variety of negro suitors. These, indeed, are | ists exhorting to amendment, or of satirists fair subjects of pride and exultation; and we endeavouring to deter from vice. Provincial nail them, without grudging, as bright trophies misgovernment from Ireland to Hindostanin the annals of the States to which they re- cruel amusements-increasing pauperismate. But do not their glories cast a deeper disgusting brutality-shameful ignoranceshade on those who have refused to follow the perversion of law-grinding taxation-brutal example and may we not now be allowed to debauchery, and many other traits equally speak of the guilt and unlawfulness of slavery, attractive, are all heaped together, as the charas their own countrymen are praised and acteristics of English society; and unsparingly boasted of for having spoken, so many years illustrated by "loose extracts from English ago? Journals," quotations from Espriella's Letters-and selections from the Parliamentary Debates. Accustomed, as we have long been, to mark the vices and miseries of our countrymen, we really cannot say that we recognise any likeness in this distorted representation; which exhibits our fair England as one great Lazar-house of moral and intellectual disease one hideous and bloated mass of sin and suffering-one festering heap of corruption, infecting the wholesome air which breathes upon it, and diffusing all around the contagion and the terror of its example.

We learn also from Mr. W., that Virginia abolished the foreign slave trade so early as 1778-Pennsylvania in 1780—Massachusetts in 1787-and Connecticut and Rhode Island in 1788. It was finally interdicted by the General Congress in 1794; and made punishable as a crime, seven years before that measure was adopted in England. We have great pleasure in stating these facts. But they all appear to us not only incongruous with the permanent existence of slavery, but as indicating those very feelings with regard to it which we have been so severly blamed for expressing.

We have no desire whatever to argue against the truth or the justice of this picture of our country; which we can assure Mr. W. we contemplate with perfect calmness and equanimity: but we are tempted to set against it the judgment of another foreigner, with whom he cannot complain of being confronted, and whose authority at this moment stands higher, perhaps with the whole civilised world, than that of any other individual. We allude to Madame de Staël-and to the splendid testimony she has borne to the character and happiness of the English nation, in her last admirable book on the Revolution of her own country. But we have spoken of this work so lately, that we shall not now recal the attention of our readers to it, further than by this general reference. We rather wish, at present, to lay before them an American authority.

We here close our answer to Mr. W.'s charges. Our readers, we fear, have been for some time tired of it: And, indeed, we have felt all along, that there was something absurd in answering gravely to such an accusation. If any regular reader of our Review could be of opinion that we were hostile to America, and desirous of fomenting hostility between her and this country, we could scarcely hope that he would change that opinion for any thing we have now been saying. But Mr. W.'s book may fall into the hands of many, in his own country at least, to whom our writings are but little known; and the imputations it contains may become known to many who never inquire into their grounds: On such persons, the statements we have now made may produce some impression-and the spirit in which they are made perhaps still In a work of great merit, entitled "A Letter more. Our labour will not have been in vain, on the Genius and Dispositions of the French if there are any that rise up from the perusal Government," published at Philadelphia in of these pages with a better opinion of their 1810, and which attracted much notice, both Transatlantic brethren, and an increased de- there and in this country, the author, in a sire to live with them in friendship and peace. strain of great eloquence and powerful reaThere still remains behind, a fair moiety soning, exhorts his country to make common of Mr. W.'s book; containing his recrimina- cause with England in the great struggle in tions on England-his expositions of "her which she was then engaged with the giant sores and blotches"--and his retort courteous power of Bonaparte, and points out the many for all the abuse which her writers have been circumstances in the character and condition pouring on this country for the last hundred of the two countries that invited them to a years. The task, we should think, must have cordial alliance. He was well aware, too, of been rather an afflicting one to a man of much the distinction we have endeavoured to point moral sensibility:-But it is gone through very out between the Court, or the Tory rulers of resolutely, and with a marvellous industry. the State, and the body of our People: and, The learned author has not only ransacked after observing that the American Governforgotten histories and files of old newspapers ment, by following his councils, might retrieve in search of disreputable transactions and de- the character of their country, he adds, "They grading crimes but has groped for the mate- will, I am quite sure, be seconded by an enrials of our dishonour, among the filth of Dr. tire correspondence of feeling, not only on Colquhoun's Collections, and the Reports of our part, but on that of the PEOPLE of Engour Prison and Police Committees-culled vi- land-whatever may be the narrow policy, or tuperative exaggerations from the records of illiberal prejudices of the British MINISTRY;" angry debates-and produced, as incontro- and, in the body of his work, he gives an vertible evidence of the excess of our guilt ample and glowing description of the charand misery, the fervid declamations of moral-acter and condition of that England of which

we have just seen so lamentable a representa- | laws, than which none more just and perfect has

tion. The whole passage is too long for insertion; but the following extracts will afford a sufficient specimen of its tone and tenor.

