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i i

( 57 )

Akt. in. — 1. Notes 0)1 North America — Af/riculfural, Economical^
and Social. — By James F. W. Johnston, M.A., F.K.S. 2 vols,
post 8vo. Edinburgh. 1851.

2. Leiires siir V Amcrique. Par X. Marmier. 2 vols. 12mo.
Paris. 1851.

3. Travels in America. A Lecture delivered hy the Earl of
Carlisle before tlie Leeds Mechanics' Institution and Literary
Society. Tenth edition. 1851.

4. A Glimpse of the Great Western Rcpnhlic. By Lieut. -Colonel
Artluu' Cunyn<2:hame, autlior of 'An Aide-de-canip"s Recollec-
tions of Service in China.' 8v(). 1851.

BESIDES quotin<>: freely from the concise practical volumes
of Mr. Johnston, and availinjT ourselves, now and then,
of those by the acute and observant, but diffuse and rather
sentimental M. Marmier, as well as of Lord Carlisle's graphic
Lecture, and the shrewd although rapid Glimpse of Colonel
Cu'" nghame, we mean also on this occasion to make c(msiderable
use of the latest columns of the American press. Already, fresh
as these title-pages are, such supplementary information is in-
dispensable. Indeed, so extensive are the changes which the
agency of man is continually eflecting in the Western World, that
there is little exaggeration in the statement made l)y one of our
authors — that ' a book might be written every six months by the
same traveller periodically revisiting the same scenes, and yet
possess in a high degree the cliarm of novelty.'

Professor Johnston's expedition was not one of mere spon-
taneous curiosity. He was invited to deliver a course of lectures
before the great meeting of tlie \ew ^ ork Agricultural Society at
Syracuse. And in ]\ew Brunswick a more arduous task awaited
his arrival ; for, as soon as his acceptance of the New York call
became known, he had been requested by the Governor and
House of Assembly to examine that province, with the view of
preparing a Report upon its agricultural capabilities. These
missions he successfully accomplished, and afterwards visited our
other North American provinces, as well as the Eastern and part
of the Soutliern States of the Union, returning to this country,
after an active six months' tour, in April 1850. We have now
to thank him for a narrative of great and varied instructi(m. Hi?
views are calm, and remarkably unprejudiced ; thougli a Liberal,
his book shows but traces of the bigotry of partisanship.

One of the first subjects he enters upon — and he often recurs
to it — is the discontent prevailing in our American provinces,
and the desire, openly expressed by many, for annexaticm to the

States —

t KI
i

Recent Travellers in North America.

W r

States— a topic which has now assunicd the very f^ravest iinportanc e
from the announced intention of Government to withdraw her
Majesty's troops from the Canadas, and thns resij^n them to their
own wishes and resources.* Tliere lias lately been such a con-
fusi(m of political parties, and there always is such a variety
of interests, both moral and material, in our Canadian provinces,
that it is all but impossible to arrive at a correct conclusion as to
their actual condition. At this moment we dare say very fcAv of
our readers can tell how it happened that a majority of Upper
Canadian mend)ers, of British bk'oil, and many of them Eritish
born, went with the French mendjers in the case of the porten-
tous Indenmity Bill. How came those who had been unanimous,
not a few of them gallantly active, in opposing the rebellion, to
be found voting with those who had all favoured, many of them
participated in it? Mr, Johnston put this questicm to a friend
of his — (me of these British mendiers — and his explanation was
to the following effect : — For a hmg series of years, Up})er
Canada was under the dominating rule of what was called the
Family Compact, by which home-born Canadians and a certain
number of high officials divided all posts and patronage amcmg
themselves, and did everything in their power to keep the British-
liorn from participating in the sweets of place. The few
Britisli who gained access to the Assemblv, therefore, were
naturally driven into opposition, and, after the uni(m of the
Provinces, made common cause with the French Opposition to
the Tory Government, till at length the numbers of the latter
party exceeded those returned by the T'amily Compact. As a na-
tural result the Tories were ousted, and the present mixed Govern-
ment went 'n. In short, still fresh from the struggle, and embar-
rassed by thcj/ ill-assorted alliance with the French members, the
British-born allowed party to triumph over principle, and voted
lor the Indeinnitij Bill. It may be verv true that many of them
'never believed or intended that any one who had aided or pro-
moted the rebelli(m should be compensated \ but there must
have been others not quite so shortsighted, and whose (mly
excuse is their awkward positicm. Nevertheless, but for the
incredible weakness of the (iovernment at home, we should
have had no serious fear. Under any circumstances that could
well have been anticipated, we should have felt confidence that

