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    Untitled Article

    846

    Untitled Article

    Mr . Finch ' s volume contains two wholly distinct publications : A Narrative of Travels in the United States , and an Essay on the Natural Boundaries of Empires . The press has of late brought forth travels in America , in rapid succession . It is to be hoped that they will continue to multiply , until the condition of the inhabitants of that immense country is generally and thoroughly understood by the people of England . The American institutions have often been called experimental , by the enemies of change in this country , and we have been told to wait , and see what would come of them . It was meant , b y this admonition , that Jonathan would , before long , get into such confusion , as willingly to saddle himself again with Church and King , kneeling down penitently to receive the old pair of

    panniers , and then bearing , like the strong and contented Issachar , his brace of burdens . The prophecy is not yet quite fulfilled . The assertion was nevertheless true , as to the experimental character of American legislation . The whole constitution was one great experiment : and after the lapse of more than half a century , we may surely begin to set some value by the results . They are the more interesting to us , from having been tried upon

    our own kith and kin . The plant which is growing there , is a slip from our own stock . A French precedent for innovation in a popular direction , is easily disposed of . That which may do in France , and produce much good , might yet , we are told , be very mischievous here . We are so very different ; quite another race . But this will not hold as to America ; what will do for Jonathan , will do for John . At any rate , if we do not copy their transatlantic ways , we may yet profit by fully understanding them . The pains which are often taken to mystify the public on American affairs , show that some good is to be gained by an acquaintance with them . What attempts have been made , for instance , to hoax us about the operation of the ballot there , and the management of elections . There is no pleasure in mere lying , even for a traveller . Some sinister object is contemplated in such misrepresentations : we may presume , then , on some public advantage in getting at the truth . So let the press work away at American travels , however large the number already in the market . Being so numerous as they are , our best mode of reviewing Mr . Finch will be simply to state the peculiarities of his publication . It may interest some of our readers to know , that Mr . Finch has been more attentive than most travellers to the geology of * Travels in the United States of America , and Canada , containing some account of their Scientific Institutions , and a few Notices of the Geology and Mineralogy of those Countries . To which is added , an Essay on the Natural Boundaries of Kmpires . By J . Finch , Ksq , Longman , 1833 .

    Untitled Article

    FINCH'S TRAVELS IN AMERICA . *

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1833, page 846, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2628/page/42/