Sunbury American and Shamokin journal. [volume] (Sunbury, Northumberland Co., Pa.) 1840-1848, 1843-08-05
Dickens and hts ISLANDERS.

The Philadelphia North American admins
ters to Mr. Dickens, in the annexed article,
a well merted castgo,ion for the ISLANDERS on
this country contained in the last published
number of his "Martin Chuzzlewit":
We have placed upon our first page an ex-
tract from the new work of Mr.. Dickens Mar
tin Chuzzlewf. brought by the last steamer
1t will be remarked that the excellence of the
sketch of the American manners which it con-
tains is endorsed by the Britannia, bigoted
and virulent Tory paper. Mr.. Dickens, as a
professed friend Of the people, and OF that poi.
ty, whatever name it may take, which secures
to each individual ofthe community the largest
share of right and veal, must be gratifed doubt
less, at the endorsation of such capital authori
ty as the Britannia newspaper
AT home, Mr.. Dickens has endured as every
aspiring young man must in the progress of his
career, the silent neglect, or what is worse, the
active patronage of the arstocracy. He has
fel. his dignity as man,-the heaven de-
rived and aspiring man,-assaulted and wound
ed by musty and barbarous usage. He has
seer not merely the corpse, but the strong
panoplied active body, and powerful spirit ofthe
Norman conqueror and his barons, riding over
| the genius of the nineteenth century. He has
seen at home merit tremble, crnge and starve,
while rank has been fed and pampered by
means wrung out Of the despsed people The
veritabe Charles Dickens-the man who wrote
poverty's and humanity's sad drama, Oliver
Twst-who is known wherever the English
language is spoken, by virtue Of his own mind
not the beggarly, social almsman Of departed
ancestry-not the retrospective appendix of a
family vault supported by gilded coffins-not
these but primitive identity who stands erect.
self-relying, selfsupported,-a thinker and an
actor in his own age-a fountain Of truth for
the living, not spunge Of folly from the dead
this man Dickens, so armed and melted, has
seen himselflooked down upon as inferior, il
seen at all, by the artificial creations Of King
and Lord SO regarded at home, but writing
for the people, he earned a reputation which
echoed to this country, and rebounded across
the Atlantic with redoubled power.
After Mr.. Dickens had been rendered ilustri-
Gus, partly BY our applause. he came among
us When was the pen ever so honored! Ink
she'd triumphed for once over blood-shed, the pen
overcrowncd the sword The author became
the hero. A trad ng population--a yard stick,
pound weight, cent per cent. community, left
of measuring, weighing, and calculating, for.
got for the ounce staples and dollars, 10 do ho-
mage to simple, manly genius, that had no
thing to bestow but its intellectual riches. A
great,heatre was thrown open. AIT, poetry
living beauty, political and military dignity
civic worth, all contended therein to do hin
honor. There was no patronage for him. i
was homage. Who is there here to assume {
social apex, and sqpnt npprovingly on orig'na
genius! That Mr.. Dickens did not find He
went to Washington--he found the Presiden
living like other people, and he was received
as an equal. Doors few open to him-hospi
talites, friendly acts and counsels every where
attended him. II his books had been befor.
him, and he could not travel incognito, why die
he write them!
But for the sequel. The man so situated a
home, and so treated here, pretends to prescrib'
local manners which he had no opportunities
ofstudying. Guided by the spirit OF gratitude
he would have beet tolerably safe. In paint
ing the arcana of private life, a tolerable kin
view of it-a philosophical understanding
its good points and its tobles, would lave Sc
cured him against his errors. We do not hes
|, tate to say that the sketch Of the "genteeles
society" of New York, so put forth by NJ
Dickens, lsas untruG IN fact as il is ungrateft
in spirit, and Comes from him, of all men, wit
most unsGemly grace towards the people of ths
1 splendid city, who treated him so nobly. w
have been occasionally in New York societ,
, and never witnessed such flaming vulgartls
. as Mr. Dickens depicts. We never saw youn
ladies in indecent positions in rocking chair
or heard their fathers twadding to Engiishme
II about natures noblcmen,' and so forth. W
e never saw a militia general behave like
|. backguard in that society. All-all is carlo
k ture-An ungrateiul heart dictated the who
q. of it,.
m We do not hesitate to say that MIR. Dcke'
Al was very, very seldom, it ever, offended by pc
ID sonal or national alusons while in this cou
4 try. On this head we quote the tollowin
o; from Mr.. Buckingham, a British au'horit
* Speaking of Canada, he says;
ID "Eyery opportunity is seized of disparagiI