cutive supported by a war-making party. It would be as easy for the present government to involve this country in a war with Great Britain as with Mexico; the means of exciting such a war are fully within the power of the Executive. alone, is at all times easy for an Exe- | guide-he has not the power of guiding the nation, in the path of justice and honor; he is unconscious of these principles-he regards them as fragile moral formularies, for the better management of fools and children. A formalist in his religion, it is very like he delights in long prayers; a formalist in behavior, it is very like he is a man of smooth and polished address. Or if his game be of a ruder sort, he is ready for the fierce extremes roughness, cruelty, and profanity of conduct. Yet, under all disguises, the demagogue is one and the same; a liar in his heart, a deceiver of the people, an adroit manager of men in place, a giver of gifts, a maker of promises, a busy, smooth, eloquent, cautious, well-trained, place-seeking, wealthloving, power-grasping, ape of virtue. "None but a people advanced to a very high state of intellectual improvement are capable, in a civilized state," says Mr. Calhoun, “of maintaining a free government; and amongst those who have had the good fortune, very few indeed have had the good fortune of forming a Constitution capable of endurance. It is a remarkable fact in the history of man, that scarcely ever have free popular institutions been formed that have endured." They have lapsed first into a democratic anarchy, and then into despotism. Their destroyers begin with engaging the people in unjust wars, by which that tender and virtuous regard for liberty is sapped and destroyed: having become tyrants, they are now ready to become slaves, and need only a master. The despot is always ready, under the cloak of the demagogue. He is the man who confines himself theoretically within the limits of the Constitution, until he has succeeded in destroying its ground-work in the hearts of the peopleuntil he has succeeded in intoxicating them with the consciousness of freedom, and in leading them on to the commission of national crimes, under the names of patriotism, glory, and enterprise. He is no conscious destroyer, but only a godless skeptic, smooth and fluent in speech, active in talent, and simply cold-blooded and dishonest when he dares be so. His tools are, perhaps, men superior to himself in dignity of character, and in obstinacy of purpose, whose narrow understandings he knows well how to darken with sophistries and flatteries. In his own opinion the demagogue is not a bad man; he means only to use the natural and customary means toward influence and wealth. The Union to him is a kind of firm, a combination of great powers for the purposes of defence, enrichment and aggrandizement; in enriching and aggrandizing himself at the expense of this corporation he seems to commit no sin. The Supernal Powers have denied him the knowledge of the true glory of humanity; he does not care to By one mark we are to know himnamely: That he earnestly professes one thing, and assiduously practices another. He professes to economize for the people, and loads them with expenses. He professes free trade, and advocates an indiscriminate Tariff. He professes to be jealous of liberty, and goes on to swell the power of the Executive. He professes a great tenderness of national honor, and plunges the nation into wars of mere robbery. In a word, he is consistent in his conduct with none of the principles he professes; and he professes those which he thinks will sound best in most ears. Under favor, therefore, it seems that Mr. Calhoun has not indicated the true causes of the decline of liberal institutions when he says that they are established, and must fall, by good or evil fortune. It would seem rather that not fortune but influence, is the cause of the rise and decline of free institutions. Given a people wise enough to know a demagogue from a statesman, there were no danger to be apprehended, that their institutions would ever fall into anarchy. The causes of the rise of free institutions are to be sought in the character, and not in the fortune of the people. The Athenians, a tribe of forty thousand luxurious democrats, governing half a million of slaves, gradually wrested power from the hands of the few, and as gradually lost it when their manners became corrupt. The Romans, a clan of ambitious gentlemen, ruling with difficulty a rude but valiant populace, regarded their state as an engine of conquest, and themselves the predestined governors of the world. They gradually dwindled, and were dissolved and lost in the multitude of their subjects, and the power they had organized passed into the hands of men of other nations, trained in the Roman discipline. The Greek and Roman republics cherished in their laws none of those sacred principles which can alone give duration to republics. They never dreamed of educating the people-of