and original remark, that "human nature is the same every separately, individuals can only surpass their equals “in where?" It would be easy to show, upon the authority of wealth and character," and can attain preeminence, as well English writers, that, in the "fast-anchored isle," the by disparaging their rivals, as by relying on their own prepress is as libellous, and malevolence as busy in the walks tensions. If, therefore, our author's reasoning be just in of private life, as in regions where the dulcifying and be- relation to the citizens of a democracy, it holds with equal nignant influences of monarchy and aristocracy are unfelt. cogency in reference to the separate orders of the English But the man who had falsely charged Capt. Marryatt with monarchy. On his own principles, then, the same inciteinsulting Mr. Clay at his own table "was walking arm in ments to detraction that operate on this country, exist arm with the men, dancing and flirting with the women there, strengthened by that superadded feeling of enry and just as before, although his slander and the refutation of it malevolence, which lurks in the bosom of all societies, were both well known," while, " in England had a person where exclusive privileges are conferred on a favored class been guilty of a deliberate and odious lie," he would have as a matter of hereditary right, and not as the reward of been scouted from society, his best friends would have cut merit. him." Credat Judæus Apella. Perhaps Capt. Marryatt's defamer was believed to have erred in his statement from misapprehension, and not from design; but even were it otherwise, does that prove that the convicted liar is universally countenanced in America? Because this man did not lose caste in a small circle in Louisville, is it to be inferred that the people in all parts of the United States are equally insensible to the infamy of falsehood? To flatter John Bull's self-love with the idea that he is more strict and scrupulous in his morals than brother Jonathan, may suit Capt. Maryatt's interest, and secure a liberal patronage for his work, but English literature teems with evidences of the fallacy of such an assertion. When our author stigmatizes the American people with falsehood and slander, as national characteristics, an accusation so serious should be substantiated by something more satisfactory and conclusive than a few scattered instances of such vices, or by speculative reasonings. It should be sustained by proof commensurate to the extent of the imputation; and the only proof of that character, adduced by our author, is the alleged licentiousness of our newspaper press. We will candidly confess, that the public journals of this country are generally too much addicted to virulent personalities, to the frequent suppression, and sometimes to the wilful violation of truth. But we shall contend that this depraved condition of the press is not the legitimate fruit of our institutions as contrasted with those of a limited monarchy like England; and, furthermore, that it is neither fair nor logical to argue from the prevalence of such abuses that the mass of our people are infected with the spirit of detraction, or that mendacity is a prominent trait in our national character. Our author has one sovereign solution for every supposed indication of moral and political degeneracy among us,-in the tendencies of republican institutions. To his distorted optics and morbid imagination this demon appears every where, like the spectre which haunted the retirement of Count D'Olivarez. He fancies democracy, as he sneeringly calls our government, a political upas, which poisons Wherever the people are split into parties, whether in s the moral atmosphere, and that truth, with every other vir- monarchy or republic, and the press is not fettered by the tue, has expired beneath its baleful exhalations. In his most arbitrary restrictions, an engine so potent to control speculations, he takes no account of the rapid growth of public opinion will inevitably be seized on by the candiwealth, population and luxury in this country, nor of the dates for power; and, to subserve their purposes, it will be debasing effects on national character, which such causes converted into a pander to political prejudices, a vehicle uniformly produce. His reasoning in the case before us is for the indulgence of private animosities. Even good men, briefly this; that, in a democracy, a man can rise above when thoroughly possessed with the maddening spirit of his fellows only in wealth and character, and his object faction, lose all candor and moderation, and listen with can be effected as well by pulling down his competitors, as complacency, if not with approbation, to the most feroby climbing up through the force of his own merit. Hence, cious and bitter denunciations of their opponents. Designhe says, the rabid thirst for defamation in this country. In ing knaves and aspiring politicians will always be found England, on the contrary, if Capt. Marryatt is to be be-ready, for their own profit or advancement, to feed these lieved, "though many will and may attempt to rise above their situation, each one knows, in consequence of the subordination of classes, the place where he stands, and the majority are content with their position." In confirmation of this notable theory, he quotes a remark of M. Tocqueville, that "there exists in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level, and induces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality in freedom." Now, misrepresentation, which disgrace the struggle of parties if this humiliating view