Ecstatic praise
and groundless detraction go hand in hand, bewildering to any one not
possessed of the key to the mystery of the art of blowing hot and
cold, which Mr. Froude so startlingly exemplifies. As it is our
purpose to make what he says concerning this Colony the crucial test
of his veracity as a writer of travels, [54] and also of the value of
his judgments respecting men and things, we shall first invite the
reader's attention to the following extracts, with our discussion
thereof:--
"On landing we found ourselves in a large foreign-looking town, Port
of Spain having been built by French and Spaniards according to their
national tendencies, and especially with a view to the temperature,
which is that of a forcing house, and rarely falls below 80 degrees.
The streets are broad, and are planted with trees for shade, each house
where room permits having a garden of its own, with palms and mangoes
and coffee-plants and creepers. Of sanitary arrangements there
seemed to be none. There is abundance of rain, and the gutters which
run down by the footway are flushed almost every day. But they are
all open.
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