securing every man his perfect liberty-of the freedom of political opinion, freedom of religion, international equity. In a word, the safety of the Commonwealth is in the election of such men as represent its principles in their characters: if these are weak, false, narrow, sluggish, or knavish, the machine of government will always work badly; it is a moral, not a mechanical power; its springs are in the hearts and minds of those who move it; their integrity or dishonesty, makes the nation fortunate or unfortunate; their wisdom and moderation saves it; their honor keeps it pure and respectable. Let us, therefore, the people, in selecting our CANDIDATE, ask ourselves, with Jefferson, is he capable, is he honest? Is he a man of grand ability, of tried honesty, of unquestionable courage; open of heart and hand; of a great reputation; able to rule, faithful to his trust? Above all, does he scorn intrigues and private, schemes? If he is all this, and no man more so, then is he our CANDIDATE; and if we, the citizens, who profess Whig principles, will unite upon him, laying aside all small fears and trifling doubts, who doubts our ability to elect him? SONNET.-MIDNIGHT. Now Melancholy with pale Sorrow sits, CHINA.* THE first of the works whose titles are appended, is in two thick volumes of six hundred pages each, and contains the result of the author's personal observations, together with frequent extracts from the best works hitherto written on China; making in the whole by far the fullest compendium of information respecting that great Empire of the East which our Western World has ever yet possessed. Mr. Williams went to China as Printer to the American Board of Foreign Missions, and resided twelve years at Canton and Macao, in daily and familiar contact with the people, speaking their language and studying their books." He is vidently an able philologist, and a wellinformed, sensible observer. The work is one of the most interesting that has lately appeared, and we cannot do our readers a more acceptable service than to run it over and string together some of the novelties which it adds to the general stock of knowledge. The narrative of Mr. Smith, who went out in 1844, as agent of the English Church Mission to the cities where there are British Consuls, is quoted by Mr. Wilams, so that it does not require a sepatate notice. It is interesting, but the style very diffuse. Chung Kwoh," the Mid-kingdom," is the most common name for their couny among the Chinese. The name China never used among them, and is supused to have been taken by foreigners Tom Trin or Chin, a famous monarch, who flourished B. C. 770. The Author suggests that it may be the "land Sinim," referred to in Isaiah xlix. 12. She natives have many other names for seir country: sometimes it is called Sz' Hai, i. e. [all within] the Four Seas. Tang Shan, or the Hills of Tang, also denotes the whole country. For the people, Li Min, or Black-Haired Race, is a common appellation; the expressions Hwa Yen, the Flowery Language, and Chung Hwa Kwoh, the Middle Flowery Kingdom, are also frequently used for the written language and the country--the sense of Hwa being that they are the most polished and civilized of all nations. The term "Celestials," which would be an extremely awkward phrase in their language, comes from Tie Chau, i. e. Heavenly Dynasty, one of the titles of the present dynasty of Tsing. Our author gives a full account of the topography of the eighteen provinces, and the entire empire-its mountains and rivers, the Great Wall, the Grand Canal, the public roads, and the appearances which the landscapes usually present to the eye. The general aspect of the country is as much modified by cultivation as that of England, but there are no fences or hedges. Temples and pagodas, which are used for inns and theatres as well as idols, sometimes occupy commanding situations. The acclivities of hills under terrace cultivation are often very beautiful. But distant views of cities are tame, from the absence of spires and towers to relieve the dead level of tiled roofs. Along the sea-coast of southern China the tyfoons (from ta-fung, i. e. a great wind) are much dreaded. The people have another name for them, which signifies iron whirlwind. The names given to streets and halls are very curious. Thus the Emperor's Council at Peking is held in the Kien Tsing Tung, or Tranquil Palace of Heaven; the Empress resides in the Palace of the The Middle Kingdom; a Survey of the Geography, Government, Education, Social Life, Arts, Religion, of the Chinese Empire and its Inhabitants. By S. WELLS WILLIAMS, author of "Easy Lessons in bunese," English and Chinese Vocabulary," &c. In two volumes. New York and London: Wiley ad Putnam, 1818. A Narrative of an Exploratory Visit to the Consular Cities of China, and to the Islands of Hong Kong Chusan. By the Rev. GEORGE SMITH, M. A., of Magdalen Hall, Oxford, and late Missionary in hina. New-York: Harper and Brothers. |