Weekly national intelligencer., 1851-08-09
NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER.
NOTES ON NEW BOOKS.

Travels IN THE UNITED STATES, &c. during lS49
cxd 1850. Blythe Lady EnEIIHs SruAar WoRTLEr |;
pp. 463 Harper and Bros, NeU York.
CoLERrpaE, somewhere in his " Table Talk"
in remarking on the works Of English travellers
through the United States observes i" il is great
pity the Americans are SO thin-sknned" with re-
gard 10 their animadversions. That we have as
nation been excessively affected with some such
cutaneous sensiblty as that which the poet I'M
putes TO us, cannot il is imagined, be huhfuily de-
MED, and we only wish that the evil It indicates
was merely skin Deep" either in its causes or
effects. The sneering persiaage OF Iroliope, and
the studied depreciation Of Basil Hall, have done
more to embitter the popular mind OF America
against the mother country" than all the memories
Of hard-fought batte-6elds or ensanguned SEAS ano
by intensifyiRg the feeling OF separate ana dis-
tinctve nationality, have created an esTangement
more lasting and hostility more viruient, Than all
the political animosity which has found expression
in temporary embargoes and Congressional denun-
Citations d la Senator Allen. Whether this sens-
tiyeness, which has assumed almost morbid type,
be worthy of great and independent nation, we
shall NOT pause TO inquire, though surely, IN land
whose history and watchword js Progress, we
NAV safely leave the refutation Of all unjust caum-
nies and false aspersions to time, which the Greek
philosopher asserted to be the wisest Of all things
Is i, becoming in "great people, to be SO unduly
solicitous with regard 10 what blue-stocking spin
s,ers or copyrghthuntng authors may say about
us behind our backs? Shall we make our self-re-
spect dependant upon European appreciation OF
our national worth-we, whose President few
years ago spoke in his annual message IN terms ne
most pa,ronzinp of Europe as that important and
influential quarter of the globe! One would rather
suspee, Brother Jonathan Of being bu. Pvau in the
ciety Of nations were il nohng but the POer be makes
yho his
care if few petty scrbbe in order to be faceou amuse
themselves in drawing his csatue rather than his portrait
"a mans man for a that" To confess the truth, we, as
people, have much Of national vanity and too little Of
national prde-,hat noble pride which still swes the bosom
Of spaniad, and which made ths old Egyptian monarch
say from his tomb, "H you would know how great am,
surpass my works.
That European tourists in the Unissd States have avaed
themselves Of the travellers privileges" 70 m unwonted eI
tent admit that the Language Of contumey and nvecve
has been exhausted that the capabilities Of vernacular
tongue have been sorey tried i.s terms Of satire, do not
dispute Still if the puisssnt nation boast our
selves be every Fourth Of July why should We heed the
studied superciliousne.s Of titled officials the petuant
spleen Of old ladies' terribly scted with "the
po" the mendacious notes perpatstc novelists,
for profound
And solid iying much renowned
WdvclleIs
army bulletin epiaph, or the advertisement. Of
quack medicine, may be good reason for treating them with
their deserved contempt bat certainly should stir
machful indignation start from propey. This
propensity for bbing has not besn peculiar English vpy
ayers in country their fcons have differed from those
Of Others in the infusonof national anmosy that makes
them smack rather Of ssnde When the Fenchman writes
about ussways excepting the philosophical De Tocque-
ve-hs narrative has all The charm Of innocent though
scrupulous gossip Who for instance forgotten the
adventure Of the Vscount Chseauband which be vivid
y records in his . Recossons Of America how be fell off
the Table Rock at Nagar and" Advertisement si>ncng
Uu smooin rock betow-brnka nA4h;nn 10 arm FIVE
have not yet met with this passage in the life veracious
Viscoun1 as detailed in the "Msnoas fO.tre 1onbe "
we suppose must be because dead men tell no tales
We know Of better explanation Of pheno-
enon evnced by this pescasat for the fictitious than that Of
Lord Bacon, who that tho mixture Of the lie doth
ever give pleasure perhaps it may be found in the same
cause which ncnes the anabe authore the title Of whose
book we have placed the columns to excupate the
Americans Themselves for their Indulgence of hypebo
heal expression In great country, with great Valleys and
great rves and great mountanf says she is all petty
malice and jealousy which make people complain Of our exse
geraed phrases and IDEAS What would be e1aggeaon
in other countries is here the simplest modeaton and in all
probability ags behind the reality"
Andyet the desire which We Americans cherish to have
Englshmen think well Of us and write kindly about us is,
after all, what Mr. Weller would call "amiabe weak
ness" is the yearnng Of child who has been the father
Of his own manhood towards the mother from whose home
he has wandered bat towards whom memory the instincts
Of natural affection still with fond etrospecon While
there nothing that the Amercan heart more insinctiyey
oahes than state Of colonial vssssase poica subser-
vency Great Britain yet there international ties and
sympahies that bind strongly England than to any
other country. We with better grace and at q smaller
sacrifice toe play the cavalier with republican" France OF
imperial Austria than with cod England-no forsooth
that mucke sfeard Of her bat simply because like
dutiful child, do not wish hurt her feelings
common religion and common language, community in
part Of liberty and law, Of glory in the past and destiny in
the future, compose tie Of union which neither lapse Of time
nor interval Of space has yet avaed sever Towards
England must 6ok the heahsone Of our rsoe
GENTS cunabud nOstrs. g
popular writer Of times has pronounced il
good sentiment that American should wish to trace his
ancestry further back than the revolutionary For
selves unwilling to sccept any such uncstsd his
tory homo extraction would be implied in
ting off the huge trunk, and taking ourselves the few twgs
only Of great genealogical tres that have routed since
l776 We unwilling to sunder those Ties Of common
ancestry which give right exu in the fame Of British
statesmen and heroes of British poets and philosophers
our own. While are disposed "to 60 the length"
with those old English chronice that ancestral pc
dgee down to Magog the grandson of Noah or while we
do not claim with Lsziu that on, S.ror f.the. 1900 &C