Art. 2.-THE UNITED STATES THROUGH FOREIGN SPECTACLES.

1. As Others See Us. By J. G. Brooks. New York: Macmillan, 1908.

2. Notes sur les États-Unis. By André Tardieu. Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1908.

3. The Inner Life of the United States. By Mgr Count Vay de Vaya and Luskod. London: Murray, 1908.

4. American Sketches. By Charles Whibley. Edinburgh and London: Blackwood, 1908.

5. The American Scene. By Henry James. New York and London: Harper, 1907.

The Americans. By Hugo Münsterberg. Translated by E. B. Holt. London: Williams and Norgate, 1905. 1. America at Home. By A. M. Low. London: Newnes, n.d. & The Future in America: a Search after Realities. By H. G. Wells. London: Chapman and Hall, 1906. Vues d'Amérique. By Paul Adam. Paris: Allendorff,

1906.

10. Le Peuple du XXme Siècle: Aux États-Unis. Urbain Gohier. Paris: Charpentier, 1903.

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11. American Traits; from the Point of View of a German. By Hugo Münsterberg. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1901.

12 Outre-mer: Notes sur l'Amérique. By Paul Bourget. Paris: Lemerre, 1894. English edition. London:

Fisher Unwin, 1895.

JOHN GRAHAM BROOKS, of Boston, U.S.A., has lately published a book which he has called As Others See Us.' It is a compendium of opinions expressed by Europeans cerning the people of the United States within the last century; and the fact that Americans are reading the volume with interest, and are deriving from it an entertainment little alloyed with irritation, shows how greatly their sentiment has changed since the days when foreign criticism enraged their fathers and grandfathers. For three generations after the American Revolution the English critics absorbed attention in the new country, and it is well known that their spirit was unfriendly in the extreme. Captain Basil Hall, Captain Marryat, Mrs Trollope, Charles Dickens, and others less well known,

wrote always with contempt and often with bitter and abusive hostility. Mr Brooks recalls that many of the earlier writers frankly admitted their purpose to say the worst that they could concerning the States. That Captain Marryat avowed, 'My object was to do injury democracy'; and others were hardly less outspoken. course, by such avowals the witnesses discredited their own testimony, yet without depriving it of its sting; fo it was hardly an acceptable apology to say, 'I am going to abuse you roundly because I hate you deeply.' fact, it was not so much the fault-finding as the mali which hurt the American, who was goaded to fury b the deliberate and skilful selection of the most offensiv epithets furnished by the dictionary. The cruel flagella tion naturally induced in the victim an extreme sensitive ness; which in turn induced joyous and derisive jeering

Fortunately, however, the recalling of these bygon conditions is to-day a raking in ashes almost cold Americans are good-natured and have short memories and they are withal too busy with the present to be vindictive about the past. Moreover, the old-time sensi tiveness is departing, for the simple reason that we feel a cheerful assurance that our experiment, so far as have had time to develope it, is reasonably successful. nation of eighty millions of people, enjoying a satisfactory average of prosperity, comfort, and education, almos overloaded with wealth, having physical resource which a Münchausen among statisticians could hardl exaggerate, and with a certainty of unexploited resource beyond computation, may be criticised or hated but wil hardly be fleered at. If Mrs Trollope and Mr Dicken should cast their little pellets to-day, it would not h their victim that would be made ridiculous. Let it b avowed, however, that unprejudiced Americans admi that the abusive writers did not draw wholly on thei imaginations for their diatribes; that many of thei strictures were well-founded; and that the medicine was wholesome and of good effect.

A powerful sedative to soothe the excited sensitiveness was not long ago administered by a wise and distinguished physician. Mr Bryce's studies of the United States have come, most kindly, like a great sponge to wash fresh and clean the slate of the past. Mr Brooks praises him 8

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our greatest critic'; our fairest also and our kindest. Entering into broad human relations with Americans' n the spirit of good fellowship,' he has also given us 'a ood deal of plain speaking'; but how little we object to his, his great popularity with us bears witness. To Mr Wells' The Future in America' frequent reference will e made later; but it is significant that one rarely hears my mention of other recent English writers on the United States. Only Sir G. Trevelyan's History of the War of Independence' has acquired popularity, by reason alike of its generous temper and its literary charm; indeed the only criticism is that it glorifies even too much the rebellious colonists, bestowing upon all praise really deserved only by a few.

