with reluctance, the courts always do fair justice on
this ill will; there are some countries, Russia, for instance, where
the courts do not do as much. If, in fine, at one time, a number of
States failed to keep their engagements, and a single one dared proclaim
the infamous doctrine of repudiation, all have since paid, except one
State of the extreme South, Mississippi. Once more, are we sure of being
in a position to reprove such misdeeds; we, whose governments, anterior
to '89, made use, without much scruple, of the fall of stocks, and
bankruptcies; we, whose debt, on emerging from the Revolution, took the
significant name of _tiers consolide?_

Let us not forget that the population of the United States has increased
tenfold since the close of the last century; they have received
immigrants annually, by hundreds of thousands, who have not always been
the elite of the Old World. Must not this perpetual invasion of
strangers promptly transformed into citizens, have necessarily
introduced into the decision of public affairs some elements of
immorality? I admire the honorable and religious spirit of the Americans
which has been able to assimilate and rule to such a degree these great
masses of Irish and Germans. Few countries would have endured a like
ordeal as well.

Remark that, in spite of all, public order is maintained without paid
troops, (Continental Europe will find it hard to credit this.)
Tranquillity reigns in the largest cities of the United States; respect
for the law is in every heart; great ballotings take place, millions of
excited men await the result with trembling; yet, notwithstanding, not
an act of violence is committed. American riots--for some there are--are
certainly less numerous than ours; and they have the merit of not being
transformed into revolutions.

The greater part of the immigrants remain, of course, in the large
cities; here they come almost to make the laws, and here, too, noble
causes encounter the most opponents. Mr. Lincoln, to cite an example,
received only a minority of suffrages in the city of New York, whilst
the unanimity of the country suffrages secured him the vote of the
State. Contempt of the colored class, that crime of the North, breaks
out most of all in the large cities, and particularly among
agglomerations of immigrants; none are harsher to free negroes, it must
be admitted, than newly-landed Europeans who have come to seek a fortune
in America.

As to crimes,