The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-05-17

the news so nurrleuiy given W tno Puoiie al az
vance of the mails.
Our pleasant neighbour The Ameican-over
flowing, as always, with taste and patriotism
has recently made an offering to both in the shape
Of n rebuke TO the luckless author of "The Vir-
sginians.o Tile american, it seems, has 'never
'sworshipped Mr.. THACKERAY," but still it has
s'never hated him, and consequently in ''the hue
'and crv'' which has been raised against him.
from time to time, by our sensitive felow-citizens
since the publication of "The Vwginians" was be-
gun, our neighbor has never joined. 1t bore with
philosophical endurance an occasional "allusion"
of the novelist ''to some of Washngtons foibles''
being quite satisfied that "the moral grandeur
of that great mans character Tin nothing i'm
s'paired.' by reference to the fact that he was
Young before he grew old, and that at one time of
his life he was vehemently suspected of being will
ing to fight duel or firt with pretty widow
In thus ignoring the prevalent idea-derived chief
" from the books of oratory-that the Father of
his Country was born an equestrian statue, our
neighbor added but another to many previous
ampes of its enlightened superiority TO vulgar pre-
udice. But Mr.. THACKERAY, it appears, in the last
number of his book, has done something far worse
than suggesting the human nature of the Pater
Pqtrig '.He has introduced an American girl TO
CHS readers "a certain LYDIA VAN DEN Bosch
whom, according to The american, che is not
Content to make a shameless tuft-hunter
''at sixteen or seventeen years DID," but also
Ignorant and ungrammatcal, in a word, ridcu-
of the despitefully-used LYDIA she is made by Mr..
THACKERAY, TO say of herself that she is 'all hon
''esty and smplicity-not like your English girls
'who have learned, l don't know what, at their
'boardng schools, and from the men afterward."
In ''the closing lines of this observation, ''there
and adds, " concerning this, we might say much
1--WE will say but little" Doubtless many of the
readers of The american, have recently been re-
freShed by the European letters of "Our Own Cor
respondent" and the interesting details of the
travellers visit to the ''coffee cafes'' on Lime
street, Liverpool, where elegantly dressed courte
'sans' congregate ''for the sale of such poor at
"tractons as they may be possessed of7'-or the
still more edifying picture of 'Argyle Hall, the
where the "cyprians of the city assemble, every
might, from ten to two o'clock, and dance and
"waltz with those of the opposite sex, whom they
''can allure by their Establishments If so, they
will be able to appreciate what our neghbor means
by the observation, that it ''might say much'
on the subject of "indelicacy," and will estimate
the extent of the public obligation to it, for alb
staining from doing its worst, in that particular.
But though The american spares its readers and
the public morals, it does not spare Mr.. THACKE-
RAY. 1t pronounceS the character which he attri-
butes to Miss VAN DEN Bosch, neither more nor
less than "a SANDER" Not that it is
altogether impossible, even at this day-or that
it was so, an hundred years ago when Miss VAN
DEN Bosch welded her CAsTLEwooD-to find
young women in America, who are rich and vu-
gar, and speak bad English andare over anxious to
marry noblemen. But such folks not ''the
average" our neighbor says, and Mr.. THAcKE-
RAY knows it. ''Yet LYDIA VAN DEN Bosch
twill be taken as the average" which also
'Nr. THACKERAY well knew, and knowing, dar-
"ed to promulge the gross SANDER, for the mere
'purpoSe of attracting attention to q dull book"
Consequently, concludes our neighbor, ''Mr.
'THAcKERAY is unworthy the confidence and sup
"port of the American publc!'
Now we do not mean to be understood as say
ing that if Mr.. THACKERAY should ever solicit
our confidence and support" as a candidate
for Congress, or for the far more lofty position
which crowns our Getty Government" we shall
be prepared to prefer him to the Hon. Mr.. HAIR
Rs, or put him in competition with Mr.. SWAMI
without some further explanation on the VAN
DEN Bosch question. We are not sure, indeed,
whether under the decision of the Jury, in the
case of the U. S. Us. Sickles Mr.. THACKERAY
might not properly be shot-or at all events shot
at-by 'Our Own Correspondent" or any other
justly indignant American citizen, who might
meet him abrOad-for thus assailing the purity
of 'the home and the family" and impeach-
ing even in fiction, the delicacy of ''the American
female" But looking at the matter apart from
its republican, social and patriotic connexion,
we are bound to admit, that we think our neigh
Dor has, for once, gone little too far. 1t con-
fesses that Mr.. THACKERAY himself does not set
up Miss LYDIA as ''the average of our country
women, directly or indirectly The charge is
that she "wil be taken as the average" by 9TH
er people, and that Mr.. THAcKERAY swell knew
she would be. In our poor judgment, this
amounts only to saying that Mr.. THACKERAy
fwell knew" there were great many fools in
the world, for surely, people who choose to take,
as ''the average of American women now
a-days, q vulgar it'll halfDutch f1irt,
and pdruenus of the middle of the
last century, have no right to complain of being
called by that hard name. Earl CASTLE
WOOD, who married her, was a gambler, liar,
cheat, and fortune-hunter, and is so painted-yet
nobody takes him as ''the average of British
noblemen. Mr. WILL EsMoND, his brother, was
coward, sot, brute, and a swindler at cards
and in horse-trade-but no one regards his por-
trait as a "gross SANDER" of the English gentry.
What would be said of "Our Own Correspond
cent :" himself if the hard rule were applied to
him, which his journal applies to his brother-la-
borer in literature, Mr.. THACKERAY2 Has not the
distinguished traveller from our neighbours office
expressed his amusement" after stay of five
days IN England at the ''almost universal cockney
pronunciation of the English language
s'My 'ead haches" Gentlemen pass 5arcb
way" and 'fli take glass of haleY'
What would The American think, if all its NIL
merous readers in the British Isles were To oro-
nounce it, on that account, unworthy the conf
"dence and support of the British public7 What
if its only rival in journalism, the London Times,
were to denounce &c. G. F." as ''gross SLAM
derer," who was trying to sell dull letters by abu-
sing the parts of speech of her Majestys subjects
What. if it were to suggest that gentlemen who
travel from choice in the third class railway car
riages, must take the vernacular as they find it,
and are, perhaps, no better, in that regard than
their company? Would not our neighbor be in
dipnant? And yet its Correspondent makes the
broad generalization for himself, while no one
but-our neighbor, or people of the same sort
will make any such for Mr.. THAcKERAY. We re-
peat, that we think our neighbours enthusiasm has
got the better, for once, of that calm judgment,
which usually commands for its editorial labors,
and particularly for its literary criticism so much
of the public admiration. 49, os.4.as
We cannot close these remarks, without doing