* See Correspoiulence relating to tlie Civil List of Canada (IJlue Book, April, 18.31)
pp. !i-l;]_l)espatcli from L<.rd Grey, d.ite I Marcli 14— in wliirh he informs Lord
Elgin tiiat. m consequence of ;lie )'leasant state of onr relations witli tiie goveininent at
Wasiiuigton, it iscoiisitiered neeilless t i niaiiitain any iJritish force in onr Provinces,
except -tiie garrisons of two or tlnec fortilied iwsts— probably only Quebec and

Kingston'

matters

Pg^^JT-^Ti- -,

Annexation — Free Trade — Sla very.

ItcUKe
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matters would rijjhi themselves, and that the whole British party,
Avhether home or provincial born, would ere l(m«y stand side by
side a<;ain on all jj^reat (piestions. The Indemnity Bill was a most
unhappy measure — if only from the discord and discontent it oc-
casioned amon;^ the loyalists — so that many of the old Tories
have been heard loudest in the cries for ' annexation.' But
time would probably have healed the mischief thus inflicted :
and so far as this immediate irritation went, we should have been
of ^ood hope for the provinces.

It ^ must be allowed, however, that the folly of the Home
Government is not tlie only source of our apprehensi(ms now. The
local irritation has produced a brood of erroneous conceptions
of sufliciently dangerous character, and which even with the wisest
manajjement it mig;ht have been diflicult to clear away from the
minds of the provincials. The most alarming of these is, that,
beholding tlie rapid progress of certain portions of the States, they
suppose there nmst be something in the constitution of the
Union more favourable than their own to the development of a
country's resources. Tliat this is a total delusion, Mr. John-
ston believes, and, we think, proves. When compared with
the whole Union, our provinces exhibit an even more rapid
rate of advance. It is only the north-western States and Nev/
York that outstrip the Canadas ; but then these adjoin our
territory — the sight of their progress is ever before the pro-
vincials — this partial superiority is thought to be universal,
and the genuine British spirit of grumbling is freely indulged
in. In fact, continues Mr. .Johnston, the energy of the Canadians
is as great and as well-directed as any of the States can show ;
even as to canals, the former, in proportion to the population, will
yield in no point to the latter. The true reason of the envied ad-
vance of New York and the north-western States is simply this : —
It is through them that the flood of emigration has been and
is now pouring into the New World ; and as long as this goes
on, the men and money of Europe must cause them to distance
all competitors. But let our provinces look forward — nay, let
them even look keenly into the present, and they will discern that
t'ae balance is already quivering ere it turn in tlieir favour. Can
they not read the sure destiny of their St. Lawrence ? That
mighty river is the natural outlet of the immense lake districts ;
and, as these are fast peopling, signs of future argosies are
appearing on its waters. The Erie Canal is no longer adequate
for the traflic streaming along it ; and all the expense that the
Americans ever can bestow u})()n it, will never make it keep pace
with the wants of lie inland States. Let, then, our fellow-sub-
jects take heart, and be patient ; for if their progress at present

Recent Travellers in North America.

; r.

he more moderate than their immediate nei<rhl)ours', it is (hie to
no fault of theirs or ours, but simply to a necessity of nature ; and
the moiv rapidlv the nortii-western States advance, the more ( < i-
tainlv will the tide of commerce and emiirration so«m pimr its
{Tolden ilood down the noble valley of the St. Lawrence. So ar^nu-s
the ])urham l^rofessor.

