and write. In New York, in 1814, there were 7642 schools, in a population of 1,600,000; and these have increased greatly since. Useful education is widely diffused. There are no great scholars, as in Europe; but the whole mass, taking it in the aggregate, is more advanced than the mass in any European state. Pauperism is scarcely known; and every isolated cabin has its newspaper or book, even in the remoter woods. Intelligence is thus far spread, and in this new country operates wonders. Perhaps the most sterling and estimable of the Americans are the New Englanders, and of these nearly four millions are supposed to be descendants from the settlers of Plymouth. Below the middle class in circumstances, there is no comparison between America and England. The filthy and squalid are to be found, but rarely indeed compared to those seen in Europe; and most who are seen in abject poverty are such as have reached America as emigrants. The English and Irish predominate among the idle and thoughtless of the lower order of mechanics. The Scotch, French, Swiss, and Germans are most prudent. Our author says, "The very prevalent notion of Europe, that society must of necessity exist, in a pure democracy, on terms of promiscuous association, is too manifestly absurd to need any contradiction." The comparison between the English and American character, page 231, vol. i. is well worthy attention, because we think it just. On the use of the language of gallantry in America, page 261, we equally recommend for perusal. We have got thus far, and the second volume yet remains to be noticed. There is matter in it well worthy of close attention by every Englishman. The difference of appearance in the country occupied by the slaveholder, and the States where slavery is forbidden, we urge on the notice of the British people generally. Mr. Cooper's testimony on this head is a most valuable one. The description of the city of Washington; of the American Congress, and its forms;* errors of travellers respecting forms in Congress; Society of the Cincinnati; etiquette with respect to the chief members of the State; remarks on America as a maritime power; the latter certainly very just. The affected scorn and slurring notice of this work in some of the Ultra publications in this country, and the selecting a specimen or two of the writer's vanity as a sample of the whole work, instead of such quotations as the following, argues a consciousness that some of the truths are too unpalatable for recently existing customs among our Melvilles and Crokers to be generally diffused. Take the following: "Many absurd statements concerning the organization of the American navy have been circulated in Europe. There is none more false or more foolish than the story that young mates of merchantmen are, or ever have been, taken for the first steps in the service. Boys, between the ages of twelve and eighteen, receive the appointments of midshipmen; and, after having served a certain number of years, they are examined for lieutenants. These examinations are very rigid, and they are conducted with the greatest impartiality. While the writer was in America, he formed an intimacy with the commander of a frigate. One day, at Washington, he entered the room of the captain, just as a naval officer of high rank was quitting it. You met one of the commissioners at the door,' said the writer's acquaintance: he has been to beg I would make his son, who is just ordered to my ship, mind his books. They tell me the young fellow is clever enough, and a very good sailor, but he has been twice defeated in trying to get through with his mathematics, because he will not study.' In what other navy would the son of a lord of the admiralty lose his commission, in two examinations, for want of a little mathematics! The most severe system of examination, not only into professional qualifications, but into moral character, is now rigidly observed in the American army and navy. The lower ranks of both branches of their service are admirably filled. Midshipmen, instead of being taken from the merchant service, have been often taken from the service, under furloughs, to command merchant ships. No man in the world is ་ * There is an important correction of a blunder of Lieutenant De Roos, who must have been a most superficial observer of paintings in all events. Vide vol. ii. p. 36. more jealous of his rank than the American navy or army officer. It would far exceed the power of the President to push his own son an inch beyond the steps he is entitled to by his age and service. The senate would refuse to approve of such a nomination. The same impartiality is observed in respect to commands. A captain or commander is not only sure of getting a ship, when his turn comes, but he must have an excellent excuse, or he will be made to take one. Both establishments are kept within reasonable bounds, and promotions are slow and wary. There is not a single officer necessarily on half-pay, either in the land or sea service. There is not now, nor has there been for twenty years, an officer in the American navy, in command of a ship, the four or five oldest excepted, who did not regularly enter the marine as a midshipman. Even the oldest entered as low as a lieutenant, thirty years ago. A secretary of the navy, during the war of 1812, is said to have wished to introduce a brother from the merchant service, by giving him the command of a cartel, but entirely without success. Some six or eight clever men, who entered as sailing masters, a class generally taken from the merchant service, have been so successful as to get commissions, a favour a little out of course, though sometimes practised to reward merit. Several of these even were midshipmen who had resigned, and had re-entered as masters, in the war, because they thought themselves too old to begin anew as midshipmen." The