Excerpt from The Progress of the Nation, in Its Various Social and Economical Relations: From the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century to the Present Time IT must, at all times, be matter of great interest and utility to ascertain the means by which any Community has attained to eminence among nations. To inquire into the progress of circumstances which have given pro-eminence to one's own country would almost seem to be a duty. If this remark may be applied with pro priety to any people and to any age, assuredly it may be so applied to this country and to the present generation, by which have been made the greatest advances in civi lization that can be found recorded in the annals of mankind. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.