lently anathematised, led me to make inquiries which elicited
a great deal of curious feeling.

An ardent desire for approbation, and a delicate sensitive-
ness under censure, have always, I believe, been considered
as amiable traits of character; but the condition into which
the appearance of Capt. Hall's work threw the Republic,
shows plainly that these feelings, if carried to excess, pro-
duce a weakness which amounts to imbecility.

It was perfectly astonishing to hear men, who, on other
subjects, were of sane judgment, utter their opinions upon
this. I never heard of any instance in which the common
sense generally found in national criticism was so over-
thrown by passion. I do not speak of the want of justice,
and of fair and liberal interpretation; these, perhaps, were
hardly to be expected. Other nations have been called thin-
skinned, but the cicitizens of the Union have, apparently, no
skins at all; they wince if a breeze blows over them, unless
it be tempered with adulation. It was not, therefore, very
surprising that the acute and forcible observations of a trav-
eller they knew would be listened to, should be received
testily. The extraordinary features of the business were,
first, the excess of the rage into which they lashed them-
selves; and, secondly, the puerility of the inventions by
which they attempted to account for the severity with which
they fancied they had been treated.

Not content with declaring that the volumes contained no
word of truth from beginning to end (which is an assertion
I heard made very nearly as often as they were mentioned),
the whole country set to work to discover the causes why
Capt. Hall had visited the United States, and why he had
published his book.

I have heard it said with as much precision and gravity
as if the statement had been conveyed by an official report,
that Capt. Hall had been sent out by the British govern-

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