BROTHER JONATHAN AND JOHN BULL: FAULTS ON BOTH SIDES.
Tire letter of Mr. SYDNEY Srairii which appeared in the Morning Chronicle, and two letters from General DUFF GREEN, purporting to be replies to it, which have been published in the Times, suggest lessons that may be pretty equally divided between the Americans and the English.
With regard to the former, it deserves to be remarked, that the lax sense of justice and obtuseness of the sense of honour evinced by the Repudiating States, and their defenders or apologists, are no new features in the character of the citizens of the Union. Before the Stamp-act, the attempts of the Mother-country to enforce the Navi- gation-laws had made smugglers of the whole inhabitants of New York and New England. It was impossible for a whole community to be habitually runners and receivers of smuggled goods without contracting something of that low tone of morality which charac- terizes the craft. The exaggerated admiration of cleverness, and tolerance of deviations from the stern dictates of honour, which characterize the Anglo-Americans, had its origin in this state of affairs. The necessity under which popular leaders lie of conform- ing to the feelings and opinions of those they lead, has strengthened these peculiarities. After the recognition of American independ- ence, when complaints were made by British creditors that their American debtors . did not pay their private debts, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN stood forward as the apologist of the defaulters, on grounds almost identical with those which when put for- ward by CORBETT in his own defence, in this country, ex- posed him to universal obloquy. JEFFERSON and his party earned no small part of their popularity by their attempts to cut down the State debts, by challenging the validity of vouchers which had passed into the hands of third parties. The same JEFFER.• SON, in one of his messages to Congress, claims the confidence of his countrymen mainly upon the ground that his financial mea- sures were likely to bring about a state of matters in which the taxgatherer should never cross the door of the American citizen. He promised them the advantages of civil government without the necessity of paying for it. There is no self-denial in the moral creed of the United States. To grasp at the utmost acquirable amount of wealth and power—to attain them with the least possible sacrifice—to make light of obligations incurred by solemn com- pacts and for an onerous cause—is "the just and decorous" of the American moralist. This is the " che piece sia licite " of the Ita- lian poet. But in the Italian Epicurean, the operation of the prin- ciple of self-indulgence is modified and held in check by a lively and delicate sense of the beautiful in human actions, which has been bestowed in a much more sparing measure upon the Teutonic race, and which in the Anglo-Americans had been farther blunted by the circumstances alluded to at the outset. The blots on the Anglo- American character, brought out in such a strong light by the discus- sions about Repudiation, are of long standing, and deeply ingrained : their removal is almost hopeless. It is not meant by this to call in question the real greatness of the citizens of the Union. There is a power, an energy in their character, which will always secure them from contempt : it is not possible to despise any one who has that in him which may become dangerous. But in addition to this, the Americans have all the social affections as strong as their neighbours : they are susceptible of the profound and ele- vating emotions of imaginative religion : in conquering the wilder- ness, in fighting the battles of their country, in missionary enter- prise, no people of their day has gone beyond them. But all these great and good qualities are tainted by the sin which most easily besets them—vulgar selfishness. It is in vain for them to reply that other nations cherish other vices, or perhaps practise the same : the faults of others are no excuse for theirs—they stand shamefully preeminent in unblushing dishonesty. It is in vain for them to say that the nurture of the Mother-country made them what they are: when the sharper is sent to Coventry and the swindler to the tread-mill, no one asks whether parental mis- management made him a criminal. The lesson for John Bull is quite as important. He helped to make the Americans what they are, and to place them in the position they occupy ; and he is suffering for it. "The gods are Just, and of our pleasant vices make instruments to scourge us." The rapacity of Great Britain in seeking to exclude its North American Colonies from all profitable intercourse with other na- tlens—in blowing out the iron-furnaces of Philadelphia lest they should interfere with the sale of English cast-iron and hard-ware—in taxing the Colonies to put money in the pockets of noble sinecur- Ma at home—in superciliously treating the colonists as an inferior
race—forced upon the Anglo-Americans the low smuggler standard of morality, inspired them with that hatred of England which is not yet extinguished, and drove them into rebellion. It may be that Eng- land and America were too wide to be swayed by one government— that under any circumstances they must have fallen asunder, into two states : but there can be no doubt—even the Conservative Standard admits it—that the oppression of the Mother-country ac- celerated the event. A more liberal treatment on the part of the Mother-country would have prevented the chivalrous sense of de- corum and justice, which characterizes the high-bred English gen- tleman, from being obliterated in the Anglo-American mind; a juster treatment might have retained the provinces in a colonial union ; a nicer morality would have rendered the refusal to pay Just debts on a large scale impossible ; and the retention of the colonies in connexion with the empire would have maintained one common jurisdiction, by which the claims of debtors and creditors might have been adjusted. This lesson has a practical value. England still has colonies to spoil and lose, and may have more ; and though John Bull may have become rather more civilized in these days, there is still more than enough of the old leaven of domineering about him.
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