Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-03-07
lFrom the London Telegraph, February IL
Piqunnt EnSlish View Of American InstI.



This Is not the first time that the convic.
tion has been forced uDOn US that the por-
tion of the transatlantic continent heretofore
known as the United States of North Amer
lea is the most wonderful country in the
world. Every thing American III marvellous.
we are great country, sir" is the common
remark-between whiting and expectorat-
ing-of shrewd Yankees to English tourists.
/ We go further than this assertion. Not only
are the States prodigious in extent, but they
are extraordinary, astonishing, bewildering,
TO an almost incredible extent, in their pro-
gress, their civilization, their press. their
politics and their Government In discuss-
ing things American, we feel the weakness
OF words, however we may "pile up the
agony'-to use an American phrase of YER
bal amplification. What rivers are so great
as the American rivers; what cataracts so
big as their cataracts2 2 Do we possess any
prairies, any salt licks," any allfgators, any
rattlesDakes? Is there single "snagn in the
Isis, or solitary Sawyer" in the Cam2 Can
we build railway in fortnight, throw the
metals over corduroy roads, and sweep cat
tie off the line by means of a hearth. broom
atts ched TO the locomotiye2 What are our
tame public meetings compared with the
gigantic caucusses and indignation meetings
OF the States2 Must not our Christmas show
of prize swine hide its diminished head be.
fore the porcine glories of the great pig city
OF Cincinnati We haven't street in Lon
don as long as Broadway, we haven't har-
cor IN Great Britain to equal the Bay of New
York, our fire engines are puny toys when
opposed to the wondrous hydraulic machines
Of the New York brigade. The American
trottlng horses can laugh our cleverest
butchers ponies to scOrn. We can't make
eight and twenty different "drinksn with
w "
bottle OF sherry, quartern of brandy,
baporth OF milk and an egg. Now, the
Americans can. We don't know the use of
a Bowie-knife. They do. We can't play
poker" They are adopts at that exciting
game.
Our Transatlantic cousins have picked our
JOCKS; outsailed our yachts; very nearly,
but not quite beaten our champion gladia,
tors and Derby cracks; reprinted our litera-
lure without paying us anything for author
snip, and "catawampously chawed us up' in
a variety of other ways, to say nothing of
having captured General Burgoyne and Lord
Cornwallis with all their horses and all their
men, and driven the veteran legions of the
Peninsula away from New Orleans by the
instrumentality of popguns placed between
cotton bales.
When we have to deal with a land of such
almost fabulous wonders as the United States.
w "Sll bC bACuStu SuTmlSlnp that
1t must be difficult, if not impossible, for apy
Englishman who has not resided many years
on the other side of the Atlantic to have any
thing beyond the haziest and most indefin-
lite notions of American politics. In common
with the majority of our contemporaries, we
have been seriously deploring the appar-
emily imminent disintegrations of the
American Union. We have expressed our
bitter and unfeigned regret at the unfortuu-
ate complications between North and South
all gravitating toward that abhorred uues-
ton of slavery-which has threatened and
partly brought about rupture between the
States of the great federation of the New
World. But so astounding and inexplicable
are all American institutions, from the
ballot-boX to the Bowie knife-from eau
cusses to canvas back ducks-from American
oysters to American over. shoes-that we
should not be at all surprised if we were told
next March that the whole of the Secession
movement is a joke, and only so much
ebunkum." ~
We only hope that the too. famous Barnum
is not the Deur e1 machina who has got up
this agitation, and that the publicity of the
quarrel between North and South is not a
preparatory step to advertisements setting
forth the approximate appearance of a fresh
mermaid or new woolly headed horse. To
sober English minds it seems that the State
of South Carolina has already committed
sundry overt acts of rebellion and high
treason against the Federal Government,
but Americans, even on the Northern side
seem inclined to regard the seizure of
forts and the firing upon Federal vessels as
rather proof of Carolinian 'smartnessn and
Ego aheadism" than otherwise. While the
American newspapers fill one portion of
their columns with warlike proclamations,
intelligence OF the actual commencement of
hostilities and the most sinister prognostica-
tions of servile rebellion and an interne-
cine war, in another part may be found light
hearted aspirations for the future, graudilo.
quent eulogy on the grandeur and impor-
tance Of the Union, and jocular comments
on the state of affairs "down South" The
American community resident in Europe are
we informed, the most determined skeptics
as to the likelihood OF disunion, and cheer
fully assure their friends that their is no real
danger, and that the "muss" in which Uncle
Sam now finds himself will all be cleared up
"before next Fall" =.