shall never
forget the impulsive, open-hearted kindness with which it was made.

I have had personal experience of Thackeray's sense of justice, as well
as his generosity. And here let me say that he was that rarest of men, a
cosmopolitan Englishman,--loving his own land with a sturdy, enduring
love, yet blind neither to its faults nor to the virtues of other lands.
In fact, for the very reason that he was unsparing in dealing with his
countrymen, he considered himself justified in freely criticizing other
nations. Yet he never joined in the popular depreciation of everything
American: his principal reason for not writing a book, as every other
English author does who visits us, was that it would be superficial, and
might be unjust. I have seen him, in America, indignantly resent an
ill-natured sneer at "John Bull,"--and, on the other hand, I have known
him to take _our_ part, at home. Shortly after Emerson's "English
Traits" appeared, I was one of a dinner-party at his house, and the book
was the principal topic of conversation. A member of Parliament took the
opportunity of expressing his views to the only American present.

"What does Emerson know of England?" he asked. "He spends a few weeks
here, and thinks he understands us. His work is false and prejudiced and
shallow."

Thackeray happening to pass at the moment, the member arrested him
with--

"What do _you_ think of the book, Mr. Thackeray?"

"I don't agree with Emerson."

"I was sure you would not!" the member triumphantly exclaimed; "I was
sure you would think as I do."

"I think," said Thackeray, quietly, "that he is altogether too
laudatory. He admires our best qualities so greatly that he does not
scourge us for our faults as we deserve."

Towards the end of May, 1861, I saw Thackeray again in London. During
our first interview, we talked of little but the war, which had then but
just begun. His chief feeling on the subject was a profound regret, not
only for the nation itself, whose fate seemed thus to be placed in
jeopardy, but also, he said, because he had many dear friends, both
North and South, who must now fight as enemies. I soon found that his
ideas concerning the cause of the war were as incorrect as were those of
most Englishmen at that time. He understood neither the real nature nor
the extent of the conspiracy, supposing that Free Trade was the chief
object of the South, and that the right of Secession was tacitly
admitted by the Cons