ART. VI. An Appeal from the Judgments of Great Britain respecting the United States of America. Part First. Containing an Historical Outline of their Merits and Wrongs as Colonies, and Strictures on the Calumnies of British Writers. By ROBERT WALSH, Esq. 8vo. pp. 505. Philadelphia and London, 1819. [Review-May, 1820.]

ONE great staple of this book is a vehement, and, we really think, an unjust attack on the principles of this Journal. Yet we take part, on the whole, with the author :-and heartily wish him success in the great object of vindicating his country from unmerited aspersions, and trying to make us, in England, ashamed of the vices and defects which he has taken the trouble to point out in our national character and institutions. In this part of his design we cordially concur-and shall at all times be glad to co-operate. But there is another part of it, and we are sorry to say a principal and avowed part, of which we cannot speak in terms of too strong regret and reprobation—and that is, a design to excite and propagate among his countrymen, a general animosity to the British name, by way of counteracting, or rather revenging, the animosity which he very erroneously supposes to be generally entertained by the English against them.

That this is, in itself, and under any circumstances, an unworthy, an unwise, and even a criminal object, we think we could demonstrate to the satisfaction of Mr. W. himself, and all his reasonable adherents; but it is better, perhaps, to endeavour, in the first place, to correct the misapprehensions, and dispel the delusions in which this disposition has its foundation, and, at all events, to set them the example of perfect good humour and fairness, in a discussion where the parties perhaps will never be entirely agreed; and where those who are now to be heard have the strongest conviction of being injuriously misrepresented. If we felt any soreness, indeed, on the score of this author's imputations, or had any desire to lessen the just effect of his representations, it would have been enough for us, we believe, to have let them alone. For, without some such help as ours, the work really does not seem calculated to make any great impression in this quarter of the world. It is not only, as the author has candidly observed of it, a very clumsy book,' heavily written and abominably printed,-but the only material part of it-the only part about which any body can now be supposed to care very much, either here or in America-is overlaid and buried under a huge mass of historical compilation, which would have little chance of attracting readers at the present moment, even if much better digested than it is in the volume before us.

The substantial question is, what has been the true character and condition of the United States since they became an independent nation, and what is likely to be their condition in future? And to elucidate this question, the learned author has thought fit to premise about 200 very close printed pages, upon their merits as colonies, and the harsh treatment they then received from the mother country! Of this large historical sketch, we cannot say either that it is very correctly drawn, or very faithfully coloured. It presents us with no connected narrative, or interesting deduction of events-but is, in truth, a mere heap of indigested quotations from common books, of good and of bad authority-inartificially cemented together by a loose and angry commentary. We are not aware, indeed, that there are in this part of the work, either any new statements, or any new views or opinions; the facts being mostly taken from Chalmers's Annals, and Burke's European Settlements; and the authorities for the good conduct and ill treatment of the colonies, being chiefly the Parliamentary Debates and Brougham's Colonial Policy.-But, in good truth, these historical recollections will go but a little way in determining that great practical and most important question, which it is Mr. W.'s intention, as well as ours, to discuss-What are, and what ought to be, the Dispositions of England and America towards each other?And the general facts as to the origin and colonial history of the latter, in so far as they bear upon this question, really do not admit of much dispute. The most important of their settlements were unquestionably founded by the friends of civil and religious liberty -who, though somewhat precise and puritanical, were, in the main, a sturdy and sagacious race of people, not readily to be cajoled out of the blessings they had sought through so many sacrifices, and ready at all times manfully and resolutely to assert them against all invaders. As to the mother country, again, without claiming for her any romantic tenderness or generosity towards those hardy offsets, we think we may say, that she oppressed and domineered over them much less than any other modern nation has done over such settlements-that she allowed them, for the most part, liberal charters and constitutions, and was kind enough to leave them very much to themselves;-and although she did manifest, now and then, a disposition to encroach on their privileges, their rights were, on the whole, very tolerably respected-so that they grew up to a state of prosperity, and a familiarity with freedom, in all its divisions, which was not only without parallel in any similar establishment, but probably could not have been attained had they been earlier left to their own guidance and protection. This is all that we ask for England, on a review of her colonial policy, and her conduct before the war; and this, we think, no candid and well-informed person can reasonably refuse her.

As to the war itself, the motives in which it originated, and the spirit in which it was carried on, it cannot now be necessary to say any thing-or, at least, when we say that having once been begun, we think that it terminated as the friends of Justice and Liberty must have wished it to terminate, we conceive that Mr. W. can require no other explanation. That this result, however, should have left a soreness upon both sides, and especially on that which had not been soothed by success, is what all men must have expected. But, upon the whole, we firmly believe, that this was far slighter and less durable than has generally been imagined; and was likely very speedily to have been entirely effaced by those ancient recollections of kindness and kindred which could not fail to recur, and by that still more powerful feeling, to which every day was likely to add strength, of their common interests as free and as commercial countries, and of the substantial conformity of their national character, and of their sentiments, upon most topics of public and of private right. The healing operation, however, of these causes was unfortunately thwarted and retarded by the heats that rose out of the French revolution, and the new interests and new relations which it appeared for a time to create :-And the hostilities in which we were at last involved with America herself-though the opinions of her people, as well as our own, were deeply divided upon both questions-served still further to embitter the general feeling, and to keep alive the memory of animosities that should not have been so long remembered. At last came peace-and the spirit, but not the prosperity of peace; and the distresses and commercial embarrassments of both countries threw both into bad humour, and unfortunately hurried both into a system of jealous and illiberal policy, by which that bad humour was aggravated, and received an unfortunate direction.

