self-respect, servility. In 1840, according to the census of that year, more than one free white person in nine in North Carolina was unable so much as to read and write. In 1838, Governor Campbell of Virginia told his legislature that of 4614 men-applicants for marriage licences-1047 could not write their names.'

In 1851, when these statements were made, the analysis of the last census had not been completed, or the writer of Five Years' Progress of the Slave Power might have given some much more startling facts than those he has quoted, regarding the state of education in the South. Take the case of South Carolina, which is worthily represented at Washington by Mr. Preston Brooks, the chivalrous assailant of Mr. Sumner. In 1850, that State, which takes the lead among the Slave States, contained 149,322 white children, and only sent 40,373 of them to school, which is just about half the proportion of children attending school in the Free State of Connecticut. This simple fact is enough to show what influences are at work in the South to degrade the non-slaveholding white population, and to give the slaveholders a monopoly of power and influence.

From their superior position, and the means they possess of controlling what small amount of public opinion exists around them, the slaveholders are, with very rare exceptions, the only class from whom the representatives are chosen. The represen'tation in the two Houses from Slave States-fifteen States out of 'thirty-one-is always a compact body, going together for 'all the claims and supposed interests of the Slave Power. How'ever divided into parties upon other questions, on this they always agree. The English House of Peers is not so jealous of 'its prerogatives as the senators and representatives from fifteen 'States of the Union are of the prerogatives of slavery. To ex'tend and perpetuate slavery, for other purposes no doubt, but ' eminently for the purpose of constituting themselves, by means ' of it, the supreme power of the nation, of taking actual posses'sion of the Government, and monopolizing to themselves and their 'partisans its administration, its honour, and its rewards, this 'is the perpetual aim of their pertinacious, skilful, unscrupulous, 'sleepless policy.' Such was the character of the Slave Power, as given by the Boston Commonwealth, in July, 1851. Few persons would look upon it at that time as anything else than the exaggerated raving of a fanatical Abolitionist. And yet, so rapid has been the development of the conspiracy against the Free States within the last few years, that hardly a single Northern politician of unblemished character can fail to admit and lament how accurately it describes the policy of the Slave Power at the present moment.

In preparing and pushing forward the various measures which they deem essential to the consolidation and extension of their power, the slaveholders have one great advantage over the honest republicans of the North, in their greater knowledge and more unscrupulous use of the demagogues and electioneering agents by whom the ignorant democracy is managed. While they are united as one man upon every question which relates in the slightest degree to their two thousand millions of dollars' worth of property, and while they scruple not to hang or burn, or at the very least, to expel from their dominions any person who dares to call in question the character of their 'domestic institutions,' they find no difficulty in obtaining unprincipled scoundrels and reprobates of every grade to debauch the democracy of the North, to inspire the poor with hatred of the rich, and to draw such lessons from that very degradation and demoralization which they have done so much to produce, as in some degree to warrant their assertion that free society is a failure."

In the first French Revolution the weapons of the Girondins were political philosophy, respectability, and eloquence. The republican party of the United States possesses all these. It is impossible to glance over a Boston or New York paper without perceiving that the best men of New England are all on the side of justice and freedom. But the party to whom they are opposed possesses one quality which, we fear, will be too strong for respectability and eloquence in a revolutionary epoch like the present. It has audacity, and that quality has a wonderful influence over the American mind at all periods. How much greater must that influence be in a period of crisis?

Dr. Channing, who was far in advance of the politicians of his own age, and who was, therefore, denounced as a dreamer, was fully aware of this difference between the South and the North, a distinction which does not appear to have presented itself to De Tocqueville. In his letter on The Duty of the Free States, so full of prophetic warning, he draws a remarkable contrast between the two great divisions of the Union as regards their means of obtaining power over the Government. After saying that to admit Texas into the confederacy would bring the whole country under the Slave Power, would make the general Government the agent of slavery, and that, therefore, the Free States should de'clare that the very act of admitting Texas will be construed as a dissolution of the Union,' Dr. Channing attempts to reason with the slaveholders, and convince them that they will always be able to rule the North even without the proposed annexation:

'Without Texas, the South will have very much its own way, and will continue to exert a disproportionate influence over public affairs.

It has within itself elements of political power more efficient than ours. The South has abler politicians, and almost necessarily, because its most opulent class make politics the business of life. The North may send wiser statesmen to Congress, but not men to marshal and govern parties -not political leaders. The South surpasses us, not in true eloquencewhich is little known anywhere-but in prompt, bold speech, a superiority due not only to greater ardour of feeling, but to a state of society encouraging the habit, and stimulating by constant action the faculty of free and strong utterance on political subjects; and such eloquence is no mean power in popular bodies. The South has a bolder and more unscrupulous character, for which the caution and prudence of the North are not a match. Once more, it has union, common feeling, a peculiar bond. in slavery, to which the divided North can make no adequate opposition. At the North, politics occupy a second place in men's minds. Even in what we call seasons of public excitement, the people think more of private business than of public affairs. We think more of property than of political power; and this, indeed, is the natural result of free institutions. Under these, political power is not suffered to accumulate in a few hands, but is distributed in minute portions: and even when thus limited it is not permitted to endure, but passes in quick rotation from man to man. Of consequence, it is an inferior good to property. Every wise man among us, looks on property as a more sure and lasting possession to himself and his family, as conferring more ability to do good, to gratify generous and refined tastes, than the possession of political power. In the South, an unnatural state of things turns men's thoughts to political ascendancy; but in the Free States men think little of it. Property is the good for which they toil perseveringly from morning till night. Even the political partisan among us has an eye to property, and seeks office as the best, perhaps only, way of subsistence. In this state of things, the South has little to fear from the North. For one thing we may contend, that is, for a tariff, for protection to our monied interests, but if we may be left to work and thrive, we shall not quarrel for power. The little sensibility at the North to the present movements on the subject of Texas, is the best commentary on the spirit of the Free States. That the South should be suffered to think for a moment of adding a great country to the United States for the sake of strengthening slavery, demonstrates an absence of wise political jealousy at the North, to which no parallel can be found in human history.'

