Again, as to the habitual contempt with which the advisers of the
Crown pass over the men who by their science, art, and literature
bring honour upon their generation, the answer is, that when the
newspaper press thinks fit to take up the subject and becomes as
jealous over the national distinctions as they are now over the
national finances, the thing will get itself righted. And not till
then. I instance this point and these objections as illustrating what
is often said, and thought, by American visitors who record their
first impressions.
The same kind of danger, of course, awaits the English traveller in
America. If he is an unwise traveller, he will note, for admiring or
indignant quotation, many a thing which the wise traveller notes only
with a query and the intention of finding out, if he can, what it
means or why it is permitted. The first questions, in fact, for the
student of manners and laws are why a thing is permitted, encouraged,
or practised; how the thing in consideration affects the people who
practise it, and how they regard it. Thus, to go back to ancient
history, English people, forty years ago, could not understand how
slavery was allowed to continue in the States. We ourselves had
virtuously given freedom to all our slaves; why should not the
Americans? We had not grown up under the institution, you see; we had
little personal knowledge of the negro; we believed that, in spite of
the discouraging examples in Hayti and in our own Jamaica, there was a
splendid future for the black, if only he could be free and educated.
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