North America, vol 1 | Page 5

asked whether he was commercial. Whereupon
he shook his head. "Did he want a sitting-room?" Yes, he did. "He was
a leetle tired and vanted to seet." Whereupon he was presumed to have
ordered a private room, and was shown up to the Eden I have described.

I found him there at death's door. Nothing that I can say with reference
to the social habits of the Americans can tell more against them than
the story of that Frenchman's fate tells against those of our country.
From which remarks I would wish to be understood as deprecating
offense from my American friends, if in the course of my book should
be found aught which may seem to argue against the excellence of their
institutions and the grace of their social life. Of this at any rate I can
assure them, in sober earnestness, that I admire what they have done in
the world and for the world with a true and hearty admiration; and that
whether or no all their institutions be at present excellent, and their
social life all graceful, my wishes are that they should be so, and my
convictions are that that improvement will come for which there may
perhaps even yet be some little room.
And now touching this war which had broken out between the North
and South before I left England. I would wish to explain what my
feelings were; or rather what I believe the general feelings of England
to have been before I found myself among the people by whom it was
being waged. It is very difficult for the people of any one nation to
realize the political relations of another, and to chew the cud and digest
the bearings of those external politics. But it is unjust in the one to
decide upon the political aspirations and doings of that other without
such understanding. Constantly as the name of France is in our mouths,
comparatively few Englishmen understand the way in which France is
governed; that is, how far absolute despotism prevails, and how far the
power of the one ruler is tempered, or, as it may be, hampered by the
voices and influence of others. And as regards England, how seldom is
it that in common society a foreigner is met who comprehends the
nature of her political arrangements! To a Frenchman--I do not of
course include great men who have made the subject a study,--but to
the ordinary intelligent Frenchman the thing is altogether
incomprehensible. Language, it may be said, has much to do with that.
But an American speaks English; and how often is an American met
who has combined in his mind the idea of a monarch, so called, with
that of a republic, properly so named--a combination of ideas which I
take to be necessary to the understanding of English politics! The
gentleman who scorned my wife for hugging her chains had certainly
not done so, and yet he conceived that he had studied the subject. The

matter is one most difficult of comprehension. How many Englishmen
have failed to understand accurately their own constitution, or the true
bearing of their own politics! But when this knowledge has been
attained, it has generally been filtered into the mind slowly, and has
come from the unconscious study of many years. An Englishman
handles a newspaper for a quarter of an hour daily, and daily exchanges
some few words in politics with those around him, till drop by drop the
pleasant springs of his liberty creep into his mind and water his heart;
and thus, earlier or later in life, according to the nature of his
intelligence, he understands why it is that he is at all points a free man.
But if this be so of our own politics; if it be so rare a thing to find a
foreigner who understands them in all their niceties, why is it that we
are so confident in our remarks on all the niceties of those of other
nations?
I hope that I may not be misunderstood as saying that we should not
discuss foreign politics in our press, our parliament, our public
meetings, or our private houses. No man could be mad enough to
preach such a doctrine. As regards our parliament, that is probably the
best British school of foreign politics, seeing that the subject is not
there often taken up by men who are absolutely ignorant, and that
mistakes when made are subject to a correction which is both rough
and ready. The press, though very liable to error, labors hard at its
vocation in teaching foreign politics, and spares no expense in letting in
daylight. If the light let in be sometimes moonshine, excuse may easily
be made. Where so much is attempted, there must necessarily