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

FROMOJR LONDON NCORRES SIP ONDEN7,
LONDON, MAY 8, 1885,.
citizen of the United States, when visiting Eng
land, will not be in the country twenty-four 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 inferiorIy educated masses of The
people, but reaches to the wealthy tradesman, the
benediced clergyman, and the legal professor. The
merchants, in general are better informed for their
business and interests have rendered information
necessary but even they too cften limit their in
quiries to those subjects which bear upon their in
terests, and are profoundly ignorant upon all points
beside. The clergyman inquiries how religion can
be supported when no particular creed and formu-
larry is distinguished, and connected to the State.
The lawyer cannot understand how property can
be secure. and life, liberty, and character projected,
without the forms, and ceremonies, and parapher-
MALTA OF our English courts whilst the politician,
in bssfu ignorance of the constitution of your
State Governments, your Federal House Of Rep
resentatves and Senate, and the powers and duties
OF your President, thinks nothing can be durable
a House of Lords legisla,ing by hereditary right,
and a House Of Commons elected by compara-
lively small minority of the people. The history
of .Hmerica 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-
pie Of England as that Of the United States. How
is it." said young Englishman, few days ago.
/" that the Americans know SO much about Eng
: land? / lately met young man," he said, sin
Z Wales, from the United States, who had not been
in England month, who knew more about the
particular locality where we met about its histo-
ry and the people who had figured there centuries
2 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 indivdualtes and
localities in consequence of this early application
to its study, than il was in England. The con-
Uerse 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 ol
the History of the United States, for the use
Of schools and young people: the learned
bibliopolst did not know Of such book! We
believe, however, that both Grmshaw's anc
Frosts have been reprinted here but they arr
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 g No. and yet he was in
duging in some strong censures respecting the form
| Of government which reference to that documen
would have shown him were unfounded. A mem
| Der 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 Goth
ultimo that "the bondmen of America formed a
fourth part Of the whole population !" that by Anne
rica 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.
If, in our humble position, 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 acquaint-
ed, under the conviction that the more they really
and truly know Of each other the more will their m-
ual 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
it 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 Statists, and Proectionists
and Free-traders may entertain their conflicting
opinions as to the mere selfish policy of such a
gathering Of people and products; we do not look
upon it from any such position. We regard it as
the greatest PEACE MOVEMENT which the world has
ever witnessed. The FIELD OF THE CLOTH OF
GoLD was childish pageant in comparison to its
ends and objects No congress ofprinces and states
men, at AK la Chapelle or Vienna, ever met and
deliberated for such important ends, or decided up
on and controlled more momenous results, than will
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 to its promotion,
most anxious are we for its success, and entirely
without doubt as to its beneficial results The
Royal Commissioners have given notice that, !" be-
desirous nf,rd;nr