The pilot and transcript. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1840-1841, 1840-12-31
From the Y. Y. Public advertiser.
DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA.

DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA.
De Tocqueville's Democracyin America, has
for years been the subject of critical review,
and various have been the ideas expressed of
the views of this talented for ,igner We have
only at present; room to make two short extracts
from 1.-THE frst'from vol. I'd, page IVA. We
shall call the conservatism of democracy:
"The majority. it is true, frequently displays
the tastes and propensities Of a despot bu',
fortunately, 1t is destitute of the more perfect
instruments oftyranny. The national majority
may influence and modify, but it does not pre-
tend actually to conduct the details of business.
The majority has become more and more abso.
Lutte; but 1t has not invested the executive with
more authority; and however the predominant
party may be carried away by its passions, it
cannot oblige all the citizens to comply with
It's desires IN the same manner and at the same
time throughout the country. The majority,
through the government, may issue decree,
but it must entrust the execution of its will to
agents whom it frequently has no control over,
and at all events cannot perpetually direct
The townships, the municipal bodies, and the
whole system of local administration, both in
town and country, may be looked upon as con-
cealed breakwaters, which check or part the
tide of popular excitement. Were an oppres-
sive law passed, the liberties of the people
would still be protected by the means which
that law would be pat in execution; the MAORI
ty carnot descend to the details and puerilities
of administrative tyranny
The London Quarterly Review, as far back
as the year 1896, in commenting on the passage
below, uses the following language:
"TheTe are, at present, more than a million
Of Christians protesting the truths of the Church
of Rome in the Union. These Catholics are
faithful TO the obserVances of their religion;
nevertheless they constitute the most repubR-
can and the most democratic class of citizens
in the United States. ibid.
eIn our humble opinion the real object of
the Romish priesthood, all the world over, al
ways was and will be pOlcer; and they seek it
in different ways according the circumstances
of the age and the country in which their oper
ations are carried on In monarchy their
ambition is to master the mind of the prince; in
an aristocratical republic they endeavour TO es-
tablish their sway among the noble senators; in
a democracy they are sure 10 bend all their ex-
ertions to the acquisition of power over the do
minant mass; and we should not be at all sur
prised to find that the results of their expert
ence in this last field were such as to convince
them, that the finest thing in the world for them
would be the universal establishment of demo-
cracies-each ostensibly omnipotent within it
self, but each eventually the slave of their own
compact all penetrating influence. Already.as
NJ de Tocquevlle knows, the Irish Catholic
mob has made itself the ruling power in the
elections of New York; he we'll knows that this
mob acts in blind obedience to the orders OF its
prests-that is 10 say, fits Bishops-the only
men, BY the by. lin American Union who are at
this day styled Lords; and he must also be well
aware that this mob could never have acquired
the 1.-THE of such influence but for the hardihood
with which ruffhns, landed from Connaught or
Kerry but a week before, take false oaths as
TO residence in America, which alone enable
them to march tp the polls, and vote for the can
didate who is SO fortunate as to have the sup
port ofthose no y personages."
The candid reader will bear in mind that
these are the words of the English Reviewer
four years since AMI the intelligent and obser
want will compire this with the late move of
the Roman Catholic Clergy in relation 10 the
School Fund, and form their own conclusion
Is !. hot a ink IN the chain of reasoning used
in the Quarterly Review, establishing its posi-
tions? Step by step the Catholic clergy are
moving foI the equisition of civil and ecclesi
astical power, ind every step they take the
motion becomes accelerated We would COM
mend to the hottie of eur fellow citizens, Re-
view of the claim of the Catholics for a diyi-
sion of the School Fund, which has been lately
published, and eiters fully and fearlessly into
consideration of HE history, tenets and practi-
ces of the Romah Church. 1t ought 10 be in
the hands of eveB citizen.
NOVEL Ice BREA KER.-A correspondent
of the United States Gazette suggests the idea
of exploding guhpowder under the ice IN the
Delaware, by means Of galvanie current. lie
says =
81 presume that If cask replete with gun pow
der were lowered through hole in ice by means
OF competent rope, it might be driited under
the ice by the current. BY means OF cords
formed Of fine copper wire and secured by
binding them with Irvine along the rope, igni-
| tion might be communicated to the gun power
agreeadly to the process already described by
| me in the article which you repubhshed on the
Dist inst. Ii remains to be aseertalned whether
it would be preferable TO employ smaller num-,
Der of large casks or larger number oil small
ones. 1t occurs to me that if quantity OF
gunpowder sufficiently large were exploded at
| the bottom OF the river in deep water, it would
/ raise wave which would shatter the superin-
.n,oLopt ica 10 a vast distance so that the cur