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The Author has added little, and made few alterations of any consequence; but every sentence has undergone a careful revision, with a view of preventing misap- prehension, and securing that confidence on the part of the public which, notwithstanding difference of opinion, accuracy aud impartiality generally command. London, March 2ith, 1855* :2^i# TA^Srff^ A] \i 10 itm^^i' , - ■,■-,,■ i ■■ ■■ ■ wr ooivAyfiiti'') imh m" ' '') '^uhiM'^J^-ixrfkn M}^rf oilJcr^ i^iy%:h^mi^ V 4 TD^' .ftofitf^v. » ^ P,,tr ■tt^l /'.^^ j^*>i»\i, i^,.' ' ' '-."■'Si? ■;.-■., ^^ J ':'.^ >:.-;:.,■ r • Inti COl an( No of Tha see ^ than thin) stanc who of le have lands time, obsei ^ Havi bum] straii age t the J rural descr the s they the ] Mara the g mmmm AMERICA AND THE AMERICANS. CHAPTEE I. Introductory remarks — ^English ^touriBts on the Continent of Europe — Quidifications of a good trayeller — Adyantages of visiting foreign countries — Olums of America in this respect-— Statement of my plan and purpose — The Cunard and Collins steamers — ^Voyages on the North Atlantic — ^Approach to New York — A glimpse at the future of the Great Republic. Thaokebay, in one of his amusing novels, remarks, " To see with one's own eyes, men and countries, is better than reading all the books of travels in the world." So think the majority of English parents in affluent circum- stances, and accordingly the education of young men who have attended the classes at our great seminaries of learning, is not considered as complete until they have made what we usually style " the grand tour." In lands celebrated by poets and philosophers of the olden time, they finish their classical studies, and begin their observations on the aspect of things in the world. t^ Having in the halls of the university repeated the burning language of Cicero, and pored over the finished strains of the Mantuan bard, they set out on a pilgrim- age to the ruins of that forum which once rung with the plaudits of excited Bomans ; and to those scenes of rural beauty which Virgil, in his Georgics, so accurately describes. Among orange and olive trees they trace the site of the Academia where Plato taught wisdom to the youth of Athens ; and from the top of Hymettus, the mountain of the honey bees, they look down on Marathon and Salamis, on spots which will be sacred to the goddess of liberty, un^ Grrecian heroes cease to rz:,^ AMEBICA AND THE AMEBIOA^S. add interest to the historic page. One can now see almost any day under-graduates of Oxford ascending the Pyramid of Cheops, and Cambridge men smoking their nargilehs on the banks of Abana and Pharphar, rivers of Damascus. After a year thus spent in the ancient seats of civilization, they return to be introduced at court, and assume their position in society, but not to remain peimanently at home ; for the tastes acquired in more luxurious climates generally induce them, before long, again to visit the shores of the Mediterranean, and to linger in the unrivalled galleries of Italian art. Formerly they quoted Horace, and sought with eager eys the localities celebrated in the elegant pages of Livy, now with Tasso they sing of " the pious arms and the great commander who liberated the sepulchre of Christ," and bow almost reverently before Rafael's T«aBfiguration.intheTatican. PainLg and sculpture have usurped the places in their ardent minds which the poetry and eloquence of GJreece and Borne once occupied, and the odes of Petrarch sipersede the tender strains of Anacreon. Watch them as they saunter by the banks of the Amo, or lounge below the fig-trees on the Palatine; these men wiU wander far and wide over Europe before they settle down to cultivate their pater- nal acres, for they have felt the charms of novelty among a strange people, and under a southern sky, and they will always hear, even in busy London, the voice of sirens drawing them towards warmer regions, where the mulberry and the palm-tree grow. If or do the more ambitious rest here. They are not contented with the beaten track of mere loungers in search of pleasure or the fine arts ; but long to explore countries less known than Tuscany — ^to get beyond the reach of ordinary tourists, and whilst young and active, to lay up for themselves a stock of knowledge, from which th^ may derive lasting satisfaction in after years. With some of these men the love of travelling becomes a rage, and before they have reached middle life, like Alexander, they sit down and deplore the absence of new kingdoms vn EITGLISH TOtTBISTS. 8 )r LS tf\ to conquer. Not a city in Europe but they have seen, not a river which they do not know, not a mountain with whose outlines they are not familiar, not a potentate to whom they have not lifted their hofcs, not a people whose dress or manners to them is new. A Becret power seems to drive them ever onward, till nothing can be found to excite curiosity or gratify the desire for change. They set out on journeys without knowing whither they are bound, and all places are alike interesting to them, because they have seen them all before. They remind me of the vagabond Lamas of Tartary, who may be found, now in the tea-growing districts of China, and a few months afterwards in the tents of nomadic Arabs y general conversation and careful inquiry, to understand the people and form correct impressions of their manners, institutions, politics, social economy, and national prospects ; keeping this object in view, 1 made a point of gaining access to different circles, commercial, political, literacy, and religious, so as to hear the opinions of men who took opposite views on the leading questions of the day, and, if possible, to avoid one-sidedness and partiality. Having read all the books relating to the Union, which have appeared for many years past, 1 had arranged in my own mind the principal subjects of in- terest before setting out, thus availing myself of the labours of others in order to correct and facilitate my own investigations. My desire, now, is to exhibit, in a popular form, the result of my inquiries, to describe what I saw and heard on the other side of the Atlantic, to present my readers with evidence, after hearing which they can form their own opinions ; and if my notes are necessarily imperfect and faulty, I trust to their kind- ness in giVing me credit for truthfulness and candour. My wish is to be fair and impartial in stating facts which came under my notice, without dogmatism or theorizing ; to suggest, not to pronounce judgment ; to supply them with materials for coming to correct con- clusions, not to advocate particular nostrums of my own. 1 do not expect to be always consistent, for a determi- nation to be consistent often involves a sacrifice of .^ 10 AMERICA AJTD THI AXESJCAUfH. troth, and as Miss Bremer somewbere remaricg, ** is the hobgobtin of little minds.'* At the same time it is not very easy- for a writer to diseoss some questions which naturally arise out of a theme like this withont at least indicating his own sentiments; and if these do not in all cases accord with those of others, he can but throw himself on the indulgence of his readers and ask for their attention, if not their acquiescence. !N'o man can write on America without touching on church polity, education, temperance, and slayery. On these questions great difference of opinion exists amongst us ; but as my principal object in yisiting the United States was to examine those rery subjects, I must boldly enter upon their discussion, endeayouring to keep my personal im* pressions as much as possible in the background, but concealing, modifying, exaggerating nothing, for the purpose of condUating parties who haye already taken up particular ground, or of securing popular approba» tion and applause. Some things which I saw on the other side of the Atlantic ran counter to my precon- ceiyed ideas, some fayoured them ; there are two sides of eyery important question which now agitates the Union. I shall endeayour to tell all — ^to make a clean breast of it — althou^ many persons may be thus led to form different yiews from mine; so that, howeyer yexatious some of my statements may appear in relation to theories now in yogne, all who r^id them may at least be able to apply to me the words of the unfor- tunate Chatteiton : — ^-^i vir;;- " Behold the manne ! hee spake the trnthe, Hee's greater thanne a kynge." mii ^i> ^im-'^mx^'r Thirty-fiye years ago one of Scotland's ablest scien- tific men told a friend of mine that, howeyer well yessels driyen by steam-power might suit on riyers, they could neyer be rendered seryiceable on broad estuaries, much less on the ocean. In 1835 a leading ^Beyiew* pro- nounced as impracticable the attempt of steam-ships to ^^BP ' THIS omrABB Ajnt coiiinra* bteaiiebs. n c^j ii ■'^m t to cross the Atlantic ; not long afterwards ike guns of the ' Sizius' in the hay of New York, proclaimed to excited iiEtthitades that the prohlem was solved ; in June, 1853, the ^Arabia,' the crack ship of the Cimard off the Bell Buoj, in the Mersey, haying her Yojage firam Jersey ciiy,. on the Hi days seventeen hours. Eor many years b^onging to this company had made tl as much, if not more, regularity tl which trade on the En^sh coast. But,^ their management and the excellence of tl they are unrivalled, the Collins' boats whi< the mails of the United States, bear off the pi as model and external accommodation are concerned. I have made not a few sea voyages in steam-ships of various nations ; but of none do I cherish such a pleasing recollection as of that performed last January in the American packet ' Baltic,' although it blew a furious gale of wind from the time we left the Highlands of Neveraink until we sighted the coast of Ireland. She is a noble steamer of 2700 tons, with, three decks, an engine of eight hundred horse-power, a spacious dining room, capable of seating two hundred people, and two elegantly fumished.drawing rooms, the former above, the latter below the main deck, besides a smoking room, spacious apartments for the officers, and quite a village of private state rooms. Her dinner table was loaded with the greatest luxuries of the season, and every person who is in the habit of frequently crossing the Atlantic, knows that a better seaman, or a more attentive, agreeable man than Captain Joseph J. Comstock never trod the quarter-deck of an ocean steamer. The North Atlantie presents few interesting pheno- mena like those which amuse the sailor withm the tropics ; you may cross it without seeing a single ship, or anything more exciting than shoals of porpoises darting through the heaving waves, and a few whales and blackfish spouting around the vessel. But the ocean ia 12 ▲MIBIOA AJSTD THE AMEBICANB. never altogether wanting in variety, and to minds pecu- liarly constituted always has charms, even in latitudes where no flying-fish rise before the prow, and no albatross reposes its wings on the painted and mirror-like deep. How majestic the swell of the sea after a gale, when huge steamers roll for days unceasingly, as if masts and funnel would go overboard, when the utmost vigilance is required to prevent yourself being pitched headlong out of your berth and when every timber creaks from stem to stem, the billows towering like mountains about to overwhelm the frail bark, and the surges moaning like a wild beast of the desert, disappointed of his prey ! Nor can I forget the excitement of a sudden hurricane from an adverse quarter, the wind howling in the rigging, the whistle of the boatswain, the shouts on deck, the heavens darkened with spray, the troubled waters seetMng and boiling in agony, displaying ever and anon abysses fearful to contemplate, and making the ship quiver as she breasts the foaming waves, startled petrels meanwhile wailing around the vessel which no force of steam can drive a-head against the fiiry of the elements. Now the spirits of the vasty deep seem to be let loose, and bUlows, gigantic as the Himalayas, swallow up each other with a stupendous roar. Sometimes, too, the cold winds of Labrador sweep silently along to meet the voyager, a dense snowstorm obscures the light of day, no one appears on the deserted. deck but the look- out man and the watchful officer ; gradually bulwarks, paddleboxes, masts and rigging become spotlessly white, the thermometer falls to zero, salt water freezes even in the cabins, and the vessel moves along like a living ice- berg. Again the scene changes. Boreas retires to the chambers of the north, mild zephyrs from the islands of spices waft you along, while the seafowl pounce on their fishy prey, and the ducks dive and gambol around the vessel ; to a sultry noon succeeds a delicious eve ; when the last streaks of light fade in the west, the ship leaves behind her a bright phosphorescent track on which THE TOTAOB. 13 you musingly gaze, till drowsiness oppresses you, and then H ** It is the midnight hour ; the beauteous Calin as the cloudless heaven, the heaven discloses, While many a sparkling star, in quiet glee. Far down within the watery sky reposes, As if the ocean's hei^t were stirred With inward life, a sound is heard. Like that of dreamer murmuring in his sleep ; 'Tis partly the billow and partly the air That lies like a garment floating fair Above the happy deep." There is something deeply solemnizing in the path- less ocean moumMly heaying under the silent stars. At such a time, a feeling of loneliness steals gradually oyer the senses, and the mind, by an irresistible impulse, is borne upwards to " Him who holdeth the watelrs in the hollow of His hand." On shore, the variety of the seasons, of hills and dales, of quiet forests and busy towns, the routine of life, the bustle of men, banish serious thought ; and there, too, plenty and peace lull one to a false security ; but at sea, where far as the eye can reach, nothing breaks the prospect oyer a wild waste of surges, where every threatening cloud causes anxiety, and where the tempest warns us how near the confines of eternity we stand, cold and callous must be the heart of him who thinks not of his Maker. I have already quoted from "Wilson's "Isle of Palms;" and frequently when watching the drifting spray, and listening to the thunder of the billows, have I thought of another paa- sage in that beautiful poem : — *' For who, when nought was heard around But the great ocean^s solemn sound, Feels not as if the Eternal God Were speaking in that dread abode f A year and a half ago I was on board the * Pacific' steamer, sixteen hundred miles from our desired haven, when her mainshafb gave way, rendering altogether use- less the starboard paddlewheel, and producing an effect among the passengers which words cannot well describe. Several years before I was sitting on the hurricane deck u AMEBICA JOm THE AXIBICAKS. of the ' Hibemia,' croiBing the banki of Newfoundland in a dense fog, when " Helm hard-a-port** roused every one in the ship, and the timeous order MTed us from being dashed to pieces on an icebeig, the freezing wind from which sent a momentajy chill through our frames. In the spring of 1846, the packet which carried me to Boston got amongst field-ice^ which, after breaking many of her floats, she was unable to penetrate. The ongines were therefore stopped, the Teasel put about, and steered two hundred miles to the southward, till one lovely evening we arrived at the termination of the froz^i plain, and threaded our way amongst numerous icebergs, appearing in the distance like the snow-clad summits of the Bernese Alps, assuming as we approached more fuitastic forms, and displaying a variety of arches, minarets, and domes, besides spacious grottoes, through which the wiiter dashed in clouds of spnty. The company on board these Transatlantic steamers is generally of the most mixed character, — old-stagers from the great cities, who cross every year on business ; parties of Americans going to :,ee or returning from seeing fkirope ; English pleasure-seekers bound for the plains where the buffaloes roam; vulgar C^ifomians exposing tiieir under-biieedingby an excessive fastidious* ness ; Germans who eat three times as much as other people ; famiers from the West, on their way to buy Saxony sheep, and groaning at the ordeal of narrow berths &ud sea-sickness; lumber-men from Kew Bruns- wick, very personifications of eoarseness; reckneys' sneering at everything and everybody; youno; oftic^rs stationed in Canada; southern men, whose special vox;a- tion seems to be to quarrd with all and sundry on the slavery question ; f;hip-captains and play-actors ; clergy- men and Bi(^:<«bers of ihs swell^mob ; forming for the time bdng f^ <^ ^ ?y family devoted to eating, deeping, gamMing, c;\::«JTal]iiig, mal mg bets, and singing songs in the 6mokmg>kX)Gi?:. Hhen. ike last day of the passage, the diief stewazd puts on his best suit -, the baker sencb in huge cakes adorned with Yenuses and Oa^ds ; tiie ▲Flf^OAOH VO VIW TOEK. Vi cook exerts his utmott power; champAg^ne is furnished at the ship's expense, au'l gentlemen of limited powers address the company after dinner in yery bad speeches. Thus ends the yoyage ; bnt how doea it begin ? For the first few days, the well-sea' "^ned enjoy a monopoly of good things, their cumpaniDnfi meanwhile lying in a dreamy, half-torpid, and yegetatiye state, in nauseous cabins, trying to get their heads lower, and ereu lower etill^loatlmig the sound of the dinner-bell, and so helpless, t\r^t one might without a shadow of resistance ou their Tijc.^; 'hrow them to the fishes. One cold, cheerless momiDg in Mardi, I lay in my narrow erib on board A Cunard steamer, listening to the sounds on deck, and debating wiiiiin myself whether or not I could muster courage enough to riae. The state-rooms in these yessels all enter from either side of « long, oarrow passage, and the doors aie generally left ajar so a^ to admit fresh Air. The steward, whose business it was to arouse the sleepers, was presently heard descending the companion, and neyer shall I forget the shouts of laughter which greeted him when knocking at the door of a cabin where alept a little Frenchman from New Orleans, and announcing '^ Eight o'clock, Sir ; time to get up. Sir; your trousers at the door, ^;" he re- oeiyed for an answer, in n tone of calm resignation, *' Oh, yell, but take dem away ; I sail neber need my trousers no more." But enough of the ocean, with its grandeur and its discomforts ; we haye passed Fire Island light, the beams of Aurora now play on the islands of Neyersink, a yacht- like pilot-boat tacks ahead of us, and in a short time the Megraph at Sandy Hook wiU announce in Wall-Street that the European steamer is making for the bay of New York. It is the month of August, and a powerful sun, dispersing eyery vestige of yapour, bathes the landscape in a fiood of light ; a multitude of small craft with their white cotton sails stud the sea; dense woods on the Hempstead bhore remind us of the mirage in the desert, and clouds of canvas, concentrated in one spot some dis- r f T V T " 16 AMEBICA AKD THE AMEBIOAlTB. // i tance to the right, show us that outward-bound packet- ships are passing the Narrows freighted with the pro- duce of the western hemisphere. Now we are up at the Hook, and the gigantic vessel comes round to star- board : Staten Island, with its noble woods and white villas glistening in the rays of the morning, off the port- beam, and Fort Hamilton, sparkling like an Oriental castle, on the other side of the strait. Behind its bat- teries rise the sombre pines of Greenwood Cemetery ; astern, the cliffs of the Highlands look down on a sandy beach ; and around us, ships of every nation, and all sizes, tow-boats, coasting-steamers, lighters, and yachts, move to and fro in the well-buoyed channel. We pass at length the fort, look up to the slopes on Long Island, adorned with groves of cedars and acacias, and, losing sight of the ocean, find ourselves in a majestic lake, at the further end of which a forest of mingled spires and masts marks the site of the Empire City. The panorama is Italian rather than English, and wants only a burning mountain to be finer than the Bay of Naples: It has been my good fortune to visit many finely-situated ports on the European coasts; Genoa, with her marble palaces, backed by the cones of the Apennines ; " Old Lisbon," from her hills, overlooking " the expanded Tagus ;" Stockholm, on her rocky islands, the Yenice of the North ; Messina, nestled af the foot of spurs from Etna ; Constantinople, reflected in the Golden Horn ; but, in some respects, they must all yield the palm to the scene which reveals itself to the traveller when, on a bright American summer morn- ing, he enters the bay of New York. Perhaps the beauties of nature are rendered still more attractive by the imagination of those who, like myself, believe that no one rightly appreciates the greatness reserved for the western world in the womb of time. Standing on the cliffs of Castellamare, or watching the Adriatic's waves as they roll gently in upon the Lido at Venice, I think of grandeur past and gone, of power long since crushed, of intellectual vigour transferred to TH£ 7UTUB1 OF AM£BIOA. 17 other climes, of ages, never to return, when Yirgil dedi- cated odes to Maecenas, and the council of the Venetian Eepublic entertained the monarchs of Christendom; legends of warlike counts and queenly- dames pass through my mind ; in my dreamy mood I imagine the pomp of chivalry, brave knights taking the crusader's vow, and bards, before assembled kings, singing of Palestine : all the poets and orators, the warriors and statesmen of the olden time, seem again to appear on the theatre of affairs; but the vision is of the past only; I awake and behold a people sunk into a state of semi- barbarism, the tide of literature fast ebbing away from their shores ; their spirits broken by years of tyranny, and the palaces where their forefathers held almost re^ court mouldering into decay. The lakes and rivers of the New World call forth emotions very different from these. Standing on American ground I think of the future ; of the time when these mighty states shall have reached their culminating point, and other great repub- lics shall, with reverence, from them deduce their birth. Here there is neither retrogression nor torpor, but a wonderfiilly active growth, such as has not been wit- nessed since the beginning of time. I look through no long vista of years, and behold city domes shining on hill- tops where the eagle now screams, wastes over which the wild wind blows, densely peopled by industrious men, streams yet bearing only the Indian's canoe, and reflect- ing the tangled foliage of untrodden forests, spanned by bridges of stone, and turned into a thousand channels to drive the busy mill, creeks now inhabited by wild ducks, fiUed with ships of every nation under heaven, and railroads bearing through the passes of the Eocky Mountains loads of merchandize and men. On the summits of the Sierra Nevada, I hear the hum of civili- zation approaching from the east ; steamers already plough the waters of Lake Winnipeg, and Anglo-Saxons occupy the fertile empire which Cortes conquered for Spain. _ _ , ., •J"*i :*■ •i 1 w »«Vf (r i, 1 18 AMEBICA AND THE AMEBIOANS. i: 1. ::'^tu.>y]:-^..^lY. ■■'!i''i^''' '-■> 'iif^fji-iTi;' -%M:^|tvJ"-'if:>:iil§' , ■ ?.iC;-i'A'"' ■,¥,■:./;. ^fv-.j'', '^*v: ■• ■':^, -^iim^^^^ .,,:,v'"u.;y,,.,^..... ^ ■■■, C '-'—i,iT+ ;,'. ;'^v,< .'■-"> • • -■ '* '■ ?',.•; i. ,'-. i/jjSi /.>»iij-ii , ■ ,'i' i .'.:'■* . ,-.-!-i'.". ■ ■!« ..J . .. t. ■!!■■: , .,.J^ '.Ah^i-. .::-:J^: ..-. /:^-»:,i^'^ , «.. . _ CHAPTEE II. ^ *» .-.-it i ? ■ i Scenery in the United States — Absence of lofty mountains — The great rivers — The "Openings" — Forest lakes — ^Wooded plains — Altema- - tions of climate — Winter sunsets — Cities and streets — Aqueducts and , cemetries — Fires and firemen — Architecture — Absence of neatness — American fondness for locomotion — General remarks on travelling in the Union — The Hotel system. It is not my intention to weary my readers with a con- tinuous narrative of my wanderings on the American Continent, or to ask them to accompany me in journeys which occupied several months, and extended over very nearly eleven thousand miles. Suffice it to say, that I left few points of interest unvisited, from Chicago to the reefs on the Florida coast, from the mouths of the Mississippi to the State of 'Maine. The journals of so many accomplished writers who have travelled through the Union have lately been published that I do not feel warranted in adopting the same plan in regard to my notes, but content myself at present with making a few general observations on its physical features, scenery, cities, and modes of locomotion, reserving for succeed- ing chapters what I have to say on politics, religion, education, slavery, manners, literature, society, manufac- tures, and commerce, and recommending those who care to pursue the subject to read the valuable work of Sir Charles Lyell, entitled " A Second Visit to the United States," and the still more comprehensive volumes pub- lished by the late lamented Mr. Alexander Mackay, and well named " The "Western World." For the benefit of those, however, who prefer the narrative style, I intend to select from my note-book some fifteen or twenty of the most interesting leaves, and present them, with rapidly-sketched pictures of scenes, which will remain always indelibly impressed upon my mind. ..u^i. ■ . The most remarkable characteristic of the scenery in SCEITEBT IS THE VNIIED STATES. 19 -The great — Altema- ledacts and neatness — ravelling in ;li a con- Imerican journeys led over t to say, 1 Chicago blis of the lals of so through not feel ■d to my ing a few scenery, succeed- religion, manulac- who care .rk of Sir e United .mes pub- |ckay, and tenefit of I intend iwenty of m, with [1 remain jenery in the United States is the absence of lofty mountain chains. Excepting the White Hills, in New Hamp- shire, there are no elevations worthy of note on this side the dividing range between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans ; for the Alleghanies, though occasionally picturesque, may be called mere ridges in comparison with the mountains of continents far less extensive than North America. Here and there you find yourself in a valley bounded by rugged cliffs, where the road crosses and re-crosses the roaring stream, now is lost in woods of recent growth, and agara emerges into an open glade planted with wheat or Indian corn ; in a few districts you see peaks resembling somewhat those of Norway, Scotland, or the Tyrol ; but for weeks and weeks you may travel across unbroken plains, level and monotonous as those on the banks of the Euphrates, or through a country gently undulating, like the sea two days after a gale of wind. In many parts of the Union, there are beautiful landscapes, abounding in all that is requisite to charm a painter^s eye, craggy hiUs, wooded slopes, rocks, waterfalls, and vdld chasms, in which the torrent boils ; butjiQ general, nature is tame, and the European longs for an Alpine peak, or a broad-shouldered Ben Nevis. I shall never forget my feeUngs, when after travelling six weeks in the Atlantic States without seeing a hill, having reached the table-land at the head of the Patapsco vaUey, on my way from Baltimore to Pittsburg, the wooded summits of the Alleghanies appeared between me and the western horizon. They were a refreshing memento of home, a relief to the never-ending jungles of copsewood and plantations of maize, which constitute the Alpha and Omega of the prospect wher- ever you wander, from Virginia to Maine. The Americans are not indebted to mountains for their free and independent spirit, as have been so many nations celebrated in the history of the world. The grandest physical feature of the United States is unquestionably their rivers, almost fabulous in their length of course, navigable to the very centre of the c 2 ? 'I, l'\ 20 AMEBICA. AKH THE AMEBIOAKS. continent, and overhung by foKage of never-ending variety and hue. New Orleans alone has upwards of seventeen thousand miles of internal navigation on the Mississippi and its tributaries, flowing through climates wide as the poles asunder, and soils whose wonderful fertility give promise of a glorious future. Par away under the lonely peaks of the Eocky Mountains, about latitude 49 degrees, three rushing streams form the Missouri, which, on its junction with the Yellowstone, becomes a noble river, rolling its gray floods over plains where the buffalo and the elk still roam at large, and the Blackfoot Indians drive them headlong into the rifts on the prairie, and satisfy their hunger with heca- tombs of the slain. For hundreds of miles it pursues its way over what has appropriately been termed an ocean of grass, a second Nile, long before it arrives at Council BJuffs, or pollutes with its discoloured waves the pure "Father of "Waters." The Ohio from the east, the Eed Eiver from the ranges of New Mexico, the Arkansas from unknown regions beyond the hunting- grounds of the Chocktaws, the Tennessee and Cumber- land watering settled plains, and countless others, of which no catalogue has yet appeared, all contribute their quota to the wealth of that western valley; while the Hudson, the Susquehanna, and the Potomac, on the Atlantic slope, brooks in comparison with the great Mississippi, themselves throw into the shade the famous streams of Europe. By their means the vast continent is opened np to the enterprise of man, and the produc- tions of various climates circulate freely over the length and breadth of the land ; Minnesota gets its sugar from the plantations of Louisiana, and the copper of Lake Superior finds its way to manufacturing cities in the older States. The rivers of North America have no rivals in either hemisphere. Tet the scenery is monotonous on these deep alluvial soils. The virgin earth may yield abundantly, the black loam produce with little trouble green forests of tall maize; but the dense wood looks down on the log SCENEBT IN THE TTNTTED STATES. 21 '-ending sv^ards of 1 on tlie climates onderful ar away IS, about orm the, owstone, er plain* irge, and into the itli heca- ; pursues )rmed an trrives at waves the the east, exico, the hunting- Cumber- jthers, of ontribute ey; while ic, on the he great le famous Icontinent produc- e length gar from of Lake IS in the have no tp alluvial Ithe black 5s of taU the log <;abin, the log cabin on the corn field, and the corn field on the sluggish stream, in one unending series for hundreds of weary miles, until the traveller longs for a <5hanging landscape, and the settler, as he sits down, wearied with his day's work, under a scorching sun, listening to the chirp of the grasshopper, and the snort of the steamboat, pines for rocks where his forefathers dwelt, and the rushing rapid which foamed and bounded by his mother's cottage door. Strange as it may seem too, there is often in America a want of trees. They are the natural enemies of farmers in that land of woods; and in some places, accordingly, you see houses and offices exposed to every blast, without a solitary poplar, or a group of chesnuts, to relieve the uniformity of painted boards. Another peculiarity of the scenery is what the inhabitants term OPENINGS; cleared spaces in the forest, which the stranger will be apt to mistake for cultured plains, although they occur in the depths of the wilderness, far from the dwellings of men. Here grows the fire-grass, BO much liked by the deer ; and perhaps to encourage its springing, and thus allure the game to congregate there, the Indians in former days burnt the forests which once covered these delightful glades. No one who even casually glances at a large map of the United States, will fail to observe the multitude of small fresh-water lakes scattered in all directions over the country. They derive their supply from springs, and their romantic shores display a gorgeousness of foUage unknown in this older clime. Mighty rivers can trace their origin to a series of sheets of water Uke these, lying away in the wild forest, showing their tran- quil loveliness only to the hunter, as he strays from beaten tracks, guided by the stars. Willows dip over their translucent waves, and in autumn you can trace by its deep scarlet dye, the wild grape-vine creeping to the very topmost branches of the larger trees. Sometimes as you journey, a height is reached, from which you obtain an extensive prospect of dense woods, 22 AMEBICA AITD THE AMEBICAKS. ( 1 [ i J (1 ! bounded by low rocky hills, and here and there broken into clearings, where a tiny village or solitary settler's dwelling bears evidence to the vigour with which the pioneer of civilization wields his axe. In a few districts the views now and then reminded me of Perthshire and the other Scotch counties adjoining the Highlands ; while in more thickly peopled parts neat and cheerful farm- houses, surrounded by orchards of apple and peach trees, legions of turkeys, ducks, and hens, and vast fields of thriving Indian com, testified to an industrious peasantry and a fruitful soil. In the low lands you drive for miles and miles between fields of maize and clover, diver- sified here and there with thickets, affording shelter for woodcock, and stagnant pools which form a pregnant source of fever and ague. I have passed for days over a poor soil, covered with low useless brushwood, and again ove? parks planted with beautiful arborvitsB trees like English lawns, or some of the better portions of Castile. In the slave States, especially, there often occur tracts of country rendered calcined and desert by excessive cropping, the indolence of the white man, and the ignorance of the black. It is pleasant to drive in the summer evenings in the vicinity of the larger cities, through woods and gardens, luxuriant with foliage and teeming with insect life ; innumerable white villas, with their green blinds peeping out from groves of maples, oaks, and willows ; fruit-trees displaying their tempting clusters; openings in the plantings revealing farm- houses, where peace and plenty seem to dwell; and grassy knolls, deep dells, shady paths, sylvan lakes, and snugly nestled hamlets, forming as many rural attrac- tions to the denizens of a busy town. In most parts of the Union the fierce sun during the dog days bums up the grass, withers the flowers, and drives men for shelter into the dark recesses of the forest ; whilst in winter the same landscape is like Lap- land itself, the rivers freeze, the hedges are covered with snow, and the farmer brings out his sleigh to go a mar- keting to the nearest village. Well do I remember a -««c-aBi'EK-i-a»j»«fc'-— I""* •■' THE WINTEB SUNSETS. day in Au^st, when the deck of a steamer on the Bay of New York felt burning to the touch, and no grove on Staten Island was thick enough to keep out the intolerable rays ; and another day in January, when on my return &om the land of magnolias and oranges, I sailed up the same bay in a snow-storm, huge blocks of ice floating past us, and the ships appearing like great wandering bergs from the polar seas. When the temperature of the air is very low, the horizon clear, and no clouds hide the orb of day, how brilliant are the winter sunsets in the United States ! Here, in this grey misty atmosphere, we do not expect such dazzling hues ; in the tropics the flood of evening sunlight is always the same, soft and bright ; but in North America the combined effect of clearness and of cold, produces an appearance so beautiful, that one can almost realize the descriptions of the Apocalypse. The heavens seem transparent as a mirror ; earth sparkles as a diamond in a casing of silver, and the light reflected from the sky is, to use the sublime words of Scripture^ " like unto a stone moat precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal." '■' The cities in the United States have, of course, their individual peculiarities, and those travellers have wearied themselves to describe ; — New York with her regular and irregular thoroughfares crowded all* day long with omni- buses, drays, and men ; the straight streets of Quaker Philadelphia shaded by trees; the rows of quiet but stately mansions which adorn Boston ; Baltimore on her hill-top overlooking the Chesapeake; the antiquated wooden mansions of Charleston; Mobile, a straggling village with one business street and one big hotel ; New Orleans, a mongrel between Paris and St. Louis; Washington, " the city of magnificent distances," another name for noble edifices scattered on a table- land just reclaimed from the forest; neat and prim Newhaven; austere Salem; Buffalo's spacious streets sweeping down to the lake; Pittsburg, buried in a cloud of smoke; the wide avenues and crescents of 24 AMEBIOA. AJSJ> THE AMEBICANS. i rt H Detroit ; tlie quiet eemi-English air of Louisville ; Cin- cinnati, with her workshops, and fleets of steamers; Chicago's lofty stores risen like mushrooms on the shore of Lake Michigan; Lowell and Lawrence, the mere adjuncts of enormous mills. But all these are in some respects alike. They have many characteristics in common which one can scarcely faol to observe. , In none of them will you look in vain for white wooden houses, with tiny flower-beds, and green blinds; rows of stately brick warehouses, covered with signs; large shops full of costly goods ; telegraph posts as numerous as lamps ; huge hotels, with crowds of smokers at their porches ; oyster cellars ; restaurants ; daguerreotype rooms as &equent as public houses in Scotland ; adver- tising vans; open spaces, boarded in, receptacles for rubbish and hens; livery stables, where unvrashed wagons and rude harness offend an English eye ; vride pavements of wood, brick, or stoie ; auctions thronged with bidders ; stages driven by rough Lrishmen, with a rein in each hand, and their coats off ; church spires ; schoolrooms ; public halls ; convenient markets ; ready- made clothing establishments ; residences of doctors, allopathic, homoeopathic, and herbalist ; heaps of cinders and shavings; bricks and mortar laid down for new erections; fast men sitting behind trotting horses in vehicles which seem to be aU wheels; legislators de- bating at bar-room entrances; porters moving pon- derous bales ; gentlemen with blue dresscoats and boots which have not been brushed for a fortnight ; ladies wearing shawls which we in England are too poor to purchase; and children dressed like miniature men and women, and walking with a ludicrous air of fancied independence. ; ' "With very few exceptions, American streets are wretchedly ill-paved and intolerably filthy, so badly lighted that it is dangerous to go out after dark, and so fiill of holes, that European carriages would not be safe for a week. I have seen ladies over the ankle-step in mud-ruts two feet deep, and chasms large enough to THE CITIES A^D BTBEETS. overturn an omnibus. Even in cities, the inhabitants of which pay heavy taxes for paving and cleaneing, .ese departments are very ill-conducted, and the state of many back and cross streets baffles description. So far from bearing a comparison with England, the Americans in this respect can scarcely claim equality with the foulest towns of Southern Europe. There are lanes in New York worse than any in Marseilles. I lived three days in St. Louis under the impression that the streets were not paved at all, and was only undeceived when a heavy rain washed away tons of mud, and laid bare the rough white stones with which at some distant date the thoroughferes had been macadamized. Wholesale dealers, too, are permitted to place their bales and boxes of merchandize on the pavements before their stores, so that one scrambles rather than walks in the business parts of the cities. The goods are conveyed from the ships or railroads in light cars without sides, drawn by a single horse, having two wheels, and upright moveable posts to support the load. The cabs in the United States are as handsome and showy as gentlemen's car* riages, generally mounted with silver, and always exceed- ingly expensive. The price demanded, and even allowed by law, is in most cases so exorbitant, that I seldom employed them. A stranger will be struck with the weU-fed appearance of the hoises, both in the hacks and the drays. Tou scarcely ever see broken-kneed scare- crows like those which limp along the streets of European towns. In two particulars American cities can well claim an enviable distinction over those of the older world. Their inhabitants have proved themselves " wise in their generation,'* by providing them at the outset with an abundant supply of pure water, and extramural places of interment. The Croton Aqueduct conveys an abundant stream at all seasons of the year to New York, from a river forty miles distant, at an original cost of fourteen millions of dollars. It is an inestimable boon to the 26 AMERICA A17D THE AMISICAKS. population, invaluable in cases of fire, for the use of the public bathing-houses and fountains, and for the purifi- cation of the streets. At Philadelphia, a wall of solid masonry has been built across the Sckuylkill, which dams it up, and drives the water into an artificial pond, between which and the bed of the river are six large wheels on a level with the latter, and driven by water from the pond, let in by means of flood-gates. These wheels work a force-pump, which raises the water to four reservoirs on the top of a natural rocky mound, from which it is conveyed in pipes to ail parts of the city. There are no three more sweet and lovely spots on earth than the cemeteries of Greenwood, on Loog Island, near New York; Mount Auburn, five mRm from Boston ; and Laurel Hill, overhanging the Sckuyl- kill, a shorij distance from Philadelphia. The first con- tains two hundred and fifty acres, and all have been selected for the picturesque beauty of their situation. They are pleasantly diversified with hill and dale, forest and lake, and tastefully laid out with drives and walks, thickets and groves, old stately trees and flowering shrubs, arranged by an artist's hand and an eye which delights in sylvan repose. The Americans indeed deserve credit for their choice of sites to serve as the resting-places of their dead. Wandering among their marble moniunents, I have often thought how much more suitable these quiet solitudes are than our Scotch churchyards, overgrown with noxious weeds, or the crowded ornaments and tinsel trappings of Fere la Chaise. •■ • • , > ' But for the excellent supply of water always at hand, the cities in America woidd, every now and then, be burnt to the ground. Even as it is, it has been cal- culated that more property has been consumed by fire in the city of New York, within the last thirty years, than the real estate is worth at this moment. During my residence there, several destructive conflagrations occurred, and not a night passed without an alarm being .r riBES AND FIREMEN. 27 given. So numerous, indeed, are these burnings, that the citizens think nothing of them, and the bells may toll for hours before they inquire what is the matter. The number of continuous tolls indicates in what ward the fire has broken out, so that every man may take care of liis life and property. The Astor House Hotel was set on fire in 1846, when I was asleep in its third story, and it is not likely that I shall soon forget the sight of the smoke, and the shouting of the firemen on duty. These are volunteers, who pride themselves in their efficiency, and the nobbiness of their engines. Illiberal people insinuate that some of the corps, not unfrequently composed of rowdies and mere boys, get up conflagrations for the fun of the thing, and the liquor furnished on the occasion. It is certain that thieves rejoice in them on account of the opportunity afforded for plunder. Many houses are now so slightly built that the firemen cannot with safety enter them, and, consequently, the insurance companies have of late suf- fered more than usual. A few Americans of my ac- quaintance entertain grave doubts as to the efficiency of the youthful volunteers who claim and get so much public applause ; but this heresy is only of recent origin, and its propagators dare not yet proclaim it on the housetops, lest a storm of public indignation should fall on their devoted heads. - ■ •' - It is scarcely reasonable to expect that a country so new as the United States should be able to boast of 11 any architectural triumphs, and, indeed, most of the edifices, public and private, have been erected more for uSe than for show. But there are a few remarkable exceptions, redeeming the national taste in the eyes of foreigners, who have been shocked by the numerous abortive attempts to imitate G-recian temples and Elizabethan villas, especially in the vicinity of the larger cities. Girard College, in Philadelphia, atones for a multitude of these minor sins against common sense. It is an oblong structure of the purest white marble, with an over-hanging roof supported by thirty-six mas- 2S AMERICA AND THE AMEBICA17S. sive, fluted, and lofty Corinthian pillars, the capitals of which struck me as being carved with unusual elegance and skill. Four minor buildings in the same style stand on the ground, and form part of the general plan. The Post- Office and Treasury in Pennsylvania Avenue at Washington are likewise chaste edifices, worthy of the American nation ; but the majestic appearance of the Capitol, on its lofty site overlooking the Potomac, throws them quite into the shade. As you approach it, you are struck with the grace of the columns, and the ample proportions of the flights of stairs ; while, from the noble dome, elevated nearly two hundred feet above tide- water, a view is obtained which cannot be excelled on the Atlantic slope of America. Fifth Avenue, in New York, when completed and well-paved, will be one of the finest streets in the world. The stately mansions on each side are mostly of brick, faced with a brown sandstone, which, in my opinion, ia handsomer than marble. They all have basement stories, and are indebted for their stately appearance very much to the massive staircases leading to the porches. Rows of trees shade the broad pavements, and here and there a splendid church, surrounded with shrubbery and adorned with creeping plants, rears its spire above the dwellings of the merchant princes. The ecclesias- tical architecture of the Empire City will soon attract general observation, and already begins to exercise a beneficial effect even in the far-off districts beyond the Alleghanies. *'In point of cleanliness," says Mr. Alex. Mackay,* " the Ainericans are in advance of every other people with whom it has ever been my lot to mingle." This is quite true as far as the interior of their houses is con- cerned ; they wash and scrub frequently, and all new erections have bath-rooms and other modern appliances * necessary to health and comfort. On only two occasions, in the course of my wanderings, have I had reason to complain of beds, which in every respect were not scru- - ■' * "Western World," vol. iii., p. 167. ' " ABSENCE OF NEATNESS. 29 pitals of elegance jrle stand in. The renue at ly of the !e of the c, throws ;, you are he ample the noble )ve tide- celled on eted and he world, of brick, pinion, is it stories, ery much 3. Eows and there ery and e above ecclesias- n attract [xercise a lyond the [ackay,* }r people This is is is con- all new )pliances ^ )cca3ions, reason to Inot scru- pulously clean. The exterior arrangements, however, the pleasure grounds, flower-pots, gravel walks, and ofiEices, will not, in point of tidiness, bear comparison with those of English residences. The clumsy fences, paths overgrown with weeds, extravagant fa9ades of pillars out of repair and sadly in want of paint ; the long, thinly-sown grass, the unpruned shrubs, and the broken-down enclosures offend the eye of one accustomed to the apple-pie order of everytlnng about a British villa. There is no prettier village in all the United States than Canandaigua, in western New York, stand- ing as it does on ground gradually sloping down towards a beautiful lake, and surrounded by a district of great agricultural fertility, finally diversified with hiU and dale, woodland and water, grass parks and fields of com ; — green lanes shaded by acacias and willows, lead to its market-place ; and through pleasant meadows meander brooks which have their source in the silent woods ; but even there I was struck with the want of attention to neatness which characterises Americans. The lawns, gardens, porticoes, fences, gates and flower-beds, even of handsome villas, were ill kept ; the streets rough and dirty ; the pavements covered with mud and tobacco juice ; and the carriages looked as if they had not been washed since the previous winter. The untidiness of the poorer classes of native-bom citizens has more than once pained me. Often have I seen at the bars of public-houses in country districts, a crowd of idlers, or to use the national term, "loafers," smoking wretched cigars, unshaven, dirty, meanly clad, and displaying on stoves, counters, and backs of chairs, boots which evidently had not been brushed for a fortnight. In the Western cities especially, the absence of comfort about everything strikes the stranger ; even the houses of the wealthier inhabitants being often FLiaU wooden build- ings, painted a dirty white, and situated next door to pigsties, puddles of green water, or mud flats. ^ . A morbid love of moving from place to place distin- gidshes the American people. They cannot remain for do AMERICA JlSD THE AMEBIOANS. any length of time quietly at home ; but, to use their own expression, " are bound to travel." Consequently, wherever you go, you find the public conveyances crowded; even in Illinois and Missouri, the railroad companies cannot procure cars fast enough to supply the demand of a locomotive public ; and not a steamer goes up the great river without a full complement of passen- gers. " The people of the New World," remarks Miss Bremer,* " are fond of being in company, fond of a crowd." This not only is true, but accounts for several habits not quite intelligible to an Englishman ; and so ac- customed are they to mix in a multitude, that they do not think it at all necessary to engage in conversation with their neighbours. I have seen fifty men travel together for hours without a single word being inter- changed. They have a singular habit of using nautical phrases fdr land travel, even those of them who have never seen the sea. When a train or an omnibus is about to start, the conductor calls out, " All aboard P* if you intend to make a journey in a stage coach, your friend asks you if you have paid your " passage ;" and the floor of a vehicle is usually termed the " deck." With all their "go-ahead" spirit, the Americans bear with exemplary patience delays and disappointments in tra- velling. I have seen five hundred people in a railroad train, sit quietly reading their newspapers and eating peaches, although the engine, owing to the careless- ness of the officials, had broken down in the midst of a forest, and had remained stationary for three hours. Conveyance' companies seem to be allowed to act just as they think proper. The grossest negligence calls forth no letters in the newspapers, and travellers never even ask the cause of delays, which in England would imme- diately bring down upon their authors a storm of public indignation. I once arrived at Sandusky, on Lake Erie, to take the steamer thence to Buffalo, and found that the owners of the mail packet had coolly sent her away in a different direction. Many others were in the same * ** Homes of the New World," vol. i., p. 271. TBAYXLLINa IK THE STATES. 31 predicament, but not one except myself expressed Ms displeasure, or compelled the agent to pay for his unlooked-for detention. In tins respect there is a somewhat marvellous affinity between the Americans and the Spaniards. How they expect officials to be attentive nnd punctual, when such conduct is submitted to without a murmur on the part of those who travel, I cannot well understand. The practices of railroads and steam-boat companies in the United States would not in England be tolerated for a day. Whilst passengers are thus unceremoniously treated, the conveyance of merchandize is both safe and speedy. Sir Charles Lyell mentions that although he sent more than thirty boxes of geological specimens &om various places, ofben far south of the Potomac, and west of the Alleghanies, some by canal, some by river steamers, others by coaches and railways, " not one of them failed to reach without injury his residence in London."* It is astonishing to observe the vast quantities of produce and manufactured goods in course of transit throughout the country; huge steam-boats on the Mississippi and Alabama loaded to the water's edge with bales of cotton, those on the Ohio burdened with barrels of pork and thousands of hams, propellers on the lakes filled with " the finest of the wheat" from "Wisconsin and Michigan; canal boats in New York and Pennsylvania deeply laden with flour of various brands; railroad wagons filled with European merchandise; locomotives struggling in western vnlds to drag trains richly freighted with the productions of every country under the sun. The United States reminded me sometimes of a great ant- hill which you encounter in the woods, where every member of the community is either busy carrying a burden along a beaten pathway, or hastening away in search of new stores to increase the national prosperity. The hotels of the United States in some respects illustrate the national character. Englishmen are not gregarious, and care neither for living in public nor for * " Second Visit to the United States," toL ii., p. 320. 