is the new power to take an independent place, but it is "to
change the system of Europe." For all this its people are amply
prepared. "Standing on that high ground of improvement up to which the
most enlightened parts of Europe have advanced, like eaglets, they
commence the first efforts of their pinions from a towering
advantage."[49] Then again, giving expression to this same conviction in
another form, he says:--

"North America has advanced, and is every day advancing, to growth of
state, with a steady and continually accelerating motion, of which there
has never yet been any example in Europe."[50] "It is a vitality, liable
to many disorders, many dangerous diseases; but it is young and strong,
and will struggle, by the vigor of internal healing principles of life,
against those evils, and surmount them. Its strength will grow with its
years."[51]

He then dwells in detail on "the progressive population" here; on our
advantage in being "on the other side of the globe, where there is no
enemy"; on the products of the soil, among which is "bread-corn to a
degree that has wrought it to a staple export for the supply of the Old
World"; on the fisheries, which he calls "mines of more solid riches
than all the silver of Potosi"; on the inventive spirit of the people;
and on their commercial activity. Of such a people it is easy to predict
great things; and our prophet announces,--

1. That the new state will be "an active naval power," exercising a
peculiar influence on commerce, and, through commerce, on the political
system of the Old World,--becoming the arbitress of commerce, and,
perhaps, the mediatrix of peace.[52]

2. That ship-building and the science of navigation have made such
progress in America, that her people will be able to build and navigate
cheaper than any country in Europe, even Holland, with all her
economy.[53]

3. That the peculiar articles to be had from America only, and so much
sought in Europe, must give Americans a preference in those markets.[54]

4. That a people "whose empire stands singly predominant on a great
continent" can hardly "suffer in their borders such a monopoly as the
European Hudson Bay Company"; that it cannot be stopped by Cape Horn or
the Cape of Good Hope; that before long they will be found "trading in
the South Sea and in China"; and that the Dutch "will hear of them in
the Spice Islands."[55]

5. That by constant intercommunion of business and correspondence, a