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productive of a happy preference for, and contentment in, our own land, dwindles into narrow-minded selfishness if it lead us to regard the success and prosperity of other countries with a jealous eye, or to desire to depreciate the excellencies which they possess. We may each hold our preference for our own country with a grain of allowance, and be willing that each should think

"The land of his birth

The loveliest land on the face of the earth,"

if he only willingly discerns the loveliness of other lands. The worn-out coloured man, crying,

"But now I'm old, and feeble too,

I cannot work any more,

O carry me back to old Virginia, to old Virginia's shore,"

though singing of a place of bondage, yet loves the home of his childhood, and is exercising the same sentiment which swelled the heart of Sir Walter Scott, when, in decrepitude and infirmity, he almost flung himself out of the carriage on coming within sight of Abbotsford. And again, the same sentiment, multiplied a thousand-fold, burst from the hearts and lips of the German army, returning weary and worn from Bonaparte's wars, when, on reaching the mountain-top, they rent the air with one long shout, "Am Rhein! am Rhein!" Let us

love our countries, but let us also love our friends; let us be faithful patriots, but also enlarged citizens of the world. Let us honour worth wherever it exists, and delight to recognise true sympathies

wherever we can find them.

Those petty criticisms of manners and of "notions," which are no more dignified than the squabbles for precedence of rival Misses at a ball-how unworthy are they of two great nations who know that each, after their own model, are free-how lowering to men who have a higher than human tribunal to stand before, and a loftier object than man-pleasing to aim at!

Much has been said and written of the United States by English men and women, and, unhappily, there has been more displeasure excited, and temper shewn on both sides, than the occasion warranted. Diedrich Knickerbocker has quizzed, and Cooper has censured and criticised, and Mrs Kirkland has described; each saying, according to their fancy, things more keen than most of what has been said by English tourists-and their countrymen have borne it well, and confessed, when called upon, the truth of their censures. But let a remark much less pungent drop from an English pen, and one would think that the ghost of the Stamp Act, the tax on tea, and all the long horrors of a war amongst brethren, were risen up to revive ambition, wrath, jealousy, and every evil thing which wisdom, brotherly love, and Christian charity would wish to plunge deep into the caves of the ocean, which divides and yet unites us. It has been said of flattery, that it is so pleasant, that if it be but administered warily, the wisest man living could bear it laid on in shovels-full; and such is self-complacency

or love of approbation in many, that probably there is truth in the saying. But in the abstract, each person of common sense and common observation will admit that, as no individual, so also no nation is faultless. And it does not become a great nation, like the United States, possessing much to rejoice in, and much to be thankful for, to condescend to covet flattery, or to yield to irritation at the statements of passing observers ;-part of them haply mistakes, while some of them are undoubtedly true. Moreover, in such a wide country, society is made up of numerous circles, which as little resemble each other as do the people of different countries. Therefore, a description of one circle may appear over-coloured or absolutely false to another, but be quite true nevertheless. What points of assimilation would be found between the accomplished judge on the bench or the divine in his study, and the man of suddenly-found fortune working off his exuberant spirits by trotting fifteen miles an hour up the Third Avenue, and calling to his peers (though mayhap not his acquaintances) as he scours past them, "Go ahead, boys! go ahead!" The judge or the divine might suppose this an exaggeration, as their pursuits keep them apart from such lively youths and yet they are their townsmen.

If a "lady," whose associates have been strolling players, or backwoods people in a very raw settlement, tells all the vulgarities she met with in such society, why should it ruffle the plumes of the dove

like dwellers among persons of refined taste in a civilised state? The same "lady," if it suited her to enter into minutiæ about home, could probably tell you similar tales; or if a gentleman takes it into his head to imagine that his readers will be interested in his descriptions of the use of tobacco, and its disgusting consequences in such rough conveyances as canal boats, or amid such unpolished members as are some of the congressional representatives from the newly-settled and "far, far west," why, let him do it, if it be true. Perhaps were he himself engaged in clearing an untrodden forest, or draining an impracticable swamp, or dwelling on a misty stream, where fever and ague prevail, he also might find a use in departing from his tobacco hor rors, and, instead of exciting displeasure, his hints might be improved into a more cleanly use of the preventative. He might set up for a pattern tobacco-eater, and teach the world. It is not for me to question the reality of such descriptions. The things happen as all admit they do, but, as they did not happen in my circle, I never saw them.

A captain bold being carried to a missionary meeting, came away laughing to see the Yorkshire folks so "humbugged," for he had been eighteen years in India, and had never heard of, much less seen, a missionary. The man was honest in his statement. There are missionaries in India, nevertheless.

Looking back on the ancestry of the United States, and considering brother Jonathan as a wellgrown and thriving youth, who knows his own affairs, and does not feel any want of paternal government, one understands that a degree of jealousy and displeasure may arise against criticisms, which prevents their being profited by, even where they are known to be just. Yet many a brother has been cured of biting his nails, and many a sister has been broken off some awkward trick, by a little good-natured bantering at the family fireside; and if Jonathan could cure John of his selfsufficient pride, and John could subdue in Jonathan his love of boasting, each would have done the other good service. We are all of one blood, Saxon to the core, and perhaps it is because we resemble each other so nearly, that we stand each other's criticisms so ill. What a much better game have we discovered to play at, when Jonathan is exerting all his ingenuity to pick John's cunning lock, while the Bank of England is ordering transatlantic locks for his strong box; or when the English Yacht and the American Clipper are speeding together through the waves, and the one learning from the other how to form his keel, so as to cut them more deftly.

It is in our power to help and to teach each other in a thousand ways, were we but in the vein for it -and why should we not be? I lay no great emphasis on the limited cousinship arising from the old story of "the three brothers that came all over

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