American of mark, though always anxious to show his mark, is always fearful of a fall.  In his tastes the American imitates the Frenchman.  Who shall dare to say that he is wrong, seeing that in general matters of design and luxury the French have won for themselves the foremost name?  I will not say that the American is wrong, but I cannot avoid thinking that he is so.  I detest what is called French taste; but the world is against me.  When I complained to a landlord of a hotel out in the West that his furniture was useless; that I could not write at a marble table whose outside rim was curved into fantastic shapes; that a gold clock in my bed-room which did not go would give me no aid in washing myself; that a heavy, immovable curtain shut out the light; and that papier-mache chairs with small, fluffy velvet seats were bad to sit on, he answered me completely by telling me that his house had been furnished not in accordance with the taste of England, but with that of France.  I acknowledged the rebuke, gave up my pursuits of literature and cleanliness, and hurried out of the house as quickly as I could.  All America is now furnishing itself by the rules which guided that hotel-keeper.  I do not merely allude to actual household furniture—­to chairs, tables, and detestable gilt clocks.  The taste of America is becoming French in its conversation, French in its comforts and French in its discomforts, French in its eating and French in its dress, French in its manners, and will become French in its art.  There are those who will say that English taste is taking the same direction.  I do not think so.  I strongly hope that it is not so.  And therefore I say that an Englishman and an American differ in their tastes.

But of all differences between an Englishman and an American, that in politics is the strongest and the most essential.  I cannot here, in one paragraph, define that difference with sufficient clearness to make my definition satisfactory; but I trust that some idea of that difference may be conveyed by the general tenor of my book.  The American and the Englishman are both republicans.  The governments of the States and of England are probably the two purest republican governments in the world.  I do not, of course, here mean to say that the governments are more pure than others, but that the systems are more absolutely republican.  And yet no men can be much farther asunder in politics than the Englishman and the American.  The American of the present day puts a ballot-box into the hands of every citizen, and takes his stand upon that and that only.  It is the duty of an American citizen to vote; and when he has voted, he need trouble himself no further till the time for voting shall come round again.  The candidate for whom he has voted represents his will, if he have voted with the majority; and in that case he has no right to look for further influence.  If he have voted with the minority, he has no right