MANNERS, CUSTOMS, AND 



we must appeal to some third party. But, it is no matter : we 

 cannot change our natures. For my part, who can, in nothing, 

 think or act by halves, I must belie my very nature, if I said that 

 I did not like the character of my own countrymen best. We 

 all like our own parents and children better than other people s 

 parents and children ; not because they are better, but because 

 are ours : because they belong to us and we to them, and 

 because we must resemble each other. There are some Americans 

 that I like full as well as I do any man in England ; but, if, nation 

 against nation, I put the question home to my heart, it instantly 

 decides in favour of my countrymen. 



358. You must not be offended if you find people here take but 

 little interest in the concerns of England. Why should they ? 



BOLTON F R cannot hire spies to entrap them. As matter 



of curiosity, they may contemplate such works as those of 

 FLETCHER ; but, they cannot feel much upon the subject ; and 

 they are not insincere enough to express much. 



359. There is one thing in the Americans, which, though its 

 proper place was further back, I have reserved, or rather kept 

 back, to the last moment. It has presented itself several times ; 

 but I have turned from the thought, as men do from thinking cf 

 any mortal disease that is at work in their frame. It is not 

 covetousness ; it is not niggardliness ; it is not insincerity ; 

 it is not enviousness ; it is not cowardice, above all things : it is 

 DRINKING. Aye, and that too, amongst but too many men 

 who, one would think, would loath it. You can go into hardly 

 any man s house, without being asked to drink wine, or spirits, 

 even in the morning. They are quick at meals, are little eaters, 

 seem to care little about what they eat, and never talk about it. 

 This, which arises out of the universal abundance of good and 

 even fine eatables, is very amiable. You are here disgusted with 

 none of those eaters by reputation that are found, especial 

 amongst the Parsons, in England : fellows that unbutton at it. 

 Nor do the Americans sit and tope much after dinner, and talk on 

 till they get into nonsense and smut, which last is a sure mark of a 

 silly and, pretty generally, even of a base mind. But, they tipple : 

 and the infernal spirits they tipple, too ! The scenes that I 

 witnessed at Harrisburgh I shall never forget. I almost wished 

 (God forgive me !) that there were Boroughmongers here to tax 

 these drinkers : they would soon reduce them to a moderate 

 &quot;&amp;lt;iose. Any nation that feels itself uneasy with its fulness of good 

 things, has only to resort to an application of Boroughmongers. 

 These are by no means nice feeders or of contracted throat : 

 they will suck down any thing from the poor man s pot of beer to 

 the rich man s lands and tenements. 



360. The Americans preserve their gravity and quietness arid 

 good-humour even in their drink ; and so much the worse. It 

 were far better for them to be as noisy and quarrelsome as the 

 English drunkards ; for then the odiousness of the vice would be 



