The Sun.
London, England, 1867-06-18 00:00:00

ANGLO-AMERICAN PREJUDICE.

Undoubtedly a strong prejudice against Americans
is general in England. The enlightened and highly
educated, and the large body of the working glasses
are exempt from this feeling, but it certainly exists
more or less through all other grades of the nation.
It has, in its turn, begotten a dislike t England on
-the other side of the Atlantic. Difsliqudiee has
largely influenced the national policy of both
nations, and may yet work disagreeable effects to
the world. It is a curious fact that such a senti-
ment should exist, considering the relationship and
the relative positions of the countries. England is
a grand old historical monarchy, whose parentage
might well be claimed with pride by any offspring.
The United States is the most rising nation of the
world ; now a first-class power, and with a future
which threatens to overshadow all other powers
combined. This young nation has attained to the
highest eminence in arms, arts, letters, industry, and
commerce. To boast of such an offspring any nation
might be excused. That Americans are proud of
their English descent, that England is proud of the
expansion of her race on the new continent, is true.
How, then, can this extraordinary and unnatural
feeling be accounted for? This inquiry has never
received the earnest and careful research to which
its importance entitles it. Some are content with
shutting their eyes and assuring their hearers that
they cannot see such a feeling. Others accept it as
the natural—the common order of things. Many
fasten it all on one side, and talk of Yankee hate to
everything English—or the Britisher's dislike to
everything American. An American is apt to be-
lieve that JOHN BULL remembers his defeats in the
War of Independence, and in thatof 1812, with a cer-
tain amount of bitterness that in a measure. excuses
dislike. In this he is wholly mistaken. The ave-
rage of Englishmen know nothing of either War,
and those who do, generally rejoice in the result of
the War of Independence, which, had it gone the
other way, might have nearly touched their own
liberties. What amount of jealousy enters into this
feeling? We believe very little. There may be a
certain degree of fear on the part of England, as she
becomes more impressed with the idea that Ameri-
can policy is grasping and unscrupulous in the
means of exerting its enormous and increasing
power. If England did not fear for herself, she
would rather rejoice in the prosperity of the
Great Republic. The interests of the two peoples
nowhere clash, but, on the contrary, arc closely
allied. They interchange commodities to a vast
extent ; they have a common language, literature,
Laws, and religion ; they have a common origin ;
they are proud of each other,—still, with no clash-
ing interests, there is a mutual dislike. Discuss
America with any Englishman, and after a free ac-
knowledgment of the splendid qualities of his Trans-
Atlantic cousins, and of the vastness of their re-
sources, he often. enda-by the remark that he "does
not like the Yankees." Yet, when asked why?
many are puzzled to reply. " They are so con-
ceited, so bumptious, so opinionated, so full of brag."
But most take refuge in the in quoque--" because
they hate us." It is clear that the individual
American carries within and around him the elec-
tric fluid by which he communicates antipathy to
the common type of JOIIN BULL. Now what is
this undefined feeling by. which the American un-
consciously creates this sentiment in the English
mind ? We believe it is generated from the contact
of things new with things old—from manners
formed under wholly different circumstances and
influences, begetting on each side a strong spice of
aversion. The denizen of the desert feels
a contempt for the occupant of the city ; the hunter
looks down on the quiet plodder of the village; the
colonist who has forced his way in the untrodden
wilds of nature by his own right hand, to a position
of affluence, elbows the throng in the streets of
Loudon with a strong sense of superiority. The
very confidence and self-sufficiency of the man, gives
him an offensive air, which thane around resent.
The feeling communicated by au American, is by
au Australian colonist communicated in a still
greater
muchreate disliked. Le
rdegree; and the
Bhecoosltoonnisbteisitnhveardeefdorebyquaitne
as
inroad of men from the Far
tNest,e two—the there will
contact
ean
antipathy generated between h
of things new with things old. Let Bostonians
penetrate to the F.ir West, they will be received
with a certain patronising air of superiority and
protection by those they regard as their inferiors,
developing as strongly the same antipathy. Thus
they can learn the source of the feeling that makes
Englishman, as a general rule, dislike Americans,
and the origin of the self-confidence and superiority
assumed by those who have through life trusted
more to themselves, being thrown more on their
own resources, and less restrined by the circum-
stances and conventionalities of older communities.
If there exists between the highly civilised Eastern
States, and the more wild and natural Western
communities, a certain antipathy where their insti-
tutions and nationality are identical, this feeling is
pretty certain to be extended in even a stronger
degree to the old country, separated by an ocean
—monarchical and aristocratic in its tendencies—
and insular and prejudiced in all itsjnotions. Uncon-
trolled individual liberty will create a freedom of
manner, repulsive to those who have been trained
under greater restraints, while the very convention-
alities are regarded by the former with contempt as
fetters to which the latter are mere slaves. And to
a certain extent the unrestrained son of free-
dom is right in considering the Englishman a
slave of conventionality. The very hat an Ameri-
can wears may beget a prejudice. If his long hair
falls over his shoulder, if he speaks through his nose,
and uses expressions unfamiliar to the English ear,
the prejudice may arise, while the Englishman may
as unconsciously be creating a feeling somewhat
akin to this in the American's mind. Those im-
bued with this prejudice, who in books and in
the columns of newspapers give their ideas to
the world, continue to foster and make national
their own impressions. Hence, to a certain degree,
it has been unfortunate for the two countries that
their language should be common. When an Eng-
lishman and an American meet as strangers they
are sensible of a difference, and yet there is so much
similarity that it sounds strange when each speaks
of the other as a foreigner. If they truly regarded
each other as foreigners, they would allow and be
better prepared for the dissimilarity, but their in-
tercourse takes more the form of a chance meeting
of a high Tory and a Radical ; and though the Eng-
lishman may be liberal in his ideas, and the Ameri-
can conservative, the one assumes a Tory guise, the
other that of a Republican. Thus they meet on
terms quite distinct from those of other nationa-
lities, and feel instincti:vely, unless they have mixed
much in the society of their class in each other's
country, that in the minds of both, there is an
A.Dglo-dineriau prej —An glo Anierimn Times

