e solitudes of
the New World. Millions of men are marching at once towards the same
horizon; their language, their religion, their manners differ, their
object is the same. The gifts of fortune are promised in the West, and
to the West they bend their course. *b

[Footnote b: [The number of foreign immigrants into the United States in
the last fifty years (from 1820 to 1871) is stated to be 7,556,007. Of
these, 4,104,553 spoke English--that is, they came from Great Britain,
Ireland, or the British colonies; 2,643,069 came from Germany or
northern Europe; and about half a million from the south of Europe.]]

No event can be compared with this continuous removal of the human race,
except perhaps those irruptions which preceded the fall of the Roman
Empire. Then, as well as now, generations of men were impelled forwards
in the same direction to meet and struggle on the same spot; but the
designs of Providence were not the same; then, every newcomer was the
harbinger of destruction and of death; now, every adventurer brings with
him the elements of prosperity and of life. The future still conceals
from us the ulterior consequences of this emigration of the Americans
towards the West; but we can readily apprehend its more immediate
results. As a portion of the inhabitants annually leave the States in
which they were born, the population of these States increases very
slowly, although they have long been established: thus in Connecticut,
which only contains fifty-nine inhabitants to the square mile, the
population has not increased by more than one-quarter in forty years,
whilst that of England has been augmented by one-third in the lapse of
the same period. The European emigrant always lands, therefore, in
a country which is but half full, and where hands are in request:
he becomes a workman in easy circumstances; his son goes to seek his
fortune in unpeopled regions, and he becomes a rich landowner. The
former amasses the capital which the latter invests, and the stranger as
well as the native is unacquainted with want.

The laws of the United States are extremely favorable to the division
of property; but a cause which is more powerful than the laws prevents
property from being divided to excess. *c This is very perceptible in
the States which are beginning to be thickly peopled; Massachusetts
is the most populous part of the Union, but it contains only eighty
inhabitants to the square mile, which is must less than in Fr