p 458 Defence of America .2 .T76 __^_„_„ Copy 1 " GEO. FRANCIS TRAIN, UNIONIST, T. COLLET GKATTAN, SLANDERER. l*rice 15 Cents. BOSTON: No. 1."..") W A S 11 1 N <: TO N STUKKT. 18 6 2. ^' cy\ o GEO. FRANCIS JRAIN, UNIONIST, T. COLLEY GEATTA^^ SECESSIONIST. BOSTON: PXJBLISPIED BY LEE ^ Ci CO J+5 1^ *5 S 00 to ^- H- .t* U> ^ 00 O O l\0 sO O )+^ tt 00 ic f*' tn 10 Ci OO tsO >f^ h- ' Cn »f^ O t* C5 ^ v5 00 ^ aq P Q 4^tOin OOrfi.^otCi-' ^ '£ ^'' t+5 2.= rf -3 ^ C ^ 5 O P ►S' o 2 O 31 "Will ^Ir. Gvattan accept these stubborn facts? "Will British capi- talists refuse to admit their own official advices? "Will British jour- nalists admit the truth of my assertion, that American railways pay better than German — better than French — better than English — bet- ter than any other? The German roads average under six per cent., so is it with the French and the Belgian ; while the British railways do not, in the aggregate, touch four per cent. ! Look well at my figures — add up, substract, divide, and correct me if I am wrong. Then cast your eye towards the American railways that Captain Galtou tells you pay six and seven-tenths per cent. ! Bead and ponder — admit or deny I Punch and the Times have so deeply impressed the English mind with spittoons — cobblers — smashers — bowie knives — ' ' Eevolvers in Georgia," — repudiation — lynch law — Congressional bullying — negro chains — apple sauce — wooden nutmegs — collapsing steam-boats — one-eyed voters — Macready riots — Colt suicides — Webster murders — and non-paying dividends — the British journalists and British authors have fed on these crumbs that fall from the American's table so long, it has become near to impossible to make the English people believe, when they meet an American, that he has not got a pocket steam- boiler in his waistcoat, just on the point of exploding ; a miniature locomotive in his coat, on the eve of smashing up the decanters ; a small hand-edition in his breeches pockets of a negro, just about being man- gled ; or an American security in his hand, done up in some patent financial infernal machine, made to go off on the hair-trigger principle, so as to ruin as many people as possible at the shortest notice ! The English are a decidedly conservative people. Full of wisdom — full of experience — full of nationality, ,and full of generosity and good- nature ; willing to argue, willing to be corrected, willing to be convinc- ed on almost every other topic hut questions connected tvith America. They form opinions on the United States and the Americans in 1S39, which they use as a concordance twenty years after. They made up their minds that Dr. Lardner said that a steamship could never cross the Atlantic. He never said sd. They made up their minds that Penn- sylvania repudiated her obligations. This was not so. They think that all Americans are slave-owners. There are eighteen millions of Northern white men in America who have no more to do with slavery than Eng- land has ! They imagine that the term Yankee is one of reproach. On 9.0. the contrary, it is a compliment. Tengeese was the Indian name for English. Yengeese — Yengee — Yankee. They consider a Creole must necessarily have negro blood in his veins. Creole means native. An Englishman is a Creole of England. They have a few stock jokes on the Americans. That of Ci'ockL't and the spittoon ; that of the precocity of the boy whose right to be a m^ n was based on the ground of his '• having chewed tobacco these two years ;" that of the man who was so delighted with only losing "his nose and one eye in the free fight ; " that of " are you the chap that is going to ride, then I am the gentleman to drive you ; " that of " any passengers who have n't paid their passage, need n't, because I am bound to pass that 'ere steamer or bust ; " that of " how long will it take you to send this despatch to New Orleans "? " " Five minutes." " Too long. I can't wait." All these are hashed up for breakfast, and re-hashed for dinner, as national characteristics, — traits peculiar to the Americans. All right. I am not finding fault. I merely mention the jokes in stock. I always laugh, they are so funny. Mr. Grattan picks out the follies and weaknesses of mankind, and fastens them on the Americans. He saw America through Boston — now Boston is not the ''huh of the solar system." Mr. Grattan cannot epitomize a nation that way — a locality of less than 200,000 people does not represent 30,000,000 ! He saw policemen at parties — do they not have them in England "? I have followed him step by step, I have laughed at his most inimitable description of his impressions of the sounding of the gong at the Astor. I enjoy his chapter on names, where (page 325) " Polly Woodcock drops a syllable, and becomes Polly Wood ; and Alice Bottomly, from motives of delicacy, I presume, alters the spelling of her name to Bottbomlee." I am surprised that he should have thought wheeling a barrow of apples on an election bet, from Newburyport to Boston, by Benjamin Perley Poore, an event of sufiicient importance for him to devote a page to it. I am astonished that his friend, Sir John Bagot, when passing Bunker Hill, in Harrison Gray Otis's carriage, should never have heard of that memorable spot ; and I am amused by the usual overture which he, with every other English author, plays upon the spittoon. Dickens was the leader of the orchestra, — then came fat Dickenses and lean Dickenses, round-faced Dickenses and square-toed Dickenses, little Dickenses and great Dickenses, — all of whom have entertained their readers with what would constitute an ocean of saliva ! 