Attention has lately been called to German views by Dr Münsterberg, a resident in America for several years and a professor in Harvard University, who has written solid, thorough, German style two very fair and aluable books. To him we owe the information, which otherwise would have escaped us, that several books have been published about us in Germany; and we infer, with nruffled indifference, that this German writing generally has not dealt in flattery. A year ago The Inner Life of the United States' was invaded by a Hungarian, Mgr Count Vay de Vaya and Luskod, Apostolic Protonotary. This writer, a gentleman of education and breeding, and shrewd observer, has made three visits to the country; and his book has been read with curiosity and approval. His suavity, his compliments, almost too graciously disbuted, induce a little prying curiosity as to what he may be saying in the intimacy of after-dinner chat at e in Hungary; yet, if he prefers to drop delicate ints as to our foibles rather than to deposit solid cubes of over-hard fact upon our toes, we desire to show a responsive courtesy. We have been so long on very short rations of polite words.

The earliest effort to discuss the United States in a serious and fair spirit was made by a Frenchman. Some fifty years ago the volumes of Tocqueville, though besprinkled with abundant severities, were widely read and kindly received. Since his day we have been described by a legion of his countrymen, who, faithfully traversing our wide area, have let nothing upon the

exterior escape their observation. But they have hardly got at the interior; they do not really understand us, nor greatly like us. Yet they mean to be fair, and they are always civil; they veil their satire under inimitable wit; they give us lively sketches of ourselves, our habits and our ways, and thus they amuse us vastly without mu irritating us. M. Bourget's 'Outre-mer' (1894), in spite of Mark Twain's sarcasm, has been read by every one M. Paul Adam's Vues d'Amérique ' has brought delightfu evenings to many firesides; M. Gohier's graver volum has been a little less popular; M. Huret has had his limite clientèle; Max O'Rell's gayer pages have made the ligh minded laugh; M. Tardieu, the latest comer, has bee read with great interest. Certainly it is the Frent traveller who now chiefly attracts the eye of t American reader.

May it be permitted to pause on the threshold graver discussion, to show from M. Adam's pages, some times serious, more often comic, occasionally burlesque how the Frenchman holds the American in good-natured amusement? Crossing in a marvellous state-room de h arranged for Madame Vander Bilt [sic], M. Adam discover that the veneration heretofore reserved for Washingto and Lincoln is now lavished upon Carnegie and Morgat Then, pausing to inspect Ellis Island, the admirabl organised immigration station at New York, or rathe the mouth of the sewer through which the dregs Europe are being spilled over America, he paints the variegated scene as no artist in colours could paint i Among these yellow-clad Arabs, sunburned Macedonian Sicilians in flannel shirts and silken girdles, he assure the startled reader that there are some who, withi twenty years, will be saluted by the millionaires of Wa Street as equals, or even as superiors. The poor foreig devil will lay ties upon a railroad, will economise hi wages, buy a bit of land and sell it at a high price to railway promoter. He will take his gains to New Yor and become clerk of a land syndicate, will suggest t the managers a bold stroke in business, and so becom Thomme précieux, magnifiquement appointé.' Hence forth every morning the barber will shave him and massage his face. He will wear grave suits of clothes and

olden chains, sit enthroned in a marble office building, anipulate money and stocks, mutter terse phrases into he telephone, keeping the while one eye upon the tape ringing him quotations from the Stock Exchange. He ill soon be at the head of a Trust, when at his bidding wns will rise in desert places, and steamships will sail nder flags bearing his initials; he may even organise a World's Fair. Having thus become a 'monsieur solide,' ith gray hair, rubicund cheek, golden teeth, big, lumpy, bining boots, fingers decorated with costly rings, he will unge at his club, sucking the end of a cigar, spitting surprising distances, and drinking iced water. He will ert American supremacy all over the world in matters of industry and commerce, of war and culture; he will patronise the Latins, despise the English, and admire Germany, though wishing to go to war with her in order take away the record of victory which she has held r the last fifty years. Now, though all this is immensely pudent and utterly ridiculous, yet the vision of this etitious Arab magnate' is for us more droll than the host extravagant opéra-bouffe; and we laugh with nextinguishable merriment, unmixed with the least innoyance.

At Pittsburg, which is not for this Adam a Garden of Eden, he comes across other millionaires, made so by the purchase of a water-power in Manitoba. Yet the artistic sense of this Aladdin in the creation of wealth leads him in time to break the monotony by taking us to the home of a genuine mechanic who, by not buying water-power, has avoided the prevalent condition of lionairism. This respectable person has the singular Jame of Fix. M. Adam is very inventive in names; he introduces us to Master Fram d'Omaha,'' Mistress Gloyd de New York,' Miss Gleen de Denver.' Fix lives on a broad tree-shaded avenue. Good Mrs Fix is jolie, gracieuse, brune; elle rit affablement, vous reçoit en égale. From this simple, happy home we go to 'La Tour du Titan,' which is French for the Frick building; and the American is astonished at the astonishment of the Frenchman, who describes the halls and offices and the human stream therein, as though, forsooth, he had never before seen well-appointed business quarters and well-occupied men! Are then these 'égratigneurs de

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