Letters from London: written during the years 1802 & 1803

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LETTERS FROM LON DON: WRITTEN DURING THE YEARS 1802 <b 1803. by WILLIAM AUSTIN. His ego gratiora dictu alia esse scio: sed me vera pro gratis loqui, etsL meum ingenium non moncret, necessitas coget. BOSTON : PRINTED FOR W. PELHAM. 1804. S. ETHERIDGE AND C. STEBBINS, PRINTERS.

ADVERTISEMENT.

. THESE Letters were written during a residence in London, and addressed to a friend in Massachusetts. The writer has endcavo-ared to blend amusement with in formation, and has attempted to sketch both national, and individual character ; with occasional outlines of the state of soci ety in that interesting country. The frequent allusion to the United States, by way of comparison, while it adds variety, he trusts will take nothing from the im partiality of the work. The public will judge. DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS, TO WIT* JjE it remembered, That on the thirtieth day of July, in the eighteen hundred and fourth year of mir Tj-uv-l and '_.__. *\_c twenty ninth j-par of the Independence of the United States of America, WILLIAM PELHAM ofthe said d;Gti-ict, hath de posited in this Office, the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as Proprie tor, in the words following, to wit : " LETTERS FROM LONDON : written during the years 1802 & 1S03.

Letter I

London, junk 19'A, 1802. DEAR SIR, 1 have just arrived in the land of our ancestors, a land not much less strange to me, than were die shores of New England to Standish, Carver, Winslow, and tlie other adventurers. They were awfully impressed with the grandeur of nature, be fore she yielded to cultivation : I am apprehensive I shall not be less affected with the excesses to which pride, vanity, and ambition carry those, who, endeavouring to rise above, sink far below the standard of nature. A descendant of those ancestors, arriving here, might naturally ask, " What invincible prejudice, what inveterate bigotry, or what preeminent virtue, induced our forefathers to leave this country for a desert ?" Thank God, their posterity know how to answer the question ! Three thousand miles and a desert they justly thought a full equivalent for what they left behind — notwithstanding, the maxims of Europe followed them, but which, distance, in some degree, served to cleanse of their leprosy.

B You may expect, agreeably to promise, from time to time, a few notices of those things which I may think worthy of presenting. Letters are the recrea tion of literature, and usually written in the night gown and slippers : we give our friends our looser thoughts, reserving our abilities for more important occasions. But knowing your taste? feelings, and views, I shall endeavour, as far as I am able, to as sume a style rather more elevated than is frequent in this mode of writing, reserving the liberty of dis porting at intervals on the surface of things. Men, manners, morals, politics and literature, wall always afford a fertile field of observation ; but then it demands the hardihood of personal indifference to speak present truth, though afterwards, the same becomes legitimate history : at the same time, it requires the pen of Tacitus to make the proper discrimination between the people of two countries, or even between people of the same ; especially in Europe, where in the same country there are many different species of men.

It would richly compen sate for a voyage across the Atlantic to observe this singular circumstance. Indeed, I know not who can travel with more advantage to himself, or to his country, than a citizen of the United States, born since the revolution : for, the moment he arrives in Europe, the love of his own country becomes his predominant passion : while his mind, at every step he takes, is awakened to reason, compare, pity, ap prove, or condemn. But that which will more particularly engage his attention, is the comparative operation of the English and American constitutions on general happiness, the only true criterion of the excellency of a government. The few observations which I shall drop on the English character will be rather an incidental, than a definitive drawing. I shall not remain here long enough to catch those nice, and frequently, complex traits which mark national character ; though I sus pect, a sign painter might hit off John Bull, as well as an artist.* But I do not think it honest or gen tlemanly, to draw the character of any people, while riding through their country on horseback, or to describe a city, after lodging in it one night.

You would not imagine that a certain traveller had pass ed through Boston, on reading that ridiculous anecdote of the house wit/j wooden rollers. You recollect, he says the people of Boston live in moving houses: so that if they do not like their situation, or neighbourhood, they move to another part of the town. What a strange idea will Europeans have * I found myieU' not a little mistaken in the sequel r of Boston, after reading such a fabrication ! Such a traveller is really unpardonable, for of all the senses, the sight is least liable to mislead. But travclle rs take great liberties, they lie boldly, and speak the truth by chance :* not so much perhaps, from a disposition to wanton over nature, as from an opinion that mankind are more readily captivated with ro mance. One ofthe earliest, and most famous saints does not hesitate to assert that he passed through one country, the people of which Mere destitute of heads, and through another, the people of which had but one eye.

