CHAPTER XL 



MANNERS, CUSTOMS, AND CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE. 



342. ALL these are, generally speaking, the same as those of the 

 people of England. The French call this people Les Anglo- 

 Americains : and, indeed, what are they else ? Of the manners 

 and customs somewhat peculiar to America I have said so much, 

 here and there, in former Chapters, that I can hardly say any 

 thing new here upon these matters. But, as society is naturally 

 a great thing with a gentleman, who thinks of coming hither with 

 his wife and children, I will endeavour to describe the society 

 that he will find here. To give general descriptions is not so 

 satisfactory as it is to deal a little in particular instances ; to tell 

 of what one has seen and experienced. This is what I shall do ; 

 and, in this Chapter I wish to be regarded as addressing myself 

 to a most worthy and public-spirited gentleman of moderate 

 fortune, in Lancashire, who, with a large family, now balances 

 whether he shall come, or stay. 



343. Now, then, my dear Sir, this people contains very few 

 persons very much raised in men s estimation, above the general 

 mass ; for, though there are some men of immense fortunes, 

 their wealth does very little indeed in the way of purchasing even 

 the outward signs of respect ; and, as to adulation, it is not to be 

 purchased with love or money. Men, be they what they may, are 

 generally called by their two names, without any thing prefixed 

 or added. I am one of the greatest men in this country at present ; 

 for people in general call me &quot; Cobbett,&quot; though the Quakers 

 provokingly persevere in putting the William before it, and my 

 old friends in Pennsylvania, use even the word Billy, which, in 

 the very sound of the letters, is an antidote to every thing like, 

 thirst for distinction. 



344. Fielding, in one of his romances, observes, that there are 

 but few cases, in which a husband can be justified in availing 

 himself of the right which the law gives him to bestow manual 

 chastisement upon his wife, and that one of these, he thinks, is, 

 when any pretensions to superiority of blood make their appearance 

 in her language and conduct. They have a better cure for this 

 malady here ; namely ; silent, but, ineffable contempt. 



345. It is supposed, in England, that this equality of estimation 



153 



