after all you have been seeing in other lands?". I reply: We think that
we return home with all our hearts more warmly attached to our beloved
land than when we left her shores. We have seen lands, as fair, and
fields as fertile, as our own. We have seen monarchies and republics;
but nowhere have we seen man as erect and self-respecting as at home.
Here we have equal laws, civil and religious liberty, no bishop to
intimidate a day laborer who prefers to pass by his cathedral gates and
worship his Maker in a humbler temple. Here our streets are not labelled
with "_Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite_," but the things signified are
_known_ and _felt_ by every man that traverses these avenues of
business. Here we have not thousands of armed men in this great city to
preserve liberty; but every man enjoys it, and sees nothing of the
government, which, though unseen, is all-powerful in the affections of
the country.
We come home grateful that we have such a country; and though we love
and admire much, very much, in England, yet we rejoice that we can call
the United States our land. We hope we are better prepared than before
we started to do her service. I am quite satisfied, Charley, that God
has not done for any other people what he has for us. We know nothing of
the restless anxiety which depresses men in England as to the means of
procuring the necessaries of life. We have our chief anxieties called
out in reference to the obtaining the _luxuries_ and _embellishments_ of
life; the _necessaries_ are almost certain to every man who has health
and character. But in England, toil is poorly requited; and a father
and husband may, after unremitting labor, have to find his refuge, and
his only one, in that petition of the Lord's Prayer, which you and I
never employed _in pure faith_, "Give me this day my daily bread." We
_say so_; but _we know whence it is coming to us. He_ knows not; and
what he knows not, he asks God after.
A thoughtful and humane American cannot travel in Europe without having
his sympathies daily called out in behalf of the sufferings of man. I am
no apologist for slavery; I deeply lament its existence; but I believe
that there is as much suffering in coal pits and manufacturing districts
of England as in our southern slave states. In regard to England, I feel
encouraged. In an absence of fifteen years I see marked improvement. Man
is more respected, as man, than he once was; the masses are coming up;
and the wealthy and the noble are more considerate. It is a great folly
and a wickedness to think that the nobility of England are weak,
vicious, unfeeling, proud, and self-indulgent. Some of the noblest
characters of England are to be found in the peerage--men who "fear God
and work righteousness." Their homes are often centres of diffusive
blessedness; and were the nobility of England what too many here suppose
them, the state could not last a twelvemonth. The queen is popular, and
is clearly a woman of great tact. She would do at a crisis. Prince
Albert is everything to her. He is a profoundly wise and prudent man,
highly educated, and has very superior powers of mind. He is continually
making speeches, but they are all marked by _adaptation_. I have never
heard one disrespectful word uttered in England in regard to him. His
labors for the exhibition, have been remarkable, and but for the prince
the palace never would have been reared. England is happy indeed in
having such a man to counsel and support the sovereign.
Europe looks as though a storm were once more about to gather over her
old battle fields. France is not in her true position. She would like to
see her armies employed; and I shall not be surprised to hear of his
holiness clearing out from Rome and seeking protection from Austria. If
that happens, France will sustain liberal views in the Eternal City, and
the contest will be severe.
Popery has lost its hold upon the continent, and is seeking to regain
its influence in England, and plant it in America. The people of England
are Protestant to the heart's core. The folly of a few scholastics at
Oxford has created all the hue and cry of Puseyism, and invigorated the
hopes of Rome. These men at Oxford have poisoned the minds of a few of
their pupils, and in the upper walks of life some sympathy is seen with
views that seem at least semi-Papistical. But the great body of the
people is sound. More than half the population is made up of dissenters
and they, to a man, hate "the beast;" and there is about as much danger
of Popery being established in England as there is of absolute monarchy
being embraced as our form of government.
Popery in America must spread by immigration. We have Ireland virtually
in America; but here the Irish will gradually merge into Americans, and
the power of the priesthood will be less and less regarded by their
children. I have no apprehensions from the coming of Catholics to our
country. Let them come, and we must get Bibles ready for them, and Bible
readers to visit them, and schools to teach their children; and if
cardinal, or archbishop, or priest tell us that Popery is the friend of
science, and that it never persecuted genius, imprisoned learning, nor
burnt God's saints, we will tell the deceiver that he lies in the face
of God and man and the world's history.
I am not, my dear fellow, uncharitable; a man may be better than his
creed; and I believe that some priests who have sung the song of the
mass will hereafter sing the song of Moses and the Lamb. But of Popery,
_as it is seen in Italy, and Austria, and other parts of the old world,_
I cannot but pronounce it a curse to the human family, a system all
unworthy of God, and blasting to the happiness of man.
The boys are in the enjoyment of health, and will soon see you. They
have been constant sources of pleasure to me, by their thoughtful
kindness and consideration; and nothing has transpired, to cause us to
look back with pain on any part of our wanderings from home.
Yours, very truly,
JNO. O. CHOULES.
To Mr. CHARLES W. DUSTAN,
Stapleton; Staten Island, New York.