TRANSACTIONS. 75 



age has been greatly increased, by the extension of internal 

 improvement and of the post routes ; but tliougli the govern- 

 ments have thereby secured a- great number of active and 

 intelligent agents, apparently interested in their support and 

 devoted to their maintenance, yet it must not be forgotten 

 that these agents come from the body of the people, and are 

 greatly influenced by the sentiments, and alive 'to the interests 

 of the class from which they spring. The governments aro 

 thus brought more directly into contact with the people. 

 The petty officers connected with the railroad and the post 

 office form a sort of plebeian aristocracy, which serves as a 

 link between the highest and the lowest, the governors and 

 the governed, influencing and influenced by both ends of the 

 chain alike ; and though they are doubtless, to a considerable 

 extent, a means of intimidating and politically corrupting the 

 people, they on the other hand serve to instruct the rulers in 

 the true condition and wants of the lower classes, to mitigate 

 the asperity of feeling, with which the humble are regarded 

 by the proud, and thus somewhat to soften the relations be- 

 tween arbitrary rulers and a down-trodden people. 



But I am indulging in too widely discursive a strain, and 

 will return to my more immediate subject, and proceed to 

 notice some practices connected witli rural economy in Eu- 

 rope, which, with such modifications as circumstances may re- 

 quire, seem to me perhaps worthy of imitation. 



Much attention is paid in Europe, both by governments and 

 by individual proprietors, to the renewal and preservation of 

 the forests. Hundreds of acres are annually planted with 

 oaks, pines, larches, and other timber trees, and Europe will 

 be better supplied with wood in the next century than it is iu 

 this or even was in the last. In most private forests, small 

 portions are cut regularly, at intervals of from fifteen to 

 twenty-five years ; and in situations where the clearing of the 

 land would lead to injurious consequences, such as the wash- 

 ing or sliding of earth, or the fall of avalanches, it is often 

 forbidden altogether. 