The story ofthe Amazons had its or igin, possibly, from some traveller desirous of at tracting attention at home : or perhaps from certain smugglers who appeared at the sea side dressed in women's clothes ! The story of American bundling, which is so fre quently told in Europe, doubtless originated in hos pitality ; though the stranger ventured, when he arrived in Europe, to characterise the whole people. Nothing is more likely, than that the author of the bundling anecdote was benighted, and some kind cot tage received him, which having no spare bed, he was obliged to sleep with the farmer's daughters. • A mentir hardiment, et a dire la verite par hazard — Bonaven ture D'Argonne, under the name of Vigneul Marville. Another traveller, who has done us the honour of publishing a volume, goes nearly the length of assert ing, that the citizens of the United States look back with regret oh their separation from Great Britain.

The same traveller visited Philadelphia, but not being noticed, because not known, he left the city in disgust, and charged the citizens with a want of hospitality. As well might one who had just drop ped from the moon walk the streets of London, and then return with a similar report. Should Mr. Weld visit Philadelphia again, he is so well known now, I am confident he would be well received. Indeed, so little is known in Europe of the peo ple of the United States, that it would be necessary, if you would describe them, to affirm, with no little assurance, that they are white as other people, that they live in houses, that they boil and roast their meat, and that they speak the English language, at least as well as they do in Devonshire. Lest I should be premature in my sketches, I shall adopt a rule which every stranger ought to adopt, until repeated observation confirm first impres sions : that is, to open his eyes and ears, but seal his mouth. Adieu.

Letter II

London, jotj »jt3. 1 never knew, until the present, what a weight impresses on one who presumes to issue his own opinions on another country. I seem to support the responsibility of the nation ; and tremble while judging those in secret, whose grand prerogative it is, to be judged in open court. That is a dignified office, which assumes over a whole nation, and ought not to be filled except by philosophers ; yet most men have finished their travels before they set out. The English, like Themistocles, take to them selves the first place, because most foreigners allow them the second ; and they imagine themselves treated with ingratitude, unless every stranger throws in his mite of panegyric. They are hardly satisfied, if you invert the defiance of the poet, and praise where you can, and censure where you must.

It has been their good fortune to be accused only of those traits of character of which they boast : charge the English with haughtiness, and they will tell you the Romans in their best days were the haughtiest people on earth. Accuse them of hard ness and oppression ; they will tell you, these were ever the misfortune of conquerors. Tax them with an overbearing demeanour, and they will se riously tell you, this is a constitutional foible, owing to the consciousness of personal independence. Call them proud, and they will tell you it is the part of slaves to be humble : freemen are ahvays proud. It is our misfortune to have been visited by those, who, far from being philosophers,* estimated the United States agreeably to the views of Europeans : hence they have thought us two centuries behind the polish of Europe; at the same time, a William Penn or a Rousseau would pronounce us more than four centuries nearer the great object of the social compact.

It is not long, since a Chinese great man, if you will allow the Chinese to have had a great man, since the days of Confucius, arrived at Bos ton with a considerable suite. Being asked his opinion of Boston, he very naturally replied, " It was the vilest place he had ever seen, and utterly destitute of magnificence." At the same time, ad- • Even Brissot, I suspect, had fixed the character of the citizens of the U. S. before he left France. Charmed with the form of our gov ernment, he was easily led to speak too highly of the citizens. verting to the style ofthe citizens, "Why," said he, " My father has three hundred servants." This man probably went home, and thanked God, he was not born a citizen of the United States ; and was ten times more confirmed in his prejudices, than when he left China.

For travelling is as likely to fix native, as to destroy foreign prejudices. When such a man as Montesquieu, after having written the Spirit of Laws, and appeared to sympathise so sin cerely with freemen, declares, " As Plato thanked heaven that he was born in the same age with Soc rates ; so he thanked God that he was born a sub ject under that government in which he had lived," he surely discovers a childish weakness. It may be pardoned in the Chinese, who has nothing but the soil, and those connexions which all people have, to attach him to his country : but Montesquieu goes near to prove that a man may think and write like a freeman, and yet content himself in a state of slavery. For my part, my love for my country is founded chiefly on its constitution of government. Nee in superficie tignisque caritas nobis patriæ pen det.* I should prefer the salubrious breezes and grateful soil of Spain to the inexorable north winds and iron bound soil of New England, were all * LlVT. other things equal, Libertas tra het, deferor hospes.

