Page iii of the Preface to the 1883 James Nisbet & Co. "New Edition" Reprint

PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION.
My sister having been gravely charged in America with want of patriotism, I may perhaps be allowed to give a laughing word of explanation to English readers. If one person at home could misunderstand her, there might be others abroad.
Captain Montgomery is not "a type of American fathers and husbands"—nor so "intended;" the Author must decline the honour of having either maligned her own country, or published its disgrace. If such exceptions to human nature may not be found in every nation, the better for the world!
She has also been charged with he counter fault of praising other country people.
"All the best characters in the book are foreigners."
It would be hard to deny that. But if "legitimate affections never clash," then may strong love for the Fatherland consist with all due respect to the Mother-country. There is no monopoly of good things or good people; and a writer may surely consult the convenience of plot and arrangement, and let her characters sail under what flag she chooses, with no danger of grounding upon either flattery or injustice. Indeed, for an American to praise the English is, in many