"A peculiar masculine character, and the utmost energy of feeling are communicated to all orders of men, by the abundance which prevails so universally, the consciousness of equal rights, the fulness of power and frame to which the nation has attained, and the beauty and robustness of the species under a climate highly favourable to the animal economy. The dignity of the rich is without insolence,the subordination of the poor with out servility. Their freedom is well guarded both from the dangers of popular licentiousness, and from the encroachments of authority.-Their national pride leads to national sympathy, and is built upon the most legitimate of all foundations-a sense of pre-eminent merit and a body of illustrious annals.

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ever been in operation; their seminaries of educa tion yielding more solid and profitable instruction than any other whatever; their eminence in literature and science-the urbanity and learning of their privileged orders-their deliberative assemblies, illustrated by so many profound statesmen, and brilliant orators. It is worse than Ingratitude in us not to sympathise with them in their present struggle, when we recollect that it is from them we derive the principal merit of our own CHARACTER the best of our own institutions-the sources of our highest enjoyments-and the light of Freedom itself, which, if they should be destroyed, will not long shed its radiance over this country."

What will Mr. Walsh say to this picture of the country he has so laboured to degrade?— and what will our readers say, when they are told that MR. WALSH HIMSELF is the author of this picture!

Whatever may be the representations of those So, however, the fact unquestionably stands. who, with little knowledge of facts, and still less-The book from which we have made the soundness or impartiality of judgment, affect to de- preceding extracts, was written and published, plore the condition of England, it is nevertheless in 1810, by the very same individual who has true, that there does not exist, and never has existed elsewhere, so beautiful and perfect a model now recriminated upon England in the volof public and private prosperity,so magnificent, ume which lies before us,-and in which he and at the same time, so solid a fabric of social hap- is pleased to speak with extreme severity of piness and national grandeur. 1 pay this just tri- the inconsistencies he has detected in our Rebute of admiration with the more pleasure, as it is view!-That some discordant or irreconcileto me in the light of an Atonement for the errors able opinions should be found in the miscel and prejudices, under which I laboured, on this sub-laneous writing of twenty years, and thirty or ject, before I enjoyed the advantage of a personal experience. A residence of nearly two years in that country, during which period, I visited and studied almost every part of it,-with no other view or pursuit than that of obtaining correct information, and, I may add, with previous studies well fitted to promote my object,-convinced me that I had been egregiously deceived. I saw no instances of individual oppression, and scarcely any individual misery but that which belongs, under any circumstances of our being, to the infirmity of all human institutions."—

The agriculture of England is confessedly su: perior to that of any other part of the world, and the condition of those who are engaged in the cultivation of the soil, incontestibly preferable to that of the same class in any other section of Europe. An inexhaustible source of admiration and delight is found in the unrivalled beauty, as well as richness and fruitfulness of their husbandry; the effects of which are heightened by the magnificent parks and noble mansions of the opulent proprietors: by picturesque gardens upon the largest scale, and disposed with the most exquisite taste: and by Gothic remains no less admirable in their structure than venerable for their antiquity. The neat cot. tage, the substantial farm-house, the splendid villa, are constantly rising to the sight, surrounded by the most choice and poetical attributes of the landscape. The vision is not more delightfully recreated by the rural scenery, than the moral sense is gratified, and the understanding elevated by the institutions of this great country. The first and continued exclamation of an American who contemplates them with unbiassed judgment, is

Salve! magna Parens frugum, Saturnia tellus!
Magna virum.

"It appears something not less than Impious to desire the ruin of this people, when you view the height to which they have carried the comforts, the knowledge, and the virtue of our species: the extent and number of their foundations of charity; their skill in the mechanic arts, by the improvement of which alone they have conferred inestimable benefits on mankind; the masculine morality, the lofty sense of independence, the sober and rational piety which are found in all classes; their impartial, decorous, and able administration of a code of

forty individuals under no effective control, may easily be imagined, and pardoned, we should think, without any great stretch of liberality. But such a transmutation of sentiments on the same identical subject-such a reversal of the poles of the same identical head, we confess has never before come under our observation; and is parallel to nothing that we can recollect, but the memorable transformation of Bottom, in the Midsummer Night's Dream. Nine years, to be sure, had intervened between the first and the second publication. But all the guilt and all the misery which is so diligently developed in the last, had been contracted before the first was thought of; and all the injuries, and provocations too, by which the exposition of them has lately become a duty. Mr. W. knew perfectly, in 1810, how England had behaved to her American colonies before the war of independence, and in what spirit she had begun and carried on that war:

our Poor-rates and taxes, our bull-baitings and swindlings, were then nearly as visible as now. Mr. Colquhoun, had, before that time, put forth his Political Estimate of our prostitutes and pickpockets; and the worthy Laureate his authentic Letters on the bad state of our par liaments and manufactures. Nay, the EDINBURGH REVIEW had committed the worst of those offences which now make hatred to England the duty of all true Americans, and had expressed little of that zeal for her friendship which appears in its subsequent Numbers. The Reviews of the American Transactions, and Mr. Barlow's Epic, of Adams' Letters, and Marshall's History, had all appeared before this time-and but very few of the articles in which the future greatness of that country is predicted, and her singular prosperity extolled.