I foresee, I shall have to encounter many difficul ties before I can catch John Bull : however, I will send you all the materials of his person that I can collect, and you must put them together as well as you can : if you sometimes make a small mistake, it is no great matter, John does not always know himself. To understand the English, one should be a plo beian in the morning, a gentleman in the afternoon, and a nobleman at night. Otherwise, the various grades of society are so fortified in peculiar habit, in this country, that you are in danger of mistaking honest John for a different animal. A citizen of the United States arrives here under no favourable circumstances of birth, or conse quence : therefore, to gain all the advantages of trav el, he must either break down, or leap over, many of those barriers of society, which, with many, are esteemed sacred. Adieu. c

Letter III. London, July

gth. JVli* attention was arrested, soon after my ar rival, by a most humourous object, a chariot and eight; but to do justice to the horses, four ofthe appendages to the chariot were not of their species : they were four stout fellows, such as Hannibal would have chosen for his companions through the Alps. Three of these gentlemen had their station behind, and so dignifiedly did they carry themselves, with so much lace were they puffed off, and so el egandy trimmed were their cocked hats, one might easily in the hurry of novelty have mistaken them for men of high rank, who were disposed to amuse the populace ; especially as the English are famous for whim. I was soon undeceived, for I observed on many ofthe gayest carriages four supporters, or holders, for the servants. An Englishman, accustomed to see such things daily, may probably have but one reflection on such an exhibition — " The owner of that chariot must be very rich;" and possibly, this is the only reflection he ought to make.

What purpose can it serve to reason, when our best conclusions tend only to discover a situation which we cannot remedy ? Slaves ought to have but one sense, that of hearing, and but one idea, that of obedience. It is the part of a man of judgment, Rousseau somewhere observes, when surprised by novelty, to ask its use. This is natural, and is exemplified by the aboriginals of our own country. They wonder ed at the stupidity ofthe man who carried about with him a chaise, which would not stir a step without a horse. But the first man on horseback, whom they saw, they believed to be one animal, and pronounc ed it an excellent contrivance : for, strength, swift ness, hunting and swimming, savage attributes and faculties of prime consequence, were answered in an eminent degree. But had they seen these three stout fellows behind the chariot, they would have per ceived little congruity between them and the car riage.

I am strongly impressed that either these useless beings suppose a great degree of misery, or a great de gree of servitude in the nation. If their situation be eligible, it supposes such a degree of misery that they are obliged to fill the humblest offices for bread : if they seek these situations, and fill them in preference to others, it supposes the loss of all sense of human dignity. These are not the only evils ; these drones are a tax on the industrious poor, and eat that bread for which others are suffering, and raise the price of that which they do not consume. However, all this is necessary in a monarchy ; the grandeur of the nobles is a part ofthe constitution, and must be supported :* in other words, poverty is a necessary part of monarchy. If this evil cannot be remedied, kind fortune is daily counteracting it, by humbling the great, and exalting the humble : otherwise Europe would soon become a sad spectacle of ty rants and slaves.

So true is it, as Beccaria ob serves ; "In every human society there is an effort continually tending to confer on one part the height of power and happiness, and to reduce the other to the extreme of weakness and misery." There are two powerful reasons, why the United States will not for these hundreds of years afford such a sight as those chariot-appendages. The proud principles of the constitution will teach the humblest to fly the distinctions of master and servant. The other is a more practical cause, and is operating dai ly. I mean the extensive territory of the United States. If a man be born poor, he is not born to poverty ; or if born to labour, he is not born to ser vitude. He has only to emigrate an hundred or two miles, and in the course of a few years, he proudly * Vide Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws.

Book 5. Chap. 9. looks around him and says, " This farm is my own, and my children will inherit it after me." However, I do not wish you to believe the English populace are in general so little respectable as those four easy fellows. One could not stand two hours in the street without attaining to one ofthe first principles ofthe English constitution. The chimney sweeper knows very well his standing in society, and without seeming to feel for those who think cleanli ness one ofthe conveniences of life, he wraps himself up in his sooty consequence, and all who would pass by him must either hazard the evil of contact, or walk in the mud, until they are out of the reach of his in fluence. The porter too, though his burden should be an impediment to every one, keeps the footway ; and no one presumes to request him to walk inn-one part of the street, rather than in another.

I am not certain if I am correct, in attributing this to the dem ocratic branch of the constitution. lam more in clined to attribute it to the common law.* The in fluence ofthe democratic branch ofthe constitution is too distant from the people to affect them very strongly : but that part of the common law which places the person of the peer and plebeian on equal ity, being known to every one, comes home to * The Common Law is a pnrt, and in my opinion, the best part of the Eng lish Constitution their feelings, and operates most visibly on the low est. If all people are presumed to know enough of the laws of their country to answer for their infrac tion, it would be singular, if they should be ignorant o those law's whence they derive all their consequence. Preserve the entirety of common law, and I be lieve the people would scarcely miss the constitution : but every good has its attendant evil.

