New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-07-01
JOHN AND JONATHAN.
ENGLISH AND AMERICAN MANNERS.
T. W. Hlggnson in The Forum.

Il. W. HlggnSOn IN me lOruD'
IL happened 10 the writer many years ago, 70 ma
himself for tho first time at dinner party OF scienlhc
men in London, a dinner OF the Royal society. Inc
next person at tho table was an exceedingly clever
man, whose manners woro however, very brusque
and offensive; vtG Interrupted everybody gave fpdo
answers, and mado himself generally ,disagrceaDle.
Yet seemed person OF importance, and was always
heard with attention lie was evidently familiar with
preston that he BIO some leading London physl-
clan whose Pressh was So 30 Egsb '' m
last found oppol unity to ask my immediate most
xn3 th; cuosy ey9 peSnagg r w lord d" Of hat
name, who died few years after TINS lnierView'
Now hsd long taken an interest IN tn tbs s nGD trans
atlon OF Of the poems Of his friend Lord iiough-
tom en R h and oS b Of ho &
and overcane his evident ncrdulliy by quoting me
decns After tbs he sGoned very little for what
author, great small, can be wholly Indifferent 10
memory Of at least one Stranger tho picture Of he
worst hammered he had ever encountered In what
IS called good society, at homo or abroad
Not long after, at a dinner party In Cambridge Eng-
land, sat next to q lady, since we'll known IN w
erat,re, who, although she called herself Liberal,
sfoutly maintained the Importance OF an hereditary
arisocracy TO give standard OF manners; aud mod
estly dcmurred and cited Lord Lye!ton as an alarm
ton bad manners were proverbalr Then men
Sg0a retsn %n9m had ay met S BUT ye Rs
limited list of personally inspected no9emen was
law lord that Is, one raised to the House OF Lords
difference: there was always some excuse. and tho
blue blood YVES never at fault. AZ last. in despair,
quoted some story, then recent which seemed aimed
at one of The royal princes, and here also she was
ready with her answer. "Thcy not Englishmen,'
she said, they Germans
Tho truth IS, that class in tho world probably,
IS judged little rs merits the English upper
class At home IT casts glamour on mons eyes,
glamour great thai Mr.. Darwin absolutely be-
licved It physically superior to other classes. although
another social observer, Mr. Edward Jenkins. made.
few years since the remark Why noble e4rls should
be so ugly Is problem in nature and this strikes
the American visitor to the House OF Lords as being
nearer the truth. So great IS Of any rate. their lin
eering prestige among Liberals that leading London
refOrmer once told that II almost essential
to the Of a radical meeting to get lord TO pre-
side at It and have myself been present at such
gathering I'm London when ono OF the few really good
speakers ever heard in England-a man full Of In
formation the very point az ISSUE and expressing
II adEraby-was put down. in that brutal way only
among Englshmen, through the impotence OF
the audience hear dun and nartlcuafe lord. who
had nothing to say and said 1t. class thus situated
cannot he Judged by what IS said about II IN IT'S own
homo; and when II IS transpanted IL IS apr to DRIFT
among a class of similar admirers abroad NO doubt
there are noblemen in England whose m inncrs crit
ical American would call hgh-bred hut n IS certain
that one may travel good deal In that country, and
even go through considerable course Of London din
ner parties, without having the good luck to encoun
ter specimen.