Providence in all the ages of the world.

There is one peculiarity in these volumes which we cannot sufficiently
applaud, and that is, the thoroughly English spirit in which they are
written. Without weak partiality, for the reasons are every where
assigned; without narrow prejudice, for the facts are in all instances
stated; and without derogating from the merits of other nations, the
work is calculated to give a just conception of the value of England to
the world.

On his return from the Sandwich Isles--an interesting portion of his
travels, to which we have not now time to advert in detail--and
preparing to start from the Russian post of New Archangel by a five
months' journey through the Russian empire, he gives a glance at what he
has done.

"I have," says he, "threaded my way round nearly half the globe,
traversing about 220 degrees of longitude, and upwards of 100 of
latitude, barely one fourth of this by the ocean. Notwithstanding all
this, I have uniformly felt more at home, with the exception of my first
sojourn at Sitka, than I should have felt in Calais. I have every where
seen our race, under a great variety of circumstances, either actually
or virtually invested with the attributes of sovereignty."

After a few words on the vigour of the English blood, as exhibited in
the commerce, intelligence, and activity of the United States, he
returns to the immediate possessions and prowess of England. "I have
seen the English posts which stud the wilderness from the Canadian lakes
to the Pacific Ocean. I have seen English adventurers with that innate
power which makes every individual, whether Briton or American, a real
representative of his country, monopolising the trade, and influencing
the destinies of California. And lastly, I have seen the English
merchants of a barbarian Archipelago, which promises, under their
guidance, to become the centre of the traffic of the east and the west,
of the new world and the old. In saying all this, I have seen less than
half the grandeur of the English race. How insignificant in comparison
are all the other nations of the earth, one nation alone excepted.
Russia and Great Britain literally gird the globe where either continent
has the greatest breadth, a fact which, taken in connexion with their
early annals, can scarcely fail to be regarded as the work of a special
Providence. After the fall of the Roman empire, a scanty and obscure
people suddenly burst on the west and