me; it is envy, or jealousy, not labour, that is degrading; I respect myself, my soul, my hope, too much to be contending about comparative trifles; nay, according to the Christian law, I love my neighbour too much, and I hold my fellow Christian in too much honour, to think of any injury or indignity to him; let him be honoured according to his merits; let him be prospered according to the good pleasure of God: I am thankful for his welfare: I am happy in my own." What a loftyminded labourer were that! He might walk behind the plough; but the conqueror in his triumphal procession never walked in a path more glorious. Let the rich man reciprocate that noble feeling, assuming nothing unbecoming the relation of one Christian man to another, thankful for his prosperity, and humble, not proud, under it; and what a state of society would this be! What manners, what graces, both of character and behaviour, would spring from it!

It

And then, again, as to the influence which the whole body of the people the mighty majority-possesses over the welfare of each individual-it needs to be subjected to the same control. Public opinion in America is a power fearful to contemplate. There is no aristocracy with us, no throne that is above it. It must be considerate, liberal, and candid, or it will inflict extreme misery and injustice. We have escaped in America from the despotism of the one, and the few; it remains to be seen, whether we shall escape the despotism of the many. Nay, at this moment, and with all our boasts of liberty, there is less private and social freedom in America, than there is in Europe! In some respects this is well; but surely not in all respects. The sovereignty of the many, the sovereignty of public opinion, may become as oppressive and vexatious as ever was the jealousy of arbitrary power. may beat down all manly independence, all individual freedom-and especially in those who seek for office, or are ambitious to stand well with society; it may make slaves of us as effectually, as any tyranny that ever existed. It may make us a mean, tame, time-serving people, who shall not dare to do anything, even in trifles, that is contrary to the popular will. I confess, that in this view, I look with considerable apprehension upon those great associations, which, however good their end, create a public opinion about their objects, that renders it hazardous to any man's reputation, to dissent from them. I fear that under this influence, charity, and all the virtues, will be liable to lose something of their manliness, freedom, and beauty; that they may become, to some extent, hollow-hearted, and false-that charity may be promoted at the expense of real generosity, and temperance at the expense of sincerity, and much seeming good at the expense of much secret evil.

Here, then, we want firm and liberal Christian principle, to withstand these dangerous tendencies. We want it to enable some to set themselves firmly, whether in politics or religion, against the popular will. Yes, we want men who will sacrifice themselves-who will be martyrsrather than sacrifice their own free and single-minded judgment. I might hold such a man to be wrong in his opinion; but unless he were very wrong indeed, I should set off his independence, in the account of social influences, as more than a balance for his error. Error can be corrected; but mental slavery seals and locks up the very fountain of truth. We want newspapers that shall dare to be true to individual conviction. And would that there were such a thing as an independent

party in politics-that useless, worthless, powerless, contemptible thing, as the mere politician would regard it-yet it would do a good that the politician does not think of. It would set an example worth a thousand party triumphs. And I fancy, too, that it would act as a balance wheel, to control the violence of party movements. The old Roman virtue consisted in the devotion, the sacrifice of the individual to the state. The redeeming virtue of modern liberty must consist in the devotion, and if need be, the sacrifice of the individual to TRUTH! And let me add, that the supreme danger to apprehend, is that of losing all mental and moral independence!

CHAPTER XXVII.

JOURNEY TO LIVERPOOL-SENSITIVENESS OF AMERICANS TO PUBLIC OPINION ABROAD - FAREWELL TO ENGLAND-PASSAGE TO AMERICA.

BIRMINGHAM, April 12.-From London to Birmingham I have ridden through a country clothed with living verdure. And yet England is several degrees north of any part of the United States; and this is April. The verdure now is of one deep hue. It is very different in Summer. When I came to Liverpool last year, I was struck with the light green of the fields on the banks of the Mersey. It may have been caused by recent mowing. What attracted my attention afterward, in travelling through England, was the variety of shades upon the landscape. I presume that this arises from the greater variety of grasses, grain, and herbs, cultivated; and also from a more perfect cultivation, that gives to the scythe and the sickle more frequent crops. The country wears every livery of green, from the darkest to the lightest, through the whole Summer. Oh! those rich glades; those noble groves and clumps of trees on every hillside; those cliffs, with their soft screening of ivy; those velvet lawns, with many a sunny nook and shaded avenue, sweet enough to draw the footsteps of the fairies; those embowered cottages; those glorious parks; those magnificent castles—shall I not— shall I never see them again?

