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.

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, "A peculiar masculine character, and the utmost illustrated by so many profound statesmen, and energy of feeling are communicated to all orders of brilliant orators. It is worse than Ingratitude in men,-by the abundance which prevails so univerus not to sympathise with them in their present sally, the consciousness of equal rights, the ful- struggle, when we recollect that it is from them we ness of power and frame to which the nation has derive the principal merit of our own CHARACTER attained, and the beauty and robustness of the the best of our own institutions-the sources of our species under a climate highly favourable to the highest enjoyments and the light of Freedom itself, animal economy. The dignity of the rich is with- which, if they should be destroyed, will not long out insolence, the subordination of the poor with-shed its radiance over this country." 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.

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 vol of 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 ex

clamation of an American who contemplates them
with unbiassed judgment, is-

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

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 senti
ments 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 trans-
Dream. Nine years, to be sure, had intervened
formation of Bottom, in the Midsummer Night's
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;
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:

and

and swindlings, were then nearly as visible as our Poor-rates and taxes, our bull-baitings now. Mr. Colquhoun, had, before that time, put forth his Political Estimate of our prostitutes and pick pockets; and the worthy Laureate his authentic Letters on the bad state of our par liaments and manufactures. Nay, the EDIN BURGH 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

"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 predicted, and her singular prosperity extolled. How then is it to be accounted for, that Mr. tial, decorous, and able administration of a code of W. should have taken such a favourable view

piety which are found in all classes; their impar

-

of our state and merits in 1810, and so very | with any degree of fairness or temper, and different a one in 1819? There is but one had not announced that they were brought explanation that occurs to us. Mr. W., as forward as incentives to hostility and national appears from the passages just quoted, had alienation, we should have been so far from been originally very much of the opinion to complaining of him, that we should have been which he has now returned-For he tells us, heartily thankful for the services of such an that he considers the tribute of admiration auxiliary in our holy war against vice and which he there offers to our excellence, as an corruption; and rejoiced to obtain the testiAtonement for the errors and prejudices under mony of an impartial observer, in corroborawhich he laboured till he came among us,- tion of our own earnest admonitions. Even and hints pretty plainly, that he had formerly as it is, we are inclined to think that this exDeen ungrateful enough to disown all obliga-position of our infirmities will rather do good tion to our race, and impious enough even to wish for our ruin. Now, from the tenor of the work before us, compared with these passages, it is pretty plain, we think, that Mr. W. has just relapsed into those damnable heresies, which we fear are epidemic in his part of the country-and from which nothing is so likely to deliver him, as a repetition of the same remedy by which they were formerly removed. Let him come again then to England, and try the effect of a second course of "personal experience and observation"-let him make another pilgrimage to Mecca, and observe whether his faith is not restored and confirmed - let him, like the Indians of his own world, Visit the Tombs of his Fathers in the old land, and see whether he can there abjure the friendship of their other children? If he will venture himself among us for another two years' residence, we can promise him that he will find in substance the same England that he left:-Our laws and our landscapes-our industry and urbanity;-our charities, our learning, and our personal beauty, he will find unaltered and unimpaired ;-and we think we can even engage, that he shall find also a still greater "correspondence of feeling in the body of our People," and not a less disposition to welcome an accomplished stranger who comes to get rid of errors and prejudices, and to learn -or, if he pleases, to teach, the great lessons of a generous and indulgent philanthropy.

We have done, however, with this topic.We have a considerable contempt for the argumentum ad hominem in any case-and have no desire to urge it further at present. The truth is, that neither of Mr. W.'s portraitures of us appears to be very accurate. We are painted en beau in the one, and en laid in the other. The particular traits in each may be given with tolerable truth-but the whole truth most certainly is to be found in neither; and it will not even do to take them together -any more than it would do to make a correct likeness, by patching or compounding together a flattering portrait and a monstrous caricature. We have but a word or two, indeed, to add on the general subject, before we take a final farewell of this discussion.

We admit, that many of the charges which Mr. W. has here made against our country, are justly made-and that for many of the things with which he has reproached us, there is just cause of reproach. It would be strange, indeed, if we were to do otherwise considering that it is from our pages that he has on many occasions borrowed the charge and the reproach. If he had stated them therefore,

