The word "Private" painted
up anywhere does the effect of bolts and bars and of all obsolete
man-traps beyond it, and is not for a moment that challenge to
the wayfaring foot which it seems so often with us; but the
warnings to the public which we make so mandatory, the English
language with unfailing gentleness. You are not told to keep your
foot or your wheel to a certain pathway; you are "requested," and
sometimes even "kindly requested"; I do not know but once I was
"respectfully requested." Perhaps that nobleman's possession of
these lands was so new that his retainers had to practise
something of unwonted rudeness in keeping it wholly his where he
chose. At any rate, the rule of civility is so universal that the
politeness from class to class is, for what the stranger sees,
all but unfailing. I dare say he does not see everything, even
the Argus-eyed American, but apparently the manners of the lower
class, where they have been touched by the upper, have been
softened and polished to the same consistence and complexion.
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