Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856, 1855-05-24
ENGLISH IGNORANCE OF, AND PRE-.
JUDGE AGAINST AMERICANS.

The Pennsylranian, in an article on this subject,
says:
II is astonishing TO observe how lamentably ig-
norant the learned English are of a portion Of the
globe, but three thousand miles distant where the
inhabitantsspeak the same language and to great
extent are commercially connected. An English
geography published in 1854 and used in the prin-
cipal academies of London, in speaking of the
State of Delaware, says that, ''it is almost
illimitable wilderness, where the savage Indian
roams in undisputed possession Of that vast
region" 1t is hardly necessary to pause upon
ignorance so inexcusable. The same book con-
| tains a paragraph which reads: 'sthe manners OF
the people throughout America, have been made
coarse and brutal by the constant scenes of blood
shed enacted between the unyielding and heroic
red man, and the more skilful and numerous
whites" Mr.. Charles Dickens has written, that
he found American swine more agreeable than
American people; and Mrs Trollope found ''the
men redolent of whskey and onions, and the
women very childish and pious, and the streets
filled with swine" The imaginative, (and we
will do him the justice to say,) the inimitable
Dickens, elsewhere remarks, that "the gentle
men are somewhat slouchng in their gait and
talk politics evermore, in tone between a SWIVEL
and drawl, by no means laudabe on the score of
euphony" of all the peripatetc oracles who
have done us the honor to hallow our pebeian soil
by leaving their footprints on its vulgar surface,
none but Miss Martineau has rendered unto
Americans those things which American. An
antiquarian Mr.. Bull, enjoying the cuphoneous
appellaton of Woodpeck, has, in book entitled
EXAMPLES in the New World, +" devoted chapter
of some thirty pages to a learned dissertation on
the settlement of Russian Colony on Cape Hem
lopen. Mr.. Woodpeck expatiates most erudtey
on the immense advantage Of stthis large colony
of hardy settlers" to the United States. That
independently Of their importance as agricul-
turists they have rendered efficient political SER
vice to the government"
Judging from this, and many kindred publica-
tons, we might very readily come to the conclu-
sion, that many of the "Rambles in the New
World" are either bogus, or that the authors have
been made the dupes of the "coarse and rude
people Of America. The great disparity in the
accounts of different travellers points Of Ameri-
can character. might also induce the supposition
that many ofthem are like the celebrated traveller
in Salmagund, who, happened frstfo see in a
country town man with but one eye, ut once set
il down among other historical facts, that "the in
habitants Of the town have but enc eye" Though
we may be the subject Of English criticism or
with its bold and majestic scenery, its mighty
rivers and wonderful fresh water seas, must inn
press the lover Of nature with feeling of the
lveliest admiration. What the hills and tho
baby streams of England to the cloud-cleaving
mountains and vast rivers of America What
the noble q park to the nterminable scenery Of the
western wilderness. In our own happy country,
even the trees are more majestic, and the wood
choristers breathe symphony Of more masculine
and meodious music. We may be rude and fit
only to herd with swine, but the wonders of crea-
ton in all its sublmty ours, in this paradise
Of the western world.