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SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

ENGLISH COUNTRY LIFE.

The country seats of England form, indeed, one of the most remarkable features, not only in English landscape, but yet more in what may be termed the genius and economy of English manners.  Their great number throughout the country, the varied grandeur and beauty of their parks and gardens, the extent, magnificence, and various architecture of the houses, the luxurious comfort and completeness of their internal arrangements, and their relation generally to the character of the peasantry surrounding them, justify fully the expression we have used.  No where has this mode of life attained so high a degree of perfection and refinement.  We will allude to two circumstances, amongst many others, in illustration.  The first of these is, the very great number of valuable libraries belonging to our family seats.  It has been sometimes remarked as singular, that England should possess so few great public libraries, while a poorer country, like Germany, can boast of its numerous and vast collections at Vienna, Prague, Munich, Stutgard, Goettingen, Wolfenbuttel, &c.  The fact is partly explained by the many political divisions and capitals, and by the number of universities in Germany.  But a further explanation may be found in the innumerable private libraries dispersed throughout England—­many of them equal to public ones in extent and value, and most of them well furnished in classics, and in English and French literature.

The other peculiarity we would name about our English country-houses is, that they do not insulate their residents from the society and business of active life; which insulation is probably a cause, why so many proprietors in other countries pass their whole time in the metropolis or larger towns.  The facility and speed of communication in England link together all places, however remote, and all interests, political and social, of the community.  The country gentleman, sitting at his breakfast table a hundred miles from London, receives the newspapers printed there the night before; his books come to him still damp from the press; and the debates in parliament travel to every country-house in England within fifty or sixty hours of the time when they have taken place.  The like facility exists as to provincial interests of every kind.  The nobleman or country gentleman is a public functionary within his district, and no man residing on his estates is, or need feel himself, unimportant to the community. Quarterly Rev.

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FLOWERS.