- ion is general, and there may be individual exceptions.
Besides, as to individuals, transplanting sometimes improves the original stock. This, I apprehend, is particularly the case with the English in America. My partiality, perhaps, begins to display itself. How natural is it for one to think well of his own country! Yet truth should be more dear to a man than his native land. The Americans are a mixed people; but the institutions of the country direct their affections to one common centre. They are, therefore, one people; and their principles and feelings comport with our noble systems of polity. All nations have their faults; but I think the Americans possess the greatest virtues and the fewest imperfections. I need not occupy much ground upon this subject. The most prominent nations are the best tests of national characteristics. {251} Small communities are almost innumerable; and they, generally, partake, more or less, of the dispositions of long established, and mighty sovereignties. I confine my views to the English, Irish, French, and American nations. The Irish are intelligent, hospitable, and courageous; but they are credulous, resentful, and violent in all their affections:—great virtues, and great vices characterize them. The English are sensible, generous, and brave; but they are supercilious, overbearing, and vain glorious. The French are perspicacious, enthusiastic, and intrepid; but they are fickle, vain, and, in prosperity, impertinent. The Americans seem to be a people distinct from every other.—They possess all the good qualities of the English, and they are real gentlemen in the bargain.
I now return again to the Gulf of Mexico. Here we frequently experienced heavy squalls, accompanied by severe thunder and lightning. In one instance several of our men were stricken by the latter. The squalls gener-
