Anonymous

“ The Englishman is so much attached to his independence that he instinctively resists every effort to invade it, and nothing would be more likely to arouse him than to say the mass thinks differently from himself; whereas the American ever seems ready to resign his own opinion to that which is made to seem to be the opinion of the public. I say seems to be, for so manifest is the power of public opinion, that one of the commonest expedients of all American managers is to create an impression that the public thinks in a particular way, in order to bring the common mind into subjection,—Ibid. ”

“ You have told us in your essay "On Representative Government" that "a Government is to be judged by its action upon men, and by its action upon things." Apply this test to the sanitary legislation of Great Britain and the United States, and you will find that the limited aristocracy of this country, in its administrative action, has been much more successful in promoting "the actual, positive well-being of the living human creatures who compose the population" of Great Britain, than the unlimited Democracy of America has been in promoting that of the sovereign people of the "Model Republic." ”

“ It would be unreasonable to look for wise measures from a Legislature composed of men without sufficient moral courage or honesty to assert their own convictions; and it would be no less unreasonable to look for brilliant examples of national progress and civilization among a people whose institutions are founded on so debasing a principle. ”

“ The English idea of freedom is as much opposed to the Democratic absolutism of "a tyrant majority" as it is to the Autocratic absolutism of an Emperor elected by universal suffrage and the ballot. "Englishmen," as Mr. Emerson remarks, are not to be led by a phrase; they want a working plan—a working machine—a working constitution." Hence the strong aversion they have always manifested to Gallican and American ideas when any attempt has been made to incorporate them in our institutions. ”

“ I see in America the generality of people living in a style of plenty unknown in monarchical countries, and I see that the principle of its Government—which is that of the Rights of Man—is making rapid progress in the world. ”

“ When we inquire into the causes of the increased mortality in the "Empire City" of the Union, whose journalism inspires public sentiment, and manufactures public opinion for the "Model Republic," we find that one of the chief sources of the evil has been the unchecked progress of what is called "the tenement system," a wretched sort of barracks on a gigantic scale, in which some three or four hundred thousands of the working classes of New York find lodgings. ”

“ The poor tenants, in spite of universal suffrage and the ballot, and the lavishly-endowed common schools, are completely at the mercy of their landlords, who, as the Tribune remarks, "have not the custody of either the health, or the morals, or the comfort of their tenants," and who, consequently, like certain rich companies in this country, "consult only their profit," acting strictly in accordance with the doctrine of laissez faire: "Everyone for himself, and the Devil take the hindmost." ”

“ The Demos, too, being the one source of power in America, all the selfish ambition of the country gravitates towards it, as it does in despotic countries towards the monarch: the people, like the despot, is pursued with adulation and sycophancy, and the corrupting effects of power fully keep pace with its improving and ennobling influences. ”

“ Should any one question its correctness, my only reply would be to point to the notable alteration which has taken place in your opinions, since you exchanged the peaceful seclusion and fearless independence of a student's life, for the feverish excitement and mental subjugation which must always be the lot of any man—whatever intellectual eminence he may have attained—who aspires to represent a Democracy like that of Westminster. ”

“ To be king of their word is their pride. When they unmask cant, they say "the English of this is," &c.; and to give the lie is the extreme insult. The phrase of the lowest of the people is "honour bright," and their vulgar phrase, "his word is as good as his bond." They hate shuffling and equivocation, and the cause is damaged in the public opinion on which any paltering can be fixed.—Emerson's English Traits. ”

“ Political life is indeed, in America, a most valuable school, but it is a school from which the ablest teachers are excluded, the first minds in the country being as effectually shut out from the national representation, and from public functions generally, as if they were under a formal disqualifcation. ”

“ In your excellent little treatise "On Representative Government," there is a passage on the dead-levelling tendency of Democracy which ought to be frequently and thoughtfully read by every Liberal member of the House of Commons, and especially by all those—a pretty large number—who have not yet learned the real meaning and full significance of the word "Americanisation." ”

“ As to the remedy, the New York Tribune in spite of its hopefulness, and firm persuasion that America manages its affairs better than England has ever done, is very much as sea. "The great difficulty," as it informs us, "lies in the fact that there exists no authority to control or prevent these matters; no person whose function and responsibility it is to have them corrected." ”

“ To run any risk of weakening this feeling—a difficult one to create, or, when once gone, to restore—would be a permanent evil too great to be incurred for so very temporary a benefit as the ballot would confer, even on the most exaggerated estimate of its necessity. ”

“ There the value of human life is better appreciated than it is here, and the duty of doing all that lies within the reach of human means for preserving it is fully acknowledged. ... In looking at the rate of mortality in our own country, it will be found that there is much work to be done. "We have grossly neglected the laws of health, and have ignored the obvious results obtained in England. Instead of lengthening the average term of life in our cities, we have shortened it. In Philadelphia the average term of life between the years 1810 and 1820 was 26. ”

“ The annual revenue levied in the city of New York alone is now ten times greater than the entire sum raised by the Government of the whole American Union at the end of last century. At that time the average amount paid by each inhabitant of New York was about 4s. per head, man, woman, and child. ”

“ From the revolutionary era when Paine wrote his "Rights of Man," down to the present day, the democratic press has been constantly instilling the doctrines of American perfectibility into the minds of our artisans and labouring classes. ”

“ In each is a family of several persons. All the cooking is done in the same apartment. Ventilation is impossible, from the construction of the house. But the saddest feature of all is at the basement. ”