The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-09-16
H u R O H Il.
Mail Dates to sept. O.
British Opinions on Minister john
sons Address-COnstitutiOnal
Assimilation in America
and England.
By an arrival at New York yesterday we
have European advces to the 9th Instant.
ENGLAND.

BY an arrival at New YORK yesterday We
have European advices to the 9th Instant
ENGLAND.
The Recent Master CutIers' Festival.
The London Times of September remarks:-
The presence of Mr.. Reverdy Johnson at
Sheffield is an instance OF the invlncible amlty
of the United States towards England. The
representaiive of the great republic of the West
makes his first public appearance amongst us
by assisting at friendly banquet with some of
those who we're most outspoken IN their sympa-
thy with the South. Mr.. ROebuck was, oil
course a guest of the Master Cutters, aud Mr..
Ro, buck, as we all know, expressed his sentl-
ments during the civil war with even more
than his usual exaggerated vehemence;;
Lord Wharnclhe was another honored
attendant at the iestal board, and Lord
Wharncliffc was President OF the Southern
Association. Mr.. Reverdy johnson might,
without often e, have hesitated to Join In bread
and salt with such proclaimed enemies OF the
united republic. But Mr.. Reverdy johnson
was wiser. He knew that the great political
conflict in America divided men there, and he
is prepared to recognize the fact that it divided
spectators here. He did not pretend to think
that we had all been the well-wishers OF the
side which ultimately became victorious; put
he did us the justice of believing that now that
the battle has ceased and the disunited have
become reunited, we are animated with one
desire that the republic may be IN truth, and
not in semi blance merely, one, ana that Engla
and America may assist each other in perfect
ing the development of free nations.
We are of one blood and one speech. This is
dnated at Sheffield; and It is in fact, truth
which inspires the governing power OF America.
Mr.. Roebuck, with that strange wiltulness into
which his independence Is apt to degenerate,
spoke at a later hour, of the admixture of
races in America as something different from
what is found here, and as difference tor the
worse. He asked his hearers to picture to
dumb-founded spaniard all going out in one
mass to be worked up In America. With
all our tolerance for, MIR. Roebuck, we
Gus indecency of this language, which is as
unfouuded in fact as it was offensive under the
circumstances amid which 1t was uttered. We
wonder what epithet the wild" the fiery" the
"assassinatng and the ''dum bfouDdedn strang-
ers would combine to fling back upon MIR. Roe
buck. But, as we have said, the picture thus
conjured up is altogether unreal, The United
States have been recruited from all the nations
of Western Europe, but the English element
has absorbed and is absorbing all the rest. The
result is English. We can understand from our
own experience how this should be 80. The
numberof irishmen in London, as in New York,
considerably exceeds the number OF lrishmen
in Dublin, yet London is an English city. We
have more Germans in this capital than are to
OF the ancient empire, and they have news
papers in their own language just as the
Germans have in Chicago, but we are not Ger
man. Our French colony Is OF long descent.
There is moi cover this difference between the
foreigners VINO seek our shores and those who
go to the States-that with us they rarely in
become, to live and TO die citizens of the
republic. The consequence is that there Is even
greater tendency to fuse foreign elements into
one natlonality, and the Germans aud French
in the Union become, after one generation, as
truly American and American OF the English
type, as the Bentincks the Kepples, the Bouve-
ries, and the LefeVres are Enelishmen. And.
wl,hal, the great mass of Americans are oil
purely English origin. In New England the
foreign element is rdculously snail. In Mr..
I Reverdy Johnson's own Maryland there Is as
tnhing an admiXture OF foreign blood.
In New York and the cities oi
the West the proportion Of foreigners is
greater, but it is sill limited. The exercise lo
political privileges and the study of political
principles compel the use OF common Ian
guage. So it comes to pass that the Americans
of whatever origin end in being at one with
ourselves. Our literature IS their literature
They have as much part In Shakespeare as we
have. Milton is a common inheritance. The
literary succession OF Addison and Goldsmith
was continued through Washington Irving.
The writers who have been given US since the
Declaration OF Independence are venerated by
Americans, perhaps even more than by our.
selves. Certain it is that pilgrims 10 Newstead
and AbbOtsford, 10 less than TO Stratford, come
in hocks across the Atlantic. The identity does
not end here. Mr.. Reverdy johnson truly
declared 'the political institutions OF America
are like yours; they are fashioned from yours
and in their foundations lies deep ane
never dying attachment to human liberty
The old life of the parish has beer
transplanted under the name OF The township
and remains as the germ Ol pOllllCdi OTgduiId
ton. Each State is an England OF itself, and
much as the doctrine OF State rights has beer
shaken by the issue of the civil war, the STATE
is stili the chief embodiment of government IL
the eyes of Americana. 1t is, indeed, too ofteI
forgotten thatthe differences no " ound betWeeI
the working of the American Constitution anC
our own have arisen, IN great par, Ia conse
quence of changes on this side. When the colo
mes became independent Parliamentary gov
ernment IN England was far from perfect. ant
the progress it had made had been turned back
wards by the unremIttlng intrlgues OF Georg
III. The author OF the Federal 50 habituall
speaks of the kingly power in languag
which we should no " deem oVerstrained. Their
are not wanting signs, however, that in thi
respect the American Constitution may becom
more assimilated to the English. The NOR
thoughtful Americans are asking themselye
whether it would not be better 10 introduce tn
system of ministerial responsibility, and whethe
Chief Minister would not be better than
President elected for fixed term. The chang
involved in the proposition is too great to b
hastily performed, but the fact that the kuggei
ton has been made and been debated prove
the attention which is paid OIL the other side c
the Atlantic to the development OF the mothe
country, and the continuous stddy of the inst
tutions from which American institutions deduc
Their origin.
THE CONTINENT.