0, why 33 the Dickens did you give your band this spittoon chorus? " You are all right ; it is a disgusting habit. When I see the black end of tobacco, I pity the mouth that chews it ; but lohen I see the mouth, I pity the tobacco / " It was a matter of curiosity to me to see what the English did with the saliva occasioned by the consumption of the quantity of to- bacco used in England, the annual duties of which are over Jive millions sterling ! I never discovered the secret till I got on board a Birkenhead Ferry-boat — sat down in a low beer shop — looked into a a second and a third-class railway carriage, or examined the pit and the gallery of the theatre ! I saw at once that the aristocracy swallow all that does not go into the pocket handkerchief, while the democracy adopt the American plan of stand from under. Englishmen forget that we have no second-class carriages ; that most ti'avellers take passage in the first cabin, and that our society acted upon the every-man-a-sovereign principle. Hence English travellers compare our Bowery Boys with the graduates of Cambridge ; our backwood labor- ers with England's grandees, instead of comparing man with man, class with class. Put our factory operative by the side of yours — place our drayman and yours together — take the American farmer, our collier, our mechanic, and shoulder to shoulder compare them with similar classes in England ; and caste by caste judge fairly, and not consider the nat- uralized Irish stoker who may sit on the same seat with Mr, Grattan, the first-class representative of '' Civilized America ; " compare our cler- gymen with yours, our army officers with your army officers, our profes- sors with your professors, our historians with your historians, our manu- facturing and agricultural population with yours, and remember that all these grades with us go in the first-class, while your castes are almost as rigid as that of the Hindoo and the Brahmin. If you want to see spit- ting and smoking, go into the second and the third-class carriages, Americans chew tobacco — Englishmen take snuS". Is it any worse to make a coal-hole of your mouth, than it is to make a chimney of your nose ? Why do some of the snufiT-takers carry a red handkerchief as well as a white handkerchief? Chewing is an American habit, and a disgusting one. Snufi-taking is an English custom, and equally dis- gusting as the other ! Smoking is a German notion, and almost as bad as either of the others. Americans have their faidts, hut one of them is not hatred of Eng- land ! Mr, Grattan, no doubt, has accomplished his object. He wrote " Civ- 3 34 ilized America " to sell ; and in order to make it sell, he represents the Americans as uncivilized — that is, when compared with England. Has he forgotten that cmde, unlettered, ungenial, ill-mannered as we may seem to " Civilized Europe," we sprung from the pioneer in civilization of that same Europe ? Our habits and tastes correspond with our lives and circumstances, and climate, and government, as they do with people all over the world. Wholesale diatribes on the people of any country are not calculated either to cause improvement in that people, or to produce reciprocal good feeling. They, naturally, ask with Job, " Who is lie that darheneth coun- sel by words ivithout knoivledge ? " Think well of a country, and you will speak well of it. We do not ask commendation — we simply wish not to be misrepresented, knowing that the sweetest wine makes the dearest vinegar. We want no honeyed words ; but knowing, also, that one ill word will sour a whole pot of pottage, we do not wish to be judged by authors as prejudiced as Mr. Grattan has proved himself to be. False mirrors make straight natures look crooked ! Americans had a right to expect a work from her Majesty's Consul that would have done them justice. So distinguished a writer should have found field for reflection in the astonishing progress which the country has made since his countrymen disguised themselves in the garb of the North American savages before Fort Wyoming, so that they might surprise and scalp the garrison, rather than in the examination of wo- man's dress. Americans have memories as well as Englishmen. Hessian soldiers and red Indians may have scalped our forefathers by orders of Parliament, but what of that ? Why should their children re-open the old wounds ? Why should Mr. Grattan write in his Preface that he had consigned his body to the butchers if he did not feel that he had done the Americans a grievous wrong ? What have we done to merit such reproach, unless loving old mother England be our crime, — and I beg to say it is a very general one with the Americans, — to occasion such an outburst of national prejudice ? Tread on a worm, and it will turn. The blood of England's best men circulates in our veins. The Lord's Prayer is taught to the American as well as to the English child. Why are not children taught the history of America ? Why devote so small a space to the United States ? Teach the boy if you wish to inform the man. Bad as England may think of the American press, our journals do not devote any extra labor to picking up the foul things that float in the gutter of every-day life in England, and describe " Civilized 35 England " from such a point of view ; " misrepresentation is not wrono- because it is cruel, but it is cruel because it is wrong." Is the English mind predisposed to receive evil report of the Ameri- cans ? If not, why do the English journals continually placard every American crime before the public — no matter how small, no matter what that crime may be ? Take an English review or an English newspaper when there is the least choice for comment, and note the prominent position given to an American crime ! " Another brutal outrage