GENTLEMEN BORN;

OR,

ENGLISHMEN vs. AMERICANS.

BY ONE OF THE PEOPLE.

THE desire to be thought a gentleman is universal. To a looker on, who has philosophy enough to keep his temper, the efforts to carry off the honors, by those who have no claims to the title, are amusing enough. One endeavors to prove his good breeding by a world of ceremony and annoying attentions, in season and out of season: violating all the rules of politeness in his very efforts to be polite ;-while another wraps himself up in boorish dignity, and carps and sneers at all around him, for not being a gentleman, like himself!

In England, a man has to be born a gentleman, to have his claim to the title acknowledged. Gentility must come to him as a kind of heir-loom, or his case is hopeless. Feel, think, or do what he will, he is but one of the great, undistinguishable mass. He may array himself in the drapery of observance, and ape almost to the life, those who are to the manner born; but it is all in vain—not being born a gentleman, he can never become one.

And it is so in this country. The gentleman here, as well as the gentleman in England, acquires his title by birthright; but with this difference; there he is a man-made, here a God-made nobleman.

As an American, we are proud of our nobility, and only regret that it is not held in more general estimation; and that it does not form a more numerous class; and as a man, we despise the man-made nobility of England. A true gentleman, let him be born where he may, we honor; while we despise the pretender to that for which he has no claim.

And now, reader, Englishman or American, don't feel hurt on the one hand, nor surprised on the other, by what we are about to say.

The true English gentleman, that is, he who is born suchrarely, if ever, comes to this country. We don't meet with him once in an age, so to speak.

Don't, Mr. Englishman, throw down the magazine in a passion, and say that we lie! We are only estimating you by your home standard, and, surely, one who is ever referring to England as the ne plus ultra of all perfection, and ever entertaining us with contrasts prejudicial to our own country and her domestic institutions, should not shrink from a measurement by this standard. Show us an American where you will, in London or in Canton, and we will show you a man ready to be estimated and adjudged at his worth by an American standard of valuation.

Very well. English gentlemen rarely if ever come to this country. And yet, is it not notorious, that very few Englishmen from the middle classes-and of course not gentlemen according to their national standards-arrive in this country, who do not immediately begin to insult us, in their private intercourse in our families, or as they mingle with us in public places, by putting on airs, and assuming to be of particular consequence-in fact, gentlemen-and in every way superior to us ignorant, boorish natives? Let every American answer for himself. Is not the very term of opprobrious excuse, so common now, in this country, as a palliation for outrageous and continued violations of all courtesy and good breeding," Oh, never mind, he's an Englishman!" proof of this; and also proof of the fact we have assumed, that in England as well as in America, men are born gentlemen-gentlemen by prescription there—of Divine endowment here; and that we rarely see among us a true specimen of the real English gentleman.

Keep cool on all sides, say we! We feel perfectly cool, and shall retain our coolness to the end. But we mean to show up the evil of which every body is complaining, and thus do our part for its correction; and if, in the prosecution of this design, the lion skin should be torn off, and the humble animal who assumed it be revealed, let him lay the blame at his own doors for having assumed to be what he was not, and try and behave himself better in future.

We are much shrewder observers in this country, and have a great deal more real manly common sense, than newly imported Englishmen give us credit for; and know a great deal more about them than they do of us. We read them, at a glance, "like a book," while they move before us, in stately attitudes, all the while imagining themselves to be, in our eyes, a huge volume, sealed and clasped.

Pass we now, from assumptions and general propositions, the truth of which will come home to the mind of every American, to things more particular, personal, and familiar. And in doing so we will drop the general we, and assume the individual I.

I have been for three or four years boarding in the family of a widow, in the city of New York, who is an American lady;

that is, she is by nature a lady, as all the gentlemen who have ever been in her house, feel and acknowledge. The fact that she keeps a boarding-house, does not in the least gainsay this assumption, strange as it may sound to the ears of Englishmen and women, who, in their own country, were drapers, clerks, milliners, lady's-maids, boarding-house keepers, cheesemongers, or hardware dealers, and, therefore not gentlemen and ladies according to their own standard. Nevertheless, it is true that Mrs. D-g is a lady, and that in the highest sense of the term. And it is also true, that her daughter, a well educated, accomplished girl, is a lady, notwithstanding she supports herself by giving lessons in music. It is also true, that I never saw any one treat them otherwise than as ladies, except persons born in England, who, themselves, made great pretensions to good breeding.

It is just a year ago, since Ellen D sat in the parlor, one evening,

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g said to me, as we

"A gentleman and his wife have taken the third story front room, which Mr. and Mrs. P.

"Ah! Who are they?" I asked.

gave up last week."

"He's an Englishman," said Ellen.

6

, And his wife is an Englishwoman, I suppose."

I believe so."

I shrugged my shoulders, elevated my eyebrows and replied, "I'm sorry to hear it."

