advancement of virtuous and religious habits,—and, altogether, a greater weight of character and influence among the labouring classes, as the permanent results of such a system. Instead of being the victims of every adverse movement in trade, they would become its most effective regulators.

This is the eminence that the labourers of our nation are fully capable both of reaching and of maintaining. But it is neither the Poor-rate of England, nor the Law of Parochial Aid in Scotland, that will help them on to it. These have only deceived them away from the path which leads to independence; and, amid all the complaints which have been raised against the system of a compulsory provision for the poor, nothing is more certain than that our poor, because underpaid operatives, are the principal sufferers by it. Every other class in society has its compensation. It is paid back again to the manufacturer in the shape of a reduction in the wages of his workmen, and to the landholder by a reduction in the price of all manufactured articles. It is only the operative himself, who appears to be pensioned by it, that is really impoverished. It has deadened all those incitements to accumulation which would have raised him and his fellow-labourers to a footing of permanent security in the State-And, not till their eyes have been opened to the whole mischief and cruelty of this delusion-not till they see where it is that their most powerful and malignant enemy is lying in ambush--not till they have learned that, under the guise of charity, there has been an influence at work for many years, which has arrested the march of the lower orders to the elevation that naturally and rightfully belongs to them, and till they come to understand that it is by their own exertion and self-denial alone that they can win their way to it-not, in short, till the popular cry is for the abolition, rather than the extension of pauperism, will our labouring classes have attained their full share of comfort and importance in the commonwealth.

ART. VI. An Appeal from the Judgments of Great Britain respecting the United States of America. Part First. Containing an Historical Outline of their Merits and Wrongs as Colonies, and Strictures on the "Calumnies of British Writers. By ROBERT WALSH, Esq. 8vo. pp. 505. Philadelphia and London, 1819.

O NE great staple of this book is a vehement, and, we really think, an unjust attack on the principles of this Journal, Yet we take part, on the whole, with the author :-and heartily

wish him success in the great object of vindicating his country from unmerited aspersions, and trying to make us, in England, ashamed of the vices and defects which he has taken the trouble to point out in our national character and institutions. In this part of his design we cordially concur-and shall at all times be glad to cooperate. But there is another part of it, and we are sorry to say a principal and avowed part, of which we cannot speak in terms of too strong regret and reprobation-and that is, a design to excite and propagate among his countrymen, a general animosity to the British name, by way of counteracting, or rather revenging, the animosity which he very erroneously supposes to be generally entertained by the English against them.

That this is, in itself, and under any circumstances, an unworthy, an unwise, and even a criminal object, we think we could demonstrate to the satisfaction of Mr W. himself, and all his reasonable adherents; but it is better, perhaps, to endeavour, in the first place, to correct the misapprehensions, and dispel the delusions in which this disposition has its foundation, and, at all events, to set them the example of perfect good humour and fairness, in a discussion where the parties perhaps will never be entirely agreed; and where those who are now to be heard have the strongest conviction of being injuriously misrepresented. If we felt any soreness, indeed, on the score of this author's imputations, or had any desire to lessen the just effect of his representations, it would have been enough for us, we believe, to have let them alone. For, without some such help as ours, the work really does not seem calculated to make any great impression in this quarter of the world. It is not only, as the author has candidly observed of it, a very clumsy book,' heavily written and abominably printed,-but the only material part of it -the only part about which any body can now be supposed to care very much, either here or in America-is overlaid and buried under a huge mass of historical compilation, which would have little chance of attracting readers at the present moment, even if much better digested than it is in the volume before us.

The substantial question is, what has been the true character and condition of the United States since they became an independent nation, and what is likely to be their condition in future? And to elucidate this question, the learned author has thought fit to premise about 200 very close printed pages, upon their merits as colonies, and the harsh treatment they then received from the mother country! Of this large historical sketch, we cannot say either that it is very correctly drawn, or very faithfully coloured. It presents us with no connected narrative, or interesting deduction of events-but is, in truth, a mere

heap of indigested quotations from common books, of good and of bad authority-inartificially cemented together by a loose and angry commentary. We are not aware, indeed, that there are in this part of the work either any new statements, or any new views or opinions; the facts being mostly taken from Chalmers's Annals, and Burke's European Settlements; and the authorities for the good conduct and ill treatment of the colonies, being chiefly the Parliamentary Debates and Brougham's Colonial Policy. -But, in good truth, these historical recollections will go but a little way in determining that great practical and most important question, which it is Mr W.'s intention, as well as ours, to discuss-What are, and what ought to be, the Dispositions of England and America towards each other?-And the general facts as to the origin and colonial history of the latter, in so far as they bear upon this question, really do not admit of much dispute. The most important of their settlements were unques tionably founded by the friends of civil and religious libertywho, though somewhat precise and puritanical, were, in the main, a sturdy and sagacious race of people, not readily to be cajoled out of the blessings they had sought through so many sacrifices, and ready at all times manfully and resolutely to assert them against all invaders. As to the mother country, again, without claiming for her any romantic tenderness or generosity towards throse hardy offsets, we think we may say, that she oppressed and domineered over them much less than any other modern nation has done over such settlements-that she allowed them, for the most part, liberal charters and constitutions, and was kind enough to leave them very much to themselves; and although she did manifest, now and then, a disposition to encroach on their privileges, their rights were, on the whole, very tolerably respected-so that they grew up to a state of prosperity, and a familiarity with freedom, in all its divisions, which was not only without parallel in any similar establishment, but probably could not have been attained had they been earlier left to their own guidance and protection. This is all that we ask for England, on a review of her colonial policy, and her conduct before the war; and this, we think, no candid and well-informed person can reasonably refuse her.

