religion, in the freedom and licentiousness of the press, in the
influence of public opinion, and in various subtle recesses, where its
existence was scarcely suspected. In all these, he analyzes and dissects
the tendencies of democracy; heartily applauds where he can, and
faithfully and independently gives warning of dangers that he foresees.
No one can read the result of his observations without better and
clearer perceptions of the structure of out governments, of the great
pillars on which they rest, and of the dangers to which they are
exposed: nor without a more profound and more intelligent admiration of
the harmony and beauty of their formation, and of the safeguards
provided for preserving and transmitting them to a distant posterity.
The more that general and indefinite notions of our own liberty,
greatness, happiness, &c., are made to give place to precise and
accurate knowledge of the true merits of our institutions, the peculiar
objects they are calculated to attain or promote, and the means provided
for that purpose, the better will every citizen be enabled to discharge
his great political duty of guarding those means against the approach of
corruption, and of sustaining them against the violence of party
commotions. No foreigner has ever exhibited such a deep, clear, and
correct insight of the machinery of our complicated systems of federal
and state governments. The most intelligent Europeans are confounded
with our _imperium in imperio_; and their constant wonder is, that these
systems are not continually jostling each other. M. DE TOCQUEVILLE has
clearly perceived, and traced correctly and distinctly, the orbits in
which they move, and has described, or rather defined, our federal
government, with an accurate precision, unsurpassed even by an American
pen. There is no citizen of this country who will not derive instruction
from our author's account of our national government, or, at least, who
will not find his own ideas systematised, and rendered more fixed and
precise, by the perusal of that account.