example, and a conscious knowledge of the world gives to
the _beau-monde_ of Europe; on the other hand, in the absence of this,
you are seldom pestered with the second-hand ladies'-maid airs of your
pretenders to exclusive gentility, so common amongst Europeans.

The great mass of Americans are natural, therefore rarely vulgar; and
if a freshness of spirits, and an entire freedom from suspicion and the
many guards which ill-bred jealousy draws around the objects of its
care, may be viewed, as indeed they ought to be, as proofs of high
feeling and true culture, then are the men of America arrived at a point
of civilization at once creditable to themselves and honourable to their
women, as nothing can be more perfectly unrestrained than the freedom
enjoyed in all good families here. Strangers once introduced find every
house at all times open to them, and the most frequent visits neither
create surprise nor give rise to suspicion.

Hospitality is inculcated and practised, and the people entertain with a
liberality bordering on profuseness: the merit of this is enhanced by
the great trouble the absence of good domestics entails on the mistress
of even the best establishments. Ladies are here invariably their own
housekeepers, yet, nowhere is the stranger more warmly welcomed, and in
no country is more cheerful readiness evinced in preparing for his
entertainment.

The hand of welcome is also extended and sympathy encouraged towards the
persecuted, whether of fortune or despotism. The exile is sure to find
shelter and security here, without encountering suspicion, whether
necessity or choice induced him to abandon his country.

Honoured be the land which offers to the stranger a free participation,
on equal terms, of all it holds dearest! Hallowed be the institutions
which hold out to talent a free field, and where honest ambition knows
no limit save the equal law!

I shall ever love America for the happy home it has proved to the
provident amongst the exiles from Ireland. In almost every part of the
land, they form an important portion of the freemen of the soil. If, on
becoming American, they have not at all times ceased to be Irish in that
full degree the political economist would desire, there are many
allowances to be made for them.

Let it not be considered an unpardonable enormity that the poor Irishman
runs a little riot when suddenly and wholly freed from the heavy clog by
which the exhibition of his opinions