The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1851-06-02

Foreign Impertinences.
We do not perceive that the United States
are making any great progress in the considers
ton Of foreign nations by their ready sacrifice
| Of domestic interests and home labor to the po-
Icy of Free Trade and Low Wages. 1t seems
to us that the tone Of European travellers
and of the European press is becoming more OBJ
jectionable than ever; and the readiness with
which every thing is reproduced and circulated,
that reflects upon the manners or the civiiza-
ton of Brother Jonathan, is but i'll calculated
to encourage the kind feeling which might be
expected to flow from our enlarged intercourse
with transatlantic nations.
| The May number of Blacklcood's Magazine
contains an article of some twenty pages, got up
for no better purpose than to give currency to
the libels and caricatures Of Monsieur MAR
MIER, professional itinerant, and of Countess
MERLIN; and to re-endorse the scandalous
| chronicles Of Hamilton, MARRYArr, and Mrs.
TRoLLoPE. The writer in Black,cood, ne
over, is not content with copying the insuffera-
BILE impertinences Of the French tourist; he
must commend them as impressions that may
be received with confidence and credit, be-
cause in his other books he has shown himself
so indulgent and SO easy to please. He even
ignores or undertakes the testimony of fell
low countryman, Mr.. TAYLOR, who takes a
more favorable view Of us, to give the more
prominence and effect to ga point of American
character which particularly strikes M. MAR
MIER, the poet and dillettante, and Madame
DE MERLIN; the highbred and intellectual
woman"
| How well-informed this ''intellectual" wo-
man was with regard to matters of which she
undertook to write, our readers may Judge from
the following specimen, which is cited by Black
| GOOD without comment:
81 am not aware of single picture in the Uni
| ted States, unless it be in the Pantheon, where
several memorable epochs Of the American Revo-
luton rudcly represented upon some old pan
els of wall. In this country all that is beauti-
full is forbidden the beautiful is not useful. The
grace of the human form, music, poetry, paint
8 ing, flowers, are blessings vouchsafed by Provi
dence to man to soften the bitterness of bis days
of mourning. to alleviate tho burden OF his
chains; they are CLEANS Of joy amidst long years
ofstruggle, brilliant flashes through the gloom Of
night; they are the luxury Of human ife''
This exhibition of the Countess will answer
and now, in Justice to the "poet and dlettante,"
we propose to present him at full length in as
coarse and venomous paragraph as has ever
fallen under our observation. He is describing
a visit to the White House, and his descrip-
ton will no doubt be read with more than or
binary interest by the lady to whom he was in
debted for his introduction, and wise mis-
placed civility and kindness he thus repays:
"There servant at the door or in the an
tcchamber. We walked at once into the saloon,
where the President his legs, fulfilling the
arduous duty imposed upon him, without respect
for his age and for the dignity Of his military SER
vices, by the arrogant Republic. My amiablc
conductress advanced towards him. He held out
his hand, and said 'How do you do? She named
me; he turned towards me, holding out his hand,
and saying, How do you do?' A crowd of Wis
itors came up; he shook hands with them all, re-
peating, 'How do you do? These amiable salu-
tations bidding fair to be indefinitely prolonged,
my charming introductress thought had enough
of it, and took me up to the Presidents daughter
who welcomed mo with the new or failing How do
you do? After which, we went to walk about
another saloon with a crowd of individuals who
were parading it in pairs in silent procession :
soomsn, such erst notuhere but in Henri Mon
nier's comedies, and men to sohom you tcould fear
: to grant admiuancs into your antsroom. For
opening his marble palace once week to this
plcbeian crowd, for courteously saluting all these
ladies ,oho keep stalls, for shaking hands With
hundreds of unsIean citizens, the Republic gives
its President twenty FIVE thousand francs year
1t is poor pay!''
1t was not till our French friend found him
self at New Orleans that he met with any
thing tolerable in the United States, and there
we leave him. to contrast most favorably 'the
gay, urbane, and sociable Creoles with thasasy,
taciturn, tobacco-chewing men of busintU of
the Northern States"
While Blackicood is thus enlightening its
readers with the frivolous presentments of these
French tourists, the London Times is touching
us on a weaker point than that Of manners, for
it relates to our substantial progress and indie
pendence as nation. From the last received
number of that journal, we extract paragraph
in relation to our appearance at the Worlds
Fair
"What idea Of Jonathan is to be gathered from
his motions 2 And can we detect in the offspring
| the lneaments of its parents face England il
not given 10 boaenng ana swag6erlng; sne
generally understands her strength, and studies
moderation of language about herself, though
she has some excuse for being proud. Her
republican progeny are not SO modest, il one
may judge from the wings of that very sgeres-
sive American eagle with which the eastern
end of the nave is decorated. The king Of
birds ia lowering over set of 'notions spread
out very sparscly beneath him and the visitor is
somewhat astonst,ed to find him making vast
demonstration over a space 30 unoccupied. The
American department is tho prairie ground Of the
Exhibition, and our cousins, smart they are.
have failed TO fill IT, They cannot yet keep pace
with the great strides of European industries, and
even the seven-lcagucd boots, if they had them,
would not enable them to do 60, for some genera
tons to come. They gro,oing, however, and sci
be great community by and BY Let them, there
fore, o,oaf the future with patience and humility
What the signs of their prospective great