Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXXI, No. 5, November 1847

Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXXI, No. 5, November 1847

Whatever our political independence may be, we are slavish imitators of Europe in every thing appertaining to society. We may boast of being republicanswe may beard England and France, conquer the Mexicans and annex Cuba, but we dare not get up a coat or a pantaloon, or a morning-dress, or a peignoir of a lady, without first waiting for the fashion plates of Paris. What is taste but a sense of the fitness of thingsthe intuition of proprietyand why should we not lay claim to it as well as other nations. John Bull, in that respect, is a much more remarkable man; not only is he stock-English at home, but an Englishman wherever he goesin Canton and St. Petersburgh, in Constantinople or Pariswherever he sojourns he founds, or assists in founding, an English colony, governed by English laws, English fashions, English tastes, and all the substantial customs of his foggy and smoky island. Nothing tempts him to forego his Anglicism. He breakfasts on a steak in India, as he does on Ludgate Hill, and has made the establishment of butchers shops in the Asiatic possessions of England an important item of legislation;he has established coffee-houses in Paris, where you get, par excellence, a biftec langlaisehe has established Hotels dAngleterre in every habitable town and village of Europe, and he has colonized the world with English shoemakers, tailors, and other artisans of every description. Let him go where he may, he prefers the productions of his country to every other, and even deals in preference with his countrymen, though he knows they cheat him. He would rather be circumvented by his own countrymen than pay an additional frank to a Frenchman. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 58926
Author: Various
Release Date: Feb 20, 2019
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Editor: Graham, George R., 1813-1894