In this exasperated state of the national temper, and, we do think, too much under its influence, Mr. Walsh has thought himself called upon to vindicate his country from the aspersions of English writers; and after arraigning them, generally, of the most incredible ignorance, and atrocious malignity, he proceeds to state, that the EDINBURGH and QUARTERLY Reviews, in particular, have been incessantly labouring to traduce the character of America, and have lately broken out into such excesses of obloquy,' as can no longer be endured; and, in particular, that the prospect of a large emigration to the United States has thrown us all into such 'paroxysms of spite and jealousy,' that we have engaged in a scheme of systematic defamation that sets truth and consistency alike at defiance. To counteract this nefarious scheme, Mr. W. has taken the field-not so much to refute or to retort-not for the purpose of pointing out our errors, or exposing our unfairness, but, rather, if we understand him aright, of retaliating on us the

abuse we have been so long pouring on others. In his preface, accordingly, he fairly avows it to be his intention to act on the offensive to carry the war into the enemy's quarters, and to make reprisals upon the honour and character of England, in revenge for the insults which, he will have it, her writers have heaped on his country. He therefore proposes to point out 'the sores and

blotches of the British nation' to the scorn and detestation of his countrymen; and having assumed, that it is the intention of 'Great Britain to educate her youth in sentiments of the most rancorous hostility to America,' he assures us, that this design ' will and must be met with corresponding sentiments on his side of 'the water.'

Now, though we cannot applaud the generosity, or even the humanity of these sentiments-though we think that the American government and people, if at all deserving of the eulogy which Mr. W. has here bestowed upon them, might, like Cromwell, have felt themselves too strong to care about paper shot-and though we cannot but feel, that a more temperate and candid tone would have carried more weight, as well as more magnanimity with it, we must yet begin by admitting, that America has cause of complaint; -and that nothing can be more despicable and disgusting, than the scurrility with which she has been assailed, by a portion of the press of this country-and that, disgraceful as these publications are, they speak the sense of a powerful and active party in the nation. All this, and more than this, we have no wish, and no intention to deny. But we do wish most anxiously to impress upon Mr. W. and his adherents, to beware how they believe that this party speaks the sense of the British Nation—or that their sentiments on this, or on many other occasions, are,in any degree in accordance with those of the body of the people. On the contrary, we are firmly persuaded, that a great majority of the nation, numerically considered, and a still greater majority of the intelligent and enlightened persons whose influence and authority cannot fail in the long run to govern her councils, would disclaim all sympathy with any part of these opinions; and actually look on the miserable libels in question, not only with the scorn and disgust to which Mr. W. would consign them, but with a sense of shame from which his situation fortunately exempts him, and a sorrow and regret of which unfortunately he seems too little susceptible.

It is a fact which can require no proof, even in America, that there is a party in this country not friendly to political liberty, and decidedly hostile to all extension of popular rights,-which, if it does not grudge to its own people the powers and privileges which are bestowed on them by the Constitution, is at least for confining their exercise within the narrowest limits-which thinks

the peace and well-being of society in no danger from any thing but popular encroachments, and holds the only safe or desirable government to be that of a pretty pure and unincumbered Monarchy, supported by a vast revenue and a powerful army, and obeyed by a people just enlightened enough to be orderly and industrious, but no way curious as to questions of right-and never presuming to judge of the conduct of their superiors.

Now, it is quite true that this Party dislikes America, and is apt enough to decry and insult her. Its adherents never have forgiven the success of her war of independence-the loss of a nominal sovereignty, or perhaps of a real power of vexing and oppressing -her supposed rivalry in trade-and, above all, the happiness and tranquillity which she enjoys under a republican form of government. Such a spectacle of democratical prosperity is unspeakably mortifying to their high monarchical principles, and is easily imagined to be dangerous to their security. Their first wish, and, for a time, their darling hope, was, that the infant States would quarrel among themselves, and be thankful to be again received under our protection, as a refuge from military despotism. Since that hope was lost, it would have satisfied them to find that their republican institutions had made them poor and turbulent and depraved-incapable of civil wisdom, regardless of national honour, and as intractable to their own elected rulers as they had been to their hereditary sovereign. To those who were capable of such wishes and such expectations, it is easy to conceive, that the happiness and good order of the United States-the wisdom and authority of their government-and the unparalleled rapidity of their progress in wealth, population and refinement, must have been but an ungrateful spectacle; and most especially, that the splendid and steady success of the freest and most popular form of government that ever was established in the world, must have struck the most lively alarm into the hearts of all those who were anxious to have it believed that the People could never interfere in politics but to their ruin, and that the smallest addition to the democratical influence, recognised in the theory at least of the British Constitution, must lead to the immediate destruction of peace and property, morality and religion.

That there are journals in this country, and journals too of great and deserved reputation in other respects, who have spoken the language of the party we have now described, and that in a tone of singular intemperance and offence, we most readily admit. But need we tell Mr. W. or any ordinarily well informed individual of his countrymen, that neither this party nor their journalists can be allowed to stand for the people of England?—that it is notorious that there is among that people another and a far more numerous party, whose sentiments are at all points opposed to those of the