In manners and m sympathies a marked difTerenee exists
between our Provinces and the States : even between Upiicr
Canada and Western New \'()rk, which are c(mti<ruons and in
constant intercourse, this dilference is (p.iite aj)])arent, and would
no doul)t, under anv circumstances short of continued madness at
headcpiarters, louir continue. ' ( )ne feels,' says Mr. Johnston, ' the
ffc ffi)p — the tendencv to exa^'irerate — amonir the men of tlie one
side, obtrudin'j: itself souu'times offensively, especially in the
newer States of the Union, and amonix the newer people. An
opposite tendencv attracts constant notice alonu; t!:e Canadian
borders. Eoth .Mr. Johnston and M. Marmier — men as diverse
in cast of thousrht as tliev are in the country of their birth and
their career in life — unite in considering: this diversity of tempera-
ment as the chief real source of the disallection in our colonies.
Let us hear the l-'rench traveller. He has looked at both sides
of the pidure — has examined both the Provinces and the States :
on Lower Canada naturally he has l)estowed peculiar care : —

' TIow is if,' siiys he, 'that this fine country is not more peopl'.'d?
How is it that it docs not attract those masses of eniijj^rants who un-
ceasingly direct tlieir course to tiie United States, where already it is
not so easy a matter to obtain employment or to purchase land ? These
are questions wiiicli I have often considered without bein<^ able fully
to resolve tiiem. Often enoujjfli have we all been told that no one
understands the art of reclaiming land like the American. He is the
father of the putting system [pere duy^////"]. It is by pf/Jf\ presented
under all forms — in newspapers, in books, on steel, spread throughout
every region by agents, oHieious and oflicial — that he has turned the
heads of our brave peasants of Alsace, and of thousands of families in
Germany; it is hy ])ifjf' that he induces them to quit their j)aternal
parishes for tlie sake of traversing ocean to till the fields of a distant
continent ; it is by pujf', the most active and the most deafening, that
he is imw peopling tlie plains of California, mitil lie find some other
speculation to trumpet forth by its tloiuishes. The Canadians as
yet know nothing of tiiis dazzling charlatanism. Ihey have not
learned to j)roclaim each morning in tlieir journals, and to repeat
incessantly to all comers, that theirs is the country without parallel,
the asylum of liberty, the temple of fortune, tiie Eldorado so cele-
brated by the voyagers of old. On their part tiie Americans covet
Canada, but they take good care not to sing its [)raises until it has passed
into their hands. Whatever they may now say against it, however, we
sliall soon see opened from one point to anotlier the lines of commnni-

cation

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Recent Travellers in North America.

'ii,

CAtion of which tliese same Americans are so proud — roads to bind
tcg'ethcr the vilhij^tis, canals to unite the great rivers, railwnys to trans-
port g'oods ai.d travellers from north to south. From the nature of the
soil and the cheapness of materials, railways can he here constructed
as cheaply as in the United States. The otie which already reaches St.
Jlyacinth, and which is to be prolong-ed to Portland, costs only half
a million of francs per leii^ue, while in France it would cost double
the sum. For myself it gives me pleasure to believe in the future of
Canada. I See there a fertile soil which, sooner or later, cannot fail
to attract colonies of labourers, and on this soil already an lionest people
amidst whom it is a c(mifort to sojourn.'

It will b<; observed that in the following- sentences M. Marmier
statCii of the Lower Canadians precisely what Mr. Johnstcm has
.asserted of the inhabitants of the Upper Province : —