on board an American ship ! " " Another sailor murdered by an American captain ! " " An- other assault on an American Senator ! " " Crime in New York ! " " A slave lynched in Kentucky!" How prominent such events are paraded. European crime is not so attractive. How often do we see similar records of crime — in France or Germany, or even in Ireland, Scotland, and England ? The excruciating tortures of the poor fireman, who was deliberately burned to death by the officers on board the Bra- zilian steamer, is merely recorded in the papers — no editorials on that brutality. No — it was not an American ship ! Do American ship- masters alone commit all these crimes ? Do similar transactions never occur on board British ships? No wonder the mind of England is so ready to receive bad impressions of America. The journals must cater to the appetite which they have created. Why do the Globe and Herald continually charge Mr. Bright and other public men with having Amer- icanized ideas? The Morning HeralcVs comments on America will ex- actly suit Mr. Grattan. ." Mr. D' Israeli," says the Herald of last week, " admires no more than we do the predominance of the mob ; and the Democratic institutions of the United States of America, in which happy country the most respectable inhabitants take no share in politics, abdi- cate their proper functions in the administration of afiairs, and dare not even utter their genuine sentiments before a crowd." Saturday's Globe follows in a similar strain. A friend's word is faithful, — but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful I The Old Testament ends with a curse. The New Testament com- mences with a blessing. Mr. Grattan commences his book with a com- pliment, and ends it with a sneer. Laughing with one eye and crying with the other, he ate our dinners — drank our wine — parted with us with friendship's warmth — returned to England, leaving his son to succeed him in the consulship, and who, 36 I believe, won golden opinions from all wlio knew him — waited till that son received from Lord Palmerston a Continental consulship — wrote his introductory — a clever chapter — where, as I before observed, he " con- signed his body to the butchers," — made his arrangements with the enterprising publishers of Punch, Messrs. Bradbury and Evans, — laid back in his chair at the Atheuceum Club — most likely remarked, "I have out-Dickenized Dickens this time, cleared the track of all the trash that has been written in the United States, and monopolized all the abuse that the country may have to spare, on the ex-novelist, ex-historian, ex- consul — the distinguished author of " Civilized America ! " They may abuse me, but what do I care ? — the hook sells ! '■'•' In looking through " Civilized America," there is one consolation, — the English journals and the English reviewers cannot, and have not, endured the prejudices therein contained — many of them have passed it by in silence. "It is better to have no opinion at all of the gods than a degrading one." The Americans will feel most keenly the in- gratitude which Mr. Grrattan has shown. Boston is my native city. I know it has its faults — who, indeed, has not ? — but it has its virtues also. More like England than any other American city — older than most of them — the birthplace of American liberty — the seat of learning — Boston will survive Mr. Grattan's porcupine quills. There may be coldness in her hospitality, — there may be cliques that it is difficult for many to enter, yet all were open to the British Consul — for America loves England, and always welcomes her sons — and, in spite of Mr. Grattan, always will. He saw few gentlemen there. I know other cities laugh at Boston for its mutual admiration societies — but all must admit that she represents the aristocracy of mutual admiration. She moves in circles — some of which wealth cannot penetrate. Beacon Street is sacred ground, you must belong to the " mutual admiration," or the door is closed upon you. Boston is the pink of perfection — doing everything on the sly. The Boston merchants have done more as the pioneers of commerce than any merchants now living. I found a Boston merchant in all the ports I entered in my world's journeying. William Gray was a Boston mer- chant — Sturges, of Manilla, is a Boston merchant — Kussell and Heard, of China, are Boston merchants — Joshua Bates is a Boston merchant — so is Eussell Sturges — so is George Peabody. Go where you will, you will find foremost in commerce representa- * Here was a rub. The book was a dead failure. 37 tives of that city which furnishes Mr. G-rattan with material for abuse — and all because of those unclaimed Bonds which Mr. Peal)ody recom- mended him to buy — and that Middlesex Mills Stock which Mr. Law- rence told him would pay. Is it honorable to lamj^oon a whole people for these things ? ^^'ould it be fair for Macaulay to Juniusize all Scotland because of the Western Bank? Boston will " still live." The Bostonians have monopolized the leviathan racing ground, taking the whale fisheries almost entirely away from England — but this does not prove that they are gentlemen ! The Bostonians arrange buildings in mid-summer — and fill them with ice in mid- winter — which square blocks of petrified water they place in ships and transport to Calcutta, where they build other houses to receive it — where it is taken to the couch of the dying officer of the Indian army in the Sepoy revolution — and has cooled many a fevered brow during that terrible rebellion, and relieved many a parching throat. — (It seems but the other day since I saw that fiend incarnate, Nana Sahib, talking with the brave General Havelock in the presence of