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Untitled Article
¦ ultrarh . 6 ntane and trans-Mississippi wilds , where the - . prairies yet witness only their own vast solitude , or the El Dorado where gold resolves civilisation back to the barbarism Whence , through the ages , it has ' emerged ,, still the . amplitude of his then possible , theme might fairly have suggested to him a confinement-of "" ljis treatment within the sufficiently broad limits he has chosen . We have no fault , therefore , to find with the comparative narrowness of the territory he has occupied . But within his proper field we think there are one or two most caro . inal omissions . First , we might have wished the
book a little less urban . He depicts only men and manners . A somewhat monotonous one-sidedness would have been avoided and relieved had there been a larger canvas allowed for the picture of American mountains , rivers , and plains , and the settled , English-like , rural scenery of the purely New England States . Such depictions we know the author might have given well . Such scenes his eye must have with greater frequency and closeness regarded than the common herd of travellers . Again—and this omission we believe unpardonable , especially by one whose public
office and duties brought him constantly amidst thesevery relations—the book gives next to no information oh the industrial and commercial aspects of the American people , the most practical and generally interesting division of the subject , and rendered peculiarly valuable to us by recent events . In these , and such senses , we must declare Mr . Grattan ' s view incomplete . ¦ . ¦ . But , " withiii his limits , self-chosen , and as we have further narrowed them , his treatment is full and copious . As a book on the political and social aspects of the States , on government , " society , " literature , public menj manners , arid morals , a very high commendation
must be rendered . One more detraction , and we have done with that part of bur office . He looks infinitely too much through " society" spectacles —he goes too . much" as an English gentleman to see of what stuff the American " upper ten thousand , " ov " upper crust" is made . It is American higher circles , rather than the American people , he writes about . He is more anxious to investigate in what respects their wealthier and more literate citizens are or are not worthy of being designated gentlemen and ladies , than to discover whether the race fosters and develops the perennial and fruitful seeds
of national vigour , honesty , self-reliance , and disinterestedness . These last two faults we have ventured to point out we cannot regard as other than cardinal . Perhaps the highest element of worth these volurnes possess is their historical value . 3 VTr . Grattan ' s residence in America , and the nature of his position , not merely official , but semi-diplomatic , have combined to g ive him this vantage-ground . He was much , within the inner circle of politics , and saw much of the machinery of government , both at Washington , and in local capitals . He sneaks with authority on the characters and
pretensions of such men as Everett , Calhoun , Webster , and Clay ; because he saw" and knew them , and regarded all their public life from the same point of' view and with the same advantages as their partisans and fellow-citizens . On such matters , again , as the annexation of Texas , the North-Eastern Boundary question , Mormonism , and the like , Ins statements and opinions , have the same peculiar value . Iyet us add , as two more excellences from many we might still cite , the book is not hastily got up ; the opinions have not only been necessarily constructed and reconstructed slowly , but the structure and workmanship in wluoh slowly , but the structure and workmanship in wluoh
they form and express themselvos bear the same marks of care and preparation . And there is a most healthy and rare abjuration of fine or fast ¦ writing . He successfully steers through the narrow channel between the two rooks on one or other of which most writers of this class founder . He is never dull . He is animated , light , and lively , without ever degenerating into the forced flippancy and theatrical scene-painting , ' wluoh , at the presont nay so overload descriptive literature . His stylo is of the now almost defunofc , easy , gentlemanly , classic English character .
What space remains to us wo can best occupy by one or two oxtraota from the most interesting parts of the volumes before us . The following streetpicture fairly condenses " first impressions ;"The streets of tli q " Atlantic oiiion , " as the seaport towns nro called , are altogether doflolont in the o | r of lounging and lossy lift ) whloh woll-dresaed men of lciauro and tlio many yarlpfcles of vagttbondago give to tho towns of the Continent , and . in a minor degree , to those of tho
British Isles . But there is much bustle anil business vivacity . The thoroughfares are full of well-clad , plainlooking , serious-visaged men * and women in all the gandfness of over dressed pretension . The flaunting air of these ladies , their streaming feathery , and flowers ,, silks and satins of all colours , and a rapid dashing step as they walk along , singly or in couples , give foreigners a widely mistaken notion of them . They iook , in fact , like so many nymphs of ihe pave . ; for no other class of females in Europe are at all like them ; and many awkward mistakes take place in consequence . But in proportion as the Afrierican ladies lose much , of the retiring modesty so . common in their sex by this habit of independent promenading , the streets gain largely in the glare and glitter of the fair pietons .
