THE events of the past few months are wonderful, even for this age of extraordinary events. The wisest and most profound statesinen present the most ridiculous appearance from the rapidity with which events stultify their most deliberate sayings. But a few months have elapsed since the prime minister of France, from his place in the tribune, gravely announced the necessity of the policy of supporting a monarchial government in Mexico, in order to establish the "balance of power" against the western republic. Almost while he is yet speaking, Mexico is swallowed up, seemingly without an effort, by the extension of American strength; every throne in Europe topples down, as if struck by the wand of Columbine; republicanism becomes universal, and M. Guizot himself an object of charity in London.* How little did that or any other man estimate the true state of affairs. Austria, under the guidance of the world-renowned Metternich, had scarcely suppressed the little state of Cracow, when all Germany lights up with democratic enthusiasm-the Empire of Austria crumbles in the dust, and the representative of the Cæsars truckles to the crowd for leave to remain yet a little while in the house of his ancestors. The King of Prussia who, the successor of the Great Frederick, but a few months since, in addressing his newly assembled "third estate," most firmly and decidedly made known his unchangeable determination to preserve all the prerogatives that had descended to hin, harangues the officers of the army amidst the populace, and exhorts them to "join the popular party heart and soul." The smaller princes are all deserting the "divine rights," abdicating their thrones, and avowing their democracy. When the bold soldier of the Revolution had all these kings waiting in his ante-room until dinner was prepared, and then

A late London paper states: "We understand that on the day after the arrival of M. Guizot in England, a sum of £2,000 was paid to his credit, at a London bank, by some unknown friend. M. Guizot received almost at the same moment an anonymous letter from the party by whom the money was paid, stating what the writer had done, and another letter from the bankers, informing him that the money was in their hands. The entire small property of M. Guizot, there is much reason to apprehend, will be confiscated by the National Assembly.'

commenced an anecdote with the remark, "When I was a sub-lieutenant in the regiment La Fere "-a shudder was perceptible amidst the listening representatives of legitimacy at the idea of the plebeian origin of their master. In the same view the warrior of France writes to the actor Talma to come to head-quarters; "You shall play to a pitfull of kings," said he. In such estimation the man of the people held those monarchs whom the people have now learned to value as cheaply. Instead of a monarchy in Mexico to balance republicanism in America, Western Europe is become republican to balance despotism in Russia. It is to be remarked that this state of affairs has not now first taken place; it has only been discovered to exist. All Europe has been supposed to be monarchial and loyal; an accident discovers that monarchial principles do not exist; that democracy is universal, and has but thrown away the old monarchial disguise in which it has been masquerading.

The Revolution of 1776, by which the United States sprang into the world a great and united republic, was nearly the first practical blow which the old feudal system of government in Europe received. Its utter failure as a government was then universally predicted, and these predictions have been periodically renewed, even down to the present day, in spite of the annually increasing power and wealth of the republic. The permanence of the institutions of the country may, in a great degree, be ascribed to their distance from Europe, and the consequent inability of the governments there to play upon public opinion, and to form parties inimical to the well-being of the state. But for this circumstance the aristocrats of Europe would not have been contented with predictions; their busy agents would long since have fomented difficulties of a serious nature. From the first establishment of this government, however, the progress of popular rights has been rapid in Europe, and scarcely a year has elapsed without bringing with it some radical change in the relation of the people to their respective governments. The ground on which monarchy rested has been mined; the people have been busy at the base; and the world has frequently been startled, as some huge fragment crumbled down from the tottering fabric of feudalism, and at each successive change modifying the prerogatives of governments by divine rights, philosophers, historians and pamphleteers have recognized a new symptom of decay in nations, and of progressive relapse into that barbarism supposed inseparable from popular rule. The age of economy" was hailed as the omen of evil when France, aroused by the struggles for liberty in America, awoke from the slumber of ages, and threw off the nightmare of aristocracy that had so long oppressed her. The economic principle, accompanying the progress of democracy, has gradually improved the condition of the people, while the aristocratic few have indeed much reason to deplore the change. After sixty years' struggle, France, more intelligent and more subdued by experience, has again the mastery of her feudal tyrants, and again the Tory journals of England teem with the revived denunciations of liberty by the Tories of the past age. It is remarkable, while popular rights have been making such manifest progress in all countries, until suddenly aroused, they have been enabled to obliterate almost the last traces of feudalism, that so far from the appearance of the predicted evils, the physical welfare of the people of all the countries has been promoted precisely in the degree in which "that generous loyalty to rank and sex-that proud submission-that dignified obedience-that subordination of the heart, which kept alive, even in servitude itself, the spirit of an exalted freedom," has been rooted out. These well-known and long admired words of Burke are the dainty phrase in which a sentiment, called familiarly "flunkeyism," is expressed-a very

costly sentiment for any nation to entertain. The United States have never entertained it at all. The people have preferred dignified independence to dignified obedience;" and throughout the length and breadth of the land equal numbers of human beings never, in any other country, enjoyed in so high a degree, both moral and physical comforts and blessings. This glorious example has exercised an important and wide-spread influence throughout the civilized world. In vain has the press in European countries been restricted; in vain have republican publications been excluded, and no illustration of democratic prosperity been permitted to see the light. Every throb of the great republican heart has impelled the political circulation of Europe, nourishing and strengthening its nascent liberties. Not a vessel leaves our shores but carries thousands of letters that find their way into every hamlet and cot from the Texel to Odessa-from Cadiz to Elsinore. These missives go from relatives to the bosom of families and communities, each carrying with it a lesson in republicanism illustrated by the prosperity of the writer. These communications have turned the attention of the people of all countries to the people of the United States. Those most enterprising of the oppressed have quit their homes, and with their families sought new habitations across the water in a land enjoying no advantages over the land of their birth except that of good government. Last year 80,000 souls landed in New-York from the British Islands, and as many more from Europe. While such numbers leave the country in which they are oppressed, thousands remain, who seek in reforms at home the advan tages which a portion look for in a foreign country. For fifty years this operation has been going ou, and the extent to which republicanism and popular rights have spread in Europe, through its means, is revealed as it were by accident.

The Postmaster-General, in his annual report, gives the number of letters forwarded through the mails from foreign countries for the year 1847, at 850,000, on which two cents each was charged in addition to the regular postage; and the whole number of ship letters is stated at 1,227,800. The number of letters that go from the United States to foreign countries is much larger than this, and cannot be less than 1,500,000 per annum. To all those who have, in visiting Europe, mingled with the people, sojourned in villages, and visited the cots of the peasants, the intense interest which all manifest in everything which appertains to America, is familiar. The large majority of those who visit Europe travel in rapid conveyances to the principal hotels, read English papers, converse with English waiters, and, if they mingle at all with society, do so among those half Anglicised or Americanised by the number of visitors. These persons race through the country, from hotel to hotel, vainly supposing that they see more of Europe than they could have done at Delmonico's without leaving New-York. Such persons know nothing of the people of Europe, their manners, modes of thinking, social condition, or political aspiration. This information is to be obtained only by years of sojourning leisurely in the small towns and villages of the interior, forming permanent acquaintances among the honesthearted peasantry, mingling in the harvest homes, and partaking of general festivities.

Frequently has it been our lot on entering a country inn, on a holyday, in the interior of Germany, to meet the rebuff of the host and the scowls of the assembled company, accompanied by the muttered malediction, "Verdamnter Englelander," and to observe, on repudiating the character of Englishman, and claiming that of a citizen of the United States, the universal change of manner, the hum of pleasure, the kindly welcomes on all sides, followed by numerous questions, while the most intense interest was manifest at all that relates to the United States and its people. The most