' If they have jireserved the virtues of their French nature, they have
also kept its defect,^. Mobile and impressionable, they are prompt to
enthusiasm, and not less rn to despair. They could not see the fortune
of their Republican neig-hbours without envying' it; and they thought
that if they did but enter the Union, they would immediately open
for themselves a road paved with dollars. Hence those everlast-
ing dissertations by a dozen of journals, and those meetings where
the same theme is reproduced with inexhaustible emphasis. Very-
many, however, of those who declidm on this subject do not believe
that it is realizable, and use it only as a means of agitation. Who
in truth can believe that England will consent not only to dis-
possess herself of Canada, but to give up this vast country to her
iiiaritime rival ? Some say that Canada brings in nothing to Eng-
land — nay, that she is even a source of considerable experise. Were
tills true, and could we consent to value the dependencies of a great
ejiipire merely by the niunber of crowns they pay into its treasury, it
would remain not less true that Canada contributes to enrich the com-
merce of Great liritain, and is every year becoming a more inij)orlant
point of colonization. Again, even sup])osing that Uritain had not the
sliLTlitest pecuniary interest in the preservation of that country, she must
codtiiuie bound to hold by it from a sentinuMit of national |)ride ;
>>lie must feel that she could not abandon it without branding herself
with the stamp of fei'bleiiess in tiie face of the whole world, and with-
out levelling a serious blow at her whole iini)erial system. Lastly, if, in
spite of al! these considerations, she were to welcome complaisantly
tiie ad<lresses of the Annexationists, there would remain some financial
questions which could not fail to be rather ernl)arrassing : one of these
being the debt of nearly a million and a half sterling, contracted by
Canada ; another, all the money that England has exi)ended on the
fortress of Quebec, itc,, &c., &c,, and the repayment of which she
would ujost certainly insist on. Are the United States so much in
love with Canada as to take her with all her debts? 1 hardly think
so. And if, while accepting her share of the expenses of the Federal
govermnent, Canada found herself, moreover, burdened with a private

debt

i m

($2

Recent Travellers in North America.

debt of two millions storliii'j:, T do not think her divorce from Kiinlim,!^
and her union to the Ameriean lve|iul)lie, wouhl Net her much iit lier «'iisc.
'Those who cry out for umiexiition use all the argiiinent.s wliich
form the stock in trade of revolutionists in all rcffions — dilapidation
of the public funds, bad conduct of otbcials, nej^lect of the nusery
of the peoi)le, necessity for a thorouy-h reform in the administriition of
affairs. There are indeed savings to be etlected in the budget of
Canada, and considerai)le reforms to be accomplished in its Icf-isiation,
which presents a sinuular nnxture of old French customs with portions
of the code of Kny;land ; but in onh-r to effect these objects is it
absolutely necessary to have recourse U) the republican authority of
the United States? Can they not be accomplished gradually by
the will of the people through the votes of its Parliament ? '

After some discussion of the union of the Provinces, especially
the olTence it had given the JMencli pjuty by its anticipati-d cHed
(m their power in parliament, M. Marniicr warns bis friends thai
this is but a secondary diuiger.

' In Aimexation, on the contrary, 1 see the rapid and radical amii-
hilation of all the remains of French nationality. Whatever resist-
ance the Canadians might offer to the inHuence of the United States,
tlieir primitive manners nuist be absorbed in the flood of mercantile
habits, their language effaced before another. Tliey would beconie
Americans. 'I'hey would drown themselves in the industrial whirlpool
of America, as the waters of their St. J^awrence amid the ^aves of
the occiin. Their religion, against whicii F^nglaml has never even
lifted a fiii<j:er, will be turned into derision, harassed, assailed by all
those tors of new «loctrines, by all those passionate declaimers

who til. .r against pupal idolatry in the American meetings^ — by all
those sects which, under ui ''omital)le name*, swarm and nndtiply in
the States. IJut the Catholic religion is in Canada the keystone of
nationality. "Without if, adieu to the last vestige which the France of
other ayes has left in this distant country.'

IVIi'. Johnst(m arrives at a similar conclusion. The first move-
ment was made by the French Homanists of the Lower I^rovince,
the sec(md by the disgusted Ccmservativcs of Ui>pcr Canada.

' But,' savs he, ' to neither of these classes would any special ij^ood
flow from a union with the States. The Koman Catholic body,
as a whole, would acquire more power in Congress — and with a view
to this end the Romanists in the States may sympathise with and en-
courage their brethren in Canada to bring about the annexation ; but
in the Province itself they would certainly dispossess themselves of the
position they occupy as the church of Canada F^ast, and they would
very nmch endanger the large landed j)ossessions by which they are
at present enriched. Then, as to the Conservative nnnority in Upper
Canada, thev would be driven still further from office. As was the
case in the States when .Jefferson came into power, the democratic
element would increase in strength after the change ; and a party

wiiicli.