32 AMEBIOA AlTD THE AMEBICAKS. ■ il I , display in the arrangements of an inn. The Americans on the contraiy cannot eat their meals alone, and have little notion of real comfort, although fond of splendour and yastness. Few candid people will deny that our system requires amendment. The charges are much too high: the houses too small ; the landlords in general not men of sufficient intelligence and enterprise to conduct establishments in such a manner as will leave them a profit, and at the same time meet th*^ requirements of the present age. British hotels remain what they were in the time of the Tudors, whilst the means of travelling have increased in a wonderful ratio, and all other things have undergone an entire change. On the other side of the Atlantic they have followed the example of our continental neighbours, rather than ours, besides adopt- ing various alterations and improvements according to the wants of the nation. Every small town from Texas to Maine has one or two large hotels, with an office near the door, where strangers on entering register their names and addresses, and on departing pay their biQ, being so much per day, without reference to what use has been made of the accommodations provided, a dining hall of great size, two or three handsomely famished drawing rooms, into which ladies, and gentlemen accompanying ladies are admitted, a reading room, and in those States where there is no stringent liquor law, a bar plentifully BuppHed with brandy smashes, gin slings, sherry cobblers, anf other beveragesLown ongl Am'erica. Tny person may go in, look over the newspapers, smoke a cigar, meet his friends and hear the news of the day, without any ceremony or that feeling of restraint which too often pervades our social intercourse. The arrivals at and departures from the principal inns appear every morning in the public journals, so that no man need remain igno- rant of the movements of his acquaintances. The hotels in the large cities are perfect palaces. The St. Charles at New Orleans is by far the finest edifice in the place. It occupies an entire block, has an under story of mMsive gramte, and a colonnade which may be seen some HOTDLB. aa nericans nd liave plendour that our oauclitoo [leral not » conduct i them a ments of jhey were travelling ler things iCT side of le of oup ies adopt- »ording to rom Texas office near heir names bill, being it use lias dining ball id drawing lompanying lose States plentifully cobblers, Ly person |cigar, meet itbout any too often alB at and )ry morning (main igno- The hotels St. Charles the place. )T story of le seen some miles down the Mississippi, Tou enter the spacious hall by means of a noble flight of stepij, like those which might be expected to lead to a senate house o? a univerTr sity. The proprietor told roe he could roftke up 6^0 beds. I shall not soon forget my astonishment, wbe» after along sea voyage, at dusk one fine summer evening I was ushered into the gorgeous drawing-rooms of the St. Nicholas, at New Tork, The pro^sion of mirrors, gilding, tapestry, and crystal, fairly harohQo;Rled me, It was more like an introduction to the palace of soma Eastern prince, than to a place of public entertainment in a recently discovered world. Every chimney-piece and ta^e slab is of marble ; every carpet is >»f velvet pile j chair covers and curtains are made of silk or satin damask ; the looking-glasses are set in &aines worthy of Windsor Castle, and the embroidery on the mosq^uito nettings itijelf might be exhibited to royalty. I occupied a very small bed-room, the decoration and furniture of which eould not have cost less than £200 or £230. In these large houses they print their own bills of fare, employ an army of servants, and on highdays use plated dishes at the public table. The owners are in general men of capital and influence, often occupying important positions in the community. But they attend to their business in all its details, and may be seen, napkin in hand, superintending the arrangement^ of the crowded table»d'h6te. The St. Nicholas contains 1000 beds, and its white marble front forms one of the greatest orna- ments of Broadway. The profits of this establishment during 1854 were reported to be 63,600 dollars ; those of the Metropolitan 45,300 doUars ; of the Astor House 49,000 dollars ; and of the New York Hotel no less than 100,000 dollars. These vast inns have generally an impos- ing appearance. They are built by capitalists in a style to at"^ act public observation, and then leased to enter- prising men for a term of years. It is customary to name the hotel after the person who furnished the money to erect it, as the Mills House at Charleston, the Rattle House at Mpbile, the Burnet House at Cincin- » 34 AMEEICA AND THE AMEBIOANS. uati. The usual charge in the chief cities in 2 dollars 60 cents per diem ; in New Orleans, where provisions are high, it is 3 dollars ; and in the country it varies from 1 to 2 doUars, according to circumstance. Very few people think of taking their meals in private except regular boarders resident at the place, and many even of them appear at the table-d'h6te every day. In some instances I have been unable to procure breakfast and dinner when I arrived an hour or two subsequent to the fixed houi^ for the public ordinary. This is a part of the system which needs improvement. Falstafl* might after all prefer the Boar's Head at Eastcheap to the finest establishment in the United States. In more particulars than one, a man travelling in America feels inclined to ask, " Shall I not take mine ease in mine inn ?" During the hot months of summer all citizens who can afford it leave their town residences to reside at a country resort or fashionable watering-place, where immense hotels have been erected for their special benefit. Six hundred people sometimes sit down to dinner at once in the United States Hotel at Saratoga, and the Ocean House at Newport, and gardens, billiard saloons, ten-pin alleys and colonnades, adorned with all kinds of creeping plants, are attached to most of these monster refuges from the heat and dust of mercantile towns. The smaller wayside inus in America wiU not please the stranger. Their dirty bar-rooms, ill-cooked victuals, and scantily-ftimished dormitories, rather repel than attract. At Springfield, in the state of Illinois, the passengers by the railway- train which stopped there for the night had all to sleep on the floor. I and my family huddled together in the cleanest-looking comer of a parlour, like Bedouins in the Syrian desert. To those, in short, who wish to see the people and live in a crowd, the American Hotel system offers many advantages, ; one who seeks an approximation to the quietness of home, will soon find it very distasteful. We may profitably adopt it in some particulars ; but Englishmen will always prefer (Comfort to osteutation, and neither economy nor love of display will induce them to spend much of their lives in a barrack. 35 CHAPTEE III. Internal navigatioii — Low-pressure steamers on the eastern riTers and lakes — Ferry boats — High-pressure packets on the Mississippi and its tributaries — Bacing — Bailroads — Criticisms on their management — Increase of accidents — The "Air" lines of Illinois — Changes in the Far West. OuE transatlantic friends are in the habit of boasting that there are more steam-vessels in the United States than *in all the world besides. This appears to me a statement the correctness of which cautious men may be excused for doubting ; but the wonderful energy of the Americans in respect to internal navigation, will not for a moment be disputed by one who has counted the funnels at the wharfs of New Orleans and St. Louis, who has stood near the lighthouse which guides navigators on Lake Erie to the quays of Buffalo, who from the battery has caught even a glimpse of the bay of New York, and who when camping out on the bluffs of the Upper Missouri, has heard the snort of the high-pressure engine which heralds the white man to the wild Sioux ; and who has seen the humming-birds disturbed by a persevering stern-wheel on Georgian creeks, on streams so narrow that the pilot can pluck magnolia flowers, and the branches of forest trees form an arch overhead. The steamers which ply on the rivers and lakes of the United States are so totally different in appearance from those on our own coasts, that mere words can scarcely convey an accurate idea of them to the English mind. They are all slightly built, painted white, and provided with superb cabin accommodations. They are all steered, too, by profes- sional pilots, who stand in a lofty wheel-house on the upper deck, near the bow, and guide the engineer by means of a bell ; but here my general description must cease, for the low-pressure floating palaces of the older states and Atlantic seaboard are not more unlike the boats on the Thames than they are the high-pressure D 2 36 AMEBICA AJSTD THE AHEBICAKS. vessels which navigate the Mississippi and its numerous tributaries. During 1853, there were 31 steam-boat accidents in the United States, killing 319 persons and wounding 158 ; but then almost all these occurred in the south and west, whilst in the uorth and east tra- velling by water is nearly as safe as among ourselves. And even on the great river itself, celebrated for fearful explosions and the Httle value attached to human life, a prudent man need not in general choose a dangerous vessel. The mail packets and regular traders may in nine cases out of ten be relied on as quite trustworthy. As these craPb, however, are seldom repaired, but when found insecure, sold to imprincipled specidators who sail them till they sink or burst their boilers, no ono should ever venture to take his passage in a steamer which does not belong to the usual line. Occasionally an unlooked-for accident does happen, attended with great loss of life; but, in most instances, the boats which blow up are boats in which no person with his wits about him would for a moment trust himself. The number of independent states on these rivers, and the weakness of their executive governments, accoimt for vessels of this class, owned by men of no character, and managed by desperadoes, being permitted to ply at all. Every year, however, alarming accidents occur on the western rivers, owing to the steamboats striking on snags in the channel, — logs of timber which get fixed in the bed of the stream, and perforate a vessel's bow in a second, when she is steaming against the current. As these constantly change their position, the most skilful pilot cannot always avoid them ; and they form a source of danger which will only be entirely removed when the forests at the head waters of the Mississippi and Mis- souri fall beneath the settlers' axe. There is nothing which strikes the stranger more forcibly on reaching New York, than the various uses to which the marine steam-engine has been applied on the bay, Hudson, and East Eiver. It drives vessels of every conceivable model and size ;• huge ocean mail VXBBY BOATS. d7 packeti ; light«r built sliipB, Employed in the ooasting trade ; river steamers of vast size, fitted up like palaces ; ferry-boats resembling moving bridges ; tugs which appear to be all paddleboxes together ; barges conveying piles of flour-barrels ; vessels, in short, of every descrip- tion and all possible dimensions. Then some are pro- pelled by side-wheels, some by a screw, and others by one wheel working at the stern ; there are low-pressure boats and high-pressure boats^ boats like castles in point of height and size, and boats scarcely more elevated than rafts, all steaming along at full speed, and threading their way among the thousand sailing craft at anchor, in motion, or attached to the wooden quays. At a dis- tance, they look like sea-fowl of different shapes and plumage, pelicans and petrels of a variety peculiar to a newly-discovered world. The system of ferries in the United States is as nearly perfect as any human contrivance can well be, and contrasts very favourably with our clumsy plan. No heaving of ropes, no shouts of " back her," " stop her," no unearthly noises deafen the passengers, but the greatest order, regularity, and method prevail. The steamers are built to suit the wooden piers, — in fact, are bridges driven by an engine at the rate of fifteen miles an hour, with cabins on each side, and two roadways in the centre for carts and carriages, which drive in at one end and out at the otherj and thereby reach their destination sooner than if there had been no dividing water over which to travel. The ferries near New York ate admirably managed, and pay well* You can cross to Brooklyn every two or three minutea, at a cost of one cent, or a halfpenny, and to Staten Island for six-and-a-quarter cents. In the morning, these vessels are crowded with gentlemen smoking cigars and reading the newspapers, supplied to them by boys waiting on the quay. You pay the fare at a gateway on entering. I have crossed the East Eiver at midnight, with one hundred people. The ferry on the Susquehanna at Havre de G^race presents a somewhat remarkable example — •■ # sum 88 AMEBIC A AND THE AMEBIC ANS. of American ingenuity. The Philadelphia and Baltimore railroad there crosses the river, the locomotive and baggage wagon sliding off the rails on the line to rails laid on the upper deck of a huge ark of a steamboat, thus saving the delay and expense consequent on the removal of innumerable trunks. Many years ago, the Americans introduced screw- i steamers of very light draught of water on shallow I streams and on streams where side-wheels would have injured the banks. Most of the small vessels on narrow creeks and rivers, however, are propelled by one un- covered wheel at the stem, driven by long cranks from the engine at the centre of the ship. Even on the Ohio and Mississippi in summer, these boats in a great measure supersede the usual mail packets propelled by paddles, although their rate of speed is much less. The low-pressure river steamers which ply on the Hudson, the lakes, and in aU the northern and western states of America, may, without doubt, be classed as superior in point of speed, elegance, comfort, and con- venience to any vessels in the world used for a similar purpose. They ought, long ago, to have been introduced on the Ehine, the Danube, the Ganges, and the Nile, on the Lakes of Constance, Geneva, Zurich, and Como, and other waters navigated by civilized nations. You find them, of course, of various sizes, and differing somewhat as to the internal arrangement ; but the finest are from 250 to 350 feet long, have three decks, provide berths for from 300 to 500 passengers, and, in favourable circum-^ stances, average eighteen to twenty-two miles an hour. It is worth crossing the Atlantic to see the ' Francis Skiddy,* with her four funnels, enormous paddle- wheels, and brilliantly-lighted saloons, start on the North' Eiver. The captain tingles his bell, the man at the gangway shouts " all aboard," and the huge vessel moves on in majestic silence, like an enormous animal of unwonted powers. These ships all draw little water, and are very sharp at the bow. The upper saloon, ex- tending from the stem to immediately below the wheel- STEAM BOATS. ae house within a few feet of the cutwater, is furnished with a sumptuousness which surprises a European. Velvet-pile carpets, pianos, reading-tables, couches, and tete-a-tete chairs, make one fancy himself in a Parisian saloon ; the state-rooms ^ncer from this splendid apart- -^lent, and, in the centre, the engine is boxed off by ^^a) ogany panelling. The captain's office, bar-room, ladies' drawing-room, pantries, &c., occupy the main- deck. vrhUe below is a public apartment extending from stem to stern, with beds all round, where the meals are served. Most of these vessels are pictures of neatness iind order ; everything is kept scrupulously clean ; and, when proceeding at the rate of twenty miles an hour, you experience very little sound or motion. I have stco ' on the hurricane or upper-deck of one of these floating p laces, going so fast that the resistance of the ai'* /r ade it impossible to face the bow without shelttr, anu. sf on her, two minutes after the tinkling of a little bell, lie s^ ill as a phantom-ship on the water. No dis- agreeable sound was heard, no escaping steam deafened the passengers, no shouts and bawlings awakened sleepers as on board our British packets ; everything was done systematically, silently, and well. I shall not soon forget a voyage in the * Buck Eye State' from Buffalo to Tatroit, on Lake Erie. She was to leave the former city late m the evening, and fortunately, I had secured a state-room early in the forenoon previous to the arrival of the eastern cars ; for, by eight o'clock, the captain's office was blockaded with people wanting sleeping apartments, and, for three hours afterwards, the deck presented a scene of confusion impossible to describe, No fewer than 600 passengers, having several tons of luggage, ivere striving to get near the steward's window for the chance of securing berths, elbowing each other without ceremony, vituperating agents who had sold them false tickets, and bewailing their hard lot in heinfr compelled to sleep on the floor. Then there were maiy groups of deck-passengers preparing their coarse blankets and buffalo-skins to keep out the 40 AMERICA AifTS THl AXEBICANS. dews of the night, men, women, and children, huddled together in every comer which promised protection from the wind. Amidships, and forward, the deck was covered with boxes, bales, barrels, carts, horses, cows, pigs, dogs, in fact, merchandise and lire stock of everj description. Such a scene as this may be witnessed each eyening of the week at any port on the great eastern rivers or lakes of North America. There is as much resemblance between a modem line-of-battle ' ship and Noah's Ark as between any steamer now afloat on European waters and the high- {Pressure boats which ply in the valley of the Missis- sippi. They are simply barges, drawing from four to seven feet water, supporting, by means of upright beams, a long, narrow, wooden house, which consists of a ssloon with state-rooms on each -side, and ladies' apartments at the sternj separated from the principal cabin by folding- doors. Each of the sleeping-rooms has also another door opening on a gallery^ where the passengers can lounge and enjoy the scenery. The roof of the saloon forms the hurricane-deck, a promenade tmprotecj;ed by railings, and generally covered with soot and charcoals Two rusty funnels and the wheeUhouse rise above it* and there you can enjoy an extensive prospect of the sulrroundiiig country. The engine works on the lower* j deck without any covering, and is spread over as much space as possible, in order to prevent the vessel drliwing too much water. The machinery of these ships costs very little money in comparison with that of low-pressure steamers, and, therefore, they prefer it, in a country where there is much enterprise and little capital. Be- hind the boilers, the cargo and deck-passengers are stowed away ; alongside of them are huge piles of fire- wood, which costs two dollars a cord. Stalwart negroeii may be seen, night and day, feeding the fires unceas- ingly with pineJogs. During the hours of darkness the sparks, emanating from the funnels and floating in the air, are quite beautifld. They look like myriads of fiire* flies. You scarcely see the hulls of the vessels at all, HIBH^VBEIBUBS PACKITIi 41 thi cUck i^rotruding greatly orer the gunWAle, id as to aavf M much cotton, tohaoco, and flour as possible. All the movements of the machinery are guided by the steersman, who communicates with the engineer by means of little bells. He ^olls the great bell on the hurricane-deck once when he wishes the men to com- me ice or to cease sounding, twice when he meets an- other steamer, and several times when he wishes to land or take in passengers. He will stop anywhere on the bank where the water is deep enough to enable him to run the steamer's bow up to the shore. On approach- ing » large town, or a place where freight has to be landed, the steam-pipe utters a terrific howl, like the roar of a dozen African lions. Numerous flat-boats, with wood for the steamers, lie at various points on the banks. When a packet gets short of fuel she is steered in shore, takes one of these- barges alongside^ and drops it astern when the wood has been put on board. Most of the Mississippi insteamers are built at New Albany,in Indiana, and last fit)m three to five years. They cost 6000/. to 12,000/. The pilots get 120 dollars to 160 dollars per month. The crack boat, in 1853, was the * Eclipse' of 250-horse power, with berths for 400 passengers. It is not uncommon for the transient steamers going up the Arkansas or the Missouri to ring a bell and blow oif steam three days before starting j and, after they have really left their moorings, to remain a day or two at intermediate stations, looking out for freight *ind passengers. A man may be seen rushing doWn the levee at St. Louis, carpet-bag in hand, panting in his haste to catch a steamer which, in fact, has no intention of departing for a couple of days, or, at least, till hfer berths have been all taken. A stray Englishman, now and then in the western country, gets most decidedly " sold," and a natural display of virtuous indignation Only makes his position doubly unpleasant. There is no medium between a United States mail-packet and a craft, the movements of which are as uncertain as those of the piratical rovers of Scandinavia. 42 AMERICA AKD THE AMEBICANS. « On the Atlantic seaboard, as well as in the Missis- sippian valley, American steamers occasionally race, when tarred-wood, lard-barrels, Ohio hams, or any other com- bustible material which may be at hand, is thrown into the fires, and passengers, in the excitement of the mo- ment, encourage the reckless disregard of life and pro- perty shown by the officers. I, myself, was on board a vessel on the St. Lawrence, belonging not to the United States, however, but to Canada, when the deck was so hot that we could not walk on it, and gangs of men were employed to throw water from buckets over the timber near the engine, to prevent it breaking out in a blaze. But such scenes are, every year, becoming less frequent, and not one-half of the current stories in regard to them may be considered worthy of credence. Strange things, now and then, do occur on the western waters, but the credulity of European travellers offers a tempt- ing bait to Americans, and you often hear intelligent Englishmen relating tales about recent steamboat racing on the great river, which, in point of fact, have been stand- ing Joe Millers since the close of the revolutionary war. The rapidity with which railroads have of late years been formed from place to place throughout the United States, speaks volumes for the practical energy of the people. The number of miles ready in 1846 was 6700 ; at the close of 1854 there were 13,315 miles in opera- tion, making, with 12,029 miles uncompleted, an aggre- gate of 25,343 miles, over which we may expect traffic before another twelvemonth has elapsed. The great majority of these are single lines, constructed at as little expense as possible, and therefore very much less durable than ours. In some cases, the rails consist merely of wooden beams laid longitudinally, and shod with iron. In most instances they are light, and so badly graded, that an English engineer would consider it dangerous to travel on them ; but then the Americans do not run nearly so many trains per diem as we do, and therefore slighter materials suffice. By economising in the wear BAILBOAOS. 48 and tear of the plant, as well as of the carriages, they save money to the shareholders, however the public may suflfer. Eight per cent, may be quoted as a fiir average dividend in the New World. Many lines for a time pay 10 and even 16 per cent., but being imperfectly constructed, require in the course of a few years to lay aside a large sum for repairs. The insufficient and ricketty -looking character of the bridges will strike a stranger from the old country. They are all of wood, and often have no parapet or side-walk. The Phila- delphia and Baltimore line crosses two wide estuaries, that of the Bush Eiver, three-quarters of a mile broad, and that of the Gunpowder, upwards of a mile-and-a- half in width, on frail erections, over which a High- lander would scarcely venture to urge his pony. The excessive meanness of the station-houses will also attract notice. The majority of them are mere sheds, scarcely watertight, and generally not a little dirty. The Wash- ington terminus is a perfect pigsty; that at Albany resembles the stables of a carter in poor circumstances ; here and there the train starts from the middle of a street, tickets being sold at a neighbouring shop, and in Georgia on one occasion 1 found the locoraotive and cars waiting for us in the midst of a field of Indian com, no edifice of any sort being in sight. All these imperfec- tions and inconveniences will, however, in course of time, be remedied ; the railroad works at Cleveland, on Lake Erie, already remind one in point of extent and system of those in England ; at Indianopolis, five com- panies have joined and built a handsome oiation, on the same plan as ours, and at the great Eastern cities im- proved termini are in progress. Very few American railroads have any fence ; consequently, cattle, horses, and pigs perpetually stray on the line and retard the engine. I have over and over again, too, seen a train stop to take in a passenger who waved his hat or hand- kerchief to the driver. Most persons know that the Americans do not use carriages of the same construction as those in Europe, but long cars, each holding about 44 AMIBIOA Ain& l^tLH AllESIOANS. Skty pttOpld, And Ideating oti two aitleii'edB wHicli htHA^h off at the extremities to support eight wheels. There is a passage down the middle, and a door at both ends, so that you oan walk about while the train is in motion. A portion of all recently built cars is partitioned off as a retiring-room and closet for ladies, and in hot Weather, a barrel of ice-water is proyided for the accommodation of passengers. At the stations, boys selling peaches, apples, nuts, gingerbread, lozenges, newspapers, guide^ books, maps, and tracts, rush through the cars adrer* tising their yarious wares. BVery train in the United States can be stopped by the eonductor, or even by any passenger who may be ill, by means of a cord carried along the roof of each carriage, and attached to the bell on the locomotive. The rate of speed even of the best- made lines, seldom exceeds twenty-five miles an hour;* I once took seven hours and a half to travel eighty-eight miles, during a cold, frosty night, in Alabama. On some tracks there are deep cuttings and innumerable plank bridges over ravines ; but generally speaking, the even-* ness of the surface, the cheapness of the land, and the plentiful supply of timber, have enabled the Americans to construct tolerable railroads at very little expense. Of course they could not have built them at all without Irishmen, " the hewers of wood and drawers of water*' of the present stirring age. The long ears are more noisy than our English carriages, and in a bright sun not so pleasant, on account of the nimiber of their windows. On the other hand, they admit more fresh air in close weather, you see the country better from them, and over a well-laid track, they are smoother to travel in, always excepting at the curves, the abruptness of which would not be permitted by British law. Those of the Erie line, on the banks of the Delaware, try one's nerves most unmercifully. The engineers work, not in the open air, exposed to all kinds of weather, as with us, but in a wooden house with large windows. The locomotives bum wood, and have consequently huge chimneys. Some of them have a path protected by a railing, on which MlliWXY TBATRM.IKO. 48 the driver can walk round them when they ave at full speed. They snort rather than whistle, as a signal of their approaoh. Travelling in the United States haa gone ahead of the facilities offered by the railroad com? panies who have not improved, altered, and added as they ought to have done, hut attempting to do a great business at little coat, have put in jeopardy the lives of passengers. Many have yet only a single line, although long ago the trafl^o on them- required a double one ; stations have become too small, officials are over« worked and underpaid, and hence all sorts of irregularities daily occur. When I was first in America — in 1846-^ railway accidents were almost unknown, whilst in 1858 there were no fewer than 138, killing 234 persons and wounding 496. For this the public have themselves to blame. By e^tposing through the medium of the newso papers instances of c^elessness and neglect, by fining the companies and punishing the offlqjals with severity when lives have been lost, thay might have, ere now, checked the recklessness of those on whom such a serious responsibility devolves. I have seen mere children in charge of a switch at the passing of express trains, and signal^lamps omitted to be placed on the last car when the engine had given way in a wood at night, with another one only a few miles behind it, and nearly one thousand passengers in the sars. The conductors on American railways have far too much in their power, from the habit which the people have acquired of tra- velling without purchasing tickets, and from so many small stations having no clerks. Several of these men have become rich with very suspicious suddenness, there being no check on them at all, either in the shape of bookkeepers or biUs of fares. They charge the country people in many instances just what they please, make hay while the sun shines, and then " vamoose" to the new settlements beyond the Mississippi. Travellers do not require in the United States as in Great Britain to be constantly looking after their luggage. As soon as a man enters a station, a brass 46 AMEBICA AJSTD THE AHSBICANS. ticket with a number on it is attached by a leathern strap to his trunk, and a duplicate ticket handed tov him, on presenting which at the end of his journey, he gets his portmanteau without the trouble of taking care of it, or the probability of its being lost. Many of the railroads now in the course of construction on the level prairie lands of the west, are what they call "air" lines, i.e., lines without any curves whatever. The Illinois Central, when completed from Chicago to Cairo, at the junction of the Mississippi with the Ohio, will form a straight line 475 miles long. This plan, it is believed, will effect a great saving in the wear and tear of engines, cars, and rails, but it by no means adds to the charm of travelling. They are a remarkable feature in the rapidly advancing civilization of those vast regions between the Missouri and the Lakes, developing the agricultural and mineral resources of the best parts of the XJnion, and encouraging the settler to cultivate lands which require neither clearing nor manure, but have hitherto been too far removed from the markets of the larger cities, on which the farmer depends. Let us pause here, and look on these " Gardens of the Desert,'* as they were only sixty years ago, when, un- disturbed by the snorting locomotive, and covered with herbage, they afforded pasture-ground for the buffalo, meadows painted with flowers, over which the prairie wolf scampered in pursuit of his prey. The Indian built his wigwam beneath the earthy temples of a pre- vious race ; the deer fed peacefully among the tall, thick grass; the war-whoop summoned the chieftains to the battle, and the vultures to the field of blood; dense forests and wild lakes separated these rich deposits from the covetous eyes of the whites. Not a sail glanced on the rivers between the glades of the wood, not an axe injured the maples, not a plough turned up the wealthy soil; "the Iron Mountain" remained un- discovered beyond the " Father of Waters ;" the lead mines were unknown; the falls of St. Anthony drove no utilitarian mills, and noisy steamers did not interfere 0HAKGE8 IN THE TAB WEST. 47 athem Led to Ley, he ig care of the Q level ' lines, [llinois at the form a 5lieved, agines, larm of rapidly 3en the ral and 3n, and require een too with the red man's canoe. But the pioneer of the wilderness was at hand; the west wind had wafbed towards his log-hut the aroma of flowers ; his keen eye detected a land flowing with milk and honey ; he gave the signal to his fellows, and the advanced guard of the Anglo-Saxons asserted their claim to the soil. For a time a bloody warfare raged; but the contest was unequal and not long. The buflalo crossed the Missis- sippi, townships were formed, the forests fell, and the Indian at the burial-place of his fathers sadly mur- mured — « They waste us, — ay — like April snow In the warm noon we shrink away ; And fast they follow, as we go Towards the setting day, — ' Till they shall fill ^e limd, and we Are driven into the western sea." "^ CHAPTER IV. Political Constitution of the United States— -Federalism — ^The Senate and House of Representatives— A Reception at the White House — The Presidential office — Parties in America — Capacity of the people for self-government — The despotism of a pure democracy— Politics a trade — Political corruption. The United States of America constitute, as is well- known, a Federal Eepublic composed of thirty-one free and independent commonwealths, which have executives, judiciaries, and legislative assemblies of their own. The general government consists of a president, vice-presi- dent and cabinet council, aided by a numerous official staif , — and congress, of a senate and house of representa- tives, who meet in Washington on the first Monday of December. Two members chosen by the legislature of each state constitute the senate. They hold office for six years, one-third of them being elected biennially, and the vice-president, ex officio^ presides over their deliberations. The people elect the house of represen- tatives by a direct vote, a certain number being appor- tioned to each state after the census returns, made every ten years. The number is fixed at 284, so that mn^mm^mnifmmm "i^ ' ^- i Mu m'tmfmmmmrm liM«niMPMn«K«P*"P 48 AMXBIOA. AVU VKB AMBBIOAKS. the Qonstituenciei and not the memhei^ inereaie vith the population. The term of retaining the appoinif ment is two years. It is not mj intention to enter upon an analysis of the American constitution, or to weary my readers with a detailed description of a political ma< uae, which so far from heing siipple ^nd capable of easy explanation, as we in Europe generally suppose, is one of the most complicated, yet ingeiiimii and practically perfect that has ever been devised by the mii^d of man. It would be tedious to my readeii were I to convey minute information here on auoh a theme; but no educate! person living in this stirring age should neglect to gtudy a subject so well worthy of consideratiptt and m important in its bearings on the coloniEation and jOfovemment of the world. In some countries federalism seems the only system. which unites the prosperity and freedom of the parts with a vigorous uationality of the whole, which reconciles a diversity of interests to a consolida- tiou pf power, which enables provinces di^ring from each other in climate, customs and laws, to fonu ntypng nations, influential in all quarters of the globe. How many empires have prematurely fallen because the natural operation of the central principle spreads dis- satisfaction in districts removed from the capital I How often have municipal institutions saved oommonwealthfi which, but for their conservative tendency, would have shared the fate of Assyria and of Eome ! " The federal system, however," says M. G-uizot, — I translate from his * History of Civilization of Europe,'^ — ■ * is one which cer- tainly requires the highest development of reason,morality and civilization in the society for which it is intended." In a few years the state of Canada, of South Africa, of Australia, and of New Zealand may render it necessary for Englishmen to pay a little more attention to a question which already begins to excite some degree of interest in these colonies. The congress of the United States attends only to matters which affeet the well-being of th^ vmoju. ig^ THE SENATE. 49 general, such as relations with foreign govemments, the sale and management of the public lands, the Mint, the Custom-house, the Post-office, and the military esta- blishments, leaving all affairs of a purely local nature to the senate and house of representatives of each indi- vidual state. The constitutions, laws, ordinances and arrangements of these separate commonwealths differ in many particulars. They agree only in one, viz., the universal recognition of the political equality of man. An American acquires his first experience of public life in his native township or city ; then he obtains a seat in the legislature of the state, and his hopes ,are crowned when he is elected a member of the national congress at Washington. It was my good fortune to be in that city during the discussion of the Oregon question, in the spring of 1846. Both houses were in session, and I heard several in- teresting debates. The senate meets in a semicircular chamber in the Capitol, the members occupying detached chairs and desks, and strangers a narrow gallery. Com- posed of men above forty years of age, who are elected lor a term of six years, it is swayed neither by the rash counsels of youth, nor by the ever changing caprice of the people. The biennial change of one-third of its number on the other hand inftises new blood into its deliberations, and prevents it unduly retarding legisla- tion, while by no means rendering it subservient to the prevalent follies of the day. In all cases of difficulty, in all national emergencies, when democracy crosses the boundaries of common sense, and runs madly aAvay from restraint, experience has taught the Americans to look to the senate for the salvation of the country. Trans- acting business quickly, details being managed in com- mittee, possessed of executive as well as legislative functions, the president being unable to act without its concurrence, its calm and habitual dignity contracts remarkably with the excitement and hubbub too often witnessed in the house of representatives, when fifty members speak at once, resolutions are passed without E 50 ▲HEBICA AJTD TSIS AMEBIOAKS. consideratioUy and personal rencontres take place before tlie speaker's chair ; it occupies a high place in public estimation, having more than once by the prudence and maturity of its decisions, and by its firmness after the vote has been taken, preserved the iategrity of the Union, and saved the nation from untold calamities. Thus, in " ""^3, by refusing to pass the belligerent resolutions jt the other house, on tiie North-west Boundary dispute, the senators saved the Bepublic from unnecessarily embarking in a war with Great Britain, which must have proved disastrous to both powers ; and many years before, when President Jackson and the representatives wished to issue letters of marque, for reprisals against France in the matter of the spoliation claims, the senate, under the leadership of Henry Clay, by a large majority declined to sanction the measure. Mr. Mackay remarks,* that "it is as far before the House of Lords, in all that enters into our conceptions of a deliberative assembly, as the House of Commons is before the House of Bepresentatives." This I think is too strongly expressed; but certainly no one can enter the Chamber without being struck with the quiet manliness, the dignified bearing, the intellectual expres- sion of features, and the remarkable phrenological development of the men who direct the counsels of Young America. I listened with a kind of veneration to Mr. Benton, &om Missouri, the personification of western ideas, a man singularly like our own lamented Professor Wilson in personal appearance, and like him too in the characteristics of his mind ; to Mr. Cass, &om Michigan, notwithstanding his anti-British tendencies and ill-natured remarks ; to John C. Calhoun, &om South Carolina, although the advocate of southern rights and untiring champion of slavery ; and on the Whig side to Mr. Clayton, of Delaware, with his strong practical sense ; to Mr. Crittenden, one of the most accomplished statesmen in the country ; and finally to Daniel Webster, * "Western World," vol i., p. Umm HOUra OT BlPBESiyTATITES. 51 of whose wonderM oratory and profound legal know- ledge it would be a work of supererogation to say one word. He, and Calhoun, and Clay, have since been gathered to their fathers ; a constellation of great men disappeared all at once from that brilliant sky ; but although just at this moment the senate is not so remarkable in point of rhetoric, it retains, those ele- ments of mental and moral greatness which give stability to the institutions of the land. Let us cross the lobby, and, penetrating into another wing of the noble Capitol, enter the House of Eepresentatives. How changed the scene! The speaker sits vainly endeavouring to obtain order, an honourable gentleman in possession of the chair is addressing to a few in- timates around him a speech really intended for the edification of his constituents in the West, at all events wholly inaudible am" it the Babel of tongues which amazes the stranger. The other members are collected in groups laughing and talking aloud, reading the news- papers, walking up and down the floor, sitting chewing tobacco with their legs on the backs of chairs, or pitch- ing wafers and paper pellets at each other out of the inkstands. To make confusion worse confounded, it is the practice on finishing a despatch, or letter intended for the post-office, or for delivery in the building, to summon the boys employed as messengers by striking the flat side of the epistle with great force on the desk, and thereby producing a sound like the sharp report of a musket. One might as well harangue an audience below the precipice of Niagara, or during a heavy cannonading, as endeavour to make himself heard in such an inde- corous assembly. Yet now and then a comparative lull takes place, and during these angel's visits I heard the shrill tones of old John Quincy Adams, the graceful periods of "Wiuthrop, and the business-like statements of Joseph B. Ingersoll. There are clever men, and easy and correct speakers in this curious crowd, sitting side by side with persons of limited education and gifts, persons of sindlar taste and attainments to the honour- e2 r^ 52 AMEBICA AND THE AMEBIOAKS. able member, who, during one of my visits began his oration with the striking sentence, " Mr. Speaker, I am no lawyer, no, sir ; I am a harness maker, and proud to confess it." And can we wonder at the vulgarity, and ignorance, and violence often displayed on the floor of the House of Eepresentatives, when we consider the character of the constituencies, and the districts from whence the legislators come; lumber men from the cold forests of Maine; demagogues sent by the low Irish of New York ; crossbreeds between Spaniards and Indians from the swamps of Florida ; French Creoles from New Orleans ; wild frontier settlers from the Red River ; stolid Germans from Upper Pennsylvania ; pio- neers of the wilderness from the banks of the Missouri ; Saxons and Dutch, Italians and Celts, a motley repre- sentation of nations, peoples, and tongues, as varied as that which surrounded Napoleon in the zenith of his success, or visited London during the Exhibition of 1851. Then the eight dollars per diem allotted to each repre- sentative, enable men to enter the House who are not independent ; western farmers, as well as New York merchants, rough mechanics, no less than the planters of the South. All ranks and conditions of life, all em- ployments, proi^cssions and trades, may find themselves represented in this deliberative chamber, to which we may appropriately apply the language of Burke to the Na- tional Assembly of France : " It has not even the phy- siognomy and aspect of a grave legislative body — nee color imperii J necfrona erat ulla senatus.^^ Yet, uncouth and singular as are its manners, it is a faithful mirror of the country itself; among backwoodsmen in frieze garments, and seedy-looking individuals whose coats want buttons, and are rather the worse of the wear, may be found those who have attended the levees at St. James', and danced in thd Tuileries with the court dames of France — men of polish and accomplishments, who, in troublous times, m ike themselves heard above the din caused by rudeness and ignorance, and who, too few in number to give a g&iteral tone to the deliberations, BECISPTION AT THE WHITE HOITSE. 58 gan his 3r, I am roud to ity, and floor of der the ts from rom the the low irds and Creoles the Eed lia; pio- [issouri ; )j repre- raried as h of his of 1851. eh repre- are not w York planters , all em- imselves we may Ithe Na- bhe phy- |dy — nee LCOUth lirr or of frieze coats le wear, ps at St. le court iments, Id above rho, too [rations, once and again, by the force of talent and superior education, recal the assembly to order and self-respect. During my stay at "Washington, I attended a reception given at the White House by President Polk, and had the pleasure of conversing for sometime with that gentleman. No ceremony is observed at the levees of the chief magistrate of the great republic. I drove up to the door in a very shabby cab, sent the only servant in the hall, an Irishman, whose livery seemed to have been made for his predecessor in office, into the room for a friend, a member of congress, and was by him introduced to Mr. Polk and the other notables present. The president and vice-president of the United States, are elected for a term of four years, by an elec- toral college, composed of delegates from the several states, according to their population. These are chosen by a vote of the people. Eanke, in his History of the ^opes,* remarks that "the choice of a pontiff, like many other promotions, was gradually made to depend on who had the fewest enemies, rather than on who possessed superior merit." Exactly the same thing may be said about the choice of a candidate for the presi- dential chair by the respective parties in America. They nominate not, a statesman like Henry Clay, or Daniel Weljster, or John C. Calhoun, who, in the course of a lifetime devoted to political struggles, have made many foes as well as many friends, whose sentiments are too pubUclyknowB onUor points, in regard to which there is difference of opinion in the same ranks, but persons of less notoriety, whose views on some ques- tions no one knows, and who will command the undi- vided votes of the party, as being simply Democrats or Whigs. The conteist in 1844, was between Henry Clay and James K. Polk ; the former one of the most illus- trious politicians of his age ; the latter an individual ot whom few had even heard until his election, shortly before, as speaker of the Lower House. The veteran m: * Boha's "Stacndard Library," vol. ii., p. 107. 64 AHBBIOA JLKD THE AMSBIOAITS. Kentuckian would not have been a&aid of the talents of Calhoun; Van Buren's reputation might haye been turned against himself; but no sooner had Clay been informed who his opponent was to be, than he said, *^ I am beaten," for he knew that the comparatiyely unknown candidate would command the suffrage of every Looofoco in the land. But whilst it has become a^lmost impos- sible for a leading statesman to obtain the highest honour which his country can bestow, that dignity has of late been more than once awarded to military heroes. The Americans, notwithstanding their republican simpli- city, and dislike to standing armies, are in common with other nations, too easily dazzled by the glory of con- quest, and blinded by the excitement of war. The martial exploits of General Harrison gave him, in 1840, an unwonted majority ; in 1848, Zaohary Taylor, com- monly called " Old Bough and Beady,** although no politician, triumphed over his adversary, as the conqueror of Buena Vista, whose achievements in arms gratified the vanity of a people thirsting for fame. No Whig could refuse to vote for him on account of his obscurity as a statesman, whilst a few democrats tendered to him their suffrages as the Wellington of the W^st. In 1862, both candidates were general officers; neithjBr of them had figured in the senate, but Fierce, as well as Scott, had fought in the Mexican war. Political parties in the United BtatdS seem^ to 6, European, so much divided and subdivided, and the various sections assume namos, so apparently unmean- ing and strange, that he gives up in despair the attempt to understand their differences. Many Englishmen have lived years in New York, without in the least Compre- hending the distinction between AVTiigs and Democrats, Federalists and Locofocos, EreesoHers and Native Ame- ricans, Barnburners and Old Hunkers, Hardshells and Softshells. These represent shades of opinion on par- ticular questions, which we shall not now stay to discuss ; for every citizen of the republic, whatever may be his sentiments on certain measures, belongs to POIITIOAt iPABTIEfl. 05 ' some eitent to one of the two primary diyisions of Wlugfl or Democrats. The point originally contested between them was the rights and authority of indi- ridual States in relation to the Federal government. The latter were very jealous of the central power; the former inclined to give greater consolidation to the united republic by encroaching on the prerogatives of the separate commonwealths. This subject, however, now seldom occupieis public attention, although the great p^^rties are never at a loss to find questions on which to fight their battles and measure their strength. The Whigs may be styled the Conservatives of the New World, their principal support being derived from the rich merchants, the old planters, the monied in- terest, and the manufacturers ; whilst the Democrats rely on the tradesmen, the operatives, and the immense population employed in cultivating the soil. It is impossible for any one to study the institutions and past history of the United States, without confess- ing the remarkable capacity of the people for self- government. In the West, as well as on the Atlantic seaboard, churches, schools, hospitals, benevolent societies, newspapers, Ubraries, and court-houses keep pace with the numerical and material growth of the community ; legislative ability seems inherent in the race ; and, notwithstanding the enormous immigration of ignorant persons from Europe, no fewer than 285,000 of whom landed in 1863, at New York alone, not only has government been able to perform its functions, but the coimtry has obtained a high place amongst the nations of the earth. I can conceive of no spectacle displaying in a greater degree the elements of grandeur, than twenty-three millions of men, educated, intelligent, and industrious, enjoying the freest political privileges, and yet without the presence of a standing army, setting an example of order to the civilized world. It remains for me to notice some things in con- nexion with American politics, which to an observant and thoughtful Bnglishman, however partial to his trans- 56 AMERICA AKD THE AMEBICA5B. atlantic brethren, do not appear worthy of praiaO) and of which many great and good men in the republic speak with reluctance and regret. Twenty-two hundred years ago Aristotle observed that a democracy has many striking points of resemblance to a tyranny, and Mi . Burke, writing on the same subject, remarks,* that " the majority of the citizens in a republic is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority." Conversant as we are in this country with the conflicts between whigs, tories, and radicals, with the excitement of election contests and the bitter- ness of political strife, we have no idea how severe and exacting a despot is Party in the United States. It per- mits no individual action, exacts a slavish obedience, and represses freedom of opinion with as high a hand as Marshal Eadetsky or the Eussian Czar. Should a man, no matter how talented and valuable as a leader, refuse to give up his own private views at the bidding of this tyrant, and decline thus to be dragged at his chariot- wheels, he loses for ever his weight and influence, listens , to the execrations of thousands who formerly himg on his lips, and is hurled ignominiously from office and power. It is a strange anomaly that in free America, a politician cannot, without degradation, think and vote as he pleases, but must stand by the banners of whiggery or locofocoism through good repute and bad repute, in contests of which he disapproves no less than in those which commend themselves to his ideas of right. Such a bondage naturally rends to deaden the influence of principle, and corrupt the moral sense. It axjcounts for some episodes in American history not very creditable either to the legislature or to the people. In this particular, the better informed amongst our transatlantic friends know right well that there is far more liberty enjoyed under the shadow of England's old time-honoured monarchy than in the model republic, with all its respect for the individual rights of man. Nothing mortifies * <' ]R,efleotions on the Eevolntioii in Fnmoe." THS DESPOTISM 07 DEMOOBACY. 67 lose }uch of for ible Jonathan more than to hear a person brought up under a constitutional government in Europe complain of tyranny in the working of institutions, so often vaunted as the freest on earth. Again, there exists in the United States a class of men who make politics a trade, who fre- quently manage to obtain an ascendency in the national and the state legislatures, and whose acts impress strangers very unfavourably in regard to their fellov • countrymen in general. These men are always ready to raise a popular cry to subserve their own ends ; they clamour for justice and principle, whilp* they want the emoluments of office and the distribution of patronage. No doubt every American is to some extent u polii;ician, and takes some degree of interest in the government c his country; but in too many instances legislation g^ti^ into the hands of the body in question, and *^en the upright, intelligent citizens, disgusted with tlieii pro- ceedings, keep aloof from public matters altogether, and in BO doing, of course, increase the evil which they deplore. Burke, in characterising the National Assembly of France, in the revolutionary times, says, " There were distinguished exceptions ; but the general composition was of obscure provincial advocates, of stewards of petty local jurisdictions, country attorneys, notaries, and the whole train of the ministers of municipal litigation, the fomenters and conductors of the pet j war of village vexation." This description applies bui; too forcibly to the many legislative bodies in America. Often have I heard the fact mourned over, but no remedv seemed to suggest itself to those who spoke of it, except the some- what violent one advocated by Dick the butcher, in King Henry the Sixth, who, addressing Jack Cade and his associates, exclaims, " The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."