of human nature has any foundation in truth, is it not obvious, that the principle indicated by M. Tocqueville, applies with greater force to a community divided into distinct orders, than to one which recognizes the doctrine of political equality? Will not the "depraved taste for equality," even when unaccompanied by a sense of oppression and injustice, engender a feeling of envy in the inferior classes of England towards the nobility and gentry, and instigate them to pull down "the powerful to their own level, in character at least, if not in political privileges?" And is not such a principle now actually at work in that country? The rancorous feelings exhibited by the operatives and laborers of Britain towards their employers, can be referred only to the operation of this cause, or to what our author would be reluctant to acknowledge, a bitter consciousness of unredressed, and accumulated wrongs. Furthermore, in each class taken unhallowed passions-to fan the flame of discontent-to exasperate the rancor of adverse parties. From this pol luted fountain have flowed those waters of bitterness, that fill the channels of political discussion in America and Britain, transforming the wholesome nutriment of the public mind into a deadly poison. Hence fraud, delusion and calumny have been reduced, in those countries, to a system. Hence the fierceness of invective, the audacity of where the press is untrammelled. These are dreadful evils, and must, sooner or later, disturb the peace, and pervert the moral sense of any community. It may be said, that the licentiousness of the press is restrained in England by the terrors of a state prosecution; but this applies only to public officers, and experience has demonstrated that such a device offers but a feeble and inadequate check to the fury of party spirit, and the impulses of private revenge In other respects, the laws of England and America afford the same remedies and the same measure of redress to the injured parties. In the present imperfect, unregenerate state of human nature, the only effectual corrective to the licentiousness of the press is to subject it to the control and supervision of the government; an expedient in perfect unison with our author's sentiments, since, both in politics and religion, he deems it unsafe to confide the privi lege of private judgment to the swinish multitude. Bat who does not see that the remedy is infinitely more dange- | severe imputations on all the distinguished members of the rous than the mischiefs to be eradicated? Who does not tory party, and even royalty itself suffered under the edge perceive, that, when the press is silenced, or speaks only of his unsparing satire. Blackwood's magazine, the taste the dictates of authority, you commit the duty of enlighten- and talent of whose literary contributions are indisputable, ing the public mind to those whose interest is deception; is signalized by a rabid and infuriate party zeal, and dewho will assuredly use their power to screen their own de-nounces, in the most scurrilous language, the whigs and linquencies from exposure and punishment, and to annihi- their abettors, as alike destitute of principle, character and late every thing like efficient responsibility in public offi- talent. In the year 1815, the Beacon in Edinburgh, and cers! The press has been justly denominated the palla- its successor in Glasgow, attained an infamous preeminence dium of human liberty; the sentinel to warn us of the en- in slander and ribaldry. It was in those journals that Sir croachments, to proclaim the corruptions of power. To Alexander Boswell, a conspicuous tory, and son of the sabject this great organ of light and knowledge to the mi- noted biographer of Johnson, published a series of anonynions of authority, whose usurpations it is its chief func- mous libels, replete with the vilest and most offensive retion to expose, would be to seal up the warder's eyes-to flections upon a gentleman of unblemished fame, his relaconsign the lamb to the tender mercies of the wolf. Quis tive; and with whom he remained on terms of courteous custodiet illos custodes? It is an immutable law, ordained by intercourse, while he continued to launch those poisoned the Supreme Ruler of the Universe, that the benefits of all and insidious arrows at his unconscious victim. The forbuman institutions should be countervailed by some con- feiture of his life, in a subsequent conflict with his injured comitant inconvenience. Legislation is, therefore, a choice opponent, was but a just retribution for conduct, marked by of evils; and it is the part of wisdom to select those means such circumstances of duplicity and dishonor. What then in which the balance of advantages predominates. To must be the newspaper press of a country, whose literasever the liberty of the press from its licentiousness, is an ture is debased by the most envenomed slander and the experiment that defies the skill of political dissection; and coarsest personal abuse? Even the sanctity of female chathe attempt would be as fatal as to cut off the pound of racter has been violated, by the indiscriminate rage for desh which the vindictive avarice of the Jew exacted from offensive personalities, which is the opprobrium of the Brithe Venetian merchant. We must, then, take this invalua- tish press, though Capt. Marryatt and his compatriots venble institution just as it is, with all its faults and imperfec- ture to hold it up as a model, while rebuking us for similar tions, nor, by grasping at incompatible objects, impotently transgressions. That delightful writer, Miss Edgeworth, strive to