The present raging of the dining controversy amongst ourselves tempts us to extract the following : — The style of eyery-day living among even the wealthiest people is very simple and unexpensive . But little wine is drunk in the more domestic circle , and plain English cookery is alone usual . Eating and drinking , en Jamille , is a mere operation of appetite , without any social feeling connected with it ; and the . more quickly and least expensively ii can he performed the better . But the overloaded table ; and the interminable
varieties of wine , at a regular dinner given to company , form a striking contrast to the family meal . At these dinners all the good things of the place abound ; and they ate well served ,. for the best cook in the town is sure to be hired for the occasion . Poultry , and wild fowl , largely preponderate among the more solid portions of the repast ; sometimes , indeed ; to the entire exclusion of butchers' meat . , A high-flavoured , but half-starved , fatless kind of venison is . considered a kind of dainty . It is always served disgustingly underdone—almost , raw sometimes ^ -r-bn pewter or tin plates , standing over burners with spirits of wine , to enable each person to cook it in a thick gravy according to his fancy . This is a very disagreeable process to witness . I never was tempted to undertake it . :
. Mr . Grattan shrugs his shoulders with sybarite disgust at the coSkery of the States , which , as an art , lie proclaims in its infancy among them , and warningly reminds them of the aphorism , "La destinee des nations depend de la maniere dont elles se nourissent . " A chapter devoted to the consideration of the important question , " Are the Americans a happy people ? " carries the reader to the negative conclusion that they are not unhappy—tiiat they are strangers alike to the excesses of joy or of grief . But , as Mr . Grattan correctly puts it : " Whether the flutter of heart and the throbbing of brain ,
under deeper and fiercer excitements , arc more noble and more desirable , is a question of temperament not of philosophy , and every individual must answer it from and for himself . " We would we had been able to add further quotations we had selected from the chapters on " The Irish in America , " Pine Arts , Religious Sects , American Women ; , Slavery , Speculative Philosophy , &c . But what our space has permitted us to give must serve as sample of a book with faults of np mean importance , but with solid excellences almost solely its own , and peculiarly readable and entertaining .
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THE TRADE OF RUSSIA . The Trade of Russia , considered from a European Point of View . By B . A . Kokoreff . Werfcheimer and Co . This is a remarkable utterance of " Young Russia ;" not tho " Young Russia" of conspiracies and revolutions dreaming of republics to bo made without republicans , and of impossible leaps from barbarism to a civilisation and liberty thai ; can only result from centuries of slow and toilsome progress , but of the Young Russia of trade , agriculture and commeroo , making up to a full consciousness of the backward state or his oountry , and having tho good sense to prefer industrial development to the brutal pomp of soldiery and conquest thai ; constituted tine main life of Russian sovereigns from Peter to
Nicholas , and whoso failure appropriately consigned the latter potentate to a dishonoured grave . M . KokoreiT is one of tho most remarkable men of the day . Raised by his own industry and talent from tho serf to tho millionuairo , ho is the constant adviser of the Emporor ai » d the head of innumerable schemes and enterprises of an industrial kind , Tho prosonfc little worjk , which in ( tho * imd of tho Into Czar would have consigned its author to Siberia , was first ; published in Russia , and is now offered in an English dross in tho hope of interesting our merchants aad statesmen in a series of measures calculated to inoi'easu tho productiveness of Russia and multiply hor commercial relations with this and
olhpr countries . In very much that M . Kokoreff says , we heartily concur , but it seems to us that he is anxious to put his country prematurely into the manufacturing stage of development . It is possible that some articles now exported in a raw siaj : c mi g ht be advantageously prepared on the spot , either wholly or partisflly ,. but the primary and chief object of a patriotic Russian should be the cultivation of the soil and the provision of adequate means of transport and communication . M . Kokoreff sees this necessity , and has honourably distinguished himself by the establishment of a large model farm , and by sending persons at his own expense to