* The British House of Commons, with all its faults, represents the worth and intelligence, and commands the respect of the nation. To obtain a seat in it is the highest ambition of many who would consider King Henry the Sia^hf Part II., Act iv., Scene ii. 6d AMSBIOA AND THB AMSBIOAITS. it no honour whatever to associate with American repre- sentatiyes. In the United States there are both mer- chants and planters who profess it beneath their dignity to engage in political contests ; we all know that in England the noblest and proudest in the land require no inducement to offer their services to constituencies, and to secure a place in the legislature of their country. But in the Great Republic a class of men have sprung up, who devoted to th paHy-oeraoy as tmprincipled as the autocracies of Europe, and intimately acquainted with the machinery which giddes it^ exercise a paramount influence in legislation, regard state offices as belonging to them by right, and make politics a simple affair, not of principle, but of dollars. I have heard good men and true on tho other side of the Atlantic apply to posts under their government, language very similar to that used by Dr.* Chalmers,* when he characterised another institution as " a mere congeries of offices, by which to uphold the influence of patrons, and subserve the politics or the views of a worthless partisanship." This leads me further to notice an abuse Which I sincerely regret to say has crept into legislation on the Western Continent, and which I cannot describe better than by quoting the first paragraph of an article upon it in Harper's Magazine, one of the ablest periodicals published in the Union :t " Political comnftion — ^why has it become a jest and a bye-word amongst uS-*-a settled phrase de- noting a fixed fact in our history — a fkot now conceded by all parties, and which no intelligent man ever thinks of denying ? "We hear it from aU sides. There IS poli- tical corruption, and that too on the broadest scale — corrup don in all parties — corruption in leading partisans — corruption in political measures — corruption in poli- tical services — corruption in the dispensation of offices — corruption in the management of the press*-*-corruption among almost the entire class of those who may be called poMcians by profession— a growing corruption, or, what * "Life," by Dr. Hanna, vol. iv.. d. 243. t December, 1863.— Ja<«o/a ffMi. VOLVnOAXi GOBBUFTIOV. 59 is equally bad, a growing indifferenoe to conniption among the masses of the people." This is startling language, but truth compels me to say that it was a common theme of conversation and a common subject of complaint in intelligent circles during my last visit to the United States. Mr. Mackay* refers to " the pro- pensity for jobbing discovered by the federal authorities," and adds, "indeed, in this respect, I have heard several Americans declare that they believed their own govern- ment to be the most corrupt on earth." This appears to me too strong a condemnation, but the disease prevails in the state legislatures and in the councils of the various cities just as much as at Washington. No one in New York seemed for a moment to doubt the alleged jobbing and trickery resorted to in obtaining privileges from the civic rulers. Leading men of every shade in politics informed me that offices and favours were there openly bought and sold ; that aldermen and councilmen accepted these situations for the avowed purpose of getting quickly rich ; and that jobs every week were there per- petrated with impunity which in this country would bring to disgrace every person connected with them. I believe that as great corruption exists in the govern- ment of that city as was ever brought to light in the days of the Stuarts : and what is more, I have heard people defend it on the ground that in America all can at one time or other share in the plunder, whereas in Europe public robbery was the privilege of the few. "Within the limits of that municipality murders are of frequent occurrence, prisoners constantly escape, and highway robberies are neither few nor far between, whilst the police force in 1858 cost more than a million of dollars. In 1852 both sections of the democratic party combined to elect Franklin Pierce president of the United States. No sooner had he assumed the reins of power than they again quarrelled about the division of the Spoils, and ever since a most tmseemly controversy has ♦ *' Westini World," VOL i., p. 264. 69 AMEBIC A AND THE AMERICANS. raged in regard to emoluments and offices. A few years ago the same parties made a stalking-horse of principle ; but now they have thrown aside all disguises, and openly struggle for salaries. "The spoils cabinet," "the dis- appointed applicants," " the eager expectants," " the hungry politicians ;" such are some of the epithets which met my eye in all American newspapers, which were bandied about in congress, which headed placards, and which indicated painfully the state of feeling in America after the formation of the present cabinet. We have in Great Britain many abuses to deplore ; but let us be thankful that taken as a whole, there does not exist a more noble-minded and upright body of men than those who constitute our Houses of Parliament. ! CHAPTEE V. ..,f|f Payment of representative members — Frequent change of fanctionaries — Salaries of public servants too low — Stump oratory — The Army and Navy — Desire for territorial aggrandisement — Itsadvantagesand dis- advantages — Destiny of the Anglo-Saxon race — Permanency of demo- cratic institutions in America — National prospects of the United States. It is not for me to say how far the evils alluded to in the preceding chapter may be attributable to two prac- tices which have been adopted in America, but of which many persons in that country do not approve, viz., the payment of members, and the change of subordinate officials at the beginning of every presidential term. It is admitted, on all hands, that the remuneration given to legislators introduces into the state and national assemblies a host of adventurers, chiefly needy lawyers, who prefer getting a livelihood in this manner to seeking it in an industrial pursuit ; who reflect no honour on the councils of their country, and who repel men of integrity and standing from becoming candidates for public favour ; but ther. to aboUsh the fee, say the Americans, would be to disqualify poor men from taking office, and V years nciple; openly he dis- ' "the B which \i were ds, and Lmerica have in ; us be exist a Q those ■ ;^' ■' ■, ■-'^■ stionaries ^rmyand Band di8> of demo- 9 United I to in prac- which z., the dinate It given ^tional rers, ^eking )nthe jgrity mblic icans, and CHANGE OE FUNCTIOITAEIES. 61 would thereby violate the democratic constitution of the States. I have travelled with senators, resembling in personal appearance and in dress very much the carters whom you meet in Ireland, men with unwashen and un- shaven faces, long, threadbare, frieze great coats, and hats without shape or colour. In some parts of the country, these are considered marks of republican sim- plicity, and a man to secure popular favour must not allow his wife or daughters to appear in expensive attire, or, as they express it, in "loud fixins." The change of all functionaries holding office under the general govern- ment, when a new president assumes the reins of power, is another grievance of which many Americans complain. They admit the propriety of appointing an- other cabinet and members of government whose opinions coincide with those of the chief ruler, but see no reason why all the postmasters in the Jacksons and Jeffersonvilles throughout the Union should be turned out every four years, or just when they are becoming ac- quainted with the duties of their situations ; why a democrat may not make quite as good an exciseman as a whig; or why it is necessary that the coUector of customs, at New York, should be a Softshell and a Loeo- foco. They think that this system creates a class who carry on a trade in politics, who, out of office, keep the country in a ferment, and who, in office, constitute a mischievous bureaucracy. This principle, too, in some cases, has been applied to the appointment of judges, and, of course, cannot fail to impair the efficiency and lower the dignity of the bench. It may be urged, how- ever, in favour of the plan, that it gives the whole com- munity access to places of trust under government, and prevents the establishment of a permanent body of functionaries like that which exercises such an injurious influence in Prussia and France. I have given both sides of the argument on these two vexed questions, and leave my readers to form their own conclusions. It appears to me, after a careful examination of the duties performed by the principal officers under the 62 AMERICA AND THE AHBBIQAKB. United States' GoTemmenty that their ealaries are much too small. It is, no doubt, necessary in a republic to guard against ostentation, and to husband the public resources', but it is also necessary to give men such remuneration for their services as will remove them from all temptation to act dishonourably in a pecuniary point of view, and as wi •! offer an inducement to talent. The President gets 25,000 dollars, or 6000?. ; the mem- bers of his Cabinet 8000 dollars, or 1600Z. each ; the Judges of the Supreme Courts 4500 dollars each, or 900/. ; and the Ministers Plenipotentiary at Foreign Courts 9000 dollars, or 1800?, Since these sums were fixed America has become a great and wealthy nation, and some of her wisest men think that they might be very considerably increased with advantage to the public interest, both at home and abroad. The historian, Hallam, treating of the tranquillity prevalent in Venice, and, comparing it with the feuds between Gruelf and G-hibelin in the republics of Tuscany, observes,* that " the wildest excesses of faction are less dishonouring than the stillness and moral degradation of servitude." Pew liberal men will deny the truth of this proposition ; but still it must be felt that dema- gogueism and stump oratory, the inflammatory speeches of persons whom Fenimore Cooper well describes as " fel- lows, whose mouths are fiiied with liberty and equality, and whose hearts are overflowing with cupidity and gaQ,"t have done not a little to bring into disrepute public affairs on the American Continent. The harangues of such agitato:'3, and the wild doings of mobs under their control, reported in European newspapers, afford arguments to the opponents of popular rule, and strengthen the position of despots. In reality, they do not at all represent the feelings of the people, or the social state of the republic ; but, besides doing a world of mischief in their own country, they afford foreigners an opportunity of attacking it* institutions. , .iv^^* * "State of Europe duriug tUe Middi« Agw," vol. i., p, 328. + ♦♦The Spy," chapter X3riv. much lie to mblio Buch them Lniary ftlent. mem- .; the ch, OP )reigji were ation, ht be publio ^ uillity feuda*i soanyy T re Ua lers M'^^ STTTKP OBATOBB. 63 Baglishmen, accustomed to the plain, practical, and business-like addresses for which the House of Commons is distinguished, wiU not be easily reconciled to the elaborate essays delivered in Washington, or to the inflated superabundance of imagery and bombastic pero- rations which characterise American oratory. Both in the halls of legislature and in assemblies of the people, speakers use the most extravagant metaphors^ wander far away &om the subject under consideration into the fields of fancy, and, with that extraordinary fluency which distinguishes the political population, entertain their auditors with a string of highflown words, as meaningless as they are inflated. There is much more freedom of discussion, and much more sound logic in the public meetings of Great Britain than in those of the United States, I attended several during both my visits to the Western Continent, and must candidly con- fess that the proceedings of all, the self-adulation, the partisan flattery, the personalities, and the discursiveness of those who took part in them, left a very unpleasant impression on my mind. I have preserved a passage in the harangue of James T. Brady, a noted New York lawyer, at a gathering of the National Democrats, held last November in Metropolitan Hall in Broadway, and give it here as a specimen of the nonsense which American stump orators deliver, and American audiences cheer. After a violent personal attack on the leading men amongst the Free Boilers, and especially on John Van Buren, he thus proceeded to excite the sympathies of the two thousand citizens before him, against the father of that gentleman : — " Van Buren I I dislike the name. There was one President of the United States who for ever dishonoured and disgraced our national flag. Bemember the burning of the * Caroline ! ' Had the. American people been consulted on that memorable occasion, they would have raised a mighty shout of freedom, a shout which would have shaken the earth to its very centre, disturbed the order of Q-od's universe, and made this planet ofours fly out of its proper orbit e4i AiEEICA AND THE AMERICANS. to do8cribe .xn erratic coarse in the regions of infinite space." It is well known that the standing army of the United States numbers only about 12,000 men, ^vlloge duty is 1 -incipn^ly to guard the forts on its extensive frontiers. The people everywhere profess a rcpug niuce to such a force beinp; raado more numerous, as r c^rlevoiis misapplication of profitable labo'u*, as contraiy to the theory of a well-ordered republic, and as dangerous to the national liberties. You Hear them frequently ont this? subject, using almost the identical words which Mi. Pnlteney addressed to the Hoi^se of ComTnonB in 1732 : yet xhej have quite a. mania for military c ktinctionb, delight ii) play Ing at soldiers, and show anything but a peaceful spirit \vhei} they ixaagine an insult to the star- spangled banner. A successful general becomes at once a national id6l ; 6 very tldrd man you meet rejoices in the appellation of captain or colonel, and congress have on several occasions displayed a singular eagerness for war. The officers of the regular army must all be educated, and pass the examination at the West Point Academy, on the Hudson ; no soldier can rise from the ranks to a command, as under our monarchical insti- tuti' ns, and competent witnesses have frequently tes- tified io the superiority of the British private's condition to that of the rank and file in America.* There are sixty-four ships of war on the Navy List belonging to the general government ; but a great many of these are old, ill-constructed, and unserviceable. The Western members oppose an addition to their numbers, and an increased vote to secure their efficiency; but I think a feeling is gaining ground in the country, that the present state of this force is not worthy of a nation which, besides being rich and powerful at home, exercises a mighty influence in every quarter of the globe. The Americans are a nautical people, and, possessed of a powerful navy, they might promote the cause of freedom * See "Autobiography of an English Soldier in the U. S, Army," vol. ii., p. 307. K TEBBITOBIiJi EXTENSIOK. afinite )f the wliose casivc to t\\u 0U8 to itly on cli Mr. 1732 : icti.onb, ii' but a le star- at once jices in iss liave Hess for all be Point om the insti- y tes- dition are nag to ise are estem ,nd an ibink a ,t tbe Ination rcises Tbe of a [eedom Lrmy," jre and good government in regions wbere they are as yet comparatively little kno'v^n. But it is to the numerous and well-trained militia that the nation trusts for the preservation of order, the security of property, and the defence of its homes in time of need. This force, in 1853, was composed of no fewer than 2,2S4,732 men, and j&rom what I have seen of them in the various States, I must say that many regular troops in the pay of European Grovemments, will not compare with them in point of discipline or martial demeanour. We all know what their fathers did in the revolutionary war, and I am persuaded that the combined armies of the older world, Cossacks, Croatians, and Q-auls, could no more endanger the independence of America, than they could drain the Mississippi or submerge the Alle- ghanies. The martial spirit to which I have alluded, manifests itself in the thirst for territorial extension and aggran- disement, which so great a proportion of the people display. When in Washington, some years ago, I was sm'prised to observe the eagerness with which many politicians spoke of annexing Oregon and marching up to the Russian boundary ; Cuba is now regarded as a certain acquisition as soon as events warrant its seizure ; the noic„ casts a covetous eye over the fertile plains of Canada West and the navigation of the St. Lawrence ; and the south points in return to the magnificent table- ^jEUlds of Mexico, to its mineral wealth and delightful variety cf climate, all of which would be turned to account, were the land possessed by an active and vigorous race. Narrating his experience in the last named country, Mr. Bayard Taylor* says, " The natives acknow- ledged our greater power and intelligence as a nation, without jealousy, and with an anticipation rather than a fear, that our rule wiU one day be extended over them.'* We have all heard of the proposition to annex the Sandwich Islands, and of the negotiations being carried pn in Central America, It is, of course, the mob *. *' Bl Dorado," vol. ii., chap, ix, E m ^■X^MCk A^l^ Td« AMlittfCAKS. orators and violent partiBans who excite and encourage most tliie insatiable desire of new possessionB ; but even amongst moderate and judicious men, a strong convic* tion exists that the entire northern division of America will in time belong to the Confederation, and their views may be expressed by the well-known couplet: ** No pent-up Utica contracts our powers, For the whole boundless Continent is ours.'* Whilst there are those who make acquisition of terrl". tory a mere stepping-stone to power, and whilst many vapour about Mexico and Canada from a national vanity, it is undeniable that the annexation of Oregon, Texas, and California, has in one respect been the means of strengthening the foundations of the Union. Had not these vast regions afforded an outlet to thewild, scheming spirits who ate so numerous in the other States, the cause of order and good government might long ago have been endangered by their restless ambition. At the mines and in the chase they have found that excitement which in other circumstEinces might have shown itself in attempted revolutions or in marauding expeditions likely to involve their country in war. However unjustifiable this lust of empire may be in itself, let us not forget that besides acting as a safety- valve for the intense ex stability of the Americans, it tends to promote the civilization of the world, and to fulfil the mission of the Anglo-Saxon race. Only two hundred years have elapsed since the * Mayflower' cast anchor on the deserted shores of Cape Cod ; then the mighty forests were undisturbed, and the " Father of Waters" bore only the canoe of the Indian voyaging to his hunting-ground or fleeing from his foes ; gigantic trees covered the wheatlands of Ohio, and where Lowell now stands, on the banks of the Merrimac, the sachems . of the red-men convened their warriors, and presidii at the midnight dance. The little company of the PUgrim Fathers landed at New Plymouth, a band of persbcuted but upright men ; they brought with them those great AHai«0'>(IAXOir EKTBBFBISB. 67 ourage it even ?onvio* merioa r views if terri" t many vanity, Texas, Bans of lad not heming bes, the tgo have At the tement tself in B likely Ignm Icuted [great ideaf which lay the best foundation for national "pov, er, and W6 now hail them as the founders of a common- wealth greater than that ruled by the senatus popnlueque in tlie palmiest days of Eome. The population of the United States at present amounts to more than twenty-three millions, and her territory extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific, comprises tlu*ee-and'-a-quarter millions of square miles. Since 1840, the increase of the inhabitants has been six millions, or thirty-five per cent., a ratio to which the history of mankiad presents no parallel. These surprising results may be traced en- tirely to the enterprise of Anglo-Saxons. In the Miasissippian valley, no less than on the St. Lawrence, the French had settled a hundred years before them ; the richest lands and best watercourses, the city sites and seaports were all theirs ; but they have long ago yielded the title of superiority to a race who seem to be the only real colonists, and to whose industry, energy, and perseverance civilization owes a series of triumphs more wonderful than the campaigns of Napoleon or the victories which carried Alexander from the plains of Thessaly to the confines of Hindostan. Australia ari New Zealand in fifty years may be as great as the United States j we see province after province in Asia bowing to this influence, and surely we may, without violating probabilities, suppose that another century may witness its two representatives meeting to celebrate their successes under the great wall of China. All men ac- quainted with the tendency of political events out of this continent, look forward to an extension of our race and language over regions notv either unexplored or groaning under misrule too flagrant to last. Every year thousands of emigrants leave our shores to people lands at the antipodes, and the younger sons of this energetic family as if North America were too small for them, carry the star-span^ied banner to the regions of everlasting ice, d,nd amid the sunny islands of the Caribbean sea. "vVhen we consider that the revolutionary war only terminated in 1783, it is remarkable to observe r 2 68 AMSBIOA AKD THE AMBBIOAlfS. the influence which the United States has already acquired among the nations of the earth. Dr. Johnson in 1775 published a pamphlet in answer to the Eesolu<* tions and Address of the American Congress, entitled " Taxation no Tyranny." In it there occurs this re- markable passage : — " The numbers of the Americans aro at present not quite sufficient for the greatness which, in some form of government or other, is to rival the ancient monarchies ; but by Dr. Franklin's rule of progression they will in a century and a quarter be more than equal to the inhabitants of Europe. When they are thus multiplied, let the princes of the earth tremble in their palaces. If they should continue to double and to double, their own hemisphere could not contain them." How strikingly illustrative of these words are the position which the United States has on several occasions lately assume4, the encouragement which she has given to European patriots, her conquests in Mexico, and her expedition to Japan ! " There is nothing,'* wrote Lord Jeffrey* to a transatlantic friend in 1818, " and never was anything so graad and promising as the condition and prospects of your country, and nothing I can con-t* ceive more certain than that in seventy years after this, its condition will be by far the most important element in the history of Europe." All unprejudiced men will now readily admit that there is every probability of this prediction being conclusively verified. In the short space of seventy-eight years, America has risen to the rank of a first-rate power, whose merchant-ships are in every sea, whose influence is felt in the old world as well as the new, and whose flag commands the respect of kings and emperors. :i Some writers have indulged i" much speculation re- garding the continuance of the Union and the perma- nency of democratic institutions on the other side of the Atlantic, and more than one have strangely con- founded the two questions together, although the main- f " Life," by Lord Cockburn, vol. ii.,fp. 183. CONTINUANCE OF THE UNION. m Eklreadj ohnson Etesolu" intitled bhia re- ansare hich, in ancient fression n equal re thus n their and to them." ire the ^casions IS given and her }e Lord d never ndition Ian con- ;er this, dement len will of this short to the are in >rld as •espect Ion re- )erma- side of ly con- main« tenance of Eepublican government has nothing whatever r to do with territorial arrangements. The people may y still maintain supreme authority, whether the Confedera- tion exist in its present form, or resolve itself into a number of independent but smaller commonwealths. The preservation of the Union may be endangered by causes even now at work, though lost sight of in the midst of general prosperity, in the race for riches, in the settlement of new provinces, and in that resistless tide of progression which distinguishes the youthful nation. The opposition of material interests, the undue extension of territory, the local jealousy of federal inter- ference, the diversity of race and sentiment, and above all, the existence of slavery, are elements of peril which already threaten, and at some future day may rend asunder the itepublic. On the other baud, an intense feeling of nationality, the connecting of the various states and climates by means of railroads and telegraphs, the singular skiU with which the constitutional machine has been contrived, and the advantage to all concerned manifestly derived from a certain amount of concentra- tion of power, afford no slight guarantees for the per- petuity of the present system. But be this as it may, it appears to me that a careful consideration of the facts of the case will justify all reasonable men in looking forward to democracy as the settled and established order of things on the North American continent Every American not only thinks his own form of gOYernraent ■ the best, but he believes that his countrymen are the chosen instruments for working out a great problem in % the political history of nations, for manifesting to man- kind the ability of a free educated people to govern themselves, for striking the first blow in a conflict which must inevitably result in the overthrow of monarchical and aristocratic power. He has firm confidence in his mission as well as in his principles, and, to use the words "■ of Mr. Mackay,* " Unless the people can be persuaded « ({ Western World," vol. iii., p. 333. 'TO AMIBIOA AJSTD THl AMBBIOAVB. to do yioloQoe to their feelings, tastes, habits, and :>9^i- oiations, and to adopt institutions incompatible with their position and circumstances, there is no fear of democracy in America." Its permanence, however, mainly depends on the moral worth and intellectual en- lightenment of the masses, on the vigorous support given to those noble monuments of public wisdom which reflect already so much honour on the United States. An uneducated people cannot for any length of time hold the reins of authority ; the v ry existence of Ee- publicanism in America, cdl competent witnesses testify, is dependent upon the common schools. On this sub- ject Mrs. Sigoumey has written some beautiful lines in a poem called " Our Country." ** There is thy strength, In thy young children, and in those who lead Their souls to righteousness. The mother's prayer With her sweet lisper ere it sinks to rest — The faithful teacher 'mid a plastic group — The classic halls, the hamlet's slender spire, From whence, as from the solemn gothic pile That crowns the city's pomp, ascendeth sweet , Jehovah's praise ; these are thy strength, my land I These are thy hope." The rise and progress of the United States appears to me the greatest and most important political fact of this century, the beginning of a new era in governmental arrangements, the signal for despotic potentates to mark the advancing current in the stream of time. They show the wonderful energy of free institutions, the effects of popular instruction, and the happy results of an active Ciuistianity. Should the Confederation be dissolved, let us hope that it may be amicably, and not by violence, on account of its overgrown dimensions, rather than of its internal debility. Were I Nicholas of Eussia, or an official interested in upholding arbitrary rule, I should look with jealousy and distrust on the consolidation of democracy in America, but as a true Briton, a lover of liberty, opposed to tyranny and everything which inter- feres with the just rights of man, though myself attached » itatxonju:! fbbliko. n ie with fear of owever, )ual en- support a which States. )f time of Ee- testify, lis sub- liaei in ears to of this mental omark yshow )cts of active ed, let )lence, han of or an hould ion of ver of inter- lached ! » to thoie inititutioi^ under which England haa hecome great, I can overlook minor differences, and aympathizo with the American poet when he writes, — ** The yean, that o'er each eiiter land Shall lift the oountry of my birth . And nune her strength, till she ahall stand The pride and pattern of the earth ; Till vonnger commonwealths for aid, Shall cling about her ample robe, And firom her firown shall shrink afraid The crowned oppressors of the globe.'* CHAPTEE VI. Incorrect and caricatured accounts given by English writers on America — Feelings of its people towards Great Britain — Sentiments of the Americans with roference to the Russian war. EsvEBEiroE has already been made to the incorrect and caricatured accounts of the Uxiited States, its insti- tutions, and people, given to us by a class of writers, now happily not so popular as they were some years ago, when it was more the fashion to ridicule and sneer at onr friends on the other side of the Atlantic. Tra- vellers of a far higher order have of late done much to remove the impression produced in England by these flippant publications, which, written more to command a sale, by exciting a laugh, than to circulate just ideas regarding the Western Continent, reflect no credit either on their authors or on the many readers who so readily applauded them. To I^ord Carlisle, Sir Charles Lyell, Colonel Cunynhame, Lady Emmeline Stuart Wortley, and, above all, Mr. Mackay, we are indebted for much more accurate descriptions of a nation which, with many faults, has also many virtues, and which it wonld be the height of folly, on our part, either to vituperate or despise. But, though the one-sided and oftentimes absurd stories of former book-makers are gradually being consigned to a well-merited oblivion, 72 AMEBICA AKB THE AMEBICAITS. H they liave caused no little bitterness of feeling between tbe two countries, which, of all others, ought to dnrfA closer and closer the bonds of amity ; they have pre--' yoked Americans to write accounts of Great Britain in a similar spirit ; they have done sad damage to the cause of rational liberty, and made English credulity a byeword even among the rough settlers of the far westi^ Nor can our press be absolved from the charge of mis-^ representing and calumniating transatlantic affairs. Sii^- Charles Lyell notices this as a prolific source of estrange^" ment, and every liberal man who has made the tour of the Union, can bear witness to the correctness of his observation. It is gratifying to notice a change in this respect also ; but I cannot but think it undignified and unwise in the Tvmes^ a journal of such standing and in-^*^ fluence, to persevere in its hostility to everything American. To show to what extent these views ar©^ shared in by other travellers, whose opinions must go far to overcome the prejudices of Europeans, I shall request attention to the following extracts. a «i "The feelings of the American people," says Mri * Alexander Mackay,* ** have been wantonly and unneces*^- sarily wounded by successive travellers who have ' undertaken to depict them, nationally and individually,"! and who, to pander to a prevailing taste in this country,- ^^ hav3 generally viewed them on the ludicrous side.'^'*'* " A large proportion of English travellers in America"^ have a predetermination to turn everything into ridicule^ > i and enter the country demeaning themselves during^ '^* their peregrinations tliough it, with an ill-disguised air^^ of self-importance unpalatable to a people who have-^* become jealous from unmerited bad treatment." " Every ^^ account of America," remarks Mrs. Houston, in her*^ volumes entitled ' Hesperos, or Travels in the West/f *" " is received through the medium of a mental vision^ ''^ distorted by prejudice and fancied contempt." The passage which I next quote occurs in Mr. John McLean's * "Western World," vol. iii., pp. 319, ?22. + Vol. i., p. 283. f 'A ^t EK&LISH W&ITXBB OK AMlltlCA* 78 Mr. jces- - lave ^ le.'» •' lea le, ing air ive jry ler ;t m, the 'a '■«■■■ -i- 1 1 •A " Notes of a Twenty-five Years' Service in the Hudson'? Bay Territory:* "The mercenary pens of prejudiced narrow-minded individuals contribute daily to add fuel to the flame» Our * Diaries' and our * Notes,' replete with offensive remarks, are, from the cheapness of pub- lication, disseminated through the length and breadth of the Union, and are in everybody's hands ; and those foolish remarks are supposed to be the sentiments of the British nation, when they are, in fact, only the sentiments of individuals whose opinions are little valued at home, and ought to be less valued abroad." Several years ago Professor "Wilson wrote from Edinburgh to N. P. "Willis : " What a strange thing it is that nobody can write a good book on America ! The ridiculous part of it seems to me that men of common sense go there as travellers, and fill their- books with scenes such as they may see every day within five minutes' walk of their own doors, and call them American." f Lastly, let us hear the testimony borne by Lady Emmeline Stuart Wortley, in her volumes of " Travels in the United States :" J " Great injustice," she observes, "has been done to the Americans, and we have been accustomed too implicitly to beKeve the often unfair and unfounded reports of prejudiced travellers. Amongst the less educated, no doubt, occasionally, some of the faults so unsparingly attributed to them may be found ; but they appear to me, as far as I have had any opportunity of judging as yet, a thoroughly hospitable, kind-hearted and generous- minded people." Such evidence as I have just adduced becoming eveiy year more conclusive and emphatic, must sooner or later convince the inhabitants of this country how completely they were deceived by the sp^ anetic and untruthful writers whose effusions gained so much cre- dence at an earlier date in the present century But, notwithstanding the strenuous efforts made by authors of no principle to keep alive the feeling of animosity * Vol. ii., p. 176. t Willis's ** Penciilings by the Wey," vol. iii., p. 214. t Vol. 1., p. 26. 74 4M1BIQA AHD VSB AHEKIOAJTi. which arose out of the revolutionary war, the Am^rioans are proud of their English desoent, and look upon this island iu their secret heart with the same respect that a good man cherishes towards an attentive mother, or a successful aspirant after distinction towards the teacher who first counselled him to he industrious, energetic, and economical of time. They may now and then indulge in hard speeches or hrood over past injustice, but the old attachment has survived years of warfare and estrange- ment ; once and again the traveller unexpectedly sees a manifestation of its force, and were Great Britain threatened in earnest with an attack by the armies of despotism, her own "revolted colonies," as obstinate old Q-eorge the Third used to caU them, would^ I believe, be the first to aid us in defending our hearths and our homes ! During a visit which I paid to Mr. Presoott, the historian, at his city residence in Boston, I observed over the window at one end of his library two swords crossed. One of these was borne by Colonel Prescott, at the battle of Bunker Hill, and the other by Captain Lizeen, the maternal grandfather of Mr. Prescott, and commander of the British sloop of war, Falcon, which fired on the continental troops on that occasion ; and on my return home, I read with pleasure the following remarks on this imion by an American writer :* " It is a significant and suggestive sight, from which a thoughtful mind may draw out a long web of reflection. These swords, once waving in hostile hands, but now amicably lying side by side, symbolize not merely the union of families once opposed in deadly struggle, but, as we hope and trust, the mood of peace which is destined to guide the two great nations, which, like parted streams, trace back their source to the same parent fountain." Such I think are the sentiments entertained by the great body of the people in the United States, by the. native-bom Anglo-Saxons who reaUy constitute the nation. Some people have formed their impressions of American cha- racter and opinions from Milesian-Irish mobs in the * ** Hemes of American Authore," p. 12^. FEEliniOt TOWA9399 »«1AT BMITAVS- ». larger oitiee, £roio "^^ne anU-EngUsh speeches of imprm- cipled Wfttluiigton politicians, from the proceedings of ignorant emigrants from Germany and Tipperary who have settled in the West, from the Frenchified popula- tion of New Orleans, and &om the desperadoes of all countries, who travel in the steamboats on the Mississippi, or lounge ahout the bar-rooms of hotels ; but the Great Bepublio can no more be said to be fairly represented by men of this class, than England would be by the physical- force Chartist, the half-clad Celt from Connaught, ov the Pariah of Hindostan. Our common law is the basis of American jurisprudence ; political liberty is enjoyed as well by mother as by daughter^ and our transatlantic friends feel themselves bound to us not only by the ties of kindred, but because they look upon us as the guar- dians of freedom in the old world as they are in the new. It is remarkable too to observe in what kindly, I might almost say chivalrous language, the staunch republicans of America — I don't refer to political vapourers and demagogues, whose orations pass in this country for far more than they are worth — speak of our Queen, ** Were she to visit us," writes one of them,* " she would be welcomed, I am sure, as never was lad> before. What processions we should have I Up the Bowery, down Broadway; from Eoxbury line to Pane ail Hall, up Court and Tremont to a tent on the CcTY>mon : it would be grand I She will probably come in her own yacht — and when she does, nobody certainly can say we have a British Tor^ among us." I have quoted already from Lord Jeffrey; and as my object is not to obtrude upon the public my own opinions, but to lay before it informa- tion on a most important subject, I offer no excuse for giving one more extract from the writings of that great man : " There is no one feeling," he remarks,! " having public concerns for its object, with which I have been so long and so deeply impressed, as that of the vast importance of our maintaining friendly and even cordial * ** Homes of American Authors," p. 117. t *♦ Life," by Lord Oookburn, vol. i., p. 247. 76 ▲MIBICA AND THB AMXBIOAKB* relations with the free, powerful, moral, and industrioud states of America — a condition upon which I cannot help thinking that not only our own freedom and prosperity, hut that of the better part of the world will ultimately be found to be more and more dependent." These ob- servations, it appears to me, must at once recommend themselves to every true philanthropist. And may we not reasonably expect that the cultivation of this senti- ment by liberal men will be attended before many years wiih practical results ? Events both here and at the antipodes have recently been tending in one direction, to the accomplishment of an end fraught with imspeak- able blespings to humanity. It requires no superhuman sagacity to foresee, looming through the mists of uncer- tainty which now hang over nations, the fraternal meeting of the two branches of the Anglo-Saxon race — the alliance, offensive and defensive, between England and the United States of America. Both have overrun continents not with armies, but with husbandmen and merchants ; both have opened up empires to Christianity and commerce ; both have discovered El Dorados on the Pacific coast, and we want but to know in order to appreciate each other — to find out that we have not only a common origin and a common love of liberty, but a common interest and a common destiny, as joint instru- ments in the hands of Providence of carrying an energetic race and a noble language, the blessiags of civilization, and a benign religion through difficulties and dangers to the uttermost ends of the *^arth. Since the preceding remarks were written, a noisy and unprincipled section of American politicians has con- trived to produce a very general impression in Europe that public opinion throughout the Great Eepublic sympathises not with the allies, but with the Eussian autocrat in the present sanguinary contest. It is not surprising that those who are ignorant of the state of parties, and the working of an unlimited democracy on the other side of the Atlantic, should be thus deceived, for the Irish mobs in the large cities, who cheered AHXBICi. AKD TfiE BVS8IAN WAB. n id. f )e i LC u I t :. If.' Meagher, and proclaimed John Mitchell the nohlest of patiiots, — the reckless filihusters of the south, who hate G-reat Britain as the avenger of injustice, and the asylum of the slave, — ^the Bed EepubUcan adventurers from the Continent, eager for employment against a nation which is the bulwark of constitutional monarchy, — and a few thoughtless military ofEicers thirsting fop promotion and fame — praise so great a clamour and force their own declarations into so undue prominence, that one can scarcely realize the fact that they no more represent the sentiments of the American people, than do the physical force Chartists those of the inhabitants of England. I have in a former chapter referred to the political corruption prevalent in the United States. Is it unlikely that men like the teadees in legislation, who swarm in the lobbies of the Capitol, and may be found as well in the several State senates and at the municipal boards, should accept largesses from the Czar, should in fact hire their services for a consideration to the great enemy of European civilization and rational liberty ? Both " the voice and echo of rumour" lay this crime to their charge, and if such strange reports prove in any respect true, it will become the urgent and sacred duty of the American people to avenge the injured dignity of their country by putting an end to practices and intrigues which are beginning to attract towards "Wash- ington the indignant eyes of the civiHzed world Why should the true-hearted and generous citizens of the United States, the native-bom Anglo-Saxons, who really constitute the nation, suffer their opinions to be misrepresented, their institutions brought into disrepute, and their influence at foreign courts weakened by a set of men of so little consideration at home, and so thoroughly selfish in all their doings ? These plotters and trafficking statesmen must be reduced to their own proper insignificance before the Americans will meet with much sympathy when they complain of misconcep- tion and ignorance on this side of the ocean. If they permit those of their newspapers, which every child ^8 A^dSBtCA Ain> Vfifi AMEBICAVa. tliroughout the Union knows to be fall of unbluBhing falsehoods, to enjoy almost a monopoly of circulation in Europe, and suffer the statements of New York mobs and South-western filibusters to cross the Atlantic uncontradicted from week to week, they must expect both misconstruction and unmerited detraction. If we are credulous, they are supine; if we in our simplicity believe the fWJcounts given by demagogues and hired advocates, they should take care to send us more reliable information. I cannot, however, regard but as most blameworthy, any amongst ourselves who without due investi^gation, and on the faith of a few n" ire news- pap ?t extracts, have attempted to excite angry feelings hi Gxeat Britain against the Americans for their alleged v r^pathy with Russia in the present war. True, the g. od sense of thp community frowns upon snch endett- voi;«'a, lut a certain number of inconsiderate persons are always ready to adopt ideas of this kind on most insuf- ficient grounds, and I envy not the responsibility of those who lead their neighbours on the ice before reflecting weU on its strength and safety. In the pre- sent instance, men who strive to produce alienation of feeling between the two great branches of the Anglo- Saxon family, by adopting as true the contemptible asseverations of unprincipled journals, and as unprin- cipled politicians, retard the spread of freedom both in the old world and the new, and play into the hands of those very despots on whom the vials of their wrath are so constantly poured. That our diplomatic engagements wiih Austria and the alleged pledge of TVance to keep down the Italian patriots, the reluctance of the allies to reconstruct Poland as an independent nation, and their hostility to the American desire for territorial aggrandisement; our hesitancy to admit the principle that free ships make free goods, and a lingering soreness arising out of the struggle for independence, have aU tended to lessen the interest of our transatlantic friends in the contest ■ 4 AMSBIOA iJTD THE BUBSIAJT WAB. 79 of df in of ive now waging) I think by no means improbable, but at the game time I most cordially concur in the declara- tion of the * New York Journal of Commerce,* " that four-fifths of the inhabitants of the United States share the hatred of the western nations of Europe against BuBsian despotism; that every arrival from Europe which brings news of defeat to the arms of the Czar is regarded by them as good news, and every cloud over the pros- pects of the Allies as deplorable intelligence, which they hope may be remedied or dispelled."* The writer of the admirable article, of which tlie pre- ceding sentence forms the conclusion, complains griev- ously of the " profound want of knowledge*' of America and Americans displayed by persons in England, " whose duty it is to be well informed on such subjects," and very truly adds that the hostile, mischievous, and untrue assertions ever and anon being made about his country by British journalists, tend to produce the very feelings which they so much deprecate, and of which the Great Republic, as a nation, is uujustly accused. "Whilst . adducing the testimony of the bespeotable portion of the press in the United States, I cannot refrain from quoting one paragraph from an article on Christmas Day, in the ' Boston Daily Atlas' of 25th December, 1854, an article eloquently written, and illustrating, A.r better than any words of minCj the real sentiments of the American people at this important crisis in the aiFairs of Europe. ' j "" • • " Nor let us forget, in the midst of our small sorrows and petty cares, that land in which for so many years Christmas has been so wisely and so merrily kept. Into many a castle and cottage of old England this sacred day will bring no accustomed old time gladness, for the manly forms of son, of father, or of brother, which moved to delightful measures under the misletoe only a twelvemonth ago, are sleeping the sleep that knows no waking beneath the snow* of the Crimea and in the * "New York Journal of Commerce," December 30, 1854. 80 ▲MEBTCA AVP THE AMEBICANS. ',.1 blasted trenches of Sebastopol. The galUnt fellows are at rest now, peasant and peer slumbering in one com- mon grave : and he who left behind inm only a poor cot, a poor widow, and six poor little children, is wept for as bitterly as the boy-officer from whose veins, at Bala- klava and Inkermann, flowed the blood of the Howards, the Percys, and the Plantagenets. Yet whether the dead soldier is wept for in the lowly hovel or the lofty ancestral castle, whether the bosom that mourns him heaves beneath serge or satin, be sure that the memory of his stem unflinching bravery brings the best consola- tion to every true British matron." Before leaving this subject, there is one consideration which we, and much more our friends in America, should keep in mind, viz., that according to many whose testi- mony is both unprejudiced and founded on personal observation, the remarkable success of the American Protestant missionaries in the East has contributed more than any other cause to hasten the accomplishment of Bussian designs on Turkey. The Emperor trembles for the supremacy of the Greek Church on the shores of the Levant and the Euxine ; for years his agents have been plotting to put a stop to the work of conversion now going on — often have they tried to arm against the innovators the fanatical portion of both Mussulmans and Christians, and as often hare they been signaUy foUed by British officials, especially by that noble-minded advocate of the oppressed. Lord Stratford de Redcliffe. It is now reported that the Muscovite minister at Teheran, and the Muscovite consul at Tabriz, have pro- cured from the Persian government decrees which will virtually crush the American mission to the Nestorians at Oroomiah. I shall not be sorry if this prove true, for it may open the eyes of many on the other side of the ocean who misunderstand the nature of this war, and show more manifestly that it is the duty of every con- stitutional nation to withstand, if necessary by force of arms, the projects of a despot who seeks to ride rough- shod over the liberties of Eastern Europe and "Western 0W8 are ne com- )oor cot, vrept for at Bala« Cowards, ;her the ;he lofty ms him memory consola- ideration a,, should )se testi- personal Lmerican itributed Ushment trembles hores of ts have ion now inst the nlmans signally minded dcliffe. ster at |ve pro- lich wiU ktorians le, for of the lar, and con- force of [roiigh- [estern AMEBIOAK MtSSTOlTABlISS IN THE EAST. 81 Aljift. It would be singular, indeed, if the United States ttood aloof from or looked coldly on a struggle originated by her own zealous and Belf*8acriflcing citizens, Who. with BO much ability and perseverance, have preparea the way for the restoration of freedom and evangelical Cfe^istianity in regions which formed the cradle o:i' the human race. mi'. •*M.- CHAPTER VII. Americaii newspapers — l^heir number, clieapness, and inferiority in point of literary taient-^BookAellerg* shopd — Thirst tor reading and knowledge — Literature of the Union — Its theologians and popular writers ; Washington Irving, Cooper, Prescott, Hawthorne, Emerson, Channing, Bancroft, Longfellow, and Audubon — Literary ladies of America ; Mrs. Sigoumey, Miss Sedgwick, Qrace Gfreenwood, Fanny , fern, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. I HAVE submitted the thoughts which occurred to me at different times in regard to the political condition and prospects of the transatlantic republic j a very few observations on its newspapers and literature may be fitly embodied in the present chapter. ^. Some of my readers may recollect the very eloquent passage in Sir Walter Scott's "Life of Napoleon,"* \vhere the unfortunate consequences of that conqueror prevent- ing public opinion maiiifesting itself through the press are so forcibly pointed out. "The downfall of this species of freedom," remarks our historiar t " as it is the first symptom of the decay of national liberty, has been in all ages followed by its total destruction." Measur- ing America by this standard, it must be free indeed, for its citizens support no fewer than 2800 newspapers, having a circulation of about five millions, and an annual issue of more than four hundred millions of copies. On the continent of Europe a few journals struggle against a rigid political censorship j in a country ^^''* Chap. Ixvii. t *' Life of Napoleon," chap. Ixxadii. 82 \MI:BIC.\ A.KD THE AMEBICAirS. I I! I! .! not yet one hundred years old, two thousand weekly, and three hundred and fifty daily periodicals, inform every farmer and arti m between the Atlantic and the Bocky Mountains, W' .t is going on both at hcn > and abroad. Almost every town of considerable ;»ize hat several daily papers ; each village haa one, if not two, according to the strength of the political parties in its vicinity ; and in places that have started into existence within a few months, secluded amid the forests of the Far "West, you find very tolerable weekly sheets. In Grreat Britain, the public journals circulate chiefly in reading rooms, hotels, railroad stations, and the houses of the wealthier inhabitants of towns ; in America every family among the rural, as well as the urban population, takes in a local, if not a metropolitan newspaper. This national habit causes a demand quite unexampled m'^i Europe, and enables men of every class to exercise theiif ^ minds on political questions, and to inform themselves on the topics of the day. It is no uncommon thing to- meet farmers of ismi,!! means and limited education who^^ can talk as leanv^ly c.bout Italian or Spanish politics as" attaches to legations, But the very number, and consequent cheapness of newspapers in the United States, prevent in general great talent from being employed upon them. No pro- prietor can afford to pay high salaries, either to edito^ or contributors, and consequently when mere news are scarce, stupid love stories and silly anecdotes may often be found occupying the place of original matter of an instructing nature. Then the advertisements usually fill up three-fourths of the space. As they have never paid duty, the people have got into the practice of making every saleable article thus publicly known. ^ When any one gets a few hams or a box of dry goods,^ half a dozen cheeses, or a score of barrels of flour, he immediately advertises them. A great proportion of American journals might be termed more appropriately^ " news sheets," as they contain scarcely anything of an editorial character, and are glanced at, not read. They VSWUfAPEUB. 