PREFACE. THE following pages are intended for publication in America as well as in England. They have been written with two objects in particular: first, to lay before Americans a sketch of the political condition of England, and before the English an explanation of some peculiarities in the social state of America; secondly, to point at the means of removing those causes which are productive of great evils to both countries. For the satisfactory performance of such a Work, powers are required which the author does not possess; command of language, a style calculated to engage the reader, and a name which should give to every statement or suggestion the weight of authority. But, on the other hand, he has had peculiar motives for examining the condition of America, and is so far partly qualified to treat upon that subject; he believes also that he is enabled to make Americans comprehend the state of England, which hitherto has been described to them only by Englishmen writing, not for America, but for England. The English and Americans know very little of each other's affairs. Now, the present writer has looked at America with English eyes, and at England with American eyes. It was a consciousness of this advantage, that prompted him to undertake the task of describing to each nation the chief social peculiarities of the other. Another advantage which the writer fancies that he possesses over many Englishmen and Americans who might have written on these subjects, is the want of any patriotic prejudice in favour of either country of any motive for concealing or perverting..the truth. His opinions, he believes, have been formed and are stated without affection or fear. Plain-speaking must nearly always be disagreeable to somebody; and in this case it will offend many, because large classes, both in England and America, are mentioned without any regard for their selfish interests, their mean passions, or even their honest prejudices. The following Notes are not to be considered as so many discussions on distinct subjects; but each of them is more or less connected with all the others. In fact, they all relate to the social state and political economy of England and America. What, it may be asked, has the political economy of England to do with that of America, or that of America with that of England? What relation can there be between the political prospects of the English, and the origin, progress and prospects of slavery in America? To such tions these Notesmerica ques supply an answer. Comparison is the easiest way to truth. In many cases, the Americans and the English may have an equal interest in the same subject, though they may have very different objects in view. Of this common interest with different objects, the subject of colonization is a good example. Admitting that the three elements of production are land, capital and labour; supposing that the chief social evils of England are owing to a deficiency of land in proportion to capital and labour, and those of America to an excess of land in proportion to capital and labour, (whatever great advantages she may owe to a sufficiency of land) in that case, the Americans and the English have a common interest in understanding the art of colonization, though the object of the Americans should be to have less, and that of the English to have more, of one of the elements of wealth. So, also, if it be for the interest of the English to buy cheap corn of the Americans, and of the Americans to buy cheap manufactured goods of the English, the two nations have a common interest in the repeal of the English corn laws and of the American tariff: In every subject treated of in these Notes, the Americans and the English have more or less a common interest |