Page:Memoir upon the negotiations between Spain and the United States of America which led to the treaty of 1819.djvu/127

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��meiit also lias its pensioned editors, who support and eulogize its conduct. Every body reads the publick papers in that country, and there is scarce- ly an individual in a thousand, who does not know how to read and write; and even in the most mise" rable hamlets, in the cottages, and in the v/oods, the gazettes are received and read. The carman and the most rustick peasant, the mariner, the artisan, the labourer, all, all are inforuied of the state of publick affairs, and all talk politicks;* but their ideas are always superficial, and the result, as is natural, is that they are led away by the dema- gogue who happens to have most elofpience and most popularity.

The tAvo parties which have had the strongest conflict in the Republick, are the democrats and the federalists: the first is composed of what is every where called the vulgar^ and the second of men of standing and wealth, distinguished not only for their fortunes, but also for their education and the splendour in which they live. Both parties aspire

��* And yet the author predicts the ruin of such a country and such a people ! No. While the artisan and the labour- er, the mariner and the peasant, all, are instructed in pub- lick affairs; while they can all read the gazettes and think for themselves, demagogues may declaim, foreigners may write and predict its dissolution, but the Republick will still hold its " stand upon the adamantine rock of human rights." T.

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