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About twenty or twenty-five years since there was a book published in London, called Francis the Philanthropist. There was one admirable chapter in it, that applies to the case before us. All the rest of the book was mere trash.

Two travellers, Grumpall and Belcour, set out from London on a tour to the continent. They meet the same people; travel in the same stages; put up at the same houses; pay the same charges; and experience the same adventures precisely; as they never separated from each other. Yet Grumpall has not one moment of enjoyment, nor Belcour one moment of unhappiness in the whole tour. There is no mystery in this. It is all perfectly natural. Grumpall was disposed to render himself miserable by his querulousness; and Belcour was resolved to enjoy as much happiness as Fortune put in his power.

Those who travel much, must meet with many Grumpalls. It is not, however, my intention to insinuate that all the complaints of travellers partake of the Grumpallian character. By no means. There is vast room for improvement in the management of stages and of taverns. But I believe that more than one half the murmurs are without sufficient foundation.— Idem, p. 531.

A MISERABLE PREJUDICE.-YANKEE TRICKS.-This is a very significant phrase, and one in very general use. It conveys to the mind of the hearer an idea of a degree of depravity peculiar to the people of New England, from which their more upright brethren in the middle and southern states claim a total exemption. The latter are pure and immaculate, unstained with any thing in the slightest degree approaching to yan

keeism.

Let us examine this point fearlessly. Let us ascertain, as far as we can, on what foundation the charge rests. If that be solid, let it remain unassailed, and be received without controversy. But if it rest upon a sandy and delusive basis, let it be consigned to oblivion, with other prejudices equally untenable.

National prejudices are very easily formed, and nicknames as easily applied. They are, however, eradicated with great difficulty. When once adopted, every day serves to corroborate them; because every little incident that occurs, and affords the smallest countenance to them, or will at all admit of being

strained to that effect, is tortured to prop and buttress them up, right or wrong.

It is not difficult to perceive how this prejudice arose. The tide of migration has generally directed its course from New England to the middle and western states, and very little from the latter to the former. The reason of this is obvious. The soil of New England is not so luxuriant as that of some of the other states. The population is much crowded. This state of things naturally produces the effect above stated. As mankind. is now, and has always been, made up of good and bad, and a pretty reasonable proportion of the latter every where, it would be wonderful if, among the hosts that swarm out of New England, there should not be some depraved and worthless characters. Wherever these appear, they are cited as corroborations "strong as proofs from holy writ," to confirm the general character of the whole nation; and thus one or two millions of people bear an opprobrious stigma from the turpitude of a few.

The middle and southern states have never disgorged upon New England the off-scourings of their cities, nor their fugitives from justice, in any very considerable degree. If they had, buckskin tricks might in Boston, or Portsmouth, or Portland, be as proverbial, as Yankee tricks in New York or Philadelphia. But let a philosopher, or a citizen of the world, examine the records of our criminal courts, and he will find, that the triumph we pretend to, over our New England brethren, is not as indisputably just and correct, as some of us may have supposed. Let us bear in mind the elegant, the instructive, and the universally applicable lesson held out by the parable of the pharisee and the publican.

I have travelled very often through New England. And when I first visited the country, I was a slave to the miserable prejudices that so generally prevail respecting its inhabitants. I imagined that a large proportion of them were sharpers, solely intent upon deception and fraud. I have lived to see the extent of my error. I am proud to acknowledge it, and to do justice, as far as these feeble effusions can do justice, to the much injured character of a most respectable nation. I have beheld with delight the decency, the neatness, the elegance of their dwellings-the order, the decorum, the propriety, the urbanity, and the hospitality of their manners-the intelligence and good information even of the lowest orders of their

peasantry, the early urbanity of their smallest children, in whom the rudiments of politeness are so far instilled, that they uniformly stop and respectfully salute the passing stranger-the republican simplicity and the good sense of their municipal regulations generally-the very successful struggle they have maintained against the sterility of an unkind soil-the ardour of their spirit of enterprise-their unceasing and unwearied industry. Having repeatedly seen-and having as repeatedly admired all these things-is it very extraordinary that I assert, without disparagement to the merits and claims of the citizens of the other States, that the yeomanry of New England are the pride and the glory of the United States, and are not perhaps excelled for the long train of social virtues, by any equal number of people under the canopy of heaven?-Idem, p. 533.

