enable ordinary society, trade, and all the other active and
daily recurring interests of life, to manage their own affairs
more or less in their own way, it is not easy to foresee any
material consequences to the progress of a place like this at the
mouth of the Hudson, that can trace their rise to the future
course of political events in the country. We do not anticipate
any apparent dissolution of the ordinary ties of society, for we
know that nations will bear burdens of this nature for a long
period of time, without struggling or making the effort necessary
to remove them; and that it is only when they are felt to be
intolerable to the great body of the people that one may
confidently hope for redress and reformation. Petty wrongs are
never repaired by the masses; they sometimes vindicate their
rights by means of the strong arm, when seriously required to do
so, but in general the wrong is endured, and the victim immolated
without awakening attention or leaving any regrets among those
who escape its immediate consequences.

It has long been a subject of investigation among moralists,
whether the existence of towns like those of London, Paris, New
York, &c., is or is not favorable to the development of the
better qualities of the human character. As for ourselves, we do
not believe any more in the superior innocence and virtue of a
rural population than in that of the largest capitals, perfectly
conscious of the appalling accumulation of vice, and sin, and
crime that is to be found in such places as London and Paris, and
even in New York. We cannot shut our eyes to the numberless evils
of the same general character of disobedience to the law of God,
that are to be found even in the forest and the most secluded
dales of the country. If there be incentives to wrong-doing in