Religious Experience. By the Rev. Joseph H. Jones, D. D. Second Edition. Philadelphia: James S. Claxton. 1865. 12mo. pp. 324. 9. The Bible Hand-Book: an Introduction to the Study of the Sacred Scriptures. By Joseph Angus, D.D. Revised Edition, with Illustrations. Philadelphia: James S. Claxton. 1865. 12mo. pp. 727. 10. The American Republic: its Constitution, Tendencies, and Destiny. By O. A. Brownson, LL. D. New York: P. O'Shea. 1866. 8vo. pp. xvi., 439. 11. Mr. Buchanan's Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1866. 8vo. pp. 296. By Arthur Latham Perry. New 8vo. pp. xix., 449. 12. Elements of Political Economy. York: Charles Scribner & Co. 1866. 13. Richard Cobden. A Biography. Harper and Brothers. 1865. 16mo. pp. 304. By John McGilchrist. New York: 14. Reminiscences, Historical and Biographical, of Sixty-four Years in the Ministry. By Rev. Henry Boehm. Edited by Rev. Joseph B. Wakeley. New York: Carlton and Porter. 1865. 16mo. pp. 493. 15. The Poetry of the Orient. Roberts Brothers. 1865. 16mo. By William Rounseville Alger. Boston: pp. xii., 337. By Henry Howard Brownell. Bos 16. War Lyrics, and other, Poems. ton: Ticknor and Fields. 1866. 16mo. pp. 243. 17. Poems by Robert Buchanan. 16mo. pp. 311. Boston: Roberts Brothers. 1866. 18. Outcroppings; being Selections from California Verse. San Francisco: A. Roman & Co. 1866. Square 16mo. pp. 144. 19. The Poems of Thomas Bailey Aldrich. 1865. 16mo. [Blue and Gold.] pp. 240. 20. Glimpses of History. Boston: Ticknor and Fields. By George M. Towle. Boston: William V. Spencer. 1866. 12mo. pp. 262. 21. A Summer in Skye. By Alexander Smith. Boston: Ticknor and Fields. 1865. 16mo. pp. 423. 22. Little Foxes. By Christopher Crowfield. Boston Ticknor and Fields. 1866. 16mo. pp. 287. 23. Georgy Sandon; or, A Lost Love. By Ashford Owen. Boston: Loring. 1865. 16mo. pp. 215. 24. Handbook of the Steam-Engine. By John Bourne, C. E. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1865. 12mo. pp. xii., 474. 25. Seaside Studies in Natural History. By Elizabeth C. Agassiz and Alexander Agassiz. Marine Animals of Massachusetts Bay. Radiates. Boston: Ticknor and Fields. 1865. 8vo. pp. vi., 155. 26. The Freedmen's Book. By L. Maria Child. Boston: Ticknor and Fields. 1865. 16mo. pp. vi., 277. CONTENTS OF No. CCXI. I. THE ERROR OF DE TOCQUEVILLE. .. Euvres Complètes d'ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE. 1. Revised United States Army Regulations of 1861. 2. Digest of Opinions of the Judge-Advocate-General 3. Instructions for the Government of the Armies of the United States. Prepared by FRANCIS LIEBER, LL. D. 4. The Duties of Judge Advocates. Compiled from Her Majesty's and the Hon. East India Company's Mili- tary Regulations, and from the Works of various Writers on Military Law. By CAPTAIN R. M. HUGHES. 5. A Treatise on Military Law and the Practice of Courts Martial. By CAPTAIN S. V. BÈNET. 6. Observations on Military Law, and the Constitution and Practice of Courts Martial. By WILLIAM De Hart. Diplomatic Correspondence between MR. ADAMS, Min- Trans VIII. DANTE, AND HIS LATEST ENGLISH TRANSLATORS. 2. The Inferno of DANTE, translated in the Metre of 3. The Comedy of DANTE ALLIGHIERI. Part I. The Hell. Translated into Blank Verse by WILLIAM MICHAEL ROSSETTI, with Introductions and Notes. 4. Seventeen Cantos of the Inferno of DANTE ALIGHIERI. [Translated by THOMAS WILLIAM PARSONS, M. D.] IX. THE PRESIDENT ON THE STUMP. Swinburne's Tragedies, 544.- Buchanan's Poems, 555.- Bushnell's Vicarious Sacrifice, 556. - Mrs. Farrar's Recollections of Seventy Years, 571. The Works of Philip Lindsley, 573.- Doolittle's Social Life of the Chinese, 574.- Sherman and his Campaigns, 575. — Artemus Ward's Travels, 586. — Bigelow's Address on the Limits of Education, 592. Higginson's Works of Epictetus, 599.- Eddy's Young Man's Friend, 606.-Lady Wallace's Letters of Mozart, 609.- Wells's Life and Public Services of Samuel Adams, 614.- Bowles's Across the Continent, 619.- Flint's Physiology of Man, 624.- Clark's Mind in Nature, 627.—Whittier's Snow-Bound, 631.- Herman, or Young Knighthood, 632.