reverse the decrees of Heaven. was not long since unfeelingly reproached with callous But let us see whether, on a fair comparison, the Ameri- indifference to the memory of her mother, by an English can press is, in truth, as our author insinuates, so much publication; and the beautiful, the talented Mrs. Norton, more depraved, unscrupulous and defamatory, than that of has been pursued by the purveyors of scandal for the Britain. We are not conversant with the newspaper press newspapers, with a rancor of detraction, which has proved of that country, but we take it for granted, that, in point of fatal both to her reputation and domestic peace. In the dignity and decorum, it must be far inferior to the avowed close of Capt. Marryatt's own work, we find another inproductions of its distinguished men, because its conduc- stance of the indifference with which remarks and reflectors, having far less moral and literary reputation to lose, tions, injurious to a private individual, are given to the have not the same motives to restrain them. If we can public in England. It seems, (for we have not seen it) show, therefore, that men of high standing and acknow- that an article in the Edinburgh Review has handled the ledged genius, attached to every political party in Britain, first series of our author's Diary with some severity. In have published works, as replete with violent invective commenting on that article, our author assumes, without against public men, with as envenomed assaults upon private any proof except what he calls internal evidence, that the character, as any that can be produced on this side the review in question was the production of Miss Martineau, Atlantic, are we not warranted in the conclusion, that the and proceeds, with his usual politeness and self-compla political journals of that country are still more deeply im- cency, to stigmatize the conductors of that celebrated pebed with this reckless disregard of decency and morals? riodical with falsehood and dishonesty; closing his vitupeMore than half a century ago, when the subjects of debate rations with some ridiculous gossip picked up in Boston, between contending factions were trifling and insignificant, and repeated for the purpose of exposing his supposed recompared to those vital and all-absorbing questions which viewer to derision and contempt. Now, as the gallant now agitate the British community to its lowest depths, captain belongs to the irritabile genus, it was, perhaps, natuthe English press was distinguished for the ferocity of its ral that he should be a little restive under this critical cas. attacks on private reputation, and the unmeasured severity tigation; but we ask was it generous, dignified or manly with which it denounced public men and measures. For to drag the name of a respectable female before the public, venomous satire and savage personality, which spared nei- and make it the mark of his ribald insinuations? This arther the errors of the statesman nor the infirmities of the ray of instances to exemplify the licentiousness of the individual, Junius and his contemporaries have scarcely a British press, cited from memory alone, without reference parallel in the annals of defamation. During a series of to books, might be indefinitely extended, were we disposed years, Dr. Wolcott derived a handsome subsistence from to incur the labor of investigation. Sufficient evidence, Lis poetical lampoons; nor was sex or rank or the sanc- however, has been accumulated to establish the proposituary of private life secure from the shafts of his coarse tion, that, in all the attributes of scandal and detraction, and malignant abuse. The Rolliad and the Anti-Jacobin, the English journals claim precedence over our own. Let written by the first men in England, contain the most cut-Capt. Marryatt, then, apply his inference against American ting imputations on private character, veiled under an ap- veracity, founded on the licentiousness of our press, to pearance of sportive humor, whose brilliancy only gave his own country, and he will discover that the argument, point to its malevolence. Cobbett, that general and un-if worth any thing, holds with accumulated force. Our scrupulous libeller, continued for thirty years to launch, through the pages of his Register, the most brutal and caluminious charges against every man who had provoked his enmity, either in public or private life. The caustic effusions of Mr. T. Moore, embellished as they are with the Capt. Marryatt's charge of ingratitude to public men is keenest wit, are yet fraught with the most scandalous and levelled indiscriminately at all republics; and his only author is not the first engineer that has been "hoisted by his own petard;" nor the first sportsman, who, in his eagerness to wound the quarry, has been hurt by the recoil of his own weapon. proof to give color to the reproach in our case is, that some by the reflections of foreigners, is probably true; but, on the American, as a salvo to our national vanity, accounted to other hand, it should be remembered that the illiberal prehim for the loss of the Chesapeake frigate during the last judices and contracted views of these book-making tourists, war, by ascribing it to the intoxication of Capt. Lawrence; who, with the most limited opportunities of observation, an imputation which he pronounces utterly false and gra- undertake to pronounce unqualified sentence of condemna tuitous. We might give him credit for his promptitude in tion on us, furnish some reasonable ground of complaint. vindicating the memory of a gallant officer, did we not That a calm, sensible and