One of the few kingly wishes on record, which
deserve to be for ever honoured in our recollection,
is that of Henry the fourth of France,
whose favourite hope it was, that “He might
live to see the day, when every peasant in his
kingdom would have a fowl to put in his pot on
Sunday.” This homely wish deserves to have,
and indeed has, endeared the memory of that
gallant and noble prince to the hearts of all, even
those of the stoutest republicans. The only
country in which this blessing is enjoyed in its
fullest extent, is America, where the most common
labourer can if he please, and without extravagance,
have his fowl for dinner on Sabbath
day. All impartial relaters agree in representing
that country as holding out to the poor, and
those with small means, a prospect, which could
they but behold it, would quickly allure them
from their native homes, which present, for the
most part, a prospect of endless labour, and endless
privation. The commonest day-labourer,
without a trade, can earn six or seven dollars a-week;
a sum that will afford him a dinner of fresh
or salt meat, or both, every day, and enable him
even to indulge in roast-beef; which though perhaps
not so fine as that of “Old England,” has
this special advantage, that it is much more accessible
to the generality of the people. The
Americans know and feel their superior national
happiness; and if they took as much pains to circulate
true accounts of their country, as disingenuous
travellers have taken to disseminate false
ones, nothing but the vast ocean would prevent
the poor peasants of Europe from pouring themselves
into the bosom of America.
But the truth is, the writers of that country
are divided into three classes, one of which claims
the exclusive honours of patriotism, and is industriously
employed in depreciating it; another
in exalting it preposterously over the heads
of other nations, without being able to give any
reason for it; and a third, which knowing that
the country has already quite enough of foreign
leaven, to assist its rising, refrains from indirectly
inviting foreigners, by setting forth its advantages;
and is content merely occasionally, to refute
unfounded aspersions and libellous sneers.
