Lewisburg chronicle. [volume] (Lewisburg, Pa.) 1850-1859, 1856-06-20

with Indignation when first read Dickens
description of the extensive and filthy use
of tobacco in America | then thought
his picture an exaggeration, verging on
falsehood, but am now inclined to think
that he was not very far from the mark.
Tobacco is used with greater moderation
in fhis country. Very few chew. In
Scotland and Ireland, they snuff most i'm
moderately. l saw a man take pinch
while sitting at the communion table, and
an eminent Scottish divine consulted his
box on the pulpit during service. The box
and the pipe are used to stimulate convi-
vial intercourse Even among the better
classes in Ireland, they still pass around
the pipe of peace. Sometimes while a
group converses together, some one will
equip his smoking utensil and pass it
around, each one taking Whit in his turn.
In Scotland the box performs the same So
cial Office AS Burns has it,
"The luntin pipe, an srs shin mill
Arr handed round wi :ight guild wl.'
The English are proverbial for their ex-
clusiveness. The Scotch and Irish are
very accessible, but these are constitution
ally unsociabe. met with happy exeep-
tions, but these are not very numerous.
These are on-conductors for the inter-
change of social sympathies. You can
ride with them in the same car for whole
day, as yol would with so many Egyptian
mummies who's organs Of speech had been
palsied by the hand Of death for 1000
years. No earthly use to try them. Their
social apathy is impregnable. Occasion
ally you will meet one around whom flows
a sort of mysterious dread inspiring atmos-
phere, that makes you feel uncomfortable
in his presence, and breathe more easily
as soon as you get out of it. In walking
through the streets of Windsor l was re.
peatedly reminded of the characters in
Shakspear's "Merry Wives Of Windsor"
l met with Fallstatfs that seemed to cor
respond precisely with the original "Sir
John," bun dies of lus,ful selfindulgence,
bloated, blubbering beer spunges, whom
their merry friends of the other sex might
easily have rolled into the river They
grow indigenous all over Eng land.
Great Britain, on the whole, seems to
be happily governed country, ireland al
ways excepted. The difficulty with all
good governments is to keep the golden
mean, governing neither too little nor too
much, for one is just as bad as the other.
Governing power is the ballast of the ship
of State; where there is too much, there
can be no healthy progress /; where there
is too little, the ship is in danger Of being
dashed to pieces, to the destruction Of its
crew.
1t has become fashionable for Ameri-
cans to speak of all European powers as
being solely upheld by bayonets. What
/, ever may be the condition of others, it is
certainly not true of England. Her sub
jects don't need bay yone,s, and they would
be great fools to provoke them. Why
these Englishmen discuss their rights as
freemen, and denounce oppression,in their
parks and parlors, publicly and privately,
in truly democratic style. If Parliament
encroaches upon their rights, it is soon
driven to a penitent retreat by meetings
and memorials, which it is wise enough to
respect. The Press is untrammelled.
The periodicals abound with talent and
critical acumen. They dissect the actions
of public men with unsparing rigor, and
hold them up to public execration or favor.
The rights of suffrage are of course some.
what limited Only those possessing q
certain amount of property can vote, but
this is so small that few comparatively are
excluded.
The most discreditable feature of the
British Government, most unworthy of SC
great a nation, is that which imposes the
support of the Established Church upon
Dissenters. 1t is little in keeping with
her profes.ed zeal for freedom of conscience
at home and abroad. England has perpe
trated enough religious coercions and cru
elites to furnish the whole world with prac
teal illustrations of their enormity and
folly. Though she has long since aban
doued the iendish policy of Henry VIII
that inclination of all that is detestable il
human nature, she still deliberately retain
a vestige of the old stigma, at which com
ing ages will point the finger Of abhorrenc
T anl corn.
8 / aave jus: been here long enough t
? learn that the street arrangements of Lon
t don are an enormous tax upon the energ
S and patience Of curious traveller. Bu'
o "perseverantia omnia vincit; which bt
: ing interpreted, you know, means that pei
:, severance will take q man over Londor
i The lovely metropolis Of Buffalo Vale
b makes no such exorbitant demands on il
It visitors. There, if you wish to see