El « IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) // {./ 1.0 I.I 11.25 1^12.8 ■Uuu U 11.6 6" V] <^ ./J % Ji' / '^^J- '/ /A Photographic Sciences Corporation ?•? WE?' wa;m street WEBSViiti J4.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 V .^\^ :1>^ \ :\ ^elure, I * J )2X 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 3^ Mem6ir8 qfLprd Bolingbroke, .^^^ [9«pt: in !^lr. Cooke ; and we are induced, by the present Qircjumstances of the world, to set so high a vaUie on rectitude of principle, that we heartily wish that we could, with truth, have said sqnie- thing in praise of Mr. Cooke as a sagacious and trustworthy his- torian. The work is framed on a plan so fundamentally defective, and on so false (as we think) a conception of the subject, that it would be idle to waste more time upon \t, or to make it the groundwork of any general observations on Bolingbroke 9^^d^ \^\» times. ,„;.;. [,^ The review of an imperfect aid desultory book can hardly avoid Being itself imperfect and desultory. We wish our task had been to lay before our readers a summary view of the conduct and cha^ racter of a man so super-eminent as a statesman and as a writer — to have developed the real causes of his political versatility and his intellectual obliquity — and to have endeavoured to reduce, to some systematic calculation, the erratic course of this mora/ come/ ; but Mr. Cooke's hasty and heavy production affords no materials for such an investigation, and our duty, in this instance, has necessarily been liinited to an indication of the deticiency of our present data, and to a suggestion of the sources from which it may be remedied by future inquirers. AnT. V. — 1. The Rambler in North America; 1832-3. By ..Charles Joseph Latrobe. London. 2 vols. 12nio. 1835. 2. A Residence and Tour in the United StateSj with particular pbservations on the Condition of the Blacks in that Country. By E. S. Abdy, A.M. London. 3 vols. 12mo. 1835. 3^ Miscellanies. By the Author of * The Sketch- Book.' No. f. Containing a Tour on the Prairies. 1 vol. 12mo. London. ■*,1835. ^ ^ ,,,li 4. Narrative of a Visit to the American Churches, by a Deputa- tion from the Congregational Union of England and Wales. By Andrew Reed, D.D., and James Matheson, I).Pt,, JUou: .don. 2 vols. 8vo. 1835. ,-,,<. 'T^HE rapidity with which books of travels in North America -*• have of late been following each other from the Loudon press, while it amply illustrates the general interest of the subject, must, at the same time, serve as our apology for dismissing with com- parative brevity the individual author who, had he come before the public a few years ago, might have been well entitled to occupy a considerable space in these pages. The journals of Messrs. Latrobe and Abdy, in particular, are deserving of far more attention than we can now nope to besto\y on them : they are the works of able observers, and vigorous writers. The * Nar* rative ' t895.] T&uni ih Ameridalhy Latrohc, Ahdy, Sjrc, 39S rative' of Doctors Reed and Matheson, however inferior to these productions, especially to Mr. Latrobe's, in a literary point of view, contains not a few descriptive episodes which, had we roou(i to extract them, would gratify all our readers ; while for a con- siderable section of the community the peculiar objects of their excursion, and the peculiar tinge of their thought and expression, will no doubt have a prevailing charm. Mr. Washington Irving, as an English classic, and we believe (except Dr. Channing) the only living classic of the United States, is not to be passed over in silence, even when what he puts forth may happen to be of slender bulk and pretension. We look forward, with unabated curiosity and hope, to some portraiture of his general impressions on revisiting, after an absence of seventeen years, the land of his birth, his dearest Connexions, and his earliest distinction ; and in the mean time accept with cheerfulness his very lively little account of an excur- sion to :he Prairies of the far West, in which he was accompanied by our own accomplished countryman, Mr. Latrobe. Our object on the present occasion is not to enter into any minute analysis of these various volumes — but to record, in the first place, our opi- nion that they all deserve to find a place in the library ; and, secondly, to mark for the special attention of our readers some of those facts and incidents, among the multitudes accumulated by these authors, which have struck ourselves as really valuable additions to the general stock of information. We shall begin with the book which is likely to detain us the shortest while, though it is far the bulkiest of those on our table — 'that of the Congregational Delegates, Drs. Reed and Ma* theson. The professed object of their journey was to collect ac- ciurate information touching the internal condition of the * Ortho- dox Independent Churches' in the United States ; and we perceive that, on the whole, they have derived satisfaction from their inqui- ries. It is, however, very difficult not to suspect that there wa^ another object which these worthy dissenters had at least as much at heart as that blazoned in their preface ; namely, to help the avowed advocates of * the Voluntary System/ in their present warfare against the principle of a religious establishment. Bi^t if this suspicion be well-founded, we cannot congratulate the allied doctors on the result of their labours. It is obvious that these excellent persons were welcomed, lodged, and fed, wherever they armed, by individuals of their own religious sect, — with few excep- tions, by their brethren of the Independent Ministry ; and that their journal throws no more light on the general stale of America, in a religious point of view^ than might be expected in the casfe of our own country, from the travels of a couple of AmeriCai^ teachers of the like condition and persuaiioo, who should hav^ 2 D 2 spent I 5^4 nursXA ^kmMd:lfhfSlffUI^-Ah^^ ^ [Stptl iHnf,X!