chapter on colleges, education, and the press, is well worthy attention; for it is in America that the diffusion of knowledge adequate to the most useful in life, has produced the most stirring effects. Pennsylvania and New York, with 3,000,000 of inhabitants, have nearly two hundred journals; and books of all useful knowledge are printed and circulated in proportion. Treason cannot be written in America, unless in the shape of correspondence with an enemy during war. The government is too strong for "paper pellets" (as Cromwell styled them,) to injure it. The law punishes libel by an independent jury; and whether against public or private characters, or even the President himself, if the circumstances alleged can be proved, the attack may be made with perfect impunity. Trials for libel are therefore very rare in the United States. Mr. Cooper says that perhaps no English magazine is republished in America. We know that the "New Monthly" was, and, we believe, is now, for we have seen copies of the edition. The remarks on American authorship are judicious, and we have no doubt are correct. The stage of America is of course English, and Shakspeare their great dramatic author. The present theatrical taste is pronounced, generally, better than that of England. We think this is correct; the mass here have little dramatic taste; nothing can be viler than the state of the stage in England, for English comedy and tragedy of the higher kind never fail to draw audiences in America-can this be said at home? In architecture America has little to boast. The Fine Arts are not much encouraged. These things, however, come not to perfection in the youth of empires. Mr. Cooper's ideas on the pronunciation of the English language are worth reading; whether just, or not, the reader must decide. His claim to the old authors of England being equally American property is undeniable-Shakspeare and Milton are their's as well as ours. The low state of parties, &c. religion, division of lands, religious charity, and the happy freedom from bigotry and religious disputes, (where sects abound as much as in the "old country,") the condition of slaves, slave-emancipation, policy of the Government, duels, hospitality, and influence of money, are touched upon. We are glad to see that money is not, as in England, the paramount means of social distinction-that no wealthy demirep could there buy a titled noble, and trail at her heels the lofty and great of the country. Only one member for the State of New York can be called a wealthy man. Only one President has been rich; and no man of any great fortune is in the higher branches of the Government. As to society, the rich in America keep a species of ascendency in show, and consequently have an influence as elsewhere, and get purse-proud the same; but talent, not riches, the clear-sighted American sees, is that which can alone make public characters useful; and the benefit of the community is therefore paramount. The public works are touched upon next. One canal, cut in a few years, is 350 miles in length, and pays a very high rate of interest. There are 5000 post-offices. The National Debt of the United States, on the 1st of last month, was but 55,413,377 dollars, or about 12,000,000l. sterling, though in 1813 it amounted to 120,000,000, or about 24,500,000l. In America, however, they are not yet ingenious enough to borrow money with one hand to pay off money borrowed with the other, adding the expenses of the transaction to the first debt à la Bexley. The manufactures of America are on the advance, and new sources of commerce and wealth are constantly opening. Anticipations of the extent, power, and population of the American empire are, as we have before observed, indulged in by some of the writers of that country until they become almost ludicrous. Mr. Cooper, however, does not go quite so far; his expectations of the amount of people it will require to stock the country east of the rocky mountains alone, with only 150 per square mile, is not exaggerated. In this 1,000,000 of square miles there are now about 12,000,000 of souls; and the population doubling in every twentyfive years, as it has done, 1850 will give 24,000,000; and 1880, 48,000,000. "A new era is now about to dawn on this nation. It has ceased to creep; it begins to walk erect among the powers of the earth. All these things have occurred in the life of man. Europeans may be reluctant to admit the claims of a competitor, that they knew so lately a pillaged, a wronged, and a feeble people; but Nature will have her laws obeyed, and the fulfilment of things must come. The spirit of greatness (strength) is in this nation; its means are within its grasp; and it is as vain as it is weak to attempt to deny results that every year is rendering more plain, more important, and more irresistible." It is precisely for this reason that we would stimulate the people of England into an inquiry after the truth respecting America; and we recommend these volumes as a portion of the means for this purpose. National vanity, and perhaps a zeal not judiciously tempered, has given birth to too much panegyric on the part of the writer, when speaking of his own country; but the facts given, and the respectability of the author's character, stamp the colouring of truth upon the facts in his pages. The books of few travellers in America contain any thing beyond road-side observations. The country has been deemed too remote for those to visit who travel out of curiosity and a wish to profit by the truth. Even Mr. De Roos, who has written one of the best tours in America we have had, seems to have been guilty of many inaccuracies, perhaps from want of time to scrutinize matters as he might have done. The Notes at the end of the second volume detail some of these, and contain comments on the pleasant prolusions of the Quarterly upon