ENGLAND. AND AMERICA.

BY CYRUS REDDING.

MANY years have run out their sands since Campbell undertook the editorship of this magazine-a novel task for one whose habits led him towards abstract things rather than those of the revolving hour. Articles appeared in the earlier numbers which, though appropriate for such a publication and in every respect truthful, roused the poet's apprehension lest friend or foe might feel wounded and launch their censure against himself in return. He would, therefore, soften and explain, in place of upholding disagreeable truths, and sustain the charge of editorial carelessness against himself, or say anything to avert that which required no apology. In the second number an article appeared, entitled "Complaints in America against the British Press,' written by a gentleman still alive. The American literati elevated their crests indignantly at what they deemed a grave offence. Campbell, in a preface to the first volume-which seemed a tenter-hook on which to suspend his explanation, rather than a view of his retrospective labours, or of his prospective objects-stated that he had inserted the offending article "without reflection, had observed its unfairness," and felt dissatisfied at having published it, 66 even before the remonstrances from the other side" of the Atlantic reached England. Thus the editorial and American sensitiveness were balanced by the fear of personal censure, and the recoil of self-wounded pride. The literary jealousy on the side of America might have ended in a "battle of the books," and no more. There were no political differences between the countries at that time. A few highflying journalists alone-dumpling-headed people-mistook a vituperation of everything republican for an irresistible argument in favour of despotic rule, but the echo of their voices soon ceased to reverberate.

It must be confessed that since the time alluded to American literature has been fully avenged. "The Trade," par excellence, has published some American works of merit, and some of no merit at all. There have not been wanting among these republications the false stamp of an English nativity-the copyright costing nothing was the temptation-to the injury of native authorship. The power of selling off an edition of any moderate number is well known. Thus in verse Longfellow is dubbed the laureate to the Row, although the butt of sack may not be forthcoming. Southey, if people can see out of the grave, must be indignant at the neglect of his hexameters for the less euphonous longs and shorts of the Transatlantic poet, who "pales the ineffectual fires" of the "Vision of Judgment" with a vengeance.

The drama, before our downward taste in that line, consigned Shakspeare to the library-shelf, and the magnificent temples erected for the representation of his works changed to arenas for fiddlers and masks, that too has succumbed, in dust and ashes, to the conjurers and Barnums of Yankee land. There, where the truly British poet, whose works have made revolutions in the dramatic writings of continental nations, was once seen represented by Kemble, Siddons, Young, and Kean, to say nothing April-VOL. CVI. NO. CCCCXXIV.

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of their predecessors or contemporaries-there, in our existing mediocrity of taste, we find showmen exhibiting their tricks, relieved by unwholesome pantomime, and masked balls with all their immoralities, triumphant in tendencies the reverse of those which people of decent character should support. In these, too, America is avenged. The amusements of New York, where the population is said to live much looser and faster than that of Paris, London, or even Glasgow itself, set examples which, by their own peculiar graces, defy the elegances and moralities of the old country. The theatres of the old country dazzle with the lustre of Transatlantic glories. Their select visitants - too many not outrageously virtuous, if mistaken under the mask-amid the fumes of tobacco, fighting, and their sequents, rehearsed parts calculated to make even a courtier blush. It would seem as if the former temple of the British drama had been kindled by the desecration, and perished in the flame of its indignation-an indignation unfelt, it was to be feared, beyond its degraded arena.

Thus, without a ground of difference left under the foregoing heads, other parties in America stir up political questions in their place. We speak not of the present moment alone-we glance over a series of departed years. A fearful grievance, and threat of hostilities in consequence, were nurtured in regard to the northern boundary line. The United States were so cramped for room in the imaginations of certain of the good citizens, that although Pennsylvania and Virginia alone, if inhabited as densely as England, would support the whole of their present population, they seemed to think they had not breathing-room. They talked of hostilities to settle the question, as if England, in a matter of moment, was to be bullied into every "notion" which the teeming brain, the covetous desires, and the assumed dignity of that part of the American people which contrives to be the loudest in complaint, the shallowest in reason, and the smallest among its sections, might dream in waking visions of its own prospective transcendency. The boundary line was settled to the satisfaction of those who were so clamorous about it. Here grasping wishes for territory were met by England in a spirit which did her honour. Since that time we have suspended our port regulations in the American behalf, we have thrown open the trade of Canada, and in our contest with Russia waived points in respect to the right of search, because those points carried out might occasion disputes, avoided by a concession, the reverse of which was not required by any apprehension of such a necessity as existed when we were involved in hostilities with nations possessed of a greater maritime superiority than the northern Czar. All this was of no moment; a fresh subject of difference must be raked up. The chance of some sort of gain must be speculated upon, and the conceit of party be gorged. One cause of complaint removed, the search for another seemed as natural a course as the sun's diurnal motion. But we must discriminate with more nicety, lest we be charged with including the whole of the American people in the conduct of which we speak. We believe the majority of the inhabitants of the United States feel no jealousy towards England, and we are certain that in England there is no jealousy nor hostile feeling towards America. A mutual rivalry in trade, from which both countries profit, enormous mercantile transactions, advantageous not only to both nations, but to the general

