AlKW.RICAN IMMENSITIES.
THE action of great states does not change and fluctuate with every week, although in the reports -which reach us from week to week it may seem to do so ; as in a flickering light a brilliant i -object seems itself to share the tremour of the light n which it is viewed. Trust to the reports of the day, and the really steadfast ac- tion-of our Government in regard to Russia and Turkey would be converted into one of incessant change, alternating a craven sub- mission to the enemy with a treacherous abandonment of each ally in turn, and new advance of hostility. But if it is so in Europe, the character of periodical literature in America imparts to the news there a much greater appearance of capricious change. The latest intelligence would give the idea that America is in a sudden state of universal ebullition—that the annexation-fever has an acute access, which threatens every conterminous state. Not only is little Mosquitia doomed to bombardment and oppression at the hands of the American navy, by order of General Pierce,—for the 'Government, it seems, is really answerable in that unhappy little burlesque of Exmouth at Algiers,—but, "to recover popularity" with the Yankees, the lawyer-soldier who sits at the head of af- fairs is contemplating a new attack upon Cuba ; while an agita- tion is going forward for a species of partnership with Russia, whose North-western territory the Republic is to purchase with money and surreptitious aid; and the Loafers are already begin- -ning to cast eyes of avidity upon Canada, rechristened, for pur- poses of annexation, Hoehdna. Now the fact is, that this pic- ture of republican ferment is but the old story got up afresh, with new headings in the great advertising placards of pushing journals. With all the reputation which the French have justly acquired for their cookery, the Americans beat them hollow in invention, if not in nicety. In this country we are content with the usual ar- dent spirits, modified perhaps by water, occasionally disguised by " bitters " or spice. But you must cross the Atlantic to learn the variety of juleps, cobblers, gin-slings' cock-tails, and other meta- morphoses of the American Bacchus. We have here a vague but singleminded and heavy idea of maize as a cereal ; it is in America that they learn to give that respectable grain some score or two of different forms and names. And so it is in politics. The one staple idea of America—that their republic is a great one, and that its greatness has increased, is increasing, and ought to be increased—is made to appear in every form. "Yours is a great country," said an American to an Englishman, "as far ahead of every other country, as ours is over yours ; and I guess that's no small compliment to pay you." As every Yankee magnifies his country, every Yankee belongs to a party and magnifies his party ; and thus, what with the mag- nifying of praise and the magnifying of reprobation, the glories and crimes of the Republic exceed everything that can be told except by writers commensurate—and they must be Yankees. Fierclikts the man of the day, or the monster of the day. Boston, the Tffinsatiantic Athens, rivals New York in its failures. Tell the Yankee of an English calamity, and he will outdo you at once with half a dozen tragedies from the St. Lawrence to the Missis- sippi. Tell him of a French crime, and he will undertake to make the criminal himself turn pale with the inconceivable invention of Yankee wickedness. He will not be satisfied until the Republic shall embrace the globe ; its goodness extending to celestial sub- limity, its wickedness reaching to the opposite depth.
It is this propensity which perpetually revives every question, agitation, or movement, in America. Greytown is a little nui- sance, in which the Spanish Americans of Nicaragua, the British of the West Indies, and the Yankees of the South, have already -dabbled,—a mongrel kingdom, where smugglers, slave-dealers, land-sharks, and vagabonds of every kind, but of a low order, find a pitiful opportunity for gambling in a swamp. But America ex- cels them all : she comes there with a state bombardment in aid of some pettifogging local company. Cuba must be American some day, when military necessities forbid its being held by a weak power: the Spanish Government falls into trouble ; President Tierce, with the destinies of the Republic ever before his eyes, at once sends "a message" to Congress about Cuba; and English readers at once suppose that the President is entering into frantic competition with the dormant "Order of the Lone Star." Canada is reported to be prosperous and very contented under monarchical government—an offence and a temptation in one ; and the Yan- kees, who have heretofore despised land so far North, now declare that " Hochelaga" must be annexed. A Dr. Cottman arrives from St. Petersburg, where he has been patted on the back after Judge Douglass ; and the New York Heraldry resounds with assurances that Nicholas will bestow Cuba on the Republic, will sell it his untenable possessions in the North-west at a low figure, guarantee to it Vancouver's Island, and perhaps divide the globe.
Nevertheless, events do not correspond to this changeful and blazing aspect of the news. President Pierce's transactions in re- gard to Cuba appear still to be regular. The purchase of Russian America, not impossible, is a very unimportant matter ; Canada is contented; and the American Government has ratified the reci- procity treaty concluded by Lord Elgin. In sunshine the waters of Niagara are falling ; in the stillness their solemn din is heard un- ceasing; the storm obscures the picture, the crashing thunder of the clouds overwhelms the quiet thunder of the cataract; but the storm passes, the flashy glare ceases to disguise the landscape,— the solemn din is still going on, and the great river keeps on its course nnstaid.
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