At Liddes we re-entered the char and trotted down to Martigny in good time.  Here we got another conveyance, and pushed down the valley, through St. Maurice, across the bridge, and out of the gate of the canton, again, reaching Bex a little after dark.

The next morning we were off early for Villeneuve, in order to reach the boat.  This was handsomely effected, and heaving-to abreast of Vevey, we succeeded in eating our breakfast at “Mon Repos.”

LETTER XXIII.

Democracy in America and in Switzerland.—­European Prejudices.—­Influence of Property.—­Nationality of the Swiss.—­Want of Local Attachments in Americans.—­Swiss Republicanism.—­Political Crusade against America.—­Affinities between America and Russia.—­Feeling of the European Powers towards Switzerland.

Dear ——­,

It is a besetting error with those who write of America, whether as travellers, political economists, or commentators on the moral features of ordinary society, to refer nearly all that is peculiar in the country to the nature of its institutions.  It is scarcely exaggerated to say that even its physical phenomena are ascribed to its democracy.  Reflecting on this subject, I have been struck by the fact that no such flights of the imagination are ever indulged in by those who speak of Switzerland.  That which is termed the rudeness of liberty and equality, with us, becomes softened down here into the frankness of mountaineers, or the sturdy independence of republicans; what is vulgarity on the other side of the Atlantic, is unsophistication on this, and truculence in the States dwindles to be earnest remonstrances in the cantons!

There undeniably exist marked points of difference between the Swiss and the Americans.  The dominion of a really popular sway is admitted nowhere here, except in a few unimportant mountain cantons, that are but little known, and which, if known, would not exercise a very serious influence on any but their own immediate inhabitants.  With us, the case is different.  New York and Pennsylvania and Ohio, for instance, with a united population of near five millions of souls, are as pure democracies as can exist under a representative form of government, and their trade, productions, and example so far connect them with the rest of Christendom, as to render them objects of deep interest to all who look beyond the present moment, in studying the history of man.

We have States, however, in which the franchise does not materially differ from those of many of the cantons, and yet we do not find that strangers make any material exceptions even in their favour.  Few think of viewing the States in which there are property qualifications, in a light different from those just named; nor is a disturbance in Virginia deemed to be less the consequence of democratic effervescence, than it is in Pennsylvania.