they are without strength to oppress, and for this reason disorders and tumults, when they occur, are never dangerous.

It has been for a long time held as a maxim, that temporary and elective magistracies are only adapted to states of limited extent and small population. The experience of the United States has proved that this is an error. If it sometimes happens that bad choices are made, the remedy is in re-election; and the experience of more than half a century has demonstrated that it is an efficient one. Thus, the example of the United States presents itself, whenever the object is to prove that liberty is in every respect beneficial and that it can never do harm. It likewise puts an end to the hopes of those whom this liberty alarms, and who can now no longer deny its benefits.

The judges, senators, and ministers are not, however, wiser or more intelligent in the United States than in many other countries. They have their weaknesses and their prejudices; but they ought to have them to a less degree than those who are raised to magistracies by accident, intrigue, or purchase. They have also an advantage which men elsewhere placed at the head of affairs do not possess: the laws and the publicity of their acts, submitted to the censure of all, render it a matter of necessity with them to be always just, always impartial; not to give employments, except to the most worthy, and never to sacrifice the good of the state to private passions and the interests of individuals. A sincere probity can alone ensure the public confidence, which is ever ready to distinguish true merit from false. Impostors and hypocrites would soon be unmasked. Thus even, though accident should raise to an important post a man inclined to be bad, he would be obliged to govern like those who were naturally virtuous, or he would not be able to retain his office.

These wise institutions are protected for the future against the ravages of time: free presses preserve them, and are a more effectual defence than the towers of the Louvre or of London. Under this guarantee, more powerful than was ever the authority of the tribunes, we may be assured that the benefits of social order will be durable. A moderate republic will never become an absolute democracy, and we may add, in reference to other countries, that, with the liberty of the press, a royal government can never degenerate into despotism.

It is objected, however, that these presses may, at least, endanger the peace of families, and injure individuals in their private interests. It is but too true that they have often served the cause of calumny; but this is an evil, which even the most severe prohibitions have never prevented; and the remedy for the injury which they can do is, under the system of liberty, effectual as well as prompt.

The shafts of calumny, so justly compared to poisoned weapons, resemble them likewise in this respect; the most ferocious savages scarcely dare to discharge them lest they should be turned against themselves.

Different from most things, the liberty of the press is improved and strengthened by time, and becoming every day more useful, it likewise becomes more inno

cent.

That it was not so during the early periods of the American revolution, we readily admit; but the enemy was then present. Royalty had warm partisans, and the presses on both sides were actuated with an equal violence. Jefferson himself was for a moment alarmed by it. At this time an animated contest is going on; and it is possible that a good citizen may be injured through the too great warmth of the conflict. But the blows soon become harmless, and without taking the trouble to justify himself, he may, by maintaining silence, leave to a pure life and irreproachable conduct the care of his defence. There is no example in the United States of a journal open to irreligious essays, to the recital of licentious anecdotes, or to offensive personalities having been long supported. The disgust of the readers administers justice with more promptitude and with more certainty than even the tribunals; so much do this people love decorous truth, and so ready are they to distinguish it from falsehood. Among them nothing is so rare as prosecutions for libel before the

courts.

There is then nothing which the liberty of the press cannot improve; and the Americans would think that their government had lost its reason, if they saw in their budget an appropriation destined to the corruption and recompense of the journalists. To pay foreign newspapers to publish articles carefully prepared for them, would seem at once culpable prodigality and a useless act of folly. I will, however, admit that this liberty is not without danger for all kinds of ministers. Cardinal Wolsey said to Fisher, "If we do not put down the press, it will put us down." Fisher replied, "Let us do our duty as good and wise ministers, and not fear any thing from the malice of the press. If we would interrogate ourselves, we would find how greatly we are indebted to the freedom of the press; when it notices not only our past faults, but also warns us of those to which we are exposed. I am accustomed to receive advice from the press. It is a torch which sometimes hurts my eyes; but, were it extinguished, I should think that a bandage covered them."

The diplomatic correspondence is printed by order of congress, as soon as it can be published with propriety. The cases are rare in which it is kept from the knowledge of the citizens. The newspapers, by their eagerness to gratify curiosity, often anticipate the most diligent couriers. They sometimes give as much information as secret and ciphered despatches. These frank communications are a great innovation in the relations which foreign powers entertain with one another; and those who preside in the cabinets of Europe have not yet been able to accustom themselves to read in the gazettes of Washington, the conferences which they have had with the American envoys. One would think that they are afraid of showing to what an easy science the art of good government is reduced. The despot Wolsey then had just motives for dreading free presses. It is only ministers, who are truly worthy of the name of statesmen, that can, with a tranquil eye, contemplate their action and brave their power.

The right of public petition, the recourse of oppressed weakness to a wise and efficient protection, is rarely exercised. It exists, it is not a vain formality, it is adequate to restrain unjust magistrates, and this means of defence is rarely employed, because it may always be resorted to.

These republics which, fifty years since, still bore the names of colonies, provinces, and plantations, have already founded several new republics. They gradually extend themselves; cities and towns rise up in all directions, without being menaced by any citadels or castles that overlook them from the neighbouring heights. Uncultivated districts, which were scarcely inhabited by a few Indian families when Washington and the two Jumonville met and fought there in 1754, have been changed into rich fields, and are now as well peopled as many countries of Europe.

All the difficulties which a community experiences at the moment of its formation, disappear before equal, just, and free laws. The rapid progress of these settlements is without precedent. Families associate together, at their own instigation, and without any superior sanction, to go and occupy the uninhabited lands that are situated even beyond the territory of the states of the Union. These self-created