s last term, were of a private nature, and
contained nothing of a general character. The "twenty millions"--it was
only the other day they were called the "twelve millions"--but, the
"twenty millions," we knew, had been looking up amazingly after the
temporary depression of the moneyed crisis it had gone through; and the
bankers had paid our drafts with confidence, and without extra charges,
during the whole time we had been absent. It is true, Uncle Ro, as an
experienced traveller, went well fortified in the way of credit--a
precaution by no means unnecessary with Americans, after the cry that
had been raised against us in the old world.

And here I wish to say one thing plainly, before I write another line.
As for falling into the narrow, self-adulatory, provincial feeling of
the American who has never left his mother's apron-string, and which
causes him to swallow, open-mouthed, all the nonsense that is uttered to
the world in the columns of newspapers, or in the pages of your yearling
travellers, who go on "excursions" before they are half instructed in
the social usages and the distinctive features of their own country, I
hope I shall be just as far removed from such a weakness, in any passing
remark that may flow from my pen, as from the crime of confounding
principles and denying facts in a way to do discredit to the land of my
birth and that of my ancestors. I have lived long enough in the "world,"
not meaning thereby the south-east corner of the north-west township of
Connecticut, to understand that we are a vast way behind older nations,
in _thought_ as well as deed, in many things; while, on the opposite
hand, they are a vast way behind us in others. I see no patriotism in
concealing a wholesome truth; and least of all shall I be influenced by
the puerility of a desire to hide anything of this nature, because I
cannot communicate it to my countrymen without communicating it to the
rest of the world. If England or France had acted on this narrow
principle, where would have been their Shakspeares, their Sheridans,
their Beaumonts and Fletchers, and their Molieres! No, no! great
national truths are not to be treated as the gossiping surmises of
village crones. He who reads what I _write_, therefore, must expect to
find what I _think_ of matters and things, and not exactly what he may
happen to think on the same subjects. Any one is at liberty to compare
opinions with me; but I ask the privilege of possessing some