New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1884-06-27
NEW PUBLICATIONS.

nm AtS Uoughton. Miniin NO
tMr Richard Grant White Is apt to give OIL
60 when he writes books. that is not because
he - uuamiable, but because he is hank lie
..,ns Lirself inside out with u composure whch
.ive. oue delightful idea Of the simplicity ana up
,,htncss of his character. Pleasant as IL Is now
ever 10 watch the workings OF an acute ana eau
Gated mind the entertainment has IT'S Uawoa0hS
When this accomplished scholar aud man oil 'he
world dps his pen in the inksand he reminds us Oh
those fearfully sincere and plain spoken persons
who never can helm telling us exactly what 'heN
.hink Of US even on occasions which seem W Cd"
tor some reserve Mr. Grant White is a grown'np
,sotsf terrible Is is very severe critic oil our man
pers and morals aud by no means an enthusiastic
heiever in onr politics. We should he sorry To al
a., ,ha, all his denuncatio just but most ot
,her, are certainly lust There is no society IN the
world which offers so broad mark to the satifist
and the censor as the mixture ana aggregation VI
races which form the population OF the Cn'teu
States Yet when one Of our oountrymen' IN taking
nbout us TO foreigners, Is 50 nconvehieh'S h'hes'
a. 20 balance the statement OF our virtues WI"
very minute and neatly exhaustive catalogue ol
our defects aud our crimes We cannot help feeling
that the sermon would have done ms more good II
!, had becn preached TO us instead of TO the people
roxt door Personally Mr.. White is too wise, and
We may saw too we'll bred TO pour INTO the ears oil
strange Englishman whom he meets casually ia
railway train, n sweeping condemnation OF the
American people. and to assure his aStohlSneu
listener that our Congress is the most corrupt Dody
i'm civilized Christcndom that our Presidents can
he bought cheap that our Cabinets are rotten that
our courts are owned by corporations. that the
very ruins OF public probity have dlSappeareu
from our base and unmannerlv community. Yet
this is what Mr.. Grant Whites Mansheiu HUM
phreys docs in the story, with the authors tact APP
proyal: nav. more than that. Mr.. White wrote the
story IN the first place for British readers and he
nnst be understood rs addressing them IN his own
name.
We cannot see that the indebtedness of these con
fdenccs is lessencd hy Mr. Grant Whites theory
which is the leading idea of his book the bo'-
fer class IN this country is really English III race
character anu manners, quite as much so as are tnc
English IN England and that the obJectlohaol"
asnects of American life are attributable principally
TO the foreign element which. although transported
across the Atlantic. remains substantially lrlsh'
t;ermon and what not IN its home. lie urges
that when English and American manners are com
pared the comparison should be made of class WIN
class which is right; but he also implies that the
typical Americans" by whom we ought To DC
Judged. are those Of the original New-England ana
Virginia stock and that rule IT seems 10 us cannot
be defended Ii we have invited all sorts OF people
10 come, here and allowed them to corrupt our
measured by the standard they have set up. We
can gaupe the refinement of a community only by
that of the class which other classes initiate And
what Mr. Grant White thinks of that SIDE OF the
question is plain enough from the tate oil ms Mt
Mansfield Humphreys, who, at the end OF Inc
volume settles down in England with his EhglSh
wife Humphreys. however is a much poorer crea-
ture than his author imagines. Mr. White, as we
said a moment ago, could not have exposed the
nakedness of his fatherand TO an unsympathetc
stranger as Humphreys did on the railway; MT
White could not have committed the objectionable
outrage which Humphreys perpetrated at Iopphg-
Ton Prory; Mr.. White cOnld not have degraded
himself by asking favor in business from a brute
who had tried to dishonor his wiIe-as this model
American did, and the model English earl advised
hun TO do Humphreys, in short, is a remarkable
fasco by "a gentleman who tries to portray one OF
his own class and produces only cad.
The word apology applied to the chapter which
Mr. White has added to the story since he has had
the advantage of a good deal of public and private
criticism upon the portions published in The atlantic
lforthty is to be understood IN the sense OF a de
fence not of an excuse. 1t is an exceedingly
yivacious and for the most part very forcbe little
essay i'm which the sins of various English critics
of American manners are held mp to deserved riGi-
cule. and the extraordinary rudeness of some OF
these superior persons toward their American en-
tertaIners is properly commemorated. Mr. White
has observed what we have more than once called
attention to in this journal that when Englisllmen
GO travelling they are fond of leaving their polite
ness at home, and putting on bad manners as they
put on bad coats. In some instances Mr.. NAIte
names names GOodl