—The Works of Edmund Burke, 634.- Harper's Weekly, 637. Palfrey's History of New England, 638. — Martin's History of France, 640.-Sabin's Reprints, 641. - Stoddard's Melodies and Madrigals, 644. 473 509 530 544 NORTH AMERICAN AMERICAN REVIEW. No. CCXI. APRIL, 1866. ART. I.-Euvres Complètes d'ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE. Tomes VII. and VIII. Paris. 1865. MANY among us are old enough to remember the visit of Messrs. de Tocqueville and de Beaumont, and the sensation produced throughout Christendom by the appearance of La Democratie en Amérique, from the pen of the former of these gentlemen. Democracy in America! Who in the year 1832 could have foretold the meaning these words would have in this year 1866? If it were given to any human being then living to foresee the condition and prospects of our country at this moment, that person was certainly not M. de Tocqueville. Much as he studied and well as he understood our institutions, -and he studied them deeply and with great fairness, — he signally failed, as late events have shown, to discover the real secret of their nature, or to fathom the character of our people. His book has been so much read, and has had, as we think, so considerable an influence in Europe, and particularly in England, as to have led to great misunderstanding in relation to the late Rebellion. Under this persuasion, we believe that a little time may be well spent in pointing out, and accounting for, a very grave mistake of the writer in a most important particular. It will be recollected that Messrs. de Tocqueville and de Beaumont were sent by King Louis Philippe expressly to study the institutions of the United States; and certainly the task VOL. CII.—No. 211. 21 could not have been confided to better hands. As regards M. de Tocqueville, besides his other qualifications, no one who had the pleasure of his acquaintance can have failed to notice an urbanity and courtesy of manner such as are seldom met with. A grandson of the great and virtuous Malesherbes, he had all the refinement and rational love of liberty which belonged to what was called in France la noblesse de robe, a title by which the old families of the legal profession were known, — naturally coupled with the feeling of caste which belongs to such a descent. It is well to bear this in mind, as it will tend to account for the general tone of M. de Tocqueville's opinions. The clew to that gentleman's theories can in no way be so well given as in his own words. The Introduction to his "Democracy in America" begins thus. (We will here premise, that, having no English copy at hand, we translate from Gosselin's Paris edition of 1836.) "Among the novel objects which, during my stay in the United States, attracted my attention, none struck me more forcibly than the equality of conditions. I soon discovered the prodigious influence of this leading fact on the march of society; it gives a certain direction to public spirit, a certain character to the laws; new maxims to those who govern, and peculiar habits to the governed. I at once saw that this same fact extends its influence far beyond political and legal questions, and that it is no less powerful in its operation on civil society than on the government. It creates opinions, gives rise to sentiments, suggests customs, and modifies all that it does not originate." He then goes on to speak of Europe, and gives a most clear and interesting account of the growth of the same spirit of equality there, especially in France, and sums up as follows: "The whole book on which the reader is now to enter has been written under the impression of a sort of religious terror, produced in the mind of the author by the prospect of this irresistible revolution, which has been marching on through so many ages in spite of every obstacle, and which we still see advancing in the midst of the ruins itself has made.” He draws a very just distinction between the result of this tendency in France and in the United States; but it is easy to see that the dread of our example in this respect is a bugbear which perpetually haunts him. |