510 AMERICAN PROSPERITY. 



dollars a year, and to fill their places with his own 

 friends. In America the opinion of the public can 

 with difficulty act upon the government. The press 

 has no dignity, and very little power. Practices occur 

 in the House of Representatives which have been 

 unknown in England since the days of "Walpole. If 

 the prosperity of a country depended on its government, 

 America would be less prosperous than England. But 

 in point of fact America is the happiest country in the 

 world. There is not a man in the vast land which 

 lies between the oceans, who, however humble his 

 occupation may be, does not hope to make a fortune 

 before he dies. The whole nation is possessed with 

 the spirit which may be observed in Fleet Street and 

 Cheapside ; the boys sharp-eyed and curious, the men 

 hastening eagerly along, even the women walking as if 

 they had an object in view. There are in America 

 no dull-eyed heavy-footed labourers, who slouch to and 

 fro from their cottage to their work, from their work to 

 the beer-house, without a higher hope in life than a 

 sixpence from the squire when they open a gate. 

 There are no girls of the milliner class who prefer 

 being the mistresses of gentlemen to marrying men of 

 their own station with a Cockney accent and red 

 hands. The upper classes in America have not 

 that exquisite refinement which exists in the 

 highest circles of society in Europe. But if we take 

 the whole people through and through, we find them 

 the most civilised nation on the earth. They preserve in 

 a degree hitherto "without example the dignity of human 

 nature unimpaired. Their nobleness of character 

 results from prosperity ; and their prosperity is due to 

 the nature of their land. Those who are unable to earn 

 a living in the east, have only to move towards the 