88 ekly, iform , L the and ) has two, in its tenee ►f the . In jfly in LOUses every [ation, This led iit^ 3 their Ives on ing to n who tics as Less of leneral pro- leditor s are often of an Isually Inever licfe of lown. roods, ir, he Ion of pately )f an I They will get out any quantity of " extras," and even go to considerable expense to procure early intelligence by telegraph or otherwise, but literary talent they cannot remunerate, for in a country where books are so cheap, few think of devoting more than ten minutes to a daily newspaper. Their reports of speeches and proceedings, whether at public meetings or in legislative assemblies, will not for a moment compare with those given in England. It is usual on the m- after a debate, to give a mere outline of it, and se afterwards to print some particular oration iii , often revised and corrected by the person who delivered it. The provincial journals seldom transfer to their columns any epitome of the discussions in Congress ; but substitute letters from their correspondents at Washington, with a mere sketch of what goes on, and party comments upon it. Yet a few of them contain a fair proportion of useful matter, accounts of new discoveries, notices of books, dissertations on agricultural improvements, legis- lative suggestions, and well-chosen extracts from eminent authors. In New York and some of the larger cities, there are now daily papers, which show much laudable enterprise, which ^ contain original matter from every quarter of the globe ; and which, though immeasurably inferior to the London press, approximate more than their contemporaries in the provinces, to the rank and influence of sv.«h periodicals in England. But whilst in a literary point of view, American newspapers contrast very unfavourably with ours, they by no means answer to the descriptions which have been given of them by some British writers, as "immoral" in their tendency, and calculated to corrupt the public taste. It surprises me that a man like Mr. Dickens, who had opportunities of judging, should have given such an unjust and ill-tempered account of them, as has through the medium of his "Notes" been circulated over the length and breadth of this land. Sir Charles Lyell tells me a very different story.* " I have purchased •^ * ' • A Second Visit to the Unitecl States, " vol. ii. , p. 41 . g2 IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) /. // A <- .^^A- ,4" ^4^Z^ . ^% 7 .^>> ^"^^ Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 t '"I M ASfEBICA AKD »rHB AMEBICANS. newspapers at randotti,** says he, " whererer we went iii the northern, middle^ southern, and western states, and came to the conclusion that the press of the United States is quite as respectable as our own.'* I hare travelled over more ground in the Union than either of them, and read, perhaps, as many papers in all parts of it. I agree with Sir Charles, whose work wiU be found well worth readings and not a mere burlesque. He is a far more reliable authority than the author of " Martin ChuzBlewit." As to the numerous silly aii^cdotes which we every now and then see copied into our periodicab as from American papers, most of them are written in London. In the Westerii journals I have met with ex- travagant stories of this kind, but not more frequently than in papers published by cautious, matter of fact Scotchmen. , It has been frequently reittarked by observant travel^ lers, that the number and character of the booksellers' shops in a country afiPord abetter indication of the state of education than the most minute attention paid to its seminaries of learningi If we apply this test to the United States, we must form a very high Hotioil of thd intelligence of the pboplcj for the smaHest towns in rural districts have fdl stores for the sale of books and music, as large and as well supplied as many in our chief cities. I was surprised to find mere villages so favourably circumstanced in this respect.* It only illus- trates still further the remarkable demand for informa- tion, and its general diffusion amongst all classes throughout the Republic. The Americans have Ikigland to thank for a very large proportion of the supply Which goes to quench this honourable thirst for knowledge. No sooner does a history, or novel, or book of travels, by Ah eminent writer appear in London, than agents in this country forward copies across the Atlantic, there to be reprinted and circulated in thousands, from Maine to the mouths of the Mississippi, l^he strahger may find in lonely farm-houaea amongst the forests of Ohio, on the wide JiITlBATUBE. 85 prairies of Illinois, in negro-cabins by the way-side in Kentuoky, even in log-huts far up the Missouri, little libraries, containing the best works of Scott and Byron, Wordsworth and Southey, OhaUners and Hall, Marryatt and 3ulwer Lytton. Few men bom under the star- spangled banner are ignorant of British literature, and some, whose uncouth aspect tells of labours at the out- skirts of civilization, have an acquaintance with letters which might put to the blush many European gentlemen. This energetic and intelligent people, however, during the short century of their national existence, have been so occupied in developing the agricultural, commercial, and manufacturing resources of their oounl^ ; their strides, in a material point of view, have been so gigantic, that they have left themselves little time for intellectual efforts, Airther than those required to influence political elections. America has hitherto given birth to few notable authors, excepting her theologians, who, for no inconsiderable period, have occupied a prominent place in the literary arena. Moses Stuart, Albert Barnes, EdwardBobinson, and Joseph Addison Alexander, among the living, Jonathan Edwards and Edward Payson among the dead, are names familiar as household words to aU acquainted with this department of study. Admitting th^t her divines stand in the foremost ranks of Chris- tianity's champions, the enemies of the Bepublio fre- quently reproach her with having produced neither a historian nor a novelist, nor a poet of world-wide repu- tation. But times, in this respect, are changing, too, and let us Britons see to it, lest the young empire, whose railroads and telegraphs, whose steam-ships and factories, have risen from the primeval forests like tl^e creations of a magician's wand, outstrip us also in the intellectual race, and, with a vigour now scarce in ancient lands, transfer to paper the workings of that mental power which has always distinguished the trans- atlantic portion of the Anglo-Saxon fhraily. Already the printing-presses of London have begun to copy those of New York ) the pirates are now on this side o/ 86 AMEBICA AND l-HE AMEEICANS. ili the ocean as well as on the other ; every bookstall at English railway stations groans under the products of American mind; Longfellow has written odes which lead us to hope that America may yet produce a Camp- bell : "Washington Irving's tales delight thousands who are not critics enough to observe the happy manner in which he see.> : to interest the people of the New "World in the history and associate* ls of the Old, to soften national animosity, and to mould the style of his fellow- countrymen after the best masters of England's Au- gustan age ; Fenimore Cooper has found a place in aU our libraries, and, in the opinions of some well qualified to judge, even the stately periods of G-ibbon, and the classic eloquence of Macaulay, can scarcely compare with that charming style in which the deeds of Cortes and Pizarro have bepn enshrined by "William Henry Pres- cott. Many of our countrymen, too, must have read " The Blithedale Eomance," " The Scarlet Letter," or "The House with the Seven G-ables." I recommend those who have not, to make an early acquaintance with the strange originality, the powerful modes of expression, the pure English, and the hi>hly-wrought images of Nathaniel Hawthorne, a noveli *pidly rising tc a high position in the temple of fame. The flow of his diction reminds me of Pope's stately measures ; his style has Carlyle's depth and quaintness without his affectation of singularity. He surrounds every-day life with a magic halo, and sees Eastern visions on New England soil. I would speak cautiously of Emerson, because I am quite unequal to the task of pointing out either the merits or demerits of a writer whose great abilities and greater errors have puzzled far wiser heads than mine ; who so often mixes crude analogies, wild paradox, and unintelligible insinuations, with concep- tions which startle you by their intellectual power. Many year§ ago the essays of "William Mlery Chan- ning were read with admiration by Englishmen; as specimens of elegant composition they stand very high, aad entitle their author to be called the AdcUson of -. AMEBICAK AVTHOBS. 87 tall at lets of which Camp- Is who ner in World soften fellow- 's Au- ) in all lalified id the pe with ;es and r Pres- 6 read 3r," or nmend ntance 3es of pought rising ow of his his \j life New ut ) lerson Lg out great Iheads L wild jncep- ?han- as |high, m of .. rU' America. If Channing be the Addison, Bancroft is the Hume. His volumes bear evidence of diligent research, ease in composition, and historical accuracy. Let us not forget John James Audubon, the bold hunter and learned ornithologist, whose hut has so often been erected on the slopes of the Bocky' Mountains, and on the wide savannahs by the banks of the Missouri and the ^Yellowstone. Should we pass him by, unmindful of the great obligation under which natural history lies to him, our descendants must ever cherish his name, for there is not a bird whose habits and plumage his works do not immortalize, from the tiny speck which hums in the gardens of Florida, to the eagle which makes the cliffs of the Sierra re-echo its scream. I might enlarge the foregoing list and speak of Bryant and Everett, of Dana, Cheever and Peter Parley ; but, j.. without saying more about America's literary men, I 'shall add a few words about her literary ladies. And '.well may we remember their claims, for if the gentlemen .^,of the TJnHed States, the graduates of Tale and ■ij. Harvard, do not look to their laurels, Europe will begin 4,ito sympathize with Lucy Stone, and to imagine that the greater proportion of talent in their country must be V ^J J awarded to women. How sweetly pathetic are Mrs. „^,Sigoumey's poems ; how touching and lifelike the stories gj; which Miss Sedgwick has written in her New England tt«ihome! Mrs. Earnham has enlisted our sympathies ''with the settlers on the prairies; Gra^e Greenw^d has afforded many a family circle pleasant hours ; and who, amongst the thousand readers on the other side of the Atlantic, has not heard of Fanny Fern, whose sketches of character and moral maxims, applicable to the daily routine of life, and presented in a form so attractive as to disarm opposition, with aU their brilliant wit and tender remonstrance, their simplicity, truthfulness, and force of expression, their playful humour and merry g^ irony, may be found on every bookseller's counter, a.nd j(-on most parlour tables throughout the Lnion. Writing, •|p, not from Boston or the Empire City, but from a little 99 AMERICA XSJ> THE AMEBICANS. I country-town in the western part of tlie State of J^ew York, anonymously, and a mere seriea of fragments, her exquisite pathos has gained for her the tribute of national applause. It is long since I have felt so deeply as I did on turning oyer these " Fern Leaven, gathered at random in shady spots, where sunbeams seldom play," Need J say one word about Mrs. Harriet Beeqher Stowe F This is no place to discuss the moral of the tale; but who amongst us can rival the irresistible humour, the tenderness, the heart-stirring appeali, the idiomatic vigour, the ^eshness of thought, (oid power of execution which characterise every page of "TJnole Tom's Cabin?" No wonder that such a book has reaohed a circulation, exceeding, I believe, that either of ^' Bobinson Crusoe," or the " Pilgrim's Progress ;" un- equalled, in fact, in the history of literature. How remarkable that, ^e the work had been a twelvemonth out of the press, more readers had shed a tear over the grave of the negro in the wilds of Arkansas, than had sympathised with the heir of EUangowan, or lamented the hapless fate of Borneo and Juliet I r^ CHAPTEE VIII. ■'t Sooiftl ptate of America— Ita homes — Bourdingohonae system — High lilb in JTev Tork — Americfta viands and mode of cooking them — Fast eai^ — Stoves and anthracite coal — The ladies of the great Republic —Their social position, habits, and education — Love of dress and inattention to health — Their beauty and inteUigenaeT-rNew Year's i Pay on the other side of the Atlantic — Nationq^ sports and amuse- ments — ^Benevolent institutions— Administration of justice. Iir order to become accurately acquainted with the social condition of a country so peculiarly situated as , the United States of America, the traveller must visit its ^' Homes," must breathe their aacred atmosphere, must carefully observe their influence, and must consider well their relation to the industrial, political, and moral ,^ resources of the commonwealth. The secfet of that material progress which haa fixed on the young Bepublic New 1, her ;e of 3eply le^ed lay/' 3cher ethe itible , th^ ^er of Jnole lolied ir of ' iin- How lonth p the L had mted -Fast iublio and [ear's ituse- AMEBICA5 HOMES. 80 the wondering eyes of Christendom, is not to be dis- covered by looking into shop windows, whirling along in railroad cars, or lounging m the gorgeous apartments of modem hotels. There are shops, and railways, and gigantic inns in bureaucratic Austria, in down-trodden Italy, in corrupt and fkllen Spain ; but in these lands you search vamly for the domestic hearth, the family enjoyment, the thousand delightful associations connected with what Professor Wilson has so aptly styled, " the Sabbath sanctity of home.** Not that individual instances may not even there be found of circles that appreciate the '♦OnlybKss Of ?%racllfle, tbi^t hap siuviyed the fall ;*' but that abroad, the majority of the people waste in M.- yoIqus amusements those precious hours which the Anglo- Saxon parent, on both sides of the Atlantic, devotes to the education of his children and the cultivation of his mind. The Lusthaus of the American is hi^i snug little parlour *, with his cheap books and entertaining maga- zines, he finds his time pass away more pleasantly than the German who cannot exist without Ids tea-gardens, or the Frenchman whose thoughts centre in the play. No doubt there are diversities between various portions of the Union in regard to social manners ; Boston does not differ more from Hamburg than it does from New Orleans ; the descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers have customs varying widely from those of the mixed races on the Gulf of Mexico, or even from the planters of the Old Dominion ; but take the country as a whole, leaving ex- ceptional cases out of view, and I feel persuaded you will agree with me in thinking that the well-spring of the Republic's rising greatness, the source of all her power, lies, not in political institutions, not in territorial arrangements, not in the peculiarities of race, or the advantages of situation, but in the attachment of her people to the femHy circle, in their anidety <' Tq tast^ foid to (jpnmii^uoftte the JQj^ Tin th^www4 fwd «ftdeariQg ftfeapties 00 AMEBIC A AKD THE AMERICANS. u Of tenderneM domestic ; nature's best And loreliest gift, with which she veil atones The niggard boon of fortune."* Whether we enter the manor-houses of the South, where the ease and elegance of society testify to a class removed hj birth and position from the toils of labour, or ■the stately mansions of merchants in the maritime cities, replete with every luxury which money can provide, or the neat farmers* dwellings in New England, redolent with all that makes a fireside happy and a nation great, or tie rude huts buried in western forests, the abodes of men who conceal beneath a rough exterior, minds guided by stem principle, and hearts of sterling worth ; amidst all the differences incidental to position, we shall be at no loss to discover that the guardian angel of America is the genius of home. " We read," says a recent transatlantic writer,t " that * Gk)d setteth the solitary in families.* '* The significance of this beautiful expression dwells in its last word. The solitary are not set in hotels, or boarding-houses, nor yet in communities or phalansteries, but in families. The burden of solitude is to be lightened by household affections, and not by mere aggregation. True society — that which the heart craves, and the character needs — is only to be found at home, and what are called the cares of housekeeping, from which 80 many selfishly and indolently shrink, when lightened by mutual forbearance and unpretending self-sacrifice, become occasions of endearment and in- struments of moral and spiritual growth." ^The fore- going extract, while it expresses the profound conviction of the American people, at the same time impHes a censure on the practice which so extensively prevfuls, especially in the larger cities, of famiUfcs, chiefly young married couples, living in public hotels or crowded boarding-houses, instead of taking houses of their own. The reasons alleged for this custom, are the difficulty of procuring good servants in a country where the f V * Hannah More's *' Sacred Dramas*' — Dtwid cmd Ooliath. ** Homes of American Authors"-— article, Prtseott, p. 124, BOABBIKChHOVBES. 91 3 South, ;o a class abour, or ne cities, ovide, or redolent 3n great, 3 abodes r, minds » worth ; we shall angel of " says a teth the beautiful {rare not ^unities solitude not by e heart bund at teeping, shrink, mding id in- \e fore- iiviction )lies a revails, young ^owded own. Ity of le the .h' U "f .-1 rt c. i. 90 labouring classes can employ their time much more profitably, the vexation and annoyance almost invariably given by the Irish girls who act in this capacity, the enormous rent demanded for apartments and the high price of provisions. The indisposition of young ladies to undertake the responsibilities and troubles of attending to domestic arrangements, as long as they can live where they have plenty of servants and a sumptuous table, and as long as their husbands are good-natured enough to ind^gf their wWm, may be aided »« a fifth «.! ex- ceedingly potential cause of this uncomfortable, un- natural, and undesirable mode of living. I one day visited no fewer than twenty-five of these boarding- houses in New York, in search of rooms suitable for the accommodation of my family during my absence in Cuba and the Southern States. Many of the hand- somest mansions in the upper part of the city, I found to be establishments of this nature, and I was not a little amused by the interviews I had with pompous dames who received me in elegantly furnished drawing- rooms, before showing me the dear and shabby apart- ments upstairs. This system does not obtdn to such an extent in Philadelphia, where, it appea r s to me, there is far more real comfort than in the con;niercial capital. People there do not live in their basements, and keep their good rooms for show. Tte Quaker city can boast of a more refined, though not of a more ostentatious, aristocracy than its neighbour. New York. The fashion- ables of the latter do not understand how to make social intercourse really enjoyable. They know little or nothing of select dinner parties and small evening com- panies, such as we entertain in G-reat Britain, but either expect their friends to drop in after tea of their own accord, or invite them to gatherings of two to five hun- dred people, crowded together in hot rooms,'for the pur- pose of dancing the polka. These parties are given only about once a year, and cost in many cases extravagant Bumsofmone/. i heard of one to wU seven hund^d and fifty persons were asked, at an outlay of fourteen 92 AMEBIOA AKB THB AMBBICA17S. thousand dollars. The ladies wl^o consider themselves leaders of the fashion, boast of ti^e number attending their balls, and, in order to swell that number, actually applied to a certain Mr, !Q , sexton of a fashionable Episcopalian Church, not one hundred miles from T^nion Square, who keeps a list of ** desirable and likely" young men, delivers invitations, and himself acts as master of ceremonies, *'Faat" gentlemen give him a fee of twenty to twenty-five dollars for the privilege of having their names entered on his list, and thus being intro- duced to the haut ton of the !Fifth Avenue. This I believe to be an institution quite peculiar to the other side of the Atlantic. To ns, unsophisticated lovers of decorum in the old country, it savours somewhat of vairity and vulgar pomp. The Americans, almost to a man, act on the maxim, ♦♦Early to bed, and early to rise, Is the way to be healthy, wealthy, and wise." This habit goes far towards prolonging life and neutralising the effects of a dietary system which is most prejudicial to health. On the latter subject, Miss Bremer remarks* with great justice, " I am becoming more and more convinced that the diet here is unwhole- some, and is not suited to the climate, which is hpt and stimulating. They eat J:tot bread for breakfast, as well as many, fat and heating dishes, besides roast pork, sauEiages, omelets, and such like. In the evenings, espe- cially at all suppers, they eat oysters stewed, or a salad and peach preserve, a peach ice, &c" The rapidity with which Americans devour their meals has become prover al. I well recollect my astonishment at the first t.uner which I witnessed on board a Western steamboat. No sooner had the captain taken his place than my neighbours at table seized every dish within their reach, mixed roast veal, sausages, butter, puddings, tarts, sweet potatoes, bread, and cabbages on the same ph^te, and swalloiT^ed them heterogeneously^ a^ fast as * ** Homes of the New World," vol. 1., p. Ifi2, II I 9ABT SATINO. mselves tending ictuallj^ lionable t Union ' young »ter of fee of having J intro- Thial e other vers of hat of a^im, ' e and lich is , Miss oming vhole- )t and 8 well pork, pspe- salad )iditjr Jcome b the stem place ithin ings, aaine st as V their hands could raise the viands to their gaping mouths. Six or seven minutes after the bell rung, a doeen fellows started up in breathless haste to pick their teeth and prepare their mouths for tobacco. But in this respect the Down Easters beat the Western men hollow. I shall never forget the inconceivable rapidity with which I saw meals discussed in the State of Maine. I found, however, a great change for the better in this respect during my last visit, although at the Virginia Hotel in St. Louis (Missouri), out of 250 who sat doWh to dinner, only 20 remained longer than ten minutes. It is needless to say how injurious this practice is to the health of the population. The mode of heating houses by means of stoves which bum anthracite coals, also affects most prejudicially the sjinitary state of the famiUes who use them. Hawthorne, in his " Mosses from an old Manse," refers to this when he writes, " Our successors will have grown up amid furnace heat, in houses which might be fancied to have their founda- tion over the infernal pit, whence sulphurous streams and unbreathable exhalations ascend through the aper- tures of the floor." The wooden logs in the country give out a cheerful blaze, but in the towns the English fire-place has but a poor substitute in the "sullen stove." Fenimore Cooper, in one of his novels,* remarks : — " The good treatment of their women is the surest evidence that a people can give of their civilization ;" and he adds, ** and there is no nation which has more to boast of in this respect than the Americans." 1 had marked several passages from recent European writers for quotation, to verify this statement, and to prove, in the words of Mrs. Houston,! that " a young and pretty girl may travel alone with perfect safety from Maine to Missouri, and wiU meet with nothing but respect and attention the whole way ;" but the fact is so patent and indisputable, that it would be a waste of time to bring * "The Spy," chap.. XXX. t "Heaperos," vol, ii., p. 185. • / 94 AHSBIOA AND Till AMXBI0AK8. forward elaborate testimony. The attention paid to the feebler sex in the United States in drawing-rooms, steamboats, railroad-cars, and public assemblies, is well- known to every one who has studied the subject; indeed, it is often carried too far, degenerating into a sort of homage, which the ladies, were they to consult their own dignity and self-respect, should not encourage. Fanny Eem, impressed with this spirit of exaction on the part of her countrywomen, thus rates them in her own happy style of irony : — " When you enter a crowded lecture-room, and a gentleman rises politely,- — as American gentlemen alwayi do, — and offers to give up ' his seat, which he came an hour ago to secure for him- self, take it as a matter of course, and don't trouble yourself to thank him, eyen with a nod of your head. As to feeling uneasy about accepting it, that is ridicu- lous ! because, if he don't fancy standing during the service, he is at liberty to go home; it is a free country! When you enter the cars, and all eligible- places are occupied, select one to your mind, then walk '^ ^ up to the gentleman who is gazing at the fine scenery- through the open window, and ask him for it with a queenly air, as if he would lose caste instanter did he hesitate to comply. Should any persons seat themselves near you not exactly of * your stamp,' gather up the folds of your dress cautiously, as if you were afraid of contagion, and apply a * vinaigrette' to your patrician^ nose!" I have spent many agreeable hours with- American ladies, and retain pleasant recollections of their liveliness and intelligence, but must candidly say that in the opinion not only of all well-bred foreigners, but of many citizens also, the gentlemen treat them far ' too much like spoiled children ; and if in this respect' they boast of their civilization, it is the civilization of: Don Quixote rather than of Christianity and common*^ sense. ** When I write my threatened book upon female* education," observes Lord Jeffrey* to an American^ * "Life," by Lord Cockburn, vol. ii., p. 149. ^- ♦a t} 01 til Ii bl tl AMSBIOAK L4Saili» 95 to the •pooma^ •' 8 well- ibject ; into a consult )uragei** ion on in her •owded y,— as ;ive up ►r him» . irouble * head. ridicuA*^ ig the^ a free ' iligible 1 walk jeneryt writh a> id he selves p the ■aid of rician* with* ns off . 7 say jners, m far' spect^' on of mon- ^male' ricatt friend, " I mufti rank that of your free country among the most injudicious.*' However they may differ in other particulars, European travellers have expressed themselves with wonderful unanimity on this subject. Indeed, the evil is so self-evident, that the most pre- judiced cannot fail to notice it. Young ladies who in all other civilized countries would be considered mere boarding-school misses, in whom modesty is regarded as the most essential acquirement, in the United States, casting off all restraint, not only act an independent part and display an ease of manner savouring painfully of pertness and pretension, but actually assume the lead in society. Prematurely embarked on the sea of life, they acquire at an early age a self-confidence and a freedom of demeanour by no means feminine r,v calcu- lated to please an impartial spectator. Forward without genius, and talkative without information, they often render conversation frivolous, and overbear wiser heads by their loud assimiption of unnatural dignity. It is repugnant to proper feeling to see married women, though distinguished for beauty and accomplishments, comparatively neglected in company, while girls of six- teen or seventeen, who have nothing to recommend them but thoughtlessness and volubility, are surrounded with listeners. Nor is this abuse confined to the drawing-room and the evening party; it enters into the daily routine of domestic duties. Instead of assisting her mother, the lovely Miss M laughs at and snubs her, asks whom she pleases to visit at the house, and does nothing all daylong but fiirt, lounge, and read novels. It appears to me that the system of education at many of the ladies' academies encourages this prevalent folly; the proficiency of young misses in algebra, moral philosophy and pLjsics, being published far and wide, and exhibited before admiring audiences, whilst the humbler but far more important engagements of domestic life seem to be entirely forgotten by both pupils and teachers. Above the portal of every such seminary, on the mind of every American matron, v/ \ / AMEBIOA AHB THB AMfeBIOAlTS. should be written in striking characters the words of Milton : ' W\ ** For nothing lovelier (ian be found '^ In woman than to etudy honsehold good." t ' If the damsels of the Great Eepublic would bestow more time in looking after the arrangements of the kitchen, the laundry, and parlour, and less on mathe- matics, Spanish, and light literature, the tone of society would be elevated, and the homes of the Western Continent would become still more influential for good. My fair transatlantic Mends may think these criticisms severe ; but candour compels me to charge them further with the excessive love of dress, and with being so ex- travagant in this respect, that it is the most fertile sub- ject of complaint on the part of husbands and fathers. Nothing is more common than for a lady to incur enormous bills to drapers all over town for silks, satins, and India shawls, without the knowledge of the unfortu- nate individual who must pay them ; and when she goes to Newport or Saratoga for a month in summer, she orders a new dress for every morning, and another for every evening of her sojourn. The extent to which this siQy vanity is carried would scarcely be credited, even in the gayest circles of Europe. Nor can I overlook the injury they do to their own health and the health of the nation, by not taking exercise. Not only in the towns, but in country quarters, they often sit from sun- rise to sunset in rocking-chairs ; the idea of walking appears shocking to them, and as to roaming in the woods or climbing hills, they would regard any one who proposed such a thing as a madman. Bound a suffo- cating stove during winter, and diligently fanning them-' selves all summer, they lead a sort of butterfly life, which may yet tell most unfavourably on the succeeding generations. " After all, it is not good,"* exclaims honest Miss '' * "Homes of the New World," vol. ii., p. 8. See also " Amwipa as I found it," p. 194. = '-^ rords of bestow of the mathe- society restern ►r good, iticisms further f so ex- ile sub- fathers. ) incur satinS) nfortu- le goes ler, she her for ch this even '•erlool^ alth of in the n sun- alking in the le who suffo- them-" |y life, eding ^■ -;' Miss Linerioa JBBi^JTT OT AlOSBIOAN LABUS, 9t^ Bremer; **il6, it is not good, it has not the freshness of JN^ature, that life which so many ladiei^ lead in this country; that life of twilight in comfortable rooms, rocking themselves by the fireside from one year's end to another ; that life of effeminate warmth and inactivity by which means tlicy exclude themselves from the fresh air, from fresh, invigorating Ufe. And the physical weakness of the ladies of this country must in great measure be ascribed to their effeminate education. It is a sort of harem life, although with this difference, that they, unlike the Oriental women, are here in the tVestem country regarded as sultanesses, mi the men as their subjects.** ' -'' ' •(; ;; Ti k -m^ ^f Having said so much against American ladies, it is but fair that I should say something in their favour. Few people after they have been a week or two in thfe United States, fail to notice how very seldom they meet a plain-looking woman, excepting in districts frequented by the Celtic Irish. In Italy and the Grecian Archi- pelago, in Andalusia and in England, I have 8ee|i i^uch inore beautiful faces and forms than in any part of the Western world ; but in none of these countries have the majority of the female sex such claims to correct features and pleasing expressions. You may walk for an tour in Broadway, crowded as it is with people, and not see d single repulsive countenance. " I hiv6 seen mo^ pretty faces,'* remarks an iSnglish waiter,* ^*in 2*few Tork in one hour than in ail my life in Britain.** My own journal for November, 1853, has a similar entry, — viz., " I ain every day more and more struck with th^ good looks of the American ladidS. One seldoih m^ets a female with unprepossessing features.** I find in my note-book for April, 1846, the following testimony : — " I have seen more beauties here (New York) in one day than 1 saw during a residence of two winters in Edinburgh. They are deUcate-looking beauties, how- * ever, and I dare say soon lose their charms in a climate ^ * McLean's ^'Residence in the Hudson's Bay Territory," vol. ii., p. 180. 1/ w i" 08 AMEBIOA AND THE AMEBIOANS. 80 changeable and trying/* But, as Shakespeare says in one of his Httle-known sonnets,— .4% "Beauty is but a vain and doubtful good ; .^'*^«l A shining gloss, that fadeth suddenjj ; -^r A flower that dies, when first it 'gins to bud ; A brittle glass, that's broken presently." tH ^^ »i I must, therefore, do the American ladies the justice to say, that they have other claims on our admiration. Strangers are frequently surprised at their mental ac- complishments and originality of thought. Generally well read, and animated in their conversation, they strike one as remarkably intelligent, and their lively good humour draws away attention from dei&ciencies arising from an injudicious system of tuition. Mrs. Stowe observes,* that " conscientiousness with New !E)ngland women is the granite formation which lies deepest, and rises out, even to the tops of the moun- tains." I would endorse the sentiment, and extend its application, more or less emphatically, to the ladies of the Kepublic in general. * *^^'^^ New Year's Day is kept as a strict holyday through- out the United States, all the stores and shops being shut, and business totally suspended. On this day the ladies hold levees, expecting a call from every gentleman of their acquaintance, and vying with each other in the splendour of their drawing-room decorations, and the sumptuousness of their refreshment tables. Some re- ceive 600 to 700 visits beforfe evening. On this day, too, following a pleasing old Indian custom, reconcilia- tions »^e effected ; a call on a person with whom you have not been on good terms being regarded as a full explanation, and bygones then become bygones at once., ^ The Americans, as a people, are not fond of amuse- ment. Their theatres are few in number, and those few are supported chiefly by foreigners ; you seldom hear field-sports referred to even by young men, and athletic games have very little place in the affections of the nation. To roll balls in a ten-pin alley by gaslight, * ** Uncle Tom's Cabin," chap, 3tY, .' ^ft''! . > you ; fuU ^1 i N4.TI0NAL SFOBTS. or ti> i^' d a fast trotting-horse in a light wagon along a very .ad and yerj dusty road, seems the Alpha and Omega of sport ia the IJmted States. I except the trotting-matches, or " trots," which take place on courses near the principal towns, because, of late years, few gentlemen of reputation, however fond of horses and excitement, would be seen amongst the crowd of disso- lute characters who now own most of the celebrated horses, and frequently, at the last moment, refuse to let the race go on, that the tavern-keepers, in league with them on the ground, may get two days' custom instead of one. Many " trots" are got up by low publicans merely to sell drink. I never, in my life, saw such a collection of ill-looking blackguards as on the course near Philadel- phia, and at Oakland, in the neighbourhood of Louis- ville, Kentucky. Some of the horses, however, are really worthy of attention, from their remarkable shape, and still more remarkable action. I saw one four-year old at Ticonderoga, for which 390Z. had just been paid. The Americans, it appears to me, devote far too little time to innocent amusement, and that recreation which is so conducive to health. Day after day they harass their bodies and minds in the counting-house or the store-room, making business a slavery, and money- making an unnecessary toil. It may be an old world prejudice on my part, but I cannot help thinking that to the love of her people for field-sports and athletic exercises in the open air, England owes much of her national greatness. Her fox-hunters have stood vic- torious generals on battle-fields famous on the page of history ; young men who learned to row a boat at Eton have swept the seas in command of Britannia's bulwarks, and spirits inured to hardship on Scotland's mountains, first imbibing their love of adventure in pursuit of the grouse and the red deei', have carried the civilization of this little island to the banks of the Murray and the slopes of the Himalayas. Pleasure, we all know, must be kept in its proper place, but that will be a sad day for England when the moor and the loch, the cover and the H 2 mm I 100 AMEBIOA Aim THB AiqiBIOAirS. f«rg>fikd)th§ cricket-ground and tlie golf-fleld are deserted by men who, like our transatlantic brethren, are very helots to merchandize and politics. It wiU be Unnecessary for me to do more than men« tibn that the various reformatory and charitable institu^ tions throughout the United States are just such as one would expect in a great free country, where the people have sufficient intelligence for self-government, and where Christianity exercises a powerful influence. There exists,' in all parts of the country, admirably-con*> ducted infirmaries and asylums for the insane, hospitals for the blind, and deaf, and dumb, and in many of the States schools for the reclamation and instruction of youthful criminals. Every Separate commonwealth has its penitentiary, into which all the modem improvements in prison discipline have been introduced. I visited the famous one near Philadelphia, so minutely described by Mr. Dickens. It then contained 340 inmates, who were comfortably lodged, well fed, and supplied with valuable books, besides receiving regular visits from a moral instruction-agent, and listening every Sunday to a sermon. The officials assured me that the charge brought against the institution of impairing the mental powers of the criminals was utterly destitute of founda- tion. '■• '"• '■ '■" '-":■?:--'-■ -Mi''%:X- « It is painful to observe that, in many instances, mob- violence even yet interferes with justice in the "Western Bepublic, and that wealth and station procure acquittals far more readily there than they do in aristocratio England. So many American citizens admitted and mourned over these evils to me, that I shall not occupy my space in adducing proof. All who read the news- papers will be able to recal sad examples of law being overborne, and the sacred principles of right trampled upon among our neighbours during the last few years. Such cases as that of the Wards, in Kentucky, who murdered a schoolmaster in open day, and were yet found not guilty by a jury of their countrymen, do more towards bringing American institutions into disrepute I* Kll A3>ani!rt09fiA ii '-'■' .i :• CHAPTER IX. mob- jstem littals 3ratio and jcupy lews- jeing ipled rears, who yet imore mm PecoliMitie^ of Brother Jonathan — Oottnine — Nasal tones — ^Phrase* — ,^ J^am^s — liTfttion^l boasting — Tob^o chewing— Profane svearing — " !MAnners of the Americans. It is but reasonable that I should venture on a very few remarks in regard to those peculiarities of brother Jonathan which have been so unsparingly ridiculed and caricatured on this side of the ocean, but I shall do so in a very different spirit from that which pervades the fanciful and highly-coloured narratives of Mr. Dickens and Mrs. Trollope. First, then, the Americans think it necessary to dress in fabrics of the most expensive materials. You meet men in railroad-cars, and on the decks of steamboats, rigged out in superfine broadcloth and white waistcoats, as if they were on their way to a ball-room, and common workmen you find attired in glossy black clothes while performing work of the dirtiest description. Fustian and tweeds are seldom seen ; and, ^whilst travelling in shepherd-tartan, I have been stared V 102 AMEBICA AKD THE AMEBICAITS. i^i,^ ?' at as much as an ourang-outang in a menagerie. The farmers are the only class who wear rough garments, and even their costume, in some districts, is sufficiently ludicrous. The people have yet to learn that apparel should be chosen for use not show, that shabby broadcloth is the most pitiful of all costume, and that it is no mark of gentiHty to wear a dress unsuitable to one's means and employment. Then can any one tell me why a nation of sensible individuals must needs speak through their noses ? The learned differ as to the origin of this strange habit ; but whether it has been acquired from intercourse with the Indians, by imitating the phraseology of the negroes, or from other causes, the nasal tone is now aU but uni- versal, although much softened and modified in the more refined circles of the Atlantic cities. There are, how- ever, very few dialects or corruptions of the vernacular language in the United States. The inhabitants have, no doubt, coined and changed the signification of single words ; but you can always understand what they mean, and you never doubt that they are speaking English, which cannot be said of the good folks in many parts of this little island. Pew persons are ignorant that the word "fix," with our American friends, means anything and everything. I once travelled in a stage-coach over the Alleghany Mountains with six western men, whose conversation and anecdotes amused me exceedingly; especially the significations in which they used this un- fortunate or rather accommodating word. I happened to pull out of my pocket a ticket for the steamer on the Monongahela, when a smart man opposite me from East Tennessee immediately called out, " Look here, I ain't got none of them fixins." His neighbour, shortly after- wards, stroking his chin, soliloquized, " WaU, I guess rd better get fixed (i.e. shaved) at Wheeling;" the " fixins" or eatables at supper were pronounced heavy, and a jolly fellow, who sat next me relating his expe- riences in travelling with a certain General Cunning- ham, who weighed 220 poimds, and a Colonel Talbot, 5 4 4^ PBOULUlBITIES. 108/: I' ■ *f < **^F' > V who WAB still heavier, remarked, with reference to a stage-coach, " I never in all my life seed such a fizin ; in the very first hole the driver * fixed* (or overturned) her, with them two weighty boys on the top of me ; wamt I scared and perteeklar nled, and didn't I ' fix' the pro- prietors in the NashviUe newspapers." ,K The Americans display very little ingenuity or good taste in their choice of names for towns, rivers, steam- vessels, 4&C. In many instances they have changed the euphonious appellations of the Indians by no means for the better. Por example, the red-men called West- port, in Connecticut, Saugatuck; New York was formerly Manhattan, and Mount "Washington, in New Hampshire, was " Agiocochook," the Throne of the Great Spirit. On the Mississippi you find steamboats called the * Telegraph,' * Telegraph No. 2,' * Telegraph No. 3,' * Telegraph No. 4,' the * Pike,' the * Lady Pike,' the * Greneral Pike,' and the * U. S. Mail,' while the number named after individuals, * John T.'s,' 'Samuel A.'s,' 'Jacob B.'s,' ani ' Benjamin S.'s,' is legion. Then every second village you pass is either "Eranklin," "Monroe," "Jefferson," or "Lafayette- ville," unless, indeed, it be " Havana," " Springfield," j.^* Bloomington," or " Montgomery." i«.rf '19 I was exceedingly struck with the remarkable stature : of the men who inhabit the Mississippian valley ; they are perfect sons of Anak ; in Kentucky you meet few under six feet two or three inches, and while standing at the bar of an hotel in Louisville, I was startled by the apparition of a giant measuring seven feet nine inches in his stockings. ^?fi ^vi ;& i « t^^: .<5i^^ ii# r ; ' J .< The offensive manner in which Americans, especially the less refined, brag of their country and its institutions, has been much animadverted on by Europeans. They do this far more abroad than at home, feeling justly that one who has seen the United States does not req^uiire to - have their praises sounded in his earsj whereas foreigners -;. who have never crossed the ocean are apt to forget and ,i< ignore the claims of the Bepublic to jts rank amongst 104 AMEBICA AXU 981 AVIBIOANS. the natioat. TheD, to use the words of Lady Emmeline Stuart Wortley,* ^*they feel their destiny; and we should rememher what a prospect lies before them.'*' 1^ is all very true, and may serve as an exphmation and an i^ology; but in a few years, when better accus- tomed to greatness, they will find out that boasting is both undignified and unwise. Men may be bom to '^whip universal natur'" without telling the fact to every o^e they meet. I was talking one evening in the dining-room of alargehotelwith avery pleasant southern^, about the progress of liberal opinions and the prospects of the Anglo-Saxon race, and happened to say, ^ It appears to me that Providence has designed the two nations to civilize the globe." A little sharp-featured man opposite immediately started up and addressed me. *' Two nations ; guess there's only one, stranger; goin' to annex that island of yours one of them fine days ;*-«'•« don't know how little Vic. will like that, but got to do it, no mistake about that." On another occasion, I met in a railroad e«r a true specimen of a Down Easter, a l?egular live Yankee fi?om Maine, who "wanted to know^' what I thought of ^' Ameriky," and perseveringly plied me with questions likely to elicit a statement of my impressions. At the close of the cross-examination, a^er a long pause, and staring me full in the iaae, he summed up as follows :— '* Wall, now, I declare I knowd it; we air a great people, and bound to be tolerablo ^^ ^ublesome to them kings." O But the most disagreeable — not to say disgusting-^ k) habit with which our transatlantic friends are chargeable, ' is that of chewing tobacco and spitting. Even in the n^thefn and eastern states it offends the European r? traveller, while in th0 south and west it is carried to aaici excess whioh defies exaggeration, and renders locomotio&ji;! sometimes » positive nuisance. Excepting when at a party or in a lady's drawing-room, thousands of men i^ over the Union keep their jaws in perpetual motion firomi t^ sunrise to sunset. A stranger voyaging in a Mississip^oi * "Travels intlie United States,'* vol. i., p. 241. n . i 90BJLOOO-OHBWIKQ. 105 we i pian steamboat might well arriye at the conclusion that expectoration was a necessity of existence with the natives of that region. The deck, paddle-boxes, railings, cabins, stoves, and chairs of the vessels are often so be- smeared with brown juice, that you cannot distinguish their colour. I made a trip on the Ohio with a young man whom I never saw but once, even at meab, without a quid rolled in his cheek, and who squirted with remark- aUe regularity, according to my watch, seven times per minute, or 5040 times in the twelve hours. Another person who sat beside me in a Presbyt&rian church at Cincinnati, kept up an incessant fire of liquid tobacco during the service, and on one of my first journeys on American railroads, between New York and Phila- delphia, having been incautious enough to lay my writing-desk on the floor of the car, I found it, on rising to leave, in the midst of a pool of, and quite saturated with, the juice of the weed. Nor can I ever forget a scene in the hall of the Virginia Hotel at St. Louis, one wet evening in the autumn of 1853, when the ^oor was a sea of rain-water and liquid tobacco, while the spitting rendered it impossible for an uninitiated stranger to walk about or read the newspapers. In the street, at the bar-rooms, or on the decks of steamers, however, one can generally, by a little dexterity, avoid being spat upon, unless, indeed, he receive an unexpected volley at a comer ; but in a railroad car there is no way of escape. One man spits on the floor between your legs, another out at the window, within an inch of your nose, a third over your shoulder on the side of the carriage, a fourth makes a target of the door by which you wish to make your exit ; you let fall your glove on the floor, it floats in tobacco-juice, and your wife's gown is ruined by con- tact with the filthy boards of the carriage. I quite agrep with Dr. Johnson,* who said, " This spitting is as gross a thing as can well be done : and one wonders how any man orset of men can persist in so offensive a practice for a whole day together ; one should expect that the *" Life," by Boswell, chap. Ixxvii. * 106 AMEBIOi. Ain> THB AMIBICANS. I 'I first effort towards civilization would remove it even among savages." Candour compels me to say that profane swearing ia a vice widely prevalent in the United States, especially among the Southern planters and the pioneers of the Western country. The former habitually use oaths of the most appalling kind, coining words, and stretching to the utmost their inventive powers, in order more emphatically to blaspheme. You hear constantly in the public conveyances and hotels of America expressions with which few English gentlemen would poUute their lips, and now current on this side of the Atlantic only amongst thieves and vagabonds. Even reputable men in the EepubKc have yet to learn that apMi; altogether from its sinfulness, the habit is both contemptible and meaningless. Bob Acres may hold that there is such a thing as "an oath referential or sentimental swearing;" but most people in civilized countries have come to the conclusion that the practice betokens mental incapacity. * * Jack was embarrassed, never hero more, ' - ** •'^-' *5* And as he knew not what to say, he swore." t It is a common prejudice in Britain that the Americans are a rude people, by no means polite to strangers, and disagreeable in their manners. I found them quite the contrary, having in all my wanderings only experienced two instances of discourtesy ; and I am glad to observe that recent English writers, without exception, give a like testimony. Lord Carlisle says,* " It is something to have travelled nearly over the whole extent of the Union without having encountered a single specimen of inten- tional incivility." Lady Stuart Wortley t writes : " Instead of disobliging in their manners, we find them all that is most civil and obliging." Captain Mackinnon, in his "Atlantic and Transatlantic Sketches,"! bears witness as follows : " It is hardly possible for an Engli^- * ** Lecture to the Mechanics* Institution and Literary Sooiety of Leeds." »^ v t " Travels in the United States," vol. i., p. 26. t Vol. i., p. 25. A; i1 • *A 1 *4 \\ ICANKDBB OF THE AMEBICANB. 107 iu .»> .:^..i^: ' -i i *A i man (who has only read of the States) to arrive in any one of them without some little apprehension of the supposed * republican rudeness* of the citizens. The moment however he lands, this apprehension leaves him. He feels at once, almost by intuition, that he is amongst as civil people as any in existence.'* In Sullivan's " Bambles and Scrambles in North and South America,*'* there occurs this passage : " I had a strong prejudice against the American people, acquired by meeting very bad specimens on the Continent ; but I have convinced myself it was unfounded, and I do not hesitate to say that I met as agreeable women and gentlemanly men in America as the world can produce. I met with nothing but civility and hospitality during my stay." Mr. Mackay, Sir Charles LyeU, Professor Johnston, indeed every author whose verdict is of the least consequence, gives similar testimony ; and I should not have thought it necessary to allude to the subject, had not the misstate- ments of caricaturists been circulated in England more extensively than the evidence of writers who value their reputation more than a mere temporary popularity, and would scorn to obtain readers at the expense of truth. CHAPTER X. \\ \\ Manufacturing and commercial enterprise of the United States — Me- chanical skill — Changes observed by me in seven years — Statistics of progress — Trade and shipping — Factories — Visits to Lawrence and ft. Lowell — The operative class. : : ? ^ v -t-.i^ I WOTTLD now call my reader*s attention briefly to the wonderful enterprise of the American people as mani- fested in the extent of their manufactures and commerce. There are few Captain Dolittles in the Great Eepublic, who rejoice in a "happy vacuity of aU employment ;"t and those few are rather looked down upon in a country • Preface. + ** Introduction to the Monastery." 108 AMISIQA iin> VBX AUMVlOVS9f whose inhabitantB regard idleness as dishonourable, mi- are all engaged in some species of trade. It would b^ iinwise on our part not to watch the gigantio industrial strides making by our neighbours, and the triumphs of arti and ingenuity eyen beyond the Alleghanies. Their inyeni tive capacity and the skill with which they render thfi^ discoyeries of science subseryient to the wants of every- day life, the magnitude of the works undertaken b^ indiyiduals and companies, and the unwearied actiyity displayed in eyery branch of material deyelopment, forc« themselves upon the notice of eyery ciyilized country^ especially of that which has hitherto been the worksh< p of the world. " America," says Mr. Mackay,* " is yeb destined to rear up a fabric of commercial greatness^ such as the world has hitherto been a stranger to. On such a theme it would be idle to speculate minutely ; but this much at least may be safely predicted of a peoplo with ingenuity equal to, and with resources ten times m great as ours, and with an enterprise which drives them with ardour into eyery chartj^ of trado, from ransacking the South Bea for whales, to trafficking round the world with ice.*' This energy manifests itself in small affairs as well as large, in the step of the pedler as well as in the countenance of the East India merchant. One day I was attracted by a crowd in Broadway, New York, ac^^ompanying a wagon drawn by six white horses, with otiier carriages behind containing a band of music. I ran as fast as my legs could carry me to '^? c iai'i the cause of this triumphal proceasion, and th'^ n.iv ^ the conquering hero, and foimd to my extreme k>ai prise that the gaily decorated vehicle was only an advertising mediiim for " Howe's Cough Candy." It might truly be said of [Brother Jonathan what Tully said of Marcuf Brutu3 : ^''Jd{f.id vv^t, valde vult. No one can fail to be stTTiek ^rltli the ^extraordinary enterprise which ^q honouialily tlistinguisiies the United States, — her noble merchant ships, superb river steamers, manufactories, '^^J^ r • "Western World,'" vol. i., p. 120. am .?»h,t* inOfiAinOAXi IXILL. 