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Recent Travellers in North Amcriea.

upland,
•crciis)'.
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wliicli, under liriti-li rule, did not know liow to yield for a time to
the <)ver\vlielniiii<j^ force of a popular majority CM)nstitntionally (»l)(aiiied,
woidd l)e obii^'ed to take up a new pditical position very oorusiderably
ill advance of its past profi'ssions, or he content to surrender all liope
of materially intlui'nciny^ for the future the utlairs of /Ac new State.'

Thus, in the Caiiadus, party animosities and the superior pro-
ijress of" the noar(\st States arc tlu; chiet internal sources of danp'r;
but in the valuable province of New iJrunswick — accordinjj to
Professor Johnston — the tind)er, or 'hnuber,' trade, has been the
jrreat fountain of evil. At first there was an apj)arently inexhaust-
ible resource in its boundless forests. The cuttinjr of the trees,
th(> haula«;e and iloatinu: of them down the rivers, jjave healthy em-
i)lovnu'nt to many nu'n ; the raisinsj^ food for these men called
atiricultural industry into play ; tUv export of the timber employed
many vessels and enriched nuuiy merchants. I]ut the cultintr went
on most lavishly, even at low j)rices ; while every year carried the
scene of the woodmen's labours further up the main rivers and
into more remote creeks and tributaries, — adding, of course, to
tiic lalu)ur of procurin<>- the lojjs, and their cost when brouj^ht to
the j)lace of sliippinij:. l)esj)ite of the j^radual overstoc kiu}'' of
tli:? home market, the colonists U(nit on fellinp; trees and bulldinj^
saw-mills, till the; ireneral endiarrassment became sufficiently alarm-
iuij. Just at this jumture, in ])ursuance of our new j)olicy, the
TiMd)er Duties Bill of iS^t) was passed. This at once broujilit
matters to a climax: ccmntless families were ruined, and the cry of
discontent has never since <rone down.

Out of the iunnediate evil the Professor anticipates an ultimate
p)()d for New Brunswick. It was, he says, an a( knowledji^ed
effect of the lumber-trade that, so lonjj^ as it constituted the lead-
ing industrv of that province, it overshadowed and lowered the
social rank of every other. The lumberer, fond as the Indian of the
free air and untrammelled existence of the forest, receivinjif ample
wajjes, livin;"^ on the finest flour, and enjoyinu^ lonu,- seasons of
Jioliday, looked down upon the ajjcricultiual drudj^e who toiled
the year lon"^ on his few acres wit!; little beyond a comfortable
nialntenance to show on the credit side. The youns: and adven-
turous amonii; the province-born were tempted into what was con-
sidered a hijxher and nu)re manly, as well as a more remunerative
line of life; and many of the hardiest immiji^rants followed their
example. A ^rcat proportion of the farmers themselves were
seduced by the occasionally splendid profits of lumbering — as a
lucky hit in a minins^ country makes crowds of miners ; and thus
not (mly was the risinsj; jjeneraticm largely demoralised by the
habits of the woods, l)ut agriculture was neglected, and the
farmers very generally involved in difficulties.

The

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Recent Travellers in North America.

