New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-11-17
WHAT MR. GRANTLEY BERKELEY
THINKS OF Us.

THINKS OF Us.
When the visit Of Mr.. Grantey Berkeleys
dogs and Of Sir. Grantley Berkeley himself 10
America was proclaimed, it was understood that
Mr.. Grantley Berkeley would come, not as Plato
but a. Nimrod; not as IIerOdotus went into
Egypt 10 observe men and manners, but IN the
character of a mighty huntsman to destroy the
bears, black and grizzly, and the buflaloes, both
bull and COW, of this western continent. Those
well imbued with the love of yenery had heard
of Mr.. Grantley Berkeley as an esteemed writer
upon FLANDERS aud other nfrmtics which horse
flesh is heir to: but nobody, We venture
to say, had heard of Mr.. Grantley Berke
lev as a lecturer on the science of gov
eminent If We had but known. if some
good geuius had but informed MS, that Mr.
Graniley Berkeley was coming to shoot us
and not our game-birds and beasts, We should
have put ourselves upon orr good behavior, and,
of course, during his visit our spitbOxes w0nli
have been concealed and our national ptyalism
severely restrained. But we did not know; and
so we kept on showerng sidewalks and drawing
room floors. even as we did in the ancient times
Of Mrs TroIlope and the Rev DIR. Isaac Fiddler.
Upon this moist phenomenon Mr.. Grantley Berke-
ley has recently discoursed before the inhabi-
tants of Glasgow, who undoubtedly think meanly
of guilds and highly of snuff, ike honest Scotch
men they are.
Upon one point, however, no precaution
could have saved Us from reproach, because no
precaution would have been practicable. 1t
would have been impossible, even if We had de-
sired. 10 amend the Constitution of the United
States in such way as to render the visit of
this iilustrious man perfectly pleasant. So
we must submit to our destiny. Mr.
Graptcy Berkeley does moi Ike the Con-
stituton: and our only consolation must be
that he know. hardly much about it as Il
clever schoolmiss Of ten. But the benevolent
will not be sorry for his plumbers. when they
| maxi the satisfaction Of The L0HdOn HCr0H
thereat That gentle journal cheerfully demon
| rtraies from the Berkeleyan premises that we
! are ycreinq upon national wreck aud ruin, aud
| in a philosophical way it argue, us into chaos
come agahl-we need not say to Its OWN ex-
cccdirg great delight. There is nothing alarm
ingy original nor at al novel about this. Since
| the creation of the world every great nation
has persi,tenty desrised every other great
nation, and confidently anticipated It's early
| overthrow The Athenans regarded the Romans
a, brasts The Romans regarded the Athcniaus
as dandies The Persans loathcd the Greeks
and the Greeks of one State despised the Greeks
O: another. All the civilized world else agreed
| in pronouncing the children Of Israel To be
despicablc race Geneva thought the religion
1 .C 4 ttth oil
his ineAhaustiblc good humor, said sharp things
of the Gcncyc4e theocracy IN Sheridan's comedy,
n gentleman kicks his servant. who kicks the
next under-seryant who kicks in turn the stable
boy, who kicks, we suppose, the horses So
| France sneers OF England, and England sHeers
at North America and North America has
very comprehensive and catholic cock of the
nose for The whole Southern continent.
II is this propensity TO thinb oneself Jo-
hannisbersrr and ones neghbor root-beer,
which gives Importance 20 gentlemen of the
| Grantey -Berkeleyan persuasion. American prog
pcrity appears, no doubt, to The LoadoH
| Hera'd newspaper, to he highly nu-
| proper thing; as something by no means 10 be
acknowledged or at any rate, by oil meaus TO
be put down. and although The LoniOn Hcfald
| would moi give groat for the opinion of Mr..
| Grantey Berkeley upon any important question
| Of English politics about which he knows just
| little it receives with respect his opinion Of
| American domestic affairs about which he knows
nothing Yet one might have supposed that the
fragrant mistakes Of really eminent aud able CONT
mental philosophers when writing of England might
have taught trfe of caution t. English journal
ISIS Thus Prot. Niebuhr, who knew the past
better than any man of his time, in lS27, when
contemplating The condition of England looked
forward to very gloomy future" There
sis, said that greatest of modern historians, "a
" fearful and overwhelming gulf between the
wealthy and INDECENT classes; they are two
hostile nations poor Ireland is indeed ma
- ton by herself and her sufferings such as per.
- haps lee reInedied." In the same
letter, the Philosopher Of Bonn speaks with scorn
of "the barbarism prevailing in the United
~ States lie groans at the same time because
his own " Government is not what il ought 10
" be-" and he bewails " the misery in Nassau.
" DaImstadt, and Rheusb Bavaria In 1880.