The

ed political theories, or exaggerated expec- | forward to the achievement of independence tations of wealth. Were such the case, the and contentment before he die. bubble would have burst long ago. People The direction of the great current of emigo to America, because, in the long run, gration, both of new comers from Europe, those who went before them have found it and wanderers from the Eastern States, apanswer. Nor is its superior fertility of soil, pears to undergo gradual changes, like everyor advantages of its climate, which have pro- thing else in that land of mutability. The duced these results. They are owing, in desertion of the Eastern sea-board, wherever the first place, to political institutions. the population has not acquired some deEmigrants require neither patronage nor gree of cohesion by the growth of trade encouragement to flourish. They are not and towns, is said to go on as rapidly as needed by the industrious man, if tolerably ever; and although attempts have. been fortunate in his position: they can do no- made of late to re-people some abandoned thing for him when located on ungrateful lands, more years than the period of their soil and to the idle man they are simply brief cultivation must probably elapse, beinjurious everywhere. Justice and freedom fore they recover their fertility, and become alone are necessary. Not the nicely-ba- once more attractive to emigrants. lanced and well-considered justice, admi- great valley of the Ohio, to the north of nistered by careful lawyers under venerable that river whose left bank is blighted by codes, which men enjoy in countries of slavery, is still the main recipient of emiolder civilization; but rough, practical jus- gration, as it has been for about thirty tice, administered by men who may not be years. But already there are symptoms of always sagacious, or always incorruptible, a change of direction: it seems that of late but who understand his case, and are guid- years the current has set more decidedly ed by usages which have grown up along towards the southern shore of the Canadiwith the outward circumstances to which an lakes; a region less magnificent in its they are applied. Not freedom, as under- vegetation, but further removed from slavestood by a political theorist, or a philoso- ry, possessing a healthier climate, and enphical poet, or a wandering Arab: but joying means of transit and commerce, to simply the license to do as nearly as possi- the production of which nature has conble what a man pleases, provided he do not tributed a larger share. Cleveland, or interfere with the rights of neighbors in si- Maumee, or Sandusky, or some other spot milar circumstances with himself, or oppose on the banks of Lake Erie, say the specuthose passions of the multitude with which lators, will be the great growing American his own generally coincide. Of all this he city of the latter end of this century. Next is certain from the moment he touches in order comes a similar, but less favorably American soil. What has continental Eu- situated region, the States of the far Northrope to compare with this? What has West, Iowa and Wisconsin, already receiv even England, with all the ancient liberali-ing a considerable proportion of the annual ty of her institutions, cramped, as she ine- immigration.

*

cent enough, the principal future expansion of the white population of America is probably to take place: for the "Far West," however attractive to the imagination of Americans, is not the destined seat of a community resembling that which they have at present constructed. Nature, so lavish in her bounties to them, has nevertheless

vitably is, by the necessity of maintaining Within these limits, assuredly magnifiexisting orders of society in a struggling and restless position, and by the complex rights of property, which as necessarily arise in a space so densely crowded? Let us not deceive ourselves. The ultra-democratic career of America may be a warning to our statesmen. Her social and political deformities may be, and we rejoice that they are, fully appreciated by the educated In 1842, "of the articles of flour, pork, bacon, classes of our community, and justly ani- lard, beef, whisky, corn, and wheat, New Orleans madverted on by the ordinary guides of po- exported to the value of 4,446,989 dollars; Clevepular feeling. But, notwithstanding all land, 4,431,799." "If we suppose," adds Mr. Scott, "what cannot but be true, that all the other ports of this, America is still to the bulk of our po- the upper lakes sent eastward as much as Clevepulation the land of requital and redress-land, we have the startling fact, that this lake counthe distant country in which oppressions try, but yesterday brought under our notice, already cease, and poverty grows full-fed and bold, sends abroad more than twice the amount of human in which fortune opens her arms to the cou-New Orleans, the once vaunted sole outlet of the food that is shipped from the great exporting city of rageous, and the least adventurous looks Mississippi valley."