<^«f.'r-p-the gqver^pr, tind the governed — in brief, the decay of loyal feeling in all the relations of of liff^WOisthe i::jrst ngn of the times. Who shall say but thj^t. if these bonds are distorted and set aside, tlie first and the greatest— t wbick Jbinds us in subjection to the law of God— tySll not also bd weak- ened, if not broken? This, and this alone, shbrt-rf^hted us lam- ^yduld causfe me to pause in predicting the future grandeur of Amerida uhdef its present system of government and structure of society ; and if my observation was sufficiently general to be just^ yo^ will jdstf grant, there is that which should make a man hesitate whether thosd glowing expectations for the future, in which else we might all in* dulge, are compatible with growing looseness of religious^ poiiticai, and social principle. Besides, the religious man might be inclined to go farther, and ask what is the prospect of the people in general with regard to their maintenance of pure doctrine, and fitting forms of relit gion — whether* emancipated as they are from the wing of a national cuuECH, andyet seemingly becoming more and more impatient of iuIq and direction in religious matters, the mass of the people do not run the danger of falling either into cold infidelity, or burning fanaticism V -T-lCatrc^, vol. ii. p. 135. The influence exerted by the Church of England upon the dis- senting bodies in her own country and neighbourhood is one of those many circumstances connected with her establishment, >vhich> if that establishment be overthrown, posterity will learn to appreciate. We may be mistaken — but we cannot but trace to the absence of such an influence even the melancholy fact con- fessed by Dr. Reed, that 'a very considerable portion' of the American Quakers have lapsed into ' fatal heresy — amounting almost ti Deism.* — Narrative, vol. i. p. 80. ;j„, Tlie Congregational Delegates who, we need not hint, were well prepared to admire most of the external features of the re- publican system, appear to have been especially gratified with their visit to General Jackson. ''.^^ The President is tall ; full six feet in height. He stoops now, and is evidently feeble. The thermometer was at 72°, but he was near a strong fire. He is sixty-eight years of age. He is soldierlike and gentlemanly in his carriage ; his manners were courteous and simple, and put us immediately at ease with him When we arrived, the entrance doors were open ; and on being conducted, by a single iservant, to what we thought an ante-room, we found the general him- self waiting to receive us. We were soon led into the dining-room. The table .was laid only for six persons ; and it was meant to show lis respect by receiving us alone. [Qu. ?] Mr. Post, whom the Pre- sident ^regards as his minister, was requested to implore a blessing. Four men Vere ih attendance, and attended well. Everything was good and sufficient ; nothing dvercharged. It vras a moderate and elegant repast. ' ^^-'M -=».' .nr. ti^ w.r.yiiafeuoi -"^i.' c.ii •.<, ^f. ■-!/,■ 'xH ' The Presiddntf^latli^ iilftettfts'mi'pllbllcivb^shfiJftt Mr. PoitX when ht is well, [»] On ihefdllM^)ijAviy\>£aew*#^'i4%i^iK' TSefit; biiv«< tio xvish tb dispai'tfge^^bilt ivith ivhotfe prietblenit fidelities *'dtt inanyimpo'ftant swbj«<^ We' cahnot pretend to sympathiM/ He appears^to be'h v«ry>youtig gentleman; who^ shortly after takMgtu^ de^reeof BiA. al Gambridge, fell into a feeble condition of hiealth, and his physicians advising him to travel for a few months, preferred a tour m America to the more beaten highways of the European cohtinefit; his choice, however, being chiefly determined, not by the expectation of comparatively novel scenery and manners, but by a fervent desire to examine for himself the unhappy condition of the coloured population in the United States, and contribbte, if possible, to their relief. All must honour this motive ; and every candid critic will admit that Mr. Abdy'*s Journal does him considerable credit in a literary point of view. It is written in a plain unaffected style, wholly free from the foppish tinsel of motK: sentimentality which so many flourishing prosers of this generation have borrowed from the Rosa-Matilda sonneteers of the last, and from that pompous grandiloquence which has been in eter^ age the favourite disguise of half-conscious imbecility. But — whether from the depressing influence of physical malady, or from the chilling and constraining one of that school of politics to which Mr. Abdy has pledged his allegiance — his narrative appears to want that charm of generous freedom which so often atones fof the wc • 'efects of a youthful observer of mankind. His tone of thoi ^ has not a little of the stilted pretension which is hap-^ pily absent from his style ; he lectures us, ex cathedrdf where it i^ obvious he has more to learn than to teach; and, both when be' praises and when he condemns America, often enough betravs the fact that his personal acquuintance with the institutions ana ens'- toms of his own country has been but limited and partial;) iM^ Abdy, in short, is one of that sect of juvenile philosophefi viMi have of late years forced themselves on general attenti6n M raither too soon emancipated from the old obstructions of modesty : a self-^satisfied race, with hearts cooler than their heads; lapttO' mis- take solemnity of manner for dignity of mind ; who have dethroned passion only to instal conceit, and ceased to he amiable withoat attaining to bommand respect; inexperienced dogmatizers^ graver without caution, and calm without candour. ' To this school Mr. Abdy belongs, and he is of course prbud of belonging to it ; but we by no means wish to insinuate, that we consider him as hopelessly far gone in its heresies: Oti th^''con- trary, feelings which his sect condemns do occasionally htedk/out in his pages, to the great relief and comfort of his reader ; *and we trust the world will recognise' these still more ^largely in the maturer prodnrtions of his pi^h. ' '' ;>» u .i,<) .iM d m n'^t.pjr. * jit may be rather Unfortunate for Mr, Abdy thiit Mdrvehm^ 1 9So'^] Totu-f^inMmetief^^ky^LiUf^b^Hbdtfr^^^ 99»' peaed Id be ipubli^lieid before tlusfJounB»W'|^e stiU he has iifdded something of valuable information,-<^and the/ shape and manner of his performance may, and indeed should^ giveibiin the advantage as a solid and permanent authority on this subjecf, over his more imaginative predecessor. ,rii:/[o oJ aneob imn-)) « ^d He oonHrms, in the first place, — and b^ it observed his JoufmlL must have