gentlemanly delineation of suspect that his principal object was to enhance the lustre | American character and institutions, though abounding in of the British victory. It was our fortune to be a resident opinions to which we do not subscribe, and by no means of Capt. Lawrence's native State at the time of that disas-flattering to our self-love, would not be offensive to us, is trous battle, and we well remember that the intelligence evinced by the favorable reception given by our reading was received with an universal sentiment of admiration of his gallantry, and regret for his untimely death. We never heard it insinuated then, or since, that his defeat was at tributable to misconduct or intemperance. It was known that he fought under great disadvantages, nor did his countrymen deem it any stain on his escutcheon that he had been vanquished by a brave and skilful foe. The charge of ingratitude in republics has been so often repeated by the partisans of monarchy and aristocracy, that it has almost grown into a maxim. It has passed current with men who are content to take up opinions on authority, without the labor of investigation; but, if the records of history be consulted, it were easy to show that it is a vice by no means peculiar to republics. The opprobrium of neglecting, and sometimes persecuting faithful public servants, attaches to every form of government, and to none more frequently than to those where authority is wielded by one man or a privileged few. So far as the United States are concerned, there is little room for the imputation. All who partook in our revolutionary struggle, have received the most signal marks of public respect and bounty, and we have at all times been prompt to lavish honors and rewards on those who have served us, in peace or war. public to the sketches and remarks of Mr. Murray and M. 'A has a little gall'd us, we confess; "Tis ten to one it maim'd himself outright. and With this illustrious example before us, we shall surely be pardoned a little fretfulness, under the impertinence and ribaldry of those foreign adventurers, who turn their wanderings among us to "commodity," by the manufacture of sundry volumes of flimsy sophistry and wretched misrep resentation. If we recollect aright, Prince Puckler Mus kau, among other strictures not very palatable to the English, remarked, that avarice and dishonesty were their most striking characteristics. It appears, therefore, that Capt. Marryatt, unconscious of the beam in his own eye, has undertaken to lecture us on our covetousness and want of principle, insisting that the peculiar prevalence of such vices in this country is the consequence of that root of all evil, our republican institutions. The national arrogance and self-conceit of the Americans, and their excessive sensitiveness to any reflection on our character and institutions, form another subject of copious animadversion to our author; though candor almost extorts the confession from him, that these traits, so far as they exist among us, are derived from our British ancestry. We shall not deny that among the ignorant classes in this country, there prevails a disposition to overrate our power, character and institutions, and to disparage the pretensions In the introduction to the first series of his Diary, page 13, of other nations. This temper, we imagine, is character- our author says, that, in America, we have "no honors, no istic of the corresponding classes in every region of the incitements to noble deeds;" that wealth is our only means world, and more especially of the descendants of the of distinction, and "consequently, wealth has become the Anglo-Saxon race. It ill becomes a citizen of England, great spring of action." His meaning is obvious. Stars, the proudest and most arrogant country on the globe, to garters, ribbons, titles of nobility are, in his opinion, the take offence at the display of kindred attributes in other only worthy incentives of ambition; and we have none ul nations. But, says our ingenious author, with his usual these. But what are these baubles worth, except as an evisagacity in discerning some deep motive of policy for dence of merit? And are they uniformly conferred on the every accidental appearance that he witnessed in this coun- deserving? Is there no favoritism in England in the distri try, these feelings are carried to such an extreme by the bution of these vaunted distinctions? And, after all, are Americans, that, for that reason, they acquit murderers, not the offices derived from the unbought suffrages of our hush up suicides and cases of crim. con., or any other of fellow-citizens, the spontaneous applauses of admiring m fence which may reflect upon their asserted morality." In- lions, a more unerring criterion of true worth, a nobler o deed! We should have thought that our national honor and ject of ambition to a rational mind, than those high-soundmorality were deeply interested in the punishment of mur-ing titles, bestowed frequently by the caprice or the par der, as the only effectual means for its suppression. As tiality of sovereigns upon some favored courtier? Could to hushing up suicides and cases of crim. con., it is the any titular distinction add to the true glory of Washington, first time we ever heard it insinuated, that there was any or compare in simple grandeur with those dignities which disposition to conceal such transactions; nor can we con- he received from the voluntary confidence of a free people' ceive how circumstances of such unfrequent occurrence The same road to real honor, to imperishable renown, purcould possibly affect our "asserted morality." On the sued by Washington, is open to every American; contrary, indeed, the gossiping and scandal-mongering tribe of courage, virtue and patriotism. In England, talent is in this country, as elsewhere, take peculiar delight in proclaiming these affairs to the world. Because these disgraceful or tragical occurrences are not chronicled in our gazettes, as is done in England, our author would fain imply that we desired to bury them in oblivion. 