The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-11-26 00:00:00

OUR PORTFOLIO.-N&. X

If it is seldom that your reviewer peruses the entire of the
work which he undertakes to criticise, it is stilt more rare to
find him making a candid acknowledgment of the fact. We
wish to place ourselves out of the number of those to whom
this remark :is applicable, and in order effectually to do so,
we shall begin by saying, that we have never even handled
more than one of the four volumes of the work of which we
are about to say something. Reader, have you ever had to
do with odd volumes? If you have, you may probably agree
with us, that there is a great deal to be collected from an
odd volume. For our part we profess to be something of a
connoiseur in this odd branch of literature, having long in-
dulged hi the secret luxury of a collector. A, clever writer
will make himself known, even in a fragment of his work,
and if we can obtain, no more of him than a few dig
. .
membra—if like the lc • _ .

books of Livy

eat classic, all else that bore the
has perished—the value of what retrial,.
and our " odd volume" becomes a treasi:.
price. On the other hand, if the author be tt
manner, and tasteless in his disse
enough of him in a single volume
of his labours ; we may be content to form our opinion of
this Hercules, not by his foot, but by his toe, and instead of
desiring to wrap ourselves all round in a wet blanket, we may
be happy to divest ourselves even of the small end that has
fallen in our way. Thus far then we would justify expound.
ing from an odd volume ; and now to the work, to the notice
of which we have made this prelusion—Alexis de Torque-
ville's Democracy in America. nn,• - -

Tress of his

Cations, we shall 1.

of this, then

is all that we have looked into ; but
us. M. de Tocqueville is a member of the en—
' puties, a member of the Institute of France, &c.
we make no doubt a very clever personage; hut shall w,
this account waste our time in sifting a whole bushel of chat
for the sake of three grains of wheat? Your Frenchmen
too often deem themselves profound when they are only
muddy;—philosophical when they are only frivolous; and it
is not merely a matter of taste, but an affair of sound judg-
ment and superior discrimination, when Englishmen put
from them such inanities as quite unworthy of men who de-
light chiefly in what is solid and important. It is not that
M. de Tocqueville does not favour us occasionally with very
excellent observations ; it would be scarcely possible for one
loan to write so much, and not sometimes
thing striking or novel ; but we .2-
lation and systematising upon any trifling accident—.
cessant elaboration to reduce every fact, however ins 4,
cant, to some principle—his evident passion for what
calls " general ideas,"—a passion which, he tells us, is inch
genous to his country; all this, we say, renders him as a
writer most uncongenial to our English taste. He furnishes
the key to our dislike in a passage in which the character of
the English and American mind is contrasted, and that of
both countries with the national genius of the French : we
shall transcribe it :

