hospitable shore, when he began to depreciate the genius of its people, and to make their public officers the subject of his jests.

The many editions the present work has gone through, place the arrogance of the Reviewer in his remark-It would have been enough 'for us, we believe, to have let it alone,-if we had any desire to 'lessen the just effect of its representations'-in a very ridiculous point of view. We are rather inclined to believe, that without some such help' as theirs, the work would have made a little impression in that quarter of the world; and have given a hint to the British Censors, that some respect for veracity and for the rules of civility, in speaking of a rival state, would hereafter be requisite for their own dignity, if not for national policy.

'the gross aspersions that have been cast upon it, by narrow-minded or hireling 'travel writers.'

a The second edition of Walsh's Appeal, in London, was announced by Longman & Co. as ready for sale in June last.

ARTICLE III.

LETTER FROM A FOREIGNER IN NEW-YORK.

[The following communication was received from a citizen, whose name is familiar to the people of the United States, for his discharge of important trusts in several public stations, and for his warm attachment to the interests of his country. We publish it for the same reason that we reprint the severe animadversions of any intelligent writer in a foreign Review, upon the habits or institutions of our country,-that we may render our countrymen aware of the commentaries thus made upon them by a stranger, and with a view to their benefit under the rule expressed in the well-approved adage,

SIR,

Fas est ab hoste doceri.

Our enemies are often our best monitors.

-Sept. 17, 1820.

I send you, without note or comment, the enclosed extract of a letter, written from this country, to a friend in England. Though I have not the honour of a residence in your highly complimented city, it would be injustice to give it for publication elsewhere; and therefore, having had a transcript taken for myself, I forward you the copy, which came to me by a late arrival. Though a name has been given to me by my correspondent in, I have no certain information that it was an Englishman who wrote the letter-but I infer it, as well from the source from whence the copy was procured, as from the tenor of the sentiments it expresses. The extract has no date, but I suppose it to have been written about the month of April last.

I will thank you to let me have your next number, as soon as out of the press. I am, &c.

The Editor of the Literary and Scientific Repository.]

"In answer to your inquiries about the state of literature, moral sentiments, and public spirit, as exhibited in general society in this country, and especially in New-York,' I will answer you particularly; though the account I am constrained to give does not accord with my wishes, and will disappoint your expectations. In this sketch I shall confine myself chiefly to considerations connected with the human mind, reserving for another communication, my remarks upon less important subjects.

My confidence in the American form of government, in itself considered, is unshaken. It is the master work of political wisdom, and ought to produce the most exalted state of human society. These people, however, do not justify the anticipations of their enlightened friends abroad; but remain deficient in several essential points in which they ought greatly to excel. They present the strange contradiction of a commonwealth possessing the highest privileges, moral, civil, and religious, with a criminal ignorance of their value, and indifference to their improvement or perpetuity. A distinguished writer has described the political institutions of this country as "an enlarged plan of self interest." That idea thirty years ago, was just, but it has ceased to be so in practice. From national principles their self interest first descended to local and party feelings, but has by degrees become merely personal. The great Federal and Democratic parties that long divided the country and kept up at least the appearance of patriotic zeal, have died away, and left each individual to seek his own advantage independent of the ties that should bind him to his country.

While the price of their freedom was fresh in memory, the possession was highly valued; but it has become an old story. The talents exerted and the blood shed for its achievement, are forgotten. As it generally proves detrimental to an individual to be told from childhood that he is born to a rich inheritance; it has produced the same effect on the Americans as a nation. The deeds of the last generation, which opened the way to the highest national destiny, have caused the present incumbents to relax their own exertions, and the noble spirit of the fathers is nearly dormant, if not extinct, in their degenerate sons. They do not aim at national literature, nor national character. These objects are far above the present standard of American ambition. In these points of highest human interest, with all their boasted privileges, they are the slavish imitators of what slaves have done before. Instead of preparing to reap a rich harvest of their own, their thoughts extend no farther than humbly gleaning European fields. Some of them with whom I have conversed say, with respectful submission, that the English stand so high as scholars, that America ought not to be expected to equal them for a century to come. Instead of feeling flattered by this sycophancy, I confess to you

that I detest the meanness of the sentiment. We ought to deprecate national hostility; but a manly emulation, if they had the spirit to attempt it, would be mutually advantageous. I am far from national jealousy on this subject. The world is still wide enough for its inhabitants, and it is not an article of my creed, that one portion of the human family is essentially benefited by the depression of another. I for one should respect the Americans more, and like them better, if they were more true to themselves. I am so much a citizen of the world, that whether on the banks of the Tiber or the Hudson, I esteem true honour and detest baseness, wherever and in whatever garb they may be found.

The American character has indeed been misrepresented by European travellers. Notwithstanding their low rank in those intellectual improvements which ought particularly to be expected from their peculiar advantages, it is not true that they are deficient in native powers of mind. They have, on the contrary, an uncommon share of original talent: but no national impulse has ever been given, to favour the cause of literature. Americans in high stations have accidentally forgotten to ennoble their own names, and crown their country with lasting honour, by lending a favourable influence to the extension of useful knowledge. In the literary course, these people have seen no competitors to urge their speed, nor judges to crown their victory; no immediate pecuniary object-no adequate incitement. Individual efforts, therefore, though in several instances highly creditable, have been desultory, and of course unavailing, as to any great national effect. Should any unexpected circumstance render the cause of useful learning popular in this country, a great change would be produced, not only in its literature, but in all the highest interests of society which depend upon it for Literature is the basis of science and of every thing good and great in the social compact. The morals of a state depend chiefly on the elevation and proper direction of its learning. There ought to be one country in the world where talents and integrity in men, are preferred to money bags, and modest intelligence in ladies, to ribands and lace. It belongs to a nation of freemen, rising in vigour, to set such an example.