the face of the continent appears to exhibit a labyrinth of sierras and sandy or snowy deserts; including vast basins without an outlet for their waters; a configuration like that of the surface of the moon seen through a telescope. Captain Fremont's narrative of his desperate wintermarch from the Columbia to the Bay of San Francisco, reads like that of a nightmare journey in a dream. But a very great part of this region is still unexplored. There are few things in recent travel more spirit-stirring than the same traveller's account of his arrival on the banks of the Great Salt Lake of the Eutawas, the Caspian of America, the subject of endless superstitious fables, both Spanish and English, but on which boat had never been launched before ;-" He was the first that ever burst into that silent sea.

set them her own definite limits, which they will not profitably overstep. From a line drawn parallel with, and one or two hundred miles west of, the Mississippi, the prairie region extends uninterruptedly to the Rocky Mountains; and this region, though embracing many fertile tracts, is not in general adapted for the settlement of a great agricultural people. As the dense population of China is hemmed in to the north and west by the almost unpeopled territory of the Tartar nomades, or as that of ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt was closely girt by the Desert, so that a mere line separated the land cultivated like a garden from the solitude of the Arab; so likewise, though with somewhat less marked contrast, the populous Mississippi valle y will border westward on the land of pasturage. It is true that nature has been bountiful to the Anglo-Americans, even in the But there is little reason to suppose that character of their deserts. These are only these mysterious recesses conceal anything reached gradually. Nature dies by slow more attractive than what is already known successive changes, as the traveller passes and visited by explorers. It is true that from the banks of the great river to the the shores of the Pacific, from the ColumRocky Mountains. First comes the tract bia to the San Francisco, contain here and of scattered wood; then the uniform and there magnificent tracts; regions which level prairie; then the sandy waste; and invite the wanderer from the East, over even this is interspersed with remarkable thousands of leagues, to bask under a softspots of fertility, the "parks" and "pens" er climate, amidst a grander vegetation than of the Western trappers and hunters. But, even his own mother country can furnish. speaking generally, the character of ex- Nevertheless, we still retain the doubts treme aridity prevails throughout the cen- expressed in a former Number, upon the tral belt of North America, from the re- settlement of the Oregon question, whether gion of snow to that of eternal sunshine. emigration en masse will be directed to New Mexico, for example-just now the ob- that quarter from the eastward for a very ject of the fierce rapacity of a people possess- long period to come, even should the ing more fertile unoccupied land than any Americans acquire California, as by this other upon earth--is but a narrow valley, time they possibly have done. We read in which rain rarely falls, kept in a produc- much of the colonization of Oregon in tive state only by the greatest economy of their newspapers: nevertheless, it seems water, under the Spanish system of irriga- that most of the few settlers as yet estabtion. Its great Rio del Norte, which looks lished in that quarter, are not regular farso imposing on the maps, is said to be sel- mers, but hunters and trappers, who have dom above knee-deep, in a course of fifteen tired for a while of their wandering life, hundred miles to the tide water. After the and taken up the axe and the spade with Rocky Mountains have been passed, the the usual readiness of their countrymen; country to the westward, making due al- but who are pretty sure to quit them again, lowance for fertile intervals, appearing far so soon as the fit of civilization passes off. more luxuriant to the eyes of tired travel- The caravans of emigrants which have lers than sober reality warrants, seems to reached it, have in many instances gone preserve the general aspect of barrenness. through extremities of privation and sufThe great Columbia rolls a volume of sand fering. Miseries, such as Indian tribes and gravel through shattered mountains of flying from starvation out of their disvolcanic rock; its waters are said to "have peopled hunting-grounds, or African clans no fertilizing qualities, but to deteriorate from the razzias of civilized conquerors, and exhaust the land which they overflow." have rarely endured, are voluntarily borne South of this river, and far beyond what *Captain Fremont, quoted by Mr. M'Gregor, is, or was recently, the Mexican frontier, i vol. i., 577 and 624.

