was to have been expected in a country engrossed with the more pressing demands of the useful. In painting, it could long boast of proficients, and the art is now prosecuted with vigor and success. In sculpture, the number of respectable living artists is now considerable, and their productions are ranked with those of the most meritorious of their cotemporaries. Engraving, both on copper and wood, has attained respectability under the encouragement received in our largest cities. In architecture there seems to be little room for the exercise of original genius. The artist must, perhaps, from the enduring character of its models, be ever destined to be the copyist of Grecian and other ancient forms, or incur the charge of licentious innovation. Yet, as to our productions in this noble and useful art, it can no longer be doubted that our country will profit by the abundance and variety of its materials, as Athens did by the marble of Pentelicus. Musical composition has, as yet, made but little progress among us; but the decided taste here manifested for the music of the best Italian and German masters is a good augury, and may prove the blossom which precedes the fruit.

Popular favor, as well as princely patronage, has had so much influence in encouraging these arts, and affords so many occasions for their advantageous exercise, in the erection and embellishment of public buildings, and in the statues and memorials awarded to eminent men, that we may confidently expect them all to flourish in our land; and that, thus encouraged, they will finally reach, if they do not surpass, all previous excellence.

Manners.-There are so many points of similarity between the people of this country and of those nations of Europe from whom they are descended, that it is not easy to seize those peculiarities of manners which may

be found here. Yet it seems probable that there are some peculiarities growing out of our civil institutions, or local circumstances.

Thus, in consequence of the political equality of condition of all classes, there is a certain independence of manner and discourse which are not likely to exist where there is a privileged class, and a recognized distinction of ranks. Sometimes this sense of equality shows itself in an easy frankness, and an unconstrained behavior, and occasionally in undue forwardness and familiarity.

In the slaveholding States, the habit of authority and command nurture self-respect, which, with the leisure and social intercourse possessed by the slaveholder, are very favorable to a mixture of politeness and ease, which are, in Europe, confined chiefly to the privileged classes.

Another consequence of the general sense of equality is, that there is less of respect shown or felt by young persons, of either sex, for their seniors. If a similar change has been observed in Europe, as is apprehended, the difference may be attributed, in part, to the unseen influence of the progress of society, of which the effects are more evident than the cause.

It is universally admitted that females are treated here with more deference, tenderness, and delicacy, than in Europe; and it is a very creditable peculiarity.

One consequence of the equality of condition here is a more general emulation in matters of expense, furniture, dress, and style of living. There is often little difference between the chambermaid and her mistress in their appearance and apparel. A consequence of this emulation in expense and show is, that the fable of the Frog and the Ox are accordingly more often illustrated in this country than in any other. This is probably, in the cities,

a more frequent cause of bankruptcy than the adverse

chances of trade.

The distribution of the industrious classes is an important feature in their characters, and, doubtless, has an influence on their morals and manners. According to the census of 1840, the number of persons engaged in agriculture was about five times as great as of those engaged in manufactures; and those, again, were about five times as numerous as those employed in commerce.

By the census of 1850, the proportion of the agriculturists was much less. They constituted but about one-half of the productive class, and the manufacturers one-fourth. The commercial class was but one-sixteenth, and those who were chiefly occupied in mental labor, including public officers, but a thirty-second part. While agriculture must long remain the predominant' occupation of the American people, yet that of manufactures and handicraft is steadily gaining on it. The number of professional men seemed, in that decade, to have somewhat more than doubled.'

Of all the facilities to commercial and social intercourse, none have increased as rapidly as railroads. According to Mr. De Bow, those of the United States, in 1854, extended more than 17,000 miles, being not much short of those of every other country.

In consequence of the great profits of capital in this country, and of its relative insufficiency, several of the States have large public debts, and their aggregate amount must be not less than $200,000,000. This policy has been adopted, notwithstanding the sentiments so emphatically declared by the Republican party on

The plans of the census of 1840 and 1850 being different, their respective classes do not admit of being precisely compared.

the subject of national debts. The solemn warnings of Mr. Jefferson, of their dangerous consequences, were disregarded; and the admirers of General Jackson seemed to have forgotten that he was willing to throw away six or seven millions of dollars, to obtain the credit of paying off the last of the national debt.

Without indulging in such gloomy predictions as the ablest men' have made about the national debt of Great Britain, and which time has so signally refuted, it may be affirmed that as these domestic debts are mostly due abroad, the States are thus subjecting the present generation and its posterity to a burdensome mortgage, the inconvenience of which may greatly outweigh the benefits derived from the money borrowed, which have often proved the mere delusions of hope; and that such burdens, yielding no compensating profit, must fetter and impede their sounder schemes of improvement and reform.

The instruction of youth, which was always a cherished policy in the New England States, has now be come a favorite measure in all the States; and, in no

'It now seems passing strange that such minds as Hume's, and Adam Smith's, have predicted national ruin to Great Britain from her public debt. They assimilated the debt of a nation to the debt of an individual, who may obviously, by a course of improvident borrowing and expense, gradually impair his estate, until he is finally ruined. But where the debt was contracted at home, as was the case with the British debt, then it represents the excess of private incomes beyond private expense. The money was here made before it was spent; and, so long as the money borrowed was derived from that source, it is not easy to assign a limit to the debt, especially as the interest paid to the creditor is a further taxable fund, which the Government may reach, and in fact has reached, by an income tax. Theirs is, then, the case of one who, having lived far within his income, decides on spending what he had saved; and, no matter what may be his extravagance and waste, if he keep within his first limit, his original estate remains unimpaired.

long time, it is probable that every child in the country will have the benefit of elementary schooling. The colleges, too, are advancing in dignity and utility.

Personal Comfort. — It remains now only to notice the condition of the people as to their individual comfort. In the ordinary progress of society, from rudeness to civilization and density of numbers, the art of husbandry, and other means of increasing human subsistence, have been the slow result of human wants and necessities. The consequence has been that, in every stage of this progress, the mass of every people were destined to a continued struggle for the means of supporting life. But not so under the very favorable circumstances of the United States, which possess a fertile country, as yet thinly settled, with all the useful arts which civilization has perfected. The consequence of which is, that the means of comfortable subsistence is within the reach of almost every one, and the people are generally fed and clothed as the mass of no other people were ever fed and clothed before. There is a very insignificant proportion who do not consume animal food at least once a day.

The number of paupers is comparatively very small, little exceeding the half of one per cent. of the population; and the greater part of this small number are foreign immigrants, or runaway negroes.

Having now completed our survey of the present fortunate condition of these States, it behoves us, as a prudent and rational people, to look also to the future, and to see what dangers await us: whether this unequalled state of national felicity as to its civil institutions, its abundance, its advancement in wealth, strength, and intellectual improvement, promise to be permanent, or are