The Knickerbocker, Vol. 22, No. 3, September 1843Various
General
The Knickerbocker, Vol. 22, No. 3, September 1843
Various
Periodicals
'WHO jeers the Tartar, must beware of his dirk!' is a lesson which
this well-tempered book will teach certain of our neighbors on the
other side of the great water; for it contains stabs at national
abuses and local follies, which 'pierce to the hilt;' and we are not
sorry that at this moment, throughout the Union, this exposition
of them as well as of the time-honored game of '_tit-for-tat_,'
has been as widely perused as the work which prompted it--the
'American Notes' of Mr. DICKENS. This fact, we need not add, will
prevent us from entering upon a detailed review of a work already
so current, at the low price of one shilling. We shall only ask
such of our readers as are at all sensitive in relation to the
slurs upon our country and its institutions which may from time to
time reach us from abroad, to bear in mind the ignorance in which
they have their origin. 'One ought to have,' says our countrywoman,
'a temper as imperturbable as FRANKLIN's, to hear patiently the
absurd remarks made in England upon the United States. Here are
hundreds of thousands, with ample means and leisure, whose reading
is confined to certain portions of certain newspapers; yet one of
this class will deliver his judgment upon America in a manner which
shows his belief that what he says is decisive. There is, there
should be, no appeal. He has spoken. Englishmen have a vague notion
about America, and Indians, and General WASHINGTON, and there being
neither king nor lords, and the storming of Quebec, and the burning
of the Caroline, and the loss of the President! But as to the vast
resources of our country; the nature of her laws and institutions;
of her cities rising amid primeval forests; of the capabilities
of her rivers and bays; of the love of freedom in her children,
which love, men say, is the parent of all the best virtues that can
adorn a state; of these things they know nothing. Talk to one of
these persons about the cotton grown in the Southern States, and
he will immediately speak of Manchester, where he has a cousin, a
manufacturer, worth a hundred thousand pounds; mention one of those
matchless prairies in the Far West (a noble sight, though Boz _was_
disappointed,) and my gentleman, as soon as he is made to understand
what a prairie is, turns the conversation to Salisbury Plain, or
the moors of Scotland! These gentry generally are, or have been,
connected with commercial pursuits, and plume themselves upon being,
not reading, but _practical_ men. I admit they are impartial in
their ignorance, knowing as little of the past history of their own
country as of the present state of ours,' * * * 'The English view
America in such a _petty_ spirit! They judge of it in the spirit
that prompts their judgment in their own small matters; their clubs,
or parishes, or corporations. They cannot conceive a nation without
a titled and privileged aristocracy. What is not subserviency they
consider anarchy; and then a country without a regular standing
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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