been in the hands of the printer long before Marit reached England, — every one of those statements in the French- Tableau which had most startled ourselves in its perusal. Mr^ Abdy^ for example, assures us that he saw condemned to receivie; their education in a school to which no Anglo-American would send any of his children, young persons of mixed descent, in whose: appearance no trace of African blood could be detected,-^-' boys who had no signs of the Pariah caste about them, — of faireom^ plexion, with light silky hair.' — (vol. i. p. 7-) He also illustrates^i by some very striking instances, which had fallen under his owh, observatiou, all that M. Beaumont told us concerning the deter-^ mined tyranny of white churchwardens in refusing to admit even the wealtliiest and most respectable free citizens of mixed descent to occupy pews in the same part of the building with the Christian Brahmins of the New World. The case of Mr. Brinsley, a wealtbyt mulatto of the best possible character, is one of these. This man^ came into possession of a pew in a Baptist meeting-house of civir; lized Boston, as part of the property of a debtor,— but on thet m^i^ing after the Sunday on which he and his family first appeared th«re be received this missive : — iju.ij io uiq ti ^l^oa^ ai ,\luih *iTo Mr;tfVederick Brinsley, coloured num.. Elm Street;-— ' ^c< yn>i\ - '" *♦• Boston, March », 1830. *J ^^1Sm,Uf^The Prudential Committee of Park-Street Church noUiff. you not to occupy any pew on the lo»ver floor of Park-Street M^etingn-} bouseron aoy Sabbath, or on any other day^ during the timeof Diviset worship, after thi» date-rr-and, if you go there with such intent, you will hazard the consequences. The pews i^n the.i^ppw igftlilfWRiRr*^ «u«\¥-«?fwp^.:.; •• :,ri !,;^ ^ ,.t; ^' '/, i ,.(•,» v''^ '>;i; o/.^Kih .h;iini.j,i oj ifJ." George Odiobnb. for the Comimtte?.',;] ',^ ' * Mr. Btinsleyv on going- again, found a constable at the pew-doov,' No, further attempt was made to assert the rights of ^^roperty against? such a; formidable, coml^ination; and we may seek in vain for the con^ sequences, which Mr. Odiorne, with QpSv'qialhfftvity.says wquld ba.y«i bpwjh^zftr^d;l)y,anp^tVBr v^il tq,^e,Ji9W?p,,of Crod.'r— 4Wy'« Journal^ y54nirPP- 13*. 135. Mr. 400 TmiH in Ammoa, hy Latrobe, Abdy, ^t. [Sept. Mr, Abdy mentions that even the Quakers, though their own laws expressly forbid any attention to difference of colour, uni- versally insittt on the coloured * brethren ' sitting in a separate port of the meeting-house ; and he adds, that in the burying-places the whites lie eaut and we§t, the black and brown Christiana north and iouih J But of all the horrid details collected by Mr. Abdy, the following story is the most shocking : — * 1 was once asked, with a sarcastic smile, by an American lady of Hibernian descent, if I had met with any inlereUing blacks in the course of my tour? The winter I passed in New York furnished what this woman, with all her contempt for a race more persecuted and less fortunate than that from which she herself sprang, would acknow* ledge to be most painfully interesting. During the frost, some ice, on which several boys were skating, in the outskirts of the city, gave way, and several of them were drowned. During the confusion and terror occasioned by this accident, a coloured boy, whose courage and hardihood were well known, was called upon to render assistance. He immediately threw himself into the water, with his skates on, and suc- ceeded in saving two lads ; but, while exerting himself to rescue a third, he was drawn under the ice, and unable to extricate himself. No one would risk his life fur him. Soon after, the details of this melancholy event appeared in one of the newspapers (the New- York American), with an offer to receive subscriptions for the mother, who was left, with a sick husband an.d a young family, deprived of the sup- port which she had derived from her son's industry. As reference was made to a medical man in Park Place, I called upon him, and re- ceived a very favourable account both of the boy aiid his poor mother, who was employed to wash for him. I immediately proceeded to her Louse, and found that she had three children left ; the eldest about ten years of age, and the youngest an infant at the breast. In addition to these, she had undertaken the care of a little girl, five years old, the daughter of a deceased friend, whose husband had deserted his child, and refused to pay anything towards its support. " I consider her as my child," said the generous woman ; " and while I have a crust left she shall share it with my children." I made inquiries about the boy she had just lost, and was told, what I had heard in Park Place, that his conduct had always been most exemplary — that he had carried to her every cent he could save from his earnings, and had often ex- pressed a wish that he might obtain sufficient to save her from work- ing so hard, her business sometimes keeping her up nearly all night. * I had frequent opportunities of meeting Mrs. Peterson ; and my respect for her character increased with my acquaintance. When I settled a little account I had with her for washing and other work, I had some difficulty in prevailing upon her to take what was strictly her due — such was her gratitude for the few services I was enabled, with the assistance of my friends, to render her. Three months had elapsed since the death of young Peterson, and, not one of the rela- tives of either of the boys whose lives he had saved, at the cost of hi? 9Ai 1 18SA.] Ttun inAmtriaa, by LatrtAttf Ahdy^ il^. 