John Bull in America; Or, the New Munchausen
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Library of Congress John Bull in America; or, The new Munchausen. James Kirke Paulding. JOHN BULL IN AMERICA; OR, THE NEW MUNCHAUSEN. LC LONDON: JOHN MILLER, NEW BRIDGE STREET, BLACKFRIARS. 1825. E165 P32 102305 06 CL Printed by W. MOLINEUX, 5, Bream's Buildings, Chancery Lane. PREFACE OF THE EDITOR. On the fifth day of August, 1824, a rather genteel looking stranger arrived at the Mansion Hotel in the city of Washington, where he inquired for a retired room, and expressed his intention of staying some time. He was dressed in a blue frock, striped vest, and gray pantaloons; was about five feet ten, as is supposed, and had a nose like a potato. The evening of the following day there arrived in the stage from Baltimore, a little mahogany- faced foreigner, a Frenchman as it would seem, with gold rings in his ears, and a pair of dimity breeches. The little man in dimity breeches expressed great pleasure at meeting the stranger, with whom he seemed to be well acquainted; but the stranger appeared much agitated at the rencontre, and displayed nothing like satisfaction on the occasion. With the evident intention of avoiding the little dark complexioned man, he, in a few minutes, desired the waiter to show him into his room, to which he retired without bidding the other good night. iv John Bull in America; or, The new Munchausen. http://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbtn.36146 Library of Congress It appears from the testimony of the waiter, that on going into his chamber, and observing a portmanteau, which had been placed there in his absence, the stranger inquired to whom it belonged. The waiter replied: “to the French Gentleman. As you seemed to be old acquaintance, I thought you would like to be together, sir.” This information seemed to cause great agitation in the mind of the stranger, who exclaimed, as if unconscious of the presence of the waiter, “I am a lost man!” which the waiter thought rather particular. The stranger, after a few moments apparent perplexity, ordered the waiter to bring him pen, ink, paper, and sealing-wax, and then desired to be left alone. It is recollected that the dark-complexioned foreigner retired about ten, requesting to be called up at four o'clock as he was going on in the stage to the south This is the last that was seen, either of the stranger, or the dark-complexioned foreigner. On knocking at the door precisely at four o'clock the next morning, and no answer being given, the waiter made bold to enter the room, which to his surprise he found entirely empty. Neither trunks nor stranger, nor dark complexioned foreigner, were to be found, Had the stranger and his friend previously run up a long score at the Mansion Hotel, their disappearance would not have excited any extraordinary degree of surprise. But the stranger was indebted but for two days board and lodging, and the dark complexioned foreigner had paid his bill over night. A person who slept in the next room, recollected hearing a stir in that of the stranger, as he thinks, about three o'clock, but supposing it to be someone going off in the mail, it excited no particular observation. v This is all that could gathered in relation to the mysterious disappearance of these two travellers. But on searching about the room a packet was found carefully sealed, and directed “To the Editor of the——;” the rest was wanting, and the omission was probably occasioned by some circumstance occurring at the instant, which led to the singular affair above detailed. Some days having elapsed without any thing occurring to throw light on the transaction, it was thought proper open the packet, the direction of which afforded no clue by which to transmit to the persons intended, in the hope that something might John Bull in America; or, The new Munchausen. http://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbtn.36146 Library of Congress be learned from it, that would lead to a discovery of the names, or the friends of these mysterious persons. On inspection it proved to be a manuscript of travels in the United States, of which the following is a faithful transcript. Though, vi as the reader will perceive, it explains very satisfactorily the principal portion of the preceding details, there was nothing in it which could lead directly to a discovery of the name and residence of the unfortunate gentleman, whose fate, although still enveloped in doubt, is but too easily anticipated. All that appears certain from the manuscript is, that the stranger was an Englishman, travelling to New-Orleans on business, and that he probably was in some way mysteriously made away with by the little dark complexioned foreigner, of whom a description has been given, and for whom a reward has been offered in the public papers without effect. His name, as given by himself, in the examination before the magistrate in New-York is probably fictitious. After mature reflection, it was decided to publish the manuscript, as the best and cheapest mode of extending the inquiry concerning the identity of this unfortunate stranger to all parts of the reading world, and thereby acquiring further information. In addition to this motive it was thought that a work of such extraordinary merit as to style, sentiment, and accuracy of detail, deserved to be made known. Much discussion took place in respect to the selection of a title for a work, which had been omitted in the manuscript. To announce it simply as a book of vii travels in America, would have been to place it on a footing with the various romances which have been published under that title within the last thirty years. Of these we have lately had such a profusion that the public is rather tired, as we are informed by the booksellers. Some familiar and striking title-page, no matter whether applicable or not to the character of the work, was therefore necessary to excite public attention, and it was finally decided to adopt that which appears, and which we will now proceed to explain. The character of these travels being that of severe and inflexible truth, a title was chosen in direct antithesis, partly in a sportive imitation of the facetious philosopher Lucian, who gave the name of “a true story” to one of the most improbable fictions of antiquity; and John Bull in America; or, The new Munchausen. http://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbtn.36146 Library of Congress partly in allusion to Dr. Jonathan Swift, who in like manner disguised one of the gravest of satires, under the mask of “A Tale of a Tub,” than which nothing can be more opposite to its real character. Thus, in like manner, have we availed ourselves of the catachresis on this occasion, not only for the purpose of agreeably surprising the reader into the perusal of a work of incomparable veracity, under, the garb of a work of fiction, but also to administer to the viii public taste, which, owing to the witcheries of that mischievous person called the “Great Unknown,” hath an unseemly propensity towards romances and the like. In this we are justified, not only by the foregoing high authorities, but in an especial manner by the example of certain great critics, who place at the head of their articles, by way of title-page, the name of a book about which they say not one word in the whole course of their lucubrations. So, in like manner, may we see certain well- meaning and orthodox writers, publishing what they call “candid examinations” and “cool considerations,” of and concerning certain disputed points, which, to say the truth, are neither candid nor cool, but marvellously the contrary. We mention not these things in a spirit of hostility, but to justify our adoption of the figure of the catachresis by their examples. The reader will therefore err most egregiously if he supposes for a moment that the following work, whatever be its title bears the most remote resemblance, or is in any wise tainted with the egregious fictions of the genuine Munchausen. Touching the real author of this work, whom we may safely pronounce a second and still greater “Great Unknown,” we have our suspicions ix on the subject, suspicions almost amounting to a certainty, which we shall proceed to lay before the reader. At first, for divers good reasons, we were inclined to suppose the author was no less a person than the “Great Unknown” himself, who as is asserted, resided in America some time. But however rich, redundant, and inexhaustible may be the invention of this extraordinary Incognito, no one we think will deny to our author, notwithstanding his general character of severe veracity, a vigour of fancy and a vein of inventive sportiveness, vastly superior even to the “Great Unknown.” We must therefore discard this suggestion, and proceed to John Bull in America; or, The new Munchausen. http://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbtn.36146 Library of Congress put the reader in possession of our settled conviction on this matter, which as will be seen amounts to next to a certainty. To come to the point without further circumlocution, we have the best reasons as well as the highest circumstantial testimony to warrant us in the assertion, that the author of this work was, and if living, is still, one of the principal writers of the Quarterly Review— the very person who wrote the masterly review of Faux's Travels in the fifty-eighth number.* b * The reader must consult the English copy for this article, which was so extravagantly complimentary, that even the American bookseller modestly omitted it in his re-publication of the number.