We owe it, therefore, to candor, and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those Powers, to declare, that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power we have not interfered, and shall not interfere. But with the governments who have declared their independence, and maintained it, and whose independence we have, on great consideration and on just principles, acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppression, or controlling in any other manner their testimony, by any European power, in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States.*

Again-so fully had the President become convinced of the course to be pursued by this government in respect to European intervention in American affairs not connected with colonial duties, that in his next Annual Message, Dec. 7, 1824, he declared to the Congress that: Separated as we are from Europe by the great Atlantic Ocean, we can have no concern in the wars of European governments, nor in the causes which produce them. The balance of power between them, into whichever scale it may turn in its various vibrations, cannot affect us. It is the interest of the United States to preserve the most friendly relations with every power, and on conditions fair, equal, and applicable to all. But in regard to our neighbors our situation is different. It is impossible for the European governments to interfere in their concerns, especially in those alluded to, which are vital, without affecting us; indeed, the motive which might induce such interference in the present state of the war between the parties, if a war it may be called, would appear to be equally applicable to us.

The Messages of President Monroe, containing this and the following paragraph, will be found at length in "The Statesman's Manual," a valuable publication, by E. Walker & Sons, of New York, containing the Messages and Addresses of the Presidents of the United States, from Washington to Buchanan.

These are doctrines found in our American state papers. Are they sound, and do they stand on the immoveable basis of true political philosophy? Will they stand the test of experience? It would seem that they will be brought to positive trial before long, unless British aggression and outrage in American seas and on American soil shall soon cease. Can the conflicting systems of government of the East and the West ever be made to move in harmony on the same ground-in the same neighborhood? The United States shook off the fetters of foreign power which had worn deeply into the body politic, while swayed by the rule of a foreign master as colonial dependents. Let not the remotest part of that body be rudely or unlawfully touched by the hand of power with impunity. Hands off, should be the defiant and indignant response to all trespassers whomsoever and whensoever. Let them be vigilant to preserve the freedom which their struggle with the mightiest power of Europe gained for them in the contest for mastership, which followed the declaration that they had rights and dared maintain them-a declaration ever memorable since its passage by resolution of the Continental Congress, July 4, 1776.

The subject and political teachings which we have thus far considered, and upon which we have bestowed these reflections, are not, just at this juncture of events, without some interest additional to that arising out of their own merits, and independent of any bearings they may have in governmental matters. It is only a few days since the people of to-day-a new generation-one that has entered upon the stage of life since his decease, have witnessed or heard of the solemn ceremonies and imposing pageantries of the exhumation in New York, and removal to Virginia, of the remains of the President of the United States whose doctrines we have had under consideration. JAMES MONROE, a citizen of Virginia-the State favored as the birth-place of more presidents of the United States than any other of the Union-departed this life on the Fourth of July, 1831, in the City of New York, where his mortal relics received, at the time, sepulture amidst demonstrations of the highest regard, and obsequies fitting

the exalted stations in our government, with which, in his life-time, he had been honored by the nation, and where they have reposed for a period of twenty-seven years. It is hoped that their transfer from the place of rest in the North to the place of birth in the South, in charge of citizens of the State of his nativity, to whom they were delivered by the authorities of the City of New York, in connexion with our nation's recent Anniversary of Independence, may mark another era of good feeling, a term known to express the character of the times of his Presidency, and contribute in some measure to soften the asperities of sectional feeling, and to perpetuate the Union of these republics. They find repose now in the lap of mother earth not only, but in the monumental embrace of the Chief City of the mother of most of the earlier Presidents and his virtues and worth find grateful remembrance in the hearts of his countrymen not only in the Old Dominion, but in all the Union. Requiescat in pace.

The principles of intervention and non-intervention, put forth by President Monroe, as we have seen, limit the European nations to their colonial possessions and territorial boundaries in America, and forbid their exercise of power here, in furtherance of the establishment of their systems of government over any of the dwellers on this continent outside of their present recognised possessions-and at the same time define the position of the United States in respect to its neighbors, the colonies of other powers-neighbors who are still obedient to their behests. These principles are satisfactory in the main; but they do not reach to the full extent of the evil-what if any of these colonists, these neighbors to us, shall stand in the way of the enjoyment and exercise of any constitutional right of the citizen of the United States, and the home government will not remove the obstacle? What then is to be done? Shall not the United States at once intervene, or, in other words, redress the wrong? Of the European powers guilty of placing obstacles in our way, Great Britain especially is deserving of attention from the United States. Its arrogant and unwarranted claims as the conscience-keeper of this nation and the propagandist of prin

ciples which it is ready to shirk when coming counter to its own interests-to visit and search our merchant vessels in time of peace on the high seas, so as to ascertain whether engaged in the slave-trade, we briefly considered in the REVIEW on a former occasion, and will not now dwell longer on such instance of British intervention, except to say that it has wisely abandoned, or at least waived, this false policy for the present.

Although England has suspended hostilities against the United States in this respect, we have no guarantee whatever that Great Britain or any other European power entertains the least fraternal sentiment in common with the American people, or with their system of government. Great Britain's unneighborly conduct towards our citizens, in the management of her Canadian possessions, in refusing to deliver up fugitives from labour, upon whose services the master has an undoubted claim, under our constitution and laws; the exorbitant exactions of her Hudson's Bay Company, in Washington Territory, upon our industrious emigrants, who considered the far West their common heritage, regardless of technical ownership by a foreign power, all tend to convince us that England regards American progress with suspicion and fear, and the government is ready to enter into an arrangement with any power, either on this continent or in Europe to restrict us within the limits we now occupy. Indeed this fact is further confirmed in the recent alliance between England, France, and Spain, to interfere in the affairs of poor distracted Mexico. Each of these foreign powers have been watching Mexico for years past, with the greatest anxiety; expecting every turn of the revolutionary wheel to place a portion or the whole of this country under their control.

So too in Central America. The right of way in Nicaragua has especially attracted their attention.

Whenever they have failed in their attempts to obtain a footing here, they have invariably resorted to every subterfuge to prevent our government or people from obtaining those advantages which the course of events would naturally

place in our hands except for the intervention of those powers against us.

It was no sooner announced that our government had arranged a treaty favorable alike to the people of Nicaragua and Costa Rica, and to the United States, than these European powers commenced intriguing against its ratification, and an effort was made to induce our neighboring republics to consummate a contract with a foreigner, to build a highway over Nicaragua, regardless of their treaty with the American Government. It is further said that these republics have even been induced to invoke the supposed invincible power of the triple alliance of England, France, and Sardinia for protection against the United States in this undertaking should our government take exception to this act of bad faith of the Central American authority. But this continent is designed for a more extended usefulness than that to which it has heretofore been appropriated by the usurping despotisms of Europe in the barbarism of its natives, and all these plans to regulate its affairs must assuredly fail.

The hand of God has marked it out for the abode of enlightened freemen, and the sooner the "Monroe Doctrine" is practically applied to it by the government and people of the United States, the sooner will human destiny appropriate it to its legitimate purposes. Neither the hand of the tyrant nor the arm of the savage can much longer delay the complete overspread of American institutions upon this continent.

Whatever may be said of the rise and fall of these American republics-and they are scarcely worthy of the namethey have performed some service to democracy in rooting out European influence from this continent. Nor is it surprising that an example so illustrious as that of this government, should find copyers. Is it not a reasonable expectation that colonists, in such immediate juxtaposition to us, as of necessity all must be who establish themselves on this part of the globe, will feel our influence and be affected by us? The spirit of liberty is an active principle, and will have an influence. What must be the influence of our example and