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these sentiments, without any distinct consciousness of being so." The negative character of the creed, in fact, almost defies definition. The shades of opinion which it includes, are almost infinite. Generally speaking, it is but the chronic form into which the disease of infidelity is apt to settle, in the minds of those who have been taught to enthrone reason in the place of Revelation, and to mistake for truth itself the organ by which truth is apprehended. The “spirit of the Pilgrims" still survives, however, at Boston; and it would be as unjust to impute the partial spread of any form of infidelity in America to its political institutions, as to ascribe the Arianism of Clarke, or the Socinianism' of Lindsey, to the constitution or ecclesiastical polity of our own country.

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Dr. Dwight has devoted a chapter to the character of the inhabitants of Boston; and as so much loose and vague remark has been put forth by various Travellers, upon the national character of the Americans, (who differ among themselves not less widely than the natives of the different countries comprised in the United Kingdom,) the observations of the learned American must be regarded as claiming attention.

"The Bostonians, almost without an exception, are derived from one country and a single stock. They are all descendants of Englishmen, and of course are united by all the great bonds of society,-language, religion, government, manners, and interests. With a very small number of exceptions, they speak the English language in the English manner; are Protestants; hold the great principles of English liberty; are governed voluntarily by the English common law, and by statutes strongly resembling those of Great Britain, under a constitution essentially copied from the British, and by courts in almost every respect

the same. Their education, also, differs very little in the school, the shop, the counting-house, or the university. Although they are republicans, and generally congregationalists, they are natively friends of good order and firm government, and feel the reputation of Old Massachusetts in much the same manner as an Englishman feels the honour of Old England.

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"Every New Englander, with hardly an exception, is taught to read, write, and keep accounts. means of this privilege, knowledge is, probably, more universally diffused here, than in any other considerable town in the world. A great number of the inhabitants also have been liberally educated...... Boston is distinguished for its habits of business. A man who is not believed to follow some useful business, can scarcely acquire or retain even a decent reputation. A traveller passing through it, is struck with the peculiar appearance of activity every where visible. Almost all whom he meets, move with a sprightliness differing very sensibly from what he observes in New York or Philadelphia.*

"Not less distinguished are the inhabitants, particularly the middle and inferior classes, for their intelligence and information. In a singular degree they are acquainted with the affairs of the town itself, and with the residence and character of almost every inhabitant. I have rarely met a child who could not tell me both the street and the house for which I inquired.f Nor

* Owing to this " ardour" of temperament, the Bostonians, Dr. Dwight says, are distinguished by a pronunciation unusually rapid, frequently contracting two short syllables into one, and rendering the language still rougher by a violent junction of consonants; as Swed'n, Brit'n, gard'n, vess'l. At the same time, they are "perfectly free from the multiform brogue which salutes the ears of a traveller in New York and Philadelphia."

This remark may illustrate the observation cited from Mr.

are they less distinguished for civility. A Bostonian, if not pressed by business of his own, will readily ac company a stranger to the house which he wishes to find, and will scarcely appear to feel as if he conferred the least obligation.

"The people of Boston are characteristically distinguished by a lively imagination, an ardour easily kindled, a sensibility soon felt and strongly expressed. They admire, where graver people would only approve; detest, where cooler minds would only dislike; applaud a performance where others would listen in silence; and hiss where a less susceptible audience would only frown. This character renders them sometimes more, sometimes less amiable, usually less cautious, and often more exposed to future regret. From this source, their language is frequently hyperbolical, and their pictures of objects in any way interesting, highly coloured.*

"Hence, also, their enterprises are sudden, bold, and sometimes rash. A general spirit of adventure prevails here, which, in numerous instances, has become the means of attempts made with honour and success, in cases where many of their commercial

Cooper at p. 214 of this volume; that New York and New Orleans are the only cities in America that have not the character of a provincial town. Every man's virtues or vices, wisdom or folly, excite in Boston, Dr. Dwight says, "much the same attention, and are examined much in the same manner, as in a country village."

* "The Boston style is a phrase proverbially used throughout a considerable part of this country, to denote a florid, pompous manner of writing, and has been thought by persons at a distance to be the predominant style of this region. It cannot be denied, that several publications written in this manner have issued from the press here, and for a time been much celebrated. Most of the orations delivered on the 5th of March, may be produced as examples. Still, it has never been true that this mode of writing was either general in this town, or adopted by men of superior talents." -Dwight, vol. i. p. 469.

neighbours would have refused to adventure at all.* The manner in which they commenced the trade of Nootka Sound, and circumnavigated the globe, advantageously illustrate this observation. A ship belonging to Joseph Barrett, Esq. and others, sailed round the earth three times; and a sloop of moderate size, once. Few merchants in America would, I believe, have resolved on these enterprises, and few seamen have executed them. On the other hand, the dealers in Georgia lands found many more customers in Boston, than in New York. The tea shipped to Boston by the East India Company, was destroyed: in New York and Philadelphia, it was stored." +

The enterprising spirit by which the Bostonians, and the New Englanders generally, are distinguished, has characterized them from the very foundation of the colony; and it formed one topic of eloquent panegyric in the splendid oration of Burke, on moving his famous Resolutions of Conciliation with the Colonies. “Look,” he said, “at the manner in which the people of New England have of late carried on the whalefishery. Whilst we follow them among the tumbling

* The following remarks, intended for the Americans generally, but more especially applicable to the New England emigrants, will illustrate this feature of their character. "The villages on the American frontier, form a striking contrast with those on the Canada side. There, bustle, improvement, and animation fill every street: here, dulness, decay, and apathy discourage enterprise, and repress exertion. It is said, that not one-tenth part of the houses in Buffalo are paid for, and that the greater number of these are already mortgaged. The Americans build houses and make improvements entirely for the benefit of posterity, as they generally engage in speculations so disproportioned to their means, that ruin and insolvency overtake them before they can realize what they have projected, or enjoy what they have accomplished."-Howison, p. 131.

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mountains of ice, and behold them penetrating into the deepest frozen recesses of Hudson's Bay and Davis's Straits, whilst we are looking for them beneath the arctic circle, we hear that they have pierced into the opposite region of polar cold; that they are at the antipodes, and engaged under the frozen serpent of the South. Falkland Island, which seemed too remote and romantic an object for the grasp of national ambition, is but a stage and restingplace in the progress of their victorious industry. Nor is the equinoctial heat more discouraging to them, than the accumulated winter of both the poles. We know that whilst some of them draw the line and strike the harpoon on the coast of Africa, others run the longitude, and pursue their gigantic game along the coast of Brazil. No sea but what is vexed by their fisheries. No climate that is not witness to their toils. Neither the perseverance of Holland, nor the activity of France, nor the dexterous and firm sagacity of English enterprise, ever carried this most perilous mode of hard industry to the extent to which it has been pushed by this recent people; a people who are still, as it were, but in the gristle, and not yet hardened into the bone of manhood." *

It is curious enough to compare with this splendid encomium upon the adventurous spirit of mercantile enterprise, the caricature of the New Englander drawn by an American Writer, in which the same general lineaments are nevertheless preserved. "These Yankees are certainly a very strange race of people. You will see them with their eel-skins upon their hair, to save the expense of barbers, and their ear-rings in their ears, to improve their sight, to see how to cheat

* Burke's Speeches, vol. i. p. 284.

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