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essential to its support. In the days of Queen Elizabeth, England was the champion and asylum of Religions freedom-in those of King William, of National independence. If a less generous spirit has prevailed in her Cabinet since the settled predominance of Tory principles in her councils, still, the effects of her Parliamentary Opposition-the artillery of her free Press-the voice, in short, of her People, which Mr W. has so strangely mistaken, have not been without their effects;-and, though some flagrant acts of injustice have stained her recent annals, we still venture to hope, that the dread of the British Public is felt as far as Petersburgh and Vienna; and would fain indulge ourselves with the belief, that it may yet scare some Imperial spoiler from a part of his prey, and lighten, if not break, the chains of many distant captives.

It is in aid of this decaying, perhaps expiring influence-it is as an associate or successor in the noble office of patronizing and protecting general liberty, that we now call upon America to throw from her the memory of all petty differences and nice offences, and to unite herself cordially with the liberal and enlightened part of the English nation, at a season when their joint efforts will in all probability be little enough to crown the good cause with success, and when their disunion will give dreadful advantages to the enemies of all improvement and reform. The example of America has already done much for that cause; and the very existence of such a country, under such a government, is a tower of strength, and a standard of encouragement, for all who may hereafter have to struggle for the restoration or the extension of their rights. It shows within what limits popular institutions are safe and practicable; and what a large infusion of democracy is consistent with the authority of government, and the good order of society. But her influence, as well as her example, will be wanted in the crisis which. seems to be approaching:-and that influence must be paralyzed and inoperative, if she shall think it a duty to divide herself fro England, to look with jealousy upon her proceedings, and to judge unfavourably of all the parties she contains. We do not ask her to think well of that party, whether in power or out of it, which has always insulted and reviled her, because she is free and independent and democratic and prosperous :-but we do confidently lay claim to her favourable opinion for that great majority of the nation that have always been opposed to this party-which has divided with her the honour of its reproaches, and is bound, by every consideration of interest and duty, consistency and common sense, to maintain her rights and her reputation, and to promote and proclaim her prosperity.

To which of these parties we belong, and to which our pen has been devoted, we suppose it is unnecessary for us to announce, even in America;-and therefore, without recapitulating any part of what has just been said, we think we may assume, in the outset, that the charge exhibited against us by Mr W. is, at least, and on its face, a very unlikely and improbable one-that we are actuated by jealousy and spite towards America, and have joined in a scheme of systematic defamation, in order to diffuse among our countrymen a general sentiment of hostility and dislike to her! Grievous as this charge is, we should scarcely have thought it necessary to reply to it, had not the question appeared to us to relate to something of far higher importance than the character of our Journal, or the justice or injustice of an imputation on the principles of a few anonymous writers. In that case, we should have left the matter, as all the world knows we have uniformly left it in other cases, to be determined by our readers upon the evidence before them. But Mr W. has been pleased to do us the honour of identifying us with the great Whig party of this country, or, rather, of considering us as the exponents of those who support the principles of liberty-and to think his case sufficiently made out against the Nation at large, if he can prove that both the EDINBURGH and the QUARTERLY Review had given proof of deliberate malice and shameful unfairness on the subject of America. Now this, it must be admitted, gives the question a magnitude that would not otherwise belong to it; and makes what might in itself be a mere personal or literary altercation, a matter of national moment and concernment. If a sweeping conviction of mean jealousy and rancorous hostility is to be entered up against the whole British nation, and a corresponding spirit to be conjured up in the breast of America, because it is alleged that the Edinburgh Review, as well as the Quarterly, has given proof of such dispositions,-then it becomes a question of no mean or ordinary concernment, to determine whether this charge has been justly brought against that unfortunate Journal, and whether its accuser has made out enough to entitle him to a verdict leading to such consequences.

It will be understood, that we deny altogether the justice of the charge-But we wish distinctly to say in the beginning, that if it should appear to any one that, in the course of a great deal of hasty writing, by a variety of hands, in the course of twenty long years, some rash or petulant expressions had been admitted, at which the national pride of our Transatlantic brethren might be justly offended, we shall most certainly feel no anxiety to justify these expressions,-nor any fear that, with the

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liberal and reasonable part of the nation to which they relate, our avowal of regret for having employed them, would not be received as a sufficient atonement. Even in private life, and without the provocation of public controversy, there are not many men who, in half the time we have mentioned, do not say some things to the slight or disparagement of their best friends; which, if all set in a note-book, conned and got by rote,' it might be hard to answer :-and yet, among people of any sense or temper, such things never break any squares-and the dispositions are judged of by the general tenor of one's life and conduct, and not by a set of peevish phrases, curiously culled and selected out of his whole conversation. But we really do not think that we shall very much need the benefit of this plain consideration, and shall proceed straightway to our answer.

The sum of it is this-That, in point of fact, we have spoken far more good of America than ill-that in nine instances out of ten, where we have mentioned her, it has been for praiseand that in almost all that is essential or of serious importance, we have spoken nothing but good ;-while our censures have been wholly confined to matters of inferior note, and generally accompanied with an apology for their existence, and a prediction of their speedy disappearance.

