hanter's
wand. That enchantment is the power of _freedom and education_, the
effect of which (as compared with the deadly influence of slavery and
ignorance) shall be illustrated in a succeeding letter. In that letter,
by comparing the relative progress of our Free and Slave States, as
demonstrated by our Census, it will be proved, incontestably, that the
total exclusion of slavery from our Union will cause an addition to our
national wealth vastly exceeding the whole public debt of our country,
and soon leave us much richer than before the rebellion.

R. J. WALKER.

THE DECLINE OF ENGLAND.

In Europe, two nations for almost a thousand years have contended for
empire. England and France, for the greater portion of that period, have
waged war with each other. When not engaged in actual hostilities, they
have watched each other with jealous animosity--seeking by intrigue and
diplomatic schemes to thwart or defeat the designs which one or the
other had formed for national aggrandizement.

No one of Anglo-Saxon descent can peruse the histories of those
countries, and not feel pride in the valor and success which have
distinguished his race. Twice the victorious banner of England has
fluttered in the gaze of Paris. Until a recent age, the French flag
visited the ocean only at the sufferance of England.

Whatever may be thought of the wisdom of the continental policy of
England since 1688--in pursuance of which she has persistently sought to
defeat the ambition of France--no one can help admiring the ability and
indomitable courage she has displayed in the gratification of her
national antipathy. From the League of Augsburg, of 1687, to which she
became a party, to the Treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, she put forth
herculean efforts to compel the relinquishment of the family compact by
Louis XIV. By that treaty, the darling project of that monarch to secure
the crown of Spain for a Bourbon, was forever abandoned by France.
Elated with this triumph over her adversary, throughout the eighteenth
century England continued to pursue the same policy of checking and
defeating all the schemes of France for territorial acquisition. It
mattered not where; in whatever quarter of the globe France sought to
plant her standard, she always found there an English enemy. In Asia,
Africa, and America, as well as in Europe, all her attempts to extend
her empire were defeated by Eng