must speedily become largely contributory to the national revenue :-far more largely than from any taxation levied on its staple productions. There is nothing that the South cannot grow; and I do most heartily concur with those who believe that, as the result of the emancipation of the slaves, such new life, energy, and vigour will be introduced into the cultivation of those States, as will render them far more productive than they ever have been before. Many people in England seem to fancy that the South has been absolutely devastated by the War, and that such injury has been done to her by hostile armaments, that it will be very many years before she can recover her position. I do not participate in any such apprehensions, nor do I believe them to be well founded. Sherman's army, in its long march through Georgia and the Carolinas, no doubt carried devastation with it; but the march of Sherman's army was only on a track at the utmost of not more than sixty miles in breadth. And when we come to measure on the map that track with the great spaces of the States which were penetrated, it is sufficiently obvious that it was only a certain district which suffered from military violence, and that the greater portion of the South remains entirely intact.*

* The narratives which have appeared in the English newspapers of the deplorable condition in which the War has left the South have been chiefly written, it is to be remarked, from Richmond, the very scene of the principal campaign, by writers whose especial business it was to visit and describe the battle-fields. Those who suppose that such accounts give a fair view of the condition of the South would have pictured the state of the whole of Belgium, after

Apart from its bloodshed and misery, the War, indeed, may be considered an advantageous occurrence for America. It has cleared the atmosphere of the great cloud which so long overhung and threatened everything in the country. The result relieves the nation of its one great difficulty. Apart from bloodshed, it was worth any sacrifice to America, to be rid of slavery. Whilst that system existed, it was impossible that the nation could have a settled, firm, or united administration. No public legislation could be attempted which, in a greater or less degree, was not affected by that absorbing question. In consequence of the jealousies it occasioned, new States could not be brought into Union, new territories could not be developed, the enterprize of America could not properly be pursued. Look at what occurred even during the progress of the War. Oregon, the new Washington territory, Idaho, Dakotah, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona, have all been more or less opened out to settlement and enterprize. Besides their vast mineral riches, these territories are estimated to contain eight hundred millions of acres of fertile land, through which it is only needed that railroads should be constructed, in order to induce cultivation. The nation, moreover, will henceforward be consolidated. Orators have been accustomed to speak of America as extending "from the Lakes to the Gulf, and from the shores of the Waterloo, from a view of the road from Brussels to Hogoumont, and an inspection of the field of battle. Individuals, engaged in the agriculture and trade of the South, who visit New York for purposes of commerce, give a very different description of the condition of their country.

But the idea was

Atlantic to those of the Pacific." unreal until the conclusion of the War. Now, for the first time in American history, it can be said, with truth, that the nationality of the United States does extend from the Lakes to the Gulf, and from one ocean to the other. And I believe that all that is now needed to give absolute reality to so vast an empire, is that development of intercommunication which I have recommended.

When such communications are completed, when the South is effectually united with the North, and when the whole continent is traversed by one great trunk railway, worked as a united whole from the Atlantic direct to San Francisco, we shall be called upon to regard America as the greatest nation of the world. She will be entitled to take that rank by reason of her extent, her diversity of soil and climate, the character of her communications, the variety of her resources, her vast mineral riches, and the abundant field which she presents for labour and for the employment of capital and enterprise. Many amongst us are accustomed to smile when we hear the Americans speak of the United States, in their accustomed manner, as "a great nation." But there is no mere boast in that description. Emphatically, America is a great nation." Where can we find her equal in geographical and natural advantages, in material progress or in general prosperity? As a united people, the Americans present to the world a spectacle that must excite general admiration. Regarding them as of the same race and ancestry with ourselves, as a people using

our language, governed by our laws, united by the same religion, influenced by kindred sentiments, their progress is a spectacle which should kindle our admiration and enthusiasm. It is a great thing to boast of, that from the shores of our own land, there has gone forth a nation which is able to reflect so many advantages upon the country from which it started, and which has before it so grand a future. It should be our object here in England, to form a more familiar acquaintance with America, to prompt and promote larger and closer intercourse with her, and to ask her to enter with us into that large field which is open to us in common, for the development of the commerce and civilization of the world. It is the duty of both nations to bury all jealousies and discords, to settle irritating questions by mutual concessions and harmonious co-operation, and to endeavour to emulate each other in the development of those arts which tend to universal happiness, and which are based on the promotion of AMITY, and the preservation of PEACE.

INDEX,