Such Of The Foregoing Remarks As Apply To The Results Of The Vitiation Of
The Pure Form Of Republican Government Delivered To America By Washington,
I Have Hazarded With Very Great Diffidence.
In England we know very little
of the United States, and, however candid the intentions of a tourist may
Be, it is difficult in a short residence in the country so completely to
throw off certain prejudices and misapprehensions as to proceed to the
delineation of its social characteristics with any degree of fairness and
accuracy. The similarity of language, and to a great extent of customs and
manners, renders one prone rather to enter into continual comparisons of
America with England than to look at her from the point from which she
really ought to be viewed - namely, herself. There are, however, certain
salient points which present themselves to the interested observer, and I
have endeavoured to approach these in as candid a spirit as possible, not
exaggerating obvious faults, where there is so much to commend and admire.
The following remarks were lately made to me by a liberal and enlightened
American on the misapprehensions of British observers: - "The great fault
of English travellers in this land very often is that they see all things
through spectacles which have been graduated to the age and narrow local
dimensions of things in England; and because things here are new, and all
that is good, instead of being concentrated into a narrow space so as to
be seen at one glance, is widely diffused so as not to be easily gauged -
because, in other words, it is the spring here and not the autumn, and our
advance has the step of youth instead of the measured walk of age; and
because our refinements have not the precise customs to which they have
been accustomed at home, they turn away in mighty dissatisfaction.
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