INDEX. A. Angling (Review, P. P.) 32. Aspects of Nature, by Alexander Van Humboldt, B. Bremer, Miss, at Home, 423. British encroachments and aggressions in Central America; commercial importance of Bay of Fonseca; Island of Tigre; seizure by the British of the Port of San Juan de Nicaragua; effect of relative geographical position of Great Britain and the United States on Asiatic commerce; advantage to the United States of ship canal by route of Lake Nicaragua ; Buccaneers originators of English intercourse with these regions; character of the natives; difficulties between Spain and Great Britain respecting this territory; final relinquishment of all claim by British government; revival of British attempts on decline of Spanish power; grants from the Mosquito king to Jamaica traders; revocation of grants; seizure of the port of San Juan by the British; war on Nicaragua ; British exhibit of the Mosquito question; letter of Lord Palmerston; refutation, 188, 335. Browning's Poems, (Review,) 388. C. Cabriolet by Ik. Marvel, 162. Clay, Mr., speech of, (Review); policy of the na tion in regard to slavery and its extension; suppression of slavery in all territories of the United States by act of central government; expediency discussed; special message and scheme of President Taylor; advice of the President to New Mexico to form State government; recommends early admission of California; Boundary question between New Mexico and Texas to be brought before Supreme Court and settled on international principles; resolutions offered by Mr. Clay; power of Congress to legislate for territories undeniable but inexpedient; proposition of Mr. Clay respecting boundary and debts of Texas; abolition of slavery in District of Columbia; slave trade in the District; rendition of fugitive slaves; slave traffic between the States; compromise line between slave and free territory; such line illusory; slave or white labor cannot be forced where they have not their proper conditions; balance of power; dissolution of the Union; disastrous consequences, 219. Cooper, J. Fenimore, Works of (Review by G. W. P.) 406. Cuba (Review) "Cuba and the Cubans, by the author of Letters from Cuba;" geographical and commercial importance of Cuba; revolutions in that island; horrible political persecutions; descriptions of plantations, their beauty and luxuriance; indolence and luxury of the Cubans ; women of Cuba, their early beauty; religion; statistics of education; importance of Cuba as a possession to England or to the United States, 512. D. Democracy in France, by M. Guizot (Review, by O.); sources of imperfection of human judgment; the evil of the times imputed by M. Guizot to its idolatry of democracy; government in a democracy; radical theories; democracy a government of induction, from the experience of numbers as recorded by their suffrage; aristocracy a government of syllogism, from the partial expe- Dana, Richard H., poems and prose writings of, Duel without seconds, a daguerreotype from the King, Hon. Thomas Butler, report on California, L. Lynch Law, uses and abuses of, (P. P.) sum- M. M'lle de la Seigleire, 17-129. Moss and Rust-Poetry, (G. M. P.) 640. 347. 0. The Old Homstead-a poem, 529. P. Poe, Edgar A. (Review, G. W. P.) 301. R. Rabelais, Francois, Essay on the life and writings Republic, stability and growth of the; coloniza- 406. S. Shipwreck, a Ballad, (by W.,) 155. Southern Views of Emancipation and the slave Southern extremes no index of state of feeling Sidonia, (Review), 400. Spain, her ways, her women, and her wines, 292. Seward, Hon. William H., Ex-Governor and U. vocates internal improvements, law reform, W. Western Prairies; their beauty and characteristics; Y. Yeadon, Hon. Richard, memoir of; Mr. Yeadon's AMERICAN REVIEW, No. XXV. FOR JANUARY, 1850. DEMOCRACY IN FRANCE.* THE author of this work is a man of great philosophical ability, and of a reputation quite equal to his deserts. He possesses moreover that which gives a higher authority with the public, a practical experience in the subject he treats. In proposing to criticise a writer thus qualified in reality, and confided in by the general opinion, we feel obliged, alike by deference to this opinion and diffidence of our own, to premise a few explanations, by means of which the reader may judge in turn of the critic as well as the author. For this very submissive procedure-so characteristic, no doubt, of literary and all other censors we have still a more substantial motive than modesty. The preliminaries alluded to may also shed some light upon the most important political phenomenon of this or any previous age, the revolutionary eruptions of 1848 and 9; a light which appears requisite to the speculators of all parties, and especially perhaps to the gentlemen of the press. For, respecting the true nature of this social earthquake, there seems to be as yet quite as little of discriminative agreement among those who are predisposed to regard it with predilection, as there is of comprehensive intelligence in the opposite party. The latter, are however, entirely positive, precise, dogmatic, in denouncing it. M. Guizot is their enlightened advocate, or their doctrinal exponent. In submitting, therefore, our strictures upon his book to the test of principles, the real merits of the general subject-involved as they are in fact in these principles-must receive ample though indirect elucidation. The first of our explanations will remove a certain presumption which would preclude all argument, all evidence whatever. With the acknowledged honesty as well as ability and experience of Guizot, how, it may be thought, can he well have been very widely misled in a matter of political science? Or supposing such the fact, how can this or that critic, inferior to him in some or perhaps all these qualifications, expect to be listened to with attention in pretending to convict him—and with him, three-fourths of Europe-of error? This, it will be observed, is the old argument from authority. But, though this logical opiate be now renounced by name, yet the thing itself retains, and salutarily, all its hold upon the instincts of the people, who distrust it rather for the oppressions which it has sanctioned than for the fallacies which it involves. As preliminary therefore to the evidence of fact, it will be well to show, concerning the errors in question, that neither is their occurrence a thing so improbable in M. Guizot, nor their detection at all presumptuous in persons differently circumstanced. It is thought no presumption that the peasant of the present day pretends to see the errors, for example, of witchcraft and astrology; and yet these had been for ages devoutly believed by unanimous * De La Democratie en France. Par M. GUIZOT. Paris, 1849. VOL. V. NO. I. NEW SERIES. 1 |