As to the war itself, the motives in which it originated, and the spirit in which it was carried on, it cannot now be necessary to say any thing-or, at least, when we say that having once been begun, we think that it terminated as the friends of Justice and Liberty must have wished it to terminate, we conceive that Mr W. can require no other explanation. That this result, how eyer, should have left a soreness upon both sides, and especi

ally on that which had not been soothed by success, is what all men must have expected. But, upon the whole, we firmly be lieve, that this was far slighter and less durable than has generally been imagined; and was likely very speedily to have been entirely effaced by those ancient recollections of kindness and kindred which could not fail to recur, and by that still more powerful feeling, to which every day was likely to add strength, of their common interests as free and as commercial countries, and of the substantial conformity of their national character, and of their sentiments, upon most topics of public and of private right. The healing operation, however, of these causes was unfortunately thwarted and retarded by the heats that rose out of the French revolution, and the new interests and new relations which it appeared for a time to create:—And the hostilities in which we were at last involved with America herself-though the opinions of her people, as well as our own, were deeply divided upon both questions-served still further to embitter the general feeling, and to keep alive the memory of animosities that should not have been so long remembered. At last came peace -and the spirit, but not the prosperity of peace; and the distresses and commercial embarrassments of both countries threw both into bad humour, and unfortunately hurried both into a system of jealous and illiberal policy, by which that bad humour was aggravated, and received an unfortunate direction.

In this exasperated state of the national temper, and, we do think, too much under its influence, Mr Walsh has thought himself called upon to vindicate his country from the aspersions of English writers; and after arraigning them, generally, of the most incredible ignorance, and atrocious malignity, he proceeds to state, that the EDINBURGH and QUARTERLY Reviews, in particular, have been incessantly labouring to traduce the character of America, and have lately broken out into such excesses of obloquy,' as can no longer be endured; and, in particular, that the prospect of a large emigration to the United States has thrown us all into such paroxysms of spite and jealousy, that we have engaged in a scheme of systematic defamation that sets truth and consistency alike at defiance. To counteract this nefarious scheme, Mr W. has taken the field-not so much to refute or to retort-not for the purpose of pointing out our errors, or exposing our unfairness, but, rather, if we understand him aright, of retaliating on us the abuse we have been so long pouring on others. In his preface, accordingly, he fairly a vows it to be his intention to act on the offensive-to carry the war into the enemy's quarters, and to make reprisals upon the honour and character of England, in revenge for the insults

which, he will have it, her writers have heaped on his country. He therefore proposes to point out the sores and blotches of the British nation' to the scorn and detestation of his countrymen; and having assumed, that it is the intention of Great • Britain to educate her youth in sentiments of the most ran'corous hostility to America,' he assures us, that this design will and must be met with corresponding sentiments on his side of the water.'

Now, though we cannot applaud the generosity, or even the humanity of these sentiments-though we think that the American government and people, if at all deserving of the eulogy which Mr W. has here bestowed upon them, might, like Cromwell, have felt themselves too strong to care about paper shot-and though we cannot but feel, that a more temperate and candid tone would have carried more weight, as well as more magnanimity with it, we must yet begin by admitting, that America has cause of complaint;-and that nothing can be more despicable and disgusting, than the scurrility with which she has been assailed, by a portion of the press of this country-and that, disgraceful as these publications are, they speak the sense of a powerful and active party in the nation. All this, and more than this, we have no wish, and no intention, to deny. But we do wish most anxiously to impress upon Mr W. and his adherents, to beware how they believe that this party speaks the sense of the British Nation-or that their sentiments on this, or on many other occasions, are in any degree in accordance with those of the body of the people. On the contrary, we are firmly persuaded, that a great majority of the nation, numerically considered, and a still greater majority of the intelligent and enlightened persons whose influence and authority cannot fail in the longrun to govern her councils, would disclaim all sympathy with any part of these opinions; and actually look on the miserable libels in question, not only with the scorn and disgust to which Mr W. would consign them, but with a sense of shame from which his situation fortunately exempts him, and a sorrow and regret of which unfortunately he seems too little susceptible.

It is a fact which can require no proof, even in America, that there is a party in this country not friendly to political liberty, and decidedly hostile to all extension of popular rights,--which, if it does not grudge to its own people the powers and privileges which are bestowed on them by the Constitution, is at least for confining their exercise within the narrowest limits-which thinks the peace and well-being of society in no danger from anything but popular encroachments, and holds the only safe or desirable