Tlio result of all this had Ix'cn an cxtcnsivo einijjmtlon to the
States, both of farmers and lumberers — many of the former
leavhi" their huuls to their ereclitors without even the form of
a sale. Had as this is, it may, in Mr. Johnston's opinion,
have aiTorded the Province its best chance of nnurnin^ to n
healtliv, cheerful, em'r»;('tic, and prosperous ccmdition. All, he
says, that is now retjuired, is that *• the farmers mind their own

husim'ss.^

We can !)y no means adopt the agricultural Professor's evident
coldness as to the tind)er industry of these rejjions. It seemed
ri|?ht to state fully tlu; c(mclusions he arrived at as respects New
Brunswick ; but we must sujr^est t«) him that that is only a ])artof
the question. lOven in New Hrunswick, it would apjx^ar from a late
petition of the Lejjislative Council and Assembly of the Province
to the House of Lords that, notwithstanding; the severe eflects of
the Act of l^4(), the timber trade had reformed, and to a con-
siderable extent recovered itself. The Act, 'based on the prin-
ciples of free trade, placed foreijjn and colonial wood in the British
market upon ane(juality, tdhimj into considerntion the difference of
distance and cunserjuenf/i/ (f frcif/ht.' I>ut the British Cjiov(Tn-
ment have, in the present Session of Parliament, pnx laimed their
purpose to carry the war a<;ainst the Colonial wood-interests much
further — in short to make such a new r(!(luction in the duties as
would leave no inari^in whatever for the diU'erence of distance and
frei<j;ht between our American ports and the ports of the IJaltic.
A similar petition, moreover, has been addressed to the House ot
Lords bv the Council of the (Quebec ])oard of Trade ; which shows
that exactly the same alarm has been excited in Canada . Arc
we reallv determined to complete the alienati(m of ]5ritish North
America ?

Inconsecjuence, no doubt, of this wide-spread discontent, so closelv
connected, first and last, with the inlluence of the anti-colonialisis in
our Home Ciovernment, a bill has lately been presented in Con-
gress, declarinsxtiie expediency of obtaininjj by j)eaceal)le means the
annexatifm of our Provinces. A formidable symptom of ' j)leasant
relatitms!' Yet, in the face of it, we cannot (piite overlook tiie (>lc-
ments of discord anddisunicm now at work in the Cireat Republic
itself. We have all read enou<jh of the rivalry and anta<;onisiii
between the States of the South and North, especially in rei>ai(l
to the tarifif and slavery questions. \\\vn Mr. Calhoun is said to
have l)een of opinion that the time had arrived when the Confcd*--
racy was stnmf; enough to bear dividinij into two — and that the
interests of the Northern and Southern States were become suMi-
ciently diverse to require it. Since the passinuf of the iMiuitixc
Slave Bill, the animosity has been doubled. The spectacle of men,

wonu'U,

Recent Trarcllcra in North America.

w(>Mfi(>n, niid cliildron, wlio liad settled in the P'ree States as an
.isylum, di!i;:j::e<l away from aiuoiiir them hy their puvsuinj; owners,
has ^n'atly I'xcited the New I'lnj^hmders. We read lately in the
newspapers of a slave recaptured alter live years' Ireedoin ; and
another rase of a Icinale lar advanced in pre<;nancv, whose oflsprinj;
ot" course would become the j)roperty ol" her captor. Ten years
a'jo, iiord ('arlislesays, there were people v/ho made it the business
ot" their lives to superintend the passajje ol the runawav slaves
tlirou^h the I''ree States, and about athousan<l ne^jroes yearly thus
made their way into Canada. Colonel Cunvnjfhame does not sur-
prise us by statiny,- that the exertions lor the escaj)e ol' slaves have
been largely stimulated by the b'uijitive IJill ; and that the inllux ol
Black immii^rants ol" loose habits into the Provinces was producinij
every day niore and more annoyance to our magistracy and police.
It is true that the hearts ol" both ends ot" the Union are still very
proud ot beloni;in<i: to a <jreat countrv so rapidly jxrowin;^ — far too
proiul to forcijo this boast without some most serious motive ; yet
it seems impossible to doubt that the tj'iestion of slavery will
ultiinately t(>ar asunder tlu^ Confederacy. Such a dissolution, Mr.
•Johnston tells us, was a topic discussed everywluM-e in tlu' States.
Clinj^man and his f()llowers had alrcadv ' br()u<j:ht it u])* in Con-
j;rcss as a thinix t<> be expected, were (.'alifornia aduutted (as she
has been), and other Vxvv. State measures adopted ; and it will
doubtless occur as soon as the States of this class obtain a decided
superiority in the Le^-islature. Of late years tlieir party has
been ji^reatly increased by the new I'^ree States tliat have sprung
up in the West. It is all(»^(>(l that the main impulse to the
war with M(>xic() was given by the desire of the Southerns to
regain their equality, by capturing .and erecting into slaveholding
States tlie immense territory of Texas — whicii they liavo accom-
plished. It is notorious that the violent opposition to the
incorporation of California arose from the anxiety of the Soutli
to exclu(l(> from Compress, and of the North to admit, the
deputies of this great Free State.* Indeed tliis (juestion of Slavery