66 That the Americans are absurdly irascible, when galled the road often consigned to hopeless obscurity; "cabin'd, critid, confined" by those magic lines, which the genius of arista cracy has drawn around it; while here every impediment to the display of intellectual preeminence is removed, and the humblest individual, who feels within him the stirrings of the mens divinior, knows that the Temple of Fame is placed within the reach of his honorable ambition. The learned professions, the various departments of the public service, offer to men of capacity not only opportunities of usefulness, but of earning honors and rewards, commensurate to their fair and reasonable pretensions. Surely then, it cannot be affirmed with truth, that "wealth is the only distinction in our Republic." text from St. Matthew, which we commend to his especial meditation. Our Saviour declares, that "a rich man shall hardly enter the kingdom of heaven," and that “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." If this be true, what becomes of the vaunted piety and morality of the English aristocracy, those "lilies of the field, who toil not, There are vast numbers in America, we admit, too much neither do they spin," and yet whose immense possessions engrossed in the pursuit of gain; and, doubtless, the greedy and magnificent establishments rival "Solomon in all his desire of acquisition betrays some into practices repugnant glory?" Before we dismiss this branch of our author's imto the principles of justice and fair dealing. But is not peachment of American character, we cannot forbear to this the case in every commercial country? Is it not as true animadvert on that wild spirit of speculation, which has in Britain, as in America, that to the great mass of the peo- prevailed for some years in the United States, and which ple wealth is the only attainable distinction? What stimu- certainly gives some plausibility to the charge on us of an lates the stock-jobber, the merchant, the shop-keeper of inordinate devotion to the acquisition of riches. This London, the manufacturer of Birmingham or Manchester, spirit is the offspring, not of our institutions, but of pecuthe farmer of Devon or Berkshire, to ceaseless activity? liar circumstances, and is as unfriendly to habits of regular Why do Baring and Rothschild, with wealth enough to pur- and patient industry as it is to good morals. But a better chase half Europe, continue to pile Pelion on Ossa? Un-era we trust is approaching, when the ebullition produced questionably, these men, who, to use the pompous phrase-by this temporary excitement will subside, and men will be ology of Dr. Johnson, are not content with "the potenti- content to resume the path of honest toil and gradual accuality of wealth beyond the dreams of avarice," must be devout worshippers of Mammon. The spirit of the British government indeed is like that of its people-essentially commercial and grasping. It subjugates distant millions, not for the sake of power and dominion, but as a great mercantile speculation. It seizes every desert coast; every distant island; every "point and coign of vantage" in the wide ocean, which presents a commodious position for the prosecution of its commercial adventures. The sovereign of the Celestial Empire is made to tremble in his capital, It has, heretofore, been received almost as an axiom by because he has dared to arrest the illicit trade of its sub-moral and political philosophers, that the middle class in jects in his extended dominions. From Cape Horn to Oonelaski; from Persia to the pole; through the burning climates of Africa; through "realms untravelled by the sun," its bold navigators and indefatigable agents are seen negotiating the extension of its trade, and opening new channels for its enterprize. Whence all this toil, and vigilance, and diplomatic manœuvring? to increase the profits of England; to swell its already overgrown wealth. What bat the insatiable cupidity of the people has impressed this reaching, monopolizing character on the government? mulation. All nations have been occasionally fascinated by those golden illusions of sudden wealth, with which the spirit of speculation lures its votaries into the most visionary enterprizes; and as these paroxysms, after a brief interval of infatuation, have passed off in other countries without producing durable mischief, so may we hope that America will speedily cast aside this folly, and press forward with renewed energy in the career of real improvement and solid prosperity. every community, being equally removed from the temptations of poverty and the allurements of great opulence, is uniformly the most virtuous. Our author has the hardihood to controvert this doctrine, and maintains (second series, page 150,) that "in England there is more morality among the lower class than the middling, and still more in the higher than the lower." We deem it unnecessary to dispute a point, in which he differs from so many wise men; but, if his theory be correct, and virtue, as all must admit, be the true basis of republican institutions, whence But let us scrutinize, for a moment, the political insti- the danger