UNITED STATES. 39 or at an inn. No gentleman, who is commonly polite, will meet with any thing but kind hospitality and treatment in ; and as to the peculiarities of their tongue, I need only observe, that I have never met with an American, however humble, whose lan¬ guage was not perfectly plain and intelligible to me ; while I can scarcely understand half of what the country people say, within a few miles of me, in Lan¬ cashire. It is also common to believe, that the Ame¬ ricans cherish a bitter hatred to the people of Eng¬ land. Many circumstances have certainly planted sentiments of dislike to England , or more properly to the government, pretty generally among the citi¬ zens of the United States; but they are, notwithstand¬ ing, more kind to individually, than to the people of any other country. I may also observe further, that there is much truth in a reply made to me by a member of the legislature of Maine, when conversing with him on this subject: " Sir," he said, " if I were to punish men for abusing countries, I would first knock down the person who stigmatized my own, and immediately after, the one that abused yours; and you may depend upon it, sir, that this feeling is more general among us than even we our¬ selves think." The truth is, that their literature, their language, and even their history, except for the last sixty years, are all so purely English, that they cling unconsciously, by association and habits, more closely to England and , than to any other coun¬ try or people. A fertile and principal excuse of any hatred felt by