Whatever we have written seriously and with earnestness of America, has been with a view to conciliate towards her the respect and esteem, of our own country; and we have scarcely named her, in any deliberate manner, except for the purpose of impressing upon our readers the signal prosperity she has enjoyed the magical rapidity of her advances in wealth and population-and the extraordinary power and greatness to which she is evidently destined. On these subjects we have held but one language, and one tenor of sentiment; and have never missed an opportunity of enforcing our views on our readers-and that not feebly, coldly, or reluctantly, but with all the earnestness and energy that we could command; and we do accordingly take upon us to say, that in no European publication have those views been urged with the same force or frequency, or resumed at every season, and under every change of circumstances, with such steadiness and uniformity. We have been equally consistent and equally explicit in pointing out the advantages which that country has derived from the extent of her elective system-the lightness of her public burdens-the freedom of her press-and the independent spirit of her people. The praise of the Government is implied in the praise of these institutions; but we have not omitted upon every occasion to testify, in express terms, to its general wisdom, equity, and prudence. Of

the character of the people too, in all its more serious aspects, we have spoken with the same undeviating favour; and have always represented them as brave, enterprising, acute, industrious and patriotic. We need not load our pages with quotations to prove the accuracy of this representation-our whole work is full of them; and Mr W. himself has quoted enough both in the outset of his book and in the body of it, to satisfy even such as may take their information from him, that such have always been our opinions. Mr W. indeed seems to imagine, that other passages, which he has cited, import a contradiction or retractation of these; and that we are thus involved, not only in the guilt of malice, but the awkwardness of inconsistency. Now this, as we take it, is one of the radical and almost unaccountable errors with which the work before us is chargeable. There is no such retractation, and no contradiction. We can of course do no more, on a point like this, than make a distinct asseveration; but, after having perused Mr W.'s book, and with a pretty correct knowledge of the Review, we do say distinctly, that there is not to be found in either, a single passage inconsistent, or at all at variance with the sentiments to which we have just alluded. We have never spoken but in one way of the prosperity and future greatness of America, and of the importance of cultivating amicable relations with her-never but in one way of the freedom, cheapness, and general wisdom of her government-never but in one way of the bravery, intelligence, activity, and patriotism of her people. The points on which Mr W. accuses us of malice and unfairness, all relate, as we shall see immediately, to other and far less considerable

matters.

Assuming, then, as we must now do, that upon the subjects that have been specified, our testimony has been eminently and exclusively favourable to America, and that we have never ceased earnestly to recommend the most cordial and friendly relations with her, how, it may be asked, is it possible that we should have deseryed to be classed among the chief and most malignant of her calumniators, or accused of a design to excite hostility to her in the body of our nation? and even represented as making reciprocal hostility a point of duty in her, by the excesses of our obloquy? For ourselves, we profess to be as little able to answer this question, as the most ignorant of our readers-but we shall lay before them some account of the proofs on which Mr W. relies for our condemnation; and cheerfully submit to any sentence they may seem to justify. There are a variety of Counts in our indictment; but, in so far as we have been able to collect, the heads of cur offending are as follows. 1st, That we have noticed, with uncharitable and

undue severity, the admitted want of indigenous literature in America, and the scarcity of men of genius; 2d, as an illustration of that charge, That we have laughed too ill-naturedly at the affectations of Joel Barlow's Columbiad, made an unfair estimate of the merits of Marshall's History, and Adams's Letters, and spoken illiberally of the insignificance of certain American Philosophical Transactions; 3dly, That we have represented the manners of the fashionable society of America as less polished and agreeable than those of Europe,-the lower orders as impertinently inquisitive, and the whole as too vain of their country; 4th, and finally, That we have reproached them bitterly with their negro slavery.

These, we think, are the whole, and certainly they are the chief, of the charges against us; and, before saying anything as to the particulars, we should just like to ask, whether, if they were all admitted to be true, they would afford any sufcient grounds, especially when set by the side of the favourable representations we have made with so much more earnestness on points of much more importance, for imputing to their authors, and to the whole body of their countrymen, a systematic design to make America odious and despicable in the eyes of the rest of the world? This charge, we will confess, appears to us most extravagant-and, when the facts already stated are taken into view, altogether ridiculous. Though we are the friends and well-wishers of the Americans-though we think favourably, and even highly, of many things in their institutions, government and character,-we are not their stipendiary Laureates or blind adulators; and must insist on our right to take notice of what we conceive to be their errors and defects, with the same freedom which we use to our own, and all other nations. It has already been shown, that we have by no means confined ourselves to this privilege of censure; and the complaint seems to be, that we should have used it at all. really do not understand this. We have spoken much more favourably of their government and institutions, than we have done of our own. We have criticised their authors with at least as much indulgence, and spoken of their national character in terms of equal respect: But because we have pointed out cer tain undeniable defects, and laughed at some indefensible absurdities, we are accused of the most partial and unfair nationality, and represented as engaged in a conspiracy to bring the whole nation into disrepute! Even if we had the misfortune to differ in opinion with Mr W., or the majority of his countrymen, on most of the points to which our censure has been directed, instead of having his substantial admission of their justice in most

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