I have now finished my Elegant Extracts from the work of Mr. Ward.  The reader can judge for himself of Boston’s “vigorous volume,” of Philadelphia’s “delightful treat,” of Rochester’s “chivalrous and genuine Amercan feeling,” of The Christian Advocate’s “retort courteous,” and of New Orleans’ “aggregate outburst of the great American heart,” &c.  These compliments from the Press derive additional value from the following passage in the work they eulogize.  Pages 96, 97, Mr. Ward writes:  “It is the labour of every author so to adapt his style and sentiments to the tastes of his readers, as most probably to secure their approbation....  The consciousness that his success is so wholly dependent on their approval, will make him, without his being aware of it, adapt his ideas to theirs.”  And the New Orleans Press endorses all the author’s sentiments, and insults American gentlemen and American intelligence, by asserting that it “admirably reveals the sentiments of the whole people, and will find sympathy in the mind of every true son of the soil.”

Before taking a final leave of English Items, I owe some apology to the reader for the length at which I have quoted from it.  My only excuse is, that I desired to show the grounds upon which I spoke disparagingly of a portion of the Press, and of the low popular literature of the country.  I might have quoted from various works instead of one; but if I had done so, it might fairly have been said that I selected an isolated passage for a particular purpose; or else, had I quoted largely, I might have been justly charged with being tedious.  Besides which, to corroborate my assertions regarding the Press, I should have been bound to give their opinion also upon each book from which I quoted; and, beyond all these reasons, I felt that the generality of the works of low literature which I came across were from the pen of people with far less education than the author I selected, who, as I have before remarked, belongs to one of the wealthiest families in Kentucky, and for whom, consequently, neither the want of education nor the want of opportunities of mixing in respectable society—­had he wished to do so—­can be offered as the slightest extenuation.[BP]

I feel also that I owe some apology to my American friends for dragging such a work before the public; but I trust they will find sufficient excuse for my doing so, in the explanation thus afforded, of the way the mind of Young America gets poisoned, and which will also partly account for the abuse of this country that is continually appearing in their Press.  I feel sure there is hardly a gentleman in America, whose acquaintance I had the pleasure of making, who would read even the first twenty pages of the book; and I am in justice hound to say, that among all the works of a similar class which I saw, English Items enjoys unapproachable pre-eminence in misrepresentation and vulgarity, besides being peculiarly contemptible, from the false being mixed up with many true statements of various evils and iniquities still existing in England, and which, being quoted from our own Press, are calculated to give the currency of truth to the whole work, among that mass of his countrymen who, with all their intelligence, are utterly ignorant of England, either socially or politically.