The common law is in continual danger of that terrier of parliament, statute law : so that the English may one day find themselves buried under a mass of statutes. Adieu,

Letter IV. London, August

loth. UNE can know nothing of this people with out mixing with them, they seem most of them to have two characters ; one repellant, especially to strangers, the other, quite accommodating and dis posed to confidence, if you are willing to shew them a little deference. Nothing is lost by this, for they generously disclaim that superiority which is granted. I have also discovered a remarkable desire in those who affect to rank among the better sort, to pass themselves off in the presence of strangers for gentle men of fortune and consequence. Last Sunday morning I visited Kensington Garden, so early, that but one person was there before me. We passed and repassed each other many times ; but he discovered no disposition to speak, or to be spoken to : at length I ventured to accost him ; and to whom do you think I had the honour to address myself?

It appeared in the sequel that he was a member of parliament, possessed of an immense landed proper ty in Kent, and that he had frequently been offered a pension by Mr. Pitt, if he would support the minis try, which had been as frequently refused from a motive of patriotism. He said he had foreseen, and advised Mr. Pitt ofthe termination of the war. I observed he must also have known Mr. Burke. "Poor fellow," said he, "Burke lost his senses a long time before he died : he quarrelled with me at last, after an intimacy of thirty years." This man might possibly have been a member of parliament, notwithstanding the attrition of time had effected one considerable breach in his hat and two others in his coat. The English are said to hold all other people in contempt — the usual fault of islanders.

But the English indulge a sentiment of disdain arising from comparison, rather than from any other cause. I am led to the above remark, from an occurrence which lately happened to myself. In travelling to London in a stage coach, I had become so intimate with one ofthe passengers, that just before the jour ney was finished, he politely gave me his address. I told him, I could not in return give him mine, for being a stranger in the country, I knew not where I should take lodgings. I thought the man was suddenly taken ill, so altered was his countenance in a moment. " Are you not an Englishman ?" he ask ed, with a tone which partly betrayed mortification that he should have made such a mistake, and partly regret that he should have done me so much honour as to have taken me for an Englishman.

" No, I am a citizen ofthe United States." He seemed to say, " so much the worse," wrapped himself up in a reverie, and was silent the remainder ofthe passage. This repelling trait of character, for which the English are noted, does not arise, in my opinion, en tirely from their dispositions. In a country like this, a commercial country, where the interest of each in dividual interferes in some form or other, with his neighbour's, where, the people mutually thrive at each other's expense, and where, even the pious, if they put up a prayer in the morning for a blessing on the day, the substance of it must be the overreaching of their fellows. Among such, there is no room for cordiality, and when attentions are proffered, their motive ought to be suspected. All will be suspicious of those with whom they are unacquainted ; especially in such a city as this, to which rogues of all descrip tions resort, either to hide their infamy, or sell it for a higher price.

Hence the first maxim should be to know nobody by whom they are not likely to profit. An apostle among such people would command no more attention than a ballad singer, and would afford speculation to no one but a Jew clothesman. D How far these observations apply to our own country, I leave you to judge. I believe commerce preserves the same character in all countries and in all ages. The merchant of Alexandria who arrived in a time of famine at Rhodes with a cargo of corn — the bankers of Syracuse who sold Cannius the Roman knight a farm, with a fish pond in it — the merchants of Amsterdam who cut down the cinnamon trees in the East — the Hamburghers who betrayed Napper Tandy — the merchants of Liverpool who pray God, not to change the colour of the negroes, and certain merchants of Boston who dream of wars in Europe as the greatest blessing which Providence can send, are all allied to the same family.

How applicable to to the present is the following remark, made nearly nineteen centuries since, si qui proscribunt Villam bonam, beneque edificatam, non existimantur fefellisse etiam si ilia nee bona est, nee œdificata ratione. Cicero de Officiis. Thank God, the United States are rather an agri cultural, than a commercial, country ; otherwise, in spite ofthe constitution, our republic would soon be lost in an odious aristocracy, and what is still worse, a coOT*ner«ct/aristrocracy, which experience proves to be the most inexorable, relentless, and coldblooded of all tyrannies : whose maxims are founded in cau tious speculation, and acted on in all the varieties of monopoly : maxims which, fortified bylaw, fortify the powerful at the expense of the weak. Fortunate for us, the citizens, lords of their farms, will have interests different from the merchants, and will be forever a check on the spirit of commerce.

