56 PROVINCIAL NEWSPAPERS. [CHAP. IV. 



in wondering why they who fought for republican independence 

 had been so frequently rewarded with longevity, till it occurred 

 to me that, he who took the field before 1776 could not die a 

 juvenile in 1845. Among other electioneering addresses, I read 

 the following : &quot; Fellow democrats, the Philistines are upon us, 

 the whigs are striving to sow dissension in our ranks, but our 

 object must be to place in the senate a sterling democrat,&quot; &c. 

 Such an appeal to electors who are to fill up a vacancy in the 

 more conservative branch of the Congress at Washington, is suf 

 ficiently startling to an Englishman. Another article, headed, 

 &quot;Henry Clay, President for 1848,&quot; seemed a most premature 

 anticipation of a future and distant contest, Mr. Polk having just 

 been chosen for the next four years as first magistrate, after many 

 months of excitement and political turmoil. Yet, upon the whole, 

 the provincial newspapers appear to me to abound in useful and 

 instructive matter, with many well-selected extracts from modern 

 publications, especially travels, abstracts of lectures on temperance 

 or literary and scientific subjects, letters on agriculture, or some 

 point of political economy or commercial legislation. Even in 

 party politics, the cheapness of the innumerable daily and weekly 

 papers enables every villager to read what is said on more than 

 one side of each question, and this has a tendency to make the 

 multitude think for themselves, and become well informed on 

 public affairs. 



We happened to be the only strangers in the tavern, and, 

 when supper was brought in by the landlord and his wife, they 

 sat down beside us, begged us to feel at home, pressed us to eat, 

 and evidently considered us more in the light of guests whom 

 they must entertain hospitably, than as customers. Our hostess, 

 in particular, who had a number of young children and no nurse 

 to help her, was willing to put herself to some inconvenience 

 rather than run the risk of our feeling lonely. Their manners 

 were pleasing, and, when they learned that we were from En 

 gland, they asked many questions about the free-kirk movement 

 in Scotland, and how far the system of national education there 

 differed from that in Prussia, on which the landlord had been 

 reading an article in a magazine. They were greatly amused 