401 'ryri , own, had been nr -^r hie bereaved mother ; and tLe subscription did not amount to seventy dollars. When we consider that the population of the place amounts to more than 250,000, including Brooklyn, it is little to its credit that the gratitude it felt for the preservation of two of its citizens could find no better way to exhibit itself than by a paltry donation to the self-devoted preserver's afflicted parent of a num. scarcely exceeding one- fourth of what he might have been sold for, when living, in the slave-market at New Orleans.' — Abdy, vol. ii. p. 43. The utter frigidity with which the American ' Patricians,' as Mr. Abdy calls ihem, meet every charge of cruelty and oppression with regard to the people of colour, appears to him to form an odd contrast with their delicate sensitiveness to the remarks 'uttered in a distant land by a few narrow-minded men' on their own minora moralia : — ' Hint to them that they eat pease with a knife, and they are highly enraged ; tell them that their conduct to ilu ** niggers " is in- human and unmanly, and they laugh in your face.' Mr. Abdy's liberal politics do not interfere with his percep- tions ^f many of the harmless absurdities of the Aiiiericans, — wit- ness these amusing traits : — **'Arc you the rn^in," said a driver to Duke Bernard of Saxe Weimar, ** that is to go in that carriage ? " " Yes." " Then I am the gentleman to drive you." ... A young female of New York, while looking over an English prayer-book, was much shocked with that expression in the marriage service. ** Wilt thou have this womaa to thy wedded wife ? '' She insisted upon it, with all the dignity of offended rank, that the phrase ought to be — '* Wilt thou have this lady,** &c.' — vol. i. pp. 74, 75. Mr. Abdy appears to have come away from his visit to General Jackson — (who, however, does not seem to have asked him to dinner) — with impressions not quite so enthusiastic as those de- scribed on a similar occasion by the two dissenting doctors : — ' One or two things, during this short interview, struck me very forcibly. I saw clearly that a man's good opinion of himself is the best handle by which you may lead him ; that truth has as little chance of a familiar acquaintance with republican presidents as with imperial potentates ; and that an American need not go to St. Peters- burgh or St. James's to find a courtier. I was, indeed, not a little surprised at the gross flattery with which this old man was fed. What a subject for Lucian or Le Sage ! Here were the vices of a court in all their deformity ; — arrogance without dignity, and adulatio^ without refinement — a burlesque upon everything exalted and manly ! ' He adds, — *^'* The same arrogant assumption of national superiority is employed by the highest and the lowest person in the country, as an acknow- ledged title to respect and confidence throughout the civilized world. Nihil est quod credere dt se non posset cum. laudatur, may be said of the I m TtMtk ^ ^Am^rtda^ "hy^Latrohe^ \Abdifr 4^ [Sept ti:J^'i^!i6|Ty.'i7^pp, 2soi,8si;i ' "'trM^ .■,, : u ,! , ,^,,;.r,^,.. ,,,,,; ,^ DuHng a debate: which Mr. Abdy attended : in the Hous^ of Representatives^ the gallerjr Mas for some reason ordered to bp cleared; and the object was effected * not without resistance,' says Mr. Abdy, * as dirks were used on the occasion.'— r.vol. ii. p. 125. To come back to Mr. Abdy's chief theme, — he has, in describ* ing hid tour through the southern States, given a world of details, which will go far to explain the alarming scenes lately enacted in those regions, and likely we must think to go on there, until either the dark population become so numerous as to be quite invincible, or the government gives champ libre to the legislation of the planters; in either case, that is — until the disruption. of the Ame< rican Union takes place. & 3-}St monw f*i ^sio He ytt gs ,9in//i ^''We have a good deal from Mr. Latrobe also touching both tile staves and the coloured free people in the United States ; but on these subjects, as indeed on all others, this author writes in a mu<;h more fair, charitable, and really Christian spirit than we have been able to discover in the lucubrations from M'hich we have hitherto been quoting. Mr. Latrobe (a member of the family so long and so honourably connected with the missionary cause) is personally unknown to us; v\'e are ignorant of his past history > ex- cept that part of it which is contained in his Alpenstock, an unfor-* Innately named, but very pleasing and useful manual for travellers in Switzerland ; whether he ever followed any profession^-'what tb^ general course of his life has been — we never heard ; but we think we can hardly be mistaken in judging him to be a man considerably more advanced in years than Mr. Abdy. He, at all events, if 'h« be a young man, has written throughout of America like one wbo^ — * By discipline of Time made wise, ' ^ Ijiiiixiil .j Has learned to tolerate the infirmities otniosx^ oW * And faults of others.' ' ;.'/. '..ijj, tin S lien a traveller, though he could not, more than '^n^ other rational man, shut his eyes to the staring absurdity of that eternal cant about universal freedom and equality, in a country vt^hefe U fifth of the population are slaves, and nearly another fifth, Albeit legally free, are, to all intents and purposes, treated as a 'Pariah caste — was nevertheless likely to consider the essential dijflic unties of the case, as well as the gross nonsense which has been 1 and is needlessly adding to them. Mr. Abdy, and five hundrpq, jgn^r^ of his class, may talk as long as they please about the equfility pi* all the children of Adam, and condemn, as alike silly, and si^fvl,.,tn§ American' repugnance to the notionof what they eidi/ jqyv&nlg mation ' — 9ffj to 1'855*] 2UjrA>)Wl4w^ridtr^.%i^^ vcdutd WrlfiVif^ly besiovr liiS'Own 'lister in m^frkgei upon: the< mosli polished specimen of the negro race that ever strutted asi Gomte MnrtmA'dde bi* Marqtiis de Molassbviliefat the court of Haryti ; and we alsb remain excessively sceptical as to the possibility of britigirig arty liegro p&pulation t6 anything like the Auglo-Anler^-^ can standard of intellect or civilization for generations to conie^ Certain feelings which these gentlemen so broadly denounce in tlie Americans are feelings which, right or wrong, have b?en partaken by all the civilized nations that ever came into contact; with African negroes, from the dawn of history down to the pre- sent day; and they will not yield to argument— "least of all tQ; abuser The difficulty in which this vast and- rapidly-increasing, population of alien blood involves the government and legislature, of America is great and real; and it little becomes Englishmen^ aware, as we ail are, by whose act a slave peasantry was first intlx)duGed into her territory, to assume a high and disdainful tone of language as to this subject. Least of all is it