hit upon

" The Americans are much more addicted to the
general ideas than the English, and entertain a much greater
relish for them. This contrast become more striking
still, if we fix our eyes on our own r 6 of the world, and
compare together the two most enlightened nations which
inhabit it. It would seem as if the mind of the English
could only tear itself reluctantly and painfully away from the
observation of particular facts, to rise, from them to their
causes ; and that it only generalises in e-:'-
inongst the French, on the contrary,
ideas would seem to have grown to se
it must be satisfied on every occasion,
morning when I awake, that some
has just been discovered, which I never mentioned before,
There is not a mediocre scribbler who does not by his hand,
at discovering truths, applicable to a great kingdom, and who
is very ill pleased with himself if he does not succeed in
compressing the human race into the compass of an article."
Just so, M. de Tocqueville ; and though we are far from
counting you as a " mediocre scribbler", yet you partake of
the passion of your countrymen ; you too are a hunter after
" general ideas", and if you do not seek to compress the
" human race into an article", yet you lead us into inter-
' minable discussions with no other view, that we can perceive
than to convert Brother Jonathan, not into a military we
mender, but a genera/proposition—and to make" Demr
in America" the subject of a number of propositie
neralities, which it costs much time to make
we clutch we are not sure that we hold by any firm te..
and which, when held by the best, are not worth the chase
To such "general ideas", you say, truly, that we English-
men are but little addicted ; and we pique ourselves upon the
fact. Sentiment, or generality, is unquestionably not the
characteristic of the English mind—speaking with reference
to the great mass of the people ; it may probably arise from
coldness of temperament ; but we do not count the absence
of it a defect. By not being actuated by this passion we
escape a number of errors, and are more easily induced to
mind, each of us, our own business. We do not chatter so
fast as Frenchmen—
While others toil with philosophic force,
Their nimble nonsense takes a shorter course ;
Flings at your head conviction in the lump,
And gains remote conclusions at a jump.
We are in the habit of doing whatever we undertaia with se
respectable measure of success. We are eminentl,s practical
people ; but yet there are a few tolerable thinkers, poets, and
philosophers amongst us, enough at all eveuts to make a
decent show upon an emergency.
Sufficient, however, on this point. We have said enough
to show why one volume of " Democracy in America" suf-
ficed us. When we take up a book which professes to be
about a people, we confess that we are so intensely Bull-ish
that we prefer a few facts to an author's fancies, and feel
more desire to see a few leading propositions carefully
wrought out and rigidly demonstrated, than to be conducted,
through a multitude of conjectures, to some meagre gene-.
rality not worth a farthing, it' we could even believe it to be
true'—and, after we have closed the book, to have nothing
remaining in onr mind hut a certain dim and indefinite phan.
tasmagaria of M. Alexis de Tocqueville and his theories
Here and there, as we have admitted, there are some gor
thoughts and lively descriptions. Let us take a specimen

itns contrast becomes mt.

ite of itsel
taste f

general

Etya.ssion, that

. lam infOrmed, every
eneral and eternal law

)ut, which whet

OF MAN

" I need not to ramble over earth and sky to discover a
wondrous object woven of contrasts, of greatness and little-
ness infinite, of intense gloom and of amazing brightness—
capable at once of exciting pity, admiration, terror, con•
tempt. I find that object in myself. Man springs out of
nothing, crosses time, and disappears for ever in the bosom
of God : he is seen but for a moment, staggering on the
verge of the two abysses, and there he is lost."

AMERICAN RESTLESSNESS

" In certain remote corners of the old world you may stil.
sometimes stumble upon a small district which seemato have
been forgotten amidst the general tumult, and to have re
mained stationary whilst every thing around it was in motion.
The inhabitants are for the most part extremely ignorant anc
poor; they take no part in the business of the country, ani

they are frequently oppressed by the government ; yet their
countenances are generally placid, and their spirits light.
" In America I saw the freest and most enlightened men,
placed in the happiest circu►nstauces which the world affords ;
it seemed to me as if a cloud habitually hung upon their
brow, and I thought them serious and almost sad even in
their pleasures.

, • •
" The chief reason of this contrast is that the former do
not think of the ills they endure ;—the latter are for ever
brooding over advantages they do not possess. It is strange
to see with what feverish ardour the Americans pursue their^
own welfare ; and to watch the vague dread that constantly
torments them lest they should not have chosen the shortest
path which may lead to it.
" A native of the United States clings to this world's goods
as if he were certain never to die ; and he is so hasty at
grasping at all within his reach that one would suppose he
was constantly afraid of not living long enough to enjoy
them. He clutches every thing, he holds nothing fast, but
soon loosens his grasp to procure fresh gratifications.
" In the United States a man builds a house to spend his
latter days in it, and he sells it before the roof is on ; ho

plants a garden, and lets it just as the trees are coming into
bearing ; he brings a field into tillage, and leaves other men
to gather the grapes ; he embraces a profession, and gives it
up ; he settles in a place, which he soon afterwards leaves,
to carry his changeable longings elsewhere. If his private
affairs leave him any leisure, he instantly plunges into the
vortex of politics, and if at the end of a year of unremitting
labour he finds he has a few day's vacation, his eager curi-
osity whirls him over the vast extent of the United States,
and he will travel fifteen hundred miles in a few days to
shake off his happiness. Death at length overtakes hitt, but
it is before he is beware of his bootless chace of that com-
plete felicity which is for ever on the wing.