civilisation of the world, are confessed, and may be confessed without shame, by both nations. But differences between nations are not always the result of reason, nor even of the popular will; they are fully as often the fruit of the selfishness of officials, and the secret strings which move official puppets.

We do not pass over unobserved those casual sentences of the American press which seem to slip out through "cracks and zigzags of the head." Those who have a little of the "penetrating power" of observation may this way easily perceive catch the hue of the unrevealed feeling indulged in influential quarters, sincere or assumed, as the wind happens to blow. When the war commenced with Russia, from more than one quarter the sympathy of America, however untrue in reality with the people at large, was continually rung in our ears. The American republic became a sympathiser with Russian despotism in an outrage upon the rights of nations. It was a singular announcement to the world that a republic, founded by Washington and the friends of freedom, should, on a question of the grossest aggression where no provocation was given, uphold one of those outrages of despotic guilt of which we now rarely read but in history. Who will justify the solitary burglar, dagger in hand, that outrages the peaceful dwelling and its unoffending inmates in search of plunder? Is the act of the imperial felon sanctified by the extension of the crime to cities in place of houses, or by ten thousand murders in place of one, by incendiarism as well as plunder, by the substitution of a "sovereign will" in place of that of the famishing burglar? Yet did certain parties in America exhibit openly their adherence to the Czar in the contest, as if they would do it, we should hope, rather out of spleen towards England than out of regard for the aggressor and his crimes-at least such shall be our charitable construction on a point fatal to the character and professions of freemen, or those who claim to be freemen, if otherwise.

Just at the time England was thus involved with Russia, and no one could say how the contest might terminate-when England's hands were full-just then seemed an excellent opportunity for certain Americans, some members of the Congress, to bluster with considerable latitude, as if an opportunity of doing England a mischief had arrived. The elegances of the representatives of the American people in Congress assembled have been sufficiently described in their own publications. Their manners belong to themselves; we do not impeach their superiority in good taste only so far as that we shall not imitate them. If they do not choose to make Chesterfield their model in amenity and in the graces, it is an affair of their own, to be set down, perhaps, to a natural superiority in good taste. No one will dispute about an American's acuteness. His statements in caucus, to use his own phrase, may often be taken for something like a bravado, designed for effect, as the conjurer is magniloquent when he bares his wrists for a startling deception. We must not, therefore, take to the letter all we read of the sallies of every American in or out of Congress. Fashions vary. While British senators neither abuse America nor her people, neither virtually cry out, "Let us make our demand or draw the sword while the republic is engaged in a contest elsewhere-now is the time,"-it may still be deemed good manners to say the like at Washington, just as it is to make their Speaker invisible with

tobacco-smoke, and treat his calls to order with no more respect than if he were their footman.

