It will suffice here, without examining the causes which have "prevented the natural increase of Capital and wages," to state the result established by the American census,-that although Population increased rapidly, and there is a vast immigration, capital there increases more than three times as fast as Population, and that this is due as much to the freedom of man and of his labour and invention, as to cheapness of land. Thus let Freedom of Land, Labour, Schools, Press, and Religion; let also Direct Taxation prevail,—and wages and savings (Capital) increase at an unheard-of ratio. Let the average wages of a free nation be raised, and the average education rises with them. Hence we are led to this conclusion,-that wherever labour is really free, there Democracy will soon prevail; that wherever labour and land are not free, whether by unwise laws of parochial settlemen', unjust tariffs, taxes on invention, unjust patent laws, corn laws, unjust and complicated land laws, laws of primogeniture, or otherwise howsoever, there Oligarchy and Oligarchic interests are the criminal cause of the social and political incompetency of the People. The fact of the Progress and Unity, and consequent strength of Democracies, and the counterpart weakness and divisions of Oligarchy, is indeed maintained by Socrates: "And do they not then make laws, marking out the boundary of the Oligarchic constitution, and regulating the quantity of Oligarchic power according to the quantity of wealth, more to the wealthy, and less to the less, intimating that he who has not the valuation (property) settled by law is to have no share in the Government? "Consider, if a man should in this manner appoint pilots of ships, according to their valuations (property), but never intrust one with a poor man, though better skilled in piloting, what would be the consequence? They would, said he, make very bad navigation. And is it not in the same manner with reference to any other thing, or any Government whatever? Oligarchy would then seem to have this, which is so great a fault. That such a city is not one, but of necessity two; one consisting of the poor, and the other of the rich, dwelling in one place, and always plotting against one another. 'By Jupiter,' said he, 'it is in no respect less.""-The Republic of Plato, Book viii, p. 397. (Taylor's Translation.) Guizot (on Civilisation) insists on Individual Development as the great Factor of States, and on increased production and more equal distribution. The following are condensed extracts :— “On the one hand, an increasing production of means of power and prosperity in Society; on the other, a more equal distribution among individuals of the power and prosperity provided. "Is this all? Have we exhausted the natural and common meaning of the word civilisation? "Another Development of Individual life, of man himself, of his faculties, sentiments, ideas. "Two facts then are comprised in this great fact. the progress of Society and of Humanity. "If we examine the nature of the grand crises of civilisation it has always been of individual or social development; always facts that have changed the internal man, his faith, his manners, or his external condition, his situation in relation with his fellows.”—Guizot on "Civilisation." Baron W. von Humboldt gives us the following as to ancient and modern Individuality, Freedom, and Diversity of conditions: "Antiquity captivates us above all by that inherent greatness which is comprised in the life of the Individual, and perishes with him, the bloom of fancy, the depth of thought, the strength of will, the perfect oneness of the entire being, which alone confer true worth on human nature.” "The grand point to be kept in view by the State is the development of the powers of all its single citizens in their perfect individuality." "The true end of man or that which is prescribed by the eternal and immutable dictates of reason, and not suggested by vague and transient desires, in the highest and most harmonious development of his powers to a complete and consistent whole: freedom is the grand and indispensable condition which the possibility of such a development presupposes; but there is besides another essential,-intimately connected with freedom, it is true,—a variety of situations." “Their individual vigour, then, and manifold diversity, combine themselves in originality; and hence, that on which the consummate grandeur of our nature ultimately depends,—that towards which every human being must ceaselessly direct his efforts, and that on which especially those who design to influence their fellow men must ever keep their eyes, is the Individuality of power and development. "Just as this individuality springs naturally from the perfect freedom of action, and the greatest diversity in the agents, it tends immediately to produce them in turn. "The grand leading principle, towards which every argument hitherto unfolded in these pages directly conveys, is the absolute and essential importance of human development in its richest diversity." Milton, upon the advantages of a free commonwealth, and on the necessity of a high class education to the maintenance of the Commonwealth, maintains that— A free commonwealth is not only held by wisest men in all ages, the noblest, the manliest, the equallest, the justest Government, the most agreeable to all due liberty and proportioned equality, both human, civil, and Christian, most cherishing to virtue and true religion, but also plainly commended, or rather enjoined by our Saviour himself."