Lord Dalhousie and Lord Canning at Government House.) — Yes, the Bostonians introduced this welcome commerce to India, but that does not prove that they toere gentlemen ! Mr. Grattan had no time to talk commerce, manufactures, or agricul- ture. His mission was to ascertain why wives kept out of sight when enceinte ! — why the newspapers did not publish births ! — why the Americans were so ill-mannered, so ungenerous, so contrary to the deni- zens of "civilized America!" Such things he considered of more im- portance than discussing colleges or schools, ships or steamers, factories or foundries, canals or railways. He saw no benevolence in the Americans — no bequests? What about the Girard College in Philadelphia? — the Cooper Institute in New York? What about the splendid endowment in the Boston Athenaeum, by the leading American merchant in Europe, Joshua Bates, of London ? What about the donation in the town of Danvers, by his friends of the " unsecured bonds? " Or, grander than all these — what will he say to the Peabody Institute, at Baltimore, to which the distinguished banker has recently donated one hundred thousand pounds! " To enjoy happiness is a great good; hut to he ahle to confer it on others is a greater still." Notwithstanding these munificent donations, the author of "Civilized America" calls us a niggardly people. 38 The truth is, Mr. Grattan was prejudiced. He saw nothing but the worse side of the domocratic element. He went a rabbit hunting with a dead ferret. His mind was made up beforehand. So " Why puff against the wind ? " asks a friend. When wine sinks, words swim — large samples do not improve by handling. Let him alone. Eldon Holes need filling up. America has many and serious faults — so have all lands, and few more so than England ; but are not her virtues also worthy of notice '? We think according to our nature ; we speak according to our instruc- tion ; but we act according to custom. England hates the Frenchman to-day as sincerely as she did in the times of George the Third ; and, had it not been for such disturbers of the peace as Mr. Grattan, she would have loved America as much as she despises France. She feels to-day that a deceitful peace is more injurious than an open war. The times look ominous. Mouarchs are sleeping over powder maga- zines, whilst the sentinels are smoking their pipes. England shuddered when Napoleon kissed her Queen. Tear'em has not yet fully recovered from the shock. While the Continent is boiling over with the political fires beneath the surface of its society, why not cultivate America's friendship ? " All States that are liberal of naturalization toivards strangers are jit for empire." Will the people see our desire to know them ? Will they hear our knock at the door? Will they shake- hands and be friends ? I have always found it so ; but such tirades as these volumes under review don't benefit the cause. Mr. Grattan closes " Civilized America" with these laconic lines : — " Aristocracies are built on the indestructible rights of property. Democra- cies on the indefeasible rights of liberty. And as wealth, tending to corrup- tion, is the basis of misrule, so freedom, while fostering virtue, is that of good government. The few must always be the rich ; the poor the many. Then if property become practically more sacred and stronger than liberty, the few will assuredly become oppressors, and the many be enslaved." If I mistake not, this metaphysical digest touches England. The paragraph is distilled, but not quite clear. It has no doubt caused the author more thought than it will occasion reflection in the reader. " Bead not to contradict and refute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider," wrote Lord Bacon. " Some books," he said, " are to be tasted, others 39 to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested." The taste of "Civilized America" is so nauseating, it forbids any further opera- tion of the Baconian philosophy. ''Reading maheth a full man, confer- ence a ready man, and writing an excoct man," Not in Mr. Grattan's case. The Times, a few weeks since, gave us a stinging Editorial on American Crime and Pauperism, the result of American Democracy. Had the writer been familiar with the facts, he would have placed the preacher in the right pulpit. Take the " Empire State " — of the sixty- three thousand criminal arrests made last year in New York, Thirty- nine thousand were subjects of Great Britain ! Think of that — Thirty-nine thousand ! Yet the official organ supports Mr. Grattan in sneering at American institutions ; but, thanks to such institutions, the American cities cannot equal the picture portrayed by that severe jour- nal in a leader a few days ago. One extract will suffice : — " Nuisances of the grossest and filthiest kind have been suffered to accu- mulate in every great town and city of England to a degree scarcely credible but on the clearest testimony of authorized statistics. The grander the city, the wider the streets, the more noble and showy its public buildings, the harder is it to believe that beliind these noble buildings — these clean, well- paved streets — these terraces, palaces, and towers — these gorgeous shops, resplendent with gilding and plate-glass — there should yet be, close at hand, within a stone's throw, dens, courts, and alleys of the darkest, filthiest, and foulest kind ; narrow, dark, and abominable to the last degree ; where the air is absolutely pestiferous from one end of the year to the other ; where such a thing as clean, wholesome, drinkable water is either altogether unknown, or only known in such scant and paltry meas\ire as might befit a priceless lux- ury. And not only are