England and Scotland to study scientific methods of agriculture , and the application of drainage and machinery ; but he talks of setting up manufactures at a rate that is quite inconsistent with the very limited-capital that Russia possesses , and with the possibilities of a very thinly-scattered population . In this country we have a prodigious amount of capital , abundant communication , and an average of 233 persons to a square mile . Russia has very little capital proportioned to her size , scarcely any means of communication , and , except in Poland , no density of population . Great Russia , with Moscow for its centre , has sixtyrtw-o inhabitants per
square mile ; Little Russia ( south of the latter ) 78 . 4 ; while New Russia , bordering on the Black Sea , lias only 33 . 7 ; and the northern provinces so few as 2 . 6 inhabitants per square mile . Such a country has plenty to do to be agricultural , and a premature effort to be manufacturing would be a fatal step . ¦' ,. ¦¦ The purely artificial character of Russian civilisation has long been a matter of comment , and its result is a thorough demoralisation of the upper classes , who are the most frivolous and licentious in Europe , and form a worthy apex : to the official corruption which everywhere prevails . Fortunately ,
the present Emperor sets an example of economy , and is determined to carry out his grand project of emancipating the serfs and encouraging industrial pursuits ; and all hopes of Russia ' s becoming a worthy member of the European family will depend upon the success of these plans . M . Kokoreff gives us some startling facts , which , although not new , come with remarkable justness from a Russian pen . He tells us that his journey tp Europe , and especially to England , filled him with astonishment at the amount of produce consumed at home ; and he was much struck with the conduct of English
squires , who , in taking him over their estates ,, always knocked at the cottage door instead of entering abruptly , as they would do in a cowhouse or dog kennel . A few extracts will show that notwithstanding a little French polish on the surface of the nobles and merchants , the general condition of Russia is riot unlike that of England in the days of King John , except in being much worse . The following passage , in which agriculture is contrasted with industry , as if it were a non-industry , sounds fumiy to English ears , but its meaning is apparent : — A * overy s * P one makes in Russia , one is struck with the wide distance that separates agriculture from industry . Supposo , for example , that you spend an evening in a Moscow or St . Petersburg saloon : you . find hero lamps , carpets , gastronomical rarities ; a host
of servants decked out with gold-laco embroidery ; tho masters of tho house and their guests richly ana elegantly dressed : it ia to industry that all this splendour , all this comfort is owing , and everything soems to prove to you that all that appertains to the external Hfo of tho upper olaasos is as fully dovoloped in Ruaaia as in any part of Europe . Leave , however , this brilliant saloon , and proceed to the street lo look for a cabman ( ialvostchiti ) : this istvoatchik ia n poaaant , that is to aay , a representative of tho forces and of tho stftto of agriculture . What n wretched object prosonts jtsell to your notico ! You havo before you a loan jauo , harnessed with ropes , and a poor man clothed with ruga . This harness and costume , almoat always manufactured by tho man himself , evidence tho backwardness of tM
agricultural class , Wo can easily sympathise with M . KokorofT in condomning tho wasteful oxpondituro of the nobles while capital is so desporatoly needed for tho cultivation of tho soil j but his condemnation of articles of luxury goes too far , and tho excesses ho doprocatos will ouro thomsolvcs , by rendering bankrupt HiofcG who practise them , when thoir estates wu pass iiito better hands . Trade with Russia is thus explained : •—Europo is mistaken in imagining that in oxportlng to wares to u 8 , it Is trading with Russia . Not bo , InUootti All our shops , dealing in foreign goods , In M 0 * 0 ™' ® !' 1 ' otowburg , and tho capital towns of tho Governments ,
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204 THE LEAD EH . [ ISTo .. 464 , February 12 , 1859
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 12, 1859, page 204, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2281/page/12/
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