"At first sight there is something surprising in thi
strange unrest of so many happy men, restless in the raids
of abundance. The spectacle itself is, however, as old al
the world ; the novelty is to see a whole people furnish a?
exemplification of it." _
_ _

?41, de TocquiVille is a Roman Catholic, and his preinciices
in favour of his church arc apparent in his chapter " on the
progress of Roman Catholicism in the United States." Of
his statement concerning ifs spread in that country we ac-
knowledge ourselves sceptical ; it is in these words:—
" America is the most democratic country in the world, and
it is at the same time (according to reports worthy of belief)
the country in which the Roman Catholic religion makes
most progress."

We'lla;e a theory to explain this phenomena, of course—
for the Frenchman has a theory for everything—his passion
for " general ideas" would scarcely leave him at fault upon
so interesting a subject :
" The men of our days," he says, " are naturally little
disposed to believe ; but as soon as they have any religion
they find in themselves immediately a latent propensity
which urges them unconsciously towards Catholicism. Many
of the doctrines and the practises of the Romish Church
astonish them ; but they feel a secret admiration for its dis-
cipline, and its great unity attracts them. If Catholicism
could at length withdraw iiself from the political animosities
to which it has given rise, I have hardly any doubt but that
the same spirit of the age, which appears to be so opposed to
it, would become so favourable as to admit of its great and
sudden advancement. Our posterity will tend more and
more to a single division into two parts, some relinquishing
Christianity entirely, and others returning to the bosom of
the Church of Rome."

We cannot be surprised at M. de Toequeville entertaining
the idea expressed in the last sentence, seeing that so many
of his countrymen have failed to distinguish any intermediate
step between Itoinanism and utter infidelity. If he be a sin-
cere Homan Catholic, we must conclude that he has not been
able to discover that resting place for himself, and therefore
it is natural that he should conclude that nonesuch hi reality
exists. And yet had M. de Toequeville considered in all its
bearings that power of an unfettered Christianity which he
seems to have very well observed in some, it might be hoped
that he would have formed a different opinion. Religion,
though not that of Romanism, is, he admits, no inactive
principle in the United States. He dreams a picture on the
subject. which is lively and interesting.
" In the United States, on the seventh day of every week,
the trading and working life of the nation seems suspended ;
all noises cease ; a deep tranquillity, say rather the solemn
calm of meditation succeeds the turmoil of the week, and the
soul resumes possession and contemplation of itself. Every
member of the community. accompanied by his children,
goes to church, when he listens to strange language which
would seem unsuited to his ear. On his return ho sae, ht
does not turn to the ledgers of his calling, but he opt.
book of Holy
.Scr pture ; there he meets with sublirre
affecting descriptions of the greatness and goodness of ti.
Creator, of the infinite magnificence of the handiwork
God,
of the lofty destinies of man, of his duties„ and of hi
immortal privileges. 4: * I have endeavoured to poin
out in another part of his work the causes to which the main-
tenance of the political institutions of the Americans is at-
tributable, and religion appeared to be the most prominent
among them. I ant now treating of the Americans in an in-
dividual capacity, and I again observe that religion is not less
useful to each citizen than to the whole state."
M. de Toequeville therefore has observed the power of the
Christian religion unfettered by the chains of the Popedorn—
the energy which it diffuses through all orders of the state,
and the prosperity, generally speaking, which results from it.
He has noted these phenomena at length himself—and yet
strange to say, he is notwithstanding of opinion that a great
portion of the woild will eventually go back to a religion
which is practically refuted by never being attended by such_
temporal advantages—which converts man, born with a couu-
tenance to look, inward, into a slave, and which, wherever it
has prevailed in Ltirope, or in the world, has been evidently
marked by providential displeasure ! M. de Toequeville-
would do well* we think, to reconsider his opinion.

It is untrue that Lord Melbourne, like the Roman dictator
—Ms office ended—has taken to the plough, or, emulative of
Diocletian, has embarked in the cultivation of cabbages. He
had certainly made progress in the study of nursery affairs,
but an untimely frost set in, and nipped his experiments in
the bud. We believe, on good authority, that in connexion
with several of his late colleagues, he has turned his attention
to the causes of blight and iruldove—John Bull.