* If the leailiiifi; journal ol' Ciilit'uiniii expresses flie sentiments of the new State, the
(liiiigor from its ailtnissioii into the I'nioii is Dot so imminent as the Southern States
suppose ; and ihe resplendent ])eroration of the followins; extract onglit, as the wr'ter
intends, to snolhe them : — ' For tlie last fifteen years,' says the Alta Culijvrnia,
* in onr Northern States tiiere has existed a class, many of tlioni of juire minds and
honest desires, hut at the Kime time men whose ideas encom])assed but asinall sjiace,
wlio in every j)o-^sil)le manner have warred af!:ainst tlie institution of slavery among
tlieir Soiitiierii brethren. The action at the North necessarily caused a re-action at
the South ; and duriiifj; the stormy times that attende<l the ushering; in to our bright
eonstellatidii of a sister star sparkliiijr witli frolden radiance, i';in;itics of the North and
South were busy liurlinj;; tlieir revengeful meteors at us, at tlic constellation of which

VOL. LXXXIX. NO. CLXXVll. 1 **>

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Recent Travellers in North America.

If ;i

or No Slavery lies at the bottom of some of the most vital political
moves of the day. It is to rivet their superiority, or at least to
form themselves into a powerful dominion, that the Southern States
steadily, though cautiously, ajrilate for the occupation of Cuba ;*
it is to secure the triumph of the Free system that the North lonji^s
for the annexatii'n of Canada. It is not a little due to this op-
position of interests that tlu; indolent Dons still hold jiossession
of the (^ucen of the Antilles ; and, after the California debate,
it is bevond all question that tlu; voice of the; South would
be veheinently raised aj^ainst any attempt to annex the British
Provinces.

Althoufrh, in theory, the federal compact is a voluntary uni(m
of sovereiirn States, which may be dissolved whenever even one
of them thinks its interest will be promoted by the separa-
tion; yet, wiicn an enu'rj2:cncy arrives, llie majority, if larjjie, may
be exjH'cted to resist sue h a separation by force of arms. Such,
at least, is the comnum impulse of mankind in like circumstances ;
and siuh in fact was the a\ow('d expectation of many even in the
Northern States whom Mr. Johnston heard spc>ak ujxm the sub-
ject. ' It amused me,' he sa\s, ' to hear men in (me brtvith talk
of annexinjj^ Canada and Nova Scotia, and threaten ven<icance
against the traitor States which should break up the integrity
of the Uni(m !' Will there be an armed struggle between the
North and South ? And if so, may not the exigencies of such
a contest demand a Dictator instead of a President — nay, gradually
rear uj) a royalty in the chosen domain of democracy ? This is
pecvdlarly probable with respect to the Souther?^ States, both from
the naturally aristcxratic feelings of the people, and from the
greater peril of their j)osition — exposed alike to hostility witl.out
and treachery witiiin — to tiu; hatred, open or disguised, of VV hite
and Black. Will there be tiiat horror of horrors, a servile war?
Profiting by the strife of rival States, will the Negroes battle tluMr
way to freedom, and <-stablish an African Government amid the
sons of .laphet y Never, in our day, unless aided by the North-
erns ; and dare the New i^nghinders fight with such a pois(med

we wire a ]iart, and at the gldiioiis sun, our l)li'Ssi'(l Uiudp, aioiiiid wliicli we all re-
volve. IJiit the " lair yoiin^,' t'ortii witli llasliiiu^ j^eiiis" sliiiiing aroiiiiil lier Ijiow lias
taken iier seat ainiin<^ tiie stany siaterliotxl; and iier presence, tree, iiiitraiiiineled, and
itiipieJiKliced, must liave a sootliiii^' ellect n|i(iii tlie jiassions nl'lier separated sisters,'

