pointed, restless, uneasy, lean, and discontented part of the English

"All the unsettled humours of the land."

A constant succession of immigrants of this peculiar description must, in time, give rise to a different national character. This, with the Puritanical descent of many, may explain several of the characteristics of the American features and character. At the same time, the large amount of the Celtic element among the settlers must also produce its share of the change, and aid in forming the lively, restless Yankee, in place of the more sober, staid John Bull. When his heterogeneous elements become thoroughly intermixed he will be a compound mainly of English, Irish, and German, and, if the influence of climate and institutions permit, will probably be an improvement on the original stock.

Climate must also have some effect in the transformation going on. Though we do not as yet know much as to the action of air, sun, and soil, we can hardly doubt that a change from the damp, cloudy, temperate clime of Great Britain to the great summer heat, severe winter cold, comparatively dry atmosphere and

serene sky and sunshine of North America must affect the physical constitution considerably, and probably also have some action on the mental characteristics.

Education and institutions also contribute their share. From their very childhood the Americans are inured to driving and excitement. The rousing and animated style witnessed in the infant schools is continued and maintained during youth up to manhood, when declamation, fiery debates, and never-ending political struggles, keep up the eternal turmoil. All are educated, all have votes and political influence, and all are in a state of continual excitement on public questions. Every four years the country is stirred to its foundations on the presidential election, the agitation for which is in full operation a twelvemonth beforehand. Every two years a new Congress is chosen; and besides this each State has its own legislature and governor to elect at short intervals. Every city has its little parliament, and the citizens of each State must attend, more or less, to the doings of the other States. Last year there were three long messages requiring the particular attention of the inhabitants of the city of New York-the President's message, the State Governor's, and the Mayor's.

New territories are being settled, for each of which laws and a constitution are wanted; the settlers are turned into as many Solons, and on the principle of go-a-head, or "Excelsior," they strive to produce something more perfect than ever was known in the world before. The tendency is ever onwards, going further and further in the direction in which they began; liberty, equality, restriction of the authority of judges and rulers, and the principle of government by the governed are pushed to an extreme. Great public meetings, conventions, caucuses,* platforms, demonstrations, are for ever going on. In short, every man is a sovereign, perpetually occupied in governing the other sovereigns. Thus the nation is kept in a continual ferment. We may question if so cumbrous a system of government, and so much legislational turmoil, are for the good of the country; but who can doubt that they must produce an exciteable, quick-witted, restless people. Thought and the power of speech are developed,

* A caucus meeting is a select preliminary meeting held to prepare a course of action at the legislative assemblies, some important convention, or other public meeting. A platform is a declaration of the principles of a party—that upon which they stand; each leading point is a plank in the platform, and we sometimes hear even of a splinter of a plank.

with self-confidence and presumption, for all are equal, and all are powers in the state. Public life is fostered, home discouraged, and a morbid craving for excitement created.

There can be little doubt that from all these causes a new national character, a new racevariety, widely different from the British, will grow up in the United States. The Americans seem approximating to the French in character: in exciteability, impulsiveness, restlessness, and fluency of language, they are already far more French than English. It is quite a pleasure to see the intelligence and animation which characterize all classes. They are indeed a remarkably clever people, and we must hope that there will remain amongst them enough of the solidity (or stolidity, as the Americans call it) of the Anglo-Saxon to preserve this truly great nation from the dangers to which they are exposed by their cleverness and impulsiveness, and the trying circumstances and institutions with which they have to contend.

No man can have lived a little in North America, whether in the United States or the British Colonies, without perceiving that impatience of restraint and a morbid jealousy of rulers penetrate the whole system of society. The lower classes, servants, the employed, the

young, the women, in short, all who have any one above them in authority or standing, are in a state of chronic insubordination. There is no organ of veneration in North America; every one in authority is looked upon with suspicion; as a possible oppressor, who must be narrowly watched, and checked at the slightest manifestation of his natural tendency to be a tyrant. This is seen in the audacious bearing of the young, in the rowdyism in even the old-settled large cities, not always confined to the mob, in the intolerance of the federal authority by the several States, and of the State authority by its citizens, and in the increasing tendency to give the people the election of judges, and to appoint them for limited times only, thus placing the judgment-seat in subservience to king mob. The "Boston Courier" states, "The philosopher of Concord informed his fellow citizens that it was on general principles 'the duty of the States to resist the United States Government, of the cities to resist the States, and of the villages to resist the cities.' Why the philosopher stopped there, we do not know. He ought to have added that it was the duty of each household to resist the municipal authority of the village, and of each individual to resist the head of the family." The "Courier" might