Atlantic--just as widow-burning or Juggernaut are institutions much better
suited to Bengal than they would be to Berkshire. Of course Canada and
things Canadian are utterly beneath the notice of our traveller. He may,
however, introduce them casually with reference to Niagara, which has a
Canadian shore, or Quebec, which possesses a fine view; for the rest,
America, past, present, and to come, is to be studied in New York,
Boston, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and half a dozen other big places, and,
with Niagara, Salt Lake City and San Francisco thrown in for scenic
effect, the whole thing is complete. Salt Lake City is peculiarly
valuable to the traveller, as it affords him much subject-matter for
questionable writing. It might be well to recollect, however, that there
really exists no necessity for crossing the Atlantic and travelling as
far west as Utah in order to compose questionable books upon
unquestionable subjects; similar materials in vast quantities exist much
nearer home, and Pimlico and St. John's Wood will be found quite as
prolific in "Spiritual Wives" and "Gothic" affinities as any creek or
lake in the Western wilderness. Neither is it to be wondered at that so
many travellers carry away with them a fixed idea that our cousins are
cousins in heart as well as in relationship-the friendship is of the
Delmonico type too. Those speeches made to the departing guest, those
Pledges of brotherhood over the champagne glass, this "old lang syne"
with hands held in Scotch fashion, all these are not worth much in the
markets of brotherhood. You will be told that the hostility of the
inhabitants of the United States towards England is confined to one
class, and that class, though numerically large, is politically
insignificant. Do not believe it for one instant: the hostility to
England is universal; it is more deep rooted than any other feeling; it
is an instinct and not a reason, and consequently possesses the dogged
strength of unreasoning antipathy. I tell you, Mr. Bull, that were you
pitted to-morrow against a race that had not one idea in kindred with