselves to renounce their indolent customs, their comforts, and the quiet enjoyments of life? China and India, reposing in their muslins, have constantly submitted to foreign domination. That which is most suited to the nature and advancement of a free society, is a state of peace moderated by war, and a state of war tempered by peace. The Americans have already worn the olive crown too long; the tree which produces it is not indigenous to their soil.

The spirit of trade begins to overrun them; and self-interest is even now become a national vice. The spirit of gambling in their banking systems has already involved them in difficulties, and bankruptcies threaten the public weal. As long as liberty produces gold, an industrious republic effects prodigies; but when gold has been acquired or is exhausted, it loses that love of independence which is not founded on a moral sentiment, but has originated in a thirst for money and a passion for industry.

Moreover, it is difficult to create a country amongst States which have no community either in religion or material interests, which have sprung from various sources at different times, and live in a different soil and climate. What common relation is there between a Frenchman of Louisiana, a Spaniard from the

Floridas, a German from New York, an Englishman from New England, Virginia, Carolina, or Georgia, all of them reputed Americans? The first is a light-minded duellist; the second, an indolent and haughty Catholic; the third, an industrious Lutheran, without slaves; the last, an English planter with negroes, or a Puritan and merchant: how many centuries it will require to make these elements homogeneous !

An aristocracy of money is ready to appear, with the love of distinctions and a passion for titles. It is quite erroneous to suppose that there exists any thing resembling a general level in the United States. There are societies wholly exclusive in their nature; there are drawing-rooms in which the haughtiness of their masters very far surpasses that of a German Prince, with his sixteen quarterings. These plebeian nobles aspire to be a caste in despite of the progress of knowledge which has made them equal and free. Some of them never speak of any thing but their ancestors, proud barons, apparently bastards and companions of William the Bastard; they display the blazonry of the chivalry of the Old World, adorned with the serpents, the lizards, and parroquets of the New. A Gascon cadet landing merely with his cloak and umbrella on their republican shores, if he takes care to give himself the title of marquis, is received with consideration on board the American steamboats.

The enormous inequality of fortune threatens more seriously still to destroy the spirit of equality. Individual Americans possess one or two millions of income; thus the Yankees of high society can no longer live after the fashion of Franklin: the true gentleman, disgusted with the habits of his new country, travels to Europe to seek for those of the old; and he is to be found in every hotel, making the tour of Italy, and vying with the English in extravagance or the spleen. These wanderers from Carolina and Virginia purchase ruined abbeys in France, and plant English gardens with American trees at Melun. Naples sends to New York her singers and performers; Paris her fashions and strollers; London her grooms and her boxers-exotic enjoyments which do not render the union more cheerful. People, as an amusement, threw themselves into the cataract of Niagara, with the immense applause of fifty thousand half-savage planters.

What is still more extraordinary is, that at the same time that this inequality of fortune is in process of development, and an aristocracy begins to be formed, the great equality impulse from without compels the great and wealthy manufacturing pro