He himself can abuse himself, or his country; but he
cannot endure it from alien lips. Mr. Gotobed had hardly said a
word about England which Morton himself might not have said,--but
such words coming from an American had been too much even for the
guarded temper of an unprejudiced and phlegmatic Englishman. The
Senator as he returned alone to London understood something of
this,--and when a few days later he heard that the friend who had
quarrelled with him was ill, he was discontented with himself and
sore at heart.
But he had his task to perform, and he meant to perform it to the
best of his ability. In his own country he had heard vehement abuse
of the old land from the lips of politicians, and had found at the
same time almost on all sides great social admiration for the
people so abused. He had observed that every Englishman of
distinction was received in the States as a demigod, and that some
who were not very great in their own land had been converted into
heroes in his. English books were read there; English laws were
obeyed there; English habits were cultivated, often at the expense
of American comfort. And yet it was the fashion among orators to
speak of the English as a worn-out, stupid and enslaved people. He
was a thoughtful man and all this had perplexed him;--so that he
had obtained leave from his State and from Congress to be absent
during a part of a short Session, and had come over determined to
learn as much as he could.
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