so much magnified by Capt. Marryatt and his tutions of England, so much idolized by Capt. Marryatt, and party, of admitting the lower class to a share of political see whether they have not some peculiar tendencies to fos-power? Admit our author's premises; concede that the ter a rapacious appetite for money. The law of primoge- middling class is too depraved, and the lower too ignorant nitare, contrived solely for the benefit of aristocracy, an- to be trusted with power, and it follows that all authority sally throws upon society thousands, disinherited and should be vested in the virtuous nobility; a consummation destitute, accustomed from childhood to all "the means which would be the beau-ideal of our author's scheme of a and appliances" of wealth, and, from their habits, totally government, where the few will think for the many. We incapable of struggling with the privations and difficulties suspect, indeed, that the praise so charily bestowed by of indigence. From the nature of things, such men become Capt. Marryatt on the moral worth of the multitude, is only venal and importunate supplicants for governmental patron- a pretext to exalt still higher the virtues of the privileged age, or are driven into a pursuit of riches, keen and insa- orders. It is a proposition verified by both theory and extable, in proportion to the strength of their artificial wants perience, that the possession of hereditary wealth and and necessities. The mercenary spirit said to be so rife power tends to produce a peculiar class of vices, nourished in America, must therefore, if there be truth in the con- by the absence of useful occupation and the adulation of clusions of Capt. Marryatt's philosophy, be still more pre- dependants. Hence the proverbial profligacy of kings; valent in Britain; and thus the observations of the German and, reasoning from the nature of man, the same causes prince, so much derided, receive unexpected confirmation must contaminate the morals of an hereditary aristocracy. from the reasoning of the work before us. Furthermore, That there are many persons of eminent worth and excelwe beg our author to remember, that all the speculations and inferences, deduced by him from the postulate of our cational cupidity, recoil with added force upon his own country, and he, surely, will not complain, that we "commend the ingredients of his poisoned chalice to his own "Our author quotes Scripture to show the corrupting Our author has paid a just tribute to the worth and refineeffect of excessive covetousness upon the human heart, ment of our ladies; yet, such is his eagerness to disparage (an effect acknowledged by the concurrent testimony of American morals, that even on this subject his remarks are both pagan and christian in all ages of the world;) and, in frequently inconsistent and illiberal. As a general truth imitation of his devout example, we will suggest a short he acknowledges that "by the morals of the women you lence among the ancient nobility and gentry of England, we have no doubt; but it is nevertheless true, that some of their brightest ornaments are the parvenus; the men, who have forced their way to rank and distinction by the momentum of their virtues and talents. profitable employment a provision for their household: yet the American citizen enjoys those moments of delightful companionship in the domestic circle, which he snatches from the turmoil of business, with as keen a relish as the proudest noble who reposes indolently in his splendid saloons, entrenched in all the forms of pomp and ceremony. Our author asserts, as confidently as if he had spent his whole life in America, that our marriages are generally the offspring of "prudence, rather than love." The truth of such a proposition could only be verified by years of close and patient observation; and yet a mere casual visitant to our shores, who, in his brief sojourn, could have seen only a few scattered points on the surface of our society, undertakes to pronounce ex cathedra on the subject. In hazard can judge of the morals of a country;" yet he avers, that rigid entail. The majority are compelled to seek in some "America is an exception." (Second series, p. 104.) Is it credible, that in a community debased by vulgarity, avarice, dishonesty, falsehood, and every species of vice, the women should have remained pure and uncorrupt? And yet our author would have the world believe, that such an anomaly in the philosophy of human nature exists in this country. Such a state of things is a moral impossibility; and this conspicuous and indisputable fact of itself furnishes a conclusive refutation of his elaborate tirade against American character. The universal deference to females, characteristic of our manners, extorts our author's reluctant commendation; yet, to qualify his praise, he alleges, that "it is a species of homage which is paying no compliment to their good sense;" "that it is an attempt to make fools of them," while, by his own admission, "it is a flat-ing this remark, however, he encountered no great risk of tery paid to the whole sex, given to all, and received as a matter of course by all." (Second series, p. 101.) How a courtesy, incorporated by universal usage into our code of politeness, should be "treating women as if they were not rational and immortal beings," and should be calculated, or designed "to make fools of them;" or how a horde of semibarbarians and sharpers, such as the Americans are described to be in this work, should be distinguished for their observance and respect towards the softer sex, are problems which we leave it to our author, in the