LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. 129 



doomed to be rent in pieces by civil discord." In judging of foreign 

 affairs Waterton shows none of those prejudices in favour of his own 

 nation which frequently obscure the political vision of Englishmen. 

 In another letter to Mr Ord (September 1 1, 1858), after discussing 

 the laying of the Atlantic cable, he writes, " We Englishmen are a 

 fine set of fellows, only to be equalled by our western brother. We 

 have the largest empire in the world : we have half of the longest 

 rope in the world : we possess the largest ship in the w r orld : we 

 have the largest glass-palace in the world : we have the best roast 

 beef in the world : we have the most adulterated food in the world : 

 we are the greatest boasters in the world : and we have the greatest 

 national debt in the world. With all these immense advantages, we 

 have an undoubted right to consider ourselves the real lords of the 

 creation." The principle which regulated the squire's opinions was 

 plain. He held that nations ought to be governed according to their 

 own desire, and that to trample upon the convictions of any country 

 was tyranny. He and his ancestors had sacrificed much to con- 

 science, and he had learned to respect its rights in all men, whether 

 they agreed with him or differed from him. 



Waterton was too original, earnest, and plain-spoken not to have 

 enemies as well as friends. After the publication of the " Wander- 

 ings," he contributed several articles to London's Magazine of Natural 

 History, and these were sometimes attacked. His rule was never to 

 be the aggressor, but when he was assailed he retaliated, and always 

 had the best of the argument, for he rarely ventured upon a state- 

 ment which he had not abundantly verified, and his adversaries were 

 careless observers or book-worms. A genuine zoologist would not 

 have committed their blunders. However they might have figured 

 in the transactions of scientific societies, which unfortunately afford 

 injurious facilities for the hasty promulgation of incomplete investi- 

 gations, ill-digested papers, and shallow theories, they were incapable 

 of contending with a profound naturalist, like Waterton. He had a 

 passage of arms with Audubon, the American, who professed to 

 have spent many years in studying the habits of birds, and who pub- 

 lished an enormous work with plates, which he asserted were drawn 

 from the life. The pseudo-naturalists had not the knowledge with 

 which to test his pretensions. They received him at his own valua- 



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