The Americans are just as little desirous of keeping up a numerous navy, as a large standing army;* yet according to the latest summary, they possess 10 ships of the line, 15 frigates, 23 sloops of war, 7 brigs, 8 schooners, 8 steamers, and 4 store-ships.t It was shown in the year 1814, that the Americans could very speedily strengthen their naval force from stores laid up, man their ships with able seamen, and even overcome the English. In addition to this, they took in the years 1813 and 1814 over 1600 merchant vessels. Both parties bitterly felt the misery of that war, and they certainly will not lightly break the salutary peace by any dispute about a boundary. It is to be hoped however that the power of Congress and of the single states either is or will be made sufficiently strong, to prevent rash and passionate individuals from beginning feuds on their own score, and thus endangering the peace and safety of entire nations.§ "War," said the peaceful democrat Jefferson, "is a wholly useless implement for redressing wrongs; it multiplies the loss, instead of furnishing compensation for it."

Standing armies, which were originally regarded (like the liberum veto in Poland) as a folly and a misfortune, are now looked upon as useful, necessary, indispensable, and salutary. Panting in their grasp and drained of her best blood as if by vampyres, Old Europe drags on her feeble yet over-excited existence, unable to accomplish as great objects as were formerly within the power of a single city (Cologne for example, or Strasburg) or of one state of America just born in the wilderness.|| With the outlay made for European armies, or even for fortifying Paris, it would have been possible, by the adoption of well judged measures, to effect vast internal improvements, and to free the oppressed masses from their burdens and elevate them in the social scale, without the slightest danger to the state. It is not true that necessity imposes that brilliant but blighting curse to its present wide extent; certainly not in the mighty kingdoms of France and Russia. On the contrary, they are every where the result of ancient abuses, custom, errors, prejudices, poverty, vanity, want of employment, indolence, &c.

"I should consider it as madness in the extreme in this government, to attempt to provide a navy able to cope with the fleets of Great Britain, whenever they might be met."-Clay's Speeches, i. 25.

† Amer. Almanac for 1845, p. 120. Message of 1844, p. 518. Some of these vessels are not yet quite completed.

Warden, iii. 430. The navy costs more than the army. The seamen are very well paid. Sailors and stewards when in service receive from $300 to $750 a year; a lieutenant, from $1200 to $1800; and a captain from $3,500 to $4,500. On board a steamboat in Alabama, the white sailors received $40 a month.-Buckingham's Slave States, i 264.

Message of 1837.-Annual Register, 1838, p. 484.

In Mexico likewise the numerous army is the ruin of the finances; and yet it was entirely routed by a handful of Texans (Mühlenpfordt, i. 397). Since 1820, all the disturbances and insurrections have proceeded from that army and its leaders.

Transplant the Americans and their system to Russia, and the standing army will be superfluous; the distinction between citizens and soldiers, so injurious to real freedom, will be at once removed; and the country and its president will be far safer without one mercenary soldier, than the emperor of Russia with his body-guards.

Were genuine Christianity and genuine philanthropy to find a place in the hearts of all kings and all nations, no standing army, no vast apparatus of hatred and enmity would be needed; and modern regenerated Europe would put forth with redoubled vigor new flowers and new fruits, upon the stock of its ancient, glorious, and manifold civilization.

CHAPTER XXV.

THE LAW AND THE COURTS.

Legal System-Legal Studies-The Supreme Court-Circuit Courts, District Courts, and Courts of Equity-Justices of the Peace-Lynch Law-MexicoJuries-Criminal Law-Bankrupts, Debtors-Number of Criminals-Law of Inheritance-Marriage, Divorce.

Ir it is very difficult for a foreigner to comprehend the law of England and the constitution of its courts of justice, it is still more difficult to become thoroughly acquainted with the corresponding features of the American system. For:

In the first place, the Revolutionary contest was not at all directed against the existing private law and the constitution of the judiciary; on the contrary, the English system, complicated as it is in many particulars, was for the most part retained.

Secondly, even after the separation from the mother-country, it was permitted to refer to the decisions of the English courts which preceded, but not to those which followed that event.

Thirdly, a peculiar American development could not fail to take place. This however was far from being exactly alike in all the states; and the departure was still wider in the Spanish and French systems of law, which prevailed in Florida and Louisiana.

Indeed the twenty-six states exist under such a variety of circumstances, that it would have been impossible to fit them with one general code of laws, or to commit such an office to

Congress. On the other hand, most of the states have themselves formed codes, or at least statute-books, and-what is doubly necessary in America-have made them accessible to the people by composing them in their simple mother-tongue, and (as in Ohio) by the translation and explanation of the scientific terms. Moreover there are instructive works, both large and small, from the pens of Kent, Story, Walker, and others, which are intelligible even to non-professional people, and treat of public law, the rights of persons, the rights of things or law of property, the criminal law, and legal proceedings.

The study of legal science however is in many respects limited in America, and takes little or no cognizance of the earlier historical development, of the Roman law, and of the legal views promulgated by philosophers. After at the most a two-years' course at the University, students hurry into practice with a view to income, and regard the profession of a lawyer as the best preparation for that of a statesman ;* though the latter never can and never should be satisfied with the views of a mere attorney. Nevertheless there are found in America some generally received principles which are equally important for the lawyer and the citizen, equally fruitful in results, and of general application. For example: There is no national church, and no distinction of rank or inheritance. All citizens have equal rights and duties, and the union of the states is founded upon a compact. The sovereign power rests with the people, and shows itself in the majority of votes. Laws refer only to rights and actions, not to morals and opinions, &c.