Mr. HAI:MIDGE moved as an amendment tha t
the consideration of the half-yearly report of the
directors be postponed until the shareholders at the
special meeting had considered and determined the
course to be taken by the directors in respect to the
bills now before Parliament affecting the company.
lie was willing that the meeting should be ad-,
journed, but before they went into the considera-
tion of any bill the directors should be allowed to
call the committees of the various interests together,
and endeavour to comp to some arrangement with
them. He, for one, could not concur in the direc-
tors' bill.

Mr. TURNER seconded the amendment. He
thought the discussion on the half-yearly report
could not be finished in an hour as proposed,
be-
tween
12 and 1 on the 27th inst., and that the ad-
journed half-yearly meeting ought not to be held
on the same day as the Wharncliffe meeting, be-
cause it would be impossible to discuss both pies-
tioTnshoprcopll meArilßy.
AN said they could postponeoon v
tlliiethdisit-
cussion on the report, or they could go
until they concluded the business of the ordinary
meeting. They could then proceed with the busi-
ness of the Wharncliffe meeting. It was a mistake
to suppose the discussion on the report would be
confined to an hour; there was no such intention.
Mr. HODGKINSON, M.P., a director, said it would
be very unfair to absent shareholders to proceed at
present with any discussion, as it was fully under-
stood that the meeting was to be further adjourned
for 10 days, till the 27th inst., when there would be
ample time to discuss the report and accounts and
dispose of the business. With regard to stopping
all Parliamentary proceedings, as proposed by Mr .
Knight, the company's bill was now before the com-
mittee of the Commons, the greater portion of the
expense had been already incurred, and as the ob-
ject of the bill was to enable the company to stay
law proceedings and to settle their affairs, it was
evidently a less evil to go on with the bill in Par-
liament than by stopping, as proposed, to ianne-,
diately encounter 46 Chancery suits.
The amendment was negatived.
Mr. TURNER then gave notice for the next meet-
ing that in the event of the select committee of the
House of Commons reporting the preamble of the
London, Chatham, and Dover (No. 1) Bill pro-
moted by the directors proved, he would at the
meeting on the 27th inst. move that the bill be not
agreed to by the shareholders, and that no authority
be given to proceed with the same ; that in the event
of the committee of the House of Commons report-
ing the preamble of 'the London, Chatham, and
Dover (No. 4) Bill promoted by the committee of
main-line shareholders proved, he would move that
the directors be requested to instruct the company's
solicitors to co-operate and use their best efforts to
get the same passed in the present SCS.SiOn.
The meeting was then adjourned to the 27th inst.

WOLVERHAMPTON AND WALSALL.
A IVharncliffe meeting of this company was held
yesterday at the Westerminster Palace Hotel, for
the purpose of considering the provisions of a bill
now before Parliament to authorise the company
to make a deviation from their authorised railway
at Walsall. The Earl of Lichfield was in the chair.
The Solicitor read the heads of the bill, from.
which it appeared that the deviation would be two
miles seven chains in extent, and, while being a
great improvement on the line originally laid out,
would afford more accommodation to the public.
The London and North-Western Company had
power to appoint two directors.
The bill was unanimously approved, and a vote of
thanks to the chairman concluded the proceedings.

MAURITIUS.
.The traffic returns on the Mauritius Government
lines, 66 miles in length, amounted, for the five
weeks ending May 12, to £4,731, and for the cor-
responding five weeks last year to £6,336, showing
a decrease of £1,605.

MELBOURNE AND HOBSON'S BAY UNITED.
The traffic returns on this company's line, 17
miles in length, a-nouuted for the four weeks end-
ing April 18 to £6,493 for passengers, &c., and
£2,131 for goods, &c.—total, £8,627 ; and for the
corresponding four weeks in 1866 to £10,374, show-
ing a decrease of £1,747.

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.—
`• oLk) SAM SMITH," late of " The Mail Coach,"
Shepherd's Bush, now of the White Hart, Acton, middiesex,
begs to intorm his friends and neighbours that the LATEST
EDITION of "THE SUN" can be seen at his house as
above.