IRISH IMPUDENCE-A VILE LIBEL.-This phrase is equally proverbial, and equally well founded with the former. It arose nearly in the same manner-from judging of the character of an entire nation by the misconduct of a few of its most worthless people. To question, however, the correctness of the imputation it conveys, would by many liberal persons be ascribed to the ne plus ultra of folly and effrontery. Of such enlightened judges the censure is not very formidable. Let me, maugre their fulminations, offer a few reflections upon this topic. It is to be hoped they will be read with candour and liberality. They are, the reader may rest assured, the result of long reflection upon the point in question-and, even if they should be totally erroneous, as they are really not intended to offend, the writer presumes upon the indulgence and the lenity of his fellow citizens.

An Irish boor, it is admitted, is as rude, and as saucy, and as ignorant, and as impudent, as an English boor-or as a German boor. He cannot easily be more so. And this is surely enough of all conscience. But is the Irishman of any rank or standing in society, more impertinent, more obtrusive, or more impudent, than the man of any other nation, of the same standing? Let the reader look round among his Hibernian acquaintance-and, laying aside his ancient prejudices, answer this question fairly and candidly. I hesitate not to assert, his reply will be in the negative.

Armed

I go farther. I know I tread on delicate ground—and that I shall raise a hornet's nest about my ears. I care not. with truth, I shall meet their stings unappalled. I venture, then, to assert, that I know very few instances among other nations, of young men of decent parentage, liberal education, and handsome natural endowments, in whose cheeks you can so readily excite the crimson blush of modesty, as in those of an Irishman. Start not, reader. I do but state a fact, however it may offer violence to your opinion. If there be any exception, it is among the Scotch. The high opinion an Englishman entertains of the consequence and dignity of his nation, inspires him with a boldness and confidence that forbid him to blush. A similar cause produces a similar effect upon a Frenchman. And nature by a certain dinginess of complexion has debarred whole nations, not necessary to be named, from the faculty of blushing.-Idem, p. 534.

CURIOUS FORMS OF EXPRESSION.-Throughout the British dominions, and in most parts of the United States, the epithet, likely, conveys an idea of mere personal beauty, unconnected with any moral or intellectual quality. And the notorious Chartres, or the traitor Arnold, might be likely, or even very likely. But "they order these matters" very differently in New England. There a man or woman as deformed as a Hottentot or an ourang outang, may be likely, or very likely. The epithet there refers to moral character. And a stranger is sometimes struck with hearing a person with one eye, a Bardolphian nose, which courts a close acquaintance with its neighbouring promontory, the chin, a hollow cheek, a cadaverous countenance, and other emblems of ugliness, equally delectable, styled a likely man.

In most parts of the world, people expect things that are to come. But in Pennsylvania, more particularly in the metropolis, we expect things that are past. One man tells another, he expects he has had a very pleasant ride, or that his vessel has made a good voyage, or that Mr. A. or Miss B. has made a very fortunate match, &c.-I have, indeed, heard a wise man of Gotham say he expected Alexander the Macedonian was the greatest conqueror of antiquity.-Idem, p. 535.

“The man who builds, and wants wherewith to pay,
Provides a home from which to run away."

In passing through New England, particularly Massachu setts and New Hampshire, a traveller is forcibly struck with the splendid and superb scale on which very many of the private houses are built. They far exceed, in a general way, the scale of expense adopted in this State, where our men of property expend perhaps not more than three or four or five per cent. on an average for show and parade in the structure of their houses. Whereas, in New England, there are many houses in which the expenses for ostentation are probably fifteen, and some twenty or twenty-five per cent, of the whole amount. The Pennsylvania system, though not so dashing or attractive, is at all events by far the most prudent.

A Philadelphian will probably feel his pride hurt to be assured that in Salem, Newburyport, Portsmouth, and Portland, there are probably more, or at least as many large and magnificent houses, as in this city. The contemplation of those houses in Portland, excites a train of melancholy ideas. Portland suffered extremely during the late suspension of business throughout the United States; and a considerable portion of the splendid houses belonged to persons who then became bankrupts. Some of them, I was informed, owed their destruction to the sums lavished upon these castles, and to the great increase in the high style of living that necessarily arose from thence-Idem, p. 536.

PROSTITUTION OF THE THEATRE. Those who do not look beyond the mere surface of things, are prone to censure managers with great severity, when theatres, which ought to be held sacred for exhibiting the grandest effusions of the human mind, are prostituted to puppet-shows, rope-dancing, pantomimes, and exhibitions of elephants, &c. Whatever of censure is due to this preposterous perversion, attaches elsewhere. It falls on those who frequent theatres. Dr. Johnson, in a prologue which he wrote for Garrick, places this idea in the strongest point of light.

"Ah let not censure term our fate our choice:
The stage but echoes back the public voice.
The drama's laws the drama's patrons give :

For those who live to please, must please to live."

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