But  it  will  end  the  day  America,  fully  peopled  and  culti
vated,  resembles  the  old  countries  of  Europe.  Then  certain
people  will  find  themselves  in  advantageous  circumstances  im
possible  to  be  created  elsewhere.  A  large  proprietor  will
keep  a  stretch  of  land  whose  equivalent  cannot  be  had  in  the
West  any  longer,  and  it  will  be  divided  up  among  several
families  of  farmers  really  settled  on  the  soil  of  his  domain,
owing  to  the  difficulty  of  getting  any  other;  and  this  will
form  a  condition  of  things  to  be  transmitted.  When  this  day
dawns  he  will  easily  leave  it  intact,  for  his  children  will  not
consider  that  they  have  any  special  claims  on  it,  and  they  will
do  as  the  English  do  to-day,  in  their  thickly  peopled  country,
where  they  preserve  the  custom  of  looking  after  their  affairs
themselves,  and  go  to  make  place  for  themselves  where  there
is  room,  analogous  to  that  which  one  of  their  number  re
ceived  where  there  is  now  no  room  left.  On  that  day  the
American  aristocracy,  will  probably  have  some  resemblance  to
the  English  aristocracy,  and  we  shall  recognize  it  as  aris
tocratic.  To-day  it  exists  in  a  latent  state,  and  is  in  course  of
formation,  like  society  itself  ;  but  it  is  easy  to  discover  its  con
stituent  elements,  to  see  them  born,  act  and  develop.
From  this  period  onward  these  elements  will  play  an  effective
part  in  the  social  organization,  and  round  off  in  a  useful  way
the  American  democracy.  They  provide  for  the  administra
tion  of  a  crowd  of  common  interests  in  proportion  as  these
show  themselves,  without  the  public  powers  being  troubled  to
look  after  them.  This  is  no  slight  service,  as  will  be  confessed
by  any  who  know  the  corruption  of  American  Governments.
