-Why?--Distinction carefully to be drawn between what is of
Puritanical and what is of English origin.

The reader is cautioned not to draw too general or too absolute an
inference from what has been said. The social condition, the religion,
and the manners of the first emigrants undoubtedly exercised an immense
influence on the destiny of their new country. Nevertheless they were
not in a situation to found a state of things solely dependent on
themselves: no man can entirely shake off the influence of the past, and
the settlers, intentionally or involuntarily, mingled habits and notions
derived from their education and from the traditions of their country
with those habits and notions which were exclusively their own. To form
a judgment on the Anglo-Americans of the present day it is therefore
necessary to distinguish what is of Puritanical and what is of English
origin.

Laws and customs are frequently to be met with in the United States
which contrast strongly with all that surrounds them. These laws seem to
be drawn up in a spirit contrary to the prevailing tenor of the American
legislation; and these customs are no less opposed to the tone of
society. If the English colonies had been founded in an age of darkness,
or if their origin was already lost in the lapse of years, the problem
would be insoluble.

I shall quote a single example to illustrate what I advance. The
civil and criminal procedure of the Americans has only two means of
action--committal and bail. The first measure taken by the magistrate
is to exact security from the defendant, or, in case of refusal, to
incarcerate him: the ground of the accusation and the importance of the
charges against him are then discussed. It is evident that a legislation
of this kind is hostile to the poor man, and favorable only to the
rich. The poor man has not always a security to produce, even in a
civil cause; and if he is obliged to wait for justice in prison, he is
speedily reduced to distress. The wealthy individual, on the contrary,
always escapes imprisonment in civil causes; nay, more, he may readily
elude the punishment which awaits him for a delinquency by breaking his
bail. So that all the penalties of the law are, for him, reducible
to fines. *n Nothing can be more aristocratic than this system of
legislation. Yet in America it is the poor who make the law, and they
usually reserve the greatest social advantages to themselves. The
explanation of the pheno