548 



ENGLAND. 



country, is connected with tlie less excusable practice of underrating the merits of others. 

 It was an unsophisticated expression of Mr. Bull, that, for aught he could see, "all foreigners 

 are fools : " and the English comedies abound in this trait. Were the French, or the people 

 of the United States, known to others only from the description of the English, the French 

 would be considered as universally vain, unstable, and insincere, and Brother Jonathan would 

 be even less favorably esteemed, as a sel6sh, coarse, and boastful dcmi-savage. 



In truth, it is the unreasonable national pride and vanity of the English, that make them 

 so intolerant to a spark of the same flame in others ; were they not more proud, they 

 would not be moved by the harmless piide of others. This spirit is seldom allayed in an 

 Englishman by a visit to the United States, or by a favorable description of this republic. If 

 he but hear a farmer in New England express his contentment in living under a government of 

 equal rights, he looks back to his own country, and because he was not oppressed there by 

 poverty or the laws, reflects not that others were ; or he is stung by the honest Yankee's re- 

 * marks, because he remembers that there are in England, taxes, game laws, and a code of 200 

 capital crimes. An Englishman in cur country, nothing can satisfy ; he loses both his sense 

 of justice, and his desire to be juct ; his judgment may be convinced, but not his will. The 

 more he is courted, the more hospitably he is entreated, the higher does the spirit of rebuke 

 and sarcasm rise within him. Yet one of the most intolerant of British travelers has remarked, 

 that though he oftentimes provoked tlie national pride, and sometimes sought to wound, he 

 never saw an American out of temper. 



The political intolerance is far greater in an Englishman than the religious, and he will 

 sooner forgive in us an erroneous religion, than a sound and prosperous government. An 

 Englishman loves and venerates the very name of old England ; but it is a pity that so good a 

 principle as patriotism should ever be severed from justice, or that of two countries of the 

 same stock, and so much alike, an Englishman should " love the one and hate the other." He 

 is indeed placable to an individual, but a nation it is harder for him to forgive ; and the authors, 

 the statesmen, the philosophers, the clergy, and the people of England, cannot yet forgive the 

 descendants from their ancestors, for thriving under an independent government, and for hav- 

 ing been the first to break forever the charm of Britain's naval invincibility. We are not well 

 pleased, that the brothers of the house whence we spiung, should hold us as aliens and ene- 

 mies, or underrate and revile us. It is not our fault, that an Englishman is not received in 

 this country with more favor than any other stranger, or rather, not like a stranger. For- 

 merly it was a passport to esteem, that a man came from England, but we are now obliged to 

 require some better title. In the English character, however, though there are some unfavor- 

 able and ungracious points, it is but fair to balance them against some other peculiarities of 

 character in other countries. 



The institutions of England are not only favorable to liberty, but they are such as develope, 

 in a great degree, individual character, and prompt the intellect to its highest and boldest flights. 

 The higher classes of the English may, and will compare with any body of men on earth, for 

 elevated and honorable sentiment. The road to distinction is also open to all, and it is not 

 possible, in England, for authority to depress the aspiring. Power would, by attempting it, 

 defeat its object, and raise him whom it intended to oppress, by interesting public opinion in 

 his favor. The seats of honor are for those who will " come and take them." There is suf- 

 ficient incitement to ambition, perhaps there is too much ; a coronet for himself and his descend- 

 ants for ever, is the glittering prize before the fancy of the subaltern, as he mounts the breach ; 

 and this, too, animates the sailor to moor bis ship against a battery, or this also may sustain the 

 student in threading the mazes of the law. Yet, where there is such distinction of classes, and 

 such inequality of wealth, as in England, the best of life is for the higher orders,* and we re- 

 publicans may well prefer for ourselves and posterity, a country where one grade comprises 

 the whole people, and where, if there are no privileged classes, with inalienable wealth and 

 hereditary titles, there is a more general and equal difi'usion of knowledge, prosperity, and hap- 

 piness, among all. It has been abundantly shown, that a government of equality can supply a 



* The income of some of the Bi'itish noblemen, from noblemen live, that the whole income is usually appropri- 



their estates, is truiy prodig-ious. Tlie Marquis of Staf- ated to meet fixed and necessary expenditures, and often 



ford receivins; annually. £ 360,000 sterling ; the Duke of the revenue of the cominnr year is encroached upon to pay 



Nnrthuniberland, £ 300.000 ; and the Duke of Buccleugh, the expenses of this. Almost all the nobility are deeply 



£2.-'0,060. Many others have nearly equal revenues, in debt, and many estates are held in trust for the benefit 



' .such is the scale of magnificence, upon which these of oreditcvi. 