England is now called to account by America for the non-fulfilment of a treaty which contains no stipulation upon the objectionable point. It has always been the custom before, when a nation cedes anything, of whatever nature, under a treaty, where such cession is only a secondary matter, that what constitutes the cession or thing ceded is expressed distinctly. If not so expressed, a cession cannot have any existence, without a palpable blunder. Yet here England is required, in consequence of giving her assent to guarantee in union with the United States the neutrality of a certain portion of territory, to yield up another portion of which she had acquired the protectorship during the last century. The truth is, that there were hopes indulged, by carrying this point, to obtain an advantage towards a favourite idea of the Americans-the complete exclusion of Europeans from the American continent. This was, it is believed, the true American "notion." By the same rule, if France were to make over the island of Corsica to the United States, the rest of Europe ought to declare that it would not permit the United States to occupy the island. What right would the rest of Europe have to interfere in such a treaty? Peter, miscalled the Great, of Russia had an idea of a universal annexetion to the Russian Empire-a parallel for this American "notion." He left it as a legacy to his successors, by any means and at any expense of honour or hazard to extend the empire of the Czars. It is this principle which England and France are now contending against, as contrary not only to the independence and welfare of nations, but of humanity itself. This is something similar to that rule of right to which America pretends. She has "notions" of dominion from the pole to Cape Horn, and keeps the object continually in her eyes. From her ports have proceeded bands of lawless men-pirates-who have entered the territories of unoffending neighbours with fire and sword. Expeditions have sailed from American ports against the territories of friendly powers, well accoutred for their object, whose arms of offence, recruits, and vessels, must have all passed under the supervision of the American authorities. If not so, what are customs officers about, who have basilisk eyes upon all who visit the States or sail from them, not natives? The treaty about Central America must now be cancelled, although the object it had in view was one of value to every nation, because America does not see fit to think with the rest of the world, that territory or territorial protection is to be given up without specification. Just before the surrender of Sebastopol, a new grievance was proclaimed on the part of America. This was no less than the heinous offence of breaking the laws of the States by endeavouring to raise men for the British service within their boundaries. This was considered injurious to the dignity and honour of the States, which had always shown itself delicate to the fineness of a gossamer's thread towards its neighbours in such matters. Cuba, Texas, Mexico for examples. Denunciations of the conduct of England were heard from across the Atlantic. The siege gave promise of a continuance indefinitely prolonged. The American Diabolus republicæ, otherwise the attorney-general, who seemed to have usurped the office of the president and government all of a sudden, denounced the conduct of England with the judicial dignity of a second Midas. War was pro

nounced to be inevitable, in order to make a sensation, the reason fo making which was well understood by party-men in the States, though not well understood here. It was thought we should be much embarrassed by the Russian war, as already stated; something might therefore be wrung from us, under the circumstances, that would profit America. Negotiations commenced. The return mails from America, after this placable intelligence was carried there, it was justly observed, might tend to" cushion" the denunciations of England by the mighty AttorneyGeneral Cushing; and since then a change has come over the dream, or rather over the scheme; it is now the affront to the sovereignty of the United States that is the grievance.

We so far speak of America from inferences derived from the journals of the country continually arriving in England; but to these we are able to add the essence of verbal statements of several estimable American citizens with whom we have conversed recently, and who, while loving their country, are not blind to the real state of things there, which they still hope will ultimately be surmounted, though not without severe trials for its right-minded citizens. They fear, too, it will not be without bloodshed, as applied to the south and west. The want of power in the executive to overrule the mob in these states, which continually set the laws at defiance, and the still greater lack of power in the general government, arising from the presumption that each state, diverse in sentiment, interest, and legislation, as it may be from its neighbour, and too powerful for the head of all to coerce into duty, are evils which are every day growing more apparent. The interest of the general executive is to flatter and yield compliance in quarters where the policy of an opposite course would exhibit the most refractory spirit, and ruin the prospects of ambitious placemen. Hence jealousies and heart-burnings. Even the enormous Irish emigration, including a sprinkling of Germans, by some slip in the laws, with the old features of Irish discontent at home, contriving to obtain the power of voting soon after their arrival, are courted by official persons. This has awakened the jealousy of the native Americans, and given origin to the "Know-nothings," or nativeborn American class. Thus faction is ever at work: first, in relation to influence in the Congress; and secondly, in connexion with lesser matters belonging to each separate state within itself, while in the States themselves dissonances continually prevail. The laws cannot be executed, unless by the permission of the mob, which forestals the judge and jury at will; and, after its own prejudiced and passionate trial of the victim of their lawlessness, executes him upon the next tree, or burns him in a slow fire. There is no power extant to punish such acts. The sending in a body of troops by the head of the government to sustain the majesty of justice, would be called unconstitutional-the command would not be obeyed. Men are murdered with impunity in the western states, the officials, whose duty it is to keep the peace, joining in the outrage, and the head of the government declaring that redress cannot be given, while admitting the justice of the demand. At this moment, beyond the Mississippi, the states of the Missouri and Kansas are actually armed, and stand face to face in deadly, relentless opposition. The government is paralysed in such cases. The other states look on, as if it was no business of theirs that slave-owners and abolitionists should