miserable dens and hiding-places such as these inhab- ited, but actually crowded with inhabitants to a degree that would render life almost intolerable even in streets and houses of the highest kind. Every single room in every house is crammed with half-clad, half-starved, wretched or helpless creatures, toiling on from year's end to year's end in one hopeless, ceaseless round of vice and misery, in the midst of crime, moral evil, and physical uncleanness, scarcely removed from that of the most benighted savage. Here they live, here they multiply, here they sicken, here they die, without the very commonest comforts, decencies such as pure air and water alone would abundantly bestow." Mr. Grattan will find no such filth — no such misery — no such wretchedness in the native-population of the United States — no, not even among the foreigners. Let me ask the author of " Civilized America" if he ever saw such 40 destitution and squalor even among the American slaves ? No ; he knows that the American negro is not thus neglected ; he saw enough to convince him, if he will admit the truth, that the slave is far happier as he is, than to give him freedom and transfer him to a home like that above described. He may reply that the English temper is not sold and separated from his family ; true, and seldom, in case of bankruptcy, is it so with the American slave. A slave-seller, except through necessity, is not admit- ted into Southern society ; a slave-dealer never. An American, writing of Civilized England, finds something more ennobling for his pen than Mr. Grattan discovered in Civilized Amer- ica. The Liverpool Courier, writing on the Eeform Bill, says : — '■ The country down, hut one degree removed from the beast he tends, or the poor handicraft, whose soul is limited to his work, should be, in Mr. Bright's ideas, equally qualified to select our legislators, and therefore to be legisla- tors, with the noblest and most intelligent." Did Mr. Grattan observe any such class of society in Civilized America ? Yet of such he has judged us. The Times contains, Eeb. 2-i, a letter from the Treasurer of County Courts on Imprisonment for Debt, instancing a poor woman lodged in jail for the sum of four shillings. Did Mr. Grattan find any such case in " Civilized America?" It is true, "and pity 'tis 'tis true," that the widow and the fatherless may be shut up for months and years for trifling amounts when no fraud was intended, but when sickness alone had prevented the labor that would have worked out the obli- gation. In 1857, "ten thousand six hundred poor people were lodged in prison " under the system ! Can INIr. Grattan show anything like that in " Civilized America? " The writer continues : "It is no uncommon thing to drag a poor widowed mother to prison, leaving her helpless children unprotected." The expense is trifling — threepence for summons, sixpence for hearing, eighteen- pence for waiTant. When subscriptions are being made, he asks ' ' where shall we look for greater misery and sorrow than in the abodes of those husbands and fathers who are lingering in prison, their only crime being their poverty ? " The 26th section of the County Courts Act provides that the bed and fire, if more than five pounds value, can remain : but, he says, "nothing can be more cruel towards destitute families than for a 41 bailiff to leave their bedding on the floor, and remove eveiy other article." I am glad that Mr. Grattan found no such law as this in " Civilized America." Passing Lancaster jail some weeks since, I was informed that in some instances, where the amount was under five shillings, and the case a distressing one, the other prisoners have clubbed together, paid the debt, and allowed the grateful mother to return to her chil- dren—as noble an act of charity as endowing a college or building a church. " The quality of mercy is not strained." Poor Sheridan must have suffered when he wrote, — " Of old the debtors who insolvent died, Egypt the rights of sepulture denied. A different trade enlightened Christians drive. And charitably bury them alive." The Americans have just received Mr. Grattan's volumes. In order to show that my strictures on Civilized America in the sev- eral articles which you have done me the favor to publish in the Daily Post and Liverpool Journal, have only anticipated the storm of indig- nation the book created on its arrival, will you permit me to make an extract or two from a three-columned review in the Nexo York Tribune of March 1st: — -A few years before the advent of Grattan on these barbarous shores Harriet Martineau made a sort of triumphant progress through the land, and her India-rubber ear-trumpet became the depository of family secrets per- sonal griefs, and private gossip, sufficient to furnish material for a large volume of scandalous chronicles. What she heard in the ear m closets, she faithfully proclaimed from the housetops, giving the currency of the pen to the most intimate revelations, and astonishing a crowd «f -^"--"-^.