Note DT — LETTER XXX.

The question of an armed police has for some time attracted the attention of enlightened individuals in the United States; the constable's staff and the posse comitatus of the sheriff are no longer sufficient to maintain order and keep the peace. Independently of political difficulties, however, economical considerations stand in the way of the project. Virginia, for example, has nearly two-fifths of the superficial area of France. An armed police of one thousand men, which would be inconsiderable for that extent of country, would cost her about 800,000 dollars a year, a sum, say the calculators, which would more than pay the interest of a loan that would enable us to construct a canal or a railroad from Richmond to the Ohio. So the canal is made, and the armed police put off for another day. Meanwhile if some travellers from the North are hanged or flogged as abolitionists by the slaveholders, in a moment of excitement, the affair is regretted at first, but it is thought to be more important to have a canal or railroad which shall make Richmond the rival of New York, than to save two or three fanatics from the lash or the halter. This system is deplorable. But I know not that we have a right to denounce it, for we must confess, that something analogous prevails amongst us. We demand money without hesitation for war, for organising and keeping up a large military force, for filling our arsenals with cannon; but how difficult is it to procure any for useful enterprises, roads, canals, railroads, schools, penitentiaries, to which the United States devote almost all their resources?