New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1868-11-27
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
cpFATER BRITAIN.

IS5ndon; Macmillan Co. - - oonnot
IN, ,e,uro men in England, says EMERSON V'a"y'
.xnend their quantities Of waste slohetn V .4i5, |
bpntne. swimming. and fencing lhey So -
@ into every nook and corner of the EARN vnoil
.L,io,t sense. leaving no lie unc0ntradlcleu' ho
.~otorsiop pnexamined They chew hasheesh cut
themselves with poisoned crcases; SWING lnen nam
mocls in the boughs of the Bohon Upas 'ase every
~ h,y avery secret; at Naples, they put st.
Tonrorips's blood in an alembic; they saw mole
into the head of the Winking Virgin 10 know
WHY she Withstand do many other curious
things. They are, adds Emerson, OF every Grass
tba hest and the worst It need not be supposed that
any one man has achieved all these exploits and re-
tnned alive Mr.. Dixie certainly has not, but he is
good specimen of that restless class which Emerson
describes Before railways and steamships, and for
sometime after, the English used TO journey few
hundred miles through France, Germany, and Italy'
and come home prOclaiming that they had nauo
the grand tour" That phrase viii nave 10 oe
given up unless its meaning is 10 be ehaigeu' AN
Englishmen i'll these days speaks OF away over 10
America and out on the plains TO shoot buualO WIN
almost as much nOnehalaDce as he used 10 mention
his crossing the Channel. Mr.. Dixie was not content
to see America only In 1896 aud 1861 ne tells u.s. nc
followed England round the world" visiting the
Atlantic States of America, Canada, the west theh
overland to Utah and San Francisco, and so on by
India record OF his tour is compressed IN these two
volumes with the pqHant title of Greater Britain
IT, IS publishers are said to believe title is hall
the book She success of Mr. bikes ought to be Sc
cure from the start
1t used to be said may still be said, of English
travellers that wherever they went they carried the
island with them, created British colonies overnight
at every hotel never took Oft their London specta-
eles and surveyed mankind from China to Peru with
the same churliSh contempt for whatever was not
British Mir. Dixie is not of this tribe. The tone OF
his book is continental He is tolerant, courteous
and sympathetic, a man of wide hkings. and has
Travelled enough to dispense with the bdS6 aitecta-
tions common to men of narrow experience. He is
graduate of Cambridge in England, but has not
thought necessary TO despise Cambridge in America
There and in the University of Michigan he gets
hints about education which he cOmmends to English
teachers. w-England which many travellers
find cold warns his heart is impossible" he
declares " for a stranger starting free from
preiudiee, not TO end by lOriRg the piOus people
of New England for he will see that there
could be no severer blow to the cause
of freedom throughout the world, than the loss by
them of on influence upon American life and thought,
which has been one of unmixed COED" He likes the
West also and the furthest West takes kindly to
the rude heaTtiness Of Western manners, dons the
dress Of the trapper and miner, grows familiar with
reyolveTs and swallows with stocal face the even
more deadly whisky of the country. The patience
and pluck of the MonnOns have a ready eulogy for
his catholic pen; there is genuine quality, under
whatever garb profession which this young En-
lshman feels called to despse. He can detect re-
fnements which are not superficial discovers gentle
men and gentlewOmen under every disguise nay
as far as appearance goes, every woman OF the ia
West sa duchess, each man COriolanus. The roya
gait the imperial glance and frown, belong to ever
ranchman in Nevada" Bred in an atmosphere wher
society holds together only by help of the police
anarchy plus the constable, as Carlyle said-h,
can tell the story of the Vigilance Com
mittees of San Francisco without wincing
And he not only admits in a general way, the fine
qualities of the New-Zealand MaOries but says ex-
pressly in answer to the question why the English
had been beaten; We were defeated by the MaOries
as the Austrans by the Prussans and the French by
the English in old times-because the victOrs
the bettermen." With all this talent for admiration
our traveller has plenty of critical power sees the
Iudcrous side of things and people, and turns it out
with no particle of remorse, has little mercy for
shams and honestly attacks what he dIslikes His
style is clever often picturesque, never languid.
There is not a. duh chapter in the two volumes.
Kinglake says in his preface to EOthen that he had
endeavored to discard from that book all valuable
matter derived from the works of Others and that
from all useful statistics from all political DISGUST
tons, and from all good moral reflections hs volume
was thoroughly free. Mr. Dixie has not bound him.
self by so rule, but he has kept happily clear
of the guidebook style, and given of the best
of modern books of travel.
Dir. Dixie tells us in his third paragraph that he
declined an offered letter to JEFF Dayis"-a good
omcn which the general tone of his book abundantly
justifes. All Englishman as lie is, he came to
America without that bias of sympathy with the
Lost Cause which cOrr0des the Judgment of most of
his fellow-rayelers in respect to the real America
that exists only the North-free, cultivated enter
prsing and religious. The Englishman of Pail Mall
and the clubs with aristOcratc tastes and Tory or
mildly Liberal opinions, has commonly been taught
TO expect in the South alone reproduction of those
conditions of refinement which in his mind
tial to a decent existence. Finding them, i'll fact
neither North South, his book if he write one is
almost always an echo of his disappointment The
average English traveller in America seems to
escape from the dlscomfOrts of what he thinks an
imperfect civilization. He favOrs us with such dis
contented remarks abOut hotels street architecture
rude manners and ntolerable cookery. intellI-
gent Fremchmnn makes on his first acquaintance
with England. Mr. Dixie is an agreeable exception.
Ie.has written fresh and readable book. readable
by Americans without any feeling of resentment
against ill-Itatured judgments, and by Engshmen
without any sense that its eulogy upon institutions
unlike his OVID is Oyerstrained
The hook opens at Norfolk. Va Without asking
what the authors previous experience of America
had been we can that he has quick eye for local
end personal traits He sets off on an inspection Of
The town and in GOuple-of paragraphs we have not
on Nv Norfolk but the pego and poor white all over
tho Sonth. strikingy and faithfully coutrasted
Not white man was to be seen, but hundreds Of