^"^ pletons by betraying their too good-natured frankness. Grattan has placed himself in a similar relation to the easy individuals who for sej.n years reioiced under the benign influence of his consulship in Boston. He had no oner stepped foot on the pavement of that bleak metropolis, than he was oaded with civilities and compliments. His right hand was almost lamed fo Ife by the fervor with which it was shaken. No public celebration no social festivity was complete without the presence of Grattan. He was admitted o IT- L with the most eminent officials, and on all occasions was placed n Z po t of honor, as well as treated with a truly sublime unreserve. EveieU^ Bl'c::ft, Judge Story, Winthrop, and the rest of the ^^'^^ ^J ^-^ -; Athens, " hung their hearts on thek sleeves " while conversmg with Grattan, 42 and forgetting " all time, all seasons, and their change," could have little anticipated the malignant treachery and folly with which their advances would be rewarded." "This is," continues Mr. Eipley, the accomplished critic of the Tribune — " The burden of the two scandalous volumes which Mr. Grattan has in- flicted on the public, intent on emitting "the venom of his spleen," even at the expense of his own reputation, if any he had, for decency, courtesy, or common sense. His flipj)ant and exaggerated criticisms, his enormous self- conceit, his vulgar and ridiculous pomposity, his utter inability to look at anything save in the light of his own prejudices, and his reckless comments on private character, have had no parallel among British travellers in this country, since the palmy days of Mrs. Trollope, the Rev. Isaac Fidler, and other worthies of the lachrymose-abusive school. Compared with Grattan, Dickens is a paragon of modesty, and the very flower of gentlemanly cour- tesy. Not that we complain of his severity of remark on American manners and institutions. We trust our countrymen are recovering from their thin- skinned sensitiveness to the cavils of foreign tourists and visitors. They can hear it asserted, without falling into spasms, that no woman in the United States has good manners, and no man a good education. But no one can fail to detest the social treachery, which takes advantage of familiar acquaint- ance to open the houses of your family to the ridicule of the j^ublic, and feed the ai^petite for gossip, by descanting on the domestic economy of eminent men, impudently describing the cut of their coat and the color of their shoes." " ' The American,' he says, according to our ethnologist, is of an inferior order to the European. He is only a bad imitation of an Englishman. The gentlemen of this country are mere counterfeits of the gentlemen of England. In society, in business, in literature, science, and art, tliey can bear no com- parison with the stock from which they sprang. Though of the same blood, they are of a different breed. The Anglo-Saxon race deteriorates with trans- plantation ; its lofty attributes cannot be maintained beyond the British Isles ; and under Republican forms it dwindles down to a fatal mediocrity." The New York Tribune has only foreshadowed the opinions of the American press. The public mind had been prepared for some clever, philosophical work, worthy of the antecedents of the distinguished au- thor ; but the compact collection of insulting things that stain what otherwise might have added to Mr. Grattan's name in the world of letters, has carried the Americans beyond that point where patience ceases to be a virtue. After advising our people to be careful whom they entertain in future, the Tribune closes a three-columned review with these words : — 43 "In mistaking Grattan for a gentleman, they committed a blunder which is not without parallels in all our cities. The record of their mistake is contained in this book, and it may profitably be taken into consideration before yielding a too implicit trust to letters of introduction, plausible manners, or sonorous audacity. The flippant and calumnious personalities in which the author so profusely indulges attest his own inveterate love of vulgar gossij), l)ut can pro- duce no injurious effect on the persons (in many cases men of eminent mark and distinction) against whom they are directed. They can only serve as a warning, which by this time should be superfluous, that the guest who drinks the wine of his host with an obsequious smile, may be only gathering materials for an impudent lampoon." England has a holy horror of being Americanized ; so has America of being Anglicized ; but there is less danger of the one than the other. The British constitution, like the national debt, is peculiarly British. England can take our cotton, our corn, our tobacco, our sugar, our pro- visions, but not our nineteenth century politics. England most willing- ly accepts our reaping machines, our locks, our Colt's revolvers, our Enfield rifles, — and our mechanics to manufacture them, — but it is too much to ask of her to treat us like "Civilized Americans." Eng- land is glad to adopt our wonderful improvements in agricultural uten- sils ; England honored us by buying the yacht "America," after she won the cup ; England complimented us in the beautiful proportions of the " Niagara" and the " Merrimac," and their twelve large, instead of seventy- four small, gun system ; but it is too much to ask of her to admit the perfection of our common school system, our free voluntary church system, our vote by ballot, our codification of laws, our register of titles, and our freedom of suffrage. And why is this ? Because they are un. English, and will Americanize her institutions. Hence everything polit- ically American must be ignored, but, commercially, everything that shows face of a commission shall be admitted. What England does is right ; what she does not do is wrong. Like China, she looks out of her beautiful island home at the Outside Bar- barians that dwell in " Civilized America." Americans are called boasters ; were they to tell the whole truth, they would be called lunatics. England in Europe is feared, not loved. In America it is just the other way. Like the old woman when her horse plunged down the hill, she puts her trust in Providence till the breech- ing breaks, — then, as in the case of the Crimean war and the Indian mutiny, she thinks it is time to take care of herself When anything abusing you gets into the papers, how quickly your 44 friends observe it ! On the contrary, when a paragi-aph to your credit is inserted, your friends did not see the the paper that day. This is the way G-rattan saw America ; in short, this is human nature every- where. Cosmus, Duke of Florence, said : " It is commanded that we shoukl forgive our enemies ; but nowhere are we recommended to forgive our friends." Eichard Whateley says : " The American Episcopal Church is kept apart from our own, not by difference of doctrine, but simply by being Americwi.''