The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1853-08-17
r,cl;sh Admissions Of American Superiority


Every man who was acquainted WIN W
English newspaper and periooio'A h;.,or
years ago. will remember its conS''N -.
snaer;ne tome towards America ana e'e's
thin, American. One could then scarcei. '''No
nm number of an English Gazette Without
Ct. h;s country vilified her institutions
','s, a. earn her honesty impeached, and
her manners and enlightenment menu up 10
r;a;c,,e Nor was this unceasinS stream OF
,h,,sa ,,oure,l forth by Mrs Irollope and the
aorrdarers in the sty of Grub street alone.
=, i only nine or ten years since Dickens
lent his pen TO the production of his veno-
mons american notes." and in Martin
Chuzzlewitt exhausted his utmost talent in
making mockery of all things pertaining to
the people of our Republic. Then Sidney
Smith opened his powerful batteries upon
as, portraying the Americans as a race of
savages, fools and swindlers. Meanwhile, the
London Times was expanding its choicest
thunder upon our devoted heads Every
organ of English sentiment over the earth
was doing its best to write and sheer us down.
Now all is different. "Nous acons change
tout celia" The tone of the English press
generally, is respectful, and often laudatory,
to sufficient pitch to satisfy even the inor-
dinate national vanity of which it has been
the fashion to accuse us.
This change of conduct is of course graft
flying, yet it proceeds from no real change of
sentiment, at least, among the masses IN Eng
land. 1t arises from few novel ideas which
have been knocked into the heads of their
statesmen and writers, by the "force of cir
cumstances." The Irish famine and exodus,
the conquest of California, the success of our
ocean steamers, and our unparalleled success
and progress over all that pertains to art,
commerce, and to navigation, have at last
convinced the thinkers of England, that the
United States of America have taken place
among the nations of the earth, as lofty and
as respectable as their own Wanted empire.
They have found out that nation possess
ing exhaustless resources-unbounded sup
plies of all things necessary for peace or war,
which can be yielded by fertile country
washed by two oceang, and containing every
variety of climate, can but be respectable and
powerful in the eyes of the world.
In the July number of the Edinburgh Re
view, some of the statistics of our strength
are given, and the writer, after q statement of
our resources, our inland and marine ton
mage, our manufactures, our railroads, steam
ers, telegraphs, our vast progress in intelli-
gence and enterprise, puts tits very sensible
question:
ssBy what appliances has this nation in little more
than half century emerged from poverty and weak
ness absorbed and civilized the outcass of Europe
and achieved such remarkable changes The inquiry
is of no common interest to the world. Should
the nopulaOn of the United States progress for one
century it has done for the past GO years and
the Union continue, the number of its inhabitants
would exceed SG00G00oO. The progress of the Uni
ted States is often ascrbed to their form of govern
ment, but must look behind their constitution, at
the knowledge and virtue which characterize their
citizens at the culture and training which foster those
indispensable requisites"
He then follows with the statistics of
schools and colleges in this country, and finds
in them the true source of onr virtue, intel
igence, power and progress.
We add few extracts which will show
that in Europe men are at last beginning to
understand what we are, and what we mean
to accomplish. The article warmly commends
our system of education, and urges its adop-
ton in England. He says
zone glance at education in the Transatlantic
States leads US TO important results. We CLEAN
from it, not only the facts that than 100000 of
pupils attend the public free schools and that large
funds accommodating for the purposes of educa-
tion but deduce more interesting conclusions. 1t
is obvious that the system of public instruction has
taken firm hold of the public mind, and is eminentIy
popular and progressive that it is pervading the ell
tire country, and assuming higher tone and charac-
'1There is determination in America to unite the
thinking head with the working hand, and elicit all
fotar Of tho y,+r1r
schools drew Daniel Webster from obscurity to guide
and enghten his country and more Websters are re-
appeals constantly made to the public TO suf.
fer waste Of talent intellect give the luxury
OF Learning to the class doomed to TOLL and coun-
feract the bad influences of the home of the terate
emigrant by the attractions of the school,
Under these incentives the taxes for schools are
cheertully paid and education pro gresses What are
its effects2 Do see them in the auckened sc.
tlon OF the American mind in its more rand adanta-
ton of means ends in the application Of steam and
the great water power of the country as a substitute
Tor labor; IN teaching it TO the spindles the
loom the saw drill, stone-cutter, and the planning
poEshlng, and sewing machines; in replacing the
living man and woman by carpet looms and ar.
ncal reapers; IN teaching the locomotive and car to
surmount steep activities, and wind round sharp
curves at trifng expense in designing new models
new modes OF constructing, rigging and steering
s snpS upon the sea, diminishing the while
oouohhg the speed and size of the vessel; nyenting
lew processes Tor spinning and bleaching new far
printerl F ava 0
IA. a few years since, the question was asked by a
distinguished diyine* Who reads an American work
Inc question now is, Who does not read an Anleri-
can pook Journal or newspapers The trained soldier
can eHect more than the recruit and the skilled
artlsan more than the rude plou gh-boy. Disciplined
America entrust the guidance of her mechanism
and the teaching of her children to the trained fe
male and devote the strength and talent of the male
70 agriculture, navigation, construction. and inveI-
toh Temperance seems to follow in the train of
ehncation Thirty years since spirits were used to
excess in many OF the States. marked change has
occurred education has advanced and now in some
states the sale OF spirits almost discontinued The
SAVING thus effected more than c0unterba!aIces The
whole cost OF education.T VAC
ne ntereI Of this insulting question, propounded
HE ExAhNER.-By card in Yesterdays
Examiner, Mr.. Bennett NJ. DEWITT an.
nounces his withdrawal from that manor
indeed, he had some months since disnosea
OF his interest to Mr. DANIEL. Mr. Dpw,rr
WIN, however still be engaged in advancing
Inc interests Of the paper, and will occasion.
contribute for its columns. He isamost
esumable gentleman, and a man Of t.,an.s
and enterprise. that make him an acou;s;t;a.,
20 any newspaper establishment. His s,a