い "Elles (les lois) doivent etre tellement propres au peuple pour lequel elles sont faites, que c'est un tres-grand hasard si celles d'une nation peuvent convenir a une autre. "Il faut qu'elles se rapportent a la nature et au principe du gouvernement qui est etabli, ou qu'on veut etablir."-MONTESQUIEU, Esprit des Lois-Liv. I. chap. iii. Philadelphia: James Kay, Jun. & Co., Printers, No. 4, Minor Street. Exchange Hamilton Cullene Library 2-10-40 INTRODUCTION. త ENGLISHMEN are accused by the Americans of viewing their country only through a medium of strong and generally hostile prejudice, or of describing it with intentional misrepresentation. Those who are obnoxious to such imputations are little likely to allow their justice; men do not readily confess their prejudices, and bad faith is still less easy of conviction. In either case, a tu-quoque of mutual recrimination is generally the only result of unmeasured censure. Of any intention to mislead the reader of the following remarks, on the subject of the United States, I need hardly say that I am utterly unconscious. The statements now published are, almost without exception, supported by the authorities of able writers. Whether I am liable to the accusation of prejudice must be decided by the judgment of others. It is allowable, however, to state, that if my coun |