610 British Travellers in. America. {[Dec. 
man who had seen a case; no—nor a man who would say that he had 
MIB 1oACHT-AO reise : ‘ ricoh OM ovns 
ever seen a creature who had’ been gouged. Still T do” not mean to 
assert, I will not go so far as to say that I believe no case ee 3 
on the contrary, J am persuaded that among, the white barbarians of the 
west, and perhaps of the extreme south, quarrels are sometimes sry Sin 
in a way which leads to the destruction of eyes, noses, eats, &c. nd 
I.am_persuaded, moreover, that among the very outworks of civilization 
whether to the east, west, north, or south, in America, it is common’ for 
those who quarrel, to quarrel very much as other wild creatures do. 
with nails. and teeth—very much as thev do in ‘some parts of your 
island while I am writing; for even there—in some parts of the country. 
noses are bitten off, and ears, and fingers; and no sort of regard is had 
for what is called (in others) fair fighting. But what Ido mean to sa 
is—that although such cases may sometimes occur in’ America, they 
are not at all characteristic of the American habits, nor @ fortieth part 
so frequent any where, as they are represented to be every where, in the 
United States, by people, on other accounts worthy of credit. © 
But passing over the paragraph which I haye abstracted from Weld, 
as above, let us take the testimony of a man whose high character and 
probity are pretty well known throughout Europe—the Marquis de Chas- 
tilleux, a tried friend of America, a soldier who served in her armies during 
a part of the revolutionary war, a writer of no common worth, a philan- 
throphist, and a philosopher. He made a book—the best of the French 
books about America—which are, take them altogether, much the best 
books that have yet appeared about that country, so far as they go. 
Nor will the remark surprise you, if you consider that a Frenchman who 
goes to America with any view of publishing his travels, must be 
comparatively a man of leisure and education—must be acquainted, at 
least, with one language over and above that of his mother’ tongue— 
with one more, therefore, than would be xecessary to an Englishman if 
he had to go there for the same pursose. Whatever it may be to the 
latter, to the former it is a grave and laborious undertaking, which’ few 
men would be fit for, and fewer still would venture upon, if they were 
not fit for it. Our notion is, that if America was not. so much’ like 
England as she is, much more would be known of her people by the 
English people. Quite another class of travellers would visit her—they 
would go to America as they go to other parts of the world—for plea- 
sure ; and_if not for pleasure, not in the hope of making up a loss on 
a mercantile adventure by publishing a book, but with a view to the 
acquisition of wealth, apart from that which is to be acquired by 
authorship, or with a view to literary reputation. . The, facilities being 
so great for an Englishman to go to America, one would suppose that 
Englishmen would be thoroughly acquainted with America; but for that 
very reason, perhaps, they are not—the facilities are too great. | “Any 
body may go to America, and therefore nobody goes, , or, to ‘speak 
with more propriety, nobodies go. Any body may publish whatever he 
pleases about. America, and therefore such nobodies, do publish “about 
America as would never presume to publish about any other country 
perhaps, or any other subject under heaven. Authors and travellers 
are what they. are, because, they are for ever in search of notoriety, 
anxious to do or say what other men are not able to do or say. Vhat 
: : . > iq I 
any body may do, tew people care to do—and least of all, ‘men, who 
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iow .bloW aM 
