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I have already said that the proceedings of the 

 Federal Government may, in this matter, exercise a 

 wholesome influence on those of other countries also. 

 And, indeed, there is no point of view in which the 

 growing community of the United States is more worthy 

 of study on the part of European countries, and espe 

 cially on the part of Great Britain, than that which 

 displays the influence they are destined ere long to 

 exercise over opinions and institutions on this side the 

 Atlantic. 



They possess, indeed, many features which, in con 

 nection with such a possible influence, make them inte 

 resting to the inhabitants of Great Britain. Great in 

 the vast extent of their territory, they loom large in 

 our eyes when we compare our little sea-girdled island 

 with the breadth of surface which they occupy. Great 

 in the future prospects which these wide continuous 

 possessions, taken in connection with their past material 

 progress, open up prospects which many circumstances 

 beyond human control may overcloud, but which at 

 present are brighter, perhaps, than those of any other 

 existing power these great prospects cause us to regard 

 them with a respect which neither their present power, 

 nor their actual character as a people, could command. 

 There are elements of greatness, also, of an intellectual 

 and moral kind, which we in England can well appre 

 ciate, both in the staid energies they inherit as a people, 

 and in the more feverish spirits of individual men, whom 

 restlessness, or natural impatience, or individual disap 

 pointment, or uncontrollable discontent, or defect of 

 principle, or the laudable ambition of bettering their 

 worldly condition, or the want of a ready field for con 

 scious talent, or the heavy hand of arbitrary power, is 

 yearly pouring into their Atlantic harbours. 



In reference to this latter element of greatness and 



VOL. II. Y 



