olitical reputations than from their writings. Considering that they
have but half our population, and not a quarter of the time to spare
that we have in this country, the Americans have no want of good
writers, although there are few of them well known to the British
public. It must be pointed out that the American writers are under
another disadvantage which we are not subject to in this country, which
is, that freedom of opinion is not permitted to them; the majority will
not allow it, except on points of religion, and in them they may
speculate as much as they please, and publish their opinions, whether
Deistical, Atheistical, or worse, if they can find worse out. It is
true than an author may, and some will, publish what they please, but if
he does not wish to lose his popularity, and thereby lose his profits,
he must not only not offend, but he must conciliate and flatter the
nation: and such is the practice with the majority of American authors.
Whether it be a work of fiction or one of history his countrymen must be
praised, and, if it be possible to introduce it, there must be some
abuse of England. This fact will account for the waning popularity of
Mr Cooper; he has ventured to tell his countrymen the truth in more
than [one] of his later works, and now the majority are against him.
The work, which I have often quoted in these pages, called "The
Democrat," fell dead from the press. I think it fortunate for Mr
Cooper that it did, as people have been lynched who have not said half
so much as he did in that work. His "Naval History" will reinstate him,
and I suspect it has been taken up with that view, for, although Mr
Cooper has shown a good deal of moral courage, he has not remained
consistent. At one moment he publishes "The Democrat," and gives his
countrymen a good _whipping_, and then he publishes his "Naval History,"
and _soft sawders_ them. But, with the exception of Dr Channing, he
almost stands alone in this particular.

One of the best authors of America is Judge Hall; he proves himself by
his writings to be a shrewd, intelligent man, and yet in his "Statistics
of the West" I was surprised to find the following paragraph, the
substance of which was more than once repeated in the work. Speaking of
the Indian hostilities, he says:--

"The mother country (England) never ceased to indulge in the hope of
reuniting the colonies (that is the United States) to her empire, until
the _war of eighteen