than harm, so far as it produces any effect at
all, in this country. Among our national vices,
we have long reckoned an insolent and over-
weening opinion of our own universal superi-
ority; and though it really does not belong to
America to reproach us with this fault, and
though the ludicrous exaggeration of Mr. W.'s
charge is sure very greatly to weaken his au-
thority, still such an alarming catalogue of
our faults and follies may have some effect,
as a wholesome mortification of our vanity.
It is with a view to its probable effect in his
own country, and to his avowal of the effect
he wishes it to produce there, that we consider
it as deserving of all reprobation;-and there-
fore beg leave to make one or two very short
remarks on its manifest injustice, and indeed
absurdity, in so far as relates to ourselves, and
that great majority of the country whom we
believe to concur in our sentiments. The ob-
ject of this violent invective on England is,
according to the author's own admission, to
excite a spirit of animosity in America, to
meet and revenge that which other invectives
on our part are said to indicate here; and also
to show the flagrant injustice and malignity
of the said invectives:-And this is the shape
of the argument-What right have you to
abuse us for keeping and whipping slaves,
when you yourselves whip your soldiers, and
were so slow to give up your slave trade, and
use your subjects so ill in India and Ireland?
-or what right have you to call our Marshall
a dull historian, when you have a Belsham and
a Gifford who are still duller? Now, though
this argument would never show that whipping
slaves was a right thing, or that Mr. Marshall
was not a dull writer, it might be a very smart
and embarrassing retort to these among us
who had defended our slave trade or our
military floggings, or our treatment of Ireland
and India-or who had held out Messrs. Bel-
sham and Gifford as pattern historians, and
ornaments of our national literature. But what
meaning or effect can it have when addressed
to those who have always testified against the
wickedness and the folly of the practices
complained of? and who have treated the
Ultra-Whig and the Ultra-Tory historian with
equal scorn and reproach? We have a right
to censure cruelty and dulness abroad, because
we have censured them with more and more
frequent severity at home;--and their home
existence, though it may prove indeed that
our censures have not yet been effectual in
producing amendment, can afford no sort of
reason for not extending them where they
might be more attended to.

We have generally blamed what we thought worthy of blame in America, without any express reference to parallel cases in England, 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.

against them, and feeling grateful to any fo reign auxiliary who will help us to reason, ta rail, or to shame our countrymen out of them, 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 ob servations;-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?

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 preva ings, even of the Quarterly; for they have lence. In America, every thing depends on occasionally given some praise to America, their suffrages, and their favour and support; and have constantly spoken ill enough of the and accordingly it would appear, that they are paupers, and radicals, and reformers of Eng- pampered with constant adulation, from the land. But as to us, and the great body of the rival suitors to their favour-so that no one nation which thinks with us, it is a proceeding will venture to tell them of their faults; and without the colour of justice or the shadow moralists, even of the austere character of of apology—and is not a less flagrant indica- Mr. W., dare not venture to whisper a syllable tion of impatience or bad humour, than the to their prejudice. It is thus, and thus only, marvellous assumption which runs through that we can account for the strange sensitivethe whole argument, that it is an unpardon-ness which seems to prevail among them on able 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 maniold faults and corruptions, testifying loudly

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, how ever, 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 coun tries 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 vin dictive tone that we object, as this tendency to adulation, this passionate, vapouring, rhe torical style of amplifying and exaggerating the felicities of his country. In point of talent and knowledge and industry, doubt that he is eminently qualified for the task-(though we must tell him that he does

we have no

not write so well now as when he left England)-but no man will ever write a book of authority on the institutions and resources of his country, who does not add some of the virtues of a Censor to those of a Patriot-or rather, who does not feel, that the noblest, as well as the most difficult part of patriotism is that which prefers his country's Good to its Favour, and is more directed to reform its vices, than to cherish the pride of its virtues. With foreign nations, too, this tone of fondness and self-admiration is always suspected; and most commonly ridiculous-while calm and steady claims of merit, interspersed with acknowledgments of faults, are sure to obtain credit, and to raise the estimation both of the writer and of his country. The ridicule, too, which naturally attaches to this vehement selflaudation, must insensibly contract a darker shade of contempt, when it comes to be suspected that it does not proceed from mere honest vanity, but from a poor fear of giving offence to power-sheer want of courage, in short (in the wiser part at least of the population), to let their foolish AHMOΣ know what in their hearts they think of him.

And now we must at length close this very long article-the very length and earnestness of which, we hope, will go some way to satisfy our American brethren of the importance we

attach to their good opinion, and the anxiety
we feel to prevent any national repulsion from
being aggravated by a misapprehension of our
sentiments, or rather of those of that great
body of the English nation of which we are
here the organ. In what we have now written,
there may be much that requires explanation
and much, we fear, that is liable to miscon-
struction.-The spirit in which it is written,
however, cannot, we think, be misunderstood
We cannot descend to little cavils and alter-
cations; and have no leisure to maintain a
controversy about words and phrases. We
have an unfeigned respect and affection for
the free people of America; and we mean
honestly to pledge ourselves for that of the
better part of our own country.
We are very
proud of the extensive circulation of our Jour-
nal in that great country, and the importance
that is there attached to it. But we should
be undeserving of this favour, if we could
submit to seek it by any mean practices,
either of flattery or of dissimulation; and feel
persuaded that we shall not only best deserve,
but most surely obtain, the confidence and re-
spect of Mr. W. and his countrymen, by
speaking freely what we sincerely think of
them, and treating them exactly as we treat
that nation to which we are here accused of
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 all up this publication.

