which flourished by the banks of the Tigris or by those of the Guadalquiver; all the solemn lessons afforded by the lingering decline of civilization at Constantinople, are neglected, and we are merely regaled with a paltry rehash of the confused and disorderly incidents which flock around the death-bed of an expiring nation. Mr. Hallam has no adequate conception of the importance of either the Saracenic empire, or the later Byzantine, in European history. The influence of the former on the renascent literature, science, arts and civility of Europe, are unknown to him, as the influence of the latter on its political and legal organization is unsuspected. He has diligently gathered the chaff, and winnowed it over again, after its frequent previous treatment; but he has added nothing new to the grain which had been garnered, and has disguised the existence of the vast sources of information which those periods contain, by exhibiting them as if they had been absolutely devoid of the germs of future fructification.

These censures only carry us, though we have traveled with hasty steps and long strides, through the first volume of Mr. Hallam's work. The second is much less objectionable, with the exception of the chapter on the Ecclesiastical Power, which he says has been the most highly praised, though we can discover no reason for this commendation, but its greater comparative length, and the more general ignorance in regard to its subject. In the treatment of the English Constitution Mr. Hallam can lay claim to some originality and research, though his views are shallow and erroneous in regard to every thing connected with the Aula Regia and the Court of Chancery. In this part of his inquiries he had the materials for investigation around him, and his tastes induced him to use them. His essay on the State of Society is instructive without being comprehensive, and suggestive without being accurate. The vagueness and generality of its scope dispensed with any novel inquiries, and the subject presented so many topics of interest that it could be rendered attractive under any mode of handling. In these chapters of

the second volume the same defects which disfigure the first occur, but they are less glaringly and offensively revealed. they constitute a smaller leaven, and may readily pass unnoticed. It is in that part of his labors which demanded patient diligence, long-continued and arduous study, a comprehensive apprehension of the phenomena of social life under all its forms, intuitive sagacity, profound and varied learning, and rigid accuracy, that Mr. Hallam has most signally failed. He has in consequence produced only a blotched and incompetent narrative, instead of a luminous history of the Middle Ages. He has never recognized the truth that the incidents of declining and of nascent civilization are more pregnant with valuable instruction than the chronicles of flourishing empires. To be rendered so, however, they require much more minute, faithful, and appreciating examination than Mr. Hallam has accorded to the subjects discussed by him. With what lame and tottering steps, he has proceeded, we have endeavored to show; and, though omitting most of the errors discovered by us, we have perhaps said enough to prove our thesis, that his work is a broken reed only calculated to pierce the sides of those who would lean on it.

ART. III.—THE POWER OF THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT TO CONSTRUCT ROADS OR RAILROADS, as POST-ROADS, WITHIN THE STATES AND TERRITORIES.-Story's Commentaries on the Constitution.-Ed.

1851.

THE acquisition of California, and the rapid increase of population in that State, and on the whole north Pacific coast, within our State and territorial limits, have revived many of those questions which, in former years, were the subjects of earnest difference of opinion in Congress, and among the people at large. Those who live upon the eastern and western slopes of the Alleganies, are separated from the people of

the Pacific shore, by a vast expanse of wilderness, and by the Rocky Mountains and their kindred ranges. While the population of the eastern and western coasts is increasing with fabulous rapidity, the barrier to internal communication remains almost unbroken, and these great segments of our common people are kept widely apart. This circumstance induced a senator from California, in the last Congress, to introduce and advocate a bill for a railroad to the Pacific, which was, practically, to be constructed by the authority of the national Government. The bill, for various reasons, suffered a defeat, but, as the supposed expediency, and the necessity for such a work, have rather increased than diminished, since that time, we may take it for granted that the same senator, if reelected, or his successor, or others, will present a similar plan for the consideration of Congress, and thus revive the whole question of controversy.

