France was the country where enthusiasm for America was first kindled and where it burned most brightly. The struggle of a people for their liberties found great sympathy there, because the French people had for a long time suffered deeply under the misrule of the Bourbons, and the discontent was already brewing which, a few years later, led to such a terrible outbreak. There are those who put the American war for independence and the French revolution in the same category. But what a gulf there is between the two historical events! The cause, tyranny of the ruler, was the same in both instances, but the conduct of the revolution, the aim and consequences, were as different from one another as the Anglo-Saxon character is from that of the Latin. We must again recall the fact that the Americans had been anxious for a long time to reëstablish the old ties, which had been so recklessly loosened by the rulers, on a constitutional basis, and that it was not until they had exhausted every possible means of reconciliation, and until the government had closed every avenue of legal justice against them that they set to work to create a new constitution for themselves. In all their operations they never so far forgot themselves as to misuse the property of the church; on the contrary, their action was consecrated by religion. It was and remained their standard in the creation of a new constitution. What a contrast to the French people, who, in breaking the fetters of their slavery, overthrew the altars of religion at the same time! America gained her liberties in a reverent spirit, through earnest work; while France, possessed by madness, rent herself and did not succeed in shaking off the bonds of tyranny, though under new circumstances it gave itself grandiose names to deceive itself and others. What do the differing manifestations of the popular spirit mean? The Americans belong to the great Anglo-Saxon race, which has a deeply religious spirit. To them the laws of government mean a reflection of the eternal laws which find their expression in religion. Their object is to bring the laws of the State into harmony with the tenets of religion; to make it an animating and illuminating force in the life of the State. Thus in seeking to develop earthly life they draw from a divine source. It is different with the Latin race, in whom this deep religious strain is absent. This is most clearly apparent in the French nation. They have had many political revolutions without gaining any permanent constitutional advantages, and they will probably continue to teach the world that a people, however talented they may be in some directions, will nevertheless never reach the harbor of a well-ordered political status unless the aspiration dwell within them continually to purify and elevate their moral condition by serious examination of themselves.