WARING.

I don't think we are unpopular with the Americans, generally.

WALSINGHAM.

Humph! look at their newspapers.-I am made to bite my lips every day, by some illnatured observation, in print, respecting the Old Country-THE OLD COUNTRY! Ah! God a mercy! I am ready to hug every American, when I hear him make use of that phrase.

WARING

Each nation is, I think, wofully ignorant of the character and sentiments of the other. Until within the last few years, nobody, in England, either thought, or talked of, America. Of course, I don't speak of mercantile people. Washington Irving, indeed, made the American character extremely popular for a time. John Bull believed he had done his young relative injustice;—and John, who is, after all, in spite of his roughness, and occasional fits of ill-humor,-a generous and loving creature was ready to, and did, hold out his great mutton fist to Brother Jonathan, with his usual blunt word of expression, after a quarrel, of "There-shake hands-Let's be good friends again."

The great majority of the English people knew

nothing of the libels on America, complained of by Mr. Irving, but—

WALSINGHAM.

I recollect very well the time;—and every Englishman, of character and intelligence, was ready to run to him, OPEN MOUTHED, to disclaim any participation in the affront, or affronts, offered to his country. Washington Irving was, and is, to this day, as much an object of PERSONAL AFFECTION with the British people as (almost) any Englishman you can name to me.

WARING.

Granted. But then, recollect-the old wounds were ripped open by Basil Hall, and since, by Mrs. Trollope; and these thin-skinned people—

WALSINGHAM.

Thin-skinned!—Well, I like them the better for their thin-skinnedness, to a certain degree. They may abuse Captain Hall, Dame Trollope, and the Quarterly Reviewer, as much as they like;—but, why the Devil, (Heaven forgive me!) will they persist in saying that these writers speak the sentiments of the great mass of the British people respecting AMERICA? Especially, when they have proof positive to the contrary. See the Edinburgh Review-the Westminster-Foreign QuarterlyNew Monthly-Monthly-Spectator-Examiner !

besides many others, too numerous to mention. Ninety-nine out of every hundred papers, in England (I will venture to say,) never miss an opportunity of lauding this country-its institutions, and the character of the people.

WARING.

I know-as FENWICK said, last evening-"John Bull would be inclined to think, and to say so, too,-if he saw in what an odious light he was shown up, by a portion of the American press. Why, d-n it! Brother Jonathan is either a fellow that can't take a joke—or hear a plain truth spoken to his face-or else, he bears malice.' But," added Fenwick, "you must not take for gospel all that you see in the newspapers. It is a fact, that the Americans are more annoyed at what an Englishman says in their dispraise, than by anything said, or written, by a native of any other country. It is, also, too true, that most of our writers on America, (and, by the way, as Lytton Bulwer remarks, they have been nearly all SCOTCHMEN; mark that!)-CAME HERE with Burn's verse in their mouths If there's a hole in a' · your coats, &c.'-They were on the look out for holes, and for holes only,-and they put their great raw fingers into every hole they found, and, of course, made it wider;-nay, they even made holes, where none before existed."

WALSINGHAM.

Very true. And the fact is, that Jonathan, (viewing himself in the light of an ill-treated child,) cannot be expected to regard Father Bull with much affection or reverence. John was for treating his refractory offspring with a cudgel;but Jonathan (a true chip of the old block,) was as good a hand at single-stick as his sire;-so, he broke the old gentleman's pate;-and set up for himself in the world. Meanwhile, old Bull gets to fighting with his neighbors,-nay, is obliged, occasionally, to make use of his fists, in support of his younger children; and, in the midst of his troubles, happens to give fresh offence to his eldest born (Jonathan,)—who, thereupon, enters the ring once more, and exchanges half a dozen blows with Father John. At length, old Bull leaves off the fighting business, and goes back to his shop. He is too well pleased with the blackeyes he has given to his neighbor, (notwithstanding, the bloody-nose he himself got in the conflict,) to think of the turn-up he had with Jonathan-or to take much heed how young Hopeful is getting on. Probably, he might have muttered-"Deuce take the fellow! a pretty example he has been setting to my other boys!" And, some of his scullions and cook-maids, thinking, no doubt, to please him, bring the OLD FELLOW all sorts of tales about Jonathan's ill-manners, and bad habits,

-swearing that he is a nasty, sour-tempered, evildisposed, wrong-headed person;-HATING the land of his birth, and every member of the Bull family, as he does the devil;—Jonathan, hearing of this, and taking it for granted that the old man believes all that is said of him, gets into a passion—rakes

up old stories;-tells them, daily, to his children; ---and instructs' the latter to look upon their grandfather, as a good-for-nothing, tyrannical, browbeating, dishonest, insolvent, hoary-headed sinner!

In the meantime, old John-(for the first time in his life) begins to take his affairs seriously into consideration. He consults the SCHOOLMASTER he reads,-he meditates-he travels.

He becomes aware of his own imperfections;he bears willing testimony to, and endeavors to imitate, the excellence of his neighbors. He sees that his shop is (and has long been) badly conducted; and he resolves to make material alterations in its management. He finds this no easy task;-but his attention has been turned to the operations of his eldest-born; and he resolves to persevere.

He begins to perceive, that Jonathan was not the greatest fool in the family. He says to himself" By Jupiter! this boy of mine is running as fast as a race-horse! He must be a confounded clever fellow!"

The old gentleman's paternal feelings are re