failed; this is not their fault. They still retain all the
qualities to constitute a great nation, and a great nation, or
assemblage of nations, they will eventually become. At present, all is
hidden in a futurity much too deep for any human eye to penetrate; they
progress fast in wealth and power, and as their weight increases, so
will their speed be accelerated, until their own rapid motion will
occasion them to split into fragments, each fragment sufficiently large
to compose a nation of itself. What may be the eventual result of this
convulsion, what may be the destruction, the loss of life, the chaotic
scenes of strife and contention, before the portions may again be
restored to order under new institutions, it is as impossible to foresee
as it is to decide upon the period at which it may take place; but one
thing is certain, that come it will, and that every hour of increase of
greatness and prosperity only adds to the more rapid approach of the
danger, and to the important lesson which the world will receive.

I have not written this book for the Americans; they have hardly entered
my thoughts during the whole time that I have been employed upon it, and
I am perfectly indifferent either to their censure or their praise. I
went over to America well-inclined towards the people, and anxious to
ascertain the truth among so many conflicting opinions. I did expect to
find them a people more virtuous and moral than our own, but I confess
on other points I had formed no opinions; the results of my observations
I have now laid before the English public, for whom only they have been
written down. Within these last few years, that is, since the passing
of the Reform Bill, we have made rapid strides towards democracy, and
the cry of the multitude is still for more power, which our present
rulers appear but too willing to give them. I consider that the people
of England have already as much power as is consistent with their
happiness and with true liberty, and that any increase of privilege
would be detrimental to both. My object in writing these pages is, to
point out the effects of a democracy upon the morals, the happiness, and
the due apportionment of liberty to all classes; to shew that if, in the
balance of rights and privileges, the scale should turn on one side or
the other, as it invariably must in this world, how much safer it is,
how much more equitable I may add, it is that it should preponderate in
favour