New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-01-25
"CREDIT TO WHOH'-

One Of the speeches at the Board OF Trade ana
TRANSFORMATION dinner the other night, OF at
least the printed report Of it, contained an III
teresting example Of what has been called inc
gentle art Of msquotaton. mat ART as was
all CAM. may be divided into three parts. one
perhaps the most extensive ana famliiaF' Con-
s!sts of the actual garbling OF phrases or SEN
fences Thus people say, when Greek meets
Greek, then comes the tug e war when they
ought to say, when Greeks Joined Greeks
then was the tug of war" So you VIII hear OF
"Water, water everywhere, and not drop 10
drink" though Coeridge wrote nor any drop
to drink; and PriOr's fine by degrees, ana
beautifully less" is usually quoted small by
degrees" The second part comprises the wrong
conforming Of phrases which may or may not
he rightly quoted in themselves; as in that
classic masterpiece of Sunday school definition;
~ lie is an abomlnation unto the Lord and a
very present help in time OF trouble" The
third part, which IS most TO the present point.
consists Of the miscredltng Of quotations, such
as attributing the remark about God temperinS
the wind to the shorn lamb not to Sterne, but
TO the Bible, and, on the other hand, attrbuting
such phrases as "the skin Of my teeth "at
their wits end" and fiat as grease" not to the
Bible, but to some less dignifed source.
Now the misquotation, or the miscredltng. OF
the other night consisted in saying that the
phrase "a nation Of shopkeepers" was first
contemporary applied by Talleyrand to Great
Britain" We are not sure but that we were
glad to find It thus attributed to Talleyrand,
partly because so many other bright sayings OF
other men have been attributed 10 him that 1t
seemed fitting this one should join their
company. and partly because 1t had been so
often, and quite incorrectly. attributed to some
one else to wit, Napoleon Bonaparte, that It
seemed only fair to give Talleyrand a turn at
It by way Of variety; for variety affords some
relief even in errors. Nevertheless. this credit
ing Of the phrase was an error which perhaps II
may be worth while to correct; especially as It
is easy to do so.
The phrase in question was not OF French
origin at all, but of British or British-American
origin. 1t is most properly to be attributed to
Samuel Adams, the Boston revolutionary leader
True, It had been used before him by Adam
Smith in his wealth OF Nations" and even
before Smith the phrase "a shopkeeping ma
ton" had been used by DIR. Tucker, dean OF
Gloucester, England; but these two used their
phrases I'm n general sense. Adams was the
first to apply It directly and explicitly to Eng
land, or to Great Britain. He did so in q speech
said to have been made in Philadelphia on Au-
gust 1, 1776. We say 'said to have been made"
because it is not quite certain that he really
did make it. But what is certain is this: That
a report of that alleged speech, containing the
phrase in question and attributed 10 him, was
I'm the fall of that year published In London.
and two years later was translated into Ger
man and circulated on the Continent: so that
Adams got credit for It whether he really made
it or not-thOugh it seems altogether probable
that he did make 1t.
SO the phrase was first applied 10 Great
Britain when Napoleon Bonaparte was less than
seven years old. and while young Talleyrand
was still priest at st. Denis It may be that
both Of them used It many times after Samuel
Adams had given it to the world: but thcre
seems TO be no record whatever Of their having
done so-either OF them. The first appoarance
of the phrase or its equivalent in French was
on June II. 1894, nearly eighteen years after
Adams's use Of it. At that time Rarnre. adj
dressing the Convention. referred to Great Brit
nin as "nation bOutiquere" or "shonkeeper
nation" Nine years later still. in 1905 the
Emperor Francis II said to Napoleon, "The
English are a nation OF merchants" II is
probable that the phrase was n familiar one In
one form or another. and that Napoleon. Talley-
rand and thousand other Frenchmen re-
peated IT many times during Frances struggle
TO destroy England BIZ destroying her COM
merce; but until some one gives us cbapter and
verse OF such use OF II prior TO August I. 177d.
we must continue 70 give the credit for ifs an