DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA

Is a very able, and, for its subject, a very charming work. The author has all the industry, method, and vivacity of the French

man; and though somewhat touched with the French disposition to theorize on insufficient data, and to jump to whole conclusions from partial views, this affects the value of his book but little; for his expository parts are free from tine fault, and those who can profit by his speculations (where it chiefly appears) will be able to detect it.

During a sojourn in America, an observer like M. TOCQUEVILLE naturally examined its social and political state, and the first thing which struck him was the general equality of conditions. To the influence of this equality he attributes the democratic constitution of the government and the peculiar habits of the governed. Turning his thoughts from America to Europe, he perceived that the democratic power was fast advancing in the latter continent towards the position it has reached in the former : Looking back upon the historical past, he comes to a different conclusion from those who imagine the progress of democracy to be a novel accident, " which, as such, may still be checked ;" holding it, on the other hand, to be " irresistible, because it is the most uniform, the most ancient, and the most permanent tendency which is to be found in history :" Examining closely the social condition of Europe, he becomes alarmed at the prospect it unfolds, whether the transition or the final poliiical state be regarded,—for, on the one hand, is seen the privileged classes obstinately bent upon obstructing an irresistible power; and on the other, there is the people ill prepared either by habit or by education to exercise that power. He therefore conceived he should be employing himself usefully if he traced the origin of popular power in America, and exhibited its action both in the provincial administration of separate States, and in the general Federal Government. The spirit in which he has endeavoured to execute his task may be told in his own words. "It is not, then, merely to satisfy a legitimate curiosity that I have examined America; my wish has been to find instruction by which we rimy ourselves profit. Whoever should imagine that I have intended to write a paoegync, would be strangely mistaken ; and on reading this book he will perceive that such was not my design ; nor has it been my object to advocate any form of government in particular, for I am of opinion that absolute excellence is rarely to be found in any legislation; I have not even affected to discuss whether .the social revolution, which I believe to be irresistible, is advaogeous or prejudicial to mankind ; I have acknowledged this revolution as a fact already accomplished, or on the eve of its accomplishment; and I have selected the nation kora amongst those which have undergone it in which its development has been the malt peaceful and the most complete, in order to discern its natural consequences, and, if it be possible, to distinguish the means by which it may be rendered profitable. I confess that in America I saw more than America ; I sought the image of democracy itself, with its inclinations, its character, its prejudices, end its passions, in order to learn what we have to fear or to hope from its progress."

The volume opens with a very picture-like view of the great physical features of the American continent ; after which, the author proceeds to show the pure democratieal principle on which the earlier colonies were founded by the English Puritans. In a few small States, the whole community possessed the same privileges, and exercised the same powels, as were possessed and exercised by the favoured caste in the freest republics of antiquity ; indeed, every member of the community signed its constitution. In all the States of New Englund, " the intervention of the people in public affairs, the free voting of taxes, the responsibility of authorities, personal liberty, and trial by jury, were positively established, without discussion;' whilst " the principles of representative government, and the external forms of political liberty," though less fully acted upon in the South, existed everywhere. The laws foueded on fanatical or feudal prejudices, by which these great principles were modified, were swept away at the Revolution; and amongst them the feudal laws of descent, without which, in the opinion of M. T OC QU EV ILLE, no aristocracy can long exist.

They have (he observes) a sure and uniform manner of operating upon society ; affecting, as 3t were, generations yet unborn. Through their means man acquires a kind of preternatural power over the future lot of his fellow creatures. When the legislator has regulated the law of inheritance, lie may rest from his labour. The machine once put in motion, will go on for ages, and advance, as if self-guided, towards a given point. When framed in a particular manner, this law unites, draws together, and vests property and power in a few hands ; its tendency is clearly aristocratic. On opposite principles, its action is still more rapid ; it divides, distributes, and disperses both property and power. Alarmed by the rapidity of its progress, those who i despair of arresting its motion endeavour to obstruct t by difficulties and impediments ; they vainly seek to counteract its effect by contrary efforts: but it gradually reduces or destroys every obstacle, until, by its incessant activity, the bulwarks of the influence of wealth are ground down to the fine and shifting sand which is the basis of democracy. • • • The law of equal division exercises its influence not merely upon the property itself; it affects the minds of the heirs, and brings their passions into play. These indirect consequences tend powerfully to the destruction of large fortunes, and especially of large domains. Among nations whose law of descent is founded upon the right of primogeniture, landed estates often pass from generation to generation without undergoing division. The consequence of which is, that family feeling is to a certain degree incorporated with the estate. The family: represents the estate, the estate the family ; whose name, together with its origin, its glory, its power, and its virtues, is thus perpetuated in an imperishable memorial of the past and a sure pledge of the future.

