E 168 .L35 1867 OXFORD: BY T. COMBE, M.A., E. B. GARDNER, E. PICKARD HALL, AND H. LATHAM, M.A. Printers to the University. PREFACE. My chief object in publishing this Journal of a three months' tour in America is to induce other Englishmen to go and judge for themselves what manner of people their American cousins really are, by making trial of their heartiness and hospitality. They will return, I believe, impressed, as I am, with a conviction that any one who can contribute in the smallest degree to make the two nations understand one another better, will be doing good service to both; and that this can only be brought about by increased social intercourse between them. The attractions offered by a European tour bring a large number of Americans to England; long distances are nothing to American travellers; but the number of Englishmen who visit America is comparatively small. Mr. Murray has furnished the traveller with a Handbook for every State on the 374662 Continent of Europe, but has not yet thought himself justified in speculating in a Handbook for America. The American travellers who make European tours, when they leave their own shores are the most conservative part of the American nation. They are the successful men, who have made money, and are not disposed to be ultra-Republicans in future. They have feelings and interests in harmony with all that class of Englishmen who are in a position to show them hospitality; but unless they happen to come with introductions (and how few Americans there are who possess English friends) they return to their own country without having seen the inside of an English house. They return chilled and estranged, willing to believe henceforth anything that they may hear about the cold shade' and the 'bloated aristocracy.' : The English traveller in America will find men much more accessible. If he be worth knowing, everybody will be glad to know him for what he is worth every American's house cannot be walked into, like the President's; but he will find an absence of caste distinctions and a freedom of manners and intercourse which will put it in his power to see more of character, and to understand the people better in three months, than an American traveller in England can in a year. It is quite the exception |