CHAP. XXXVL] ANTI-BRITISH ANTIPATHIES. 289 



who, having been born in the middle classes, has gone 

 over early in life to the New World, where he has 

 succeeded in business, risen to a good social position, 

 and given his children an excellent education. He 

 then goes back to visit the &quot; old country,&quot; and see 

 his friends and relatives, and is surprised and morti 

 fied that they are separated by so great a gulf from 

 the higher classes, greater than exists between the 

 humblest and most elevated in his adopted country. 

 He finds, also, the religious sect to which he and 

 his kindred belong, only tolerated, and not standing 

 on the same footing of &quot; gentility &quot; as the dominant 

 church. His sectarian zeal, his feelings of social 

 pride, and his political principles are all up in arms, 

 and he comes back to America far more patriotic and 

 more of an optimist than any native* If he then 

 ventures to enter on the political arena, his oppo 

 nents warn the electors against one who is an alien 

 by birth and feeling, and, in his efforts to disprove 

 such imputations, he reaches the climax of anti- 

 British antipathy. 



Such citizens were unaffectedly incapable of com 

 prehending that I could have seen so much of the 

 Union, and yet have no wish whatever to live there. 

 Instead of asking, &quot; Would you not like to settle 

 here ? &quot; it would be more prudent for them to shape 

 their question thus : &quot; If you were to be born over 

 again, and take your chance, by lot, as to your sta 

 tion in society, what country would you prefer ? &quot; 

 Before choosing, I should then have to consider, that 

 the chances are many thousands to one in favour of 

 my belonging to the labouring class, and the land 



VOL. II. O 



