Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1872-02-01

BY Robert Somers. with MAP. A9nlo1sHo
Boyle & Chapman.
1t would be too much to expect OF
an Englishman that he should give to
his c. untrymen a perfect photograph
| OF what he sees abroad, so stilted is
his position In the world. Wherever
he goes he carries England with him,
and whatever he sees must square
with his English notions, or stand
condemned in so far as it falls short
Of his standard. 1t is nc part OF his
| calculation that there are many men
| of different kinds, and therefore differ
ent minds, that in the diversity
of pursuit and diversified methods
of business the world Of industry finds
it's food for support, and that if the
human family were brought to one
level, to follow one idea, one mode OF
civilization, the result would be as
deplorable as a residence in India to
the Britisher who will eat his roast
beef and his porter, instead OF the
fsrinaceous food which centuries OF
test have proven the efficacy Of to the
intelligent native. He will be Brit
ish. He has another idea, which he
never fails to keep prominently be-
fore those whom he addresses by let
ter, lecture or book, and that is the
importance of free trade to the British
manufacturer and that the value ofsny
country, no matter what its position
in the scale Of civilization, is with him
propOrtioned to the tribute it pays in
support OF those who are missionaries
to redress the grievances Of slaves
abroad to the neglect of those who
sat home" are subordinated to the
greed of capital, never content with
less than the lions share. The volume
before us, from the pen Of a Scotch
man, albeit one of a class noted for
their sturdy loyalty to the English
crown, is in this last respect
ne exception to a rule that
to Americans robs the average British
tourists book Of interest. On the
eighteenth page we find the first out
cropping Of this peculiarly British
idea, where the author tells his cOun-
trymen that they must not be taken
with the dollar q day. for labor so
common throughout the United
States, because it will not buy so much
here as the same amount in England.
In this our author makes at least one
mistake. The average laboring man
in the United States commands from
81 90 to 81 per day, and finds that not
withstanding he pays a higher price
for his clothes, for food and rent
he pays about the same as
in England, and has a better home
more comforts, more c~onveniences,
and is surrounded by q more equit-
able public opinion, ever on the
stretch to increase his enjOments and
make life more sweet and pleasant.
Had the author lived long enough in
the United States to observe as
thoroughly as years instead Of months
will admit OF, he would have made
more EXTENDED remarks under this
head and in a different key. Various
causes conspiEe to seeHre the work
ingmen Of America a future denied
even to the most favored of their Eu-
ropean brethren, principal among
them, the abrogation Of the law Of en-
tail and primogeniture, whichfOrees a
distribution o property unfaYOrablet to
the establishment Of an ~aristOeracy
based upon landed OF other posses
sions. Then there is a general and
awakening effect OF q freedom no
where felt in Europe. A free
dom that is the result Of growth, Of
liberal inquiry and perfect indepen-
dence Of thought and action, unre-
stricted by party, by creed or prece-
dent. But we can overlook this error,
considering the source" and that
which finds vent In a continued COM
plant that the cattle on our thousand
hills are not all "Durham's," or akin
to the COWS of Gloucester, from whose
creamy milk there comes the finest
cheese in the world. We car over
look this constant plant in view Of
what there is that is true, and good
because true, in this book written to
paint the ''eotton belt' as Il is, and to
give Europeans a clearer insight into
theprogress and cOnditionofth South
since the war. Mr.. Somers viii OBJ
trude his regrets that free trade does
not exist to give the manufacturer Of
old freer competition with those of
New England, equally gifted with
greed and grab; but he tries and often
succeeds in doing US justice, and de-
scribes, especially our plantation Life,
with an honest pen. Here and there
we find him chronicling what such
creatures as Governor Scott of South
Carolina have TO say about "the situ-
alton" in the south, which they have
helped to make and p~erpetuate; but
passing this over as the result of that
high respect for "ofieial" statements
which is a concomitant Of British
education, we come TO the more agree
able matter which he gives from
truthful and reliable sources, and
which comprises his description OF
our scenery, the value and produc-
tiyeness of our soil, our rivers and
railroads, our agricultural, mechani-
cal. manufacturing and commercial
activity, our condition before, during
and since the great civil war, and the
bounties we hold out to immigrants
in cheap lands, delightful and salu-
brious climate and ready access to
markets always crying for more"
There are not wanting too, passages
in which the author discovers a bias
for the South. These are born
of the sympathy that cannot fail
to be evoked Of any man who
has a brain to comprehend, and
a heart to yield to the stories Of our
great calamities of war and Radical
thieving and crime. 1t would be inn
possible, as even Greeley of the
Tribune and BOwles Of the Springfield
Republican, confessed, for ny hereto
fore man of ordinary observation to
travel in the South end fail TO note