109 UB tQ ^p )l6 •^tifk i r .. jijttlroadg, mines Bud telegraphs, those sure erldences of ft nation's incipi'^nt power. Internal navigation i« fiunlitated by caiiais and slack waters, news are trans- mitted with the . ipidity oi lightning from one end of the Union to the other, the cooking appjiratus in the large hotels is driven by steam power, and biscuits for exports are made by millions with the aid of the same agent. Indeed there is no one feature in American commerce more interesting than the readiness with which machinery is introduced into all branches of industry. They have machines for making shirts, all but the gussets; machines for stone dressing, enabling one man to do the work o twenty ; machihes for spinning, which require only one man to a mule containing 1088 spindles, each spindle ■pinning three hanks per day ; machines f< >r door-making, by means of which twenty men make 100 panelled doors per day ; machines for sewing, at whi^h one woman can do as much as twenty with the hand ; machines for net-making, saving ninety-nine per cent, of labour ; ma- chines for the manufacture of ploughs, which turn out thirty in twelve hours. The people of the United Statea ai?e far too well educated and intelligent to ^orm com- binations to resist the introduction of maxjhinery, know- ing Weill that, especially in a country where labour is scarce, the national prosperity depends very much on the readiness with which steam-power is called in to aid in manufactures. Thousands of schoolboys in he New Eiigland and Central States cherish a hope of one day rising to eminence by some mechanical invention. On all hands you see evidences of the remarkable ingenuity of the population. In the large cities it is quite common to elevate lofty houses and ware-rooms by means of jack- screws, and insert a new ground story on a handsomer scale. This process saves roofing, and leaves the othej flats precisely as before. I have frequently seen wooden dwellings in course of transport on rollers from one site to another, and even churches may occasionally be met coming down the street on a pilgrimage to a more i wnw»tt : ;« =:gW8wff3 .■ ^Wjfa ^ibW 110 AMXBIOA AND THX AMEBIOANS. eligible locality. I was astonislied at the changes which had taken place in the appearance of many of the cities in seven years. Whole districts of New York were entirely new. The vast increase of traffic in Broadway, the greater splendour of the shops, the number of immense brick stores which had been built where old Dutch edifices and boarding-houses formerly stood, the splendid restaurants, printshops, plate glass windows and enormous hotels, struck me as soon as I landed. Then in the neighbourhood, villas, rows of houses and villages are starting up like mushrooms, on spots which five years ago were part of the dense and tangled forest ; and the value of property everywhere, but especially along the various lines of railroad, has increased in a ratio almost incredible. Small fortunes have been made by owners of real estate at Tonkers, and other places on the Hudson river. In Brooklyn the transformation was stiU more remarkable ; the rows of brick houses, plain and faced with marble and brown sandstone, in process of erection, being apparently endless. I was iniformed that 1500 to 2000 dwellings are there annually built, and invariably let as soon as ready. Even staid old Boston had been extended and beautified greatly since my last visit ; and though possessed of a retentive memory for localities, I should not have recognised Cleveland in the handsome and bustling city, which froni ^ its lofty bluff overlooks the waters of Lake Erie. The^^ traveller in America can scarcely fail to observe the number of actively employed saw-miUs, some of them'^ buried in the recesses of the primeval woods, or on the banks of wild rivers far distant from the abodes of the white man. Wherever a rapid is found, wherever the hunter in his wanderings has reported a cataract, thither'^ the enterprising Yankee transports his machinery, and there, in the course of a twelvemonth, he establishes a flourishing trade. Saw-miUs have rendered Glens Falls ■'^ on the Hudson near Lake George one of the busiest aaA:^^ most increasing towns in the State of New Yorkf^ Ticonderoga drives a similar business on a scale quite NMU MkhNMMiMMWMU STATISTICS OF PBOGBESS. Ill II Value of personal property. . . 127,501,820 . . 79,151,765 . . 285,000,000 fk; Burprising.for so secluded a place ; and far away in t!ie interior of Michigan I saw steam-engines hard at work cutting and planing wood. The governor of Ohio has published the following statement, showing the mar- vellous prosperity of that State : Years. Yalae of real estate. 1841 . . $100,851,837 1847 . . 324,396,008 1854 . . 565,000,000 - The number of Post Offices throughout the Union has increased from 75 in 1790, to 20,901 in 1852— their revenue "from 37,935 to 6,925,971 doUars, and the miles of mail routes from 1,875 to 214,284. The value of the imports has risen in ten years from 100 millions to 216 millions of dollars ; that of the customs from 18 millions to 45 millions ; the amount of the cotton crop from 800 to 1000 millions of lbs. ; that of the rice crop from 80 to 225 millions of lbs. ; that of the sugar crop from 155 to 281 millions of lbs. ; that of the wheat crop from 77 to 100 millions of bushels ; and that of the maize crop from 400 to 600 millions of bushels : while the value of the exports of domestic produce approaches 200 millions of dollars, and of both cottons and woollens the States now manufacture three times more than they receive from abroad. During the year ending 30th June, 1852, the tonnage of American vessels entered from 78 foreign countries was 3,235^522, and that of the American vessels which cleared to these countries 3,230,590 ; the total tonnage of vessels belonging to the Union was 4,138,441, and the tonnage of vessels built during one year ending at that date was 351,493. I have in my possession a very interesting table, showing the number, size, and class of all the vessels launched and on the stocks at New York last year, and the total number of ocean steam-ships with their names and burden, con- structed by the shipwrights of that city. The aggregate niunber of the former is 145, and their tonnage 105,228; while since 1840, 66 ocean steam-ships, whose tonnage is 106,000, have left the yards ; six of these were of 112 AHSBIOi. HTB VKM MXBBJOASB. > \ > 8000 tons eaeli, and fotuteeii of mare tliaa 2000 1 the whole sum inyested in their constmction being 18)200)000 dollars. I spent a whole day strolling through the ship-builders' yards, and along the whiles on tho East Biver, and was amazed with the number and variety of the crafts in the various stages of advancement. At one beiid of the Delaware, between Philadelphia and the sea, I counted no fewer than forty sail ; and nothing strikes a stranger more than the clean and trim appeiov ance of American shipping. The most remarkable v^dsed I ever saw was the mammoth ship, '' G^reat Eepublie^" which was unfortunately burnt; at hei* qtuly whdn takiaoig in her first cargo. She hailed £pom Boston, cost 300, clippers and their ry coiner to rbufie they dis- preferred ig faster, hose of a y than to iher than ■ j^ii rougbout I England [sylvania, and the milHons idedfor .«^ '*'!».' MlASrUVAjOTUBSSJ 113 1 J the spinning and weaving of cotton.' The woollen trade occupies the next most prominent position. Then there are silk works, and leather works, and oil mills, and flonr mills, besides nearly 40,000 mills for sawing timber, and paper factories on an extensive scale. Cincinnati has large workshops for iron and brass ; clouds of smoke frbm innumerable foundries darken the air of Pittsburg, the Sheffield of the United States. ■ On the 1st of June, 1850, the value of the articles thus produced was 1,020,300,000 dollars, a result which throws into the shade the industrial exploits of any other nation in the same period of time. v^-The chief seat of manufactories near New York is Paterson, a town of 15,000 inhabitants, romantically situated at the foot of the Great Palls on the Passaic m New Jersey. There are there several cotton and silk mills, the Dolphin works for making carpeting and M- cloth, the Ivanhoe paper works which cost £60,000, and four locomotive shops which turn out 200 engines per annum. One of these, belonging to Messrs. Bogers, Ketchum, and Grosvenor, gives occupation to no fewer than 800 men. The water race &om the cataract of the Passaic forms three distinct descents in driving these various factories. The great bulk of the workmen are Irish, while most of the managers are Scotchmen. They have a short-time bill in New Jersey, but no penalty is attached to its breach, a fair sample of State legisla- tion in many parts of America, where needy oratoris take aip a political cry merely to get office without caring one straw for the good of the people. In November, last year, I paid a visit to the new manufacturing city of Lawrence, situated twenty-six miles from Boston, on the Merrimack, across which a joint stock company erected a granite dam 1629 feet in length, at a cost of 250,000 dollars. The great works, viz., the Pacific Mills, the At- lantic Mills, the Bay State Mills, the Pemberton Mills, the Duck Company's mill, and the machine shop, stand on the left bank of the stream, close to its margin ; the widb mill race runs between them and a long row of T 114 AMESICi. iam «!S9B AliSBICANS. ■'K \: purchased in 1^45 for the paurpQae, amd at that tiwue a acdiftuder^is the town wibh. idw {mUic pajdk, mimicipal ]^, «ad toziteen .(drardies. The peeqie aeiacfs th^af aeLrea 10,000 4olki» per fumum to auppcxrt the •conir man sdioola, which aiie Attended hj 1600 out of the 1$80 legally etigihle Bcfaolars. A newsi^aper was puh^ lisihed in iim renaarkaible {dace, wihen the editor great proportion of ike opera** tiyes come. In former times, before Europeans had driven jfche red m^;n from the Atlantic slope, iJie ground on which iN'ew England's Manchester now stands was occupied hj Wamesit, the wigwam metropolis of th9 Pawtucket domain. At the junction of the Concord wiit^ the Merrimack, the Indian warriors (^en met to consult on their waning fortunes and to devise new scheme^ f(»* delivering their native wilds. Towards %» jend of the seventeenth century, however, the increasing power x)f the wbites compiled them to forsake t^ graves of their fathers and mi^ate towards ike aetting ^un. Eighty years afterwards a company was formed for the purpose of constructing a canal round Pawtudket Fails iijL order to facilitate the conveyance of timber j And in IBIA a wooden mill, for the mamufaeture of €otloA VAjesmuMU US municipal 31088 tHemi^ ; the fCOJElf >ut of ^ • wtm pub- i^ilior eould re a singla 1 b^Hg td to my 8iif^ , wbo was a Lc in 1846, Mm,wlii€^ mploj 2500 ir one EQom I of flooring, yorks9}ir0> I is siihiatedi Menunaek, It is in th* tier of Neur the opera*- jpeans had kiie ground stands vas lolis of th9 Concord ;en met to Ideyise new 'owards 1^ increasing forsake tho the setting as fonaed Pawtudtet of timb«5 of^ottott goods, was eisecafced on the Concord rirer. Powdecr milji(i and iaw mills aoon followed ; aud in 1822 there was oziganized the Menrdmack Manufacturing .Company ^r- the eom^ jnencemeisit of a new era in Kew England's history. iTrom that time to the present uninterrupted prosperity has been the lot of Lowell, so named after one of the feundi^s of its staple trade. In 1828, the Appleton and Jjowi^]^ companies were incorporated ; it^ese were followed in 1881, hy the Suffolk, Tremont, Lawrence, and Mid- dlesex, and in 1835, by the Boott. Beside^ these there urere in 1846, when I visited the place, three other associations — ^the Hamilton, Massachusetts, aaaMl Prescott^ I had previously heard much of Lowell, — of the health, iiomfo^, and happiness of its manufacturing population, r^of their superioriiy in point of education, morality, Und religious principle, to similar communities in the Old World, and I certainly was not disappointed. No rags, no abject poverty, uo drunkenness, no coarse language, or unseemly behaviour. The mills during th^ day, and the crowded streets m the evening, were filled by an orderly, and apparently intelligent people. To- wards sunset I walked for two or three hours about ihe streets, and was struck wi^ thv^ decorum which pre- vailed. The shops were fuM — ^the pavements crowded,—* thousands of factory girls were sauntering along, enjoy'^ ing the cooling breeze ; but at a little distance from that populous town, one might have closed his eyes and fancied himself a wanderer by the banks of the Merrimack, in the days when the forests were only dis- turbed by the war-whoop which warned the hunter of the red man's track. The city of Lowell contained in 1846, 30,000 inhabitants, one-third of whom were opera- tives, employed at the various works. Of these, 700Q were females, and 1000 males. There were thirty-three mills, besides the print works, with an invested capital of 12,000,000 doUars. They were then making annually 75,868,000 yards of oloth, 1,600,000 doljars being et- ]^ended in wages. They are not the propM!ty of indi- yjidualB, but of joint-d^ock companies, each company i2 116 AM£BIOA AKB THS AMEBI0AK8. I i being managed by a gentleman resident at the works, The partners for the most part live in Boston., The machinery is all driven by water power, and the build- ings are of brick, substantial and well finished. In Lowell there is a very small population permanently engaged in manufactures. The girls seldom remain at the works longer than five years, but at the end of that period return to their rural homes, with a little pui^se, and send their younger sisters to supply their places. To encourage tins system, the different corporations re- quire their workers to board in one of the houses which are attached to each mill. There are 560 of these boai'ding-houses, in all of which every attention is paid to the health and comfort of the inmates. Those who behave improperly are summarily dismissed ; but out of 6800 gills, mentioned in a late statistical report, only forty-nine had been turned off for this reason. Total abstinence from intoxicating Uquors is regarded as a pre-requisite towards obtaining employment; and the moral police system among the operatives themselves, is said to be perfect. The rooms are lofty, well ventilated and warmed, and> the statistics of health encouraging. A comparison was made between the bills of mortality of LoweU, Salem, Providence, and "Worcester, none of the three last manufacturing towns, and it was found that the first had an advantage of fifteen per cent. 1 was informed, however, last year, that owing chiefly to the great influx of Irish and Germans, of a low grade, the Lowell operatives have recently rather degenerated in point of character. The average wage of the females is about 8s. 6d. per week, besides board ; although many earn nearly double that sum. The excellent common school system of education adopted in all the New Eng- land States, sufficiently accounts for the general intel* ligence of the operatives. The numerous " Improve* ment Circles," or literary societies, at which so many of the workers spend their leisure time — the clever articles in the " Lowell Offering," written by the girls themr selves, the well-&equented libraries and crowded lectur^ THIS OPEBATIYE CLASS. 117 rooJtns bear ample testimony to tlie existence of ** Mind among the Spindles." Three-eighths of the girls in 1846, were church members, and three-sevenths either teachers or pupils at the Sabbath schools. How long this happy state of things may continue, it is not for me to predict ; many believe in its permanence — others think the experiment will eventually fail, but in any case it cannot but attract the attention of all who are interested in the well-being of their fellow men. CHAPTER XI. The temperance question in America — ^History and working of the Maine Liquor Lav — Political manoeuvres in connexion with it — Remarks on its English advocates — ^A word to emigrants. !Pbw people can be ignorant that for many years America has been the scene of a continued and zealous agitation of the temperance question ; originating in the manifest necessity of stemming that torrent, which at one time threatened to devastate the land, and undermine its whole political fabric. The drinking usages of the last generation on the other side of the Atlantic were, if possible, more degrading than those which prevail among ourselves; and not only Christians, but patriots and statesmen, felt themselves obligated to devise measures * for removing such a stain on the escutcheon of their country. Lectures, oral and written, pulpit exhortations, mass meetings, total abstinence societies, and such other appliances as come under the designation of moral suasion, were the only means employed until lately for the accomplishment of this end. And it must be allowed that they were attended with no small degree of suc- cess. The change for the better was observable in all classes. The immoderate use of spirits came to be re- garded as a disgraceful vice ; the retail liquor trade suffered; the religious bodies exerted their influence ii8 AMEstcsik xtm nn xtam^AXB. irifSh 1%)iir and firttiiiefes; the eonnhitalB fof «HMtd nipi^ dimimshed ; ftnd eities once noted fbi bnci^tii- caHan occurren€es, became qtiiet and orderly. SB Charles Lyell* bears testimony to the wonderftd ittbi provement in this respect; and during my ttateH through the United States in 1B46, I saw bnt threi drunken men. The general intelligence of the peopl^^ and the universal di^sion Of education, of cioiirBe; df&tti duced most materially to aid the efforts made by pyiattV^ thropists, to bring about this result by the force of argument and public opinion, without having recourse to legislative enactment, or any modus operandi having the appearance of restraint. For some time past, how- ever, it has been evident that the disease had only been checked, not cured, and with the vast increase of igno- rant eiftigrants, person^ to a large extent incapal:^ ^ linder^fflltdilig aptreal^ which had carried cbiitictlbit to the great body of the American people, appealed a cor- responding increase of drunkenness a^d its dtteiidiiiiit ills. I last yfear daVr many intoxicated peraiohs in tfef# Tork, Chicago, St. Louis, and other popuk?tts |j!i*c^s iSreqtiented by the class just refbrrfed te ^ md etm m the streets of Puritan Boston, I wafs jostled by fi^p^ men. A malady of this kind, we knov>^, sooii spread*, and all o^er the Union complaints begali to be mtiM «f its revival and injurious eifects. At the elal!^ peaf ed a cor- its sltt($ti<9!Efet^ •fildiis iff Sef# stttd ef€ti (fS. ifled by fitpitf looii spr^&l^, be iH'sCd^ isi imh of issSi Used tatefiLid^ corporiation j (oiiis in every )erance rfefor- Wctods of the ledtha^ ih^e I>ii^p|)dif)!t^d Mag th^ sttc- jrs bethottght lectij!i*es iihd. if public fiten vitt ttmim £iQiro& sxir. m ,?. lUtfr iU k tiMi "Waited States,, tbab tbe tmdie H bMidcMaff H^ovtf, ]MP#dve» lawful in iiitelf, beling Hal. bo cUm^eibtti ibttse^ Mktf that itt gfimpdwder, iniedid]% or pdmnti ought to be narrowly watched by thar legislatures f and mm fyt a ittoftient doubted the right of the governing fowtM to interfere with and restridK it, when necessary. WMli thertfforey a law was ps»k&& in one of the States^ ^hJI^BJg Hkti salei of liquor eAititefly, ft was founft, iittfi a fSe^eftB eisuniiiation and nmoh disKmssion, th^ <|ti«Ai^« hann^ e^en been referr^id to the su^jreme legid ttitouiS at Wflfihin^on^ to be ^fnite within the powerct df that Sltatev whatever arguments of a difiiBrent kmd might W T»^i against it ; and seeing that the right of inters- feriitasi^ #as admitted, it became manifest that the piso^ ISbiM rimpal featt^eT of ike M ainie Xjow ai^e sadomei^y the fcMowiifg. l$t. Th^ p^bMbition of the mantiittstiB^i^ andi ffl^fr «f 2h(l. The ^ght to tfeisre md eo^seate^ %iior held fio^ tS^^s^ sale. S^d. fhe right to search for lifbsors in? private houses ttj^ th^ affidavit of three personisi, that th^y b^lxeve lix^ors are held ther& for iUegaL ssde. 4th. The appointment of toWn agfeiits for the sale of M^t^rs ^o^ medicinal an^ artistic purpos^es. To thes6 provisiditSj th« good folksl of Bho^ Island hWe recentfy added another, by which anTf pe:»son found indecently drunk may be confined in the eomMiii jtSl nntiil h^ di$cloi^eB tho name of the person who gave or mid him the li^uot. Law^ nearly identicM to' tMs have b^^ pas^e^ in Yermonty Massachiisetts, Miehigan^ and Miimesota j the British ptdvfnce of Kew Bruiiswick his followed their example, making an exception* however, in favour of maiiliquoi»M»4ci(kr | ftveiy M^ou^c^Hy IfO AHSSIOA A3fJ> THE AMEBIOANS. ! I \ onlj, defeated a like measure in Canada ;* nUnoia and Ohio forbid liquor to be sold for consumption on tlie premises ; and Iowa has rendered illegal the sale of id by the glass or dram. nn Such is a brief sketch of the history of this movement. Leaving out of view the more moderate measures, such, for instance, as those taken by Ohio, viz. putting down dram- shops entirely, and making intoxication criminal, what has been the eifect of the unmodified and stringent Maine law ? Has the entire prohibition of the traffic in fermented drinks, either by wholesale or retail, by legislative enact* ment, eradicated intemperance? I answer without hesita- tion. No ! Can it be enforced ? In many of the villages and smaller country towns, it can, and hat been, at least to a very considerable extent ; in most of the cities not at all. I liave seen with my own eyes, drunken men on the streets, and dozens of wine consumed in the hotels of large towns subject to the provisions of the Maine law ; and I really cannot help expressing my surprise that Englishmen, of ordinary intelligence and observa- tion, should travel through America, and then come here and tell us that liquor of any kind could not be obtained for love or money in the States which have passed this bill. Such unaccountable misstatements do more harm to the temperance cause than the most subtle arguments of its opponents. Its sincere friends should discourage exaggeration, and carefully examine the credentials, both of those who give them information and of those whom they employ to diffuse it. But, one may reasonably ask, if the desire of the community, as expressed by its re- presentatives, in legislature assembled, in some instances even by direct vote, is, that this traffic should be pro- hibited and stopped, why cannot it be carried into effect, just as are the laws against forgery, theft, or murder ? "Were the premise of this proposition true, there would be no little difficulty in answering the ques- tion ; but I join issue with the supporters of this enact- * This was written several months since. The newspapers reporli the pfMHMge of tiie meMiq^ by a subsequent vote. POLITICAL MiLlr(IT7TBI^ 12 Bpapers repo^. fiient, by denying their assumption that the majority the people concur in approving of the Uw. The history of this kind of legislation shows me that the Maine liquor law has been carried in various States^ not be- cause its advocates had anything like a numerical pre- ponderance, but because the two great political parties — the Whigs and Democrats — were so evenly balanced, that sometimes one, and sometimes the other, agreed to do as the Temperance men wished, to secure their votes. The latter had only to stand shoulder to shoulder, to resolve to poll for no candidate unless he pledged himself to support the Maine law, in order to compel one of the factions, from sheer necessity, and solely for political purposes, to adopt their views. The conse- quence, in some cases, has been the passage of that stringent enactment, with not the slightest intention, not to say power, of enforcing it, — men voting for it, and then ironically hurraing for it in their cups ; good people at a distance meanwhile being deceived, and fancying a great social improvement, whereas there was in reality nothing more than a paltry legislative trick. In so far as the operation of the Maine Liquor Law has been to remove temptation from the ignorant and debased, it has unquestionably done good ;* and I met * This has been ^especially the case among the lumbermen in the forest districts, and the scarcely less refined inhabitants of the seaport towns in Maine ; but it by no means follows that such an enactment was the best possible remedy for the evils which drunkenness caused in that State, as well as other regions of America peopled by wild and lawless men. It may have, I have no doubt that it has, produced a marked improvement, diminishing pauperism, outrage, and crime ; but there is surely a medium between the unlimited licence which prevailed before 1851, and the extreme rigour of the measure lately adopted, a measure which, if properly enforced, amounts to much more than its English advocates call it, — ''A law for the suppression of tippling-houscs and dramshops." . Some kind friend sent me a bundle of *' Ipswich Tem- perance Tracts" to convince me of my errors on this subject. Whilst the facts and arguments stated in them confirm my belief that a course of prudent and wise legislation might materially improve the habits of this nation, so far as intemperance is concerned, they do not in the least alter my oouviotion that the Maine Law by its severity, not to say injustice, could never be carried into effect in Great Britain, or if hastily m ▲Mssxai jonf mis ixnotoiNs. ! I w loreYfll persoiM who advoested and toted for it beoMM it Woidd shut up a number of low tippling 8hop% trials their own claret and Madeira would not be interred with. This result, howerer, could be obtained hy ^ lest extreme enactments, and those parties would tio doubt have preferred the law of Illinois or Ohio. BttI no such choice was given them, and rather than pier>« mit the present state of things in their neighbourhood to continue, they gave in their adhesion to a meiiuM which they thought unnecessarily severe. If in some respects and in some dis^cts this kind of legislation has been attended with beneficiid cmm^ qixences, in others, truth compels me to eilay, it has dond absolute mischief. In the first place, to pafis liiWtf Hi the result of a political manisuvre and not with Odif et^ pectatiopi of enforcing them, is to bring discredit tiptfh representative government and to sap the very fotmdiilt' tions of |mblic tranquillity. Every measure oughi fi^ express the national opinion, and on questions of this kind it is unreasonable to suppose that an eitremo^ Hke the Maine Liquor Law, should command si majority without years of agitation and argument. Furthe*^ thfe idoption of this measure in certtdn case^ stotually in- creased the consumption of ardent spirits. When I was in Massachiisetts last year, the distillers held a meet- ing and resolved to raise the prices, owing to the adopted, would create a revulsion of popular Beiitiinetit uii&voiitablie to temperance. The first and third questions of tract 306 in the above series will show at a glance the crude and contradictory ^tniw of this truly Amerioafi specimen of law-ijiaking.- " Question I.^-'WBat is tke Maine Law ? Answer. — It is a law proMbiting the maiMfiMtttTa and sale x>{ intoxicating liquors to be used as a beverage. Qnesfion 3;-T'Doe8 the Maine Lawprohibit the use of intoxicating beverages by individuals or fomilies ? Answer. — Its entire prohibitiuns relate to tibe sal^^ and not to the use." What quibbling is here t If no one is allowed to make or sell liquor, how can families supply themselves ? Enf^isluBen lUce an honest answer to a plain question, and always silBpeet trfiokery when contradiction and evasion are manifest at a glance. The Maine Law goes much further than restraining or abolishing drant-shops ; and whatever good in default of wiser measures it may have ^eeted in Americ% it would aever be seriously debated ia the 'Btalimisat6t fltfttt AfTdeunw of r&n iiAiin zmw. Iff mprecedftited demmA, Three focttf relating^ to Ihe eitet of the meamire in the neighboTtrittg Staito of Rhodes lilaird may g^ide us to ft correct coniclusion in this matter. First, during the week following itii passage through the legislature, flrmsf who sold liquor in the mfy of Providence did as much business as they hiDtit et«p done before in a twelvemonth * — second, as: soon fts it received the sanction of the authorities, private chibe were instituted where spirits were kept in a ^resv for t^e use of the members, atnd to one of these presseis iflone there werie 800 key*; — third, ait Newport^ it fiMhlo^ftble bathing place on the coast, much freq;Uented by fttiutherners, sto alttempt was ever made to carry o«rt the provisions of the bill, the bar-rooms existing there just asT before. It is not necesdftry foi^ me to have re- ootrrse to any elaborate reasoning on this subject ; tke few hints which I h^ve thrown out may Sferve to fthow that society c£innot bo reformed by it e&up de TfUtftiy or permanently benefited by a hasty adoption of over stringent laWs. When listening to the sanguine speeches and predictions of the advocates of this Maiae Law in the Unitfed States, I have' often been tempted to reply in the words of MaYcus Andronicuit to his kinsman Tittto."* " brotlier, speak with possibilities, And do not break into these deep eitr6nies."f f^# a ^4 * "Titus AndronicuB," Act iii., Scene i. . t By misrepresenting the foregoing testimony, certain parties who hftTe more zeal than diiscretion, and certain others whose advocacy |rinjgs even good projects into disrepute, hare attempted to weaken its rorce'. It is becatise I feel deeply interest)^' in promoting a rational leeling i^inst the excessive use of intoxicating drinks, and in fatour of judicious laws to prevent the increase and regulate the practice of gin-palaces, that 1 deprecate agitation to obtain a measure which repels all wise {kftd moderate men, and '* en running into ridiculous extremes. The temperance party in this country will hi;v<^ to revise th^ir modes of proce dure, and be more particular in their choice of agents, if they #t8li to produce that impression ilpon society which is theit ptofessed objetett The people of Englatnd care little about mere theorists, and dcHQi't Iselieve in Utopia» They will lau^ at folks who propose a Maine liquor Law, But have shown themselves always ready to consider well* "^ ' ^ Of praietical fefoi^. 124 AMEBIOA JLSB THE AMEBIOANB. One word, before I close this chapter, to those of our hard-working artisans, who are ever and anon, during the intervals of their daUy toU, casting a longing eye towards America, as a land specially blessed by Provi^ dence and " flowing with, milk and honey." Some of you may have friends and relation's, hewing down the timber in the great western forests, or gradually acquiring a handsome competence by patient industry in the cities of the Atlantic slope, and you hear from them occasionally about the free political insti- tutions, the high wages, the gratuitous schools, and the other inducements oflfered by the great republic to the labouring classes of Europe. They tell you, perhaps, that land of the finest quality, and in the most desirable situations, may be purchased at 5s. an acre, and that when no, buyers appear, the price is sometimes reduced to 4s., or even 38., in order to encourage settlers; that all men are there on an equality, as far as social dis-» tinctions are concerned ; and that tradesmen of every" description may easily find employment in any place between Boston and St. Paul. These representations, I know, are made by every mail, and thousands of ova* fellow countrymen are at this moment hesitating whether to make the best of it at home, or to cross the North Atlantic for the purpose of pushing their fortunes imder the rising star of empire. Now there are certain requisites of success on the part of an emigrant, which it may be well for me to mention, viz.' youth, health, activity, industry, and sobriety. One who is indolent, or intemperate, or who cannot apply himself sedulously to his task, will very soon find his mistake if he venture amongst the Yankees. The remarkable number of druggists' shops, the vast army of physicians, the placards announcing cough mixtures, and cures for fever, ague, and rheumatism, the pale sickly youths, and drooping maidens, whom the traveller meets every dskf on the other side of the Alleghanies, afford ample evidence that America is the last place where a man lought to go, unless his strength and constitution fit A WOBD TO EMIOBANTB. 12S him for vigorous exertion. The valleys of the Missis- sippi and Missouri, the region of the Great Lakes, and the wheat lands of Ohio, have certainly no such deadly climate as that which deters men from settling in Central America or Sierra Leone ; hut those who are not hlest with a rohust frame^ wiU find them far more trying to the physical powers than this little sea-girt isle. The extremes of heat and cold, the undrained marshes, and dense dark woods, the mode of living, and unremitting toil, soon enfeeble and shatter the constitution of one who might, even in cold rainy Scotland, live to a good old age. Further, let those who have arrived at middle life, and who therefore cannot easily change their habits, think twice about it before they go to America. If they act rashly in this matter, they may soon experience the truth of the proverb, that "all is not gold that glitters," and long, when too late, for the home and the locality which they have forsaken. There are not a few EngUah- men of this class in the United States who bitterly regret having crossed the stormy sea. The case is dif- ferent, however, with those who have strong and dutiful children arrived at men's and women's estate, ready to support them when they land on the foreign shore. America offers great inducements to those having nume- rous families ; many aged patriarchs are living there now in the midst of their sons and daughters, their flocks and their herds, supplied with all the comforts and even the luxuries of life, who, had they remained here, would in all probability have been still working in the barnyard or tha factory. But to all intending emigrants, young as well as old, those who havfe earnings to invest and those who have not, I would say, you must not expect a paradise ; if labour is well paid, clothing and house-rent are dear also ; and he who anticipates a garden of self- producing bananas in Illinois or Wisconsin, will one day repeut his folly in sackcloth and ashes. It is no child's play to cut down American timber, or bring into cultiva- tion the new land of the "West. It has prematiurely im- paired the constitution and shortened the days of not a 138 AMEXliLk lASB (FSS AXmOASS. lJl:i £&wwlio ooteied upon their task with all tke huoftaef of jo^th^ and all the energy of the Anglo-Saxon chaiviet^; To thoie who have resolTed to bid good4)ye to th0 scenes of l^eir dnldhood, and to seek under ihe staiv spangled banner a new field for exertion and anotiier home, need I say, do not forget your native ooumtiy, th« foimtain4kead from whence all the greatness of the vnited States has flowed ; in your log-hut, beneath the maple- trees, cherish a kindly remeiabrance of 'the land where your forefathers sleep ; in the public assembly, at th^ polling stations, in the exercise of your rights as freemen, always keep in mind that he who promotes a good feeling between Great Britain and America, w^ be regarded in after ages as a benefactor to his race. 'wi.*^ ■*•■ jCHAPTEE XII. Consequences of religions persecujbion — Itfi inflne^ce on |he coloni^tic^ of America — Theological colleges in the United States — Statistics ot the vations sects — The Methodists and Baptists — Distinetioni of dasses in Tr^satlaQtic Qongregatiops— The I^iscopaliaiiis find Inda* ents. , ^ The impolicy of persecution for conscience sake, even afl its most modified form, will now be readily admitted by all intelligent men ; indeed, every year witnesses large accessions to the numbers of those who agree with Mr. Macaulay,'!'' that " people who preach to rulers the duty of employing power to propagate truth, would do we& to remember that Msehood, though no match for truth al(me, has gerous to the security of the Union. A Boston man may be found occupying some honourable situation in every village of the Mississippian valley ; and through the exertions of this class, Socialism, Mormonism, and other systems subversive of good government, have been prevented from taking firm root or producing their legitimate effect on the morals of the population. If it were not fon the religious zeal of Massachusetts, the inha- bitants of vast territories in the far west would be left without instruction to the uncontrolled exercise of their lawless passions and the evil example x)f infidels and rationalists from abroad. In the South, too, where drunken quarrels, murders, and outrages of every kind ■till abound, where the people, by their free votes sanc- tion the repudiation of just debts and refuse to adopt an educational system, where you find a general laxity of principle and disregard of social ties, all good men look to New England influence for the ultimate salvation of society. By means of commerce, and in schools, the sons and daughters of the North-eastern States are gradually acquiring a position, as well in the city of New Orleans as on the plantations of Arkansas, which wiU one day render them the virtual rulers of the country, and the reformers of every abuse at present retarding, its moral and material advancement. Before recording my own impressions of the state of j^ reHgion in the American Union, or narrating what I i, saw and heard relative to this subject, it wiU be neces- sary to have recourse to some facts and statistics which may prevent misapprehension and enable us to fo?m »B t:') THEOLOGICAL COLLEGSS. 131 more correct conclusions. Too many travellers in tlie western hemisphere have imagined that the circle of their acquaintanceship faithfully represented the eccle- siastical opinions prevalent in tae country, and without any previous information derived from tables or books, they have been misled by the plausible statements of interested parties, and have judged of things in general from the particular section which came under their own observation. Miss Bremer, for example, gives a most ridiculous prominence to the schemes of social and re- ligious fanatics, into whose society she happened to have been thrown, but of whose very existence nine-tenths of the people are profoundly ignorant. The same authoress also remarks, " The two great divisions of the Church in the United States appear to be Trinitarian and Unita- rian," while in reality the latter are a mere handful in comparison with the former. Some clever writers on America might have spent a few days very profitably studying the census returns, the guide books, and the almanac. There were, in 1854, forty-four theological colleges in the United States, having 127 professors, and attended by 1449 students. Of these ten were Presbyterian, nine Baptist, six Independent, and three Episcopalian, the others being connected with the smaller Protestant denominations. Their libraries contained very nearly 200,000 volumes. It has been the fashion on this side of the Atlantic to sneer at these iiibtitutions, and no doubt they do not aU come up to our standard of what is required of divinity halls ; but the seminaries of An- dover, of Princeton, of Tale, and of Auburn, need no panegyric of mine. They occupy the very foremost rank as schools of theology; their teachers and graduates stand on a footing of equality with those of Edinburgh and Q-ottingen ; and in them a body of men has been educated for the Christian ministry, far superior in theological attainments to those brought up either at Oxford or at Cambridge. k2 ;):'■ m ^^mi: m^ m^ mmp^^' II The respective atrengtb of the various religiojis ^ !|ioiiuiiations may be best seen by a reference to wp iollowing t^ble, compiled from the census of I860 : — Penominations. Methodist . . Baptist . . . Presbyterian Independent Episcopal . . Lutheran . . Eoman Catholic Christian . . Friends . . . TJnioni . . . TJniversalists . JVee . . . : Moravians . . German Informed Dutch Eeformed "Unitarian . . Mormonite . : Tunker ." . . Jewish . ', . Swedenborgi'an . Minor Sect^. '. Total . . l$o, of Churches. . 12,467 . . 8,79i . . 4i,5^ . . 1,674 . . 1,422 . . 1,203 . . 1,112 . 612 . : 714 . . 619 . . 494 . : 361 . . 331 . . 1327 . 324 . . 243 . . 110 . 62 . : 31 . 15 . . 325 . Accbmmbdktion. . 4,209,333 . ^,136,878 . 2,040,31^ . 795,177 . 625,21^ . 531,100 . 620,950 . 296,060 . 282,823 . 213,652 . 205,462 . 108,605 . 112,186 . 156,932 . 181,986 . 137,367 29,900 35,0751 16,575 6,070 . 115,347 5\» 36,011 ...13,849,896 Tb© value of the Church property may be estimated at about eighty-seven millions of dollars, or nearly eighteen jmllions of pounds sterling. It appears from the above tabular statement that the ]|^etbodists and Baptists are numerically not only the strongest sects, but united are stronger than oil the others put together. There exists, however, considerable diversi^ of sentiment among the members of both these religious parties ; and perhaps it may scarcely be fair to classify them as undivided whilst really to some extent IdlTHOOlBTB 1KB Bi^tlfitS. iss bomposed bf sep^fttd communions. Their Btrength lies fchiefly in the Southern aad western States, where they are the pioneers f Christianity in the wilderness, cariy- in^ it with indefaiilgahle zeal into districts only partially settled and recently explored. They may be styled the home missionaries of America, and in this capacity are invaluable, although trusting too much to mere excite- ment of the feelings; and laying uixdue Stress, when preaching to inen alniost in. heathen ignoraiice, upon doitriries peculiar to their own creed: Trufe reHgioii gains little firbm tyild harangues residting in five hundreii people b^lhg ihiinefsed in a tub at the foot of the j[)ulpit stairs, or from appeals addressed to backwoodsmen iH fk^our of this particular mode of baptism. These tt^o deiioihinfitidns iu general agree in objecting to theological feolleges, aiid an educated miiiistry; conse^uenti; an nit&t want of refinement, and expressions which awell-iiistHicted comintinitj^ would not tolerate, frec[uetitly distmguish their pulpit biatory. A friend of mine in Virgiiiia told me that he once heard a Baptist preacher say, "Brethren, your former pastor was in the habit of ffeediag you ^itn fat things, such a§ puddings, and pies ', I am iiow to bring you back to the boHed nam and greens.** Another, trying to familiarize his hearers with the characteir df Our Savioiir, excl^iined, "My friehds, he was jiist aiibthefir ij^eneral Jacltsoii for ye.'* And a Methodist iii the West, waxing fervent abdUt justification by faith, is reported to have reinarked, " It is as impossible for a sinner to get to heaveii ^thoiit Christ, as for ah eel, well anointed with lkr4, to cliinb up a pole, tail fotemost.** A marked change has hbwever of lat^ years taken place ill inahy plirts of the cbuiitry in t|ie sentiments prevalent $,ihong th(3 meiiibers of both these sects, with regard to the proper tuition of those designed for the ministry, catised in a great measure by the admirable work 6n this subjbet publishfed by Mr. Angell James, of Birmiiigham. Schobls of ': divinity have already been established iii Several places, •jj ^ matiy^bf the Methodjst knd Baptist p^ors lii tie (til iblrge toMs hate received qidt^ kd good Medxib^Mm Es 134 AMEBIOA AND THE AMEBIOAKS. i their brethren in other sects. This peculiarity of thein attracts towards them the poorer and worst instructed classes of the population, and no stranger travelling in the United States can fail to observe the absence of tha^ admixture of ranks in a congregation which is the glory of Christianity. The church recognises no distinction between rich and poor, master and servant, bond and free ; but you may go into hundreds of Episcopalian or Presbyterian chapels in America without seeing a single working-man, whilst the uneducated orators be- longing to the denominations just referred to every Sabbath address thousands who gain their livelihood by the sweat of their brow. If an Englishman did not know where to look for them, he might, even after a resi- dence of some duration on the other side of the Atlantic, imagine that ^ the poorer classes there never went to church at all. The Episcopalians, whose first bishop was consecrated only sixty-nine years ago at Aberdeen in Scotland, have now 33 bishops and 1600 clergymen throughout the Union. The rich and fashionable very generally adhere to this communion. Fuseyism some years since made considerable progress amongst the junior clergy; but its doctrines have lately been decidedly on the wane : the churches where they were preached are deserted, whilst crowded congregations attend the ministrations of the evangelical party. Several intelligent men remarked to me that the soil of America was not congenial to the growth of such yiews, and that whatever chance there might be for some doctrines opposed to the usual belief of orthodox Protestants, there was none for Anglo- Catho- licism. Some of the most solenm. and powerful discourses to which I ever listened were delivered in places of wor- ship connected with the Episcopalian Church of the United States. Congregationalism still maintains its hold over the people of New England. During the present century, the Baptists and Episcopalians have both increased con- siderably in that part of the Union ; but Independency, J THB PBSSBTTIBIAKB. m )f theirs structed filing in > of that le glory tinction nd and !opalian eeing a ;ors be- ) every lood by lid not a resi- tlantie, ent to Berated d, have ut the adhere made but its the whilst of the ted to o the there belief atho- - •urses wor- ' the • the tury, C(M1- pacy, notwithstanding the Unitarian heresy, is still, and in all probability will ever be, in the ascendant. The sons of the Puritans retain the distinctive views on church government which compelled their fathers to leave their native land ; a great and growing nation now professes them, and that very persecution of dissenters in the seventeenth century has been the means in the hands of G-od of spreading their principles over the continent of North America. CHAPTEE XIII. Subject continued — The Old and New School Presbyterians — Causes of their disagreement — The Unitarian heresy — American places of wor- ship — Sacred music — Terms of Church communion — Style of preach- ing — Increase of religious feeling of late years — Albert Barnes — Dr. Addison Alexander — Dr. Tyng — Henry Ward Beecher — Mr» Bverts— Mr. Chapin, the universalist orator. Most nearly allied to the Gongregationalists are the Pres- byterians, who flourish chiefly in the middle and western States, and, taking everything into consideration, may be safely regarded as the most influential and intelligent denomination in the Union. They are divided into two great bodies, the Old School and the New. Between th© moderate men of these parties little or no difference of opinion exists, and several of them to me lamented the separation. The preaching of the former is, however, in genera!, more Calvinistic than that of the latter ; and though the New School has not yet had time to develop its action, it has already exercised a most beneficitd influence in rousing the church from its torpor, in puri- fying its communion, in originating schemes of benevolent enterprise, and in altering the style of pulpit addresses, so as to awaken men from a false security to holy action and serious thought. The atonement question continues still to be a bone of contention between the divines of these two sections ; and another cause of the disruption was the refusal of the Old School ministers any longer it ISo AMEBIOA AND THB AHSBICAN8. to support the American Board of Foreign Mismons, ik genend catholic society, like the London Missioiiarj, having its head quarters in Boston. The Befbrmed Duich Church, especially in the State of New York, has likewise a great maiiy congre^tions, second to noUe in point of intelligence and Chnstiaii zeal. So similar are the views held by the l^resbyterians and the Independents of America, so closely bound together are the two sects, that most people regard them as one, and use their respective appellations as convertible terms. In Connecticut I found that the Congrega- tionalists, who form a large majority of the population, are usually called Presbyterians ; and not only there, but in Qth^r parts of the country people seemed surprised that I should speak of the denominations as distinct and Separate. Wh^n a Boston man goes southward, he naturally joins a Presbyterian Society; and a Kew Totker removing to Massachusetts, connects himself, as a matter of course, with the Congregationalists. I have met ministers who have presided over churches govenied in bot}i ways, an4 who thought the difference so immaterial that they would just as soon accept a charge in one body as in ihe other. The first chiircli in America which embraced Uuitaiian views vas an Episcopalian one, at the head of School- street in Boston. Several of the old Puritan churches Ipllowed its example, and the new views continued to ipread till the wealth and influence of the city had pecome nearly without exception Socinian. "We need ilpt go very iar or search very deep for the causes of this change, pr. Channing graphically describes both its origin and its progress, when writing rp Blanco White, in the year 1839 : he says, " 1 would thai 1 could look to tJnitarianism with more hope. Biit this system was a protest of the understanding against absurd doctrines, rather than the work of deep religious principle, and was tely paralyzed by the mixture of a material philosophy, linf the Calvinistic persuasion, and were ih the haf)it o^ liearing Mr. Eve, a Baptist minister, whb, beiiig tv^hat is here termed high in his sentiments, or iing^d with false Calvinism, hid little or nothing to say to the unconve^ed. I therefore iiever considered triysel^ as iriy Way conceined in what 1 heard from the pulpiii.* * It was pleaching of this sort, ,treatilig man as a mei'e machiiie, atid leavitig out of vieW re|jpntance and faith, which threw so many churcitei^ in New Englpid into the arms of Socinjaidsm • and those most intimately acquainted with the Ideal eccileSiastical history of that country can britt^ forward remarkable individual exam- ples of t^c- certainty with which this cause produced lis nfitiiral effect. One might attend service in many trnitarian chiitclies throughout America withont detect- ing false doctrine. li is a fashionable system of formalism rather than an Active heresy. The addresses from ihe piilpit will strike an Englishman as very similar in substance aiid siyle to those del'vered in many places of worship connected with his own Established Church. They ai*e mdrsil essays, not expositions of biblical truth exhortations which might as well be derived from the Kbran as from the Scriptures ; admonitions to fulfil sofcial and moM duties rather than calls to embl'ace that GoSpel whicli ajioStles and prb|)hets proelaimed. The toajority of iHose who attend the Unitarian chapels in Boston most ceriainly do so iiot because of any intellec- tual belief iii the dogmas of that sect, biit liimply dti account of their being the fashionable sanctuaries, where men can feafel j' gd withoilt incuriiiig the danger ef hating their consciences roused. Biit, even this denomination 188 ▲MEBICA JOXJ> THB AMEB^OANS. ' I ^ I 'i is divided into two distinct parties, who have Httle i^ common with respect either to creed or practice. Thd serious Unitarians have introduced prayer meetings) some of their ministers, Mr. Huntingdon, for example, preach with great faithfulness ; and in many ways l^ey exhibit a tendency to orthodoxy : on the other hand, Mr. Starr King and those who agree with him seem to wish rather to widen the breach between them and evant gelical bodies; occasionally, one after another of this class adopts &*8t Universalism, next Transcendentalism, and then Pantheism, till having tried all the isms in succession, and taking something from each, he is prepared to agree with ^eodqpe Parker, who in his " Dis- courses*'* declares, "He that worships truly, by whatever form, worships the only God: he hears the prayer, whether calledt Brahma, Pan, or Lord, or called by no name at all ! Each people has its prophets, and its saints ; and many a swarthy Indian, who bowed down to wood and stone — many a grim-faced Calmuc, who worshipped the great God of Storms — many a Grecian peasant, who did homage to Phcebus Apollo, when the sun rose or went down — ^yes, many a savage, his hands smeared aU over with human sacrifice, — shall come from the east, and the west, and sit down in the kingdom of God, with Moses and Zoroaster, with Socrates and Jesus.'' It is remarkable how many American Unitarians have, after various changes, adopted extravagancies of this sort. There are scarcely two ministers of the denomination who entertain the same sentiments, or could agree upon a creed. They preach to very thin audiences in the afternoon, it being too much trouble for their fashionable hearers to go to church twice a day. Unitarianism only keeps its ground even in Boston, while the Evangelical bodies are making decided progress. In the country, it never obtained a footing of any consequence, nor can it ever, from its spirit and policy, exercise a powerful influence upon the masses of the people. i St. George's Episcopal church in Stuyvesant-square, * Page 88, H 4 .