Weekly national intelligencer., 1850-06-01
FR0MoUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT

cltlZen oil the United States, when visiting Eng
land, will not be in the country twenty-our hours
before he is struck with the remarkable degree of
ignorance displayed by the people of England in
general with respect to the form of government,
Institutions, general history, population, commerce,
productions. and all the other principal features and
elements of the United States. This ignorance is
by no means confined to the lower classes, or what
might be deemed inferiorly educated masses of the
people, but reaches to the wealthy tradesman, the
Denefced clergyman, and the legal professor. The
in general are better informed, for their
business and interests have rendered information
but even they too cften limit their in
quries to those subjects which bear upon their in
terests and are profoundly ignorant upon all points
beside. The clergyman inquiries how religion can
De supported when no particular creed and formu-
larry is distinguished, and connected to the Stale.
The lawyer cannot understand how property can
be secure, and life, liberty, and character protected
without the forms, and ceremonies, and parapher-
MALTA of our English courts; whilst the politician
in blissiul ignorance of the constitution of your
State Governments, your Federal House of Rep
resentaives and Senate, and the powers and duties
of your President thinks nothing can be durable
which does not emanate from sovereign by birth,
a House OF Lords legisla.ing by hereditary right,
and House Of Commons elected by compare
lively small minority Of the people. The history
of .4merica is studied in the volumes of Robert
son that of the United States is sealed book TO
the great mass Of the public. The man of letters
and leisure reads the productions Of BANCROFT and
your other historians but the history of the Uni
ted States forms part Of our general school edu-
cation, and the geography Of the Moon is quite as
much within The knowledge Of the bulk of the peo-
is it" said a young Englshman, few days ago,
"lhat the Americans know SO much about Eng
: land? lately met young man" he said, in
: Wales, from the United States, who had not been
: in England month, who knew more absut the
particular locality where we met, about its histo-
ry and the people who had figured there centuries
!. ago, than | did, or almost any body else in the
: neighborhood.' We told him that the history of
England formed regular part Of the general edu-
cation Of nearly all classes in the United States
that the people there were of opinion that their
children ought to study the history of the land Of
their ancestors, as well as those of Greece and
Rome and that the history Of England was under
stood more in its details and its ndvidualities and
localities, in consequence of this early application
to its study, than il was in England. The con-
perse Of this cannot be said of the acquaintance Of
the English people with the history Of the United
States but, most decidedly, the reuerse. And this
non-acquaintance of the people Of England with
the history and condition of the United States must,
of necessity, continue until knowledge of them is
made part of the general education of the youth
of both sexes. We applied at booksellers in
Paternoster Row, yesterday, for an Abridgment of
the History of the United States, for the use
of schools and young people: the learned
bibliopolist did not know Of such book We
believe, however, that both Grimshaw's and
Frosts have been reprinted here but they are
very little used, and scarcely known to the public.
We asked legal gentleman the other day whe.
ther he had ever read the Constitution Of the Uni
ted States he replied (" No; - and yet he was in
dulgng in some strong censures respecting the form
of government which reference to that document
would have shown him were unfounded. mem
ber of the House Of Commons stated, in late de.
bate, that the number of States in the American
Union was twenty-four, and that Philadelphia was
the seat of government Of Pennsylvania. The edi-
tor Of the Examiner affirmed no later than the 2Olh
ultimo that "the bondn,ea of America formed a
fourth part OF The whole population !" that by Ame-
RIGA he meant the United States was clear from the
context. We do not mention these striking proofs
Of ignorance for any unkind or unworthy purpose
II, in our humble position, we can be said to have
any mission allotted to us by Providence, we should
hold it to be to endeavor all we can to make Eng
land and the United States mutually better acquant-
ed, under the conviction that the more they really
and truly know Of each other the more will their mu-
tual esteem and respect increase and the bonds of
peace and brotherhood be strengthened. To this
end all our efforts are directed; upon it all our
thoughts are employed; and we think we forward
il most essentially when we point out errors, see
ing that knowledge of error is the first step to-
wards its removal.
The proposed INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITION Of 1851
will do good, we trust in many respects, but in
none more than by making Englishmen and Ame-
ricans better acquainted with each other and with
the condition and resources Of their respective coun-
tries. Politicians and Slatists, and Protectionists
and Free-traders may entertain their conflicting
opinions as TO the mere selfish policy of such
gathering of people and products; we do not look
upon IL from any such position. We regard it as
the greatest PEACE MOVEMENT which the world has
ever witnessed. The FIELD OF THE CLOTH OF
GoLp was childish pageant in comparison TO its
ends and objects. No congress Of princes and states
men, al AK Ia Chapelle or Vienna, ever met and
deberaied Cor such important ends, or decided up
the great meeting Of manufacturers and artisans, of
producers, inventors and consumers Of all nations
which will assemble In London in May, 1851.
Earnestly do we devote ourselves 20 its promotion,
most anxious are we Cor iis success, and entirely
without doubt a. 10 ir beneficial results. The
ROYAL Commissioners have given notice that, . be-
|. ing desircas Of afording every facility TO those
persons who may wshio exhibit machines or trains
|. of machinery In motion, they have resolved 10
I allow such machinery 10 be managed and worked,
isr as prscsicsble under the superintendent Of
a. mxAE E.xs ls..~ f.~.