human improvement to eyes that seek the light. We have seen, under the persevering and enlightened enterprise of another state, the waters of our western lakes mingled with those of the ocean. If undertakings like these have been accomplished in the compass of a few years, can we, the representative authorities of the whole union, fall behind our fellow-servants in the exercise of the trust committed to us for the benefit of our common sovereign, by the accomplishment of works important to the whole, and to which neither the authority nor the resources of any one state can be adequate?

Finally, fellow-citizens, I shall await with cheering hope, and faithful co-operation, the result of your deliberations; assured that, without encroaching upon the powers reserved to the authorities of the respective states, or to the people, you will, with a due sense of your obligations to your country, and of the high responsibility weighing upon yourselves, give efficacy to the means committed to you for the common good. And may he who searches the hearts of the children of men, prosper your exertions to secure the blessings of peace, and promote the highest welfare of our country.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

The American Monitor.

SOUTH AMERICA AND THE PANAMA CONGRESS.

The progressive importance which the South American States are acquiring is shewn by the important documents we have transcribed. From the Isthmus of Panama to Cape Horn, we see with wonder a rapid increase in wealth, in cultivation, in the art of government, and the reform of ancient abuses. Communities which yesterday, as it were, lived under the oppression of an eastern despotism, shew, at the present day, not only that they are free, but that they know how to be so. Even in those states which have adopted the form of republics, we observe none of the errors of the French revolution. Authority is every were combined with responsibility, and the public voice, without effusion of blood or violent commotions, places men in authority so long as they do not abuse it, and, when guilty of abuse, with the same facility removes them.

Information begins to spread itself, and the methods of teaching, and of scattering instruction amongst all classes of society, are adopted with the greatest ardour, and as if with a spirit of rivalry. Whilst Bolivar rewards Joseph Lancaster, and bestows

on him public marks of esteem, the Emperor of Brazil causes the system of this great promoter of general knowledge to be adopted throughout the empire.

Ancient Europe cannot withstand these great strides which South America is making towards perfection; her pretensions to dominion, her ideas of legitimacy, and her right to govern that large portion of the human race, are now become mere declarations without object-threats which deserve only pity and contempt. The more prudent powers, who are capable of comparing means with ends, see the force of circumstances and yield to them for the strongest reasons. Societies so important and so consolidated, could not remain subject to a power which governs only by the indication of its own will.

So soon as the colonies of South America had become equal in population, and superior in wealth to the mother countries, it was to be expected that at no distant period, they would assert their independence; force might, for a time, impede this natural tendency, but could never increase in the same ratio with the spirit of resistance that opportunity only was wanting, which the dissensions of Europe soon offered.

Brazil (mirabile dictu) was raised to independence by the very man who, if he had attended to ancient prejudices, might have asserted his right to retain her in dependant subordination. But the Emperor Pedro I. had higher views, and considering that the season for deluding mankind was past, he proposed to himself the task of directing that great community in the work of its independence; and he executed it in a manner the most honourable particularly if we consider the obstacles with which he had to contend,

The plans proper to be adopted in the political government of nations depend on various circumstances ; men never agree as to all the different accessories of power, and hence civil discords arise. But there are certain truths, in reference to these points, which admit of no doubt under any system, or in any circumstances. Such are, for example, the following: That all power and all authority should be responsible-That every law should be preceded by the public discussion of its utility-That without liberty of the press there can be no security in those who govern, nor public spirit in those who are governed. On such basis is founded the system of government adopted in Brazil, and if those principles are maintained with firmness, no one can doubt the excellence of a government which proposes to attain, by such means, the great end of the public good.

The government of Brazil, although founded on so solid a basis, still required external peace, in order that she might give herself up, in undisturbed tranquillity, to the work of drawing forth those means which providence has given her for obtaining a greatness and prosperity both solid and permanent.

Such a peace is now established by the treaty concluded between the Emperor and the King his father. In consequence of this treaty the war has ceased: the pretensions of the mother-country are, for ever, at an end the independence of Brazil is no longer a point of dispute in European diplomacy: the chimerical ideas entertained by the Kings of Portugal of sovereignty over Brazil, are renounced, never again to be brought forward-and all this has been effected without sacrifice onthe part of Brazil. The King of PorVOL. II. No. 6.

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tugal retains only the title, a mere honorary distinetion, and the sacrifice he has made was, by no means voluntary; it was an acknowledgement of the inequality of power, and of the absolute insufficiency of his means to restore the ancient subjection.

Whether better conditions might, or might not have been obtained for Portugal, is a question which it is not our present purpose to agitate. It is quite probable that better conditions might have been obtained if the acknowledgement had been sooner offered; but even these, such as they are, could not possibly have been expected if the contest had been prolonged.

It has been said by some that certain established principles have been denied or disregarded in this treaty; in what is said, for instance, of the relinquishment of sovereignty on the part of the King of Portugal, when the Emperor already held it by a more legitimate tenure: but when the treaty is considered as a mere record of the ceding on the one hand, and receiving on the other, what each of the contracting parties already had or conceived himself to have, no one can blame the receiving, as the price of peace, that which in reality was the object of the war. The Emperor received this authority from the people of Brazil when they proclaimed him, and for three years waged open war against the pretensions of his father, who claimed that authority as belonging to him alone. When, therefore, by this treaty, the King of Portugal gives up that claim, the case reverts to what it was before the war; that is to say, the public authority remains vested in him to whom the