170 ENGLISH NEWSPAPERS. [CHAP. XXXII. 



dreds of thousands of ignorant and disappointed emigrants if 

 the accommodation was of the rudest kind ; if there were no 

 steamers in whose machinery the latest improvements had been, 

 adopted, many of them invented in the United States ; and if 

 the cabin was not provided with good libraries, or the table cov 

 ered with newspapers, literary magazines, and reviews. It is 

 precisely because there is so much civilization in the western 

 states, that foreigners criticise them unfairly, contrasting their 

 condition with the highest standard of older countries. 



The authority of the captain is absolute, and he does not hesi 

 tate, if any unruly spirit is refractory, and refuses to conform to 

 the regulations of the ship, to put him ashore at the nearest 

 place on the bank where he can be landed ; but I never hap 

 pened to see so strong a measure resorted to. 



The newspapers on the cabin table of the Andrew Jackson 

 had a column headed in capitals, &quot; Five Weeks later from Eu 

 rope.&quot; The mail packet had been detained by adverse winds 

 longer than usual, and the uneasiness respecting the chances of a 

 war with England, still the subject of debate in Congress, had 

 risen to a great height. Many lovers of peace had misgiving s 

 lest the English democracy, growing at last impatient, should 

 express themselves with violence, and excite the war party here. 

 The first glance at the news relieved them from anxiety, for the 

 English were entirely absorbed with Free Trade, Cheap Bread, 

 and the admission of foreign grain without duty. The Cabinet 

 were too well satisfied that the people s attention was drawn off 

 from foreign affairs to obtrude the American question unneces 

 sarily on their attention. One of the politicians on board, who 

 had been reading an account of the proceedings of the Anti-Corn- 

 Law League, and the parliamentary debates on the Corn Duties, 

 confessed to me, that the omission of all allusion to America 

 the English being so entirely occupied with their domestic affairs 

 Avounded his feelings, &quot;Here we have been talking,&quot; he said, 

 &quot;for three months about nothing else but Oregon, imagining that 

 the whole world was looking on in suspense, at this momentous 

 debate, and even in Great Britain it has been forgotten for five 

 entire weeks ! What an absurd figure we are cutting !&quot; 