« FLA.OEB OF W0B8HIP. 189 ipon tlie Lable )nly Ileal r,it it Irful J re. New York, may be taken as a specimen of tlie cliapels lately erected in the aristocratic quarters of American ^ties. It is built of massive stone ; when completed m We two t»U spireB ; a rectory in the same architec tural style adjoins it, and the carved oak ornaments, painted windows, and beautiful altar, must strike every one with admiration. It is seated for upwards of 2000 people, and the galleries are supported not by piUars, but by wedge-like beams firmly attached to the lateral walls. Many of these fashionable sanctuaries remain closed during the hottest summer months, when minister and people remove to the springs or the sea-side. I went in the afternoon of the first Sunday which I spent in America last year, to a well-known Presbyterian place of worship, and was at its porch confronted by a placard announcing that it would not re-open until the first of September. Leaving out of account these splendid new erections in the Italian and Gothic styles, American chapels in general may be described as oblong structures of brick or wood, painted white, and fitted up internally with the greatest possible attention to comfort. The nicely stuffed mahogany seats with footstools and sloping backs, the carpeted passages, and the speaker's rostrum, consisting not of a pulpit, but of a table of rosewood with a marble slab, a desk in the centre, and a sofa behind it, present a striking contrast to the rude build- ings in which our countrymen worship God. Some of my readers may recollect the passage in " Waverley,"* where the hero of the story " distinguished, not indeed the ringing of beUs, but the tinkling of something like a hammer against the side of an old, mossy, green, inverted porridge pot, that hung in an open booth, of the size and shape of a parrot's cage, erected to grace the east end of a building resembling an old bam." Our ^transatlantic friends must be quite at a loss to under- stand this description ; for they can scarely believe that the Presbyterians of Scotland do as painful penance in (^he chapel pews, as the Eoman Catholics on the cathe- * Vol. i., p. 310. AMEBIoic iiH T&i StMtCKNS, driilfiobfi.' The stillness, tbo, of Ainerical cBngrcigai^o: win attract this attention, of tliose accustomed to th.^ coiistatit cougliing, clearing of throdts, and sliufi^g of feet, wMch must appear most unseeiiily aiiid irrievererit to a ^ti*ari^er visitmg this countiy. . All the worshipper^ «tre ill theii: sfeate before the fiervibe begiiis; or if dii iMooked-for detdntioii his rendered, ^f indiyidujEil late, he comes in ^uietl^, ^nd not iii thkt h^ty, careless s^te liffectdd bj- i)eople on this side of the Atlaoitic. The ]{)rep6iideraiice 6f tho maie ^ei struct irie as. a remttrlc- aible tod a very promising characteristic of Chri^tidit asseritblies in various parts of the Uiiibii ; 1 observed this not only in the Itirge cities of the Atlantic seaboiird, biit in the Mi&sissiJ>pian valley; and bri the shores of the lakes. How differeilt silch a &tatb of things froiti th^ on the continent of Biirbpe, where .^bu Seldom see m^ri in chiirch at all ! The brgati is universally used b^ the various rieligibtis bodies in Ameiick; and if many chttpels in the bbpitry do hot jibssess one, the reason will bb fotind iibt in any obsolete prejudice against Its sbleniii tones, but merely iii the expbhdb of the instrttdfeiit. The music « gfeLaUy suitable, afifectog, &i m^ I nevertheless, the people do ribt join m the psalmbdy. This lihplejisant dnd unaccoiintablb peculiarity attaches tb all denominations, more particularly the Ei)iscopalifth&, Presbyterians, and Cbiigregatibnalists; Wnb seem to think that they can praise G^od by prbx^ through the perforiiiaiice of a band. I have frequently felt inclined to ask the question^ Are places of worshij) mere cohcfert halls ? "This, however," sdys Miss Bteiiier,* " I h^e to object against the hymhs df the tJnited States; that they are siing by a trained choir iii the gallery, atid all the re^t of the cbiigregatibri sit silently tind listen, jtt^t as they wotdd sit in a concert-room. Some accompany them readitig from their hyihh-books, but btters hever bpen theii's. When 1 hkve bccasioiially lifted iij) itif voice with tte siiigers, I have seen tiy neighbburs look ttt me with sutprise:" This descriptioii is strictly accu- * tol; hi p; 241. l?555PS P?¥IFI8ff: m in^l^Keii I joined in J^^ tune ;' surely our int;el)igpiit j^^pid? P ^^ii^rica ^o ?iot l)elieye ijiat any mei^e i!nst]ni- m^nial or cKoral mU9ic cap be so acceptable to 0od as £^9 voices of Jps worsnippmg people, melodiousjLY mejiaep. in an fqitnem p|^ praise. There will pp song i^. AjBayen, arisinff not '£rom lie serapliiin, not only from tie m fii^d «wen^ 4de^;wIio, ^tKhaxps and goldeii yl^ i^ of odoyrs/fiskQ down before tbe Lamb, ^ui from a puntless mpijitude ^deemed out of every kini"'red, and in^uie, land people, standing on ihe sea of glass which Jb J)efore the throne. ' ^ tE^ost Protestant septs Jn tji^ pnited States receive into their copamun^pn piily such as bear evidence of vital pli^i^tianity. There is a much moi^e marked distinction .tjLaii >^j;)i "VIS,* t>etween those who iare members pf . churches find i^hoae who are not. Persons with whom ^ IcoiiVersed inamtmned th# this sepaUtion gives rellgiou an healpy tone, and operates most favourably for its sjirengih ^nd progress. They regretted at the same &e the excessive iiiquisitonalness in certain parts o£ tie country, especially in tjie rural districts ^^ew England, where a zeal for purity without discretion lias instituted tests of fellowsjiip haying no sanction in tie Holy Scriptures. There are ecclesiastical organisations in America into which noiie but teetotallers w6ul4 be received, whose members durst iiof atllend an evening party, rogardiQg dancing as in itse^ a sinfid act, and yet permitting their of&ce-bearerB to fail repeatedly in business without invesfiga.tipn or remark, although thpse yery failures were looked upon as fraudulent by the entire mercantile coinmunity . Some folks pn the other side of the Atlantic, seem to think that it is impossible to do evil in matters where dollars are concerned. The American style of preaching struck me in 1846 j9bs ]too lifeless and cold; but in 1854 this seemed to iave undergone a change, and people who formerly defended tl phlegmf laonf agreed in praising the; altered mode of pulpit addresBei ii-^i 142 AMXBIOA AKB THE AMSBIOAKS. 1 . ■» * The fanatical vehemence of uneducated preachers tend^^ it appears to me, to drive men of prudence and refine-f ment to the opposite extreme ; and perhaps the decrease of the former, combined with greater intercourse betweeii^ the United States and Europe, have brought about the hap' ' medium. One of my principal objects in visiting " Amoricawas thoroughly to understand its religious state and prospects ; and with this in view, besides endeavour- ; ing to form as general an acquaintance as possible with ' thone likely to be best informed on this subject, I usually attended chm*ch three times every Sunday, not selecting^® sanctuaries noted for whe talents of their pastors or the '^ influence of their congregations, but entering wherever I saw an open door, and confining my visits neither to^ particular sects, nor to particular quarters of the cities. _ On looking oTeV my journal, I find accounts of sopvices f in places of worship connected with the Reformed Pres- I byterian, the Methodist Episcopal, the Unitarian, the'*"' Beformed Dutch, the Universalistj and the "Wesleyan ^^ Union Methodist denominations, besides those of twelve sermons in Episcopalian, five in Baptist, thirteen in Inde- *^ pendent, and fifteen in Presbyterian churches. I select only six of the most remarkable on which to bestow a passing word ; of the others suffice it to say that not one sermon preached in orthodox chapels was objectionable, while the majority were distinguished by marked ability, and struck me as greatly above the average of discourses ^! .•to 4 iii which one hears either in England or in Scotland. They were also sound expositions of Scripture, enforced with apt illustrations, and followed up by earnest appeals to the various classes in the auditories. So ne of them'*;" will for ever remain impressed on my mind, as eloquent 'J and solemn beyond expectation. In scarcely a single 'ff^ instance, too, did I find a place of worship only partially filled. If attendance at divine service forms any test of ''• a country's Christianity, then the Northern, Central, and ^* "Western States of America are the most Christian terri- '^^ tories in the habitable globe. In many cases I could^^^ Scarcely get a seat, chapels holding 1200 to 2000 people ^ t XLJiVAt BABKSS. 143 'JL // '.•■ii ■ '-JJ id .til ■if io being quite full. A great improvement lias taken place in tWs respect since my former visit in 184t6, and several friends spoke to me of the increasing interest in religion manifested of late years throughout the Union at large. Of all the American clergy, perhaps no one has a more extensive European reputation than Mr. Albert Barnes, whose commentaries on Scripture and other theological works have already been circulated far and wide in Pro- testant countries. Before the dawn of day the light of his study-lamp may be seen flickering in the gloom, by any one passing the sanctum where so much has been written by a man still in the flower of his age. An early riser, a diligent student, an economist of opportunities and time, he has found leisure in the midst of his pastoral duties to perform essential service to the cause of biblical literature. His church, in "Washington-square, Philadelphia, belonging to the New School Presbyterian denomination, was crowded by an intelligent auditory when I heard him. He preached from the 69th and 60th verses of the 119th Psalm, one of the most closely- reasoned, clear, and impressive discourses to which I ever listened. The drift of the address was to prove the free agency and respoMibiUty of man. If Mr. Barnes enjoys the greatest celebrity among New School divines, Dr. Joseph Addison Alexander, of Princeton CoUege, is the "Magnus Apollo" of the Old School Presbyterian church. I mixed with a congrega- tion numbering at least 1500, who last winter were pre- sent in the Dutch Reformed place of worship, Pifth Avenue, New York, when he delivered one of a series of lectures under the auspices of the Young Men's Chris- tian Association connected with that chapel. Taking as his text the words in Isaiah, 53rd chapter, 3rd verse, " He is despised and rejected of men," he reviewed in a masterly manner the cold reception with which Chris- tianity met in a world generaliy ready to prove credulous enough, and welcome with Sclat any new religious system, however unintelligible or absurd. Dr. Alexn ler is one of the profoundest thinkers in America. His powerful m AMSBIOA f^ T9^ f^niOASB, intellect, perspicficity of f^vi^gpm^TLt and ^sji^^ styjo of composition, showed themselve^ jn almost' every aejiT tence of this prelection. T)ie Episcopalians in the P'nited States can boast of not a {^ remarkable pulpi^ orators, ^st and foremost amongst w^om stands !Dr. Stephen H. Tyng. lie now pre -...'.s m the splendid edifice situated in Stuyvesftiit- squhf e, New York, to which as an architectu^'al ornament I have already aUiided. No inin^ster throughoif^ tie country occupies a more distinguished position a^ a platform speaker. Ais ready command of language, poweiful periods, and frequent rhetorical iSights, engny e for hi^ on all occasions a numerous audience, ^e firsj} tinie I heard him address a meeting he Ty^kS applauded once and again to ihe very echo. In IJ^e pulpit te is fervent, pointed, and startling ; fond of prac- tical subjects, he states his sentiments with a tersenesp which impresses them at once on the mind, and evejfy stranger must be struck with his felicity of expression and imhesitating plainness of speech. He is g^uite noted for rebuking prevailing follies. I heard him onpe administer to his people a severe reprimand for extravji- gance in dress. Another discourse from ^xodus, 2^ih. chapter, 12tih verse, was one of the ablest to which I have ever listened in any country. His congregation is not only numerous, but liberal, influential, and zealous Jn every good cause. "^^^^4 The Beecher family are well known to the ecclesias- tical world on the other side of the Atlantic. The aged father, in his anxiety to serve the slave, removed from Boston to Cincinnati, that he might be nearer the Siates whose institutions he had devoted all his energies to reform. His son, l)r. Edward Beecher, as a writer ajpid a divine, enjoys a distinction seldom attained by one at his period of life ; his daughter, Mrs. Harriet Beecl^er Stowe, presents the most remarkable example in jt}ie history of literature, of one publication obtaining for |ps writer a world-wide fame ; and of aU American preach^|rs none possesses such a wonderful power over his audience HBITBT YTAXD BBECHEB. 145 Btyl? ast of emost 9 now es?Uftt- ainent t^y tie iguage, tie W^9 of pra«- ^rsenes? id eve?^ pression be noted onpe extraya- us, 201i I have Dn is not aloua >n ^cclesias- rhe ag^d ed froia )rgies to iter a|i4 )j one at geecto te in ift© Lg for ifS )reacb.9pf audience ^ or attracts so great a crowd as Henry Ward Beecher, of Brooklyn. Three thousand people, alternately ^ laughing and weeping, every Sunday hang upon his lips. There is too much excitement and singularity about his mode of instruction for my taste. The service altogether struck me as deficient in solemnity and decorum ; and however sacred may be the cause of liberty, men go to church to hear the Gospel, not to listen to the wrongs of the African race : but as an orator, a master of invective, sarcasm and declamation, very few either in Europe or America will bear a comparison with Mr. Beecher. From the words, " Wo imto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous ;"• — I heard him pour forth a torrent of indignant eloquence, which seemed to sweep over the vast congregation like a tro* " pical tomadr Many a tear roUed over cheeks unused to weeping ; scarcely was time given to wipe them away before the same features were forced into a smile ; and during the most solemn appeals a silence positively painful prevailed. The speaker's change of voice, pos- ture and manner, added not a Uttle to the interest felt in his discourse. The Eev. Mr. Everts, of the Baptist church. Walnut- street, Louisville, in Kentucky, may be imknown to fame, I certainly never heard of him as o. Mercury among trans- atlantic divines ; but one Sabbath t vening while residing in that city, I joined a stream of people hurrying to attend a lecture delivered by him, on the probable effect on Christianity of the Chinese Eevolution, and the anti- cipated European war. The preacher spoke with exces- sive vehemence, reminding me more of Scotch than American clergymen ; but from the second chapter of Isaiah he struck out an original train of thought, rivet- ing the attention of his hearers by vigorous suggestion, clear reasoning, and forcible language. Whether or not the high compliments he paid to Grreat Britain excited the enthusiasm of the choir, 1 do not know, but un- * Hatthew, chap, zxiii. yer. 29. L AMSmm m> HP AiaUOAKS. dottbtedl^tlj^y sang the conc^udvig hjma to the tuae if ** Gtod save the Queen." ^ ^ A In the coi;urae of my vander^ags through it^e streetf of New York, t stvioihlpd i^to the XTmyersaljiat Chapd below FrtfLce-street, ^I ^^roadway, aD,(jl heard the Bev. ]5. Ht Ohapin, the most celebrated orator of that religious sect. He is a short, thick-set man, full of energy and fire, has a distinct and powerful voice, and does not dress in the usual ole;rical costume. He preached from Luke, 19th chapter, 41st verse : Jesus weeping over Jerusalem. It was in some respects i^e greatest rhetorical effort at whidi Ui has been my good fortune to be present, either on this ojr the other si,de of tljie ocean. For brilliancy of description and splendour of imagery I do not thinjk ijt could w^U be exceeded. I can almost fancy that I hear him yet apostrophising the Holy City, as, looking down from OHvet, he pointed out its temple and palaces, and recalled the associations connected with it in the minds both of the Jew and the G^entile, the Christian aiid the Mussulman, thje American who dweUs ;ui a new country ^ ^W^y 97^ the sea and the ^J'ab "^ho feed^ his camels by the ruins of ^^t^i^or in the wUdemeas. J thonf^ht of the well-known passage in "Tancred" des^pp- tive of Jerusalem by ipaoonlight ; but Chapin attempted sold succeeded in a higher flight than ven,tured on by the genius of Bisraeli. The speaker proceeded to say that his text illustrated in the first place, " the intense humanity c^ the Saviour," under winch head he deidared that the majority of Christians at the present day reijaoye Him ^om their symjpat^^es iiL a vain attempt to do him honour. This part of his discourse waa distingukhed fosr its iK)u<^Kmg and stirring appeals and its undisguised Sooiniainism. In the second place, he remarked, the te^ showed '^the philanthropy of Christ, of wbom he spoke as a manifestation of ths Divine love." Theiji followed a won- derfully eloquent peroration oi^ the love of Q-od to men^ which he declared was the one and the only moral i];ij|uenoe fii^d to regenerntp the world. Lastly, to a congregation composed of the^v^olgw §pvLteel^n%di^oT,eitdieMed and by ; ffB^njJUffJB ffJH 7^ 849941?% HI atreetf Ghapd be Be¥. Lot dress 'xusalem. effort at 3jb, eitheir bril^oncT ),ot thi)ik cy that I J, looking d palaces, it in the istiaD. a^d in a new l^ho feed^ meas. I ' des^p- kttempted on by i^e gay that intense declared ly reuaoye dobim _jbed f ' • "Western World, vol. iii., p. 263. t " ^P^aea of i^% New Worl(^" vol. ii., p. 624. xW AMimtlOl MSH TM IMMlDMifB, ttflcHdd in i^d^HUg hbihage to Gk)d." To thesd tdlti- itiotiies, let me Add the trords of Dr. Dtiff to the last General ABBetriblv of the Free Church of Scotland : ^* It in A matter of delightful assiiranbe thkt there are already about 86,000 churches in the Utdted States; or one tdt every 500 at 600 inhahitaritSj and ttie great bulk df these churched a^e iil the hands df piarties substantially eyan- gelifcal. Christianity, accordhig to the general belifef^ iH an integral part of the American constitution ; or^ ai ihey |)Ut it, the Bible in the ]^glish languag:e lit Ainericanisih." No sooner do olir tj*ahsatlaniic friends establish a ne# Settlement and build dwelling-hoilses for thettifielteiJ, than they set about the erection of schools and churches ; fbr these, pul^dses they never grudge money; but gite trith a liberality which surprises strangei^, and a i^romp- tltude whifch shoi^s how justly they estimate the impcir- tttnce of moral and rfeligious trlith being diifiised throtighbut the cditimtulity. The have not only btdlt 86,000 churchesi but have at present ^ large body bf liiissiondries ainbiig the Indlaiis ; and at the meetings bf the varioui^ sdcibtibs in New York last May, their inbomes for the year ^ere rej^ojrted as folloT^s : — DoQars., American Ibract Society ...... 414,159 American Bible Society . ..,♦ .. . . 895,000 i^ American Board of Foreign Missions . 189,266 American Home Missionary Society . ; 191,209 Besides these four great catholic sbcietieS; thfere are ibahy others of less note, and also thb Hbine and Foreign Missionary Societies specially connected with the Various denominations. It is ^rdtifying to knbw thd,t theit aggregate income is not only rd,pidly in- creasing, but already ambunts to such a siitn as tfeflect^ thb highfest hbnoilr on a country so young and contain- ing a population bf so miscellaneous a charactel*. At the cdmmencement of a former chapter I exhibited a table containing the number of churches in the United States and their reapeetire aceommbdationi. It is now fjUtfttttL AtOiSnSMiJfDMtWtf^, m to the last tland : ^* It are already ; or otie fo* oik di these tially evan- •al beU^j in ion; or^ ftd anguage i^ bblish a new thettifielteiS, d churches ; )j; but gite nd a i)romp- 3 the iihj Pri«5 ^oe% and ecclesiasS 1^1""" "*''■ ^"li*^''^ for any lengthened period 0„«^ ^°* ''"^ '«-«^«t of ^tagonism, sooner or later^ ""^ ''*''^'' "'^ *''« &"=« of the Borfush Church Z fnfJ -^ ^ ""^y- ^ne leaders th^ state of thinTbut1lT-'^"°*°»lj^»^a™«f prevent the Euronel «5., f'^™"^ «W nerve to > nviKn»4. ■"'""pean adherents of rt^;, ni. "y^ 'O grating te a couninr wherd f ),«,w -i • ^''"'"h emi- » well-organized system J '"*'' " "ndermined by b"hop Hughes, m^ttrld'T"" ^•"•'"'l^- ^eh^ every^sh to be seTe^ "L^^ ^"^ "^those who h^ 8™»t body of the p3 loo^ urT'"^"^ ' """t ihe as an institution do^ Jd to * Z? ^°^ Catholicism )"th the creed of the 1!^;^"^^"^ '^^ disappe™ Contact with AmericL^t^.?„ ^^^ P-'^Wess ^^^ always act upon it .« thHSs oH' « '"^ *"•"' »»^t ^ voJ. 11., p. 292. BOHAinSlf IK AMEBICA. 157 Iflock of ice ; and for it to aid in develo;^,ing the resources bf the west, according to them, is only to assist in dig- ^g its own quiet grave. I have heard grandchildren of Irish Boman Catholics speaking of the final triumph of Popery in America as no more likely than the sudden disappearance of the sun. Formerly it asserted almost lindisputed dominion over that continent from the ihouth of the St. Lawrence to the halls of Montezuma, and southward beyond the regions where the Incas reared their lofty throne ; but during the present cen- tury one country after another has fallen into the hands of Anglo-Saxon Protestants, and the day appears to many not far distant when the United States wiU become the scene of their most signal and important victory. o* CHAPTEE XV. :The Common School System — Its nature, operation, and resnlts — Cha- racter of the teaching — Educational Statistics — Colleges — ^New York *^ JPree Academy — Influence of the system on the religious state of the ^ country. Parties opposed to it — Its effect on the political action of \ the nation, and on the prosperity of the Church of Kome. The foregoing remarks may enable my readers to form some idea of the state of religion in the American tTnion. I now purpose giving a brief outline of that rapidly extending and highly popular system of common school education which the people ; regard as the foundation and security of constitutional Uberty; as indispensable to the weU-working, not to say the existence of republican government, as the safety- valve of democracy and the necessary accompaniment of social and political equality ; a system indeed without which the country could not keep its position among ifhe nations. Every intelligent man with whom I ciJiiversed on the other side of the Atlantic, so far from doubting its efficiency, spoke of it as the stone on which the entire superstructure of American institu- tions rests, to remove which would be to dissolve the G m n 1 ! II ^ I AMEXIO4 JLSJ} <^HS ^XStaqjLSB. Union, ^acd sow broadcast oyer the land the neeifH of anarchy ajoid c?riine. General instnictiou we find to \tfi 9. fundamental element in the coinpac* whuih. bineb^ together the cifcizens of every tiiafce In Nev/ f^ghni the constitution of each common wealt^i r .ntau^ » some such provision as the ibllp^^ing : * A gen«?ral di'^u^ion of the advantages of ediicatioB being essential to tlia pre* servation of tlxo rights and liberties of the po(iT)le ; to promote this important object, the legisltiiurG ajre autho« rized, and ifc shaU be ^iieir duty to require the sevenjd towas to make suitable prcTibkm at theju' ovziql expense for the support iuid maintenajice of public schools.*? 4gaiT' in cciistitution^ adopted since the accumulation of n * THK AMJEBICANH. Hf; who from infancy have been taught to regard slavery m a blessing, whose whole fortune is bound up in it, and who conscientiously, though, as we think, most erro- neously, see no alternative but to continue this species of servitude, or allow the country to become a desert, and their children to be reduced to beggary. Nor is it difficult for the planter, when he goes north or travels in other countries where there are free negroes, to persuade himself that his serfs enjoy many more physical advan- tages than individuals of the same race who are their own masters. Observing the latter almost everywhere looked down upon, degraded, and poor, outcasts from polite society, Ishmaelites against whom all hands are raised, he " lays the flattering unction to his soul" that the former have been born under better influences, and should, instead of murmuring, be grateful for their lot. But a more important consideration here presents itself. Suppose the blacks at once emancipated ; what will they do ? "Where will they go ? "What will become of them P How long will they remain at amity with their former ovmers ? Will they amalgamate with the Anglo-Saxons, the Creoles, and the Spaniards ? Will they quietly work for wages in jungles so lately vocal with the driver's lash ? These are questions by no means easy of solu- tion, but they force themselves on the consideration of all who contemplate legislation on the subject, however overlooked by us. Providence alone can unravel the mysterious web, and evoke light out of the present gloom ; but can we wonder if many men interested in the system look upon manumission as a prelude to a war of races, — a short, decisive, bloody war, which will end as such contests have always done, in the triumph of the European over the African, and the expulsion of the latter from the continent of North America ? This, to my mind, appears not an impossible, though a very unlikely termination of the present excitement ; and, however benevolent men may hope a^d pray for a dif- ferijnt result, they cannot reason?'' ly slight the opinion of so many on the other side of the Atlantic, that unless KFFECT ON MATERIAL PROSPEBITT. 175 jj m , and erro- jecies esert, r is it relsin •suade idvan- ! their where \ from ds are " that es, and 3ir lot. 3 itself, ill they them? former Saxons, iy work irwer's If solu- Ltion of jowever rel the present [sted in a war |ill end of the lof the This, |a very ; and, a dif'^' bpinion 1 unless ■ome unforeseen event materially alter their relative numbers, the whites and blacks will not live long toge- ther on a footing of equality, and that the era of eman- cipation will also be the era of destruction to the negro. On the other hand, we must keep prominently in view the depressing effect of slavery on the material prosperity of the States where it prevails. In the north all is energy, activity, and enterprise ; in the south a pain- ful torpor seems to have taken possession of the people. Houses ill-built and going to ruin, fences out of repair, railroads few in number and badly managed, impassable roads, dear travelling, dirty inns, estates producing less and less every year, population scarcely increasing, in some places even on the decliae, all testify to the moral blight hanging over the country. Nor will climate alone account for this, for the Yankee flourishes in Georgia as well as Maine, m New Orleans no less than in Boston ; wherever an improvement may be seen in the south, a northern man may also be found as its author and manager ; and even the planters themselves acknowledge that works of internal advantage are not progressing with them as in the more flourishing commonwealths dependent on free labour. Then compare the duU, deserted-looking cities of the slave states with those bustling, handsome towns, which are every year rising into greater importance in the north. Mobile is only a mean and straggling viLage. Its houses, public build- ings, churches, and shopi*, reminded me of those in the remote parts of Norway and Sweden ; its principal square resembles an English cov/pen, and altogether it, looks like a place back-going and unprosperous. Charleston itself will not for a moment bear to be contrasted with third-rate towns on the Ohio, the Hudson, and the Lakes. The majority of its houses are still wooden ; at night the lamps are so few and the holes in the thorough- fares so deep, that a stranger finds it dangerous to walk abroad; there is not a single handsome street; many villages in the free states have better shops ; the public buildings are quito unworthy of notice, and I saw only %'-t^^ 176 AMERICA AND THE AMEEICANS. one stone hurch. Governor Morriy, in the Federal Couventioi at the close of the llevoliii > Dary War, said, that " slavery was a nefarious institution — the curse of heaven on the States where it prevailed." " Compare the free regions of the middle States," he continued, "where a rich and noble cultivation marks the prosperity and happiness of the people, with the misery and poverty which overspread the barren wastes of Virginia and Maryland, and the other states having slaves. Travel through the whole com inent, iind you behold the prospect continually, varying with the appearance and disappear- ance of slavery."* If these remarks were true at the close of the last century, they are much more true at the present ddy, the free states having long ago far distanced those in the south in everything that con- stitutes material prosperity. They may have the same climate and a similar soil, they may be separated only by a belt of ibrest, a narrow river, or a fancied line ; but the f ;, t flourish in a^degree unexampled in the history ^ uf naiJonS; while the last with difficulty can hold good their own ! North Carolina, indeed, may be said to be ' positively retrograding ; and Maryland compared with *' Pennsylvania, is an unreclaimed wilderness. Every ten years the census returns show most conclusively the ' fjital effects of slavery on the industrial progress of those provinces where it prevails. Men, yet alive, remember Ohio a mere territory, inhabited by a few enterprising settlers fond of adventure and a life in the woods. At that time Virginia was the acknowledged head of the Union ; but now times are so far changed that the new free state in the west contains 550,000 more inhabitants than the " Old Dominion," once pre-eminent in point both of numbers and of wealth. We may follow out this course of observation, and invariably find the same result. Trace the Ohio from Pittsburg to its junction with the parent stream ; — on the right bank are manu- factories, villages, vineyards, f^rms, and cities, increasing wonderfully in size ; on the 1 t bank stand the ancient • Hildreth's " History of the I d States," vol. iu., p. 611. '. ' INFLUENCE ON THE WHITES. 177 ederai ', said, irse of ire the where ty and loverty ia and Travel roapect appear- } at the true at ago far at con- le same only by ne ; but history lid good lid to be ed with ery ten ely the of those lember •prising .8. At of the ;he new ibitants in point llow out ,e same unction manu- :reasing ancient 511. den' '.ens of the forest, relieved only by plots of tobacco grouud or small plantations of Indian corn. The free state.^ are making gigantic strides towards wealth, popu- lation, and power ; the slave states are struggling with an incubus which precludes advancement, and threatens revolution. On the one hand, we behold thriving towii», handsome churches, v ^d schools, intelligent ener- getic men and women m-engine, the workshop, and the telegraph ; o ler, one of the plagues of Egypt seems to have visillu the settlements, and filled them with desolation and ruin. The very literature of Europe and the north is scarce on the blighted side of this line of demarcation. The planters discourage a multitude of books, lest some of them should contain matter inimical to their domestic institutions, and sub- j versive of the principles which they have sworn to .^ defend. .--'•■■ - '^v'.'---^ - -• .i-^-^^v.; .-^vi)'.!. •' ••^^-^'> ^ If such be the effect of slavery on industry and social , progress, it exercises an influence not a whit less perni- } cious on the men themselves. If it degrades the black .man, far more does it degrade and brutalize the white, .rendering him haughty, indolent, and dependent, over- bearing in his deportment, and altogether devoid of that , moral energy which distinguishes the New Englander, and is founding a mighty nation in the north-west. New , Orleans, Mobile, indeed all the places of consequence in , the south, contain an unusual number of cafes, bar- " rooms, drinking-shops, pistol-galleries, low theatres, bowling-alleys, and such like resorts, which are filled all . day long with a set of loafing, good-for-nothing, dis- sipated fellows, generally half intoxicated, who use in j every sentence oaths too horrible to repeat, and scoff at morality and religion. The stranger coming from the north will be surprised with the rowdyism, swearing, and drunkenness pievalent in every village under the influence of slavery. The hotels, steamers, stages, rail- road cars, and coffee-houses, swarm with specimens of humanity so sunk in the social scale, so utterly lost to every good influence, bo ignorant, bnitish, and depraved, ' '.1 IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) 1.0 I.I ^|2£ |2.5 !^ 140 1.8 • 1.25 1.4 1 1.6 ^ 6" — ► V] yi ^> c%^ >> ">>^ > V /^ Photographic Sciences Corporation \ \\ A V 4^\ ». 6^ ^ f<^ i; '^^ 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716)873-4503 i*m AMBBIOA AND THE JL&CEBIOAKB. that, notwithstanding their lofty pretensions and white skins, you put them down at once as both mentally and morally inferior to the negroes. Even amongst well- Hying men the general profanity and laxity of principle strikes an observant traveller ; while the frequent mur* ders, drunken quarrels, outrages on persons and pro- perty, the spectacle of legislative halls turned into pugUistic arenas, of the people by their free votes refusing to adopt an educational system, of states repudiating just debts, the disregard of social ties and the too common licentiousness of manners, — all bear witness to the virulence of that moral gangrene which is eating into the very vitals of the commonwealths. " What I cannot shut my eyes to," says Lord Cai'lisle,"* '' is that while slavery continues it must operate with terrible reaction on the dominant class, to blunt the moral sense, to sap domestic virtue, to degrade independent industry^ to check the onward march of enterprise, to sow the seeds of suspicion, alarm, and vengeance, m both internal and external intercourse, to distract the national coun- cils, to threaten the permanence of the Union, and to leave a brand, a byeword, and a jest upon the name of freedom." How comes it to pass that the miscreants who infest the lower Mississippi, the gamblers and thieves who travel in the steamers on the Eed Biver and the Alabama, the unpunished criminals who lurk for their prey in Texas and Arkansas, do not frequent the free states of the north ? Why is human life so much less regarded in Louisiana than in Ohio P Why can desperadoes defy the law in Tennessee, while in Michigan they dare not follow their vocation ? Why is the bowie* knife more worn in Mobile than in Buffalo ? Why are the churches and schoolhouses so empty, and the jeUs so full between the thirty-eighth degree of latitude and the Gulf of Mexico ? Why, unless in the words of Miss Bremer,t "the natural sense of right and the pure glance of youth are falsified by the institution of slavery." Ah * Lecture at Leeds, f ''Homei of ihe N«w World,*' voL ii., p. 38t. THX FLAinXBS. 179 inciple b muiN d pro- l iuto sfusmg Hating ie too less to eating VTiatI is that }embl© . sense, dustry, low the nternal I coun* and to ame of Teanta 's and Biver rk for it the much can phigan >owie- y are lis so id the Miss l:lance Ah I yes, many southern mothers know well that its influence acts like a poison in the minds of their children, render- ing them quick to resent, obstinate and intractable, violent in temper, and insolent in speech. It educates a nation of petty tyrants, regardless of private decency, and having no sympathy with the sufferings of their fellow-men. But here it is necessary to explain that the persons whom one meets on the street, on board steamers, and in bar-rooms, and whose conduct so often leads strangers to believe the worst of manners in the south, must not be taken as fair specimens of white society in the re- gions where they congregate. Many travellers have been led to form erroneous ideas of the planters by judging of them entirely from the men who frequent public places, unaware of the fact that the wealthier and more refined inhabitants do not throng the thoroughfares, but lead a quiet inactive life in their country houses, removed from the bustle and turmoil of hotels and rail- roads. The great body of landed proprietors differ as much from the rough repulsive characters floating along the stream of travel, as does the polished merchant of Boston from the backwoodsman of St. Paul. You uee Southerners in a very disadvantageous light, and throuf^h a very distorted medium in the cotton boats of the Alabama, and on the levees of Vicksburg and Baton Eouge. The better class of white men in these states are to be seen only on their plantations ; and in order to form any opinion in regard to them, the European must leave the highways and spend his time in their re- tired but comfortable homes. N 2 180 AMEUICJl A17D THE AMEBICANS. CHAPTER XVII. Subject eontinned — Condition of the siaves as domestic servants, on the cotton fields, and on the sugar plantations — Arbitrary powers given to masters — Cruelties and crimen practised by some of them — Feelings of the Negroes — The runaways — Denial of education to the slaves — Whipping posts — Internal slave-trade — Separation of families — Slave traders and kidnappers — Laws against emancipation — Erroneous notions in Europe in this respect — Slaveholders by com- pulsion — Blinding force of education and habit in relation to the institution — Can a slave-holder, under any circumstances, be a Christian ? "V^^'e have glanced, in the last chapter, at the circum- stances of the master ; let us now briefly consider the lot of the felave. That there are many men far too good and too wise to avail themselves of the unjust power with which law invests them ; that the majority indeed exercise their authority in a lenient and merciful manner, that hundreds of owners feel deeply for the position of their bondmen, and to alleviate their sufferings CONSTANTLY AND HABITUALLY TiOLA'^T? EXPRESS EN- ACTMENTS, that manliness, kindness c ^art, and gene- rosity in numerous instances, render the terrors of the system more nominal than real, that thousands of free labourers in other countries enjoy far fewer of the good things of this life than most Africans in the southern States ; that the treatment of the negroes is, generally speaking, humane, may be proven, it appears to me, by indubitable testimony — by the statistics of their re- markable increase, and by the circumstance of their well-known longevity. Those employed as domestic sen^ants in nine cases out of ten live well, enjoy luxu- ries unknown to the English peasant, and die at a good old age. Attached to their proprietors, from their in- fancy brought up in his household, allowed many little indulgences, and regarded in certain respects as mem- bers of the family ; individuals amongst them have over and over again refused to receive their freedom when it on the given bem — to the imilies bion — J com- to the be a rcum- sr the tr too iinjust ijority erciful r the 'ering3 Is EN- geiie*^ f th^ f free good them erally e,by tir re- their Imestic iuxu- good leir in- little mem- le over rhen it CONDITION OF THE SLJLTES. 181 ,. waa within their reach. It is pre-eminently so in Vir- ginia, Maryland, and Kentucky ;* where few of the slaves, comparatively speaking, are employed in the cul- tivation of the soil ; and even in other districts, where they work almost exclusively in the fields, it would be unfair to represent their owners as with few exceptions, cruel and exacting. But what shall we, what can we, say in favour of the condition of the negroes on many of the large cotton plantations; where, under the fierce rays of an almost tropical sun, poorly clad, and as poorly fed, they are compelled to work like oxen, and are driven in gangs like felons ? It makes me shudder to think of the severe toil and the heartless oppression which these wretched beings undergo to support a white aristocracy, and supply with the raw material the manufactories of Manchester. Whatever may be said regarding the treatment of the slaves in other branches of industry, they are most brutally used in the culture of cotton. Then, again, in the sugar houses, it is said, I believe with justice, that the present mode of grinding and boiling necessitates the overworking of the negroes to such a degree, that they die in eight or ten years, and that were it not for immigration, they would soon become extinct. From personal observation I can testify that it is worse than the severest labour in European prison-houses, and renders our fellow-creatures more like monkeys than men. May those of my fellow- countrymen, who have keen and sensitive feelings, never be doomed to see the worn out, haggard, emaciated, tottering, bent and deformed African, cutting down the sugar-cane, or bearing it to the mill. The sight would unnerve many of them, though they heard not, as I * We learned at Washington that it is by no means rare for the well-fed and clothed bondman, who is there in attendance on his southern master, to despise the coloured freeman, who is poorly clothed and fed in comparison to him, and leads a laborious life. The pam- pered valet, however, is no true specimen of what the negro on the tobacco, cotton, or rice plantation is, even although we leave out of the comparison all that refers to morality and volition. — ''America ae I found it." p. 226. 182 AMIBIOA AND THE AMEBIOAKS. have done, the clank of the runaway's heavy chaini, or the sharp quick sound of the driver's lash. ' Nor must we forget, whilst alluding to these hard- ships, the shameful power given in most of the States, to the master, to punish and chastise at pleasure. Sel- dom indeed is he called to account for any atrocity of this kind, unless the sufferer die during its infliction, and in some districts positive statutes protect him in the exercise of this monstrous authority. Judge Stroud not only states this in so many words, hut adds, " the master may with entire impunity, in at least two States, use the horse-whip and cow-skin as instruments for beating his slave, he may load him w-ith irons, or subject him to perpetual imprisonment ; and for cruelly scald- ing, wilfully cutting out the tongue, putting out an eye, or any other dismemberment, if proved, in South Caro- lina, a fine of one hundred pounds currency only is incurred."* I am afraid that there are not a few men, especially in the south-west, and by the banks of that dreadful Eed Eiver, who answer to the description of Legree, and whose fists have in very deed and truth, been " calloused with knocking down niggers."t Be this as it may, he would be a bold man who ventured to deny that planters in America do now and then murder their negroes, that black testimony is not ad- mitted in courts of justice, however dreadful the out- rage perpetrated, and that even where whites have witnessed the crime, once and again the manslayer has been acquitted by a jury of his fellows. Now, to my mind, it matters not whether such cases are frequent or the reverse, whether the majority of masters conduct themselves humanely, or use with brutality the methods of torture within their reach — the system which permits such aferooities, the laws which shield the guilty from the punishment due to his sins, will not for a moment bear justification, and must sooner or later be swept away in the providence of G-od. It has been said that ♦ Stroud's "Bketoh." p. 48. f ** Uncle Tom's Cabin," chap. xlv. LOTS 01* IIBXBTT. 188 out- " tk* great proportion of the negroes are contented and happy. But people differ not a little in what consti- tutes happiness. Sir Thomas Foyirell Buxton used to relate a conversation which took place at his own table in connexion with this question, which much amused him. A gentleman who had been resident in the Mauritius, one day dining with him, laboured to set him right as to the condition of the slaves. He finished by appealing to his wife, — " Now, my dear, you saw Mr. Y 's slaves, do tell Mr. Buxton how happy they looked." " Well, yes,'* innocently replied the lady, " they were very happy, I'm sure — only I used to think it so odd to see the black cooks chained to the fire- place."* That many poor Africans have become so de- graded as not to realize the nature of their position, ant to feel that "Freedom has a thousand charms to show That slaves, howe'er oontented, never know," is very true ; but it is equally true that, in the great" majority of instances where liberty has been offered them as the reward of certain labour, they have worked with an energy unknown to hopeless bondmen, and that not one in twenty who have escaped, has, after years of poverty and unremitted toil, regretted that he gained lis liberty. Ah, no ! the love of it is far too deeply- seated in the human breast to be quenched, except in rare instances, even by ignorance and hereditary oppres- sion.. People tell me the slaves are contented — ^I answer, then, what kind of creatures are " negro dogs," packs of which are advertised in the southern newspapers for hunting and catching runaways? These notices, we need not attempt to conceal it, tell a dreadful tale, a tale of poor old scarred and tortured Africans flying from the whip of the driver to lie out in swamps which the serpent shares with the alligator, where the rattle- snake dwells with the toad. Half mud, half water, jungles of rank, tangled grass, or thickets interwoven with • "Life," by Charleg Bttxtou, Eaq., ]. 184. 184 A>IERICA AND TU£ AMERICANS. the poisonous yine, tbeir air impregnated with the most deadly miasma, their moss and morasses scarcely afford- ing standing-room for his torn and bleeding feet, they are, neyertheless, the only strongholds to which the black man, driven to distraction, can in his despair and agony flee ; and even there he is not safe, for without he hears the bay of the bloodhounds, and w ithin starvation, like some frightful spectre, rustles among the sedges^ and stalks across the treacherous fen. Before leaving this, the gloomy side of the question, I must glance at one or two evils connected with the system, which require serious consideration. And, first, it is unlawful in most of the States to educate the slaves. 'No doubt these statutes are con- stantly evaded, and southerners will tell you that they were passed rather to prevent the abolitionists inciting the negroes to rebellion than to interfere with the praise- worthy exertions of the planters themselves to elevate the condition of their bondmen. This, I believe to be, to a certain extent, true ; for every one knows that there are many enlightened and worthy men in Georgia and the Carolinas, and that the legislators, in numerous re- spects, are better than their enactments, too humane to act up to the letter of a code, which, like that of Draco, might have been written in characters of blood ; but, admitting at once the cause and the exceptions, we still have the appalling reality before us, that thousands of men and women in America are doomed to hopeless ignorance ■ on account of the colour of their skin. I have listened with astonishment to Christians defending a state of things so passing strange, and refusing to admit the obligation of teaching all human beings without distinc- * tion, at least to read the word of God. The fact is, ^ . they cannot help regarding universal education as a step - towards manumission, the ghost of which so frightens t them as to blunt their perception of duty, and weaken i their reasoning powers. it Then, I blush to mention it, there exist, in somB ■' cities of the south, ^institutions belonging to the muniei?- si I ' %i TlIK INTEKNAL SLAVE-TBADE. 185 is, i^. step ^^ ens A ,keii 102 AMEBICA. AND THE AMEEICAlN-S. told me last year that the Free Soilers are more corrupt than either, frequently celling their influence to the highest bidder. But apart from the mode in which they conduct the warfare, it may reasonably be doubted whether immediate emancipation is practicable. Mr. Mackay, an able opponent of negro slavery, says it is " a chimera,"* and I sometimes think many who loudly call for it would do well to ponder the words of Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton :t " If the breast be uneducated, the gift may curse the giver ; and he who passes at once from the slave to the freeman may pass as rapidly from the freeman to the ruffian." At all events, whether or not this view of the matter be correct, it is at least deserving of respectful consideration, and men who urge it while they do not conceal their dislike of African bon(}age, are much more likely to promote the good cause than societies who welcome Lucy Stone and applaud the diatribes of William Lloyd Garrison. But whilst condemning at once the precipitancy and the intemperance of the abolitionists, we must not shut our eyes to the want of judgment and foresight, not to say the guilt of those who, with the privilege of legisla- tion committed to them, have taken no step whatever towards abolishing a system of dire injustice. The charge against the south is, that for nearly a century nothing has been done to remove a national reproach, and to settle a question which every year becomes more and more difficult of solution. The planters are supreme rulers ; if they cannot individually emancipate their negroes, they can collectively alter the laws which retain them in perpetual bondage ; and until some move be made in this direction, we cannot help feeling distrust in their protestations of anxiety to be rid of the evil. No plea of violence on the part of the north, or of ob- stacles at home, will avail them, as long as, instead of relaxing, they increase the severity of their slave .CQiie, ,v. Mif vy-i. * " Western World," vol. ii., p. 108. t "Rienzi," chap. x. 'i'iij J*> StiAT£B¥ TOTTSBIKC^. Ids rupt the rhicK ibted Mr. I it is oudly rf Sir eated, bonce from lether b least ourge ifrican 3 good le and Lcy and t shut not to jgisla- latever The jentury [proach, ;s more preme their retain ove he istrust e evil, of oh- tead of \e code, tyid Btrire to perpetuate an institution condemned by ie universal voice of mankind. !^ Judging from the surface of things, looking only on their external aspect, one might suppose that no pro- gress was making on this subject in any of the southern States; but a more intimate acquaintance with the country wiU enable the stranger to observe signs of a change for the better, which escape the notice of the mere passer-by. If he sojourn for any time in Ken- tucky he will learn that the system of slavery is losing hold, that several practical farmers of enterprise have introduced free labour, and proved ineontestably its ad- vantage in such a climate over that of bondmen ; that on several plantations the negroes have been set free, this being permitted by the law of the State, provided the proprietor send them out of its jurisdiction ; that, in short, the people are fast flndiag out that, in order to prosper like their neighbours in Illinois and Ohio, they must remove the incubus which bears them down in the race of social improvement. The same may be said of both Maryland and Virginia, in a corner of which latter State a New England colony has strikingly demon- strated the superiority of free labour; and who that knows anything of Georgia is not aware of the silent but sure progress of anti-slavery views on the banks of the Ockmulgee and the Savannah ? To teach the slaves habits of industry and application, to assist them in acquiring a competence, to give them a suitable edu- cation, and instruct them in the great doctrines of our mosu holy faith, is the earnest endeavour of many who make no loud professions, and yet do more to aid a noble cause than a whole host of northern declaimers. The LEGISLATION of that State gives one a very erro- neous idea of its peacticb ; and if ever a great move- ment on behalf of manumission take place in the terri- tories more immediately interested in the question, it will in all human probability originate in the plantations of Georgia. Then, again, the influence of New England 194 JLMEBICA AKD THE AMEBIC ANS. n U 'I m ii 3' meu and women scattered over the Hlaye states is be- ginning to tell. As merchants and school-teachers, prudently and without ostentation, they act as leaven to the mass of society, circulating widely, in a manner which attracts little attention, opinions directly at variance with African slavery. I observed a marked change in the attitude assumed by southerners on this subject in seven years. Pew of them now refuse to discuss it with persons disposed to be reasonable; it is no longer tabooed either by newspaper editors or legislators ; there are not many districts where proprietors in favour of gradual emancipation may not be found ; the instruction of the negroes goes on, in an underhand way of course, but still with increasing diligence ; and some speak of the institution as a necessary evil who formerly loudly proclaimed it a national blessing. The traveller will also be surprised to hear a great deal about the gracious purposes of Qod in permitting slavery to continue for a time in America, in order that the blacks may be civi- lized, taught agricultural and commercial arts, and con- verted to the Christian religion, before going over en masse to cultivate and evangelize Africa. It is a strik- ing sign of the times when you hear this statement made by men who, ten years ago, would have treated it with ridicule and scorn. As for the arguments from the Bible, brought forward by advocates of the system, I should like to know how many really believe them. "Were some unlooked-for convulsion to bring down the price of cotton, the reverend gentlemen who have so diligently laboured to persuade mankind of their co- gency would soon find out new methods of interpre- tation. But notwithstanding all that has been said to the contrary, especially by the extreme abolitionists, my hope for the gradual removal of slavery centres in the influence of the Christian faith. The declarations of ceitain southern divines and the tracts of northern clubs may lead us to a different conclusion ; but I be- lieve, ere many years, it will be found that the Bible f SLAYEBT AND OHBISTIAN MISSIONS. 195 8 bet shers, rento which nance Lge in ect in twith longer there our of uction jourse, eak of loudly jr will racious e for a le civi- d con- »ver en strik- ement ated it from ystem, them, vn the ave so eir co- erpre- to the ts, my in the ons of )rthem ; I be- Bible i and the missionaries have sapped the foundation of the system, and paved the way for its final overthrow. The Beports of the Home Missionary Society, supported by the Congregationalists and the New School Presbyte- rians, afford abundant testimony of this; and to the former religious denomination, judging , from recent movements, it is not unlikely that the honour may be reserved of undermining, by scriptural instruction, the citadel which has so long withstood the more open ^ assaults of the politician and the declaimer. Miss Bremer met a southern bishop, who expressed himself as follows :* — " Already is Christianity labouring to elevate the negro population, and from year to year their condition improves, both spiritually and physically ; they will soon be our equals as regards morals, and when they become our equals, they can no longer be our slaves. The next step will be for them to receive wages as servants : and I know several persons who are already treating their slaves as such.