periphrasis, are the
extraordinary ones too; and not only do they contain whatever Ministers
know, but very often "something more."

Time was when the Minister, or even the Secretary at a Foreign Court,
appeared in society as a kind of casquet of state secrets,--when his
mysterious whispers, his very gestures, were things to speculate on, and
a grave motion of his eyebrows could make "Consols" tremble, and throw
the "Threes" into a panic. Now the question is, Have you seen the City
article in the "Times?" What does the "Chronicle" say? No doubt this is
a tremendous power, and very possibly the enjoyment of it, such as
we have it in England, is the highest element of a pure democracy.
Political information of a very high order establishes a species
of education, which is the safest check upon the dangers of private
judgment, and hence it is fair to hope that we possess a sounder and
more healthy public opinion in England than in any of the states of the
Continent. At least it would not be too much to infer, that we would be
less accessible to those sudden convulsions, those violent "_coups de
main_" by which Governments are overturned abroad; and that the general
diffusion of new notions on political subjects, and the daily reference
to such able expositors as our newspaper press contains, are
strong safeguards against the seductive promises of mob-leaders and
liberty-mongers.

In France, a Government is always at the mercy of any one bold enough to
lead the assault. The attempt may seem often a "forlorn hope"--it rarely
is so in reality. The love of vagrancy is not so inherent in the Yankee
as is the destructive passion in the Frenchman's heart; but it is there,
less from any pleasure in demolition than in the opportunity thus.
offered for reconstruction. Mirabeau, Rousseau, Fournier, La Mennais,
are the social architects of French predilection, and many a clearance
has been made to begin the edifice, and many have perished in laying the
foundations, which never rose above the earth, but which ere long we may
again witness undertaken with new and bolder hands than ever.

Events that once took centuries for their accomplishment, are now the
work of days or weeks. Steam seems to have communicated its impetuosity
to mind as well as matter, and ere many years pass over how few of the
traces of Old Europe will remain, as our fathers knew them?

I have scarcely entered a foreign city, for the last few years, without
dete