The lowest class of operatives in Birmingham and Manchester is said to be the most desperate and dangerous population in England; and I was very desirous to see a specimen of it. So I said to a gentleman here one day, "I want to see something of this horrid population in Birmingham, that I hear so much about. Pray, take me, now, to the worst part of your city." He paused in his walk and looked at me, as if he did not at all comprehend my meaning. "Why, you know," said I, "these desperate operatives-these people that are sunk so low, as I am told, in poverty and misery. Mr. -and Mr. —, spoke of them as if they were wild animals, that, if uncaged, would break forth, and devour, and destroy, on every side; and would be almost justified in doing so." The gentleman looked at me with a surprise that would have been displeasure, I think, but for his politeness. "Indeed he knew of no such people in Birmingham. He could take me to no such place. -There," he said, pointing down a lane that was swarming with women and children, ill clad and dirty enough to merit a pretty strong description—“ there are people as poor and miserable as any, perhaps, in Bir

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mingham, but they are neither desperate nor dangerous." They, perhaps, if consulted, would have told another story! Heaven forbid that events should!

But it is curious, though natural, this habit of seeing things connected with ourselves, under aspects so widely different from those which present themselves to a stranger, or a distant observer. It really requires an effort of philosophical abstraction, to break that spell of association by which we make ourselves responsible, in a sort, for everything that belongs to our country or our town, to our class, sect, or coterie. For this reason, the unprejudiced stranger, or traveller, is, in the proportion of his knowledge, likely to be nearer right than the people of the country which he describes.

But it is a poor rule that will not work both ways; and there is no doubt that we might well take home this observation to ourselves in America. The Trollopes, Halls, and Hamiltons, have certainly told us many truths; by which, it may be hoped, that our manners, at least, will be mended. Nations have habits like individuals; they have eccentricities, which propagate themselves by the mere force of habit and custom, without any original reason. I am sure I know of nothing in our climate, or constitution, that accounts for that abomination, called spitting; many among us are as free from it as any other people. That we are somewhat given to talking of invoices and prices, has, indeed, an intelligible cause; it "cometh of the multitude of business;" and the fearful rapidity with which we eat our dinners, especially in public places, proceeds, perhaps, from the same cause. We are a business people, in a sense which does not, and never did appertain to any other people. Every man with us has a stake in what is going on around him. This must, of course, give a turn to general conversation, and produce an effect on the general manners and character. It may do evil in some respects; but it is certainly the spring of many energies. If you put a man's fortunes into his own hands, you put a life into him, which, though it may do harm to his manners or his morals, is certainly better for a country than to have one large class in it, above the cares of business, and another and larger class, like the operatives of Birmingham, sunk far enough beneath its profits. Better, I say-better, that is, for the development of the energies of a whole people-better for the promotion of ultimate general happiness, and I believe of virtue, too, I believe it, and yet the universal competition and success of business in America, expose us to many dangers which are certainly to be regarded with a serious eye. I could wish that the strictures of our foreign brethren, on all these points, could have come to us with something less of extravagance, that they might have done us more good; that they might have wounded less, and worked more kindly for our improvement. But thus it is, that imperfect beings must help one another, through much imperfection. Minds are flung into the fermenting mass of public opinion, to struggle together, and to strike many a rash and passionate blow; but out of error shall come truth, out of conflicting prejudices pure reason, out of darkness and confusion, light and order.

Our national sensitiveness under such blows, deserves, perhaps, more consideration than it has received. Our situation has been peculiar. No other nation has had its temper put to the same trial. Our country has been a sort of terra incognita to the civilized world.

The new

forms of society and of political constitution in America, have been the subject of the keenest foreign scrutiny. We have been obliged to be passive in the case-placed upon the table, with half a dozen surgical operators around us, who amuse themselves with our wincing. Quite surprised they are that we feel the knife so much; and the irritation of the patient they count a very good joke. Let them take our place, and they might find the difference between operating, and being operated upon. The truth is, there has been no fair exchange of blows. We read everything that is written about us; we pay that compliment to foreign criticism, and to the literature of older nations. But our productions do not obtain the same currency with them. Nor have we the same number of needy and idle gentlemen to go abroad, with an intention to pay their expenses, and put money in their pockets, by writing an entertaining story, or a clever satire upon the people they visit. Besides, is there no sensitiveness in England or France to foreign opinion? Half of the wars between those nations, have found more than half of the original prompting and long continued exasperation in the irritation occasioned by their mutual contempt. And yet they are nations standing in no peculiar position before the world, possessing a known character and established reputation, and feeling themselves entitled to return, with immediate reaction, blow for blow, and scorn for

scorn.