plenitude of his ingenuity, to resolve. error; since, we doubt not, he might have affirmed, with equal truth and propriety, that the bulk of marriages throughout the world are dictated by motives of interest and convenience, rather than by any romantic feeling of affection between the parties. That the United States can furnish their full proportion of love-matches is a fair deduction from the admission of Capt. Marryatt, that the Americans are a highly imaginative people; for it is in such temperaments that ardent attachments between the sexes are most readily awakened. Our author seldom deals in panegyric in his remarks on When we consider the scope and tendency of his subse- this country; and even when he does, his praise is grudg quent remarks, we are at a loss to comprehend what our ingly bestowed, and often neutralized by some concomitast author means by his assertion (second series, p. 100,) that aspersion. He expresses the highest admiration of our "women have not that influence here, which they ought to ladies; and yet he charges them (second series, p. 105,) possess." He has the good sense to ridicule Miss Marti- "with a remarkable apathy to the sufferings of others, an neau's complaint, that our institutions have not clothed indifference to loss of life, and a fondness for politics." them with political power and privileges; he confesses that How are such odious traits as these to be reconciled with they are treated with uniform deference before, and indul- the high and estimable qualities, which he elsewhere allows gent kindness after marriage; that they are subjected to no them to possess? A woman without sympathy is a monster, tyranny or constraint in matters of conscience; and that a libel on her sex. Such, we boldly affirm, is not the genetheir moral purity is guarded with the most scrupulous care ral character of American ladies; nor are they usually adin conversation. What more would he require? In his cur-dicted to an unfeminine interference with the exciting subsory view of our domestic habits and relations, was it pos-ject of politics. Judging from our own immediate expesible for him to ascertain what influence women exercise in the circle of home, their appropriate sphere and peculiar province? How far their husbands are guided by their counsels in the management of their affairs? What support and consolation they minister to their families in the hour of misfortune? The eulogy he pronounces upon them at the expense of the other sex, is proof that their moral training is not neglected; that their minds are diligently cultivated and improved. Surely such pains would not be bestowed upon their education, by a community incapable of appreciating their value, and unwilling to concede to them their just position in society. That Capt. Marryatt was apprized of the remarkable ascendency of women among us in manners and morals, is evident from his expressed belief that the ferocious practices of the south-western states might be reformed, were the ladies to refuse their countenance to duellists and assassins. rience, we should have been disposed to pronounce a more decided negative on this last imputation, had we not seen, with feelings of regret and mortification, that, in some quarters of the Union, females had been impelled by a wid spirit of fanaticism to divest themselves of their native delicacy and modesty, and to mingle in the debates and petitions on the agitating question of slavery; a question which, considered in all its bearings and adjuncts, is the least fit for them to handle. We are still satisfied that the more respectable portion of the sex, even in the region where these discreditable scenes have been enacted, have beheld such proceedings with shame and disgust, and would blush at the idea of participating in them. We concur most heartily with our author in condemning the false delicacy and ridiculous prudery of some of our females; but we are far from admitting that such disgusting affectation is common among the sex in this country, or The habits of inordinate thrift and industry, which he that it is, in truth, a folly of exclusively Trans-Atlantic observed in the cities, our author, with his usual accuracy, growth. Without troubling ourselves with an extended resupposes to be general in the United States; and hence, search into so small a matter, we need go no further than he infers that men, absorbed in their affairs, bestow but a our author's quotation from Lady Blessington, to show that small share of their society upon their wives. Now we such pretended sticklers for extreme purity and decency are would ask, whether the men of business in England, who not unknown in England. In a tolerably wide acquaintance constitute such a large part of the population, have much with society, it has never been our fortune to meet with a leisure for domestic recreation? Whether those immense lady, whose sensitive modesty was offended by the use of multitudes embarked in the pursuits of commerce and that old-fashioned word leg; nor have we ever heard, that, manufactures, and doomed by their necessities to incessant in polite circles anywhere in the United States, such un toil, are not debarred by the engrossing nature of their oc- expression has been condemned as contraband. Our only cupations from constant intercourse with their families? complaint against our author in this matter is, that he has We have, it is true, no men of great hereditary fortune, se- grounded a general censure upon our females on a few parcured against the inroads of waste and extravagance by a ticular cases of this absurd squeamishness; a fallacy, |