either uiise or decorous in us to assume such a tone at this particular tiaie. Some obviously and absurdly-cruel particulars may be criticised calmly to good purpose — but let us not be too broad! and rash in our censures. We have but yesterday emancipated our own West Indian slaves at ai> enormous cost, and the lesults. of that experiment are still (to speak gently) extremely doubtful. Let us beware of incurring the suspicion that we are willing to urge^ our own example on the United States from motives not of philan- tbiopy merely, but in part, at least, of mercantile calculation ! jiThe condition of the scanty remains of the red race in the United States is another subject on which Mr. Latrobe enters af some length. His own connexion with a lineage of missionaries bad no doubt a strong efi'ect in turning his researches into this channel. He says : — ' We execrate the bloodthirstiness of the Spaniard, who exter- minated whole tribes at once by the sword, under the banner of the blessed Cross ; and yet the conduct of the Pilgrim Fathers and their children tovt!urd8 the aborigines of the North is hardly less culpable qr l,Q8i^ ^ec: ^ie. Like the Spaniard, the Puritan warred under the' h^ijft^ 0^, his faith, and considered the ^Yar as holy. No one who rvoul4 seem to place him in a more enviable situation, even though he were re- moved a thousand miles from the graves of his fathers. Yet here he is, if anything, more exposed to oppression ; from that proportion of the white population with whom he is in contact being in general the most abandoned.' — pp. 168, 169. xit 3{r)Bi} ' Our author asks elsewhere : — »(! ' What check is there upon an unprincipled agent, who knows thaf, for a bottle of whisky, an Indian will sign or say anything — and, at the same time, his testimony is not valid in a court of justice ? ' Mr. Latrobe has some most valuable letters on the history of the old attempts to Christianize the native tribes, by Braiuerd and his admirable trethren. With regard to the prospects of the missionaries now engaged among the red men beyond the Mis- sissippi, he says : — * My general impression was that they were worthy men ; rather upright than sound in their views for the civilization and moral im- provement of the tribes among whom they were sent to labour ; and, like many of their brethren all over the world, far too weak-handed and deficient in worldly wisdom to cope effectually with the difficiil- ties thrown in their way by the straggling but powerful community of traders, agents, and adventurers of every kind, with whom they must be associated in their intercourse with the Indians. Their work must be a work of faith and humble dependence on God, for hy their own strength and wisdom they will achieve nothing — He can effect what men would pronounce impossible. In the lawless, licentious conduct of most of the nominal Christians connected with them, the Indian finds sufRcient excuse for not quitting the faith of his fathers, as that proffered in exchange seems to produce such evil fruit.' — pp. 70, 71, We are afraid that very much the same thing might be justly said as to the case of other missionaries engaged among other In- dians. But we must now introduce our readers to the society and manners of the Anglo-Americans themselves of the highest and best order, as described by this candid traveller. The fol- lowing pictdre of the environs of Baltimore is in every respect delightful :-7- '■ * In returning northward, we made a halt of a fortnight in Balti- more and its neighbourhood. Many of the country-seats, which stud the environs upon the upland slope, at variora points and distances from the city, are singularly well-situated and tastefully arranged ; and I look back with unalloyed gratification to the hours spent among them. i*i 1 StJ'; ■ II .^4M.4f^eHti^ h^ liaMm^Mdgii^Jflc. l[«^. ••( jjiW^ i{l>uMtM»rle«if Jw^HeKfguivp^alied fldwers^'ofiithei^^Aoggh^vulibi^, ^r^j^.^^ J|pi4 >lie£t in the latitud9 of IT'^i^^ Y^cieiii £ultti9fiitity,'lkadvit is true, become discoloured and half hidden b^ the-'gToen'foitM&^e tvhidh ^y«pi:!^w44> bui ithextatal^twas 'in.blo*8oni-iD:the Ttcinhjr^'4)T the q9un^nyH6e#U'; the >«hrab4«dries' were ia their beftuty; a9(it;ioiW^tbe ^^aj^ln of th^iofest8g which generally thickened to the back of 'ihes^ Y^i}i8, Ijh^.evepkig air was perfumed with the rich odoar of'th^iO«^y If^^fi A, thousand beautiful trees, either, transported f ram -> their o^aif ei^llinept in the,wood9, or tastefully presert^d^for the p4i>pOiie8 idf Qr«fin>9»t;», surrounded tho lawns in front of the opeactri.^i^(l'' f,,*i|;i;ww not tijlmy return to Europe^inth^ height of ■^iiWffftlMkl'V aftei; a. very short passage, that I was struckwith the tdtatlyidiilPiVfint 9lji^>§c^er of the verdure, both of the field and forest^ ow^t^eitW ectHJ tinents. After the bright sward, and the varied «i^mer<u,t(jfl|7^^^w#TTTi)**h- was 1;^'e depth. pfahi^de ob^erv.able in, the blue yerdqre, 9f ||i^/^u{^4l ah " ' I I j I WMidj by far th^^teater number consisting of the young and 'unmarrfif^ of litilfh ^xes, ' tJtider the shade of the trees, tables wefe cdyerea witL Ihfe delicareJfefif of the season— antjong whicli ; the d6lidlbus| i'r'iilV W9^\ yfihidh ♦bese Strawberry Parties' took their name, Ava? di'flindHl/^yii inttbet greatest profusion, with its appropriate ebneowiita'i'rtli'yf-CTeim and ichanipagne^ Many, an enchanting spectacle ... WJ9Pfi^JS»|ft A 8 .mvj .o>i .viu .aov s'jaabiva .■'■•XA TJhtmiMi «mI 80) d^oid lOf falter fHttee and glu«^«ithoMs >]M«8Mt«d ^, vth« ^Aiar7k»d ^traivlMrrf Pa^tiM; lAter- comet tHo^^htlfit \rilt {NKM)4if«l In&Ught, with the waUiiig> cry of the whip^poo^wftlt tht' ilfjlfHt of the night-hawk, and, above all, myriads of- ftlv^flioti AlUng Ih^ HAt -with «|!fiitk8«' dansing in the deep shade, or streaming with their inter- mitt^at and gentle light aitaong the groups, as they utroll i^ the ^ii auT: or ail in the porticoes. .