1826.] Letters from the United States of North America. 9 



landed proprietor was a lord or something worse, and the cultivator of 

 the soil a serf, a boor, a peasant or a slave, cannot well separate, in 

 their ideas, the possession of earth from the possession of authority. 

 They arrive in the United States unprepared — come when they will, it 

 is unprepared ; and for a while they are half crazy with freedom — de- 

 lirious with new thought — wild about all that concerns the power of 

 confederated America : 



" They breathe her buoyant mountain atmosphere ; 

 And, tren)blin2 in their eyes, the Hghts appear — 

 Those awful lights, which despots, tyrants dread. 

 When man goes forth in might, and lifts his head 

 Sublime in desperation ; when they hear 

 The song of trumpets bursting; on the e;ir, 

 T\\e shock of armies — and afar behold 

 Rebellion's crimson standard wide unroll'd ; 

 Wiicre slaves a^/2 men — are monarchs ; and their tread 

 Sounds like the resurrection of the dead."* 



They must have soil of their own, forsooth — soil, whatever it be, and 

 wherever it lie, though it may not grow a buUrush or a thistle-root ; 

 for, according to all their experience, the proprietorship of land is the 

 proprietorship of power, if not of nobility. 



It is ridiculous enough to w-atch the behaviour of those newly arrived, 

 before they have got reconciled to the taste of things. A Scotchman 

 keeps aloof, and says little or nothing about himself or his views, 

 political or religious. An Englishman is tearing his breeches after 

 game, because here no qualification is required. The Irishman is 

 talkative, on that very theme which he was not permitted to talk much 

 about before he had crossed the waters ; he is for overwhelming the 

 House of Hanover, without losing a day — and righting the wrongs of Ire- 

 land, without losing a breath. But all are after the possession of soil ; 

 and most are on tip-toe after the rights of their new citizenship, crazy 

 about the privileges of election. But all this wears off long before they 

 have become naturalized — finding that the possession of poor soil gives 

 a man little or no distinction over the very multitude here, for every 

 body may have it for the asking, in some parts of the country ; finding, 

 too, tJiat as every body has leave to carry a gun if he is fool enough, 

 and leave to fire it if he can find any thing to fire at — a very difficult 

 matter, of course, where game is not " preserved," — there is no privilege 

 in carrying a gun over the shoulder ; and, above all, finding that a power 

 to vote is looked upon as a troublesome power, of no value except when 

 the right of it is denied or the value of it is questioned, he gets to look 

 upon all such matters with what he would have regarded, on his ar- 

 rival, as a sort of apathy, quite peculiar to the barbarians of the new 

 world. 



Speculation here, in matters which concern the proprietorship of land, 

 is carried on I hardly know how, but in such a way that all parties are 

 cheated of course. I have known a score of ridiculous affairs like the 

 following, which occurred soon after the late war with your country. 

 It may not be true in detail, but, from what I myself have seen here> it 

 looks probable enough to me, and I dare say is substantially true. 



* Battle of Niagara. By one of the American poets. 

 M. :M. AVu> Scries.— Yol.. I. No. 1. C 



