A nation, in its immaturity, is prone to look only at the more apparent features of its existence; as it grows in power it views with complacency the respect paid to its prowess, the authority which it is able to enforce and the volume of commerce it maintains. By its conduct and attitude the policies of foreign states are fixed; its navy controls the seas; its army threatens its neighbors; its merchants roam through the more remote quarters of the earth; its legislators establish laws for multitudes without its borders; its ambassadors are consulted at every Court; its rulers gain the regard and affection: of rival potentates and princes. How to achieve these results, so patent to the observer, forms the theme of many arguments; but how few of the people realize what obligations and effects are reciprocally imposed upon them themselves; how their development, temperament and institutions may be varied, favored or thwarted by their relations with foreign states.