The International Monthly, Volume 2, No. 4, March, 1851Various
History
The International Monthly, Volume 2, No. 4, March, 1851
Various
Art, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- History -- Periodicals
of that noble country have schooled the generation, nurtured by
their side, into a strong conception of freedom, and the right
to be justly dealt with, at the hands of those with whom it is
connected by the double alliance of kindred predilection. A
pernicious, temporizing policy has of late caused such wounds
as may not be healed up very easily, we fear. The upright
colonist has seen an unprincipled faction permitted to ride
triumphant over those whose intentions are honest, and whose
loyalty is proven. Let us hope, that ere long something of the
chivalrous generosity of other days will pervade the councils
of the state, and rouse the stalwart spirit of the Briton to
scourge this ignominy from the land; if encouragement be due at
all, it surely is to those true-hearted provincials who are
avowedly proud of the great people from whence they derive
their character, their language, and their laws--and who are as
able, as they are willing, to preserve unto their beloved
Sovereign the colony their sires won."
This is tolerably good rhetoric, but it is not likely to have much
effect when the strong argument and imposing eloquence of statesmen have
failed to arrest attention. We see notices of another political novel
referring to Canada, which deals more directly, if with less talent,
with the disabilities and wishes of the people. It is entitled, _The
Footsteps of Montcalm_, and its hero, descended from a follower of the
brave Frenchman, contrasts with his ideal of freedom and happiness, the
laws, institutions, habits, and miseries, which he regards as
inseparable from the colonial relation. As in the rebellion of 1838,
whatever disaffection now prevails in British America, is probably
shared much less largely by the English than by the French population.
Political, religious, or sectarian novels, however, executed never so
cleverly, are but sugared pills at which the appetite revolts as soon as
the quality is discovered.
DR. WEBSTER, PRESIDENT OF THE NEW-YORK FREE ACADEMY.
[Illustration]
Throughout the world an extraordinary degree of attention has recently
been directed to systems and means of Education, and the truth has at
length been generally recognized that the stability and glory of nations
must depend upon the intelligence and virtue of their inhabitants. In
our own country, which is most of all interested in the diffusion of
knowledge, unexampled efforts are being made not only for the general
improvement of the culture offered in the seminaries, but for that
elevation of the laboring classes which, whatever may be said by
ambitious feeble-minds, seeking for reputation as reformers of the
social system, is really to be found only in a wise development of
individual capacities for the strife that has been and must be waged for
individual well-being.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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