The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1853-07-21

good Inc repshi vi tho Sofu hoWo nso onoaP
ened the price Of food. Public and private
philanthropy has been active in providing sew
erage and drainage, dormitories for the poor,
ragged schools, public baths, &C., Sc. Emf
grafton has taken Of large proportion Of sur
plus laborers, so that wages have risen. No
American can find in the general condition OF
the poor of London anything to serve as ex-
cuse or palliation for American Slavery. But
Englishmen deceive themselves if they imagine
that little remains to be done for the poor
One of them, with great deal Of simplicity,
said to me, "Well now, you do not see as much
poverty and suffering here in London, as I'D
New York!n | do not believe he knows as
much of the lanes and courts of London as
do. and he has never been in New York. In
the great cities, on the thoroughfares OF the
former, you see no signs of distress or priva-
ton; but close by people may be living in dark
holes and cellars, where no human being can
live and not suffer have seen in the great
metropolis such filth, and squalor, and wretch
edness, and such an amount of them, as have
never seen in the cities of my own country
But there are people there who know the evil,
and are determined to relieve it. 30 far as 1t
may be relieved and what has been already
done, furnishes good ground for hope that a
great deal more will be done.
Thackeray has returned to England, well
pleased with his visit to the United States his
friends say that he speaks of the Americans in
the highest terms-of their hospitality their
chiyalry, their intelligence. The English
People, so far as have been able to Judge
from intercourse with several classes cherish
the most friendly feelings towards America
Their jealousy is sometimes excited, when we
come in competition with them; their seiies-
TEEN is at times wounded when we refuse 70
acknowledge their assumption of superiority
but they really feel pride in our rapid growth,
and rejoice in our great prosperity. Such men
as Richard Golden, for example, fully under
stand our institutions and the character oil our
people, and value them at their real worth
but such as they represent very large and in
fluential portion of the British People
As it respects our laws, our institutions, GU,
forms of judicial procedure, our language anc
literature, our religion, and fundamental char
aeter. we must recognise full fraternity with
the English, although so many ingredients
enter into the composition of our population
New England was settled by Engishmen
chiefly of the Puritan stamp Scarcely half
century elapsed, ere immigration stopped lh'
population. of course, was homogeneous from
the start, and so continued. The Southern AT
Iantic States were also almost exclusively colo
nised by Englishmen, and there has BEEN since,
but a slight admixture of any other material
But from these two sections have gone out the
populations and sentiments and usages and In
situations that have built up and moulded the
States of the great West The Dutch, Ger
man, and Swedish elements which prevailed 80
largely in New York, Pennsylvania, and New
Jersey, 50 far from conflicting with Anglo-Sax-
onsm. as it is called-or, in other words, with
the English element--harmonized with and
became tributary to it. In this way, English
civilization became the fundamental civilization
of all the States, and so continues tor the
Celtic element, which during the last twenty
five years has been 30 largely infused into our
population, has not changed it essentially,
though it has undoubtedly modified it in its
external aspects In earnestness in religious
feeling, in energy, in enterprise, in sobriety OF
Judgment, in practical views, in elt'esteem, IN
intense individualism, in proud scorn OF des-
resemble the French more than English, as
it regards vivacity, impulsveness, boldness of
speculation, amiability, politeness, taste, &c.
We take our fashions from France, and every
American who visits Paris will be struck by
the fact that we look like the French, and
move more like them than the English In
size we are English in face French in FORM
ourselves. 1t is very curious to see the Celtic
element thus coming out in what may be called
the surface, or exterior, of our people
Of Paris, shall have something to say here
after. 1t is city full of all sorts of agreeabcs-
with sky, an atmosphere, and a temperature
quite American
The Turkish question is not yet settled
Russia is quite deliberate, and can afford to be
much better than England and France, whose
mOneyed interests are disturbed and injured by
suspense and uncertainty. The Sultan seems
resolved-he has rejected the uttimatum-his
subjects are enthusiastic in his support-Eng-
land and France stand ready to sustain him.
Russia is cool, Selfcollected, defant-it affronts
Europe by delay CD.