g one--"That the
executive in our country is so situated that, in the ordinary course of
things, it cannot be expected of him that he will resist the abuse; at
least, that he will not resist it in many cases."

The foregoing extracts are certainly entitled to no small weight when it
is remembered they come from the pen of a republican professor, writing
upon "Civil Liberty and Self-government." I do not pretend to say that
such gross cases as those referred to by him came within my cognizance
during my travels, but I most certainly did hear charges made against
governors, in more than one instance, of granting pardons through
corrupt influence.

I have now given a cursory review of the leading features in the
executive of the United States; and I have endeavoured, while doing so,
to point out the effects which the gradual inroads of the democratic
element have produced. The subject is one of the deepest interest to us
as Englishmen, inasmuch as it is the duty of every government to
enlarge, as far as is consistent with the welfare of the nation, the
liberty of the subject. The foregoing remarks on the constitution of the
United States appear to me conclusive as to one fact--viz., that the
democratic element may be introduced so largely as that, despite a high
standard of national education and worldly prosperity, its influence
will produce the most pernicious effect upon the government of the
country.

This truth cannot be too strongly brought forward, for undoubtedly
change is the mania of the day; and as, in a free country, all
constitutional changes must have a liberal tendency, it behoves our
legislators to study deeply and patiently the effect produced upon any
country whose constitution is more democratic than our own, so as to
enable them, while steadily advancing with the age, to know when the
well-being of their country requires them, as true patriots, to resist
those measures which threaten injury to the social fabric committed to
their guidance. No field can afford them more profitable subjects for
reflection than the United States. Independent of the fact that her
institutions are more democratic than our own, she possesses natural
advantages that enable her to carry them out, such as we do not; and,
therefore, the British statesman may always study her career with
profit when any great liberal movement is being agitated in his own
country.

Lest any one should be disposed to imagine that the statements