■ '''' ,i^ The frank mannera and uncontrolled intercourse betweeii Hie young people of both sexes, and the confidence with whidh thciy at^ on all otfcasiona left to their own discretion, is on« remarkable ftiaMire in ,Ameri(»n society, and one that must strike every Europci&n. Un«> attended' as tins open confidence lias hitherto been, with perhape- the rartst.e«ueptionsv by unpleasant results, it is a proof that thus far the society ol the New World has an advantage over that of th« CNd, where oirisumstances throw such difficulties in the way of most effrly mwrtnages^^whare the poisonof libertinism is more generally diffbsed . t-'^aad: ^liere the whole structure of society warrants the most jealolis ciire in the parent, and the utmost caution and reserve on the part of ^ daughter.' — Latrobtt vol. ii. pp. 29-32. ' •'OtMT readera caimot have failed to observe iiow many of the eircmnstfinces alluded to in this beautiful letter ars identical H4th fhds« dwcfit up.irlusement, to see with his own eves, and to hear wilH Wi^tMnisars. " The conversation turned upon the difference of the crj-i r^'*«^r!!aw'irt idur respective countries, and the mode of procedure id , cHmiiAl Cils^'. T\k> things had struck him with reference to that of j^^hind *; fiirit, the weight which we give to mere circumstantial evU dbhcfeV'irtthfe absence of positive proof; and, secondly, the bbrribW scWrity bf i6^^ebde, and the ai^rainistration of it. He stated (hat he ha9t a sihj^l^'pi^bouei:' trks ae^uitted. He wa^ quite horrified! Accusation and .J 07 a^&fM'ft^Kl iij^aitiliy thelbrtrilttlBn of the' Jui^; before lie had had timis to mftke^Klt^elf master of the bare accr sation. The idea fixed, by the VOL. Liv. Ko. criii. 2 K evidence 408 Tourf w 4|»«rica, ^ ff^^t;^, 4Wjf , «^c. [S^pt M evidence of his own acntea on his mii^d, was this-'-thafi^n ilogUnd every nian who was aeciued must be, and was, conden^ned. And I wish you could have Seen how wide he opened his eyes when he was forced unwillingly to relinquish his belief — by a calm explanation of the series of preparatory steps through which every individual case had passed before it had come to the point where he had seen it arrive for positive decision. Of the examination before a magistrate, the reconsideration of cases by a grand jury, &c., he, till now, had had'no opportunity of hearing; but he was brought to confess, after a while, that, all things considered, it was hardly to be conceived that inrtocence) if innocence there were, would not have been made evident in the previous stages of inquiry, and that nothing but inoontro* vertible evidence of guilt could be received and made the cause of condemnation. * However, something was to be learned from this, and I trust I was not myself above profiting by the lesson, which many years of travel have assisted in impressing upon my mind ; namely, tha( a stranger in a strange land sees with strange and partial eyes, and that the difficulcy of forming a correct judgment, even with close observa*- tion, and without any disposition to distort facts, is far greater than might be supposed.' — vol. ii. pp. 30S, 306. , • We sincerely hope this lesson will be held in mind by all future travellers in the United States. For ourselves, «ve are obliged to confess that we much wish we had kept it steadily before us when reviewing the recent work of Mrs. TrolIope,and we may even add of Captain Basil Hall. We have no suspicion that either of these able writers designed to give a false impression of the state of society in America ; but we are constrained tc acknowledge that we think if Washington Irving had undertaken a tour among our own provincial towns, he might have found materials for lively and amusing sketches of British manners not a bit better thai) those represented as characteristic of the Americans : indeed , we strongly suspect that he might have found almost the same ideiitical things and fashions. And how, after all, should this be otherwide ? What were all those American towns sixty years ago but pro- vincial British towns ? Why should we be so ready to believe that manners and customs had changed so much within the life« time of one generation, while blood and language remained the same? Let us hear no more then — at least, let us hear nothing in harsh, contemptuous, or arrogant language — about the petty circum- stances which may happen to strike an English eye, accustomed to the highly-cultivated features of society in the upper walks of life in England, as offensively characteristic of the people of Ame- rica, in their interior don^estic intercourse among themselves. Let every man who designs to travel in America begin with maUn^^ himself acquainted with the manners of the great masses o^, QUr own population — even of oujr own opulent and fairly educated population D(il )n of case rrive , the id'no ter a Ubat rideot intro* use of ,ru»t I lars of tUat a id that iservai- sr than future iged to ,s when en add •these tate of g^ that Qg ow lively thai) eed.we iiitical it pi'o- Ibelieve ^e life* [ed the harsh, |ircuin-» Imidtd of life lAme- Let liking lucated Lulation sr ' pment (Course of political changes to be persisted in, tlie gr^nd problem of the Grotes, Warburtoris, and Humes, fairly iwpi;ked oiii| bvir aristQcratical institutions in church and state gqt rid .Qf, anfi 'the monarchy of the middle classes' completely established here' — let him ask himself, whether he seriously believes that, after the lapse of half a century, the foreign traveller from Vienna or St. JPetersburgh would not be very apt to go home again with much the same views as to the manners of the dominant caflte in Eng* land, that have been of late made public on the subject of the social peculiarities of America. There is only one general remark on that subject ^hich we sh&ll take the liberty of setting down ; and we do so, bedaiise we already see a thousand proofs that it will at no distant day be just as applicable to us as it is to them. The whole doctrine of social equality — the one doctrine which lies at the root of all our own present political doings — is the doctrine of vanity, envy, and hypocrisy ; and no nation can pretend to reduce it to practice— for really reducing it to practice is impossible — without acquiring habits of falsehood, which will soon show themselves in matters far remote from politics. We are laying the foundation of a system of gross and habitual fraud, to be developed with equ^ distinctness in all our relations. Every demagogue is a hypocrite ; and in a nation swayed by demagogues, the majority, even of those who scorn