Delaware tribune. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1867-1877, 1867-03-07
An EngIishman's View of "New
Am .rlca."s

TIE END.
An EngIishman's View of "New
Am .rlca."s
Our country has been, at different times,
rritated and insulted, though not injured, by
the criticisms and animadvers ,ns of English
travellers, who, after a hasty glance at our
,eople and institutions, hurried home to
write a book concerning them. Mrs. Troll
lope and Dickens favored us with something
If such character, and all our admiration
,or the maturer works of the novelist has not
been more than sufficient to effice Our re-
membrancc Of the bitter words in "American
Notes." and the severe satire of ''Martin
Chuzzlewit."
In Mr.. w. Hepworth Dixon, the editor of
the Athen9una, we had visitor and critic
Of quite different character; not perhaps
possessing an eye so sympathetic as those OF
Iohn Bright or Goodwin Smith, or Stuart
Mill would be, but still kindly and fairly i'm
partial. To a very important section OF the
country, Mr.. Dixon had already rendered
grateful service, in his defence OF the charac-
ter of William Penn from the attacks of Ma
,aulay. Though the tone of his paper haa
never been particular friendly to the works
of American authors, still it had not con-
lemned them with malevolent severity, and
its editor himself comes across the ocean
with no disposition to do us injustice. The
standpoint from which he writes his pre-
sent book is shown in his Preface, thus:-
''Some studies of past times, which have
long occupied my pen, led me last summer
to the James River aud to Plymouth Rock.
went out in search of an old world, and
found new one. East, West, North, and
South, met with new ideas, new purposes,
new methods, in short, II new America.
"The men who planted these Free States
--doing the noblest work that England has
achieved in history-were spurred into their
course by two great passions large love
If Liberty; deep sense of Religion, and,
IN our Great Plantation, liberty and religion
exercise power over the forms of social
md domestic life unknown at home. In the
leart of solid societies and conservative
churches, we find the most singular doc
trines, the most audacious experiments and
t is only after seeing what kind of forces
are at work within them, that we can ade-
luately admire the strength of these societies
md churches.
"What saw of the changes now being
wrought in the actual life of man and wo-
nan on the American soil, under the power
If these master passions, is pictured in these
ages"
With the eye of an experienced editor,
Dixon has selected as the subjects for COM
nent, and analysis, only things entirely new
ind really remarkable. Only the salient
points ON the surface of our national charac-
ter have drawn his attention in this book,
whatever observation he may have given to
matters more commonplace. Thus he passes
,ver the Eastern country, at once, and
commences his first chapter with scene in
.he Planters Hotel, at Atchson, Kansas.
Fifteen chapters are devoted to the In
iuns, the Overland Mail, the Praires, Den
yer, and the Rocky Mountains. These he
follows with no less than eighteen chapters
treating of Mormopism, and Mormon life in
III its phases. Six more discuss the Shak-
,rs; eleven comprehend the authors view
IF Spiritualism, the Female Seers," the
runkers of Pennsylvania, and the Bible
Communists at Oneida Creek, New York.
The remaining nine traverse the grand cir
Gle of what can be said in general review
Of us: "Young America" Manners"
"Liberties, Law and Justice" "Politics,'
"North and South, Color" "Reconstruc-
lion," and Union"
In his discussions of those bold points in
our civilization which even we Americans
are accustomed to consider outlandish, if
nothing worse, the author is singularly lib
eral He seems to have tried to enter into
the spirit of the queer people that he might
comprehend their position, and except your
own differences from his statements of fact
you can gather no severe rebuke either of
Mormon Polygamy or Oneida Creek Panta-
gamy. This characteristic is, indeed, the
most prominent one of the book-it is a
work of analysis and observation, not of
opinion or criticism. The conclusions drawn
and the theories evolved are not in the
volume.
Things may have changed, perhaps, since
the trip was taken across the plains last
summer, and it is surely to be hoped they
have. The unprotected trip of the Overland
MALL by the Smoky Hill route, from Leaven-
worth to Denver, describes degree of care
lessness and disregard of duty, in somebody
somewhere, which is scandilous. A wagon
load of mail matter went with the traveller
and his friend, but not a single soldier. The
book says, Up. 3i.):
''Not soul goes out with the mail, either
now or through the journey, except the
boy who drives the mules Changed every
forty or fifty miles on the roadD; no es-
cort, no mall agent, nobody save our
selves. cannot say that in my trave 8
l have seen the fellow of this prairie mail
| -
.yio Am Tica.--By William Hepwn-th n'xan. pdi-
tor u, tne dl,e ouni, and hur 1.-THE Holy Land,
| William ieAl )" &c. Large l mo-. :.
ph : |" T. pi. co t y Co.; Wilmington, Del Bough
man, Thoma, y w.