NEW YOEK HERALD. 381 



contained the following observations regarding Cali 

 fornia : 



&quot; Such is the general character of the important intel 

 ligence just received from California from that new and 

 wonderful El Dorado, that beau-ideal of nationality, 

 which has leaped into existence with the rapidity of 

 electricity, on the shores of the Pacific, under the foster 

 ing care of this great and mighty mother of American 

 republics. We fear nothing for California. That country 

 is on the highway to prosperity, wealth, and greatness. 

 The right description of human intelligence and of 

 mental activity have gone in that direction, and those 

 even who are already there, are more capable of consti 

 tuting a prosperous, happy, and successful republic than 

 are all the philosophers, statesmen, and great men of 

 the Old World, rolled into one lump of vanity and 

 imbecility !&quot; 



If anything I have said in the preceding pages might 

 be likely to rile any of my Transatlantic readers, I hope 

 they will think that we Britishers are abundantly paid 

 back by this dignified set-down of the Herald. 



The opinion in regard to Old-W T orld wisdom, so ener 

 getically expressed in the above extract, is not unfre- 

 quently entertained among the younger and middle-aged 

 people of this country. I had crossed the river from New 

 York to Long Island, and was on my way to the Green 

 wood Cemetery which will well repay the stranger s 

 visit when I fell into conversation with a gentleman 

 walking in the same direction. He appeared to be well 

 educated, spoke of the misery of people in Europe, being 

 candid enough, even, to observe, that he believed the 

 density of the population, and not the governments, were 

 to blame for it, lauded the United States as the freest 

 country in the world. &quot; Except,&quot; said I, interrupting 

 him, &quot; the country I come from : we are just a little freer 

 than you are, and perhaps you come next.&quot; This pull 



