y nor
their hatred; as its resources are limited, every one feels that he must
not rely solely on its assistance. Thus, when the administration thinks
fit to interfere, it is not abandoned to itself as in Europe; the duties
of the private citizens are not supposed to have lapsed because the
State assists in their fulfilment, but every one is ready, on the
contrary, to guide and to support it. This action of individual
exertions, joined to that of the public authorities, frequently performs
what the most energetic central administration would be unable to
execute. It would be easy to adduce several facts in proof of what I
advance, but I had rather give only one, with which I am more thoroughly
acquainted. *u In America the means which the authorities have at their
disposal for the discovery of crimes and the arrest of criminals are
few. The State police does not exist, and passports are unknown. The
criminal police of the United States cannot be compared to that of
France; the magistrates and public prosecutors are not numerous, and the
examinations of prisoners are rapid and oral. Nevertheless in no country
does crime more rarely elude punishment. The reason is, that every one
conceives himself to be interested in furnishing evidence of the act
committed, and in stopping the delinquent. During my stay in the United
States I witnessed the spontaneous formation of committees for the
pursuit and prosecution of a man who had committed a great crime in
a certain county. In Europe a criminal is an unhappy being who is
struggling for his life against the ministers of justice, whilst the
population is merely a spectator of the conflict; in America he is
looked upon as an enemy of the human race, and the whole of mankind is
against him.

[Footnote u: See Appendix, I.]

I believe that provincial institutions are useful to all nations, but
nowhere do they appear to me to be more indispensable than amongst a
democratic people. In an aristocracy order can always be maintained in
the midst of liberty, and as the rulers have a great deal to lose order
is to them a first-rate consideration. In like manner an aristocracy
protects the people from the excesses of despotism, because it always
possesses an organized power ready to resist a despot. But a democracy
without provincial institutions has no security against these evils. How
can a populace, unaccustomed to freedom in small concerns, learn to
use it temperately in great affairs?