^ Miss Elizabeth Smith said : "A woman has need of extraordinary gentleness and modesty to be forgiven for possessing superior ability and learning." America's astonishing progress in commerce creates in England a similar sentiment. " Nothing cau reconcile envy to virtue but death." For many years, America has welcomed the exile and patriot to her shores. She has clothed him, sheltered him, and given him food. Her gates were always open, and always will be. Europe sneered, England ridiculed ; but the door was never shut. Europe misjudged our motives. They were pure and honorable, but England could never see it in that light. Now she has the opportunity. Thousands overflowing with good- ness of heart will be disappointed, but fate has so arranged it. The " David Stuart," instead of arriving amid the firing of guns and ringing of bells, will go into New York without a passing salute. Why ? Be- cause she landed her glorious freight of patriotic humanity in Ireland. God bless the Irish. They gave the Italian martyrs a noble welcome. God bless the English! They, too, are full of sympathy for the noblest band of heroes the world has met for many a day. Lord Shaftesbury, this time, is more profitably employed than in misjudging the Americans. The Times was foremost ; the nation responds — all England is awake. Pounds are accumulating — houses are preparing — Lords are waiting — Commons are ready — people are anxious to give the victims of .the coward perjurer of Naples a reception as worthy of England as the exiles are worthy of her sympathy. When England ridicules — laughs — censures " Civilized America '' again for the earnestness of her welcome to European refugees, let her remember the noble reception she is giving to Baron Poerio and Signer Settembrini, and their brave companions in exile. 45 " The ascent to high office is steep — the suniinit slippery — the descent precipitous." Bomba will soon see the truth of the latter truism. — A little fire burns a large house. One of the grandest pages in England's history was the refusal to give up Bernard. The Government would have surrendered him up ! But the people were aroused — and, when the people of England speak, the echo is heard on the borders of the world. One of the greatest of American institutions is the public meeting — where all can 'speak. It is the great safety-valve of freedom. England is getting a taste of it about these times on the Reform Bill. I observed the military were called out in East Worcestershire ; — that the gowns- men broke up the reform meeting at Cambridge ! — that Ernest Joifes got handled rather roughly at Birmingham ! Did Mr. Grattan observe anything of this kind in " Civilized America?" Just after reading a powerful leader in the Times of Thursday, on the political emoluments of democratic institutions, as shown in the navy contracts — by the President's initials on Patterson's letter — my eye caught in another these words, as reported from one of the honorable speakers at the Free- Trade Hall, Manchester : — " There was a black book published some time ago, from which it appeared that, out of 360 members of the House of Lords, upwards of 308 were receivers of grants — or pensions or privileges — or church preferments, — or something, which amotinted to betiveen two and three millions sterling per annum." How many members of Parliament received one thousand pounds apiece to oblige George the Third and William Pitt — for voting on the India Bill ? Not a single case was proved against the American Con- gress by the recent committee to examine into bribery. The Parlia- mentary agents of England are nabobs compared to the lobby members of America ! I am surprised that Mr. Grattan did not introduce that question of the tooth brush. It was more important than the chapter on Texas. There never was a public tooth brush ! But admit for argument that they are hung up in hotels for the benefit of the guests ; are there not whole towns in England that never saw a tooth brush ! " Cleanliness is next to godliness." " Your friend will bear anything but the truth ; tell him that, and he becomes your enemy." Feeling that Mr. Grattan had wronged a people whose only fault was 46 giving him a generous welcome to their shores, I have answered some of his assertions. They were broadcast, sweeping against our women, our statesmen, our securities, our institutions. I have tried to answer some of his back-handed thrusts ; I have done it at the risk of losing his friendship, which I highly prized. " It is less dangerous to hurt most men than to do them much good," wrote Eochefoucault. " The love of a country has its rise in the purity of affection." The Americans have none, said Mr. Grattan. " The perpetuation of brutes is offspring, but that of men is glory, their deserts, and their institutions," Mr. Grattan catered to the prejudice of the English against the A'mericans, but his sauce was overseasoned. Perhaps the pent-up feel- ing escaped as well through that outlet as any other. Pleydell, in " Guy Mannering," says : — "If you have not a regular chimney for the smoke, it wil! find its way through the whole house." The publication