America and her navy: it closes with the subject of the impressment of American seamen. The reviewer intimates, that England will be ready to discuss any plan to prevent it America may propose. We think our own Government will not deem it expedient to argue the point again. The principle of force constituting right is, we hope, abandoned. The taking seamen by force out of their own ships to serve a foreign power will, we are confident, be no more insisted upon by England; in the past, the character of the struggle in which we were engaged was the sole excuse to be made for the outrage. The present Yankee writer dryly directs attention to the six line-of-battle ships building in America, as the plan that will be adopted to prevent the violation of American vessels in future. This, in fact, is the only part where he can be charged with any thing that looks like hostile feeling towards England, beyond that which the jealousy of one nation imagines the writer of another to imply by the praise of his own; but it is a provoking topic. Mr. Cooper's "Notions of America," to conclude, should be read and weighed well by all gifted with the power of reflection. To write without partiality upon the subject of country, and that not merely to describe but to defend its character and institutions, is no easy task in a Republican author. What partiality may have dictated, the reader will excuse; and there is, we assure him, no great call upon his magnanimity. We possess no other work from an authentic source, which contains so much truth about America. If there be those who will not see the advances of a great empire, but prefer shrouding her progress in darkness, let them close their own eyes and meet the results. It is essential to the welfare of Great Britain that the Americans should be thoroughly known, and their growing importance in the scale of nations accurately understood. Nothing is more mischievous than deception respecting a country so circumstanced; it will infallibly lead to errors that may not admit of a facile remedy; and they who attempt to deceive the British public on this point, are not only deadly enemies of America, but of England herself. THE POLITICAL TRIMMER. A Character. COLD, formal, dull, pragmatical, A solemn, supple coxcomb-big Yet flattering every banner. Not Tory, Whig, nor Radical, And intermediate station: Blind prejudice may be a curse, Away with such cold-hearted knaves THE BACHELOR'S VADE-MECUM. MR. EDITOR,-I request the assistance of your widely circulated Magazine, in order to convey to the world a scheme of great public utility. We live in days when all possible aid is afforded to inquiries of every description; not only are the paths of science made as level and easy as the rough, unyielding nature of the soil will permit, and finger-posts set up every ten yards to point out the nearest way and smoothest road to Mathematics, Chemistry, and Astronomy, but helps and conductors are ready for us in our shorter trips and more pleasureable excursions. We may possess "a Guide to the Quarter-Sessions as well as "to the Stars," a 66 Companion to the Public Diversions" as well as "to Algebra;"" the young Brewer" may have his " Monitor," "the young Sportsman" his "Hints;" "the Florist" his "Manual," "the Auctioneer" his "Instructor," "the Ship-owner" his "Guide." "Every man" may be "his own Financier," "" his own Cattle-doctor," "his own Farrier," ""his own Physician :" there are "First Lines of Science," "First Steps to Botany," "Short Hints for the cure of Gout," "Keys" to all descriptions of knowledge, "Elements" of every branch of history: it is our own faults if we are not "Complete Graziers,” Complete Confectioners," and "Complete Cooks ;" and, when we wish to travel," Maxims of Locomotion," "Guides to the Wateringplaces," "Companions" to every county in England, and every country of Europe, "American Road-books," and "East India Vademecums," contend for the honour of directing our steps. But amidst this profusion of assistance in all our corporeal and mental rambles, this rich supply of knowledge and instruction for the man of business, the man of science, and the man of pleasure, there exists one most important deficiency, to supply which has been for some time the first object of my ambition. Marriage is universally allowed to be the most serious act of a man's life; so numerous and so lasting are its consequences, so irreparable the effects of a step which few are permitted to repeat. Yet amidst the "Guides," and " Hints," and "Keys" I have enumerated, not one is to be found which will direct the Bachelor to a prudent choice; no aid has hitherto been afforded to the man of discretion and experience when about to make the selection upon which the comfort of his future life depends. The undue sway which beauty exercises over the younger and more inconsiderate part of the world has long been a subject of regret to the serious and reflecting mind. Its value, when connected with more solid and lasting advantages no one can deny; but the man of sense, however his taste and fancy may be pleased by "le crespe chiome d'or puro lucente, e'l lampeggiar del angelico riso," remembers their fleeting and fragile qualities, and subscribes his full assent to the assertion of Madame de Staël-" que l'âme ne reçoit aucun plaisir de ce qu'elle reconnoit elle-même pour passager." It is not, therefore, beauty which is the chief object of his search; neither with an absurd affectation of singularity, an undue assumption of superiority over the rest of mankind, does he take at all into his consideration the principles, understanding, or temper of his future wife: points upon which imposition is so easily practised, that the careless and the cautious have equal chances of success, and which he perceives to be totally disregarded by the whole human race, "by saint, by savage, and by sage." |