*' Many of you have heard of the negro songs, of their dances to the banjo, and of their noisy merrymakings in the magnolia and palmetto groves ; but such rejoicings pertained to a state of society past away ; now you hear, instead, the striking language of the coloured preacher, the murmur of do- mestic prayer, and the loud swell of voices joining in an anthem of Christian praise. . r The influence of slavery on the future prospects of America it is not easy to predict. Mr. Prescott tells ust that Cardinal Ximenes, in the fifteenth century, earnestly opposed its introduction into Hispaniola, as certain, " from the character of the race, to result in a servile war;" and modern statesmen of all parties seem alike puzzled how to rid the Union of an evil, every day increasing in magnitude and threatening to break up the entire territorial arrangements of North America. The battle must be fought, too, not only in Louisiana and the Carolinas, but in those half-explored regions * " Homes of the New World," vol. i., p. S28. * t ♦' History of Ferdinand and Isabella," vol. iii., p. 388. o 2 196 AMBBICA AlTD THB AMXBIOANB. f fm m which stretch away from the Mississippi to the base of the Eocky Mountains, not only in Nebraska and Kansas, but on either side of the Bravo Del Norte, and in the wilder plains where the Blackfoot Indians now hunt the buffalo and the elk. If the slave States do not extend and increase in number, their prestige will pass away, and their policy at present seems to be to grasp so much territory, that the north can never outvote them either in the House of Eepresentatives or the Senate. This conflict, however, cannot last for ever ; as long as new lands remain to be annexed, the evil day may be delayed, and our friends on the other side of the Atlantic may see their bark of empire triumphantly progressing on the stream of time ; but an unexpected emergency may check its career of victory, and cause a mutiny amongst ita numerous crew: as Longfellow says,* %., i%^:^f " There is a poor, blind Sampson in this land, - •;>-; 'vflt Shorn of his strength, and bound in bonds of steel, ' Who may, in some grim revel, raise his hand. And shake the pillars of the commonweal, Till the vast temple of our liberties ; ^t A shapeless mass of wreck and rubbish lies." There are many men in America who believe the Union has elasticity enough to survive the shock, and that its stability will not be seriously endangered by the final decision of the question ; there are others who as confidently expect the struggle to end in a great social convulsion and the establishment of at least two sepa- rate republics in the western hemisphere. It would be idle in me to speculate on such a contingency ; I would only express a fervent hope that the time may soon arrive when, in the words of Fenimore Cooper,t " these fair regions will exist without a single image of the Creator that is held in a state which disqualifies him to judge of that Creator's goodness." , , ** Let good men ne'er of truth despair -••[? -^'f Though humble efforts fail. And give not o'er until once more ,^ . ♦ The righteous cause prevail ; ♦ "The Warning Stanza," iii. + "The6py,"ch»p. xiii. >;■;, f 5PHB PUGITIVB SLATE LAW. In vain and long enduring wrong The weak may strive against the strong, But the day shall yet appear When the might with the right and the tmth shall be, And oome what there may to stand in the way, That day the world shall see." w Many of my readers are no doubt aware that som^ years ago a compromise was effected between the north and the south, by which the former, in consideration of a resolution pledging the United States to annex no more slave territory, agreed to pass the fugitive slave law. This enactment rendered it compulsory on the part of the free states to deliver up runaways, who may have taken refuge within their jurisdiction, and to aid the marshals of the general government in restoring them to their masters. This bill, I was credibly informed, has had an extraordinary effect in rousing the feelings of the people in all parts of the country, and calling their attention to the evils of the system. An excellent man settled in Ohio told me that hundreds of persons whom he knew had been made anti-slavery men by it, and every one knows the manner in which the law has been set at nought by judges, magistrates, and citizens, in various parts of the Union. Near Bellefontaine three negroes who had fled from bondage in Kentucky were decoyed into the house of their owner's brother by his son, who had recognised them in a railroad-car, and wished to keep them until constables arrived to apprehend them ; but his intention being discovered, fifteen hundred men turned out to the rescue, got possession of their persons, and concealed them three weeks, at the end of which period the officers were wearied searching for them. This is no solitary instance; such cases happened so frequently that the legislature at "Washington began to think they had overshot the mark, and even men, who, in their public capacity, had voted for the bill, when appealed to as private individuals on behalf of victims flying from oppression, themselves assisted to render its provisions null and void. Some statesmen imagined that this statute had for ever settled the dispute between 19S AMERICA AlO) THB AMEBICAKS. the belligerent parties, and its authors were, in certain quarters, styled the saviours of their country ; but, alas for human foresight, all has already been undone ! Shades of Henry Clay and Daniel Webster ! what think ye now of your southern friends, who, after pledging their party to ask no more slave territory, last session voted in a body and carried the Nebraska Bill, in direct violation of a compact of which they were the proposers, and which they solemnly swore to defend ? This recent measure has once more renewed the war ; the planters haVe thrown down the gauntlet, and, from appearances in the north, it will be taken up in a manner which may shake the social fabric to its very centre. They may sing pseans over a temporary success, and put their trust in insignificant politicians, like Stephen A. Douglas, who have ambition without principle, and forwardness without sterling ability ; but, unless they can shut out the literature of the civilized world and stay the pro- gress of mankind, they need not persevere in a contest which, as sure as sunset in the western heavens, will result in the emancipation of the negro. ai.: ^H ;^-,V^!S ** Let Mammon hold while Mammon can, " . The bones and blood of living man ; Let tyrants scorn while tyrants dare, The shrieks and writhings of despair ; An end will come — it will not wait, Bonds, yokes and scourges have their date, Slavery itself must pass away. And be a tale of yesterday."* * Montgomery. •[■¥'\'\':^ ■' ■■ .("*",' :j:V'.li>'." ■■-;•■ ■ ,<.^-_- i - 4'S;j:!.' 'if' 1 ,- -■■.'■' ■'■!.' ' ; •'■■,^- 1 ' - t_ '- ■ ■ * :0- ;. ■ . „, ■ - . .. * < '/, ,'.,r. -.^.vU ■ . f.:.::m .... ..■■.-c.:m_ uh It .... U^-JiLnit 199 CHAPTEE XIX. My voyage to Cuba — Approach to the Queen of the Antilles — Appear- ance of Havana — Moonlight on the Plaza das Armas — Roads in Cuba — Scenery and vegetation — Visit to a sugar plantation — The process of grinding and boiling — Condition of the negroes — Severity of their labour — Possibility of obtaining their liberty — Effects of slavery on ^ the whites — State of religion in the island — The Priesthood — Charac- .t ter of the Creole — Remarks on the political condition of Cuba — Its ^ connexion with Spain, and almost certain annexation to the American t Union. While in the western hemisphere last year I paid a visit to the island of Cuba. It was a clear, frosty day in December when the steamship " Black War- rior'* left New York; scarcely had we passed Sandy ^ Hook before we encountered a wintry ocean ; and, as the vessel approached Cape Hatteras, the gale increased to a hurricane, snapping our gaif as if it had been a lucifer-match, carrying away the main-foresail, and { sending sea after sea into the cabin. Three days after- wards we were ploughing our way among the weeds of the Gulf-stream, the thermometer seventy degrees in the shade, and the passengers all on deck watching the breakers on the Bahama reefs, and the low, sandy Bernini group of islands. Nothing can be finer than the approach to the " Queen of the Antilles," with her steep wooded shores, and striking range of rugged in- land mountains, but, I must confess, a slight feeling of disappointment . with the situation of the Moro Castle and the general appearance of Havana. The ground does not rise sufficiently to make the prospect imposing, and the want of church spires, and the lowness of the houses, certainly detract from the coup -d' ceil of the city. The dwellings reminded me of those in Turkey, being, for the most part, only one story high, and fantastically painted; while the streets are just wide enough to admit of the national conveyance yclept " volante," which I can compare to nothing but a kind of insect known here under the name of " daddy long- 200 AMERICA AND THE AMEBICANS. 1 i 1:1 legs." The scene on landing, the squabbling boatmen, the peculiar cries, the offensive smells, and tatterdemalion officials forcibly recalled to my recollection the shores of the Mediterranean ; and the evening music and pro- menade on the Plaza das Armas made me think of the Alameda in Cadiz. The palaces and gardens, the senors and seuoras, were not different from those that I had seen before ; but how can I describe tl^e delicious feeling of the air after sunset, the grandeur of the heavens — * ' The purple ether that embathes the moon, Your large round moon, more beautiful than ours ; Your showers of stars, each hanging luminous, . Like golden dewdrops in the Indian air V* Ko words can convey the faintest idea of a Cuban road. In some places it resembles a watercourse; in others, «it consists of deep ruts hidden by grass several feet high; in one spot you see no path at all, but seem to be passing over a waste of wild flowers ; in another, you are glad to leave this apology for a high- way, and pursue a devious course across a field of Indian com ; whilst every now and then, if in a volante, your *^ calashero** turns aside to skirt a plantation of sugar-canes, or force his way through a grove of bitter oranges. Once my charioteer, to my extreme astonish- ment, leaped his horses, vehicle and all, over a thick cactus hedge, and then descended, pellmell, into a gulley several feet deep. The scenery of this lovely island far surpassed my expectations. In the hands of an energetic race it could be made a very paradise ; for the soil brings forth almost spontaneously, and food for man hangs in clusters from every other tree ; its but- ta face is pleasantly diversified with hill and dale, moun-!'^ tain and ravine, and harbours unexcelled invite the-' • commerce of the world. The stately king and cocoa- '* nut palms, the plantations of bananas which constitute the chief food of the negroes, the waving sea of sugar-'-' canes, and the forests of oranges, lying between rugged volcanic hills and the deep blue ocean, impress onem forcibly with the beauty of nature and the luxuriance ^ii ^, X iVQAR-BOIIital, and perpetuating both ignorance and crime. The saiiiP chain which binds the wretched negro fettern the white mail in the great struggle for industrial development, riches, and political powc^ It may, I believe, be truthfully »aid that there - no such thing as religion in Cuba. Sunday is not * 'U observed as a holiday, business going on quite ai^ usu * ; many large towns have only a single church, &n ti > men never enter a place of worship except on son, rare occasion, to look at the women who go theri to di pi ay their pretty faces and their finery. The priests live ^n avowed breach of canonical la vs, indulging in bceni ^ practices without scruple, and caring very little evei or the welfare of that Roman Catholicism which has inn e practical infidels of the entire population. With such state of things, one need not iook in any rank of b. for what we call morality. The Creoles appeared to m a remarkably diminutive race, with uninteUigemt count< nances and little physical grace. To a man they are discontented with Spanish rule, but then they have neither the energy to strike a blow for freedom, nor the ability to govern themselves were they to obtain their liberty. Fit for nothing but to drill slaves, smoke cigars, imbibe eau sucre, and lounge in the cafes, they will in all probability for ages ccntinue in leading- strings to a people of more enteq^rise and legislative talent. Every person with whom I conversed looked forward to the time when the " Queen of the Antilles" will be annexed to the American Union. Eor my part, I do not think there is an alternative, Spanish dominion being certainly doomed, and no other nation having such a natural claim to the sovereignty as the United States.* It is true that the effect of this might be to prevent for a time the gradual abolition of slavery ; but on the other * Of course no well-disposed man wishes success to the hordes of freebooters from America, who have once and again attempted to revo- IntioniKe the island. 204i AMEBIC A AVJ) fW^ AMEBICAyS. A hand, the resources of the magnificent country v ould be developed, roads, railways, and telegraphs constructed, the trade in negroes with Africa abolished, schools es- tablished, and Protestant worship introduced with all its life-giving influences to awaken the dormant energies of mind ; the soil, naturally so rich, would then bring forth abundantly for man and beast, and an island already to some extent a garden, would be made in the hands of skilful workmen to rejoice and blossom as the rose. If the Anglo-Americans were to obtain pos- session, they would re-create the social fabric in less than a couple of years. At present, Cuba serves as a mere milk cow to old Spain, which drains her annually of a million sterling. Notwithstanding its wonderful fertility, flour .costs 3/. a barrel, because the people are not industrious enough to produce it, and because a benseless government has imposed an excessive duty on its importation ; all offices are filled by lazy Spaniards, who come out for a few years for the express purpose of robbing, peculating, and making money by permitting in an underhand manner the oceanic traffic in negroes ; no man can reside in the country unless he swears that he is a Bpman Catholic ; the mountains teem with run- away slaves, whom no military force has been able to subdue ; only a small portion of the land is under culti- vation ; the traveller, for fear of robbers, must arm him- self to the teeth ; old plantations are running out for want of agricultural skill ; scarcely any roads have yet been made ; no vessel can enter Havana after sunset or before sunrise ; even the inhabitants cannot move about without passports ; the Creoles cherish a bitter hatred to Spanish domination ; trade stagnates, and manufac- tures are unknown ; while an active, enterprising people look upon the island with a covetous eye, wanting it as a home for their invalids, a tropical state for their Union, and a key to the navigation of the Mexican Gulf. What interest can we British have in opposing an acquisition clearly foreshadowed by nature and destiny ? As com- mercial men, as philanthropists} as Protestants, we should 1 .. ipoiit^icii dr ouba. 205 desire to see the Saxon replace the Oastilian, iUbA Cuba opened up to ciyilization and Christian truth. And fiarther, we may just as well make a virtue of necessity, for apart altogether from lawless landings, if money wUl purchase the country, or if Spain be foolish enough to allow misunderstandings to lead to war, as sure as the rocks of the Moro are washed by the ocean, the star- spangled banner will wave from its heights. ^^ ic- r- # CHAPTEB XX. Rapid growth of the United States — The MissiBsippian valley — Ita discovery, settlement, and vast resources — The great lakes — Travel- ling in the White Mountains — The wooden hotels — The wilds of New Hampshire — Lake Winnipiseogee — Scenery in the New England States bordering on the Atlantic — Albany to New York — The l^nks of the Hudson. Most men in this great commercial country have some acquaintance with the vast and increasing influence which our race and institutions now exercise throughout the habitable globe. They know that millions in Asia bow under British sway, that we wield an extending power in Africa, and that at the far Antipodes our colonists have laid the foundation of an empire, which at no distant day may assert an undisputed pre-eminence south of the equator. Above aU, few indeed among us can be ignorant of the fact that a great republic in the west, a tree of our own right hands planting, an honour to the parent stem — is daily growing in population, wealth, and power, promising in fact to overshadow with its mighty branches the effete dynasties of the olden world. i- When we hear of New York having seven hundred thousand inhabitants, of railroads and telegraphs inter- secting the country in various ramifications, from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico, of fleets rivalling England's navies, sent to monopolize the Antarctic whale trade, to fill the dockfi in the Mersdy, and to eclipse our AMEBIOA ANB THIS AMEBICANS. mercliantmen in the eastern seas; when we see the representatives of Congress respected at every foreign court, the stars and stripes waving proudly in Mediteri ranean harbours, and Italian artists busily preparing ex^ pensive works designed to adorn the saloons of trans- atlantic mansions — we must feel deeply impressed with the rising fortunes of the United States of America. But perhaps many of us may not have attentively studied the geographical position, the natural features, or the wonderful resources of the provinces included in that comprehensive name. "We have been chiefly familiar with the great cities on the eastern coast, those districts known to cotton spinners, shipowners and dealers in produce. Let us make a clean breast of it at once, and confess that America beyond the AUeghanies is to tens of thousands of our countrymen an unknown land. But what a small proportion do New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the Carolinas bear to the almost boundless territories within the limits of the Federal Union. As Holland to Europe east of the Bhiue, as Normandy to the wide plains of France, so are these States on the Atlantic seaboard to the mighty regions through which the Mississippi roUs its turbid^ stream. About the middle of the sixteenth century one of Pizarro's most distinguished captains, having returned to Spain with immense wealth, and all the reputation which success confers on eminent abilities, obtained from Charles V. the government of Florida. Like Cortez, he burnt his ships before commencing his march into the interior, and he it was who, first of Europeans, near the spot where Memphis now stands, discovered the " Father of Waters." No steamers then hurried along that great highway to unexplored regions, no cotton plantations were to be seen among the denizens of the forest ; senates, representatives, and state houses were unknown, even the log hut had no existence, nor had the hunter's rifle disturbed the gaily painted birds, — all was solemnity, stillness, desolation, excepting 'Hr THE MISSISSIPPIAK YALLBT. 207 the '"r when a red man's paddle scared the wild fowl, or an Indian war-whoop awakened the echoes of the woodsi The captain, who expected to find another mine of Fotosi, to open up countries more auriferous than Peru, feU a victim to disappointment and fatigue. Ifear the point where the Eed Eiver mingles its cur- rent with the parent stream, some say under its bed, in the silence of night, for fear of avaricious foes, were buried the mortal remains of [Ferdinand de Soto. How few, amongst the busy thousands who now pass the spot, think of him whose daring first revealed the exist- ence of the Mississippian valley ! Two hundred years have passed away, and with them the glory of the Spanish arms ; but the great country, watered from the Eocky Mountains, fell into other hands, and when it came under the dominion of the Anglo-Saxon race, it might almost be said that " a nation was born in a day." The Spaniards took possession at first, but did no more for its civilization than the wandering aboriginal tribes ; the French succeeded, and still the Mississippi flowed through a solitude ; at length Congress bought the territory, and soon the face of nature underwent a change ; merrily rung the axe in wild brushwood brakes, villages started into existence where wigwams were before ; the planter laid out his cotton-fields ; the sugar cane rose amid blackened stumps, and the Indian retired gloomily up the Arkansas to bide his final time — a time not far dis- tant when his race shall all be gathered to their fathers, near the Grreat Spirit whom they adore. The vast resources of this valley we can scarcely exaggerate by the most glowing description. Already a thousand steamers ply on its rivers, conveying to New Orleans the products of various climates and various soils ; powerful vessels daily leave Pittsburg on the Ohio, for the Gulf of Mexico, a distance of 2100 miles ; from St. Louis, high-pressure boats ascend to the Falls of St. Anthony on the one river, and on the other — the Missouri, into regions yet unknown; 908 AMlAIdA ASKti TttlS AMSBIOAKS. quite a fleet of thei^e shipi! belong to Oinciim&ti alone, and all daj long you may hear on the bi*oad ^ters the hum of an active, energetic, and money-making race. Then, who can teU how many millions of human beings the virgin soil of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois could feed, — ^how many successive crops of wheat could, without manure or drains, be extracted from the prairie land, or how many populous cities will yet appear in spots where fifty years ago the hunter dwelt alone ^ "WTiy, St. Louis already contains 120,000 inhabitants, and St. Louis is 1200 miles due west of New York. There are Cairos, and Palmyras, and Troys, and Alex- andrias, and Salems there too, — small villages, it may be, now ; but destined perhaps in after years to rival the wealth and splendour of their famous namesakes in the east. ^**^ The quantity of breadstuff's, cotton, sugar, tobacco, pork, lard, hemp, and other productions, annually car- ried down the Mississippi is amazing; and when we recollect that the cultivated spots are as yet mere oases in the wilderness, can we fail to remark that this country, under free institutions, inhabited by such a people, bids fair to occupy a leading place in history, when old worn- out monarchies have crumbled to their fall ? ■ Nor must we forget the region of the Great Lakes- Superior, Michigan, Huron, St. Clair, Erie, and Ontario, the importance of which we at home can scarcely ap- preciate. They are 1470 miles long, they have a coast of nearly 5000 miles, and an incredible number of large paddle-wheel steamers, propellers, barques, schooners, and sloops, ply between the various ports on their shores. The quays and wharves of the new cities which almost every year are rising up in these vast inland seas, may be seen constantly covered with merchandise discharged from, or about to be placed on board of the trading craft, and both on the American and Canadian side, rich mineral districts, and plains of wonderful fertility attract the settler. The Welland Canal, round the Falls of Niagara, connects Brie with Ontario, and f ery soon h, THE WmTB MOUNTAINS. 209 m : similar mode of communication past the Sault St. Marie will enable ships to bring the copper of Lake Superior to Buffalo and Detroit. You are often, even in a fast steamboat, for hours out of sight of land ; Lake Erie, being shallow, is subject to frequent and violent storms, very destructive to property and life j when I first saw Lake Michigan, huge waves were rolling in like avalanches, and breaking on the beach in foam ; and on Lake Ontario I experienced, greatly to my own astonish- ment, all the horrors of sea-sickness. Let us here, instead of continuing to generalise, select a few particular scenes out jof the many which interest the traveller in the United States of America, a descrip- tion of which, from notes taken down on the spot, may convey to some minds a better idea of natural objects and of the mode of travelling, than any statements, however minute and accurate, not conveyed in the narra- tive form. ,,, We are now in a railroad train among the Green Mountains of Vermont, crossing and recrossing the "Winooski, or Onion Eiver, which, in some places, boils and foams between rugged rocks, and, at others, winds along grassy valleys, adorned with well-built farm-houses and noble trees. Every few miles we arrive at a vil- lage, beautifully situated on a plain covered with rich, meadows and fields of Indian corn ; and, at midday, turn towards the north, to foUow the course of the noblest stream in New England — the Connecticut, or Eiver of Pines. This vaUey, when cleared and well cultivated, will be one of the most fertile grain districts in North America. The hamlets, with their white church spires, and school-houses embosomed in apple trees, the over- hanging rocks, and distant hills, form pleasing objects in the landscape. At Wells, we strike off up the Ammo- noosuck to Littleton, where a coach, drawn by six horses, is in readiness to convey us to the Franconia Notch in the White Mountains. This is one of the wildest regions in the United States. From the top of the stage we have a wide prospect over forests, pastoral valleys. 210 AMERTCA A-VH THI AMXBICAVS. ravines, and dingles ; Mount Lafayette rising before us ia solemn majesty, and behind us, far a« the eye can reach, an undulating country, stretching away towards the frontiers of Canada. For the first three miles the drive lies through a tangled wood, and up an ascent so steeds that our team occasionally pauses. The road is so nartciw that the trees touch the carriage on both sides at the same time, and so rough, that passengers hold on firmly for their lives ; yet the coachman drives his six in hand with the utmost ease and skill. The horses are young and handsome, such as you see in an English gentle- man's establishment, worth £40 to £70. They arc all purchased in spring, and sold when, in autumn, the season closes. Darkness has now overtaken us, and by the faint light of the moon, we mistake larch trees for the J)inna luxuriance of the foliage and the beauty of the flowers. Let us transport ourselves to Albany, the capital of the State of New York, situated on a hill side sloping down to the Hudson, and commanding a remarkable view of the busy valley watered by that stream, bounded on the north by Mount Ida, with Troy at its base, and on the south by the distant Catskills. "We have descended from the upper part of the city and mingle with a crowd of five or six hundred people, who are hurrying on board one of those floating palaces which render travelling agreeable on the great rivers of the United States. Leaving our fellow-passengers to their newspapers, novels, ice-water, and sherry-cobblers, we go up to the hurricane deck to enjoy a sail far superior in picturesque beauty to that between Mayence and Coblentz on the Rhine. For several miles below Albany the Hudson is too shallow for ships of considerable bur- then, and numerous islands render the navigation difficult. The land on both sides is highly cultivated, and adorned by many large mansions, belonging princi- pally to the wealthy descendants of the original Dutch settlers. *As you approach the town of Hudson the river expands, assuming a more majestic appearance, and affording depth of water for vessels of greater tonnage. Towards the west, the wooded summits of the Catskill mountains now rise into view. On one of them a large hotel has been erected, which, during the season, is crowded with the beauty and fashion of the larger towns, especially New York. Few cities in the world possess a more magnificent retreat, supplied with all the com- forts of civilization, yet situated in the midst of a primeval forest, and overlooking a country to the westward, where not many living voices have been heard since the Indian sorrowfully forsook his childhood's home. In the upper part even of the Empire State many thousand acres of 214 AMEBIOA AWD THX AMEBICAKB. rieh Itnd have not yet been tilled, and thoutaads mora are icarcely known except to the hunter who chases in these splitudes the stag or the bear. How bright and cheerful are the little towns and villages on the banks of the Hudson! Their white houses, large hotels, and wooden piers, at every turn offer temptations to the painter ; and Poughkeepsie, the prettiest of these quiet abodes, reminds us of the Italian hamlets which overhang the lovely Lake of Como. But now beauty gives place to grandeur ; the steamer has called at Newburgh, and approaches the far-famed ** Highlands," that wild scene, whe/e the river under vast peipendicular cliffs and overhaui^mg forests of foliage forces its way through the gorge of the Matteawan Moun- taina. The Crow's Nest frowns before us, the banks recede, the shadows fall, the wind eddies behind granite rocks far above us, we can see trees on the edge of th« precipice, we can almost f&ncy ourselves in the bay of Kussnacht on the Lake of Lucerne, and we feel solemnized by the sublimity of that defile which gives the great river free egress to the sea. For a moment we stop at West Point, the seat of the United States Military Academy, and looking upwards to the pillar which commemorates the virtues of Kosciusko, we pronounce its situation finer than that of Asmanhausen or St. Goar. Below Peekshill the Hudson widens into a spacious lake called the Tap^ paan Zee, the most conspicuous object on whose shores is the great state prison of Sing Sing ; then, contrac ting again, has for its western boundary £or several miles a singular wall of columnar rock, varying from forty to three hundred feet in height, and named the Palisades* The life and variety on the waters and the shores of this river will strike the stranger. Every few minutes steamers shoot past, ferry boats cross the bows of the vessel which conveys him, eager crowds wait on the land- ing-places, and innumerable sloops, spreading an extra- ordinary extent of canvas for their size, tack up and down in all directions. But passengers now beg^ to 'look after their baggage, the steersman's bell tingles ItAKX h >m&E. r^M iwifit, th# «agin9 ■lowi, then itopa, the iip twi ^ round to a qiMjr among a wilderness of ma § and r« tad oursekeB rubbing shoulders with the OUi^^ ^oy aia^ Hon of New York. X CHAPTEE XXI. lake Ge(»|;o — Ticonderoga — Utica and the valley of the Moliawk— Trenton Falls — The affricultural districts — KeariDg of stock in Kentuekj — Products of America — The prairie land of Illinois-— f^ Wheat fieids of Ohio — Cora-growing in Western New Yoik — Rochester — The Genesee plains — Mineral wealth of the Union — Visit to the Falls of Niagara. We now change the scene of our excursions, and on an August evening sit in the verandah of the large wooden hotel which welcomes travellers to the hamlet of Caldwell at the southern extremity of Lake George. Several pleasure boats, and the tiny little steamer " John Jay/' lie at the rustic quay which terminates the garden ; wo had encountered a thunderstorm on our journey from Saratoga, and now that darkness has closed around, sheet lightning illuminates every alternate moment the heavens, the lake, and the wooded hills on the opposite shura. The atmosphere is so balmy that we feel loth to retira to rest ; the rain haa sweetened the breath of Nature ; each electric flash discovers new beauties in the prospect, and the waters, unruffled even by a passing breese, invite contemplation and repose. " 'Twas one of those ambroaial eves A day of storms so often leaves." Next morning, bright and beautiful, finds us ^teaming up Lake Horicon, or, as the Catholics from the transparent purity of its water designated it, Lake Sacrament. How much more expressive the Indian, or that name given by the missionaries, than the Anglo-American title which it now beara ! Innumerable legends are connected with its inlets and headlands, and in former times holy founts in diitant towns were supplied from its pellucid waves. In some plaees it very mueh resembles Loch Lomond, 216 ▲MERTOi. AND TRR AMERICANS. and like it varies greatly in width — now expanding bo at to afford space for many islands clothed with verdure and picturesquely formed — again contracting between frown- ing cliffs, where not a house or clearing appears among the trees and rocks. On the eastern shore Black Mountain rears its gloomy summit above a hundred rolling hills covered to their cones with wood ; and in some places so narrow is the channel among little islets of every conceiv- able shape, that we imagine ourselves among the Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence, or the wild vegetation of the Swedish lakes. Arrived at the northern extremity, we get on the top of a stage* and drive over a rising ground, dotted with oak and chestnut trees like an English noble- man's park, to Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain, so celebrated in the revolutionary war. Soon the "Canada," a steamer unexcelled in point of internal arrangement and decoration, reaches the wooden quay on which we wait» She has come from Whitehall, through the Trossach scenery at the southern end of this much admired lake, and we proceed in her as far as Burlington, a thriving town in Vermont, backed by the Green Mountains, and commanding a beautiful prospect of the sharp peaks of the Adirondack hills on the opposite shore. Lake Champlain stretches into Canada for several miles after passing St. John's. "Where you leave the railroad from Montreal, and embark on board the steamer, nothing is visible except the unvarying forest; but the banks belong- ing to the United States display a pleasing variety of cultivated fields, snug villages, and belts of wood, bare crags now and then relieving the wide expanse of green. Though scarcely so grand as Horicon, or so striking as the Highlands of the Hudson, this sheet of water pos- sesses perhaps more artistic beauties than any other in North America. We visit now a different scene. One of those tremen- dous thunderstorms, which in summer sometimes burst upon the fertile plains of the Union, has overtaken us at Utica, a thriving town of 20,000 inhabitants, in the broad * Stage is the American designation of stage-ooach. I I TBEyXON FALLS. 217 BO at 7^fi t .-■i and wealthy valley of the Mohawk. In a few hours the river has risen above all its banks ; fish leap among the Indian com plants, and men in boats rescue drift timber floating on meadows where cattle grazed the day before. We seize the opportunity to cross the hills to Trenton Falls, a series of wild cataracts on the West Canada Creek, in a comparatively remote district of the country. An ascent five miles long leads to the summit of the ridge, from which we look down on a prospect remarkably like that which greets the traveller, who, having traversed the chain of the Apennines from Bologna southward? arrives at the brow of the hill near Fiesole, and ? down on Val d'Amo and beautiful Florence. The planit road is somewhat out of repair, so we do not progress very rapidly ; but at length we reach the defile, and hear the roaring of the troubled stream. The time is well chosen ; for the waters are pouring down in terrific volume, and their brownish amber tinge contrasts in a very striking manner with the dark green foliage hang- ing over the chasm. The flood has covered the usual pathway under the beetling cliffs ; so in order to see the various leaps, which are some distance apart, we have to penetrate the tangled boughs of the forest, now emerging into what Ariosto calls a ** Fresca stanza fra Tombre piii naacose," P. now torn in thickets which obscure the light of day, and again finding ourselves on a giddy ledge two hundred feet above a rapid, roaring in its strength. The luxuriance of vegetation is charming ; a few of the trees have begun to change colour, and autumn tints of red and yellow enliven fhe solemnity of pines. Here and there a majestic hemlock rears its crest into the heavens, and every now an * then drives a drenching spray into our faces, as we put aside the branches to take another peep down into the abyss where the waters roar. We are here alone with Nature in her wildest mood, we feel as if the sublime scene around us had just come fresh from its Creator's hand, and our imagination, seizing the 218 AMSBICA Ajn THX AMEBICANS. r»iiif, transports us, in fu&cy, far beyond the portaU oi this every-day world. We must uow, however, visit the agricultural districts, and say a word regarding those vast plains which may well be called the granary of the western hemii^here. To form any correct idea of American fuming, it if necessary to leave the great beaten tracks, the lines of railways and steamers, and saunter along the byeways of the land. In new England the soil, being in general Hght and rocky, does not produce heavy crops of grain ; but it is admirably adapted for raising live stock, and iti pasturages afford dainty food to thousands of horses, sheep, and horned cattle. Kot only in the eastern, but even in the young States bordering on the Mississippi, agricultural &irs are now annually held, and to them multitudes repair to see and learn. The people of Kentucky have, of late, taken a great interest in the improvement of the breeds of domestic animals. One joint-stock company has imported largely from Great Britain and the continent of Europe, and has sold their importations at very high prices. They are said to have realized 25,000 dollars by their last adventure; 1000 dollars were given for a single bull, and 200 dollars fot a sow. Some leading men in that State, Henry Clay, for example, have been active farmers, and their exer- tions have fostered the scientific spirit now abroad in that part of the country. Much attention is also there given to the rearing of mules for the southern planta* tions. They are sMd to be cheaper to feed, and to last longer than horses, when worked on the rice and cotton fields of the slave States. The best judges prefer as food for horses the leaves of the Indian com, bruised, and sprinkled over with its meal. Oats do not thrive well in America, and the maise itself they pronounce too heat- ing. Virginia and the districts adjacent to it grow im- mense quantities of tobacco ; G-eorgia and the Carolina! have a name for excellent lioe ; the sugar-cane flourishes in Louisiana; and every one knows that nearly our entire supply of cotton comes from the United States, i, ILLINOIS. 210 L',-rf. w soutk oi the thirty-iixtli pwwllel of latitude ; but whei^t and ludian corn may be called the products of North America. The splendid alluvial lands in the Mississip- pion valley, sometimes one hundred feet deep, require no mmnure, but, for a long term of years, have gone on producing more and more, instead of showing any symptoms of exhaustion ; and wheat can be raiaed for ten shillings a quarter on the^prairies of the north-western States. During my tour, in the autumn of 1858, in a railroad car between Xndianopolis and Bellefontaine, X turned the conversation on agricultural matters, nearly all the group of passengers around me being £irmers. Illinois, they agreed, was the finest State in the Union. Some settlers there own 1000 acres of land, and raise seventy-five bushels of Indian corn per acre ; and farms of 600 to 600 acres are quite common. It is the general opinion that when railroads have been constructed tibroughottt that State, the proprietors of its soil will become enormously wealthy. Indiana is less fertile and far more densely wooded. Uncleared land sells for twelve dollars an acre there; cleared, but poor land, brings twenty-five dollars to thirty dollars, while the best corn land cannot be got under fifty dollars. Strange to say, in Illinois, prairies requiring very little labour to bring them under cultivation, can still be purchased at ten dollars to twelve dollars an acre. This diiOTerence arises from its being somewhat further ofi* from the markets oi the eastern States ; but railroads will soon obviate an objection which every year becomes of less and less im- portance. I have myself seen Indian com twelve to fourteen feet high on the central prairies of Illinois ; and intelligent fellow-travellers told me that thousands upon thousands of bushels, both of it and wheat, are left to rot on the more inaccessible lands every fall. It is no imusual thing to turn the pigs into fields of grain which will not bear the cost of reaping and transportation. In some parts of America they cut off the heada, or rather, tops of the maize to be given as fodder to the eattle. Yery often, too, between the planti of this cereal, growa 220 AMEBIC A JlSD THE AMEBIC ANS. i a sort of pumpkin, called squash, the huge oval fruit of which has, generally, a bright orange colour, and re- mains on the field after the com has been removed. It then looks remarkably well and imparts quite an air of comfort to the country. "If ever Providence," says Hawthorne, in his "Mosses from an Old Manse," " should assign me a superfluity of gold, part of it shall be expended for a service pf plate, or most delicate porcelain, to be wrought into the shapes of summer squashes, gathered from vines which I will plant with my own hands." The traveller, in the United States, every now and then finds, stretched out before him, a tract of country of immense resources, waving with corn, well watered, possessing a natural slope, invaluable for drainage, and affording clover fields for thousands of plump cattle. Such is the character of the prospect from Laurel Hill, on the west side of the Alleghanies, between Cumberland and the Monongahela river; such the view of the Con- necticut valley from Mount Holyoke ; such the plain of Lexington in Kentucky. But we shall now, if my readers choose, take a trip across the enterprising State of Ohio. Having a rich soil and abundant facilities for the transit of grain, it supplies Europe with an ever-increasing quantity of provisions, and supports a population occu- pying a very conspicuous and influential position in the republic. We travel slowly in the old lumbering stage, before the railroads were formed between Cincinnati and the Lake. "We find ourselves, after leaving be- hind the villas and orchards near that great city, amidst vast fields of wheat, the decaying stumps of the trees relieving the brilliant green of the springing blade, and neat farm-houses now and then showing their whit© walls between the branches of elm and maple whioii shelter them from the heat of a July sun. A large propor- tion of the land, however, appears to be still uncleared, the primeval forests often extending as far as the eye can reach, over hill and dale. In the south part of the State they cultivate Indian com extensively, and !r^. AGMCULTUEE IN OHIO. 221 ^ rye grows on the poorer soils ; but wheat is the staple crop, being, in ordinary seasons, the most remunerative to the farmer. The grain is ground at the grist miUs, one of which serves for every four or five farms, and then transported, either to Cincinnati for shipment down the river to New Orleans, or to the ports of Lake Erie, where it is carried by propellers to Bufialo, and from thence despatched by canal to New York. The average value of the farms was, in 1846, forty dollars per acre ; .and but little attention has as yet been paid to improved methods of cultivation, it being less expensive to clear new tracts than to i.ianure and drain thobe already pre- pared for seed. We dine at Xenia and spend the night at Columbus, the country beyond which is exceedingly fertile and picturesque; the forests appear in all the freshness of their early summer mantle, and the splendid wheat crops bear witness to a land of promise. The first settlers in this district have long since quitted their habitations to feed their cattle on prairies beyond the Mis- souri, discovered within the memory of living men. These pioneers of civilization are a nomadic race, never re- maining to enjoy the fruits of their toils, but treading close upon the footsteps of the Indians as they retire before the pale-faces towards the setting sun. In Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, they grow maize for the ex- press purpose of feeding pigs, with which the woods literally teem, and millions of which, every year, are, at Cincinnati, slaughtered and salted for export, besides supplying innumerable boxes . of bristles and barrels of lard. In 1853, I travelled over the part of Ohio bor- dering on Lake Erie, from Sandusky to Buffalo, and found it a fertile and densely populated district, with well-enclosed fields, large farm-houses, prettily situated towns, good roads, numerous churches, and a rich soil producing amazing crops of clover, wheat, and maize. It reminded me strongly of Lincolnshire, and some of the corn-growing midland counties of England. The valley of the Mohawk, extending westward from Albany, was not settled by white men till after the 222 AMEBIOA AND TfiS AHBBIOAKS. rerolution ; and seteral years even subsequent to that event it continued the eountry where the Oneidas bunted the beaver, where the bears roamed as monarchs and the wolves pursued the deer. The Indians them- selves called it "the dismal wilderness." I visited it in the autumn of 1853, and then it looked anything but ^ newly-discovered region of the western world. A fertile, open, and beautiful country — wooded like an English nobleman's park, varied by hill and dale, watered by fresh streams, with multitudes of farm-houses, vil- lages, and market towns — it proc4aims itself a land of plenty for man and beast. All the way to Buffalo by Utica, Rome, Syracuse, Auburn, and a multitude of other placesjdoubling their population every few years, I passed through a district unexcelled, as far as agri- cultural wealth is concerned, by any in Noiiih America. Rochester, on the falls of the G^enessee, now contains upwards of 40,000 inhabitants, chiefly employed in grind- ing the wheat produced in the well-known vaUey of that river ; and thousands of barrels of whose flour annually find their way to Europe. Many of the farmers are Scotchmen, men of enterprise and skill, who cultivate 200 to 250 acres each, and are rapidly acquiring wealth. Land there is worth 100 dollars per acre. Rochester, from its favourable situation, enjoys much of the pro- duce trade both on the canal to Albany and, by means of Lake Ontario, down the St. Lawrence. No country which I have seen excels in richness of soil and rural beauty the plain of the Genessee. The land is a deep vegetable loam ; the trees are larger and more gracefii than those which you usually see in the northern States ; the grass looks remarkably fresh ; lawns of great extent and natural advantages offer delightful sites for villas ; largo fields of Indian com and buckwheat alternate with meadows on which graze sheep and cattle ; clear streams run in the hollows ; and the farm-houses strike one as very pictures of neatness and prosperity. The United States abound in minerals ; Pennsylvania alone has a coalfield covering an area five times larger .. NIAGABA. 223 } that aeidaB larcbs tbera- ;ted it ig but d. A ke an atered B8, vil- and of fdlo by ade of r years, ,8 agri- merica. ontains igrind- of that anually era are ultivate wealth, ihester, e pro- means ountry rural deep acefii States ; extent villas ; ,te witb streams one as sylvania is larger than tliftt of tbe same layer in Great Britain ; in tl^ north-west part of Illinois, round about GkQena, an inex- haustible supply of lead lies close to the surface ; Mis- souri has a mountain composed solely of iron, and the earliest navigators who visited the sea-coast found the savages in possession of Ornaments made from copper which no doubt came from the vast fields of that metal on the shores of Lake Superior. Pittsburg, the " Shef- field of America," can scarcely be seen on accoimt of the dense smoke from its furnaces ; and sailing down the MonOBgahela I noticed that the hills were pierced in every direction with shafts, from the mouths of which railroads with excessively steep gradients convey the coal to barges on the river, the full wagon in descending pulling the empty one up the inclined plane. But now, as in a panorama, the scene changes again, and with reverent footsteps, like Joshua treading on holy ground, we go to gaze and wonder at the Falls of Nia- gara. Ear be it from me to attempt a description of a sight which deprives many men of utterance, and almost takes away the breath. How inadequate are the forms of speech to convey to any mind even the faintest idea of the emotions which swell the bosom of the stranger, when the fond dream of his boyhood^ becomes a glorious reality, and awe-stricken, ay, trembling, he stands in full view of the mighty cataract ! The ground heaves beneath his feet, and every house sensibly vibrates with the concussion of the air. An overwhelming feeling of power binds him to the spot, and the boom of hidden thunders, ever and anon arising from the dread abyss, makes him for the moment imagine himself on the threshold of an unseen and terrible world. "We have, from the Buffalo cars, after following for several miles the course of the clear and peaceful river which flows out of Lake Erie, just caught a glance of the rapids in their fearful agony, and retire to our private room in the hotel until the bustle of an arrival is over, and porters and guides have gone ; for companions are irksome to us now. Niagara must be visited in silence, and alone* 224 AlfE^IOA AND THE AMEBICANS. Even the Indian, who, straying from his fellows, found himself on the brink of that tremendous rift in the adamantine rocks, and beheld the cloud of spray which for ever and ever ascends heavenward from the centre of the Horse Shoe, ceased his war-whoop and his savage dance, and on his knees muttered to the Great Spirit a heartfelt prayer. And we, wearied with the bustle of every day life, retire to some secluded grove of arborviiae trees, that, with Nature only to bear us company, we may commune with Him " who holdeth the waters in the hollow of His hand." We saunter to the top of the cliff on the American side, but the sunbeams playing among the wreaths of spray prevent us realizing the grandeur of the prospect ; so* we descend the ladder, and scramble over the ledges as close as possible to the mighty falling mass. The air is cold ; we are stunned by the terrific roar, and every now and then a fitful gust of wind blinds us with spray. But steady now for a moment, and sublimity itself awaits us. We hear a hiss and a howl as we look down into the bottomless pit beneath our standing point, and if we can venture an upward look we shall see a sheet of crystal as it were tumbling down from the sky. " Look up ! Lo where it comes like an eternity, As if to sweep down all things in its track, Charming the eye with dread, a matchless cataract." We may now cross the river in the little boat which conveys strangers to the British shore within reach of the, drenching vapour, behold the Falls as they appear revealed in all their magnificence from the Clifton House, and then return by the great suspension bridge, 800 feet long, which has been thrown across the gorge a couple of miles below, at a height of 230 feet above the stream. Now let us take our station on the rustic bridge wjiich crosses the furious surges to Goat Island, just above the A-merican fall. With mighty momentum the water comes down, leaping over driftwood and thrown by stony ledges into pyramids of foam ; here the stream rushes along found n the which atre of savage ipirit a Lstle of )orvii» ^e may in the of the playing Jig the ler, and to the stunned ful gust vsr for a l,r a hiss less pit Ltuxe an it were KIA6ABA. 225 II it which reach of appear House, |800 feet liouple of stream. jre wjiich 30ve the br comes ly ledges )s along with dreadAil ipeed, as if driven on by an unceen powev; there it bounds against a rifted rock, and is tossed back with an almost supernatural force which sends a cold shiver through your frame. Look up the wild torrent as far as you can &^!3. Dundee. The oftener it is visited, the grander it ap- pears. It is evening now. , ** Prom yonder trees we see the western sky All washed with fire, while, in the midst, the sun Beats like a pulse, welling at eT*ry beat A spreading wave of light." Just as the last beams of day make the white surges sparkle like jewels in a crown, we reach the top of the signal tower on the Terrapin Eock. Tinged with gold the wild waters rush on to take the final plunge ; grace- ful foliage dyed with the hues of autumn hang over them like queenly drapery; coloured rays dart through the woods on Groat Island, and the great cloud of spray sparkles for a moment in the glare of the sinking lumi- nary. Now comes the cold wind from Lake Erie, sigh- iiig in the tree tops, whistling among the rocks, and swaying to and fro the awful pillar which shall rise in middle air from the base of the Horse Shoe Fall till time shall be no more. A voice of thunder speaks to us from the abyss below; the shifting breeze blinds us with vapour ; and another gust shows us Hesper glittering in the front of heaven and heralding the night. CHAPTER XXII. i Norfolk to Richmond in Virginia — The James River — Harper's Ferry on the Potomac — The Ohio — Steaming on tiie Mississippi — Night on the "Father of Waters" — A scene on the Cumberland sand bar — "Sparring" — Staging in America — Corduroy roads — Ohio before the railroads — Journey from Louisville to the Mammoth cave — Mouth of • the Mississippi, and New Orleans. Eaelt in the spring of 1846 I embarked at Norfolk in a fast little steamer for Kichmond, the capital of Virginia, and the chief seat of the tobacco manufacture. Tor four hours we sailed up the estuary of James River, which, gradually contracted in width till it became scarcely Inroad enough to allow the vessel to turn. The air was TUB JAM£» BIYXB. 227 it ap* ..■.5- . 