285 The Four Nations. [MARCH, 



sensual enjoyment, his dispositions qualify him for bringing that enjoyment 

 within his reach. 



The Irishman, however, is the grand mystery; and one would be 

 almost tempted to rank him with those persons who can see value only in 

 that which they do not possess. He has his good qualities; and many of 

 his bad ones may be well accounted for, from the political circumstances 

 under which he has been placed ; but, when an Irishman comes forward 

 and lays claim to a kinder heart and a warmer susceptibility of friendship 

 than any of his compatriots, the whole history of his race rises up in con- 

 demnation of the assertion. For, without any cause which can be dis- 

 covered by an ordinary application of philosophy, without any necessity 

 which can be established from any induction, the Irishman turns his 

 friend iato his foe, and his benefactor into his victim. 



If we were to take a single feature in each of the nations, and upon that 

 to build a character of them, we would say, that the Englishman is an 

 isolated being in mind, in habits, and in pursuit that his feelings, his dis- 

 position, and his occupation tend to a single object; but that in the pursuit 

 of that object he is more at home, more skilful, more steady, and less dis- 

 posed to interfere with the progress, or disturb the enjoyment of others, 

 than the inhabitant of any other country under the sun. The English- 

 man forms his own plan, keeps it to himself, and in the prosecution of it, 

 relies upon his own powers, not by sudden or miraculous impulse, but by 

 perseverance and assiduity. The Scotchman, on the other hand, appears 

 to exist in those about him. He communicates his own secret, pries into 

 the secrets of others, and attempts to make them auxiliaries toward his own 

 purpose, while he is all the time appearing and offering to render himself 

 subservient to them. The great difference between them appears to be,, 

 that the Englishman is a world to himself, and with that world he i per- 

 fectly satisfied ; while the Scotchman is ever attempting to mould to his 

 purposes a certain number of those about him. The Welchman partakes 

 a little of the qualities of both ; but he is less isolated than the English- 

 man, and less prying than the Scot ; and while he does not possess in per- 

 fection the peculiarities of either, he is without the more striking virtues 

 and vices of both not pretending to the independence of the one, or the 

 acumen of the other, and being less gruff and overbearing than the Eng- 

 lishman, and less subtle and undermining than the Scot. The Irishman,, 

 again, is without any fixed principle, save that of endeavouring to enjoy 

 as much of what he calls pleasure at as little expense as possible. Ho 

 wants the steadiness and the perseverance of the Englishman and the 

 Welchman, and though he makes a greater parade of flattery than the 

 Scot, it is doubtful whether he be so successful in the practice of it ; at all 

 events, it is certain, that passion alters his mode of operation, much .more 

 readily or frequently than it alters that of the others. It is not, however, 

 from any single point, or from any combination of points, taken theoretically, 

 that we can arrive at any accurate character of the Four Nations. One must 

 see them upon the same arena, find them placed in as nearly as possible 

 the same circumstances, and then, while one is never in the least danger of 

 confounding the one with the other, one can by study arrive at their several 

 characteristics; arid when this is done, one has only to turn to the pecu- 

 liarities, natural, social, and political, of their several countries, in order 

 t o iiud an explanation of the differences which one has observed. 



The most remarkable, and by no means the worst subject, from which 