The important influence of LITERATURE upon national character and interests, is in any country very little thought of, and less understood, by the mass of the people; and those here who ought to take an honourable lead in these objects, are engrossed by personal considerations. In addition to this, so illiberal is the prevailing sentiment, that the most noble project which could be devised, is held disgraceful till it completely succeeds. It is deemed particularly arrogant and visionary to attempt plans of public improvement; and those who might have this temerity, must expect their reward in liberal abuse from those in whose cause they thus obtrusively

engage. It is dangerous here, as Columbus found it in Spain, to aim at noble deeds-on account of the jealousy they awaken. Learning is too little honoured to bring it into great demand for public employments. In such a country as this ought to be, low intrigue should not pass for talent, nor impudence for virtue; nor should such stations as those of governors and judges be filled with men too illiterate for decent jurymen. How many venal wretches wholly forget private honour and public good, in the eager desire of pocketing a salary. If you could personally fathom the wisdom, and try the principles, of some of those who share in the direction of national affairs here, you would suspect there were rotten boroughs this side of the Atlantic, as well as in England. The government confines itself to those concerns that are merely political. Not considering that every intelligent citizen is an additional guardian of their liberty, or not choosing to care about it, both government and people trust to accident for those improvements which could be expected to result only from well-regulated system. Till lately I had no conception of a great nation, claiming to be civilized, and boasting of freedom, whose leaders could find no motive of honour, profit, or pride, for promoting useful and polite learning. King Alfred, Frederick of Prussia, Alphonso of Portugal, Colbert, Mecænas, and the house of Medici, most clearly did not learn their political science at the American school.

The Americans are not entitled to the relative allowances which they childishly claim, merely because their ancestors have not been born and buried a hundred ages on the same soil. They have, equally with us, the experience of the world before them, a common literature and common progenitors. It is all in their favour that they are free from the burthens of much injured Britain, and which need the best efforts of an honest ministry and sober reformers, acting in harmony, to relieve. They have all that depends on Providence or fortune to bestow, and only lack those principles of honour and patriotic generosity, without which no individual or community ever can be great. The United States have not, like other nations, had to creep through centuries of infancy from barbarism to refinement. Like Minerva from the head of Jupiter, they were born mature, and owed the world an example worthy of their origin, their transcendant advantages, and the cause they professed to espouse. Our Whigs, who from the noble Chatham down have been their advocates, and the enlightened Patriots of the Continent, looked anxiously to them as the last hope of rational freedom. Here was the only country where, aloof from the jealousies, wars, time-sanctioned corrup tions and tyranny of the old world, moral causes could operate with full force; where the virtue that exalteth a nation might become a guiding light to our oppressed race, and its influence

mild and clear as the morning beams, be diffused to every dark region of the globe. The art of printing opened the way for a great change in human affairs. The fruitful events of the last thirty years have taught an increased proportion of mankind a knowledge of their rights; and monarchs, alarmed, forget their jealousies and rise in concert to secure their thrones. The moral world hangs on a pivot, and nothing can exceed the grandeur of character which America might hold in this great concern; not by mingling in foreign broils, nor adopting what kings call splendour; but by simply pursuing her own exalted course, and leading the way to the highest destiny which our nature can attain on earth. Her local situation is a greater national security than all the armies of the Czar, and her great interest is to raise and direct aright that all-controlling public opinion, which moulds the character, creates the government, and rules the law.

"O!" sané, "fortunatos viros si sua bona norint !"

Common danger, not too long continued, unites a community and calls forth noble sentiments. The Americans have grown sordid by a long course of unexampled prosperity, and if they pursue the downward road a few years, they will be ready to sell their liberties and themselves to the highest bidder.Twenty years ago I was in America and spent some time in this city. The improvements since that period, in streets and buildings, are far beyond my expectation. The new City Hall, built of coarse marble or calcarious free stone, resembling that of Portland or Bath, would do no discredit to London. But mere walls of brick or stone do not form a city to your taste nor mine. Not the house, but they who build the house, "the world of souls" is the chief object of my inquiries. I anxiously sought, in this favoured land, those improvements of the mind which distinguish an Addison or Newton from a Hottentot; which add lustre to freedom, and the highest enjoyment to society in its most polished state: I found disappointment and disgust. The few persons of cultivated minds and honourable principles, are buried in the mass of narrow-mindedness that surrounds them. This place has great wealth and great enterprise in those pursuits which have immediate personal gain for their object; but it is where a suitable portion of wealth and enterprise are employed to foster learning and virtue, that the human mind is expanded, the sentiments ennobled, the standard of public and private character is elevated, and the true enjoyments of life enlarged and multiplied. In these moral and mental excellencies, New-York, compared with what ought to be expected from it, is, as a city, singularly deficient. Too many of their wealthy and leading people are not only ignorant and sordid, but, as avarice is always short-sighted, they lose advantages to themselves for fear of doing good to others,