Another traveller, who has done us the honour of publishing a volume, goes nearly the length of asserting, that the citizens of the United States look back with regret on their separation from Great Britain.

The same traveller visited Philadelphia, but not being noticed, because not known, he left the city in disgust, and charged the citizens with a want of hospitality. As well might one who had just dropped from the moon walk the streets of London, and then return with a similar report. Should Mr. Weld visit Philadelphia again, he is so well known now, I am confident he would be well received..

Indeed, so little is known in Europe of the peo ple of the United States, that it would be necessáry, if you would describe them, to affirm, with no little assurance, that they are white as other people, that they live in houses, that they boil and roast their meat, and that they speak the English language, at least as well as they do in Devonshire.

Lest I should be premature in my sketches, I shall adopt a rule which every stranger ought to adopt, until repeated observation confirm first impressions that is, to open his eyes and ears, but seal his mouth.

Adieu.

LETTER II.

LONDON, JUNE 25th.

I NEVER knew, until the present, what a weight impresses on one who presumes to issue his own opinions on another country. I seem to support the responsibility of the nation; and tremble while judging those in secret, whose grand prerogative it is, to be judged in open court. That is a dignified office, which assumes over a whole nation, and ought not to be filled except by philosophers; yet most men have finished their travels before they set out.

The English, like Themistocles, take to themselves the first place, because most foreigners allow them the second; and they imagine themselves treated with ingratitude, unless every stranger throws in his mite of panegyric. They are hardly satisfied, if you invert the defiance of the poet, and praise where you can, and censure where you must.

It has been their good fortune to be accused only of those traits of character of which they boast: charge the English with haughtiness, and they will tell you the Romans in their best days were the

haughtiest people on earth. Accuse them of hardness and oppression; they will tell you, these were

with an overbearing demeanour, and they will seriously tell you, this is a constitutional foible, owing to the consciousness of personal independence. Call them proud, and they will tell you it is the part of slaves to be humble: freemen are always proud.

It is our misfortune to have been visited by those, who, far from being philosophers,* estimated the United States agreeably to the views of Europeans: hence they have thought us two centuries behind the polish of Europe; at the same time, a William Penn or a Rousseau would pronounce us more than four centuries nearer the great object of the social compact. It is not long, since a Chinese great man, if you will allow the Chinese to have had a great man, since the days of Confucius, arrived at Bos. ton with a considerable suite. Being asked his opinion of Boston, he very naturally replied, "It was the vilest place he had ever seen, and utterly destitute of magnificence." At the same time, ad

* Even Brissot, I suspect, had fixed the character of the citizens of the U. S. before he left France. Charmed with the form of our government, he was easily led to speak too highly of the citizens.

verting to the style of the citizens, "Why," said he, "My father has three hundred servants."

This man probably went home, and thanked God, he was not born a citizen of the United States; and was ten times more confirmed in his prejudices, than when he left China. For travelling is as likely to fix native, as to destroy foreign prejudices. When such a man as Montesquieu, after having written the Spirit of Laws, and appeared to sympathise so sincerely with freemen, declares, "As Plato thanked heaven that he was born in the same age with Socrates; so he thanked God that he was born a subject under that government in which he had lived," he surely discovers a childish weakness. It may be pardoned in the Chinese, who has nothing but the soil, and those connexions which all people have, to attach him to his country: but Montesquieu goes near to prove that a man may think and write like a freeman, and yet content himself in a state of slavery. For my part, my love for my country is founded chiefly on its constitution of government. Nec in superficie tignisque caritas nobis patriæ pendet.* I should prefer the salubrious breezes and grateful soil of Spain to the inexorable north winds and iron bound soil of New England, were all

* LIVY.

other things equal. Quomecunque LIBERTAS trahet, deferor hospes.

I foresee, I shall have to encounter many difficulties before I can catch John Bull : however, I will send you all the materials of his person that I can collect, and you must put them together as well as you can if you sometimes make a small mistake, it is no great matter, John does not always know himself.

To understand the English, one should be a plebeian in the morning, a gentleman in the afternoon, and a nobleman at night. Otherwise, the various

grades of society are so fortified in peculiar habit, in this country, that you are in danger of mistaking honest John for a different animal.

A citizen of the United States arrives here under no favourable circumstances of birth, or consequence therefore, to gain all the advantages of travel, he must either break down, or leap over, many of those barriers of society, which, with many, are esteemed sacred.

Adieu.

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