"Why so?"

"Need you ask? Are they not English people ?"

"But all English people are not alike."

"All that I have seen are alike in one respect."

"What is that?"

"In the possession of some obtrusive and offensive peculiarity; often adjoined, I will admit, to natural excellencies of character, but throwing them into the shade, as a prominent blemish too often does a fine piece of statuary or good painting." "I cannot admit so sweeping a conclusion. I am afraid you are prejudiced."

"I may have been unfortunate in coming in contact with bad specimens. But if those I have met are fair samples, I will not say your fear of prejudice may be well founded. Answer me one question. Did you ever meet an Englishman, who did not entertain a contempt for every thing he thought peculiarly American ?"

Ellen reflected a moment, and then answered, "I believe not.'

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"How did you know he had such a feeling ?" "Because he expressed it."

"Exactly. And generally in a way calculated to give offence ?"

"It is too true."

"Thus, at once proving him not to be a gentleman according to the standard in this country."

"You are too severe," said Ellen, smiling.

"Not at all. I only speak the truth."

"I am sure Mr. G―, who boarded with us for six months, was a very gentlemanly man, and by no means a prejudiced Englishman. Indeed, we used to remark how liberal and clear-seeing he was."

"In a few things. But his contempt for what was American was at the basis of his character and forever coming into expression in a manner calculated to give offence. Have you forgotten how the boarders disliked him, and were glad when he left the house. They had a respect for his good qualities, but felt the peculiarities of his character as annoying at all times, and frequently offensive. His conceit of superior intelligence was particularly prominent, and often led him into remarks that most persons would have felt as direct insults. I have heard him speak to your mother in a way no American gentleman ever would or could have done :"

"And yet, I must give him credit for having ever been polite and attentive."

"So will I; but his politeness was mere wordy politeness, and his attentions generally obtrusive, and calculated to embarrass rather than place the subject of them at ease. He tried to be a gentleman, Ellen, but overacted his part. He almost always created confusion at the table by his officiousness. Don't you remember this ?"

"Yes, very well. Still, I must judge him more kindly than you do," replied Ellen. I gave her credit for her good feelings, and it occurring to me at the moment, that it was wrong to create a prejudice in advance against persons who were to become her mother's guests, changed the subject.

On the next day our new boarders arrived. They proved to be a young Englishman and his wife who had been only a few months in the country, and who had left home under the common impression that we were destitute of all refinement, and little better, in fact, than rude barbarians. When introduced to the table, they were exceedingly formal, and treated all our social advances with a coldness that it would hardly do to call polite..

During the meal, as I sat next to the young man, my kind feelings prompted me to introduce some topic of conversation that I thought likely to interest him, and make him forget the restraint under which he seemed to be. Without stopping to search very far for a subject, I said—

"No doubt, every thing appears new and a little strange to you in our new country.'

"Well, no," he replied, with perfect self-possession, and in a voice slightly condescending. "I informed myself, before leaving home, accurately, of the state of society here, and find it pretty much as I was led to expect."

"You are more fortunate than most foreigners," said I. "It usually happens that things in a new country are found different from what has been expected. No two travellers see alike; and all are too apt to imagine that their partial views include the most prominent social characteristics. The consequence is, that those who gather their ideas of a country from what has been written about it, find, on their arrival in that country, that most of their opinions are erroneous."

"It may be so, in some cases," was a little stiffly replied. "But I am rather cool-headed, and not apt to form over-estimations. As a matter of common reflection, I knew that society in a new country like this, must be in a formative state, and, therefore, to a great extent, rude and unpolished."

"And you have found all as you anticipated?"

"I must own that I have," was replied.

We had, boarding with us, a sharp-witted maiden lady, who, from some cause, had a strong aversion to Englishmen. It was, in her, a national prejudice. My objection is to those peculiarities which so often make their intercourse with us offensive. Her's was more deeply grounded, and impossible of eradication. I looked at Miss T- when this was said by our new boarder. There was a flush upon her cheeks, and a play of the muscles about her lips. I knew some biting retort was struggling to leap forth, and therefore, changed the subject, so as to prevent the discourtesy; for our Englishman was a stranger in the house, and, therefore, entitled, to some consideration, although it did not seem to occur to him that any was due to us. Happily, we got through the meal without exhibiting to our highly polished lady and gentleman any real evidences of illbreeding; though, doubtless, they saw many which bore that appearance to them.

At our next meeting, R, that was the Englishman's name, and his wife, were as cold and formal as before, and evidently wished to impress us with an idea of their consequence and high breeding. I was afraid to say much, lest it should lead to some remarks upon our social or other peculiarities, offensive to Miss T—, who I knew would not stand it without payment in kind and with interest. Others not feeling inclined to talk, there was but little said, and our meal, instead of being enlivened by the usual pleasant conversation, passed off with but a remark or two. Thus matters continued for a week or so, all of us, by a kind