VOLUMES CXXIV. and CXXV. OF THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. CONTENTS. JANUARY-FEBRUARY. Points in American Politics. RICHARD II. DANA, Jr. Daniel Deronda. EDWIN P. WHIPPLE. Richard Wagner's Theories of Music. E. GRYZANOWSKI: The Triumph of Darwinism. JoHN FISKE. MARCH-APRIL. The Electoral Commission and its Bearings. Christian Policy in Turkey. LAURENCE OLIPHANT. Hon. CHARLES R. BUCKALEW. English Arctic Expedition (with Circumpolar Map). Judge CHARLES P. DALY, The Centenary of Spinoz. SAMUEL OSGOOD, D. D. MAY-JUNE. The American Constitution. Senator MORTON. African Explorers (with Maps). LAURENCE OLIPHANT. The Relations of Debt and Money. ELIZUR WRIGHT. The Progress of Painting in America. THE EDITOR JULY-AUCUST. The Electoral Conspiracy. Judge J. S. BLACK. The War in the East (with Maps). General G. B. MCCLELLAN. The American Constitution Part II. Senator O. P. MORTON New Russia. M. W. HAZELTINE. How shall the Nation regain Prosperity? DAVID A. WELLS. America in Africa. Part I. GILBERT HAVEN. Contemporary Literature. SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER. The "Electoral Conspiracy" Bubble Exploded. E. W. STOUGHTON. The War in the East (with Maps). Part II. General G. B. MCCLELLAN. Perpetual Forces. RALPH WALDO EMERSON. How shall the Nation regain Prosperity? Part II. DAVID A. WELLS. "Fair Wages." A "STRIKER." Reformed Judaism. Conclusion. FELIX ADLER. The Recent Strikes. THOMAS A. SCOTT. Progress in Astronomical Discovery. Contemporary Literature. NOVEMBER-DECEMBER. Resumption of Specie Payments. HUGH MCCULLOCH, Judge W. D. KELLEY, DAVID A. WELLS, General THOMAS EWING, JOSEPH S. ROPES, Secretary SHERMAN. Cavalier de la Salle. FRANCIS PARKMAN. The War in the East. General G. B. MCCLELLAN. The Functions of Unbelief THOMAS HITCHCOCK. The Southern Question. CHARLES GATARRÉ, of Louisiana. Michelangelo and the Buonnarroti Archives. T. ADOLPHUS TROLLOPE The Situation in France. A PARIS RESIDENT. How shall the Nation regain Prosperity ? Part III. DAVID A. WELLS. Price, unbound, $5.00; bound in cloth, $6.00; in half morocco, $8.00. NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. No. CCLXIV. SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 1878. I. KIN BEYOND SEA. Ir is now nearly half a century since the works of De Tocqueville and De Beaumont, founded upon personal observation, brought the institutions of the United States effectually within the circle of European thought and interest. They were cooperators, but not upon an equal scale. De Beaumont belongs to the class of ordinary though able writers: De Tocqueville was the Burke of his age, and his treatise upon America may well be regarded as among the best books hitherto produced for the political student of all times and countries. But higher and deeper than the concern of the Old World at large in the thirteen colonies, now grown into thirty-eight States, besides eight Territories, is the special interest of England in their condition and prospects. I do not speak of political controversies between them and us, which are happily, as I trust, at an end. I do not speak of the vast contribution which from year to year, through the operations of a colossal trade, each makes to the wealth and comfort of the other; nor of the friendly controversy, which in its own place it might be well to raise, between the leanings of America to protectionism, and the more daring reliance of the old country upon free and unrestricted intercourse with all the world; nor VOL. CXXVII.--NO. 264 13 of the menace which, in the prospective development of her resources, America offers to the commercial preeminence of England. On this subject I will only say that it is she alone who, at a coming time, can, and probably will, wrest from us that commercial primacy. We have no title, I have no inclination, to murmur at the prospect. If she acquires it, she will make the acquisition by the right of the strongest; but, in this instance, the strongest means the best. She will probably become what we are now, the head servant in the great household of the world, the employer of all employed, because her service will be the most and ablest. We have no more title against her than Venice, or Genoa, or Holland, has had against us. One great duty is entailed upon us, which we, unfortunately, neglect—the duty of preparing, by a resolute and sturdy effort, to reduce our public burdens, in preparation for a day when we shall probably have less capacity than we have now to bear them. Passing by all these subjects, with their varied attractions, I come to another, which lies within the tranquil domain of politi cal philosophy. The students of the future, in this department, will have much to say in the way of comparison between American and British institutions. The relationship between these two is unique in history. It is always interesting to trace and to compare constitutions, as it is to compare languages; especially in such instances as those of the Greek states and the Italian republics, or the diversified forms of the feudal system in the different countries of Europe. But there is no parallel in all the records of the world to the case of that prolific British mother who has sent forth her innumerable children over all the earth, to be the founders of half a dozen empires. She, with her progeny, may almost claim to constitute a kind of universal church in politics. But, among these children, there is one whose place in the world's eye and in history is superlative: it is the American Republic. She is the eldest born. She has, taking the capacity of her land into view as well as its mere measurement, a natural base for the greatest continuous empire ever established by man. And it may be well here to mention, what has not always been sufficiently observed, that the distinction between continuous empire, and empire severed and dispersed over sea, is vital. The development which the republic has effected has been unex |