The sun., 1882-08-27
An English Historians Impressions Of
America.

sojourn in this country, and some Of his i'm
prcssions are now published in tho Fort
nightly Rc,Teiu. Mr. FREEMAN has the repu-
| tation OF being trenchant and tart critic
and we imagine that the appreciative and
| respectful tone Of his comments on America
will surprise u good many OF his English
readers.
Ho begins by acknowledging tho cordial
welcome and tho constant and unmixed
Kindness which he received in this country,
and declares that of the pushing, meddling,
! questioning American, described in 30 many
English stories and caricatures, he person
ally saw nothing. What surprised him
most, he tells us, until he reflected that
such identity was perfectly natural, was the
| essential likeness of England and America.
To him the difference between the United
States and England seemed less than the diff
ference which strikes him when he enters
Scotland. That America should seem less
strange than Scotland he ascribes partly to
the fact that English and Scottish law are
things wholly apart, whereas the legal sys-
tenn of the United States is for the most part
reared upon the common law of England. In
the matter OF language, too he notes that
while there are undoubtedly American pecu-
liarities of speech both in utterance and
vocabulary yet he never found any difficulty
In understanding an American speaker,
whereas he has often found it difficult to un-
derstand Scottish or even northern-En
lish speaker.
The principal truth accordingly impressed
upon his mind by his observations in this
| country was the essential unity of the two
great branches OF the English people which
are divided by the Atlantic Ocean. He
thinks, however, that the consciousness OF
this unity is less vividly present to the
American than to the English mind. He
found that it came naturally to the English
man of America to speak of the Englishman
of Britain as " foreigner" while he denies
that Americans are commonly thought
of or spoken OF as foreigners in England
1t seems to him, on the contrary, that the
American in England is welcomed above
other men from beyond sea, on the express
ground that he is not a foreigner; and he be-
leves the condescension alleged by Mr..
LOWELL to be mingled with that welcome to
be purely imaginary, spectre called up by
the spirit OF loneliness which is naturally
developed in young country. He thinks
this slowness to recognize kinship with Eng
land ON the part Of Americans result to be
expected from past events, which, however,
in his opinion, has been somewhat aggra-
waited by modern forms Of speaking. He OBJ
serves that in the war Of the Revolution, and
as late as the war OF 1872, the man of English
descent in America used the word
British" to denote the English OF
Britain-a use of language which i'm
piled that he still looked on himself as an
Englishman. Now, however, he habitually
uses the words English and English
man" in every possible relation to denote
the English of Britain, as distinguished from
himself. In other words, he has given up
the English name as no longer belonging to
him. Mr. FREEMAN recognizes that the word
British" has probably been dropped out Of
friendllness, but he insists that he would
rather be called " Brtisher" than an Eng
lishman by his American friends, If, by Civ
ing him the latter designation, they mean to
imply that they are not Englishmen them
selves. AS to the date at which the word
American" was first applied to English
settlers in America, as distinguished on the
one hand from the native red man and on
the other from the English OF Britain, Mr.
FREEMAN seems to be somewhat in the dark
There is no doubt that the word is employed
in the sense mentioned in the speeches OF
BURKE and CHATHAM, and the same use of it
can be shown from contemporary documents
to have been current in the revolted colonies
at the time Of the Revolutionary war.
Mr.. FREEMAN says that he was amazed at
the ignorance OF the geography Of England
which he encountered in America He tells
us, for instance, that he was asked by one
scholar Of worldwide fame in what part Of
England Northamptonshire lay, and that the
question was put to him in very intelligent
company whether the county of Somerset
was called from the Dukes of Somerset. He
Is far, however, from affirming that an
Englshman on the same level would
know any more OF the geography
OF Am erica; and he admits that he
has often been just as much astonished in
England at the ignorance there displayed of
the geography Of continental Europe But
he submits that an American of average
thought and information may reasonably be
expected to know more about England than
we can expect the Britisher to know of
American matters, or than we can expect
men of different European nations to know
of each others lands. Why? Because in
none of these cases is the land of which a
man may evince ignorance, the direct OBJ
vious, acknowledged cradle of his own people.
1t Is further observed by Mr.. FREEMAN,
apropos OF essential resemblanccs, that not
only must sound American lawyer be an Eng
ljGh lawyer too, but he must know at least as
much OF English history as does his confrere
OF the English bar. The traveller can him
self bear witness that there are American
lawyers who go further in this direction
than ordinary English lawyers, including
examiners in the Oxford School OF Law,
/ think it needful to go, and that II q good
many are still iloundering in the quasmre
OF BLACKSTONE there are some who have
made their way to the firm ground OF STuBBs
and MAINE" He points out, however, that
the original sources of English history
seemed to bo almost wholly unknown in the
United States, and he saw many college
libraries which did not contain volume of
the Chronicles and Memorials. He was led,
| indpad I'm infer from n puriOus pOIlOunv with