Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1843-08-24
CHANGE FOR THE AMERICAN NOTES.

CHANGE FOX lhE AMERICAN NOIES.
Rolands for divers are capital things
in their way. Mary tenant OF glass
hsbitatons is restrained from throwing
stones at passengers, who might other
wise be delighted to take "a shy at them;"
and we have seen more than one pugua-
cious school boy driven from the first en-.
trance to quarrel by the consideration
that there were such things as blows TO
take ss well as to give. Hotspur Percy,
in the play, tells US of the prudent gen.
tleman who would himself have been a
soldier, "but for those vile guns" and
thus it s,--the fear Of waking up trouble
some customer is apt to keep psople quiet,
who without such drawback were 9th, r.
wise uproarious and offensive.
The position occupied by Great Britain
towards this country is in some respects a
peculiar one. AL her writer's Of the pre-.
sent day, from Alison down to Boz, are
striving to make the United States appear
in the most unlovely and unattractive
points of view possible, and ell for the
graft fcation of what would seem to be a
fixed standard test in England, so lar as
we ure concerned. We arc decried,
abused and villl6ed in h istories and note
books,--and our institutions, and the way
they work, are most grossly misrepresent.
ed, year in and year out, by the great
mass of the English press. Were this
authority to be relied on, we should be
set down by the civilized world, as an un-
cultivated, unprincipled, vulgar, hear,less,
savage. heating. degraded people, with
no bible but our ledgers,--no end in view
but the dishonest procurement OF wealth,
and no capacity to enjoy sught but the
lowest and most sensual and irrational
pleasures. Yet these very detractors Of
ours steal our literature, court our trade,
60 far 10 cultivate eaceable relations
with us, and had rather :rea, with us in
tine cabinet than quarrel with US in the
field. Like schoolboys when their mas
,er's back is turned, they mako mouths at
us at distance, but when we come in
contact, they are as full Of bows and res
pectiul assurances, as so many BARRIERS
at court.
What should a sensible people care for
such things7 What matters is it to us, so
long as we can equal these people in our
productions, physical and intellectual
so long as we can compete with them in
counsel, and hold our own, and more
than our own, with them, in battlp,--so
long as we are useful to them, and they
know It,--so long as our position in Chris.
tendon is as weighty and as pervadlngly
felt as their own,--what matter, that about
once year some smart whipster of the
quilts is sent over here, to hang round our
hotels, TO haunt our Five Points, to con-
gregaie with the offscourng of our popu-
lation, and then to go back and describe
what he has seen, as emrnently charac.
teristic Of the People and Institutions Of
America! Sensitiveness upon such SUBJ
iect is unworthy of US, aud it is to be ho-
ped that, il it has not already, i, will soon
cease to mark our course Of conduct to.
wards these popinjays.
"Mind what such ssyl So would no, /, no more
Than heed cur
But we begin 10 speak Of tie b. nefi
arising from little occasional use of the
retalatory principle, in such case; and a
book has Just been laid on our table by
the Harpsrs, the authoress of which has
undertaken to handle Mr.. Dickens with
q pair OF his own gloves,-to give him
"change," as the title page conveys, for
his own ''notes." She writes Of England,
with some better and more deliberate
opportunities If observing and writing
accurately, than were enjoyed by Mr..
Dickens. while hs was engaged in a SINH
lar task, ln this country. Setting out
with very modest preface, she gives
the reader series of letters written from
London to her friends ct home, in which
she developes rich talent of observing
accurately, and Of describing graphically
what she observes. II is only necessary
to real the first three or tour paragraphs
to be convinced that in her pen MIR. Char
les Dickens has met with his match and
that the ringing coin she will give him is
as sure 10 prove true and current as the
"Notes" she is undertaking TO Exchange"
1t is brief and cheap brochure, aud
can be purchased for shilling, aud we
will lorbear saying more OF its merits
than to recommend it's perusal to tho rea-
der. 1t is agteeably written, and in ex-
celleut taste and temper; and Mr.. Charles
Dickens, as we'll as Mis-. Trollope aud
the rest of that amiable class Of tourists,
will be sure TO discover in it more than a
Roland for their divers. Y. Errsss.