The Sun.
London, England, 1866-11-23 00:00:00

GRATUITIOUS SNEERS•

The old, old question, " Who can confute a
sneer ? " never was answered in the affirmative,
and it never will be. Of all expressions of inter-
course among gentlemen, sneering is the meanest
and most unbecoming. This is especially true as
applied to presumed national peculiarities. You
cannot convince those who practise them by ever
so great an amount of sneers. It would be
happy day among civilised nations when this obvious
fact should be generally admitted. There is such all
assumption of superiority on the part of the sneerer,
that it is not to be wondered at that those who know
and feel themselves tobe his equals should repudiate
him and his sneers together.
We are led to these remarks by reading the
critique in a late number of the Daily News on the
entertainment of Mr. BROWNE, known as the Arne'
rican humourist tc ARTEMUS WARD." Our surprise
is all the greater at some expressions in this article,
as the News has always shown an intelligent and
manly spirit toward America and American institu-
tions. The lectures of Mr. BROWNE are legitimate
subjects of criticism, and no one of his countrymen
objects to his being placed in the usual ordeal. What
he says and does as a caterer for the patronage of
the public is properly amenable to review, and we
are proud to be able to say that few men are better
able to stand it than "ARTEMUS WARD." But when a
newspaper steps out of its way to sneer at a whole
people under cover of a criticism of a literary per-
formance, we humbly submit that it is not according
to HOYLE.

We quote from the News :—"Mr. WARD'S de"
" scription of life amongst the Mormons is
singularly
" free from anything approaching a Yankee twang

" in the delivery."
Is the News aware that when it sneers thus at
America it sneers at England? The word " Yankee
was originally applied by the native Indians to the
English settlers of 1620, who were called by them
" Yengese," or " ..tinglise," (for English), and after-
wards Yankees. The original descendants of this
class were mostly confined to the eastern slope of
the Atlantic, known as New England, or New
Yengeseland ; and as they emigrated west and south
they carried the designation with them. Among
educated and refined people in the United States
the word Yankee is never applied as a reproach,
and is not received as such. The Yankee element
is one of the best in the American Union, and has
done more to preserve it intact, to furnish its means'
to fight its battles, to abolish its slavery, to secure
its good habits, than any other. It is altogether
too late in the day to sneer at Yankees.
" 0, wad some power the giftie gie us,
To see oursel's as ithers see us !
It wad frae mony an evil free,us,
An' fulish notion."
What of the " Yankee twang? " It is common
to imagine and then to sneer at it. But the imagi-
nation is as false as the sneer is gratuitous. There
is no more " twang " among the people in the :Se"
England quarter of America than there is in the
London part of Old England. There is not half 3S
much of it as there is in Scotland, nor a quarter
part as much as there is on the Continent. 111°
French and German nasal pronunciation is a thou'
sand times more marked than can be heard in 514
other quarter of the world. Take back your sneers'
then, Mr. News. We shall not attempt to COnfut
them. They are false. Take them back.
We quote the News again :—‘, We looked, but
" found no traces in his lecture of that desire to
r
" play into the hands of Americans who hunger aft%
" the supposed wealth of Utah, and who decry wh3..
64 they call the vices of Mormonism to conceal they
" designs upon the fruits of Mormon industry an
" thriftiness." oot
This sneering insinuation that Americans es°
express their opinions with regard to the illegal °ill.
adulterous practices of the Mormons, ninel,
every hundred of whom are Europeans, Nrit'°i,i,
being actuated by a thirst to plunder Mormon teres,
tory, is unworthy so able a paper as the Nei
at
We did not look for it in those columns. it i°
more becoming the Times. Are we to be left' for
return, to sneer at all the efforts of the English, of
the regeneration of India and Africa, and a bee"
other conquests and possessions ? Are we merely
to call polygamy a vice, and not strive to nbeii,sh
it ? Are Mormon industry and thriftiness se Pe,ti,
;e0
liar, that America, rich in territory and resource
as she already is, should covet all their lands ?,
The sneers of the News are gratuitous, anal.,es,
hope, will not be repeated.—Anglo-Anzerican TV"