When the equal partition of property is established by law, the intimate connexion is destroyed between family feeling and the preservation of the paternal estate : the property ceases to represent the family ; for, as it must inevitably be divided after one or two generations, it has evidently a constant tendency to diminish, and must in the end be completely dispersed. The sons of the great landed proprietor, if they are few in number, or if fortune befriends them, may indeed entertain the hope of being as wealthy as their father, but nut that of possessing the same property as he did ; their riches must necessarily be composed of elements different from his.

Islow, from the moment that you divest the landowner of that interest in the preservation of his estate which he derives from association, from tradition, and from family pride, you may be certain that sooner or later he will dispose of it ; for there is a strong pecuniary interest in favour of selling, as floating capital produces higher interest than real property, and is more readily available to gratify the passions of the moment.

Great landed estates which have once been divided never come together again; for the small proprietor draws from his land a better revenue in proportion, than the huge owner does ham his ; and of course he sells it at a higher rate. The calculations of gain, therefore, which decided the rich man to sell his domain, will still more powerfully influence him against buying small estates to unite theni into a large one.

And he asserts (though in another place), that" Land is the basis of an aristocracy, which clings to the soil that supports it ; for it is not by privileges alone, nor by birth, but by landed property handed down from generation to generation, that an aristocracy is constituted. A nation may present immense fortunes and extreme wretchedness, but unless those fortunes are territorial there is no aristocracy, but simply the class of the rich and that of' the poor." An opinion, however, not universally true, as may be shown in the aristocracy of Venice.

After having investigated the origin and foundation of the American colonies, with a minuteness which is amply sufficient for his object, and a spirit that imparts interest to the dryness of charters and state papers, M. TOCQUEVILLE proceeds to examine the present local government of the provinces,.rising gradually from them to the constitution of the United States. In executing this undertaking, he has exhibited the whole machinery of the American government, in a manner in which no government has ever, we think, been exhibited before. He clothes it with life, Points continually to the uses, tendencies, and polity of each part, and occasionally deduces from a single institution a political truth of universal application. It is possible that, in some of his expositions, a few readers may charge him with redundancy; but we suspect it will arise from theirust.;.',',US acquaintance with the facts he is statinar, àiiier than from an unnecessary diffuseness of mar,-„eis

It is te• .„

vee'l o'er limits to follow the author through his analysis

the AMerican system of townships, and their effects; to abridge his account of the legislative and executive powers of the separate States, and of the Federal Constitution ; or to attempt to show by s hat means the judicial power is made to control the administrative, and the whole machinery of government kept in

motion, by ti* stimulus of a political jurisdiction set at work by individunl prosecutors,—or, in the law language of England, by private informers. A leading conclusion or two may, however, be noted. He considers that municipal institutions are necessary

to the existenoe of democracy, both to accustom tie people to self-government, and, by connecting them with the creation and execution of the laws, to beget a reverence for the law, which

there is no central power to enforce. The little injury which arises from the American executive opposing the legislative power, is in consequence, he thinks, of the executive being weak and limited in its sphere of operation. He holds that the subjects of a federal state, owing a double allegiance,—one to the province which protects them, and with which all their home ideas are identified ; another to the general union, which they only know by name, and with which they have only a vague con-nexion,—there is always the probability that a State, or individuals supported by a State, will resist measures of importance to the general weal if inconvenient to a provincial section. Hence, in case of a war, a large democracy is beset by two dangers,—conquest by a foreign enemy, in consequence of internal differetres ; or the substitution of a central government, as a means of overcoming the fareigner. It is a corollary from this, that a democracy is better adapted to a small state than a large empire; that to America, with an immense extent of unoccupied territory, and no chance of a neighbour, democracy is far safer than to a similar government in Europe; and that "the greatest happiness of the greatest number " is best obtained under a democratic government.

This book has been noticed as a whole, though the first volume only is before us; but the translator assures his readers, that it " may be said to contain the whole of the analytical part of the work ; and the second volume offers more general considerations upon the character, the vices, the motives, and the future destiny of the democratic people, the retiring Indians, and the wretched slaves of the United States of America." The time announced for its appearance has been aoinewhat exceeded; and the proverbial unexactness of authors has induced us to take up the first volume. In the mean time, let the second come when it may, we shall be glad to receive it. Nor ought we to close this notice of the first without bearing testimony to the ability with which Mr. REEVE has e=ecuted the translation, and thanking him for the addition he has made to English literature in the department of philosophic politics.