There needs no better rallying-ground for international amity, than that furnished by an eminent English writer:  “There is,” say she, “a sacred bond between us of blood and of language, which no circumstances can break.  Our literature must always be theirs; and though their laws are no longer the same as ours, we have the same Bible, and we address our common Father in the same prayer.  Nations are too ready to admit that they have natural enemies; why should they be less willing to believe that they have natural friends?"[18]

[Footnote 18:  From an article (said to be by Robert Southey, Esq.) published in the Quarterly Review.  It is to be lamented that that publication should so often forget the generous text here given!]

To the magnanimous spirits of both countries must we trust to carry such a natural alliance of affection into full effect.  To pens more powerful than mine, I leave the noble task of promoting the cause of national amity.  To the intelligent and enlightened of my own country, I address my parting voice, entreating them to show themselves superior to the petty attacks of the ignorant and the worthless, and still to look with dispassionate and philosophic eye to the moral character of England, as the intellectual source of our rising greatness; while I appeal to every generous-minded Englishman from the slanders which disgrace the press, insult the understanding, and belie the magnanimity of his country:  and I invite him to look to America, as to a kindred nation, worthy of its origin; giving, in the healthy vigour of its growth, the best of comments on its parent stock; and reflecting, in the dawning brightness of its fame, the moral effulgence of British glory.

I am sure that such an appeal will not be made in vain.  Indeed, I have noticed, for some time past, an essential change in English sentiment with regard to Amerioar.  In parliament, that fountain-head of public opinion, there seems to be an emulation, on both sides of the house, in holding the language of courtesy and friendship.  The same spirit is daily becoming more and more prevalent in good society.  There is a growing curiosity concerning my country; a craving desire for correct information, that cannot fail to lead to a favourable understanding.  The scoffer, I trust, has had his day; the time of the slanderer is gone by; the ribald jokes, the stale commonplaces, which have so long passed current when America was the theme, are now banished to the ignorant and the vulgar, or only perpetuated by the hireling scribblers and traditional jesters of the press.  The intelligent and high-minded now pride themselves upon making America a study.