From the PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
ENGLAND has invited the civilized world to meet in its great commercial centre; asking it, in friendly rivalry, to display for the common advantage of all, those objects which each country derives from the gifts of nature, and on which it confers additional utility by processes of industrial art.
This invitation, universally accepted, will bring from every quarter a multitude of people greater than has yet assembled in any western city: these welcome visitors will enjoy more time and opportunity for observation than has ever been afforded on any previous occasion. The statesman and the philosopher, the manufacturer and the merchant, and all enlightened observers of human nature, may avail themselves of the opportunity afforded by their visit to this Diorama of the Peaceful Arts, for taking a more correct view of the industry, the science, the institutions, and the government of this country. One object of these pages is, to suggest to such inquirers the agency of those deeper seated and less obvious causes which can be detected only by lengthened observation, and to supply them with a key to explain many of the otherwise incomprehensible characteristics of England.
Who, for instance, could have conceived that England, after making unexampled efforts for the adoption of ? Free Trade,? should be the first nation to prohibit its very basis, ?competition,? at the world?s great bazaar?
This country is fortunate in having on the Western Continent, a great nation derived from the same common stock, speaking the same language, sharing the same feelings, but fortunately not partaking the same prejudices. Proud of the only ancestry which is not contemptible, it glories in the genius and the virtues of our common forefathers, and in its young ambition now strives in science and in literature, to prove itself l/zezr worthy descendants -- Separated from us by an intervening ocean, the judgment of America is not obscured by the repulsion or the fascination of personal manners, -- by the tales of jealous rivals or enthusiastic friends. It can thus, as it were, anticipate for us the decision of posterity upon the reputation of those English writers who have never visited her shores. Many foreigners speaking other tongues, whose researches in industrial, economical, and physical science, have conferred honour on their own country, now visit ours. These and their congenial spirits throughout the world, sit in judgment on the prejudices of England, and will, if I mistake not, find ample reason to agree with the Danish statesman in the opinion, -- that great nations are often governed by very small people....