Our situation has been different. We were a new people, under novel circumstances, rising to take our place in the society of nations. We did not know exactly how we were to be received by the old families around us. America, though she knew that her children were essentially well-instructed and well-bred, yet felt, that they were not, perhaps, so well trained to the conventionalism and bienseance of the beau monde, and she did not like it, that Mr. John Bull-a haughty, and self-sufficient old gentleman, on the opposite shore-or that dowager old lady across the Straits of Dover, should stare superciliously, or toss the head disdainfully, when they passed by her.

Nor is this all. We are warmly attached to our political system. We have a sentiment of loyalty about it. The constitution is our king. And I hold this warm sentiment towards a mere abstraction that can confer no titles nor pensions upon us, to be quite as respectable as loyalty to a king; even without supposing what a clever English writer fancies to be true-viz. that the love of the king is only a sort of reflected self-love: being, he says, an intense pleasure in seeing a being just like themselves, clothed with such majesty-the very apotheosis of poor, common-place humanity. At any rate, I think we have a right to claim some consideration for this feeling about our political system. And it is precisely this that is both directly and indirectly attacked by our critics abroad. It is this especially that we defend, when we resist the assaults that are made upon our national character. And we think that we are bound to defend it, if anybody is; and that for higher reasons than those which concern our national reputation. We believe that it is a good system: and we, too, have set in modern times, the first example of adopting it. It is the very post, in fact, around which the war of public opinion is to rage, for a century to come; and ill would it become us to shrink from our part in the contest. Heaven grant that we may do something better than

PUBLIC OPINION.-ENGLAND.

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dispute! that we may furnish that best of arguments for the popular system, an illustration, in our own example, of its benefits!

That we may do so, I am willing to give a hearing to all reasonable admonitions from abroad. It is evident, indeed, that a new form of public opinion is rising in the world; nations are to stand at its bar. Hitherto, public opinion has acted chiefly within the boundaries of the countries and states where it has existed. It has been a most efficient and useful power, on the part of the people, to control the government, and to correct the errors of fashion or habit, that arise among themselves. But now, public opinion is travelling upon swift-winged packets, or steam vessels, and railroads, far beyond its former bounds. The facilities of communication between nations, are rapidly increasing. I believe the time is not far distant, when steam ships will pass from Halifax to Valencia in a week; and guests from New York may dine in London, and the contrary, on invitation of a fortnight's standing. Our railroads will soon stretch from New York to Boston-to Portland -to the Penobscot—and, ere long, to Halifax. With the facilities, the disposition to foreign travel will increase; and if the civilized world may be left at peace, its increasing prosperity and wealth will supply unexampled means. Nations will yet become acquainted with one another, and feel the force of each other's opinion; as districts of the same country have, in times past. It will be a mighty power, and it must be beneficial. It must act upon a broad scale, and will not be, like village opinion, a vexatious, and almost personal interference with private life. It must be mainly sound and wholesome; it cannot skulk into lanes and bypaths, like a penny newspaper; its rebuke will be flung abroad upon the winds of heaven; and no noble act of any government -none that can bear the light, need fear it. It must be powerful. Nothing stung Bonaparte to such vexation, as the London journals. So let it be. Let every unrighteous government fear something more immediate than the faint echoes of distant history. Let the outraged rights of humanity speak in thunders from every quarter of the heavens. Let a summoning voice come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and call every ruthless despot and oppressor before THE BAR OF THE WORLD, to answer!

LIVERPOOL, April 18.-At the parting point, I cannot help saying that I feel ties to England, that I did not expect. It is curious, and could not have been anticipated, but I believe that one may, all in the natural course of things, make more friendships in one year abroad, than he would in ten years at home. It seems as if a thousand distrusts and difficulties were removed, as well with one's own countrymen abroad, as with strangers. From the little I have seen and from the much that I am able to infer, I feel that society in England is clothed with many, many charms. And I know individuals in this fair and blessed isle, to make whose acquaintance and friendship is well worth a voyage across the Atlantic. God bless them! Indeed, I have gone to the length of making poetry, in my enthusiasm about England. Blessings upon it!-devout and grateful, if not poetic. Britain is to me no more a notion, but a being. With farewell tears, I shall gaze upon her receding shores, and say, and for ever say, "Peace be within her gates, and prosperity in her palaces!"

April 24.-To-day I set sail for America.