New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-05-02

an unprecedented disgust and left hum
in short little else than a rebel against the
Presidential tendencies which are estab-
fishing Democracy throughout the earth.
We have no doubt that our good Xavier
saw many ugly sights among u.s. and en-
counteIed various affective experiences
but it is none the less clear that N4vier's
judgment on these things is wholly unwor-
thy of any reasonable mans attention.
According TO his own showing, be saw
nothing worse among Us than very gross
derelictions of cOnventionalism. He does
not attempt to prove that there is less hu-
mainly in our population than elsewhere,
or less charity when any real can for 1t IS
made. He simply proves the existence OF
a very frequent indifference to the pre-
cepts Of European etiquette among our
male population especially, and lavishes
the sincerest pity on our women that they
are obliged to marry such barsarians.-
But the traveller should have recollected
that be came in contact on our steamboats,
with the masses of the people-those masses
who, at home, never travel, bat live and die
in the same dingy and dirty howell which
gave them and their progenitors birth.
Were some benefcent divinity just now
to difuse a sudden comfort over the land of
France equal to that which reigus here, en-
abliDg parents to give their children as
thorough a rudimentaL education as that en-
loved by any Prince of the blood, and
prompting the child himself to aspire after
every human dignity and advantage would
NJ. Mariner expect the emancipated peas
ant to put on at oEce the manners Of the Tuil-
leries Should be meet party Of them in
tho railroad or on the steamboat, stripped
of the shabby blouse and the shapeless
sabots, which had been the immemOrial dis
grace of their ancestry, and going forth in
comedy brOadcloth and decent calfskin to
adjust their business relations in distant
| cities, would not VI. Mariner be asto ished
if be found in them any close approach TO
the manners of the conventional gentleman!
Certaioly he would. Why then does he
set up such piteous vel ping over the pre-
cisely corresponding phenomenon in this
country . he bulk of his fellow travel
ers in the railroad and the steamboat were
exactly of this class-the offspring Of those
whom the institutions of Europe would
have left forever poor and degraded, but
whom our benign Democracy is lifting
surely though Of course gradually, into
a destiny so sublime that the royslest
King that ever sat on the throne of France
might we'll place his dearest honor in
having been a nursing mother" to it.
1t was doubtless hard for our expatriated
Xavier to unlearn the vanities of his own
little world, especially as that little world
bad now got itself Pretty ehectually push
ed into the past, and come all at once into
genial rapport with the great world of God
and man. But our indigenous critics who
delight to talk as Xavier does, have not
the same excuse. They are destitute even
of that political pride which furnishes at
once the cheap inspiration and the obvious
excuse of his malignity and in decrying
their own national promise, they plainly
confess h,mselres at least unworthy their
unparalleled birthright.
We do not deny any amount of cOnven-
tional uncouthness among the masses of
our population. But we do deny any sub
stantiaL baseness among them. On the
contrary, we are persuaded that these very
rudenesses which we hear so much about,
in many cases grow out of that sentiment
of human fellowship or unity, which will.
ere long, be therecognized basis of all virtue.
The two worst experiences we have had
at home were as follows Once on a
North River steamboat we observed
well-kaown citizen, Mr.. FL. H., emerging
from the cabin after breakfast with cigar
which he had Just lighted. He had no
sooner reached the forward deck than a
light was requested by a plain country
man, to whom accordingly he handed over
his cigar. The cigar was unhaPpily not
very we'll lighted, and the cOuntryman
consequently, in order to bring it to bet
ter glow, incontinently put it into his own
mouth, whence, after giving it couple of
vigorous puffs, and then applying it to his
own expectant Havana, he gratefully re-
turned it 10 Mr.. H. h. The latter looked
Supplied, as you may suppose, but Observ-
ing a perfectly good conscience on the part