of " Civilized America" no doubt raised him from a bilious fever. Everybody sees the ink spot on the white tablecloth, but who examines the fabric ? The mole on the fair girl's face is the first to strike the eye ; a blue vein on the Venus de Medicis, or a yellow mark on the Apollo Belvedere, would have destroyed their value, yet as works of art they would have been equally majestic and beautiful. Everybody sees the cloud on the horizon, but who thinks of the clear blue sky above him ? Mr. Grattan saw only the dark spots on the sun. He sailed his canoe in the frog pond on Boston Common, instead of taking the "New World up the Hudson." His Pegasus was a dwarf pony. Instead of climbing the mountain, he amused himself at the ant-hill His " unsecured bonds" were at a discount, hence — " dmi't buy American securities 1 " "Who have paid their twenty shillings in the pound in the panic but the Americans ? Ask the iron merchants whose credit stands the high- est to-day in England, America or France ? Why have the Denistouns been enabled to forestal their payments and meet so promptly all their engagements ? Because their American creditors paid them. Mr. Peabody lost but one per cent, of his American debts ! Barings and Rothschilds made the same statement. Who are these people that have lost such sums by America? Can you furnish me with a list '? Do American securities pay? Eead Satherthwaithe's weekly circular 47 in the Daily News. He surprised a capitalist the other day, who was moaning over his American bonds, by giving him a check for every coupon — saying, that all the roads he represented paid with regularity their interest. A leading banker of Lombard-street lately retired with £20.000 a-year from active business, which, report says, he has recently doubled by his operations in American securities. Some twenty years ago four American States disgraced the country by repudiating their engagements, upon the same ground that Belfast refused to pay interest on her bonds. These States will never be re- spected till they have paid in full. The question arises, are twenty- nine solvent States to be circumcised on account of the sins of their associates ? In concluding my comments on " Civilized America," I beg to say I do not pretend to justify any of the many faults which the Amei-icans may possess, by comparison with England. I have placed a few cus- toms, opinions, and views, face to face, to show their bearing. Had I possessed your happy faculty of writing, my " Talk on 'Change," my "Points" would have been sharper, although you say that I shall '^fail in co7ivincing John Bidl that threefoiirths of the slaves are not treated cruelly, and that threefoiirths of the Yankees are not rogues ! " Life, Principles, Facts, correspond to Love, AVisdom, and Knowl- edge. Knowledge is a Sceptic, Wisdom a Believer, Love a "Wor- shipper. The one is Atheistical, the other Deistical, the last Idol- atrous. Mr. Grattan has shown neither love, wisdom, or knowledge, in " Civilized America." Emerson says that grass and flowers grow out of carrion in the sun, but Grattan will covet even that privilege. Thackeray behaved like a gentleman — Charles Mackay made friends on every side, except the South — Murray was popular — so was William Chambers — Mary Howitt saw a kindred people — Ferguson did not misrepresent our country — Cobden will talk good sense when he gets back. And when I saw how Grattan repaid our kindness to him, I took up the "American Notes" again, and am surprised to find them ovei-flowing with such good-nature. Dickens has been abu- sed. Sydney Smith's philippic came so close upon Boz's footsteps that we mixed the sentiment. Dickens is not so bad a man, after all ; I retract all I have written or said against him. Bead " American 48 Notes" again; then read "Civilized America." Dickens wrote for fun — Grrattan for spite. Perhaps he will add in his next edition a chapter on Sickles? The Times is most temperate on that terrible tragedy. Two commandments were broken — one was no worse than the other. " He that hath a wife and children hath given hostages to fortune." Sickles has done himself wrong, but the world a favor. "Eevenge is wild justice," writes Bacon. Lynch-law is an ancient institution. AVhen Schechem defiled Dinah, daughter of Leah, under the promise of marriage, her brothers got Schechem and his tribe circumcised, — and Simeon and Levi, the sons of Jacob, taking advantage of their unfor- tunate condition, went in upon them and put all to the sword. See 34th chapter of Genesis. " Civilized America " asks no praise of England ; all she desires is not to be censured for faults common to human nature. Eemember about throwing stones at glass houses. If Mr. Grattan feels really sorry for having abused us, I forgive him ; but, in doing so, I must add that it is a mean thing to listen at the keyhole — it is meaner to open a private letter — but it is the very meanest thing of all to accept hospitality and slander him who gave it. If I have been personal, I regret and retract it. If I have of- fended the author of " Civilized America," I am man enough to accept his apology. ''No other Paper has theNeirs,' FOR THE WHOLE COUNTRY! THE BOSTON COMMERCIAL BULLETIN, A first class Journal, coutaiuiny many specialities ti) be fouiirl in no other pajier. Tlie liulletin is the onJ>j p:iper in the count rif that publishes the 1\ THE UMTED STATES, E)IBRVfI.\(i Failures, Suspensions and Assignments, Dissolutions of Partnerships, New Partnerships, Withdrawal of Partnex's, Admission of Partners. Tlie Bulletin also publislies a reyular weekly list of NEW COUNTERFEITS, and altered bank-notes. 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