_The Rambler in North America, 1832-33. By Charles Joseph Latrobe,
Author of "The Alpenstock," &c. New York; Harper and Brothers._
Mr. Latrobe is connected with a lineage of missionaries. He belongs to
an English family long and honorably distinguished by their exertions
in the cause of Christianity. His former work, "The Alpenstock," we
have not seen--but the London Quarterly Review calls it "a pleasing
and useful manual for travellers in Switzerland." The present volumes
(dedicated to Washington Irving, whom Mr. L. accompanied in a late
tour through the Prairies,) consist of thirty-seven letters addressed
to F. B. Latrobe, a younger brother of the author. They form, upon the
whole, one of the most instructive and amusing books we have perused
for years.
By no means blind to our faults, to our foibles, or to our political
difficulties, Mr. Latrobe has travelled from Dan to Beersheba without
finding all barren. His observations are not confined to some one or
two subjects, engrossing his attention to the exclusion, or to the
imperfect examination, of all others. His wanderings among us have
been apparently guided by a spirit of frank and liberal curiosity; and
he deserves the good will of all Americans, (as he has most assuredly
secured their esteem) by viewing us, not with a merely English eye,
but with the comprehensive glance of a citizen of the world.
To speak in detail of a work so subdivided as "The Rambler in North
America," would occupy too much of our time. We can, of course, only
touch, in general terms, upon its merits and demerits. The latter, we
can assure our readers, are few indeed. One instance, nevertheless, of
what must be considered false inference from data undeniably correct,
is brought to bear so pointedly against our social and political
principles, and is, at the same time, so plausible in itself, and so
convincingly worded, as to demand a sentence or two of comment. We
quote the passage in full, the more willingly, as we perceive it dwelt
upon with much emphasis, by the London Quarterly Review.
"There are certain signs, perhaps it might be said of the times,
rather than of their peculiar political arrangements, which should
make men pause in their judgment of the social state in America. The
people are emancipated from the thraldom of mind and body which they
consider consequent upon upholding the divine right of kings. They are
all politically equal. All claim to place, patronage, or respect, for
the bearer of a great name is disowned. Every man must stand or fall
by himself alone, and must make or mar his fortune. Each is gratified
in believing that he has his share in the government of the Union. You
speak against the insane anxiety of the people to govern--of authority
being detrimental to the minds of men raised from insignificance--of
the essential vulgarity of minds which can attend to nothing but
matter of fact and pecuniary interest--of the possibility of the
existence of civilization without cultivation,--and you are not
understood! I have said it may be _the spirit of the times_, for we
see signs of it, alas, in Old England; but there must be something in
the political atmosphere of America, which is more than ordinarily
congenial to that decline of just and necessary subordination, which
God has both permitted by the natural impulses of the human mind, and
ordered in His word; and to me the looseness of the tie generally
observable in many parts of the United States between the master and
servant--the child and the parent--the scholar and the master--the
governor and the governed--_in brief the decay of loyal feeling in all
the relations of life, was the worst sign of the times_. Who shall say
but that if these bonds are distorted and set aside, the first and the
greatest--which binds us in subjection to the law of God--will not
also be weakened, if not broken? This, and this alone, short-sighted
as I am, would cause me to pause in predicting the future grandeur of
America under its present system of government and structure of
society."
In the sentence beginning, "I have said it may be the spirit of the
times, for we see signs of it, alas, in Old England, _but there must
be something_," _&c._ Mr. Latrobe has involved himself in a
contradiction. By the words, "but there must be something in the
political atmosphere of America which is more than ordinarily
congenial to" _insubordination_, he implies (although unintentionally)
that our natural impulses lead us in this direction--and that these
natural impulses are permitted by God, we, at all events, are not
permitted to doubt. In the words immediately succeeding those just
quoted, he maintains (what is very true) that "_subordination_ was
both permitted by God in the natural impulses of the human mind, and
ordered in His word." The question thus resolves itself into a matter
of _then_ and _now_--of times past and times present--of the days of
the patriarchs and of the days of widely disseminated knowledge. The
infallibility of the instinct of those natural impulses which led men
to obey in the infancy {122} of all things, we have no intention of
denying--we must demand the same grace for those natural impulses
which prompt men to govern themselves in the senectitude of the world.
In the sentence, "Who shall say but that if these bonds are distorted
and set aside, the first and the greatest--which binds us in
subjection to the law of God--will not also be weakened, if not
broken?" the sophistry is evident; and we have only a few words to say
in reply. In the first place, the writer has assumed that those bonds
are "_distorted_" and "_set aside_" which are merely slackened to an
endurable degree. In the second place, the "setting aside" these
bonds, (granting them to be set aside) so far from tending to weaken
our subjection to the law of God, will the more readily confirm that
subjection, inasmuch as our responsibilities to man have been denied,
through the conviction of our responsibilities to God, and--to God
alone.
We recommend "The Rambler" to the earnest attention of our readers. It
is the best work on America yet published. Mr. Latrobe is a scholar, a
man of intellect and a gentleman.