INDEX. A. Angling (Review, P. P.) 32. B. Bremer, Miss, at Home, 423. C. Cabriolet by Ik. Marvel, 162. Clay, Mr., speech of, (Review); policy of the na- tion in regard to slavery and its extension; sup- Cuba (Review) "Cuba and the Cubans, by the au- D. Democracy in France, by M. Guizot (Review, by government of syllogism, from the partial experience of a few; right to government, where resting-democratic republic; its origin; essential elements of society in France, viz: the family, property and labor; political elements of society in France, viz: the legitimists, the bourgeoisie, the socialists; condition of permanent government: M. Guizot's standard is the empirical example of England, not the inductions of general history, nor the laws of social science; moral conditions of social quiet in France, viz: the family spirit, the political spirit, and the religious spirit, 1. Dana, Richard H., poems and prose writings of, (Review, G. W. P.) 66. Duel without seconds, a daguerreotype from the State House of Arkansas, 418. E. Everstone, by the author of Anderport records, 77, 168, 269, 369, 497, 603. F. Franklin, Sir John, and the Arctic expeditions; Scoresby's voyages; Ross's voyage; Buchan's voyage; voyages of Parry; Lyon's, Clavering's and Sabine's voyages; Franklin's second expedition; Ross's second voyage; Sir John Franklin's last expedition, 572. J. "Judge not lest ye be judged," 300. K. King, Hon. Thomas Butler, report on California, (Review); colonization in America; increase and expansion of population; necessity of extending the geographical limits of the Union; peace policy; expansive power of the republic; rapid settlement of California; abstract of Mr. King's report on that country; yield of the gold mines; cost of the California colony to the old States; advantages and disadvantages; Mr. Clay's committee of thirteen; objects of the committee; States should be admitted to the Union for other reasons than those given by the opposing factions, 443. P. Poe, Edgar A. (Review, G. W. P.) 301. R. Rabelais, Francois, Essay on the life and writings of,-Humor of different nations; birth, education, and early traits of Rabelais; account of his more celebrated works; Pantagreul, 487. Read's poems or a caution to critics, 287. Report of the secretary of the treasury, (J. D. W.) Receipts and expenditures for the fiscal years ending July 1849 and 1850; advantages political and economical of collecting a revenue of customs; system of public debt, its advantages; existing national debt; growing expenses of the government; necessity for an efficient and economical means of increasing the revenue; proposition of Mr. Meredith; commerce; its value not always in the ratio of its profits; political economy, its fallacies; intercourse of men, social as well as economical; comparison of direct and indirect taxation; direct taxation unfavorable to agricultural interest; England circulates free-trade doctrines in this country to sustain her manufactures; all tariffs more or less protective; heavy duties most protective, and furnish largest revenue at expense of foreign capitalists; eventually their result is a better market for our cotton and food growers as well as manufactures, 113. Republic, stability and growth of the; colonization; instability of European governments, causes of the; democracy an established form of government in America; reason of its stability; the three dimensions of power in a State, internal solidity, durability, and extent; the aim of statesmanship to augment these; extension of the State; colonial systems, that of America the most effectual; colonization by the Greeks; Egyptians, Phoenicians, Romans; Russian, Dutch, Spanish, French and English colonization; defects of English colonial policy; the thirteen American colonies; origin of the Union; colonial policy of the United States should be calculated to promote the peaceful enlargement and confirm the internal strength of the Empire; the war faction; necessity of adopting a settled policy to avert the evils of war, 556. REVIEWS.-Aspects of Nature, by Alexander Von Humboldt, 143; Browning's Poems, 388; Cuba and the Cubans, 512; Dana's Poems and Prose writings, 66; Michel de Montaigne, 47; Macaulay's History of England, 347; Poe's Works, 301; Read's Poems, 287; Sidonia, 400, Shirley, Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, 230; Rabelais, 487; Works of J. Fenimore Cooper, 406. S. Shipwreck, a Ballad, (by W.,) 155. Southern Views of Emancipation and the slave trade. Introductory remarks; Northern and Southern extremes no index of state of feeling in the country at large; views of both sections should be fairly stated and discussed; "Slavery and the slave trade in the District of Columbia," by a Mississippian; "Letter on Slavery as a domestic institution," by a Virginian, 331. Shirley, Jane Eyre, and Wuthering Heights, (Review by T. C. C.), 230. Sidonia, (Review), 400. Spain, her ways, her women, and her wines, 292. St. Pierre's Story, 55. Seward, Hon. William H., Ex-Governor and U. S. Senator of the State of New York, biography of; early history; 1828, Mr. Seward joins the whig party; chosen President of Young Men's State Convention at Utica; 1830, elected Senator from the 7th district; advocates the cause of internal improvement and universal education; opposes removal of deposits of public moneys from United States Bank; nominated for Governor; whig cause unsuccessful, and Mr.Seward retires to his professional avocations; 1837, Mr. Seward elected Governor of the State of New York; extracts from his first annual message; "anti-rent" agitation; controversy between New York and Virginia respecting fugitives from justice; re-elected Governor ad vocates internal improvements, law reform, land distribution, educational progress and a diminution of expenses of naturalization; declines a third nomination; resumes professional pursuits; case of Freeman the murderer; Mr. Seward checks lynch law, and popular prejudice; during contests of 1848 addresses whigs of Ohio and Pennsylvania; extracts from speeches; February, 1849, elected Senator of United States; extracts from celebrated speech in the United States Senate, of March 11th, 1850, on the admission of California in connection with the slavery question, 622. W. Western Prairies; their beauty and characteristics; Y. Yeadon, Hon. Richard, memoir of; Mr. Yeadon's family and education; becomes editor of the Charleston, (S. C.) Courier; his services in the legislature, in various public stations in South Carolina, 477. 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. |