it was prosecuted without glory or advantage to either party; and the peace left unadjusted all the ostensible grounds of war, for the repeal of the orders in council would have followed of course upon the restoration of peace in Europe.* It may be hoped, however, that both nations have reaped from dear-bought experience a salutary lesson as to the inutility and unprofitableness of war; and that the young and sturdy Republic will in future be deterred from copying the worst vice of the old monarchies, a passion for military glory, and a delight in that

- game which, were their subjects wise,

Kings would not play at.”

Since the peace of 1815, the annals of the United States have exhibited a steady progress of internal improvement and territorial aggrandisement; but no events have occurred of marked or general interest. In

* In the above account of the transactions of the war, use has been made of the American authorities already cited, of Mr. James's Naval History, and of "A Narrative of the Campaigns of Washington and New Orleans." 8vo. London, 1826. The discrepancies in the respective official statements on either side, are numerous and irreconcileable; and the popular American accounts are full of the grossest exaggeration. Mr. Hale's History is, upon the whole, fair and impartial, and has been chiefly followed. But, as a specimen of its occasional inaccuracies, it may be mentioned, that the British Government is represented as having, in the Treaty of Ghent, "receded from all their demands." It is singular enough, that a writer in the Quarterly Review should have committed the same blunder; on which the North American Reviewers observe: "The only inference which can be made from this remark, is, that the Writer knows nothing about the negotiation of the treaty of Ghent. That treaty was a compromise. Each party proposed things on which it did not insist, and receded from terms at first brought forward as essential." -N. Amer. Rev. No. Ixi. p. 484. The treaty of Ghent was merely one of pacification, which left the several questions respecting boundaries to be settled by commission; and it contained no stipulations respecting the colonial trade, one of the most important points in dispute, which still remains in an unsatisfactory state.

1817, Mr. Madison was succeeded in the presidency by James Monroe, who held it, by re-election in 1821, for the same term as his predecessors in the high office. On his retirement in 1825, five candidates for the presidency presented themselves; but the contest lay chiefly between the New England party, who eventually succeeded in elevating Mr. John Quincy Adams (son of the successor of Washington) to the presidency, and the republicans of the Southern States, who supported the pretensions of General Jackson, "the hero of New Orleans." Towards the close of 1828, the contest between these parties was renewed, and issued in the election of the General.

The American Federacy is certainly the most remarkable political phenomenon, in its origin, character, and rapid development, that the world has ever witnessed. Already, the United States lay claim to a geographical area which, in point of territorial extent, is exceeded only by the empires of Russia, Great Britain, China, and Brazil. The celerity with which the population has been multiplying, is unprecedented. Little more than forty years have elapsed since the United States have taken their rank among nations as an independent power. Commencing with less than four millions of inhabitants, the population has, within that time, tripled, being now very nearly equal to the population of England, and exceeding that of either Prussia or Spain. By the end of the present century, sup. posing it to increase at the same rate, it will amount to about half that of the Chinese empire. The causes

Burke, in his memorable speech on Conciliation with the Colonies, in March 1775, used expressions which were no doubt regarded at the time as rhetoric: they now read like predictions. "Such is the strength with which population shoots in that part

of this rapid increase are not to be found in the physical capabilities of the country, or the mere circumstance of there being such ample room for the ever-growing numbers. In Brazil, there is a still wider extent of fertile territory, with a more genial climate; yet, at the beginning of the present century, after having been colonized nearly 300 years, it contained only twelve cities, sixty-six towns, and less than half a million of inhabitants. Since then, its population, increased by emigration from Europe, has risen to between four and five millions, one-half of whom are slaves, and the whites form only one-sixth of the total. In the United States, the case is just reversed: the slaves form onesixth, and the whites very nearly five-sixths. Thus, while the total population is nearly three times that of Brazil, the white population is about thirteen times as

numerous.

But the rapid growth of the commerce of the North American States, has been not less remarkable and prodigious, than that of the population. And the latter circumstance receives its explanation from the former. The spirit of commercial enterprise which the first settlers brought with them, (and of which it is difficult to say, whether it ought to be regarded as the parent or the offspring of republican principles,) has been the moving power of the political machinery, the fountain of national strength, and the soul of the social system. It is the spirit of commerce that

of the world, that, state the numbers as high as we will, while the dispute continues, the exaggeration ends. While we are discussing any given magnitude, they are grown to it. While we spend our time in deliberating on the mode of governing two millions, we shall find we have millions more to manage. Your children do not grow faster from infancy to manhood, than they spread from families to communities, and from villages to nations."-Speeches, vol. i. p. 79.

has pushed on the population into the wilderness, opening new channels, creating fresh markets in all directions, and calling new cities into existence, as if by enchantment, along the line of its march. The Americans are not only beginning with an area greater than that with which other empires close, but they are starting from a point in civilization, and more especially in the practical application of the useful arts, to which the older empires never attained. The facilities and security of intercourse between the remotest parts of this vast territory, the rapid diffusion of information by means of the press throughout the Union, and the constant migratory movement that is going forward in all directions, connect together the different States in a closer geographical union, than is frequently found to subsist between the adjacent provinces of a feudal empire. While the thoughts of a European cultivator range within a circle of twenty miles diameter, the ideas of the American planter or trader traverse the wide extent of the national territory between the two oceans. The mighty streams of the American continent "make geographers" of all the settlers on their banks, who depend upon this communication with the wide world for all the means of raising themselves above the condition of the wandering savages around them. In South America, on the contrary, these grand inlets to civilization have hitherto been closed by the jealous policy that has condemned vast regions of fertile country to depopulation and barbarism. So opposite to the free and beneficent spirit of commerce is the genius of the feudal system, which is based upon conquest and monopoly.

In the year 1704, the total exports from this country to North America and the West Indies, amounted to only 483,265l. In 1773, they had increased to

4,791,734., which was only 1,717,000l. short of the whole export trade of England at the former period. "What England had been growing to by a progressive course of improvement, brought in by varieties of people, by succession of civilizing conquests and civilizing settlements in a series of 1700 years," to use the emphatic language of Burke, was doubled to her by America in the course of a single life. Subsequently to the separation of the Colonies from the mother country, the commerce of America has continued to increase at a rate quite equal to this. For several years after the commencement of the French Revolution, the state of the political world was particularly favourable to the enterprise of the Americans, whose vessels, as neutrals, navigated the ocean in safety, and were employed to carry from port to port the commodities of the belligerents. In fifteen years, beginning with 1793, these favourable circumstances increased the amount of American tonnage from 491,000 to 1,242,000 tons. In 1821, it was 1,262,618 tons; in 1826, 1,534,000 tons, being an increase of 111,070 tons within the year. It is now very nearly 1,600,000.† The owners are chiefly residents in New England and New York: the States south of the Potomac, own only one-eighth part of the shipping. The number of persons engaged in commerce in 1820, was 72,400. The total value of the exports in the year 1790, was 20,205,165 dollars. In 1806, it had risen to 101,536,963 dollars. The export trade has since declined, owing to the restoration of peace in Europe and the increase

Burke's Speeches, vol. i. p. 283. 1

+ The registered tonnage, employed in foreign trade, and the enrolled and licensed tonnage, employed in the country trade, formed, in 1825, nearly equal proportions.