This sensitiveness also shows itself in the way they watch the opinions of their country expressed by The Times, or by any largely circulating paper.  I remember an American colonel who had been through the whole Mexican war, saying to me one day, “I assure you the Mexican troops are the most contemptible soldiers in the world; I would rather a thousand to one face them than half the number of Camanche Indians.”—­The object of this remark was to show on what slight and insufficient grounds The Times had spoken of the United States as a great military nation since the Mexican war.  An article giving them due credit for a successful campaign was easily magnified beyond its intended proportions, and my gallant friend was modestly disclaiming so high-sounding an appellation; but such evidently was the construction which he felt his countrymen had put upon it.

I turn now for a few moments to the question of Morals; and here, again, it is of course only in a wholesale manner I can treat of the subject.  As far as my inquiries enable me to judge, I find the same elements producing the same results here as in England.  Wherever masses are clustered together most largely, there vice runs as rampant as in England; nay, I have the authority of a lecture delivered at the Maryland Institute, for saying that it is even worse in many places.  After describing various instances of lawless conduct, the lecturer continues thus:  “Such lawlessness as I have described is not tolerated in any other part of the world, and would not be tolerated here for a moment, but for the criminal apathy of our citizens generally, and the truckling, on the part of our politicians and public officers, for the votes of the very men whom they know to be violating and trampling on the laws.”—­In illustration, he states, “In every part of Europe in which I have travelled,—­in England, Holland, France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy; under all the different systems of religion and forms of government; in the large cities, and the small towns and villages; in the highways and byways,—­I found better public order, more decorum, where bodies of men were assembled together, and less tendency to rowdyism, pugilism, and violence, than there is in most parts of this country.  In this general statement of the fact, all unprejudiced travellers will, I suppose concur.”—­Further on, he draws a comparison favourable to London; and, with regard to the Police in our metropolis, he says, “A more respectable and finer-looking body of men it would be difficult to find in any country.  A stranger may apply to one for information, with a certainty of receiving a polite and intelligent answer,” &c.—­I only quote the last paragraph, in case Mr. Matt.  Ward should see these pages, and that he may know how the Police behave towards those who know how to conduct themselves.[CM]