Aristocracy among the Romans and the Greeks.—Vigourous Organisation of the Feudal Aristocracy.—Violent Reaction against the Nobility.—Christianity has contributed to this Reaction.—The Feudal System fixed the Barbarians.—Primogeniture in the English Commons.—Advantages of a Hereditary Aristocracy.—Growth of the Sentiment of Family.—Necessity of balancing the Innovating and the Conservative Elements of Society.—How Stability has been secured without the Hereditary Principle.—Difficulty in the Way of the immediate Abolition of the Hereditary Aristocracy in Europe.—The absolute Hereditary Principle has been irretrievably weakened.—Hereditary Transmission of Office.—Where can the Elements of an Aristocracy in France be found?—How can an Aristocracy be established in the United States?—Germs of Aristocracy in the South.—Dangers of American Society.

405 XXXIII. Democracy. Burden of the Past on the old Societies.—Difficulty of Reforms in old Countries.—Facility of Innovation in new Countries.—Advantages possessed by the Anglo-Americans for making Social Experiments.—The American Labourer is initiated.—Absence of the Profanum Vulgus in the United States.—The Labouring Classes in the United States are superior to those of other Countries.—Defects of the American Democracy.—Analogy to the Romans.—Superiority of the Educated Classes in Europe.—The respective Merits, present and future, of America and Europe. 422

NOTES AT THE END OF THE VOLUME.

Page.
1.	Use of Iron.—Manufacture of Iron in France and England.—Its future use in Architecture,	441
2.	Coal mined in England, France and Belgium,	442
3.	Exports of Domestic Produce from France, England, and the United States,	443
4.	Navigation.—Tonnage of the Shipping of France, England, and the United States,	443
5.	Nullification, (omitted.)
6.	The Bank of the United States.—Comparison with the Bank of France and the Bank of England.—Local Banks.—Private Bankers and Joint Stock Banks in England.—Provincial Banks in France,	444
7.	Of Failures in the United States,	449
8.	The Press in the United States;—compared with the English and French Press,	452
9.	Transfer of Funds by the Bank of the United States,	453
10.	Paper Money and Metallic Currency.—In France; in the United States; in England,	453
11.	The Cherokees, Creeks, and other Indian Tribes.—Indian Policy of the Federal Government, (omitted.)
12.	Public Lands.—System of Survey and Sale.—Quantity sold and for sale, (omitted.)
13.	Temperance Societies, (omitted.)
14.	The Cotton Manufacture in France, England, and the United States,	454
15.	Production and Consumption of Cotton throughout the World,	456
16.	Degradation of the People of Colour, (omitted.)
17.	Trial of the Incendiaries of the Ursuline Convent,	456
18.	Anthracite Coal, (omitted.)
19.	Conclusion of the Question of the Public Deposits, (omitted.)
20.	Taxation in the United States,	458
21.	Construction and Cost of Steamboats in the West.—Number of Steamboats in the United States,	460
22.	Summary View of Public Works in the United States,	462
23.	Geological Surveys,	466

LETTERS ON NORTH AMERICA.

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INTRODUCTION.

1. That form of civilization which has prevailed among the European nations, has moved, in its march over the globe, from east to west. From its cradles in the depths of old Asia and Upper Egypt, it advanced, by successive stages, to the shores of the Atlantic, along which it spread itself from the southern point of Spain to the northern extremity of the British