





Transcribed from the 1896 Smith, Elder and Co. "From Lizzie Leigh and
Other Tales" edition by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk.  Proofed
by Jennifer Lee, Alev Akman and Andy Wallace.





AN ACCURSED RACE
Elizabeth Gaskell


We have our prejudices in England.  Or, if that assertion offends any of
my readers, I will modify it: we have had our prejudices in England.  We
have tortured Jews; we have burnt Catholics and Protestants, to say
nothing of a few witches and wizards.  We have satirized Puritans, and we
have dressed-up Guys.  But, after all, I do not think we have been so bad
as our Continental friends.  To be sure, our insular position has kept us
free, to a certain degree, from the inroads of alien races; who, driven
from one land of refuge, steal into another equally unwilling to receive
them; and where, for long centuries, their presence is barely endured,
and no pains is taken to conceal the repugnance which the natives of
"pure blood" experience towards them.

T