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elegant and choice expressions of the nobility are to be heard
there: the manners of such a people are often vulgar, but they are
neither brutal nor mean."
Hij schrijft dat toe aan de afwezigheid van een aristocratie, waar de
goede manieren van generatie tot generatie worden doorgegeven, en
die als voorbeeld voor anderen dienen. Maar zegt De Tocqueville
elders, het voordeel is dat in een democratie de echte gevoelens en
meningen van de mensen gemakkelijker naar voren komen, omdat
hun manieren maar een dun jasje daaroverheen vormen. Het effect
van een democratie is, volgens De Tocqueville, niet dat mensen
andere manieren krijgen, maar dat ze geen manieren hebben. Daar is
Dickens het dus wel mee eens.
De journalistiek.
De Tocqueville schrijft:" The journalists of the United States are
usually placed in a very humble position, with a scanty education
and a vulgar turn of mind. The will of the majority is the most
general of laws, and it establishes certain habits which form the
characteristics of each peculiar class of society; thus it dictates the
etiquette practiced at courts and the etiquette of the bar. The
characteristics of the French journalist consist in a violent, but
frequently an eloquent and lofty, manner of discussing the politics of
the day; and the exceptions to this habitual practice are only
occasional. The characteristics of the American journalist consist in
an open and coarse appeal to the passions of the populace; and he
habitually abandons the principles of political science to assail the
characters of individuals, to track them into private life, and disclose
all their weaknesses and errors
The personal opinions of the editors have no kind of weight in the
eyes of the public: the only use of a journal is, that it imparts the
knowledge of certain facts, and it is only by altering or distorting
those facts that a journalist can contribute to the support of his own
views."
Nu Dickens. Martin Chuzzlewit maakt kennis met Amerikaanse
journalisten:
"My name is Colonel Diver, sir. I am the Editor of the New York
Rowdy Journal."
Martin received the communication with the degree of respect which
an announcement so distinguished appeared to demand.
"The New York Rowdy journal, sir," resumed the colonel, "is, as I
expect you know, the organ of our aristocracy in this city."
"Oh! there is an aristocracy here, then?" said Martin. "Of what is it
composed?"