No subject is deserving of more serious attention. It is true that its discussion involves political questions, which have, in past years, divided the whole counsels of the nation. It may, for this reason, be deemed improper to introduce the debate into the columns of a work, which stands professedly neutral as between the national parties of the country. But although we are unwilling to divert our pages from their general purpose of utility to the service of any cause, which may seem, upon first view, to be identical with a present political struggle, yet, when the principles involved have a permanence, which must continue to divide the country, after parties, in their present form of organization, have ceased to exist, we do not hesitate to take part in its discussion. We remember that a judge of the Supreme Court, in an elaborate and most able treatise upon the Constitution of the United States, has been obliged to consider this, and all kindred questions; and we are justified, therefore, in entering upon its discussion, more especially as we desire to make his able argument, to a large extent, the basis of our remarks.

Independently of the perfect propriety of discussing any topic, which has been made the subject of debate by Justice

Story in his Commentaries, we might also say that our duty forbids us to be silent upon the issue of this controversy. We cannot conceal from ourselves that its proper determination is of material importance to the best interests of those States with which our lives and sympathies are inseparably connected. While we honor and revere the union of the members of this confederacy, it is no less natural, than wise, that we should regard with more affectionate concern whatever affects the prosperity of the commonwealth in which we were born. We esteem most highly that love of country, which, beginning at home, and generating there a deep sympathy with republican institutions, looks, afterwards, to the union of the States as the appointed means for the preservation of the general prosperity and happiness.

We do not know that it is necessary for us to indicate to our Southern readers the importance of preserving a strict construction of the Constitution, if such a doctrine can be argumentatively maintained. Our local interests require that commerce should be as free, as possible, from the influence of any legislation that could restrict the largest interchange of our domestic products with the markets of the world. Our institutions, peculiar in their character, demand also for their safety, that the general Government should not exercise any powers, beyond those which belong strictly to its organization; for, if the wedge once enters, we cannot tell at what point the interference in the powers of the several States may begin or end. It is wisest, for our own sakes, no less than for the true advantage of the country, that we should stand in our National policy and Legislation upon principle alone, refusing to accede to, or countenance, any measures which may seem clearly advantageous or expedient even to ourselves, if we deem them to be inconsistent with the principles by which we construe the charter of the Constitution. We have much reason to know that all the difficulties that have arisen of late in the legislation of the country, have proceeded less from any uncertainty as to the legality or illegality of the measures urged or attempted, than from the careless, or unconsidered precedents set by Congress and by our chief executive officers in earlier days of the

Republic. We are awakened now, fortunately in time, to the knowledge that our rights are not committed by the opinions even of our own fast friends in other periods of our domestic history. We feel that they have performed their fitting office in the preservation of our rights in such emergencies as seemed to threaten imminent danger, but that it remains for the men of this generation to meet the questions of this day, unembarrassed by the opinions and conduct of those who wholly discharged their duty to the issues which divided the country, while they were living, and bore their fitting part in the contest.

We propose in these pages to discuss with brevity the doctrine of internal improvements as laid down by Justice Story and as understood by ourselves. We shall first address ourselves to the 18th chapter, Book III, of his Commentaries on the Constitution. The words in debate are "Congress shall have the power to establish post-offices, and post-roads." The author states that in the original draft the clause stood thus: "Congress shall have the power to establish post-offices," but that the words " and postroads" were afterwards added. He says that, "upon the construction of this clause, two opposite opinions have been expressed. One maintains that the power to establish post-offices and postroads can intend no more than the power to direct where postoffices shall be kept, and on what roads the mail shall be carried." The other maintains that "the power comprehends the right to make or construct any roads which Congress may deem proper for the conveyance of the mail, and to keep them in due repair for such purpose." Now the author calls attention to the fact that the Articles of Confederation invested Congress with the sole and exclusive power of "establishing and regulating post-offices from one State to another, throughout all the United States." The word to which he seeks afterwards to give so large a construction, is therefore found in the Articles of Confederation, as well as in the Constitution.

Now, the Government was equally the carrier of the mails, under the Articles of Confederation, as it now is. It could establish post-offices along any route that it might direct, whether that route was practicable for horses alone, or for carriages. It could