their trade, will from necessity creep into habits of insincerity^ '.i •r«'«»'^'»«'i . , •. *^/"<; ; ir.rymiA.mns-M The abundance of unoccupied land m America, the ea9e with whi^ch it may be obtained and cultivated, and the prodigious de- mand and consequent high price of labour of every kind in this vast and thinly-peopled region, are the fortunate circumstances which have hitherto enabled the gentlemen to submit, sullenly and reluctantly, but still to submit to the yoke of the democracy. These have hitherto afforded protection to property — to that one thing upon which, in any old and thickly- peopled country, a tyran- nical democracy would too soon turn every particle of its serious attention. ,^ .,,.,„ ^ . . .luiJ We addnce," however, the following examples of the facility with which physical prosperity may now be attained in Anierica —not with any political view, but merely for the benefit of English emigxaiits. The first is tlie biftory 9f asn^all farmer not far from the town of Independence :-r:;. r, ,^i.vifrVr bMiP/rjIir'-'/Ulrvjil stli ' ;Tbe seittler had, in^ the course of the preceding spring, bought ^Itree hiindred acres o^, land, at a dollar and a quarter per acre. He came to work upoo it i^ the mpnth of April, at which time the sound of the axe had never been heard i|i thes^ forests. During the course of tha^i month he girdled the trees on ten acres — built himself a I6g- ■". ."• -'"'^^ '"^^ ^^':.^"i-- ^eH ' '■ 'hut \iOUt;iuqo(] 410 T ilightly < jlireaiUiag the isurfaoe^ he soiw^d t)h« tea ae4reis,' ulfion M'htoh tiie sunnow shone freely, unpbitracled by Dhe^ying; spring foliacfe^ Avtui a bua^el and a half of gourd-^seed.waUo.jnandiat tbe< time of my visit in September^ he showed me a crop upon; the ground .:eady to harvest of fifty bushels to the acre — the whole return being eonsequently five hundred bushels for the one and a half sown. At> the 8anie time, the fodder yielded, by stripping the tall stim9,of the mftiCQ of their broad and redundant leaves, amounting to a thour sand bundles, nufficient to afford winter-food for fifteen head of cattle, which during the suramer had lived and fattened in the forest^ with their cooapeers the swine, without being a charge upon the 8ett;ler. Be^i^es this produce, the field had yielded fifty waggon-loads of pymplfins, of which great use is made, both for the family and tbe stock. Such is the amazing fertility of this region, and the facilities with wbich the necessaries of life may be procured! 1 have glwii ycu this single instance out of many of which I took ese^ct ^hd ](>ii^- ticular note. ' •Whfle 1 add that the whole tract purchased was of thie sime' In- exhaustible richness of soil— covered with the most exuberant Hhd noble forest, many trees which I measured being six )rards in girth*-* abounding with excellent water and limestone — situated at a point where there would be no difficulty in transporting any quantity of produce to a market — you may well suppose that the own^i: cimncit. b«t,beqon-e wealthy.' — Latrobe, vol. ii. p. 137., v,} ^jH io ^?llOlJ^*'.mp8ib MiWhat foUows refers to an experiment, on a ihu^h larger scale^ in thr back territory of the state of New York : — iu «' ' The estate of F , consisting of about thirty-six thousand Actki&i was, little more than twenty years ago, in the state of nature; therenwisi not & road passing through it, there was not a tree cut ; but for agi«si the heavy forest, decking the country and shading the atreamS; a The jbg^'hat' had disappeared; and i» it» place a' ftpfloidas and" hand^ some country-seat^ built of white marble, quarried onrtbejMtate^ roBir in a proininent situation on the bank of a Hmpid loke^ >t^)mot thn4f rniles in circumferencef surrounded by hanging woods : and f ocky! sliores. The tasteful elegance of the interior wds in harmony with that of the exterior — shrubberies, gardens, orchards, and grav&l^ walk^ occupied the immediate vicinity; nor were the bath •hous^- and all the facilities for boating and fishing forgotten. Such were thtf changes effected by patience, perseverance, andtaste.'-^p. 147. -'■■'i-nM- Mr. L^trobe gives a great many most interesting and tisefdl'd^U tkils respecting the recent settlement of many of our coiiiltry'- men in the better condition of life, especially naval and milit^r^ officers op half-pay, in the province of Upper Canada ; and we j-is- cpnim^nd this part. of his book to the earnest study of all persqpi^, of the tike class who may feel inclined to follow their exaiiip^.* , /, MfrM-JUatrobe is not one of those travellers who fe^l ^ntex^ted only in some one or (wo of the subjects which a new qpiAntry presents to observation. He carries with him^ wherever we find him, the. same liberal curiosity^ the same gentle sympathies^ and the same vivid powers of description ; and we know not whether his sketches of manners civilized and barbarous, his historical- disquisitions, or his letters on the phenomena of nature Irving &nd' inanimate, are likely to be most generally admired. ]!l4or do 'the real antiquities of America escape his enthusiasm. Our readers' will do well to compare the following elegant passage with Mr. Flint's more detailed account of ihe Indian mow.ASf which wq had occasion to quote a few years ago when reviewing; his * Ten^ Years in the Valley of the Mississippi:* — >f>'f) ,Je^i<^ yvfintl sdi ':*''I'iieVer at any time approached the Indian mounds, "thos/e t61ics- df ipfeople and of a time of which no recollection or tradition has^ bfefeh i>i*es6rved, without interest and feeling. That the hanilii that^ reared th6m should long ago have been mingled with the cliy of vVhiiih thfey formed these simple, but enduring monuments excites^ howdny^r'; generation departs after generation — one dynasty follows anot'her— one nation perishes, and its place is filled by another ; but it is seldodi' that all memory, all tradition is lost of a people. A nara6 alon0 miiy; rfctnaito, wJth6ut any other distinctive feature, — but that is jrtet ii riattii^i, and uii^der it the existence of a distinct division 6f the human rac^' lii^y'' Vet '^and Recorded in the book of the world*s history. But hi^te,' oii^hii ,i''ast continent, dispersed over a g^reat fextent of territory, you fi^hff'tHe,i^\it's'ofah utterly forgotten