by wandering colonies of Anglo-Americans | wild republics of South America, the free in the mere spirit of adventure. It is not Guacho lives in a sort of clannish depenlong since a party of five women and two dence on the great proprietors. Nothing men arrived at an outpost in California: can be conceived more contrary to the they were the survivors of sixteen, and had lived for weeks on the bodies of their dead companions. The party had been sent forward for assistance by a band of emigrants who had been surprised, with their families and cattle, by the snow in the Sierra, under which, no doubt, they lie buried. Our astonishment at the extraordinary energy, and no less extraordinary restlessness of character, by which these obstacles are overcome, may be taken as a measure of the enormous impediments which they offer to the advantageous extension of American empire to the Pacific.

habits and feelings of the Anglo-American race; and, should the present form of the Republic last so long, it will be curious to see how a polity, whose extreme elasticity already enables it to comprehend the traders and manufacturers of the East, the farmers of the North-west, and the sugar and cotton planters of the South, within the same voluntary association, will be affected by the introduction of an element so new, and so unlike anything at present included in its dominion.

But the great Federation has withstood trials quite as severe. While the combinaThe wide region west of the Mississippi tion of surrounding political circumstances will therefore present, in the course of seems to indicate that it is only on the years, the aspect of an immense pastoral threshold of its momentous destiny, there country, resembling Australia and the States is a force and profusion of life in all its of La Plata in modern times. Such, at functions which bespeaks it equal to the least, must be its general character, though diversified by the cultivated valleys of its great rivers. Among the many varieties of industry to which the versatility of American genius has been applied, the rearing of stock has hitherto been the least favorite. It is not a national pursuit. It is now chiefly confined to the unfavorable climate of New England and New York; and is perhaps the least forward branch of agriculture throughout the States. Although population has begun to spread over the prairies for the last twenty years, scarcely a beginning appears to have been made in the art of turning them to that purpose which they are so peculiarly calculated to serve. But the time must arrive when these plains shall become the greatest sheep and cattle farms of the world-swarming with domesticated animals, as they once swarmed with wild, before the hunters of the East had made a solitude of them, and introduced that interregnum of desolation which now prevails. The Indians, indeed, must first have disappeared, or be in some way reclaimed from their predatory habits; but the former catastrophe seems fast approaching. The addition of this new component part to the existing members of the great Republic may give rise to some curious political speculations. It should seem that this species of industry cannot be carried on-at least, it never has been-except by large proprietors of flocks and herds; and the pastoral form of society has ever partaken of the patriarchal. Even in the

occasion. Without apparent root in the soil, without any hold on traditional observance, such as ancient monarchies possess; without that strength in its executive, by which newer political bodies usually seek to supply their want of moral power; it has already withstood tempest after tempest, and outlived successive prophets of ruin. A mere handful of provinces, casually united in resistance to England, and on the point of falling to pieces when the necessity of resistance ceased, it acquired at that critical moment a new constitution, which knit the disjointed members firmly together. A second war, undertaken against the will of one-third of its component States, appeared to threaten it afresh with dissolution; it ended in strengthening the Union, through a new infusion of national spirit, and by rousing a common sentiment, which absorbed sectional jealousies and passions. Next came the consummation of the victory obtained by the democratic party in their long struggle with the federalists-a victory which seemed to threaten with speedy destruction the bond, which it had been the principle of the latter to vindicate and maintain. But Providence overruled this danger also to a contrary issue: for the State authorities, which could not long have endured the stricter yoke intended by the federalists, submitted easily to the modified control which the disciples of Jefferson vested in the central government. The nation overflowed across the bounding Alleghanies, and spread over the wide valley of