-Milton, "Ready and easy way to establish a free Commonwealth," p. 645. "Good education and accurate wisdom ought to correct the fluxible fault, if any such be, of our watry situation. To make the People fittest to choose the chosen, and the chosen fittest to govern will be to mend our corrupt and faulty education."— Milton, ibid., p. 650. "And if the people, laying aside prejudice and impatience, will seriously and calmly now consider their own good, both religious and civil, their own liberty and the only means thereof, as shall be here laid down before them, and will elect their knights and burgesses able men, and according to the just and necessary qualifications (which, for aught I hear, remain yet in force unrepealed, as they were formerly decreed in parliament), men not addicted to a single person or House of Lords, the work is done; at least the foundation firmly laid of a free commonwealth, and good part also erected of the main structures." "The whole Freedom of man consists either in spiritual or civil liberty. The other part of our freedom consists in the civil rights and advancements of every person according to his merit: the enjoyment of those never more certain, and the access to these never more open, than in a free commonwealth. Both which, in my opinion, may be best and soonest obtained, if every county in the land were made a kind of subordinate commonalty or commonwealth.* 66 They should have here also schools and academies at their own choice, wherein their children may be bred up in their own sight, to all learning and noble education; not in grammar only, but in all liberal arts and exercises. This would soon spread much more knowledge and civility, yea, religion, through all parts of the land, by communicating the natural heat of government and culture more distributively to all extreme parts, which now lie numb and neglected, would soon make the whole nation more industrious, more ingenious at home; more potent, more honorable abroad. To this a free commonwealth will easily assent; (nay, the parliament hath had already some such thing in design) for of all governments a commonwealth aims most to make the people flourishing, virtuous, noble, and high spirited."-Milton, ibid., pp. 648, 654, and 655. "I doubt not but all ingenuous and knowing men will easily agree with me that a free commonwealth without single person or House of Lords is by far the best Government if it can be had."-Milton, ibid., p. 647. And Montesquieu, whose writings on the Spirit of Laws, and on the causes of the corruption of the Roman Republic, are of the profoundest, thus descants, in his first volume, on the true principles and characteristics of Republics "The principle of democracy is corrupted, not only when the spirit of equality is extinct, but likewise when they fall into a * A forecast of the United States! spirit of extreme equality, and when each citizen would fain be upon a level with those whom he has chosen to command him, to debate for the senate, execute for the magistrates, and decide for the judges.”—P. 143. "Democracy hath, therefore, two excesses to avoid; the spirit of inequality, which leads to aristocracy or monarchy; and the spirit of extreme equality, which leads to despotic power. "As distant as heaven is from the earth, so is the true spirit of equality from that of extreme equality; in the former men are equal only as citizens, but in the latter they are equal also as magistrates, senators, judges, or masters. "The natural place of virtue is near to liberty; but it is not nearer to excessive liberty than to servitude."-P. 146. "As those who govern (in a free State) have a power which in some measure, has need of fresh vigour every day, they have a greater regard for such as are useful to them than for those who contribute to their amusement. 66 They have not that politeness which is founded on indolence. An absolute Government produces indolence, and this gives birth to politeness."-P. 417. "Their laws not being made for one more than for another, each considers himself a monarch. "In a free nation, it is very often a matter of indifference whether individuals reason well or ill; it is sufficient that they do reason: from hence springs that liberty which is a security from the effects of these reasonings. "But in a despotic Government, it is equally pernicious whether they reason well or ill; their reasoning is alone sufficient to reach the principle of that Government.”—P. 418. "The character of the (free) nation is more particularly discovered in their literary performances, in which we find the men of thought and deep meditation."-P. 419. And Napoleon, with more detail and equal emphasis, explaining his entire approval of Republican Principles, declares that it is essential to them that the whole People without distinction should take part in the elections. In this opinion almost the entire French and American nations have now for seventy years concurred. These Principles are, as Napoleon says, en |