his possessions all
over the globe, yet wondering that French and Russian ambition _will_
keep the world always in hot water. Our Yankee self-conceit and
self-laudation are immoderate; but nobody else is so perfect on all
points--himself being the judge--as Bull.

There is one other aspect of the British character which impressed me
unfavorably. Everything is conducted here with a sharp eye to business.
For example, the manufacturing and trafficking classes are just now
enamored of Free Trade--that is, freedom to buy raw staples and sell
their fabrics all over the world--from which they expect all manner of
National and individual benefits. In consequence, these classes seize
every opportunity, however unsuitable, to commend that policy to the
strangers now among them as dictated by wisdom, philanthropy and
beneficence, and to stigmatize its opposite as impelled by narrow-minded
selfishness and only upheld by prejudice and ignorance. The French widow
who appended to the high-wrought eulogium engraved on her husband's
tombstone that "His disconsolate widow still keeps the shop No 16 Rue
St. Denis," had not a keener eye to business than these apostles of the
Economic faith. No consideration of time or place is regarded; in
festive meetings, peace conventions, or gatherings of any kind, where
men of various lands and views are notoriously congregated, and where no
reply could be made without disturbing the harmony and distracting the
attention of the assemblage, the disciples of Cobden are sure to
interlard their harangues with advice to foreigners substantially
thus--"N. B. Protection is a great humbug and great waste. Better
abolish your tariffs, stop your factories and buy at our shops. We're
the boys to give you thirteen pence for every shilling." I cannot say
how this affected others, but to me it seemed hardly more ill-mannered
than impolitic.

Yet the better qualities in the English character decidedly
preponderate. Naturally, this people love justice, manly dealing, fair
play; and though I think the shop-keeping attitude is unfavorable to
this tendency, it has not effaced it. The English have too much pride to
be tricky or shabby, even in the essentially corrupting relation of
buyer and seller. And the Englishman who may be repulsive in his
out-of-door intercourse or spirally inclined in his dealings, is
generally tender and truthful in his home. There only is he seen to the
best advantage. When the day's work is