[Footnote n: Crimes no doubt exist for which bail is inadmissible, but
they are few in number.]

[Footnote o: See Blackstone; and Delolme, book I chap. x.]




Chapter III: Social Conditions Of The Anglo-Americans

Chapter Summary

A Social condition is commonly the result of circumstances, sometimes of
laws, oftener still of these two causes united; but wherever it exists,
it may justly be considered as the source of almost all the laws, the
usages, and the ideas which regulate the conduct of nations; whatever
it does not produce it modifies. It is therefore necessary, if we would
become acquainted with the legislation and the manners of a nation, to
begin by the study of its social condition.

The Striking Characteristic Of The Social Condition Of The
Anglo-Americans In Its Essential Democracy.

The first emigrants of New England--Their equality--Aristocratic laws
introduced in the South--Period of the Revolution--Change in the law
of descent--Effects produced by this change--Democracy carried to its
utmost limits in the new States of the West--Equality of education.

Many important observations suggest themselves upon the social condition
of the Anglo-Americans, but there is one which takes precedence of all