6

"Even the political partisan among us has an eye to property,' says Dr. Channing, and seeks office as the best, perhaps only, way of subsistence.' What a humiliating confession, and how complete an explanation does it furnish of the want of political virtue even in the North! The worship of the 'almighty dollar' is the exclusive business of even the best part of the community. They must attend to trade and commerce, and therefore the trade of politics, the bargain and sale of constituencies, is left to the dishonest classes. In bringing such a charge against the

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politicians of the United States, we do not mean to assert that our own Legislature is without stain. From the history of our railway legislation, many an instance of political corruption might be drawn which would fall very little short of some of the cases we see mentioned in the American newspapers. But, as Mr. Tremenheere remarks, in his excellent work on the Constitution of the United States, there is one marked distinction between our system and that which prevails among our kinsmen on the other side of the Atlantic. Under their constitution, the frequency of elections, the very great diffusion of the franchise, ' and the payment of their Members of both Houses, cause a 'class of men to be sent to the National Legislature, the majority ' of whom are not possessed of independent means sufficient to ' enable them to dispense with those extraneous and unrecognised sources of emolument which are inconsistent with their posi'tion and character, should a low estimate of either happen to 'second the temptation. Under ours, the vast preponderance ' among the Members of the House of Commons of men of ' either hereditary or acquired wealth, or of competence honour'ably achieved and maintained, materially contributes to diffuse and preserve a high tone of feeling and of principle, which reduces the corrupt elements to exceptions; which is ever on the watch against their increase; and which despises and repels, though it may sometimes be obliged by political necessities to use them." In the same chapter which treats of the payment of Members, Mr. Tremenheere quotes the opinion of a gentleman in the United States, who has the most ample means of judging correctly' as to the way in which the national business is managed, and who endorses the following condemnation of it:- Consider for one moment the inevitable effects of our present state of 'politics. The quality of our politicians deteriorates most rapidly. Write down a list of the twenty-five leading poli'ticians of Washington's, Adam's, or Jefferson's Administration, ' and write opposite the names of our foremost twenty-five . . . have we not among our foremost statesmen illiterate, shallow, ' noisy, boastful demagogues? . . . . It seems to me that the 'business of politics is getting to be done, more and more, by 'such persons, that men of worth, dignity, and wisdom more and more abstain from handling the political pitch which defiles; that the apathy of the intelligent class, with regard to 'politics, has become almost complete. This was written soon after the election of President Pierce, at a time when the country was comparatively quiet. Since that period, the passing of the Nebraska Bill, and the attempt to force slavery into Kansas, have dispelled the apathy which then prevailed. A large

NO. XLIX.

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amount of healthy political sentiment has been awakened throughout the whole of the Free States; and at one time it almost seemed as if the North would be able to elect a President, in spite of all the efforts of the dominant faction. But the Republican party, though powerful in its enthusiasm and the strength of its convictions, is miserably deficient in political strategy, and therefore it stood no chance in a struggle with the combined forces of the thoroughly-organized Democracy and the Slave Power.

And, now that the Presidential contest is settled for 1856, the first object of Mr. Buchanan and his friends will be to lay down a scheme of action with a view to the campaign of 1860. 'If a 'President of the United States is capable and ambitious,' says Mr. Tremenheere, he must necessarily wish to be re-elected at 'the expiration of his four years of office. To be re-elected, he 'must be popular; and to be popular, it is possible that it may 'be necessary for him to adopt a line of policy which, to say the 'least, may be 'disquieting' to, if it does not actually produce col'lision with, some of the other Powers of the world, in defence of 'their rights and interests.' This is the difficulty, then, in which Mr. Buchanan finds himself, now that he has attained the summit of his ambition. If he refuse to do the bidding of that portion of his supporters who are in favour of the annexation of Cuba and Central America, he may rely upon being held up to public odium as a traitor to the Slave Power which has placed him in office. That he will fling to the winds all his former declarations in favour of slavery and filibustering, as some of the journals which lately opposed him profess to believe, is altogether incredible. But, although he may not make so great a change in his policy as will render him a favourite with the Republicans, he may possibly succeed in devising some plausible compromise measure by which the support of the Money Power will be rendered secure, and the cause of freedom betrayed. There are many different modes in which the dangerous schemes of the Southern aristocracy for the extension and perpetuation of their power may be promoted, without calling forth the same amount of opposition as the crime against Kansas has created. No man understands better than Mr. Buchanan how to do the largest amount of work for the Slave Power at the smallest risk of odium towards himself and his masters. It is this which renders him a far more dangerous enemy of freedom than poor Franklin Pierce has been.

President Pierce's last Message, which was laid before Congress on the 1st of December, does not throw much light on the future policy of Government. Instead of joining those very sanguine politicians who have lately been prognosticating the most mild