In America there are two classes of law courts, whose spheres of action are peculiar and wholly distinct, although at times they intrench upon one another's spheres of operation; namely, the United States' courts and those of the separate states. former belong:

1. The Supreme Court,

2. The Circuit Courts, and

3. The District Courts.

To the

First, the Supreme Court is composed of a chief justice and eight judges, whose sphere of action is determined by the Constitution. Though it attracts less attention and interest, and possesses less political influence than the two Houses of Congress and the president, still it is of the highest importance and usefulness. It is in the United States alone that the highest court of judicature has the right to interpret the Constitution; to reverse such resolutions of Congress and of the states as are opposed to

"Like greyhounds when the game is started, you pant to be let loose."Walker, p. 17.

† See page 75.

that instrument; and generally to maintain itself as the third co-ordinate branch of the government, the Judiciary, in contradistinction to the Legislative and Executive branches. Still this power does not by any means extend beyond the interpretation of the Constitution: the court can neither change it, nor limit the rights of the people in this respect. Otherwise this ostensible application of the law would be very likely to degenerate into legal tyranny; since, as history has often shown, mere jurists are far from being the best advocates and defenders of civil liberty.

Peculiar and even embarrassing relations arise from the circumstance that the Supreme Court decides some cases alone, others by appeal, and in others again it has concurrent jurisdiction with the state tribunals.

Secondly, there are nine circuit courts, each composed of two judges, one of the Supreme Court of the United States and one of the court of the state. These courts, which sit twice a year, take cognizance of various matters in the first instance, and of others by appeal from the district courts; while other causes are carried up from the circuit and district courts, to the Supreme Court of the United States.

Thirdly, there are thirty-five district courts,* each composed of only one judge. They decide (excluding the state tribunals) respecting all crimes and misdemeanors against the United States, and in many civil suits in which the general government or its officers appear as plaintiffs; and lastly, they have jurisdiction as admiralty courts in matters relating to the sea, to consuls, &c.

'I cannot here enlarge upon the exact condition of these tribunals, or upon the constitution and gradation of the courts in the several states. It is enough to remark in general that the English organization is every where taken as the foundation.

The very complicated forms of proceeding which sometimes occur have rendered courts of equity and chancery necessary in the United States, as well as in England. Decisions however are far from being made according to the dictates of uncertain feeling or mere caprice, without respect to law; on the contrary, the course of practice has here also reduced every thing to settled proceedings, the peculiarity of which consists chiefly in dispensing with certain very difficult and involved forms, in facilitating the reception of testimony, and in not always requiring the aid of a jury. Out of a thousand lawsuits only about twenty are brought before these courts of equity; which for the most part are held by the same judges, though not constituted alike in all the states.

The judges of the United States courts are appointed by the *By the last accounts this number is already increased.

president, mostly with the sanction of the Senate; the judges of the separate state courts, and also the justices of the peace (who decide many causes in the first instance, and with merely verbal proceedings) are appointed or chosen by the governors, the legis latures, or the people. Their term of office is from one to three and even seven years, or during good behavior; more danger certainly arises from too frequent changes than from too long continuance in office. It is unreasonable to find fault (especially in the new states, where there are few persons of legal acquirements). with the choice of farmers and other such non-professional men for justices of the peace. These very persons are best acquainted with most of the matters that come before them, and have the greatest influence in preventing the adoption of arbitrary and lawless measures.

The so-called Lynch law, or resort to tar and feathers, which cannot be justified or even palliated in a country whose social and legal institutions are completely formed, exhibits, in addition to a reprehensible licentiousness, defects both in making and executing the laws, to supply which recourse has been had in all times and places to violent attempts of this sort. The traveller Hall says: "An administration of justice cheap and at every man's door, is the heaviest curse ever inflicted upon a country." According to this mode of reasoning, a justice expensive and remote would also be the best; but in fact it is the want of near, upright, and acknowledged tribunals, that has mainly given rise to the despotism of Lynch law. If ever such outrages occur in populous states like New York, they are evidence of an audacious presumption which sets private opinion above the law, substitutes popular licentiousness for popular rights, and absurdly doubts of the possibility of a legal reformation of abuses.

Those who first settle in the distant forests and prairies of the West are no doubt in part hard-handed men, of coarse feelings, and disinclined to obey laws that are not to their liking.* Experience teaches us, say they, that a man lives more agreeably and in greater freedom, if he has but few neighbors. But gradually the population becomes more dense, and the children and grandchildren of the first settlers must accustom themselves to another sort of freedom, where the individual is not to follow out his own views in redressing his own wrongs.

Vastly worse is it in Mexico, where, in the province of Oajaka alone, from 1824 to 1831, over two thousand murders were committed; and where, in the city of Mexico and its immediate vicinity, the number amounts to about one hundred and fifty a year. Even in Europe there occur instances of violence, which remind *Murray, ii. 421. Long's Rocky Mountains, i. 106. † Mühlenpfordt, i. 322.