press of America is all-powerful; but still it must be borne in mind, that it is but the slave of the majority, which, in its turn, it dare not oppose.

Such is its tyranny, that it is the dread of the whole community. No one can―no one dare oppose it; whosoever falls under its displeasure, be he as innocent and as pure as man can be, his doom is sealed. But this power is only delegated by the will of the majority, for let any author in America oppose that will, and he is denounced. You must think, you must write, not according to your own opinions, or your own thoughts, but as the majority will.

Mr. Tocqueville observes, "I know no country in which there is so little true independence of mind, and freedom of discussion, as in America."

Indeed, one cannot help being reminded of what Beaumarchais makes Figaro say upon the liberty of the press in another country. "On me dit que pendant ma retraite économique il s'est établi dans Madrid un système de liberté

sur la vente des productions, qui s'étend même à celles de la presse; et que, pourvu que je ne parle en mes écrits, ni de l'autorité, ni du culte, ni de la politique, ni de la morale, ni des gens en place, ni des corps en crédit, ni de l'opéra, ni des autres spectacles, ni de personne qui tienne à quelque chose, je puis tout imprimer librement sous l'inspection de deux ou trois censeurs."

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CHAPTER VIII.

SOCIETY. THE MISSISSIPPI.

I HAVE headed this chapter with the name of the river which flows between the principal States in which the society I am about to depict is to be found; but, at the same time, there are other southern States, such as Alabama and Georgia, which must be included. I shall attempt to draw the line as clearly as I can, for although the territory comprehended is enormous, the population is not one-third of that of the United States, and it would be a great injustice if the description of the society I am about to notice should be supposed to refer to that of the States in general. It is indeed a most peculiar state of society, and arising from circumstances which will induce me to refer back, that the

causes may be explained to the reader. Never, perhaps, in the records of nations was there an instance of a century of such unvarying and unmitigated crime as is to be collected from the history of the turbulent and blood-stained Mississippi. The stream itself appears as if appropriate for the deeds which have been committed. It is not like most rivers, beautiful to the sight, bestowing fertility in its course; not one that the eye loves to dwell upon as it sweeps along, nor can you wander on its banks, or trust yourself without danger to its stream. It is a furious, rapid, desolating torrent, loaded with alluvial soil; and few of those who are received into its waters ever rise again, or can support themselves long on its surface without assistance from some friendly log. It contains the coarsest and most uneatable of fish, such as the cat-fish and such genus; and, as you descend it, its banks are occupied by the fetid alligator, while the panther basks at its edge in the cane-brakes, almost impervious to man. Pouring its impetuous waters

through wild tracks, covered with trees of little value except for fire-wood, it sweeps down whole forests in its course, which disappear in tumul-tuous confusion, whirled away by the stream, now loaded with the masses of soil which nourished their roots, often blocking up and · changing for a time the channel of the river. which, as if in anger at its being opposed, inun dates and devastates the whole country round; and as soon as it forces its way through its former channel, plants in every direction the uprooted monarchs of the forest (upon whose branches the bird will never again perch, or the racoon, the opossum, or the squirrel, climb) as traps for the adventurous navigators of its waters by steam, who, borne down upon these con cealed dangers, which pierce through the planks, very often have not time to steer for and gain the shore before they sink to the bottom. There are no pleasing associations connected with this great common sewer of the western America, which pours out its mud into the Mexican