He then turned to the opinions which had been ventilated on American platforms and in certain American newspapers. He refused to judge the real American character and opinions by them. “I look upon them,” he said, “as I should look upon those strange and fantastic drinks ... which are such favourites on the other side of the Atlantic; and I should as soon suppose this rowdy rhetoric was the expression of the real feelings of the American people, as that these potations formed the aliment and nutriment of their bodies.” And he thus explained a point which I have already noticed: “There is another reason why this violent course will not be adopted. The democracy of America must not be confounded with the democracy of the Old World. _It is not formed by the scum of turbulent cities_: neither is it merely a section of an exhausted middle class, _which speculates in stocks and calls that progress. It is a territorial democracy._ Aristotle, who has taught us most of the wise things we know, never said a wiser one than this--that the cultivators of the soil are the least inclined to sedition and to violent courses. Now, being a territorial democracy, their character has been formed and influenced, in a manner, by the property with which they are connected, and by the pursuits they follow; and a sense of responsibility arising from the reality of their possessions may much influence their future conduct. On the other hand, this great change would certainly alter the spirit of society, and perhaps of government.” But he saw clearly the difficulties that still beset her. “... We must recollect that even if the Federal Government should be triumphant, it will have to deal with most perplexing questions and with a discontented population.... The slave population will then be no longer slaves. _There will be several millions of another race emancipated and invested with all the rights of freemen; and, so far as the letter of the law is concerned, they will be upon an equality with the Saxon race, with whom they can possibly have no sympathy.... Nothing tends more to the discontent of a people than that they should be in possession of privileges and rights which practically are not recognised, and which they do not enjoy._”