The Biglow Papers

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                       THE

                  BIGLOW PAPERS.


                       BY
              JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.


                  NEWLY EDITED,
                 WITH A PREFACE
                     BY THE
      AUTHOR OF "_TOM BROWN'S SCHOOL-DAYS_."


             THIRD ENGLISH EDITION.


 Reprinted, with the Author's Sanction, from the
             Last American Edition.


                     LONDON:
        TRÜBNER & CO. 60, PATERNOSTER ROW.
                      1861.




Transcriber's Note

Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. Dialect
spellings, contractions and discrepancies have been retained.

The carat symbol [^] has been used to note 'superscript', and three
asterisks [***] represent an inverted asterism.




PUBLISHERS' PREFACE.


In order to avoid any misconception, the Publishers think it advisable
to announce that the present Edition of the "Biglow Papers" is issued
with the express sanction of the Author, granted by letter, from which
the following is an extract:--


                               "CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS,
                                           _14th September, 1859_.

    "I think it would be well for you to announce that you are to
    publish an Authorized Edition of the 'BIGLOW PAPERS;' for I have
    just received a letter from Mr. ----, who tells me that a Mr. ----
    was thinking of an edition, and wished him to edit it. Any such
    undertaking will be entirely against my will, and I take it for
    granted that Mr. ---- only formed the plan in ignorance of your
    intention.

                           "With many thanks, very truly yours,

                                                   "J. R. LOWELL."




ENGLISH EDITOR'S PREFACE.


I can safely say that few things in my life have pleased me more than
the request of Messrs. Trübner, backed by the expressed wish of the
author, that I would see the first English edition of the "Biglow
Papers" through the press. I fell in with the Papers about ten years
ago, soon after their publication; and the impression they then made on
me has been deepening and becoming more lively ever since. In fact, I do
not think that, even in his own New England, Mr. Lowell can have a more
constant or more grateful reader, though I cannot say that I go much
beyond most of my own intimate friends over here in my love for his
works. I may remark, in passing, that the impossibility of keeping a
copy of the "Biglow Papers" for more than a few weeks (of which many of
us have had repeated and sorrowful proof[1]) shows how much an English
Edition is needed.

Perhaps, strictly speaking, I should say a reprint, and not an edition.
In fact, I am not clear (in spite of the wishes of author and
publishers) that I have any right to call myself editor, for the book is
as thoroughly edited already as a book need be. What between dear old
Parson Wilbur--with his little vanities and pedantries, his "infinite
faculty of sermonizing," his simplicity and humour, and his deep and
righteous views of life, and power of hard hitting when he has anything
to say which needs driving home--and Father Ezekiel, "the brown
parchment-hided old man of the geoponic or bucolic species," "76 year
old cum next tater diggin, and thair aint nowheres a kitting" (we
readily believe) "spryer 'n he be;" and that judicious and lazy
sub-editor, "Columbus Nye, pastor of a church in Bungtown Corner,"
whose acquaintance we make so thoroughly in the ten lines which he
contributes--whatever of setting or framing was needed, or indeed
possible, for the nine gems in verse of Mr. Hosea Biglow, has been so
well done already in America by the hand best fitted for the task, that
he must be a bold man who would meddle with the book now in the editing
way. Even the humble satisfaction of adding a glossary and index has
been denied to me, as there are already very good ones. I have merely
added some half-dozen words to the glossary, at which I thought that
English readers might perhaps stumble. When the proposal was first made
to me, indeed, I thought of trying my hand at a sketch of American
politics of thirteen years ago, the date of the Mexican war and of the
first appearance of the "Biglow Papers." But I soon found out, first,
that I was not, and had no ready means of making myself, competent for
such a task; secondly, that the book did not need it. The very slight
knowledge which every educated Englishman has of Transatlantic politics
will be quite enough to make him enjoy the racy smack of the American
soil, which is one of their great charms; and, as to the particular
characters, they are most truly citizens of the world as well as
Americans. If an Englishman cannot find 'Bird-o'-freedom Sawins,' 'John
P.