The Portland daily press., 1872-10-23
Britain's Literary Provinces.

Britain's Literary Provinces.
TyAdall, the physicist, Froudc, the histo-
rian, Macdonald, the novelist and Yates, the
humorist, novelist and literary jack at all
trades, can hardly find fault with their recep-
ton in America. The foremost literary men
of the country, like Bryant and George Will
liam Curtis, do not hesitate to bestow on
them the most conspicuous attentions and,
in a certain sense, to pay court to them.
With the possible exception of Tyndall,
whom writer in the atlantic unjustly STYLES
cockscomb, these gentlemen are at best not
above the second rank in their several literary
avocations. No one would think of chasing
Froude with Macaulay or perhaps with our
own Motley. Neither Macdonald nor Yates
is comparable in point of merit with George
Eliot or even Bulwsr, while t.ere are many
who would require Tyndall himself to give
precedence to Huxley, Darwin and Herbert
Spencer. 1t is assuredly in no spirit of en-
vious detraction that we undertake to assign
our visitors their proper rank in their pro-
fession. Wewish merely to contrast the gen.
erous, fraternal spirit with which they are wei
coined by their literary brethren here, with
the "stony British stare' that too often greets
the American visitor in England. Our first
men exert themselves to show proper cour:-
tesy to England's second rate men. while
Carlyle, grumbling in his Titanic way, be-
rates us as "a nation of thirty million boresn
paying no attention to the last census. his
eyes being occupied exclusively in beholding
his dear Germans) and Tennyson scuds from
the deep seclusion of the Isle of Wight to
some mountain fastness in the interior of
Britain to escape American visitors, most of
whom are authors This is quite commonly
the return England gives for the Inequalities
OF the Lotus Club and other ambitious efforts
Americans make toward Cancellation. And
the contrast is very much heightened when we
remember that American authors 60 to Eng
land to pay their respects to the mother
country and to their colaborers there, with
no mercenary thought or wish, while English
men come to US saying with the utmost frank
ness, your money, good people, if you please
we want your money" 1t is like going to
the coast of Africa and trading with the ma
tives for gold, diamonds and ivory. Mumbo
Jumbo doesn't expect to be invited to dine
with British merchant who has sold him
cotton goods and cutlery, if the blackamoor
should happen to be in London. So it is
with our English sacans and authors. Hay
ing come to America on business venture,
and having been well received by the natives,
they appear to regard themselves as enamel
pated from any obligation to do anything bv
way of kindly hospitality in return.
It's gladly conceded that occasionally an
American author of great eminence is re- |
ceived with mild applause in Great Britain.
Longfelow, we believe, was treated with
great consideration during his visit there, and
everybody knows how Irving and Hawthorne
were patronized there. But Tennyson, the
Brownings, Bulwer, Dickens, Mill, Huxley
and Trollope did not unite in giving Ameri-
cas- first poet an honorable public reception.
worthy of him and of them,-such recep-
ton as would be accorded to the Laureate of
England were he to cross the Atlantic.
Yates is received here with more apprecia-
ton than Mrs Stowe was in England, and
her welcome was singularly hearty.
The truth is that Englishmen regard Amer
lea as literary dependency-as provincial
Intellectually as it was politically hundred
years ago. Our writers are not measured by
their achievements but by their geographical
position. late English letter says that an
American, visiting the Bodleian library with
| friend, and calling for copy of Bryant's
Homer was mot with on oxuIisI, eton. |
Librarian didn't know any such man as Bry-
mt, and Of course the poets translation of
Homer had never come under his observation.
+ my Lord Derby's very inferior translation
With an EarPs coronet on the title page had
een sought, the courtly attendant would
ave doubtless produced it forthwith.
But the crowning injury, inflicted by Eng
and on American authors is in singing out
aauin Miller for special distinction, and in
hoosing to regard his poetry as distinctively
nd Enthusiastically American. Bryant I'M
nown, and this fantastic product of the :
Western wilds petted and encouraged! This G
ould be endurable if the grounds on which
e invidious distinction is made were ten
Die. But they are absurd. English critics
firm that our favorite writers are merely
ccessful imitators. They are really English
lthors, and second rate at that. But in this
retched bundle of affectation and knavery
lied Miller they profess to have at length
scovered the american poet. In him, they In
ink. there is no Ion ger anything conven- Is
'nal in imagery, in diction or in thought. b!
his poems we have no stale rehash of 9TH al
singers verses, but a new song The acute OF
ntemen who think so must have read be- be
zen the lines. Miller is undoubtedly for re
nate in the absolute freshness of his subject Sc
utter. But beyond that there is nothing
t the most slavish adherence to the estab- f;
1ed models. He sings of love and battle in MS
same old strain, long familiar to every OF
lder having an acquaintance with the Eng d.
q poets. When Mr.. Miller's British ad- I re
rers come to get the reflex light of his de- sill
ted wite's revelations on his poems their if
ion will become clearer, we hope, and they "a "a
Il see that there 10 nothing more genuine NJ
them than in the silly masluerading By ne
who wrote them. th
WE had hoped for better fate but have MI
red the worst, which is that several of the so,
der. in the Liberal movement in this tn,
4