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Untitled Article
own gooseberry . I have heard that many families carry the principle so far , that they determine exactly how many dinners they can give in a year , and to how many guests—nay more , and how many dishes they can put upon the table , when they do entertain . "—Vol . ii , p . 259 , 260 . Now this " frankness on the subject of economy" is not less in England than in America " a thing almost unheard of . " In assuming that we are a bit wiser than our transatlantic offspring-, an atom more free from the * ' keen competition of domestic life" the author has either taken a rare exception for a general rule , or he
has been misled as to motive . Something of both perhaps . They are not usually the most " fastidious" people who take pic-nic baskets into short-stage steam-boats . Affect to be so , they might ; but the affectation would be merely designed to ward oft' the imputation of economy . When " economy stands out prominently " in an English street , it is usually for the purpose of telling the passers-by that the door of the house has been shut behind him .
If Mr Dewey's pony-chaise friend belong to a class , it was certainly in confidence that he said " cannot . " Or it might have been on the eve of Mr Dewey ' s departure for America . To his neighbours he says , " I will not pay the gig-tax : it is a vile imposition , I'll drive ray pony to death first ; in fact , he is such a
creature for going , that 1 could never get a horse to match him . " The gooseberry-wine friend we give up ; unless he knew that Mr Dewey had tasted some famous claret elsewhere , and expected the like at his table . Yet the case is not worth much . People will go great lengths in asserting preferences ; but gooseberry-wine to claret would have been a bold stroke indeed : no common man
dare venture that , even to a foreigner . It was a desperate case , leaving no resource but to stand at bay upon economy . The third portion , in our distribution of Mr Dewey ' s work , will be chiefly found ( in addition to many admirable passages which are interspersed through both volumes ) in chapters 25 and 26 , on " the Aristocratic Sy stem" and the " Republican System . " We should gladly reprint the whole of these chapters did our limits allow . What we shall quote requires little comment ; our sympathies are strongly with the author ; strong is our admiration both of his opinions and the tone of their expression ; and if the reader does not appreciate them , it is not in our power to make him .
The subject of the two systems , Aristocratical and Republican , is thus introduced : " The great subject , 1 think , which a visit to Kngland presses upon the attention of the American traveller , is the all-engrossing' theme of the age—politics . The distinction of ranks , the difference of condition , the castle and the hovel , the lord and his liveried attendants , the idler and the labourer , continually present themselves to the traveller ' s notice , and provoku comparisons and reflections ,. America knows nothing of
Untitled Article
The Old World and the New . 603
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1836, page 603, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2662/page/15/
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