the Mississippi, and it was pronounced by class of evils which are submissively endured friends, as well as enemies, that the exten- for many years, until they appear to have sion of empire would inevitably lead to dis- become a part of the very constitution of ruption. Contrary to all anticipation, this society; but against which, sooner or later, very extension has preserved the unity of public indignation suddenly rises, shatterthe republic. The growing separation of ing to pieces the whole edifice in its impaNorth and South, divided in interest, and tience of the rotten materials. It is not hostile in feeling, was prevented from for strangers to estimate the real amount coming into direct collision by the intro- and pressure of danger of this description duction of the new Western States. This on the institutions of a foreign country. third and powerful element kept the others They can but compare and balance the statetogether in compulsory harmony; and, in ments of native observers; and, in doing the same manner, every subsequent addi- so, they are bound to make great allowtion has tended to strengthen the fabric ances for the exaggerations both of honest rather than to bring it down. The wider patriots and disappointed partisans. Nor the dominion of the federation spreads, the would we willingly give vent to the gloomy greater the number of local interests and anticipations which must inevitably arise, populations comprehended within its boun- were we to adopt too literally the descripdary, the less appears to be the probability tions given by Americans themselves, of the that any particular local interest can recent workings of some of the most imthreaten the general weal-that dissensions portant parts of their system. For the between particular sections are destined to day, which shall see that vast dominion endanger the security of the Union. It parcelled out between independent and jarhas stood the shocks of commercial distress, ring States, imitating, with ampler means and the extravagance of commercial pros- and fiercer resolution, the mutual hatred of perity; it has not been enfeebled by the the wretched republics of Spanish descent impulse given to party spirit under a long-however that day may be invoked by opand idle peace; it seems to encounter no pressed neighbors and by political enemies material dan ger from the questionable suc--will retard, for generations to follow, the cesses of a war of invasion and of conquest; progress of America, which is the progress for wars waged, like those of the Carthagi- of the human race in its widest and freest nians, by hired armies and jealously- field of action. controlled generals, are not very likely to produce a Cæsar or Napoleon. As far as human sagacity can foresee, the clouds which enveloped the birth of the confederacy have cleared away. There is no peculiar political danger now impending, which EARL FERRERS-Shortly after twelve o'clock on has not been incurred and surmounted Tuesday morning, a fire broke out at the above already, and of which American statesmen seat, which (with the exception of the servants' cannot estimate the amount, and may not apartments) has been reduced to a heap of ruins tobe expected to guard against the shock.gether with the furniture, library, and armory. The fire was first discovered by Mr. Leadbetter, the butler, Yet the changeful aspect of the times fills who was awakened by hearing a sort of crackling the mind of the calmest observer with mis-noise, as if some persons were attempting to break givings; and, while he gazes with admiration and awe on the portentous fabric of American greatness, he shrinks from founding any confident speculations on its permanence. There is a secret enemy within, who noiselessly saps the strongest institutions. If the North American republic should fall to pieces in our day-and we believe that every friend to human happiness must now wish the catastrophe averted -it will probably be neither from conquest nor defeat, external prosperity nor adversity, but from moral weakness at home. The corruption of the administrative departments of a government is one of that

DESTRUCTION OF CHARTLEY-HALL, THE SEAT OF

into the mansion. He dressed himself as hastily discovered that the house was on fire and that the as possible, and, upon going from his bedroom, he flames were issuing from the drawing-room windows. Expresses were immediately sent off for the fire-engines from Uttoxeter and Stafford, and about three o'clock the Stafford engine, with Inspector Wollaston and assistants, arrived; but the fire had gained such an ascendency that all that could be done was to save the servants' apartments, and it appeared that no engine was kept at Uttoxeter. So great was the heat of the fire, that, upon looking over the ruins, the swords from the armory were found blended together, and the books were one black mass. It is reported that the property is insured, but to what extent could not be ascertained. The mansion had lately been under repair, and the noble earl was expected there in about a fortnight from Staunton Harold.

From Fraser's Magazine. HINTS UPON HISTORY.