How then is it to be accounted for, that Mr. W. should have taken such a favourable view

are willing occasionally to lend a similar as. sistance to others, and speak freely and fairly of what appear to us to be the faults and er rors, as well as the virtues and merits, of all who may be in any way affected by our observations; or Mr. Walsh, who will admit no faults in his own country, and no good qualities in ours-sets down the mere extension of our domestic censures to their corresponding objects abroad, to the score of national rancour and partiality; and can find no better use for those mutual admonitions, which should lead to mutual amendment or generous emulation, than to improve them into occasions of mutual animosity and deliberate hatred?

We have generally blamed what we thought against them, and feeling grateful to any foworthy of blame in America, without any ex-reign auxiliary who will help us to reason, to press reference to parallel cases in England, rail, or to shame our countrymen out of them, or any invidious comparisons. Their books we have criticised just as should have done those of any other country; and in speaking more generally of their literature and manners, we have rather brought them into competition with those of Europe in general, than those of our own country in particular. When we have made any comparative estimate of our own advantages and theirs, we can say with confidence, that it has been far oftener in their favour than against them; and, after repeatedly noticing their preferable condition as to taxes, elections, sufficiency of employment, public economy, freedom of publication, and many other points of paramount importance, it surely was but fair that we should notice, in their turn, those merits or advantages which might reasonably be claimed for ourselves, and bring into view our superiority in eminent authors, and the extinction and annihilation of slavery in every part of our realm.

This extreme impatience, even of merited blame from the mouth of a stranger-this still more extraordinary abstinence from any hint or acknowledgment of error on the part of her intelligent defender, is a trait too remark. able not to call for some observation;-and We would also remark, that while we have we think we can see in it one of the worst and thus praised America far more than we have most unfortunate consequences of a republican blamed her and reproached ourselves far government. It is the misfortune of Sovemore bitterly than we have ever reproached reigns in general, that they are fed with flather, Mr. W., while he affects to be merely tery till they loathe the wholesome truth, and following our example, has heaped abuse on come to resent, as the bitterest of all offences, us without one grain of commendation-and any insinuation of their errors, or intimation praised his own country extravagantly, with- of their dangers. But of all sovereigns, the out admitting one fault or imperfection. Now, Sovereign People is most obnoxious to this corthis is not a fair way of retorting the proceed-ruption, and most fatally injured by its prevaings, even of the Quarterly; for they have occasionally given some praise to America, and have constantly spoken ill enough of the paupers, and radicals, and reformers of England. But as to us, and the great body of the nation which thinks with us, it is a proceeding without the colour of justice or the shadow of apology-and is not a less flagrant indication of impatience or bad humour, than the marvellous assumption which runs through the whole argument, that it is an unpardonable insult and an injury to find any fault with any thing in America,-must necessarily proceed from national spite and animosity, and affords, whether true or false, sufficient reason for endeavouring to excite a corresponding animosity against our nation. Such, however, is the scope and plan of Mr. W.'s whole work. Whenever he thinks that his country has been erroneously accused, he points out the error with sufficient keenness and asperity-but when he is aware that the imputation is just and unanswerable, instead of joining his rebuke or regret to those of her foreign censors, he turns fiercely and vindictively on the parallel infirmities of this country-as if those also had not been marked with reprobation, and without admitting that the censure was merited, or hoping that it might work amendment, complains in the bitterest terms of malignity, and arouses his country to revenge!

Which, then, we would ask, is the most fair and reasonable, or which the most truly patriotic?-We, who, admitting our own manifold faults and corruptions, testifying loudly

lence. In America, every thing depends on their suffrages, and their favour and support; and accordingly it would appear, that they are pampered with constant adulation, from the rival suitors to their favour-so that no one will venture to tell them of their faults; and moralists, even of the austere character of Mr. W., dare not venture to whisper a syllable to their prejudice. It is thus, and thus only, that we can account for the strange sensitiveness which seems to prevail among them on the lightest sound of disapprobation, and for the acrimony with which, what would pass anywhere else for very mild admonitions, are repelled and resented. It is obvious, however, that nothing can be so injurious to the character either of an individual or a nation, as this constant and paltry cockering of praise; and that the want of any native censor, makes it more a duty for the moralists of other countries to take them under their charge, and let them know now and then what other people think and say of them.

