National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1886-07-26

tOre we DO ourselves the hOnOr OF COM
menting on Mr.. Watterson's structures we
should do well TO adopt the advice of DR..
johnson on memorable occaslou--"Come,
gentlemen, let us clear our minds OF all cant
upon this subject !"
In the first place, London Is rot England.
In the second place, the English nobility arc
not the English people; and, in the last
here we are unreservedly with
Mr. Watterson 49, II wealthy Americans
would not go to so much trouble to hunt up
the nobility they would save themselves the
labor of carrying about with them q largo
amount Of very useless knowledge.
Mr. Watterson says, "The average Eng
lishman is a snob," and calls up the cor
roborative testimony OF Thackeray. But
this description and testimony do not let in
any flood OF light upon the subject. Since
we are quite at sea as TO what the Ken
tucky editor means by a snob, and we
know that the last words of Thackoray upon
that subject were, "And now, my dear
friends, let us shake hands and drink each
others health all round, because in our
heart Of hearts you and | are also suobs and
brothers," When Carlyle's friend defined
respectable man as one "who kept glg,n
the idea conveyed was Just as luminous as
that which is shrouded In the fateful words
about the average Englishman Of Mr.. Wat
terson.
A few months ago one OF the professors
at southern college was strolling with a
senior pupil. The lad said, "Prof. -,
may ask II you are an Englshman or an
Irishman Yn
81 am an Irishman," replied the puudit;
"but why do you ask ~
~ am very glad to hear that, SIR and
shall tell you why. An uncle of mine once
lived In London for three months, aud he
learned to hate the English people. lie
walked to his Office, two miles distant,
every morning and walked home again In
the afternoon, and he assured me that dur
ing all that time no Englishman as much as
looked at him, being equivalent to saying,
I'VE Englishman cannot bother ourselves
to look at you, an American
The professor calmly explained to the
boy that probably out Of the thousands
who had passed his uncle not one knew or
cared whether he was American, English,
French, Dutch, or of any other nationality;
they simply passed him because they were
not acquainted with him, and because the
first principle in every Englishman's social
C, dc is to mind his own business.
The boy, however, could never get over
the belief that the base, brutal, and bloody
Saxon race had consplred to heap insult
upon his uncle.
Mr. Watterson goes on to say that 'the
Englishwoman is slave.n To this we must
reply that his experience differs widely
from ours. 1t has been our great good for
tune to have lived in England for more
than dozen years, and we can place our
hand upon our editorial heart aud swear
solemnly-or even make declaration as
designated by law-that Englishwonen are
not slaves. 1t may be that we lived not in
the atmosphere of those "uppah suckes''
into which all American journalists seem
forced the moment they touch British soil
We were not hand In glove with every duke
in London, ard therefore cannot really
know whether Mr.. Watterspn has reached
fair conclusion from the comparison OF {
sufficient number Of single instances wher
he says that "the basest and coarsest speci
mems Of humanity l ever met in decent
company have been titled men,"
This possibly is so. We don't know and
we don't care, as among educated men and
women of the middle classes in England Il
has never been an axiom that noblemen OF
women OF the nobility were, as such, fit fol
the kingdom Of heaven. That great middle
class, however, which comprises the coun
try gentry (uuder the rank OF baronets), the
| professional classes, the old-establ!shet
mercantile and commercial houses, and, II
fact, every class down to that Of unslSilleC
labor, contains greater number OF proud
| honorable, truthful, and thoroughly relia
ble men and women to the square mile thai
any other country on this planet-excep
| America.
"The warp and woof Of English society,
says Mr.. Watterson, sis sham.n II thi
be so 1t is stupendous sham; shan
which out-Barnums Barnum and produce
more powerful and permanent results thai
the most arrant reality.
Can that society, by which, of course, W
mean the community at large, and not tn
ten thousand of the ''uppah suckles'' upo
whom 1t would eprohigate extravaganza T.
waste drop Of Ink, whose members hav
accompanied the sun and Daniel Webster
drum taps round the world, whose gov
ernment is the strongest upon earth, who's
literature is the glory OF the race; can tina
society fairly be called sham by any figur
Of speechP
The population Of the British islands
about thirty.six millions. The nobility an
titled 0ristocracy number four or fV
thousand, and form, what, indeed, is prett
ridiculous in the nineteenth century, an a
most exclusive class,
With reference to this class wise woman
not born to the honors, whether she b
American or English, will not banker afte
Its prerogatyes, and wise man will do on
Of two things; he will 1) either win his wa
to the house Of lords-hospital for incuu
ables-by scoulng delights and living ID
borious days at some learned profession, b
the manufacture Of soap, beer, or whisky
or (2) he will heartily aud contemptuousl
despise that remnant Of barbaric ages whlc
prctends 70 place any man born OF woman
""" NE uSe'euu"hla lOI al Vhei upo
pedostals above their fellows. But th
future man, as wise in other respects as Nj
Henry Watterson, win not draw an indlci
ment against u whole nation because som
married women elope and because some c
the nobility are brutes,
1t is very late in the day, and 1t Is quit
unworthy Of so eminent Il journalist as Nj
Wattcrson, to try and perpetuate ill-feelin
between America and England. American
are not all angels, and Sir Charles Dixie
not model EnglIshman; but 1t is NOR
sweeping than even the action of civ
service reform to tell the American peopl
that ''the slave In the English woman make
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