the American institutions. Now, if the reviewer had had the common
honesty to finish the paragraph, the reason why I refused the
invitations would have been apparent; "because I found that, although
invited, my presence was a restraint upon the company, and every one
_was afraid to speak_." Perhaps the sagacity of the Reviewer will
explain what information I was likely to gain from people who would not
open their mouths. Had he any knowledge of the Americans, he would
admit that they never will venture to give their opinions _in the
presence of each other_; it was not that they were afraid of _me_, but
of each other, as Monsieur de Tocqueville has very truly pointed out in
his work. Moreover, I have now, for the first time, to learn that the
best way of arriving at the truth is to meet people who are on their
guard, and whose object is to deceive.

There is a malevolent feeling in the assertion, that I have treated
_all_ other previous writers on America with contempt; and here again he
intentionally quotes falsely. My words are "the _majority_ of those who
have preceded me." As nearly as I can reckon, there have been about
fifty works published on America, out of which there are not _ten_ which
deserve attention; and the ample quotations I have made from Monsieur de
Tocqueville, Captain Hamilton, and others, in corroboration of my own
opinions, fully evince the respect I have for their writings. In fact,
the whole article is a tissue of falsehood and misrepresentation, and so
weak that hardly one of its positions is tenable. Can any thing be more
absurd, or more shallow, than to quote the Mississippi scheme and Mr
Law as a proof that the French are, as well as the English and
Americans, a _speculative nation_: one solitary instance of a portion of
the French having, about sixty or seventy years ago, been induced to
embark their capital, is brought forward, while the abject supineness of
the French population of Lower Canada, in juxta-position with the energy
and enterprise of the Americans, has for half a century stared us in the
face.

The Reviewer has the kindness repeatedly to inform me that I have been
hoaxed by the Americans, and, most unfortunately for himself, he has
brought forward the "Original Draft of the Declaration of Independence"
as a proof of it. That he would be very glad to prove it to be a hoax,
I believe; as it is a sad discovery, and one which the American
democrats should have kept secr