Were it not for this last circumstance, there would not be virtue sufficient in the country to support our form of government, but for a very short period. I know not if these sentiments meet yours, but from what I have already observed here, I am confirmed in them : it is neither the king, nor the nobles, nor the commons, who govern England ; but stockjobbers, commercial companies and monopolizers. Parlia ment is only a sort of attorney to draw up their rules and regulations, and ratify them according to law. Adieu.

Letter V. London, August

ioth- 1 he election of members of parliament, for Westminster, recurred in July. Every thing rel ative to this popular prerogative will interest a citizen of the United States. He cannot observe the Hustings, without a warm reverence for the great original of his own freedom. The theory of election is a political sublimity, which a democrat cannot contemplate without rapture : it practically brings society back to first principles, checks the tendency of government to usurpation, arrests the bolt of power in the hands of the wicked ; and though frequently perverted, in practice, and made to sanction its own destruction, yet election keeps alive the principle, and asserts the virtue, at least, of a part ofthe people. The following notices I made in Covent Garden, the scene ofthe election. The candidates were Mr. Fox, admiral Lord Gardner, and Mr. Graham, an auctioneer.

All was quiet until the candidates appeared. First came Mr. Fox : on showing himself on the front ofthe stage, elevated a little above the heads of the spectators, a violent uproar of applause commenced with, " Good morning Charley," which scarcely ceased, when Lord Gardner and Mr. Graham appeared. The popular suffrage seemed to be divided between these two : Fox was not opposed ; so a scattering hissing and clapping, at short intervals, commenced when either Gardner or Graham appeared on the front ofthe stage. Whether or not the people, from some cause, are weary of the popular branch of their government ; or whether they consider an election, a mere mockery, or an affair which concerns only the candidates, or whether Mr. Graham was not a man of sufficient weight to contest * the election seriously, I know not ; but certain it is, the election appeared to me a a sort of Bartholomew Fair, to which the people came, some for amusement, some to pick pockets, and some merely to increase the crowd : while the candidates afforded the entertainment, which was not without humour.

You know the English fancy themselves free, once in seven years — this elec tion brought to my mind the Roman Saturnalia. During the Hustings, likewise, every thing is taken in good part by the candidates, who affect the ut- * The candidates have usurped the word " contest :" one would imagine that the people should contest an election, not the candidates. most popularity, not disdaining, sometimes, to be carried home on the shoulders ofthe people. The candidates usually address the crowd at the close of each day's poll, and return them their most sincere thanks for their support, and sometimes lay their hands on their hearts, and urge their friends to come forward, the next day, with redoubled ardour. Those who are not in the habit of public speaking, frequently, at least it was thus in the present instance, authorise some friend to represent themselves to their suture constituents.

The daily state of the poll is painted in a conspic uous place, to satisfy the curious : this I imagine is absolutely necessary ; for John Bull would think himself imposed on, if not permitted every day to see how the election went. Sometimes, the electors are disposed to shake hands with their representatives ; one of whom with seeming cordiality said, "Ah, Charley, it is seven years since I had the pleasure of shaking hands with you — how have you done all that time." "Ah," groaned another man among the crowd, " It is only once, in seven years, that the two parties do shake hands." Lord Gardner was not so civilly received ; but he bore the sarcasms of the populace with much good humour, and seemed by his demeanour to be confident of his election — in spite of the people. A sailor stripped off his jacket and shirt, before the Hustings, and asked, " If he remembered when he gave him that flogging ?"

At the same time another threw a halter at him, telling him to recollect Gov ernor Wall. The Admiral seemed for a moment mortified at this : he said nothing ; but looked a sort of appeal to the spectators " If he merited the charge ?" All were softened in his behalf, and by their murmur of applause acquitted him instantly. This ready disposition to espouse the cause of the injured, is one of the finest traits of the plebeian character ofthe English. At the close ofthe poll, Mr. Fox and Lord Gard ner were declared elected. I could no" readily ac count for this : Fox was not opposed, and 'jet Gra ham, who was in Fox's interest, lost his election in favour of Gardner. Mathematically speaking, one might say, such a conclusion was impossible. The election continued eight or ten days. I be lieve it in the power of either candidate to extend the time, at pleasure.

If so, there is an opening to the greatest excesses : for every election is not con ducted with such good humour as was this.* Broken limbs, and even homicide, are not unusual •At the three preceding elections murder was committed! This circumstance atone is nearly sufficient to prove there is no liberty in England. at some elections. How will you account for it ? The citizens of the United States ought to have the prerogative of suffrage, much more at heart, than the subjects of England, and yet at no contested election was there ever a citizen killed : nor did I ever hear of a broken limb — The cause must be sought in the candidates and not in the people. You will expect a description of Mr. Fox, his ap pearance and demeanour. You wish to know how he was dressed, how he stood, and how he looked.