after reflection they come to the natural conclusion, that if the people voluntarily created the government, and passed the laws, they must not only be interested in upholding them, but, more than all other people in the world, they must be disposed to lend an active assistance in their execution.

If then we desire to strengthen the arm of the civil magistrate, and to give to the government the greatest possible authority, what plan more likely to produce the effect than to give force and importance to the popular will? For even if the class of the disorderly increase, as society grows older, the class of those who are interested in the maintenance of public order will assuredly increase still more.

In the large cities of America, the police are invariably more strict, more alert, more resolute in the performance of their duties, than in the small towns or country districts. The officers are elected by the people; but this only adds to the weight of their authority.

Thus the American government is, in the strictest sense, a balanced one; but the principle on which this balance is adjusted is different from what it is elsewhere. The political departments are as numerous, and perform duties very similar to those which are performed in other countries, but possessing no inherent and independent authority, the idea of balancing the one against the other would be futile, unless a new motive power had been introduceda power which, because it resides without and not within the government, both controls and strengthens the exercise of political

power.

As public opinion is indispensable in order to give efficacy to this great principle, the extent of that public opinion, the number of people who contribute to form it, and who are in turn themselves affected by it, is a matter of great consequence. In some countries, so limited is the range of intelligence and information, that both opinion of right and opinion of interest help to fortify instead of controlling power. If, in a country of twenty or thirty millions of people, one or two hundred thousand make up all the active citizens of the state, this affords no proof that a much larger number are not entitled to be placed upon that footing; but it indicates how very small is the force which is brought to bear upon the solid and compact machinery of the government. It also indicates, that the millions who are left out in the formation of public opinion, may be disposed at one time to combat on the side of power, and at another, to run into the opposite extreme of licentiousness.

There is no better way of arriving at a fair estimate of the force and extent of public opinion, in any country, than by ascertaining the number of public journals which are circulated in it. Even though the majority of these should not be conducted with great genius and ability, it would afford no objection to this view, but rather the reverse. It is a proof that what is termed public opinion loes not comprehend the highly educated merely; but that it extends to a great number of people in the descending ranks of society, who, although they may not be gifted with learning, or eloquence, yet have a very ready apprehension of those things which most deeply affect their interests, and are capable of forming a very sensible estimate of the manner in which government is administered.

The number of newspapers and other journals published in Great Britain and Ireland, is five hundred and fifty-five. On the whole of continental Europe, it does not exceed twelve hundred; while in the United States, they amount to nearly two thousand. Doubtless they are cheaper in the last than in any other country. Their cheapness brings them within the reach of the great mass of the population: and they are cheap, because it is more profitable to supply a large number of effective demanders, at a low price, than a small number at a high one; and from this circumstance, a very important consequence follows; that a great proportion of those classes, who in other countries are mute and inanimate spectators of public events, are raised to the condition of active and intelligent citizens. The circle of public opinion is wider, the principle of responsibility more stringent and efficacious, and the influence which is brought to bear upon the government is increased tenfold. Government is intended to restrain society, and yet society is intended to restrain the government, and the first species of check is not lessened but is greatly increased by enlarging the basis of popular power.

The establishment of local governments in the United States constitutes another class of checks very different from what exists in any other country. In order that the popular will may exercise an influence both salutary and effective, it is not enough that power should be divided in the first instance between the people and the government; it is necessary that it should be distributed among different jurisdictions. A consolidated government, although republican in its structure, would be an object too large for ordinary apprehension, and would be removed to too great a distance to be watched and controlled by the people. The federal and state governments act as checks upon each other. They exercise distinct powers; and so do the king and parliament; but, in the first case, these powers are inclosed within different spheres, and do not act in conjunction. The force of the check, therefore, does not depend in any degree upon the interests or ambition of those who hold office, but is exerted whether they will or no. The two governments are not only confined to the management of different affairs, but are placed upon different theaters and it may be supposed that on that account this form of government does not very readily afford a notion of what is understood by a system of checks; nor does it indeed in the ordinary acceptation of the term. But it is for that very reason more deserving of attention. Those who wield the political authority of these different communities are not brought into immedi ate contact, so that the will of one may directly control that of the others. But it will be admitted, that if the original constitution of lords and commons were such that neither could well move out of the position assigned to it, the check would be much more complete than it could otherwise be. It would be so, because so much was made to depend upon the structure of the institutions themselves, and so little upon the personal views and ambition of individuals. A check does not lose that character because it is more comprehensive in its operation, but is the more entitled to the appellation on that account. The constitution of king, lords, and commons, approaches much more nearly the idea of a system of checks and balances since the revolution, and the various ordinances which followed it, than in the reign of Henry VIII, or Charles I. The same is true of France. The king, the legislature, and the judiciary, since the constitutional "charte" of 1830, are infinitely better restrained than in the reign of Louis XIII; for so feeble was the control upon the royal power, at this last period, that a single decree was enough to abolish the legislative body.

The establishment of the local jurisdictions of America, then, gives efficacy to the influence of public opinion. The men of Ohio would have a world of business to attend to, if they were called to watch the management of affairs in every other part of the country. But it is no very difficult matter for them to give an eye to everything which is transacted within their own borders; nor for the men of the twenty-nine other states to do the same. The confining the domestic interests of these communities within a comparatively narrow sphere, not only renders those interests more readily appreciable, but it gives a fairer opportunity to become acquainted with the working of the central government also, since its powers are rendered both fewer and more simple than would otherwise be the case. In other words, the force of public opinion which is brought to bear upon the central government, is increased in the same proportion as that which acts upon the state governments.

Not only is this the case, but the authority which these various governments exercise over the population is more full and extensive also. If the influence of public opinion is brought nearer to the government, and therefore falls upon it with more weight, for the same reason the authority of government is brought nearer to every part of the population, and therefore exerts a more constant and palpable influence upon it. Thus the American government is truly a balanced one; but the system is "sui generis." The checks are not only more numerous, more wide spread than in any other community; the power out of the government is not only as great as it can consistently be made, but it is so distributed as to create a countervailing power on the part of the government which renders the institutions both freer and stronger.

CHAPTER VII.

THE INFLUENCE OF AMERICA UPON EUROPE.

A TRAIN of accidental causes no doubt assisted in the establishment of free institutions in America. But now that they have grown to maturity, their influence is in no way dependent upon circumstances. The thinly-peopled country of which the first emigrants took possession, its seclusion from the disturbing influence of foreign politics, presented the golden opportunity. But when this novel experiment had succeeded, its power of reacting upon other communities was, like any other system of conduct, dependent upon the ordinary principles of human nature. The minds of men became more interested in the inquiry, what these institutions gave promise of, than how they came to be put together. It is like the case of an individual in whom a happy train of incidents has awakened great powers; once these are matured, his influence, whether for good or for evil, is independent of fortuitous circumstances.

The influence of one nation upon the manners and institutions of another, is no new fact in the history of society; but the way in which this influence operates is different from what it formerly was. Conquest, the incorporation of one people into another, the exercise of authority in some form or other, were the chief instruments in establishing this influence. America is the first instance in which the institutions of one country have been permitted to spread their influence abroad, without the intervention of any force-without even the desire to employ any. It is consequently the first instance in which a deep and general impression has been made upon the manners and habits of thinking of other communities. In order