The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1846-02-20
THE UNION
City OF wAsHIN o N.

City OF WAS HIN q T o N
/ For the Union.
LETTER FROM A KENTUcEiAN IN LONDON TC
HIS FRIEND AT WASHINGTON
| LONDON, December 7, lS45.
DEAR sir: having seen, in the course Of lii,
| much fuller of years than OF wisdom, not little o
the New Word (our own continent resolved, be-
| ing thereuDto moved by sundry considerations to
take peep at the Old, tso called, though am mol
sure that geologieally and physically considered il
has any claim 10 priority the New. That il il
older in sin and misery, and IN all moral and i'm
moral denominations, civil, political, and religious to
boot Is not 10 be questioned; and the start that il
has got in this respect | think il quite likely 10
keep.
In pursuance, them Of the aforesaid resolution,
embarked one mild and lovely and balmy morning
IN November, at New York, for Rurope-not with
out regret at leaving such charming weather and
such beautiful country, "to go ploughing the
deep" and regreItihg vastly more leaving valued
and beloved friends, none Of whom may meet
again in this world-placing between them and my
self such wide waste Of waters. We had a short
and rough passage Of seventeen days the good ship
pitching and rocking much OF the time AT a most
bile engenderng, stomach-dsturbingr ate-the Eyes.
~ waves" having COMPOUNDED navigation as the
poet says. But let US have litde criticism as we
go along, although do not perceive what come zion
Il has exactly with this voyage Of mine. This word
yssty, then, don't think good one as applied, al
though 1t il Shakespeare IL reminds one rather Of
storm in a brewers mash.tub than OF one the
"yas,y deep" when the waves, though they do not
rise into mountains, as - said sometimes, yet form
without doubt very respectable hIlloeks, and very
often ride in rather a rough-shod sort Of way over
the largest and stouiest vessel sweeping everything
from the deck and sometimes sending the doomed
ship to Davy Joness locker, which means TO the
bottom, II any bottom is to be found | never read
I'll Win havtn 10 81
fermentation Of malt, hops, and yeast instead OF the
fury and eonfct Of the wild ungovernablc waves,
which are two things as little alike, probably, a.
any other two that can be named | must see
when return to the United States, what Mr. Yer
panck has said about thus word vesiJ in hs edition of
Shakespeare, and so leave il until then.
The voyage being safely accomplished found
myself-with about the same feelings as If ] had
dropped from the Clouds one bright, COOL windy
morning, (lhe 5th Of December standing near the
docks at Liverpool, fairly on English ground breath
ing English air, which is so pure that slave can
not breathe -so says Blackstone, in that valuable,
entertaining and somewhat imaginative work Of his
which he called Commentaries, but which he might,
with rather more proprety, have called an suOg INN
Of the lars Of EngiGnd The air too pure 10 be
breathed by slave! And yet all history atests that
until 1865 the English had no pretensions whatever
TO being free people, and since then they are
far from beng what call free IN the United
States. The rich and powerful are free enough, but
the masses are not They are theoretically so, but
not practically, and cannot be under the present po
lnical system, which certainly cannot last fifty
years, and may not last twenty. The peopIs-sthe
millionaire beginning to think here about their po-
litical condition, and to inquire whether this form of
government Of theirs which they have been taught
to regard as the most perfect under heaven, mny
be improved. They now determined that they
will have cheap bread-that is free trade in corn
and brsadsiits, as we say-in spite of the arisocra-
htrtp hteh / Oh. l.
fore many years it will be a subject for agitation
whether the privileged orders themselves are not as
they now exist, national nusances; and if ths mat
ter is agtated, the decision may be nfallibly
ioreseen-the arstocracy will go the way the corn.
laws are about TO go-to "the tomb Of all the Capu-
lets,n or of all the Fsntagene,s rather, to say
which would be in better keeping. Then that
greatest Of all possible legislative phenomena,
the House of Lords, will be 'swamped >" US the
Duke of Wellington said, or, in other words,
abolished. Then hereditary titles will be abolished
too, and those GROWING denominations, the law of
entail and right of prmogcniture, which last are
not Only usurpation of all human rights but like
wise an nsutte all human common sense All this
Will be done IN time, and a good deal more in fur
therance of popular freedom and political equality
"a contamination devouty to be Wished
Liverpool is remarkable for its docks which seem
to be the work Of giants; and seeing nothing but
them, the traveller would know at once that he was
among great, enerprislng, and commercial people.
The city is remarkable, too, for the railway tunnels
that run through it under the streets and houses;
and sixteen seventeen miles up the river Mersey
are the famous salt works, that furnish as is well
known vast quantities of salt
The first thing to be done after getting to shore
was TO go to the custom-house to get my baggage
(called luggage here) examined and passed.
had nothing Contraband duiable and had there
fore no fears. few books--reprinted in America
from English editions-I left on board the ship,
kpn tuIn nj fhev nulI ho l,,xn A
American edition Of an English work s,inlcs in the
nostris of these freetrade people, they call them
selves over here-that is, free for the English which
is precisely what they mean. They burn Amer
can printed books, and they want an international
COPYRIGHT law. They will never have it with my
consent.
| went to the custom-house--a fine spacious build
ing--waited for the examining officer. He did not
come-would soon be therein moment--was
coming, &C., &c. got tired-went away--came
again, and danced attendance upon official conse-
quence a couple Of hours--my patience went, too,
but did not come again At length the great man
was actually forthcoming and must do him the JUS
tce to say that he fully atoned by his urbanity and
despatch for all his delay The examination was
nothing more than nominal-the trunks were omen
ed, the contents slightly handled without removing
anything, and SO the matter ended, upon my paving
two shings Of porteroge-less by ten or twelve
than | expected; and went my way rejoicing, not
without grateful feelings eithcr-one of the rare oc-
casions l suppose on which any gratitude has been
left at a custom-house by traveller who has passed
through it,
Having met friend who was going to London
on the day Of my arrival, concluded to go with
him. and we started in the express cars at 4 o'clock
In the evening. These cars go very rapidly, at the
rate Of thirty five forty miles an hour and some
times more; but they do not appear to go so fast
There is no mistake though, for the distance from
Liverpool to London--209t miles-is gone over by
them in six hours and half, including numerous
stoppages. The ways splendid, and no expense
has been spared TO make them safe solid and dura-
BILE. do notsee why excepting the wood and the iron
rails, they may not last thousand years. In this
country, where there il 10 much wealth, 30 dense a
population, and so much travelling, this construction
is undoubtedly the best. With us it would not do
as yet, as the tolls would not yield anything like
remunerating profit. Here they answer, although
on some of tho ways there arc four raes--from
five pence to one penny the mile think though,
that in some respects our railway conveyances are
TO be preferred both for comfort To the passe niger