variety, but the same proportion of things that seem scarcely to depend on the individual— the 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 mere ly maintaining that which he had formerly

earned. We would not have Mr. Crayon, parasites who are in raptures with every body

however, plume himself too much upon this sage observation: for though we, and other great lights of public judgment, have decided that his former level has been maintained in this work with the most marvellous precision, we must whisper in his ear that the million are not exactly of that opinion; and that the common buzz among the idle and impatient critics of the drawing-room is, that, in comparison with the Sketch Book, it is rather monotonous and languid; and there is too little variety of characters for two thick volumes; and that the said few characters come on so often, and stay so long, that the gentlest reader detects himself in rejoicing at being done with them. The premises of this enthymem we do not much dispute; but the conclusion, for all that, is wrong: For, in spite of these defects, Bracebridge Hall is quite as good as the Sketch Book; and Mr. C. may take comfort,-if he is humble enough to be comforted with such an assurance-and trust to us that it will be quite as popular, and that he still holds his own with the efficient body of his English readers.

they meet, and ingratiate themselves in general society by an unmanly suppression of all honest indignation, and a timid avoidance of all subjects of disagreement. Upon due con sideration, however, we are now satisfied that this was an unjust and unworthy interpreta tion. An author who comes deliberately be fore the public with certain select monologues of doctrine and discussion, is not at all in the condition of a man in common society; on whom various overtures of baseness and folly are daily obtruded, and to whose sense and honour appeals are perpetually made, which must be manfully answered, as honour and conscience suggest. The author, on the other hand, has no questions to answer, and no society to select: his professed object is to instruct and improve the world-and his real one, if he is tolerably honest, is nothing worse than to promote his own fame and fortune by succeeding in that which he professes. Now, there are but two ways that we have ever heard of by which men may be improvedeither by cultivating and encouraging their amiable propensities, or by shaming and The great charm and peculiarity of this frightening them out of those that are vicious; work consists now, as on former occasions, in and there can be but little doubt, we should the singular sweetness of the composition, and imagine, which of the two offices is the highthe mildness of the sentiments,-sicklied over est and most eligible-since the one is left in perhaps a little, now and then, with that cloy- a great measure to Hell and the hangman,ing heaviness into which unvaried sweetness and for the other, we are taught chiefly to is too apt to subside. The rythm and melody look to Heaven, and all that is angelic upon of the sentences is certainly excessive: As it earth. The most perfect moral discipline not only gives an air of mannerism, from its would be that, no doubt, in which both were uniformity, but raises too strong an impres- combined; but one is generally as much as sion of the labour that must have been be- human energy is equal to; and, in fact, they stowed, and the importance which must have have commonly been divided in practice, with been attached to that which is, after all, but out surmise of blame. And truly, if men have a secondary attribute to good writing. It is been hailed as great public benefactors, merevery ill-natured in us, however, to object to ly for having beat tyrants into moderation, or what has given us so much pleasure; for we coxcombs into good manners, we must be perhappen to be very intense and sensitive ad-mitted to think, that one whose vocation is mirers of those soft harmonies of studied speech in which this author is so apt to indulge; and have caught ourselves, oftener than we shall confess, neglecting his excellent matter, to lap ourselves in the liquid music of his periods and letting ourselves float passively down the mellow falls and windings of his soft-flowing sentences, with a delight not inferior to that which we derive from fine versification.

We should reproach ourselves still more, however, and with better reason, if we were to persist in the objection which we were also at first inclined to take, to the extraordinary kindliness and disarming gentleness of all this author's views and suggestions; and we only refer to it now, for the purpose of answering, and discrediting it, with any of our readers to whom also it may happen to have occurred. It first struck us as an objection to the anthor's courage and sincerity. It was qui.e unnatural, we said to ourselves, for any body to be always on such very amiable terms with his fellow-creatures; and this air of eternal philanthropy could be nothing but a pretence put on to bring hiniself into favour; and then we proceeded to assimilate him to those silken

different may be allowed to have deserved well of his kind, although he should have confined his efforts to teaching them mutual charity and forbearance, and only sought to repress their evil passions, by strengthening the springs and enlarging the sphere of those that are generous and kindly.

The objection in this general form, there fore, we soon found could not be maintained: -But, as we still felt a little secret spite lin gering within us at our author's universal affability, we set about questioning ourselves more strictly as to its true nature and tenden cy; and think we at last succeeded in tracing it to an eager desire to see so powerful a pen and such great popularity employed in de molishing those errors and abuses to which we had been accustomed to refer most of the unhappiness of our country. Though we love his gentleness and urbanity on the whole, we should have been very well pleased to see him a little rude and surly, now and then, to our particular opponents; and could not but think it showed a want of spirit and discrini nation that he did not mark his sense of their demerits, by making them an exception to his general system of toleration and indulgence.