Brooklyn, which may be said to form part of New York city, has a population of 396,099, in addition to that of New York.

The frequent disturbances in the great cities of America, and the excessive corruption of their local governments--over which there is no effectual control--are amongst the greatest evils and dangers of the country.]] To subject the provinces to the metropolis is therefore not only to place the destiny of the empire in the hands of a portion of the community, which may be reprobated as unjust, but to place it in the hands of a populace acting under its own impulses, which must be avoided as dangerous.

The preponderance of capital cities is therefore a serious blow upon the representative system, and it exposes modern republics to the same defect as the republics of antiquity, which all perished from not having been acquainted with that form of government.
It would be easy for me to adduce a great number of secondary causes which have contributed to establish, and which concur to maintain, the democratic republic of the United States.

But I discern two principal circumstances amongst these favorable elements, which I hasten to point out.

I have already observed that the origin of the American settlements may be looked upon as the first and most efficacious cause to which the present prosperity of the United States may be attributed.