expression of his opinion. Public opinion in America has hitherto
been nothing, unless it has managed to express itself by a majority
of ballot-boxes. Public opinion in England is everything, let
votes go as they may. Let the people want a measure, and there is
no doubt of their obtaining it. Only the people must want it--as
they did want Catholic emancipation, reform, and corn-law repeal,
and as they would want war if it were brought home to them that
their country was insulted.

In attempting to describe this difference in the political action
of the two countries, I am very far from taking all praise for
England or throwing any reproach on the States. The political
action of the States is undoubtedly the more logical and the
clearer. That, indeed, of England is so illogical and so little
clear that it would be quite impossible for any other nation to
assume it, merely by resolving to do so. Whereas the political
action of the States might be assumed by any nation to-morrow, and
all its strength might be carried across the water in a few written
rules as are the prescriptions of a physician or the regulations of
an infirmary. With us the thing has grown of habit, has been
fostered by tradition, has crept up uncared for, and in some parts
unnoticed. It can be written in no book, can be described in no
words, can be copied by no statesmen, and I almost believe can be
understood by no people but that to whose peculiar uses it has been
adapted.

In speaking as I have here done of American taste and American
politics, I must allude to a special class of Americans who are to
be met more generally in New York than elsewhere--men who are
educated, who have generally traveled, who are almost always