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veins of the early colonists. Steam and electricity are daily supplying this void. The Yankees of the North, who for years have been gazing with covetous eyes upon the rich lands of the South, and German immigration, which is daily increasing, form a double current which soon, getting foothold upon the continent, will compel the inhabitants, under pain of sinking into insignificance, to abandon their inertness, and openly accept the two great conditions of life in modern times—industry and free labor. We hasten to add that this reproach of inertness applies only to the old routine portion of the people, and to the unenlightened inhabitants of the interior.

Those men who are at the head of the state, or who, by their position, have acquired a just influence over the destinies of their country, are earnestly desirous of progress, and preach by example. Industrial companies are forming in all the great centres, and the interior provinces are calling for railroads and steamboats. It is, therefore, to be hoped that the same progress daily imparted to the cidade by the steamers that traverse the Atlantic, will soon be carried by railways through the fazendas and villages in the mountains, and that the rancho of the mulatto will gradually disappear to give place to the elegant dwelling of the enlightened colonist.

It seems to be the allowed law of nations, that each is, so far as possible, to throw its burdens on the rest. Spain obtains a large revenue by taxing the superlative tobacco of Cuba where alone it can be grown. The Dutch make the world replenish their coffers by purchasing to their profit, 'Old Government Java Coffee.' Imperial Russia hangs the death-penalty over the secret of making the celebrated sheet-iron of that country, and thus taxes to her profit all those who wish to use that beautiful manufacture. Nations have therefore a right—at least they take it—to make a monopoly when it is in their power, and thus enrich themselves at the expense of the rest of the world. Gold, and silver, and diamond mines, as well as those of other metals, fisheries, and wheat-fields, are further illustrations that the opportunity only is the necessity. Two such opportunities present themselves to us, and two most vital monopolies are within our control. Light and clothing are two of the most imperious necessities and comforts to all humanity, Our whalers formerly enjoyed a rich harvest by supplying the markets of the world with oil. Its scarcity had just begun to exercise the ingenuity of men when the salt-wells of Pennsylvania burst out with floods of illuminating fluid, so copious, that, all other material becomes too costly to use, even when a heavy tax is laid on petroleum. Herein is a rich source of wealth to our nation, as well as the workers of the wells. They ought to share it, for it comes unbought, and to a great degree should be a common heritage. Besides, without a tax, no more profit would be made by the worker, for the abundance of the oil is such that the nation only by a tax can make it a monopoly. Millions may be obtained from other nations in this way, and poured into our nation's coffers.

But a still larger monopoly can be enjoyed through the cotton-fields of the United States. The peculiarity of their latitude, and other geographical relations, renders them the only extensive fields in the whole world where cotton of the peculiar qualities most desirable can be raised. A small stripe on the eastern coast of China produces a very superior cotton, in some respects superior to ours, but it is not so bleachable.