1Q4 I-II'E OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



reading of the interesting analyses of "the waters of 

 morency and St. Charles Rivers," and the two papers 

 1 1. 1 )ana upon the growth and the trends of the islands 

 of the South Sea, as well as upon the effects of the contrac- 

 tion (wrinkling) of the crust of the earth, which have been 

 before treated of by Babbage and Elie de Beaumont. If I 

 have moral reasons to fear the immeasurable advancement 

 of your Confederation, the temptations to an abuse of 

 power dangerous to the preservation of the individuality of 

 the. other peoples of America, I should not the less recog- 

 ni/e the great advantages which physics and the positive 

 IC68, UK- world over, must draw from this very advance- 

 ment, from that intelligence which penetrates everywhere 

 with those civilizing conquests, which facilitate movement, 

 and superimpose, not without violence, new layers of pop- 

 ulation upon thfc native races which rapidly become extinct.* 

 However imposing the spectacle maybe which is taking 

 place under our eyes, and which is preparing another far 

 more curious for the history of the intellectual development 

 of our species. I foresee the remote epoch when the high 

 < <>f civilization and of institutions, free, stable, and 

 <l>ii't (three elements which do not readily coalesce), will 

 penetrate into the tropical regions; when, upon the high 

 plateaux, Mexico, liognta, Quito, La Pax, Potosi, will re- 

 semble New York, lioston, Philadelphia. 



;>t. 1 beg you, Sir, yourself and your excellent 

 - the renewed expression of my higli and affectionate 

 [deration. 



ALKX A\I> i.K 1 1 1 M r,< > L DT. 



IM.M. 



I. if von have the opportunity, to present my 

 i" Mr. Agassi/,, as eminent for his vast and 



liis sentence, IIuinl.ol.lt writes: " The pos- 



Mt State independent of sir Cotton, 



*"<* ' ; lati.ni which accompanies the .ullivatiun of these pro- 