10 surges of the ii gold g,**ce- r them gh the spray y lumi- j, sigh- ts, and rise in ill time lis from s with ring in tr's ferrj Niglit on ad bar — ►efore the Mouth of [•folk in irginia, Tor which [carcely lair was deUghtful, and the morning sun darted down his rays on the mirror-like water, reflecting on its surface the images of noble trees and the masts of fishing sloops with their saila hanging listlessly from the yards. Not a sound disturbed Nature's qiiietude but the quick splashing of the paddle-wheels and the flapping of the sea-fowls' wings, as, scared by the approach of man, they rose from their nests on the sea. "When the river narrowed, the scenery became more picturesque. The woods, recover- ing from a severe winter's frost, rejoiced in the genial heat of a southern sun. The deep green of the grass and maple-trees contrasted with the darker shade of the pine ; red and white fruit blossoms peeped out from the thickets of copsewood ; birds of every hue hopped on the long overhanging branches, and from countless sweet wild flowers a delightful perfume was wafted on the gentle breeze. Turning suddenly round some rocky point the steamer occasionally passed the beautiful resi- dence of a planter, with its apple orchard and nicely mown lawn, and surrounded by fields of Indian com. A little further on and all was once more solitude. It is gloomy and cheerless to wander alone in these aged woods, deserted since the last of the Powhattans fled to their retreats in the west. No track can you find but that of the prowling wolf; no axe awakens the echoes of the groves ; not a tree has been hewn, not a branch lopped off" there ; the seed fell and took root ; the young plant grew tiU it became a hoar denizen of the forest ; »time withered its branches and decayed its trunk; a blast from the north laid it prostrate on the ground ; there it lay withering for ages ; other trees have grown up in its place, and in their turn fallen a sacrifice ; yet the settlers still let them alone, and there they stand, not much altered since Sir "Walter Ealeigh took posses- sion of the country in the name of the Virgin Queen. xi Of all the picturesque scenes which I witnessed in America, none remains so firmly impressed upon my memory as Harper's Ferry, where the clear limpid Sheuftudoah, from the upland wilds of YirgiHia, unitei Q 2 228 AMEBIOA AND TH£ AMSBIOAKS. H its waters with the Potomac. *^ The passage of the Poto- mac through the Blue Eidge," wrote President JeffersoD, "is, perhaps, one of the most stupendous scenes in nature. You stand on a very high point of land ; on your right comes up the Shenandoah, haying ranged along the foot of the mountain a hundred miles ^o seek a vent. On your left approaches the Potomac, in quest of a passage also ; in the moment of their junction, they rush together against the mountain, rend it asunder, and pass off into the sea." During my first visit to the United States, I sailed down the Ohio, irom Pittsburgh to Cincinnati, a dis- tance of nearly 500 miles. The scenery is picturesque, but monotonous. The hills wooded to their summits, the limestone bluffs covered with verdure, the flourish- iilg little towns, the fertile plains dotted with the white houses of settlers, the corn-fields, and orchards seemed to me so like each other, that I sometime^^ imagined the steamer's progress to be a delusion. Oc- casionally, however, the river expands so as to present the appeai*anoe of a lowland lake, and near the " Queen City of the West,'* the hills on the northern bank have by industrious Germans been planted after the Bhenish fashion with vines, which, having a good southern exposure and a genial climate, now yield a considerable quantity of wine. Hemp grows extensively in Kentucky, and every now and then you find power- loom factories for making from it bagging to bale the cotton. The sheds for drying tobacco are also prominent objects on the left bank of the stream. But let me now carry my reader in fancy to St. Louis, the com- mercial capital of the vast region lying between the Eocky Mountains and the Alleghanies, where last year I embarked in the high-pressure steamer, "Tishomingo," on the Mississippi. The Mississippi ! the very name must be reverently pronounced. The first sight of the mighty stream produces emotions similar to those felt at the Falls of Niagara. I liave no sympathy with men who can speak of it in disrespectful terms, af> TRB MIBBISBIPPI. 229 aPoto- fersoD, ues in id; on ranged seek 1 quest tnetion, end it [ Bailed a dis- iresque, immits, lourish- ith the trchards netimei^ a. Oc- present 'Queen muddy, tiresome, and uninteresting. Think of it^ course -—8000 miles — of its maintaining a uniform breadth of rather more than a mile through ten degrees of latitude, from the Belize to where the Missouri, clayey and dis- coloured, pollutes its transparent waves, of the destiny yet awaiting it when the forests shall hare fallen to make way for grain fields and cities, and millions of Anglo-Americans shall have fairly possessed the land. The individual who affects to ridicule the " Father of "Waters," must, to my mind, be destitute either of the capacity to appreciate sublimity, or of all interest in the advancement of his race. At the junction of the Mississippi with the Missouri, watching the struggle between the cleaif and the turbid currents, I felt as if in the presence of two powerful giants, whose majesty and influence demanded the homage of every living man. Thrice tolls the bell on the hurricane deck, the negroes " fire up" with energy, the mate hauls in the gangway, the pilot with eager vOye grasps the wheel, and the "Tishomingo" backs off from the levee, the temporary mail-boat for Louisville, the regular liner, "General Pike," having a few days before struck a snag, and gone down in three minutes afterwards. Now we swing round ; puff ! puff ! goes the steam alternately from the pipes, the paddle-wheels revolve, and running with the current. We soon leave St. Louis far behind. The night was stormy, and dark as pitch. The accuracy of the steering amazed me ; sometimes the foliage of the trees seemed impending over us ; once or twice she gently touched a sand-bar, and occasionally I caught a glimpse of a snag close to the vessel ; but in an hour or two I could not see two yards ahead, and yet on we went fuU speed as if on an open sea ! The bell ringing and the bumping on the ground prevented me sleeping very soundly. Next morning, when I got on deck, the steamer was landing cargo at Cape Gf^irardeau, 130 miled below the city we had left. There are no quays or piers on the western streams ; the boats go up bows 230 AMEBICA AT7D THE AMERICANS. I! ! into the soft mud banks — a plank is laid between the deck and the shore, and passengers scramble up and down the bluffs as they best can. How solemn and grand are the unbroken forests ! I sat for hours near the pilot's lofty house, gazing at them in their many- coloured autumn dress, and watching the majestic flow of the river. Our passengers seemed to b© chiefly youngsters farming in the west, prodigal of oaths, ac- coutred in all the vulgarity of Mississippian fashion, chewing tobacco without intermission, and using the entire deck as a spittoon. I got into conversation with an intelligent Spaniard from Cardenas in Cuba, who had been up the Missouri shooting deer, and with an ex- ceedingly excellent lady, who taught a school in Indiana, one of that meritorious class who disseminate through- out; the entire Union the principles of Christian truth, and are very guardian angels in many half-civilized dis- tricts of the west. After dinner the knives of the com- pany were brought out, and dandies in blue coats and patent leather boots coyimenced energetically to whittle. Twenty wooden shanties at the mouth of the Ohio con- stitute the famed city of Cairo ; and there, followed by flocks of turkey-buzzards and disturbing myriads of ducks the " Tishomingo" turned up that stream. "We had steamed as fast as possible, but darkness closed in before we reached the dreaded sand-bar at the mouth of the Cumberland, ten miles above Paducah, in Ken- tucky. Great detention had lately been experienced by the packets at this impediment to navigation, and all hands turned out on deck to see whether or not our lightly laden craft would be able to cross. A bend of the river all at once revealed to us one of the most strikingly picturesque scenes which it has been my good fortune to witness. There was the noble Ohio, clear, broad, and tranquil, flowing on peacefully, in the star- light, between solemn forests ; while, straight ahead, a galaxy of lights indicated the presence of several large steamers aground on the sand bar, and burning pitch pine torches to warn new comers of their position. r A BAVD-UAS. n the p and a. and I near nany- c flow jhiefly IB, ac- shion, g the 1 with , who an ex- diana, rough- truth, ;d dis- B cora- .ts and hittle. con- red by ids of We »sed in mouth Ken- ced by md all ot our end of e most y good , clear, e star- lead, a large pitch sition. i i **1 say, Horsefly," remarked our spare Indiana captain to the Kentucky pilot, some six feet six inches high, " that looks ay leetle bilious, don't it ?" " So I reckon," was the curt reply ; and the bell tolled for soundings. " Eight feet," sung out Jack with the lead line, in slow recitative tones ; " eight feet," echoed the mate, on the hurricane deck, to the steersman above ; " six feet large," was the next report, followed in ten seconds by " five feet scant." I had scarcely time to look at my neigh- bour, when "three feet," rung in my ears; and the " Tishomingo" ran slap on the bar, rolling and thump- ing as if her frail planks would part. "Go it again, Massa," shouted a merry negro from the " Eashion," a large boat lying near. For a minute we swung in the stream, then, backing oif, tried, but in vain, at another point, to the no small amusement of the coloured gentle- men on board the other steamers, who played tunes on fiddles, as they said, to help us over. The yawl was next launched, and a party sent out to discover the best place at which to " spar" the ship across the bank. This singular but safe and simple process is peculiar, as far as I know, to the Mississippian waters, and deserves a word of explanation. Attached to the lofty posts, which extend from the lower deck considerably higher than the hurricane deck of every steamer, near the bow are two stems of large trees, sharpened at the thicker extremity. These are swung round and fixed in the sand, immediately in front of the paddle-wheels. By means of ropes * id pulleys, the men, working at the capstan, press these beams into the bed of the river, and thus elevate the bows of the vessel, when the wheels are set in motion, and the ship, thus raised, slips over the sand bar. It necessitates severe exertion on the part of the seamen, and occupies a considerable time. Owing to the excessive darkness of the night, we were unsuc- cessful in our flirst attempt ; and our captain had, re- luctantly, to lie by till Sunday morning , the sparring was then resumed, and we were on the point of getting off, when the " Golden Gate," steaming down the river. 282 AMEBICA AND THE AMEBICANS. I • it ran into the " Tishomingo," and drove her fiurther than ever upon the bar. A third trial proved more fortunate, and at. eleven o'cloek, on one oi the lorelieftt Sabbal^ mornings I ever beheld, we were again under waj, rapidly advancing towards the Cave in the Bock and Shawnee Town in Illinois. On these clear, cold, au« tumnal nights, nothing can be more beautiful than the reflection of the stars in the Ohio. But that very night, an awful scene occurred on board our vessel. In con- sequence of the hard work which the men had had to perform on the bar, an extra allowance of spirits had been allowed them; and given out with very little dis- cretion as far as quantity was concerned. Some of the negroes, early in the evening, showed symptoms of in- toxication, and about elieven o'clock two of them quar- relled, or, to use the American expression, " had a dif- ficulty ;*' one seized a piece of coal and broke the nose of his adversary, then, alarmed at what he had done, having *' got scared," according to the account of the other deck hands, he ran aft and sprung overboard, sinking to rise no more before the engine could be stopped or any effort made to save him. Next day we reached Port* land, and drove, in rickety carriages, to LouisviUe, " the Falls City" and metropoHs of " Old Kentuck." One cold cheerless morning in October, at half-past three o'clock, I was roused from my bed in the Louis* ville Hotel, to take my place in the NashviUe stage, in which I intended to travel as far as the Mammoth Cave in Edmonston county, a distance of ninety-five miles. Nearly an hour was very uselessly spent in driving about town to pick up passengers ; nevertheless, day had not long dawned before we stopped for breakfast at the first changing place. An American stage is a clumsy vehicle, made to stand very hard usage, seldom washed, and seated for nine inside passengers, besides one on the box with the driver, who generally merely aecompanies his own team. Indeed, ten or fourteen miles of such roads as are common in the United States try the phy- sical powers of any charioteer. It requires no little 4- I 8TAGIK0 TS THE WEST. 288 )U1»* f i miueular exertion to ^de four spirited horses in such circumstances, with snaffle bridles, and at the same tiine to manage the drag. Sometimes the wheels for miles and miles sink deep in sand. Once I saw men actually ploughing the roa^ to make it better, and often the stones thrown down in order to improve it form more serious impediments than the holes themselves. When ladies are in the question, too, these coaches frequentlj carry many more than their complement, the gentlemen, in accordance with American custom, submitting to be squeeied into a comer rather than not act gallantly towards the fair sex. I recollect, in Georgia, passing over a few miles of the most awful tracks under the sun, in a stage of the dirtiest description, the mud and water frequently up to the axles, and the vehicle rolling about like a slup in a storm. Sometimes we all ex- pected an instant capsize; sometimes we ran slap against a tree; and at others the driver, seeking a smoother way through the wood, got his team entangled in the foliage. In central Illinois I was one night in a stage drawn by four well fed horses, and did not discover, until we had proceeded some miles, that the driver was drunk, and had been once or twice asleep in the course of an hour. "We were travelling over the open prairie, uncultivated and unfenced, and could see nothing but the stars* Then we entered a thick wood, and watered the animals on the banks of a creek over which the branches hung in festoons, the feeble twinkling of the celestial lumi- naries only rendering more striking the forest gloom. On another occasion, at La Salle in the same State, after an execrable dinner at a tavern kept by a rough un- washed gentleman rejoicing in the title of " Colonel" • Sardy, I " took my passage" in a kind of cart which traverses the track between that place and the Illinois rive*.', and crossing it, not in a boat, but on a raft, got into a railway truck filled with men, women, children, trunks, boxes of goods, &c. Ac, and was hauled up the steep and Idfby bluif by a stationary steam engine to meet the cars. But it was on the corduroy roads of 234i' AMERICA AND THE AMEBICANS. i Ohio that I became most intimately acquainted 'With stage trayelling in America. It is impossible to do justice by description to this primitive sort of locomo- tion ; one must experience before realizing the sensa- tions produced by such drives. We started from the inn door at Columbus, I well remember, at a hand gallop, wd I was congratulating myself on the prospect of a pleasant journey, when the coach as near as pos- sible capsized in a hole apparently unfathomable, and I found that the so-called road was a mere track cleared of trees, the stumps of which had been in some places removed, but not in all, and laid in boggy spots cross- ways with logs of wood, to prevent the vehicle disap- pearing under the soil. No pickaxe had ever been used in its construction ; not a ravine had been filled up ; not a protruding rock removed; no fence protected you from the precipice or the neighbouring wheat-field fro; you ; and instead of crossing rivers by means of bridg « we descended the steep bank with the assistance of the drag, plunged pell-mell into the stream, and urged the horses by unearthly shouts to scramble up the bluff on the opposite shore. Pour or five miles an hour is good travelling on the stage routes of America. But I have digressed. "We were on our way to the Mammoth Cave, and are crossing the Salt River in what a feUow-traveUer said was neither a bridge, nor a boat, nor a barge, but simply " a fixing,'* before traversing the barrens of Ken- tucky, a wild district lying between us and Bell's Tavern, which, after fording the Green Biver, we rea<;hed at midnight. The air was bitterly cold, and the foxes were barking in all directions around. A large wooden hotel, capable of accommodating 250 people, has been erected in a dense oak copse at the entrance to the far- famed cavern. To it I drove next morning through the woods, procured lamps, lunch, and a well-known guide, named Stephen. On entering the cave, he turned round and said, « This, sir, is the pla«e described by Virgil — ^you remember the passage — as the " facile des- THE MAMMOTH CAVE. 235 census Avemi." During our five hours and nine miles' walk in the bowels of the earth, he spoke both Latin and French, quoted from Greek, Spanish, and German authors, showed some knowledge both of botany and chemistry, and sung with remarkable taste and power. He is an excellent geologist, has read aU Sir Charles Lyell's books, and got into raptures when I told him I knew Hugh MiQer, whose " Old Bed Sandstone" he seemed to have by heart ; yet this man of uncommon parts and varied acquirements never received any edu- cation from the hands of another, and was then — you may be excused, gentle reader, for doubting my veracity — a negro slave. The Mammoth Cave has been explored for eighteen miles. It has 165 miles of avenues in all, forty-seven domes-, twenty-three pits, and eight cataracts. The Main Avenue is so regular and uniform as to resemble an English railway tunnel on a large scale, the limestone strata on its roof appearing like clouds in the darkness. Then there are the Kotunda, an apartment seated like a lecture-room ; the Church, with its pulpit and galleries ; the Gt)thic Chapel, where stalactites and stalagmites meet to form pillars ; Gorham's Dome, resembling the cupola of a vast cathedral ; the Bottomless Fit, an abyss 165 feet deep; the Valley of Humility, and the Eat Man's Misery, so low and narrow that you can scarcely creep along ; the Dead Sea, with waters so perfectly still that when you drop in a stone, their rippling and sighing are audible for ten minutes afterwards; the River St3rx, which travellers cross in a boat, and — ^not to mention many other wonders — ^the Star Chamber, so called from a number of white spots on its dark roof. When Stephen descended behind the rocks with the lamps, and cast a shadow over the ceiling, the illusion was perfect. I felt convinced that I was in the open air, looking from a deep glen up to a precipice, and viewing a dark cloud gradually obscuring the stars. Silent and sublime is that vast cavern. Wandering 286 AMEBIOA AKB THE AMBBICAKS. along its aisles and avenues you feel as if, like Moses in the clefts of Sinai, you might every moment see the glory pass hefore you. We now change the scene. It is a winter evening — far bn in Becember — but the climate to which I transport my readers is one where winter, in the English sense of the term, is unknown. The air feels balmy, a bright phosphorescent track lies in the wake of the vessel ; long-billed pelicans fly laeily arotind us \ we have come from the cocoa-nut groves and sugar-^ canes of Cuba, " Queen of the Antilles," and are stand- ing on the hurricane-deck of a steamer on the Gulf of Mexico, looking out anxiously ahead for the Belize light. Late at night its halo appeared in the horieon, and next morning early, when I got on deok^ the colour of the water had changed, the beautiful blue having giv^n place to the muddy tinge of the mighty Missis* sippi. A little cutter, making all sail towards us, soon gave us a pilot, and at breakfast-time we " slowed" over the bar at the entrance of the Pass Luter, one of the mouths of the great river. On entering, you see on both sides low marshes, evidently in process of con- solidation, drift timber lying in the open spaces of salt lake, between the sedges. Around these logs reeds gradually grow ; the stream in freshets washes down soil, and the seeds of plants, carried by birds and by the wind, complete ,the process. Thus the large deltti has been fonned, and thus it increases day by day. A few miles farther up, the river flows in one channel only, and the breadth of morass on each side is so trifling that you see the waves of the Q-ulf breaking almost within gun-shot of the steamer. The Mississippi looks like a mammoth canal, with trail, sedgy banks elevated above the tide-level of the ocean. Now the huts df fishermen begin to peep out of orange groves sparkling with splendid fruit. Dense woods succeed, and then, all the way up to New Orleans, you have a continuous row of sugar plantations, with large grinding and boiling mills, planters* houses, white negro-cottages, and cane- MONTQOMSHIC. 287 fieldB extending for baXf a mile back to tbe jskirta of the foreat. They have a cheerful, thriving appearance, and add much to the beauty of the landscape. So deep is the river that our large steamship sometimes, at bends, nearly touched the mud ou shore, and the impending foliage. AU the mills are driven by high-pressure steam-engines, and were in full operation. The banks are covered with the bruised cane, which cannot, in X40uisiana, as in Cuba, be used as fuel, owing to the dampness of the atmosphere. At five p.m. we swept round a point and beheld " thQ Crescent City," with its forests of masts, crowd of river steamers, and huge warehouses for cotton and sugar. New Orleans looks well from the Mississippi, but will disappoint the stranger ; and, walking in its back streets after rain, he will be at no loss to assign reasons for calling it " the City of the Plague." CHAPTER XXIII. View from the Capitol at Montgomery — The wooded plains of Alabama — Scenery of Georgia and the Oarolinas — The Forests in Antrtmn — Unprecedented rise of Western Cities — Cincinnati, St. Louia^ Buffalo, Detroit, and Chicago — The Prairies— The Anglo-Saxon iaya- sion of the Far West. Oua imaginary panoramic view shifts again, and we stand on one of the verandahs of the Capitol at Mont- gomery, the seat of government for the State of Alabama, situated on a lofty bluff, and commanding a magnifi- cent prospect of woods, apparently as boundless as the sea. Immense quantities of cotton grow on the rich bottom lands of this district ; on my way up from Mobile I met a great many steamers deeply laden with it. On the top of the banks I observed rude prebies for packing the cotton. Pifteen hundred pounds of aeed-cotton i^ the usual produce of an acre, and that quantity gives five hundied pounds, of picked cotton. They separate the seed from the down by means of gins, 288 AMEBIOA AND THE AMEBICA17S. the latter flying off like chaff, while the former is used for making oil. The bales, when ready for shipment, are without ceremony rolled down the mud-banks to the water's edge. Indian com flourishes luxuriantly in the rolling country further north ; but about one-third of Alabama remains in the possession of the United States Govern- ment, unsettled and wild, and there the live oak and laurel, the hickory and pine, the mulborry, chestnut, cedar, and cypress combine to form " The midwood shade Where scarce a sunbeam wanders through the gloom. " Betuming to the view from the Capitol, at our feet lay the new city, with its wide unpaved streets, where horses step up to their fetlocks in adhesive clay, its " dmnium gatheram" shops, brick stores in process of erection, white villas, large hotels, and ateepled churches ; the Alabama Eiver looked like a great silvery serpent as it wound through the plain, and, far as the eye could reach, on all hands waved an unbroken ocean of foliage. There is something solemnizing in this wild waste of woods. "Wandering in their recesses, the sunbeams, as it were, eclipsed, and the cold air penetrating my frame, I have been able to realize the truthfulness of Mont- gomery's beautiful lines — *' No breath from heaven refreshed the sultry gloom. The arching forest seemed one pillar'd tomb, Upright and tall the trees of ages grow. While all is loneliness and waste below." Europeans generally associate with the scenery of Georgia and tlie Carolinas groves redolent with the luscious perfumes of magnolia blossoms, glades of ever- green oak, and savannahs clothed with varied wild flowers. AH these do, now and then, cross the travel- ler's path ; but he will find far more commonly brush- wood copses, sandy barrens, dismal woods of pitch-pine, and morasses apparently imtenanted even by game. We shall, therefore, leave the south and transport ourselves THE F0BEST8 IN AUTUMN. 289 bfU' to Indiana, to see the autumn glory of its forests under an October sky. It is worth one's while to cross the Atlantic in order to enjoy the atmosphere of the Indian summer, when for weeks not a cloud appears in the horizon, and the rays of light are mellowed only by that . almost imperceptible haze which comes, we are told, from the red men smoking their pipes beyond the pas- ture-ground of the buffaloes. Between Indianapolis and the Ohio you now and then emerge from the forests into clearings which afford striking pictures of life in the backwoods of America, the stumps remaining in the ground quite close to the few log-huts and half-dozen frame-dwellings which constitute a settlement; while com grows under dead, upright trees, and dense woods all around shut out the rays of the morning and the evening sun. Gay and gorgeous is the foliage in the western States during the summer months; but who n describe the instantaneous and marvellously-beautiful cjif jct produced by the first severe frost in October. Eich as earth's drapery was before, now it appears as if bathed in the hues of the rainbow, as if in the hours of darkness the angels had descended from their pavements of sapphire and painted creation the colour of heavenly flowers. Never can I forget a journey through Indiana in the later fall, when every glade revealed to me brighter and more varied tints than I had ever seen before, to use the glowing words of Coleridge — ''Hanging woods that touched by autumn seem As they were blossoming hues of fire and gold." The oaks wore a mantle of dark crimson, the creep- ing-vines and underwood were dyed vermilion, the pop- lars were dressed out in yellow, the beeches robed in purple looked like Nature's kings, a delicate flame colour distinguished the rock maples, while the pine and the giant hemlocks stood aside in their sombre green, and above a sky of brilliant blue completed ^he gorgeous livery of the scene. Then, as the sun sank in the west, rays of crimson and gold seemed to set fire to the forest; ft pale lavender hue next prevailed in the heavens, till 240 AMXBICA AND THIS AMBBIOANS. the last streaks of light departed, and the night wind ushered in a clear cold moon. A few moments' consideration bestowed on the vn- precedentedly rapid rise of some new cities in the , north-western States may, perhaps, assist towards form* ing an idea of the wonderful energy which characterises the American people, and of the Tast resources of that country which the Almighty, for wise and momentous ends, has given them as an inheritance. In 1840, 1 stood on the brow of a hill half way down the Ohio, which fifty years before commanded a view over a wilderness of forest, unexplored even by the adyenturous huntsman wandering fm from the abodes of men. The smoke from a few scattered Indian wigwams was the only indic^on of inhabitants. The grassy banks of the rivers were covered with deer as yet unwarned by the rifle's sound. How different the view presented to me. True, woods of great extent still might be seen, but between me and the noble stream, in all the pride of regular architecture and great prosperity, lay Cincinnati, the " Queen City of the West," then containing !70,000 people, now doubled in population and size. Numerous church spires, amaze of crowded streets, great foundries for iron and brass^ cotton-mills, pork-curing establishments, and huge hotels, filled my mind with astonishment, and I had scarcely time to notice the many elegant villas scattered on the hill-sides and over the plain, or the fleet of high-pressure steamers moored to the wharf. ^ Three hundred and fifty miles as the crow flies, farther west, a short distance below the junction between the' Mississippi and the Missouri, stands St. Louis, the com- meredal capital of the western country. Its rows of lofty brick warehouses, extensive workshops, and ele- gant stores, will surprise any one who knows that at the commencement of the present century its foundations had not boon laid. Now, more than 100,000 people carry on within its municipality an active trade with all the I'egions watered by the Mississippi and its tribu- taries, 'ind though upwards of 1300 miles from the sea, "WESTERN CITIES. 241 wind i on- i the form* nises that Dtoua stood 1 fifty MIS of tismaii )from cation were K)und. woods 16 and ecture :)ityof mbled I maze brasS) otels, jely )n the assure irther the* cora- j)ws of Id ele- lat the lations )eople with I tribu- te sea, I counted fifty-three steamers lying at the levee, or broad^ roughly-payed embankment, which slopes down to the stream, and serves as a quay* The annual commerce of St. Louis, imports and exports included, does not fall much short of 100,000,000 dollars. I shall scarcely be beUeved when I state that at first sight it reminded me of Liverpool. So far back as 1848, it owned 24,000 tons of steamboats, and during that year, besides 815 flat boats, there arrived at the port steamers with a tonnage of 469,735. Every ward of the city has a spacious and well-aired market ; the new churches struck me as most expensive erections, and I sauntered into one coach- bmlding establishment which would not have disgraced the west-end of London. Then take Buffalo, well de- serving its appellation, " the Queen City of the Lakes.'* Main-street, mth its hotels, stores, shops, squares, and promenades, wiU bear a comparison with any street in America, though only forty years ago it had no exist- ence, and the quays on Lake Erie are so crowded with men and merchandize, that you can with difficulty walk. In 1814, this town was burnt to the ground by the British soldiery ; in 1850, it contained a population of 42,261. Detroit, 250 miles farther west, has of late years also advanced with extraordinary rapidity. Already it can boast of far finer shops than we have in many of our provincial towns, and having been laid out in avenues, squares, and. circuses, with remarkable taste and skill, promises to be the handsomest city in North Americaw Finally, I mention Chicago, which in 1831 was a mere trading-post, from which huntsmen sallied out to attack the buffaloes, and where the red-men disposed of their furs. Many Americans, even when I first visited the States in 1846, had never heard of it; iq 1854, I found it a city of 60,000 inhabitants, having 7627 dwellings, 1184 stores, 54 schools, 61 churche i, and 196 manufac- tories. Twenty years ago. Lake Michigan there rolled in upon a deserted, sandy beach, to which now and then a solitary trapper stole down to watch for an Indian B 242 AMEBICA AND THK AHEBIOANS. 1' canoe. Now not a day passes but steamers, i>ropeller8, and sailing craft enter a well-protected harbour ; three railroad lines have their termini in the suburbs ; the electric telegraph brings the news in a few hours from the Atlantic seaboard; splendid stone churches rear their steeples above the houses, and in the Tremont Hotel I sat down to dinner with three hundred travel- lers from all parts of the world. One omnibus company alone now employs seventy horses on a spot where, thirty years before, the red-man pitched his wigwam, and hunted the elk. If this be not progress, we shall search the universe for it in vain. Only one more panoramic view remains; it dis- ** The gardens of the Desert, The unshorn fields boundleM and beautiiul, ) For which the speech of England has no name, The Prairies." The boom of Niagara fills the stranger with awe ; so does the deep silence of these treeless, flowery plains. 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Bd., cloth gilt. f COUNT OF MONTE CHRiSTO. By Albiander Dumas; comprising the Chateau D' J f, v ith 20 lEiutraliona, drawn on wood by if, Valentin, and executed by tbu mort itmintoit English engravers. "'■ Monte ChriBto' Ib Dumas* best prodvi«:iUon,aTid thi^ v. > \ that will convey hii name to the remembiaace o^ future j.'iRciatior.f m ^ -nitt.v * In 2 vols. 8 V 0, rednc<; 1 to 1£!> Bd. cloth, emblematically gilt. " CABI.ETON'S TRAITS AND STORIES OP THE IBV oH PEA:. 4NTRY. A new Pictorial edition, with an Antobio. graphical Introduction, Explanfttory Note;;, and nuc.erous Illustrations on Wood and Steel, by I'hiz, ..tc. Thefottowing Tales and Sketches ate co , -iwi in this Edition:— 41 The DouKb, or tbe Horse Stealer!. Phil Purcel, the Pif; driver. Geography of an Irish Oath. Tbe LlaQham Shee. i^ji. Going to Maynootb. 'A Fhelim OTooIe's Clouitship. ' The Poor Scholar. Widffoose Lodge. Tubher Derg, or the Red WelU ,, Neal Malone. Ned M'Keown. The Tbvee Tasks. S! ,»ne Fadh's Wedding. -^ , ., Lmrv M'Farland's Wake. The Battle of the Factions. '' The Station. The Party Fight and Funeral. The Lough Derg Pilgrim. The Hedge School. The Midnight Mass. ALSO, A NEAV CHEAP BE-ISSUE. In 5 vols., fcap. 8vo, fancy boards, with new illastrations, 7s. Qd. ; or in cloth, extra gilt, with steel portrait, 10«. *' Unless another master band like Carletou's should appear, it is in his pages and bis alone, that future generations must look for the truest and fullest picture of the Irish peasantry who will ere long have passed away from tbe troubled land, and from the records of iiistoiy." — Edinburgh Seview, Oct. 1852. *• Truly— intensely Iri8h.'*—B/«cJhPoorf. ' - ■- ,^ In 1 vol. cloth extra, Price 2«. Bd. or 3«. gilt edges. KALOOLAH; or, Journeyings in the Djebel Kumri. A book of Romantic Adventure. Illustrated by four Beautifully Coloured Engravings. Fcap. Bvo. "The most singular and cnptivating narrative since Robinson Crusoe.">-J3bM« Jotamal. In cloth extra, Price 2s. 6d- gilt hack. FANNY, THE LITTLE MILLINER ; or, the Rich and the Poor. By Charles Rowcroft, author of " Tales of the Cok>- nles," &c. With 27 Illustrations by Phiz. Demy Svo. '' In One Volume, price 5s., f;loth gilt, GON CREGAN ; or. The Irish Gil Bias. With Thirty- eig^t Illustrations on wood, and Twenty-nine on steel, by Phiz. "JSiU book, for real fun and bunionr, exceeds any that we know of. It niut 1M itRptty written by Jjcver ; for none other than tbe nccompliBbed author of ' Charles O'Mtiley ' could powibly be the writer of such a book." ^k CHEAP EDITIONS OF WOEKS OF FICTION. 1 ; ^i Fiction.'] UNIFORM ILLUSTRATED EDITIONS OF MR. AINSWORTH'S WORKS. In 1 vol. demy 8vo, Price 6s., cloth, emblematically gilt. TOWER OF LONDON (The). By W. H. Ainsworth. With 40 Illustrations on Steel, and numerous Engravings on Wood by George Cruikshank. In 1 vol. demy 8vo, Price 6s., cloth gilt. CRICHTON, By W. H. Ainsworth. With Steel Illustra- tions, from designs by H. K. 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Surely no one ever hit upon a worthier hero of romance, not from the days of Apuleius to those of Le Sage or of Bulwer Lytton. Sometimes the scene and the very title of his romance have be«»ki some renowned structure, a palace, a prison, nice li'tle girls; elder sisters were soon found poring over the volumes ; next, mothct's wondered at the spell that could so enchain the more volatile spirits of the household. After this, papas were not very difficult to convert; for papas like to feel their eyes moisten sometimes with emotions more generous than those excited at the 'Stock Exchauge or in the counting-house.''— iVor^A Amtrican Review for January. ROUTLEDGE'S EDITIONS OF " UNCLE TOM'S CABIN." In One Vol., post 8vo, price Ss. 6d, cloth lettered. UNCLE TOM'S CABIN; or, Life amongst the Lowly. By Mrs. Stowe. With two Illustrations and a Preface ■written expressly for this edition, by the Earl of Carlisle. 14 CHEAP EDTTIONS C^; J'^ANDAllD WORKS. I ■ FieHon.'] /j la One Vol., post 8vo, price 3s. 61., cloth extnt, or i|s., cloth gilt edges. UNCLE TOM*S CABIN. By Mrs. Stowb. The Tllastratod Edition, with Engravings from designs by J. Gilbert, W. Harvey. &c.. and a Preface written expressly for this edition by the Eflrl of Carlisle. "This it a atirring and tliriJlin^ book— written on belialf of the poor ilavc. Its Sages are animated, vivid, (graphic, irenial, and Iminan. The dramatic skill is equal > the inventive genius. There is the stamp of original power in every pag;e. Pre- faces in general we abominate, but the preface of the Earl of Carlisle is so strikinaly unique, as to form a memorable exception. With the eloquence and rirbneni of a Ifaoaulay, it combines the high philanthropy of an Howsrd, the syr< pathetic hu- manity of a Wilberforce, the elegance of the most flnislied writer, raid i.he enlarged Tiews of the statesman. 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" With all the beauties of fiction it combines the more powerful attractions of truth." — Morning Chronicle. " It is worthy of the author's talent."— ifewwwer, "It is a new triumph for its author."— Diapa^cX. 17 TRAVELS, ETC. { STANDAED WORK ON TEXAS, NEW MEXICO, ETG*^ In Two Vols , Royal 8vo, price 30s., cloth extra. BARTLETTS PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF EXPLORA- TIONS AND INCIDENTS IN TEXAS, NEW MEXICO, CALI- FORNIA, &c. With Maps, and numerous Illustrations. " This valuable work is the result of an expedition undertaken by order of the American Govenuneut ; the author himself being the United Statet Commissioner, it may be relied upon as furnishing the most complete, best, and authentic M'ork on these interesting countries." " Mr. Bartlett, the United States Commissioner connected with the Mexican and United States Boundary, has here produced two extraordinary volumes, which will be the standard works of reference on those countries that are described. The illas- trations are numerous, and add to the beauty of the work." — Jthenteum. ~ CHEAP EDITIONS OF BOOKS OP TRA^ ; L. Travelt.} n /*•?"• Price As. boards, or fls. 6(1. cloth lettered. TURKEY. By the Roving Englishman ; being Sketches from Life, partly rsprintfld from " Household Words." *'This work fomii an admirable Compapion to the * Englishwoman* i Letter* fromRuuia;* and the following chapters have an especial interest at the present time, and will be read with (treat interest and advantage to all who either intend Tiiiting Turkey, or would like to become better acquainted with the East." Tlie Sultan. Tht Pasha, Manners of the Turks, The Sea Cnptain, Army Interpreters, A Turkish Bayal, A Turkish House, Greek Waters, Greek Tricks, Consuhir Freaks, A Pasha's Paradise, A Turkish Bath, The Sultan's New Palaee» A Son of the Desert, Beform in Turkey, and Hints to Travellers going to Turkey. Price Is. 6i. boarJs, or 2s. cloth lettered. HE LAG A; ok, England in the New World. Edited by the late Eliot Warburton, Author of the " Crescent and the Cross." Fifth Edition revised to the present time. "The author has rightly judged that the picture of a people is best given by Sketches of Daily Life of the humour, the poetry, and the passions that characterize them. The work, whatever else it may be, is work ; it contains no hastily -written, crude impressions, but the deeply-testea convictions of an earnestly inquiring mind." —Frrfaee. Price Is. in boards, or Is. 6d. cloth. TRANSATLANTIC WANDERINGS ; gb, a Last Look AT THE United States. By Capt. Oldmixok, Author of "From Piccadilly to Pera." "A most amusing work, andwUl give the reader a better idea of the American peo- ple than niiiny books that have a great deal more pretension, without the sterling common sense, that so distini;uishes this volume." Price Is. 6d. in boards, or 2s., in cloth lettered. THE CITY OF THE SULTAN. By MISS PAKDOE, A New EditioB, with an Illustration. " 'The City of the Sultan ' is a charmine book, giving ns a picture of domestic life in Turkey which we might elsewhere search for in vain. It possesses an established fame ; and whoever wishes to become acquaiuted with the manners and customs of Turkey, cannot do better than study Miss Pardee's work. We are not surprised at the extraordinary success of this work, the sale, as we learn from the preface, having been upwards of 30,000 copies." In One Vol., Is. 6d. boards, or 2s., cloth lettered. RS. STOWE'S SUNNY MEMORIES OF FOREIGN LANDS. The unabridged Edition. With Two UluBtrations. " The rapidly-increaaiiig sale and growing popularity of this charming work, fully sustains the world-wide reputation of the authoress of ' Uncle Tom's CaBin.' " Be careful in ordering to ipecify Boutiedge'a TJnabndged Edition. M 16 CHEAP EDITIONS OF BOOKS OF TRAVEL. Travels.'} iv>ik Fourth Edition. In post 8v6, price 65., cloth lettered. TUKKEY. RUSSIA, BLACK SEA, and CIRCASSlA;^ By Capt. Spenceb. Containing many Illustrations, including Views of Odessa, Sebastopol, Varna, WidJin, &c., and four portraits in Colours of the Sultan, the Czar, Schamyl, and a Circassian Lady. With a Map of the Seat of War. "This work is full of iuformation. Captain Spencer has travelled in and ont, round, and through the Turkish empire. He speaks the language of the country, and enters with love into the feelings of the people. A safer guide it would be difficult to find." — Athenteum. " This volume is the best published for general and complete information, and we most cordially recommend it to the nctice of all." — The Britannia. M ew Edition, in 1 vol., Is. 6d. boards, or 23. cloth lettered. >#., FRANKLIN (SiE John) AND THE ARCTIC REGIONS. Being an Account of the various Expeditions sent for, and includingj; the Discovery of the North- West Passage, with more detailed particulars of those sent out to Discover the Fate of Sir John Franklin, and the ' vessels under his command. By P. L. Simmonds. With an Illustra- tion. A New Edition, containing the discoveiy of the North-west Passage. 1-,- • '* A clear nnd well-written analysis of the events connected with the expedition to the Arctic Regions; and the interest that attaches to the bold and enterprising explorer who has given his name to the title, will be even enhanced by a more iuti- mute acquaintance with the dangers and difficulties surmounted." ••!' i In One Volume, Price Is. fancy boards, or Is. 6d., cloth lettered, -jl/jTONT BLANC and BACK. By Waltee White. •* The author tells his story in a pleasant manner, and shows bow you may go. cheaply and agreeably to work. All tourists should get it." — Weekly News. "A very pleasant guide to the niHgniftcent scenery of the Rhine, the wonders of Switzerland, and the giant ice-crowned King of Mountains, of late rendered familuir to all ; it ought to find its way into the hand of evesy person about to visit the scenes described in its pages." — Bell's Messenger. In 2 vols. Price 21s. cloth lettered. "t iS RECORDS OF A RUN THROUGH CONTINENTAL COUNTRIES, embracing Belgiuai, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Savoy, and France. By James Gka^jt, Author of " Random Recollections of the Lords and Commons," &c. " This book can be read with pleasure and profit by all classes." — Observer. " Those desirous of obtaining a clear and concise account of what is to be met ' with abroad, cannot du better than purchase these volumes." — Sun. , « T k 'i4if>»fim eluding ^ raits in With^ ind out, country, rould be , and we [ONS. eluding ticulani ^ tnd the *;, Uustra- ge. : lition to Tprisinjg- oreiuti- HITE. may ga. iders of . 'amiliar > Bcefle». ITAL rland, ctions )emel;'" T ' ATURAL HISTORY, SPORTING, OR AGRICULTURAL WORKS. 17 t isravels.} • In I yol. Price As. limp cloth. T^OUTLEDGE'S AMERICAN HAND BOOK and JAf Tourists* Guide through the United States, containiDg Descriptions oi thl| Principal Cities and Towns, the different Routes, with Advice to Emi- gr^ts and Mechanics. With an accurate Map. *^, Contains all that a reasonable traveller can desire."— ^/{m. "Is one of the best arranged little works of the kind we have met with."—* NATURAL HISTORY* SPORTING, AND AGRICULTURAL. ^^vi;^4^.' Now ready, Price 8^. ^d.^ cloth, or 9*. gilt edges, A NATURAL HISTORY, by Rev. J. G. Wood, Illustrated J\. with upwaids of 450 Engravings from designs by William Harvey » The booli is printed on tinted paper, and its principal features are : — Ist. Its Accuracy. 2nd. Its Systematic Arrangement. 3rd. Illustrations executed expressly for the work. And 4th. New and Authentic Anecdotes. The Fiftk Thousand is now ready. " One of the most recent and best of Messrs. Boutledge's publications." -Ttm^j.. "This is a delightful book for hoyi."-^Leader. " Contains a great uuniber of spirited and well executed woodcuts, and is a book that both parents aud children may look over with pleasure aud eiUhcatiou." — Sngliah Ckurchmcm. COMPANION TO WHITE'S SELBORNE. J ■ H In One Volume, price 9s., clotli, or 5s. 6d. gilt edges, A TOUR ROUND MY GARDEN. By Alphonse K.KBtL Revised and Edited by the Kev. J. G. Wood. With 117 llJustrations from designs by W. Harvey, &c. Beautifully printed on tinted paper, emblematically gilt. "'A Tour Round my Garden' is, in short, a perfect medley, including anecdotes, jetix d'esprit, and burlesque ir'eiitiong a la Karr, such as could [iroceed from none but the whimsical editor of the ' Gu^pes.' We laugli at some of the lecters, ut others we could almost cry. Rotd, lor icitance, 'Un board a Swiss steamboat, ' aud say if it does not — althou(;h no imitation— smuck of the quaint tenderness and graceful fancy of Laurence :ste4'ne ; see, two chapters later, how many interesting things are suggested to the author by an old wall, aud how well he says them. To us who have almost as great a fuible for flowers as M. Karr himself, the pages of his ' Tour round my Garden ' offer most attractive passages. His rambling digressions prevent the least monotony. He wanders hither aud thither with cr wittiout pretext. A mag- nolia tHk.:s him to China, a caprice carries him to Peru, thence he steps across to tUc^ Brmils." — Blackwood's Magazine, J uly 1852. ill i 19 CHEAP EDITIONS OF NATURAL HISTOEY, Natural History, dtc.'] UNIFORM WITH « WOOD'S NATURAL HISTORY." Price 5«. cloth, or 5s. 6d. gilt edges, WHITE'S NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. ji new edition. Edited by the Rev. J. G. Wood, and illustrated mh. upwards of 200 Illustrations by W. Harvey. Printed on tinted paper. j "A very superior edition o£ this most popular work." I "Is a pleasant looking volume liberally illustrated with excellent pictures 'pC nearly every animal or tree therein meutiontd."— Examiner. "The notes are explanatory and sin;ple, all original, and in correction of sone fallacies which White fell into from the imperfect state of natural history in uis time."_Gfe6ff. " It is a hook very emphatically to be recommended."— Learftf*". "The notes are numerous, and contain mauy curious facts and illustrations in addition to White's statements, written in an agreeable manner."— Gxaritan. 1,. .'■(' In Cn3 Vtlime, price Si., cloth lettered. TJ^OREST LIFE: A Fisheeman's Sketches op Noeway Jl and Sweden. By the Rev. Henky Newland, Author ♦£ " The Erne and its Legends and its Fly-fishing." With Eight large Illustra- tions. Post 8vo, cloth, emblematically gilt. " The author's motive in the above work is to convey as much real infornntion on the subjects treated on as he could conipuss : his descriptions are, therefore, real descriptions, his anecdotes real anecdotes. The incidents of the story did actually happen. His instructions in the art of fly-flshing, and the hydrography of the river, are the results of his own experience, aud the fairy legends are his own collec- MoxM."— Extract from Preface. :\ f :•» . ■■;.• M-j; j , In One Vol., price lOs.iSd. in cloth gilt. TLLUSTRATED BOOK OF DOMESTIC POULTRY. X Edited by Maetin Doyle. "With Twenty Il^'ustrations, from designs by Weigall. Printed in Colours. This work also includes the treatment of Turkeys, Geese, Ducks, Guinea Powl,&c., and to show the practical nature of the work, the following; contents are given : The History of the Orij;:^ of Domestic Poultry. The Process of Incubation and Progressive States of the Egg. The Selection of Stock for Bre oding. Methods of Hatching, Rearing, and Feeding Chickens. The Egyptian Artificial Mode of Hatching, and our Modern Experiments. The best Modes of Peeding, and the Result of Experiments with various kinds of Grain. Places for Poultry-houses, their Position, and the proper way of Hoosing , Poultry. t'.y Methods of Fattening and Caponizing. The Organs of Digestion explained, and the Diseases tc which Poultry are liable, with Advice for their Treatment, as well ao for Accidental Injury. " To all poultry keepers this book will be invaluable, as it will save ^hem in time : its price every year. It is the most useful, practical, and complete book that ha8<. ever been issued on domestic poultry." 91 '-,] ,"T' f . SPORTING, AND AGRICULTURAL WORKS. 19 'nly ones which a good French workman will look at, and that they differ widely from those known ai. home." ■■i-'f »v«^* .'(> , '\*-'Mit ON. ■tiiK TS OF Propajca- c. With ilmon and )bservtr. . on this uthor of Illustra- tion of the ► AND itions. and proftt- the rabbit Poultry lumerous Edition, Latter, by ral one for ly, has un- on agricttl- a practical ch at once luainess of mlation. Rabbita." before the ied by coq- lax, as here r utility, no h workmaa CHEAP EDITIONS OF BOOKS FOR THE COUNTRY. 21 Agricultural^ dcJ] ' // BOOEB FOB THE GOUNTBT. In Fcap. and square Crown 8yo, with nomeroas lllnstrations, and Fancy Wrappers, ONE SHILLING EACH. ** Railroads, steamboats, and other rapid conveyances, which have added so largely to tirban populations, have, at the same time, afforded the means to a namerous body, whose industry is carried forward in town, of seeking for ks.clth and amusement M rural pursuits. Such now work in crowded cities, and live in ouiet country houses. The once limited population of convenient villages is thus dounlcd and quadrupled. The families of the merchant and the professional man now inhabit the same hamlet, once inaccessible, where the country gentleman, the clergyman, and the farmer, have customarily dwelt. It is to this numerous class, always moving from business to recreation, as well as to the settled country residents, that we address the small series, entitled Books for the Country." Contents of the Series : — I. THE POULTRY YARD; comprising the general treat- ment and Management of aU kin 'Is of Fowls; including the Cochin China and all late varieties. n. THE SHEEP; our Domes- tic Breeds and their Treat- ment. By W. C. L. Mabtik. m. THE PIG ; its general Ma- nagement and Treatment. By W. C. L. Mabtin. IV. CATTLE; their History and Various Breeds. To which is added, the DAIRY. By W. C. L. Mabtik. V. CATTLE ; tlieir Manage- ment, Treatment, and Diseases. By W. C. L. Mabtin. VI. THE HORSE : its History, Management, and treatment. By V^ILLIAM YOUATT. vn. BEES ; their Habits, Ma- nagement, and Treatment. By the Rev. J. G. Wood. VIII. CAGE AND SINGING BIRDS: How to Catch, Keep, Breed, and Rear them. By H. G. Adams, with many Illustrations. IX. PIGEONS AND RABBITS; In their Wild, Domestic, and Captive State. Illustrated hy Weir, ANGLING: How to Angle, AND Whebe to Go, By R. Blakey. -;-j3,*.. XI. SHOOTING: A Manual of Pbactical Infobmation. By R. Blakey. With Illustrations by Weir. XII. • FLAX AND HEMP. By E. S. Dei-amebe. With Illus- trations. xm. O MALL FARMS ; a Prac- O tical Treatise, or, How they may be Profitably Managed. By Mabtin Doyle. 2S CHEAP EDITIONS OF STANDARD USEFUL WORKS. Miscellaneous."] MISCELLANEOUS LITERATURE. NEW ILLUSTRATED EDITION.— lu 4 vols., Price 14*., or boun'dltt Two, for lAs. 6d. HALF HOURS WITH THE BEST AUTHORS. By Charles Kkioht. With Critical and Biographical Notices. A new edition, with steel Portraits, and 52 lUustrations by W. Harvey. -'j • ' " The new edition, printed in crown 8ro, of this most popular work, is admirablj Muted for a present. It is well printed and embellished with illustrations." In these " Half Hours v ''U\ the Best Authors" will be found a complete treasury of knowledge and amusemeut, containing as they do Biographical Notices and Extracts from the best works of upwards or three hundred of our Standard En^h Authors They are so arranged that they form half an hour's reading for every day in the year, and there is not another w^,'rk in the English language so well calculated to induce a taste for reading. iQive a man this taste and the means of gratifying it, and you can hardly fail of mtddng him a happy one. You at once olace him m contact with the wisest, the wittiest, — with the tenderest, bravest, and ihe purest characters that have adorned humanity. You make him a denizen of all nations, a contemporary of all ages. It cannot, in short, be better summed up than in the words of the poet, — " It civilizes the conduct of men, and suffers them not to remain bai;barous." The plan adopted is to confine the selection, whether in Poetry or Prose, — ^whd;her Essays, Characters, Stories ; Descriptive, Narrative, or Dramatic Verse ; Bemarkable Adventures, or Moral and ReUgious Exhortations, — to pteces of -sufflcient length to occupy half an h(mr's ordinary reading, or to pieces which can be so connected as to Supply the same amount of instruction and amusement. The larger extracts are selected from about two hundred and sixty different writers, and the smaller, which are grouped under some general head, selected from about forty writers. The work also contains steel portraits of Spenser, Jeremy Taylor, Lord Bacon, Johnson, Milton, Barrow, Pope, Defoe, Sir W. Scott, Lord Byron, Cowper, Wordsworth, Dryden, Swift, Addison, Franklin. H la 2 vols., 8vo, price IO3., clotli lettered, "' ALF HOURS WITH THE BEST AUTHORS; with Critical and Biographical Notices. By Charlss Knight. 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