We are anxious to part with Mr. W. in good humour;-but we must say that we rather wish he would not go on with the work he has begun at least if it is to be pursued in the spirit which breathes in the part now before us. Nor is it so much to his polemic and vindictive tone that we object, as this tendency to adulation, this passionate, vapouring, rhetorical style of amplifying and exaggerating the felicities of his country. In point of talent and knowledge and industry, we have no doubt that he is eminently qualified for the task-(though we must tell him that he does

not write so well now as when he left Eng-attach to their good opinion, and the anxiety land) but no man will ever write a book of we feel to prevent any national repulsion from authority on the institutions and resources of being aggravated by a misapprehension of our his country, who does not add some of the sentiments, or rather of those of that great virtues of a Censor to those of a Patriot-or body of the English nation of which we are rather, who does not feel, that the noblest, as here the organ. In what we have now written, well as the most difficult part of patriotism is there may be much that requires explanation that which prefers his country's Good to its and much, we fear, that is liable to miscon Favour, and is more directed to reform its struction.-The spirit in which it is written, vices, than to cherish the pride of its virtues. however, cannot, we think, be misunderstood With foreign nations, too, this tone of fondness We cannot descend to little cavils and alterand self-admiration is always suspected; and cations; and have no leisure to maintain a most commonly ridiculous-while calm and controversy about words and phrases. We steady claims of merit, interspersed with ac- have an unfeigned respect and affection for knowledgments of faults, are sure to obtain the free people of America; and we mean credit, and to raise the estimation both of the honestly to pledge ourselves for that of the writer and of his country. The ridicule, too, better part of our own country. We are very which naturally attaches to this vehement self- proud of the extensive circulation of our Jourlaudation, must insensibly contract a darker nal in that great country, and the importance shade of contempt, when it comes to be sus- that is there attached to it. But we should pected that it does not proceed from mere be undeserving of this favour, if we could honest vanity, but from a poor fear of giving submit to seek it by any mean practices, offence to power-sheer want of courage, in either of flattery or of dissimulation; and feel short (in the wiser part at least of the popu- persuaded that we shall not only best deserve, lation), to let their foolish AHMO know what but most surely obtain, the confidence and rein their hearts they think of him. spect of Mr. W. and his countrymen, by And now we must at length close this very speaking freely what we sincerely think of long article-the very length and earnestness them, and treating them exactly as we treat of which, we hope, will go some way to satisfy that nation to which we are here accused of our American brethren of the importance we being too favourable.

(November, 1822.)

Bracebridge Hall; or, the Humorists. By GEOFFREY CRAYON, Gent. Author of "The Sketch Book," &c. 2 vols. 8vo. pp. 800. Murray. London: 1822.*

We have received so much pleasure from | with the same happy selection and limited this book, that we think ourselves bound in gratitude, as well as justice, to make a public acknowledgment of it,—and seek to repay, by a little kind notice, the great obligations we shall ever feel to the author. These amiable sentiments, however, we fear, will scarcely furnish us with materials for an interesting article-and we suspect we have not much else to say, that has not already occurred to most of our readers-or, indeed, been said by ourselves with reference to his former publication. For nothing in the world can be so complete as the identity of the author in these two productions-identity not of style merely and character, but of merit also, both in kind and degree, and in the sort and extent of popularity which that merit has created-not merely the same good sense and the same good humour directed to the same good ends, and

My heart is still so much in the subject of the preceding paper, that I am tempted to add this to it; chiefly for the sake of the powerful backing which my English exhortation to amity among brethren, is there shown to have received from the most amiable and elegant of American writers. I had said nearly the same things in a previous review of "The Sketch Book," and should have reprinted that article also, had it not been made up chiefly of extracts, with which I do not think it quite fair to fill up this publication.

variety, but the same proportion of things that seem scarcely to depend on the individualthe same luck, as well as the same labour, and an equal share of felicities to enhance the fair returns of judicious industry. There are few things, we imagine, so rare as this sustained level of excellence in the works of a popular writer-or, at least, if it does exist now and then in rerum natura, there is scarcely any thing that is so seldom allowed. When an author has once gained a large share of public attention, when his name is once up among a herd of idle readers, they can never be brought to believe that one who has risen so far can ever remain stationary. In their estimation, he must either rise farther, or begin immediately to descend; so that, when he ventures before these prepossessed judges with a new work, it is always discovered, either that he has infinitely surpassed himself, or, in the far greater number of cases, that there is a sad falling off, and that he is hastening to the end of his career. In this way it may in general be presumed, that an author who is admitted by the public not to have fallen off in a second work, has in reality improved upon his first; and has truly proved his title to a higher place, by merely maintaining that which he had formerly