race. Thjiy muk't have be^rt i^ 4\irAci2(iiis;6h'^,' for the'ntiagmtude of the iVot)ca thqy haVe left beb*inil' th^'Wttfe-Siit: ''Vbli'^^6 mbiihtf^ fiised tipoh the rich leveT plafris bf pubUsh ■i. ;■. •t' '■■* ■ k eeiit'ani in 2W| ^ Jlff^eficdy )% Jiotrobti Abdy r 4^ ^ [ Supt. dir Wnt, "Vi^lucli will ever remctin a marveL They must have attained to* ft. certain degree of civiliiation and ledentacy habits^ superior to the races whom the .present age haa seen in turn dasplaoed by those of our own hue aod blood t'^they were more civilized, more powerful, more enlightened than the Indian races of our day. We read this truth in the vestiges of their towns and fortifications, and the lands once culti- vated by them, — yet it is in vain you pry into the secret of their deeds, time of existence, or history. You dig into their places of sepulture — • you handle their bones ; but they are silent, and tell you nothing ; — and the utensils you unearth only show you that they were numerous, and, however powerful, simple in their habits. * Man is less perfect for the time being, and subject to greater vicissitudes than even the birds of the air and the beasts of the field, whom he affects to govern and despise. And this is impresse4 on my mind as I listen to the song of these sweet birds. There are voices yet abroad in the land of those forgottth tribes, at this very moment^ singing the same sweet strain as rung through the dak groves two thousand years ago ! They have not fofgott^n the lessors taught the parents of their race in Paradise. God has stamped them with the species of perfection for which he designed them, dnd they have not departed from it. Their kind has suffered no vicissi- tude — they have probably neither deteriorated nor attained greater perfection in any respect since the day of their creation, but have carolled, and nestled, and paired, from generation to generation ; ful- filling the end for which they were apparently created ; while reidb after race of human beings has arisen and passed away, and the earth has been alternately filled and deserted by nations and individuals perfect in nothing. Without the certainty of imniwitality, and thb sweet hope of being restored, through God's mercy, to that estate from which we have fallen, might we not well be tempted to^ defl« pair!' — ^vol. ii. p. 21-23. . ; ^ We have bestowed so much of our space on these new authoTS — especially on Mr. Latrobe — that we find ourselves obliged to abstain from further quotations about America/ and niuktj'thc^i'^''. fore, be contented to recommend once more in general ttJhifiB the < Tour to the Prairies* of our old favourite, Mr. Washiiigfoh Irving. We read the book with high interest, and not the less fot the novel aspects and attitudes in which it brings oiir worthty tViend bittiself before us. Clad in his leathern jerkin, mdwntcd oi^ Mi fiery steed, and armed with his huge blunderbuss, f6r dose '^rt'- cbnnter'with wolves, bears, buffaloes, and the other teJ^roi^i of the Prairie, he" must indeed have appeared very unlike Vv'htit \V6 h^d beert xised to meet annoitnced under his name. But whetl^i^^'dh & wild horse, or oti an ea^y chair, he retains thle'iSa^e'hdp[iy hiiihour to be pleased vs^ilh evierylhing, and the sariie hnpp^'p6wex to please everybody about him. His nephew has also lately pub< lished a very agreeable little work, in which much of the same sort of scenery and adventure is paiated with no trivial share of the jASd."] Town fi» itfrnenm, by Lairobtf Ahdyt ^c.^ 413 the same talent^ Nor ought we to close our paper without naming * The Winter in the Far West/ by Mr. Hoflman-Hinolher new book wliich will richly reward the reader's attention. ' But the book of the season, as far as America is concerned, is unquestionably that of Mr. Latrobe. He is evidently an author from whose future lucubrations we may hope to receive large supplies of amusement and instruction. To what part of the world he has turned his steps we do not know, but we understand he is again rambling somewhere, and we shall not fail to watch the re- sult of his peregrinations. Art, VI. — Papers relating to Emigration. Printed for tha House of Commons, 27th March, 1835. 2. Tivo Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Aiistralia ; with Obse-rvationa on the General Resources of New South Wala, By Captain Charles Sturt. 2 vols., 8vo. London, 1833. 3. State and Position of ff^estern Australia, or the Swan River Settlement, By Captain Irwin, late acting Governor of the Colony. 8vo. London, 1835. 4. Letter* from Poor Persona who have lately emigrated to Ca» nada. 3rd edit. 1835. TT has been shown over and over again in this Journal, that the ''- redundancy of labour which weighs so heavily on our parish rates, and renders the administration of any poor-law the legislature may enact a difticult and dangerous matter ; — the dearth of employ-* nient, and consequently of the means of sustenance, which forces the Irish peasantry into illegal and murderous combinations, and prepares them to be the ready tools of every political agitator who has an object to serve in fomenting rebellion ; — the excessive com- petition which, in every branch of trade, in every avenue for the investment of capital, and in every profession, renders the chance of a remunerating return every day more and more precarious;—* that these perplexing circumstances, which our economists iiav^ so belaboured their brains to render still more puzzling, are, in fact| the simple and inevitable results of the rapid growth of our popu-^ lation and our wealth, during a lengthened peace, and under the shadow of free and happy institutions, without a proportionate in- erease of the territorial area for their employment ; and that the obvious remedy to this plethora lies — not as the Broughams and Martiueaus advise, in a painful and suicidal attempt to check tlie rate of increase of our people and our capital — 'but in the en- largeipeut of the field for their employment, by facilitating their • Indian Sketches, taken dtiriiig An itxpeditibn among the Pawue« Tribes and, other Indians of North America. By John T. Irving, jun. 2 vols. 12mo. "" 'Jimiii i«u/iii o.i iiii// i.j^i:uk,!.j^ cii ijiU,u^;;^„ j^i^i, ^..j^j transfer 3fi) 111: r ^i I'.'i I ^^