Transcribed from the 1913 Chapman & Hall, Ltd. edition byDavid Price,
AMERICAN NOTES
FOR
GENERAL CIRCULATION
AND
PICTURES FROM ITALY [1]
BY
CHARLES DICKENS
WITH 8ILLUSTRATIONS BY
MARCUS STONE, R.A.
LONDON
CHAPMAN & HALL, Ltd.
1913
p. vI DEDICATE THIS BOOK
TO
THOSE FRIENDS OF MINE
IN AMERICA
WHO, GIVING ME A WELCOME I MUSTEVER
GRATEFULLY AND PROUDLY REMEMBER,
LEFT MY JUDGEMENT
FREE;
AND WHO, LOVING THEIR COUNTRY, CANBEAR
THE TRUTH, WHEN IT IS TOLD GOOD
HUMOUREDLY, AND IN A
KIND SPIRIT.
p.viiPREFACE TO THE FIRST CHEAP EDITION OF “AMERICANNOTES”
It is nearly eight years since thisbook was first published. I present it, unaltered, in theCheap Edition; and such of my opinions as it expresses, are quiteunaltered too.
My readers have opportunities of judging for themselveswhether the influences and tendencies which I distrust inAmerica, have any existence not in my imagination. They canexamine for themselves whether there has been anything in thepublic career of that country during these past eight years, orwhether there is anything in its present position, at home orabroad, which suggests that those influences and tendenciesreally do exist. As they find the fact, they will judgeme. If they discern any evidences of wrong-going in anydirection that I have indicated, they will acknowledge that I hadreason in what I wrote. If they discern no such thing, theywill consider me altogether mistaken.
Prejudiced, I never have been otherwise than in favour of theUnited States. No visitor can ever have set foot on thoseshores, with a stronger faith in the Republic than I had, when Ilanded in America.
I purposely abstain from extending these observations to anylength. I have nothing to defend, or to explain away. The truth is the truth; and neither childish absurdities, norunscrupulous contradictions, can make it otherwise. Theearth would still move round the sun, though the whole CatholicChurch said No.
p. viiiIhave many friends in America, and feel a grateful interest in thecountry. To represent me as viewing it with ill-nature,animosity, or partisanship, is merely to do a very foolish thing,which is always a very easy one; and which I have disregarded foreight years, and could disregard for eighty more.
London, June 22, 1850.
p.ixPREFACE TO THE “CHARLES DICKENS” EDITION OF“AMERICAN NOTES”
My readers have opportuniti