annals of this year afford incontestible proof of the prevalence in France of a general idea of the weakness of the government; and, in affairs of state, to have the character of being weak is to be weak, Nor is this weakness the less real, because the present administration seem disposed to strain all their powers to the uttermost, in crushing the germs of liberty among their own countrymen, as well as in reestablishing antiquated tyranny among their neighbours.
In looking round upon such a restless and unsettled state of the world, it is impossible not to cling with more ardent fondness to what we possess at home, and to feel grateful to that superintending Providence, which has, from time to time, blessed us with such a coincidence of fortunate circumstances, as have enabled us alone among the nations of the earth, to build up a system of social freedom, which seems unattainable by mere art or wisdom elsewhere. The speculatist may analyse liberty, as the chemist may reduce the diamond to its constituent charcoal; but as the philosopher endeavours in vain, by all the resources of his laboratory, to convert charcoal into the most precious of precious stones, so politicians, when they set about constructing from the foundation a practical system of freedom, always fail completely. Men have long been labouring, in various parts of the world, to frame institutions which shall be at once orderly, durable, and free; yet nowhere have they succeeded: nowhere can order, permanence, and freedom be found, except under the shadow of the British constitution, and of the scions that have been transplanted from it to the shores of North America.