♦ i'erailventure the grand sahle Ewp'uc itself is not exempt iVoin danger. • If Hayti
gets into a collision willi the United States,' says an American puj;er. in reference
to a recent and perhaps still ))endiiig disagreement, ' it will Ije a serious matter for
Faustiii, as there are sevont dd ncorea tluit will hi; iripa' out at the saiitc lime.' Tlie
ULhabitants of a country are not ahvays of inimediale value to a concjueior; but tlie
slave gentry of the Soullicru States would lind a mint of money in St. Domingo.

arrow ?

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Recent Travellers in North America.

nrrow? Would it be possible for enlightened and pious advocates
of tlio coloured race to abet theni in a warfare which, whatever
the other results, must deepen and indefinitely prolon<^ their bar-
l>arisni ?

IJut serious as are the perils menacinjif the Confederacy in
l^astern America, it has become a matter of j^rave doubt with
many in the States wluitlu'r the dan<;er of disunion is not now
"icatcr on the coasts of the Pacific. Will ('alifornia and Oreijon
suhmit to have their laws made for them so far off as Washinijton?
VVill t!iey consent to pay import-duties at these remote spots, not
merely for the inaintenance of a F^'ederal Ciovernment, but for
the protection of manufactures in New I'lnji'land '? These and
other similar (juestions cannot be lonj^ staved off. In a few years,
when the Anglo-Saxon population on tlie Pacific shall have in-
( reased, and b(?come somewhat consolidated, a tariff based upon
prlnci})les not very different from those of l^'rce Trade is an almost
inevitable conse(juence. Amonu; them Frco Trade should find
its surest home : if t/ici/ repudiate it, it will indeed go a
begging on tlie face of the earth. It is agriculture in old States,
or infant manufacturers in n;nv ones, which ever repel the alluring
phantasm of so-called Reciprocity ; and the encouragement of one
or both of these interests is felt to be a necessity in every country
of the globe. California is the (mly exception. In it neither
agriculture nor manufacture, nor both cond3ined, can claim to be
the staple concern. Th(> land there, as everywhere else, is a
raw material; but it is gold, not grain, that they manufacture
out of it. So circumstanced — separated from tlie other States by
interest not less than by distance and the barriers of nature —
growing with the rapidity of the gourd and the strength of the
oak, California can well stand alone. She will not p.ay dear for
leading-strings, when she can walk in the path of empire with
the stride of a giant.

The abroijation of our naviiration laws has exposed our mer-
cantile marine; to a competition which at present they seem unable
to make head against. T'oremost are the Americans, who have
heat us hollow in the carrying trade with China, who are running
us hard (m every other line, and who boast that they will speedily
s»ipi)l;Mit us generally, and win from Old Kngland the sceptre of
the seas. I'lie excitement on this point is extreme in all the
ports of the Union. Mr. Johnston's book bears witness to it ;
the American papers are full of it ; and the interest in the struggle
between the two great rivals is as strong, and the lo Pagans for
the comiuf/ triumph as loud, at San Francisco as at New York.
Let us gatlier the spirit of the Californian })vess on this sub-

i" 2 ject.

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Recent Travellers in North America.

ject. The writer of an article entitled ' San Francisco's Future'
says : —

' What city can ever arise on the western coast of North America to
rival lier? Certainly none now liaving even a nucleus of population
and business. There is not a point from Pug^et's Sound to Cape St.
£ucas— we might say to ranamii— which possesses tlie possibility of
ever becoming a rival. . . . Realejo and Panama ran neither be
made rivals to us by all the railroads or all the ship-canals that
Jiave ever entered tlie imagination of tiie most speculative, because
of their tropical and unhealthy position. Wiiat results ? Why, that
San Francisco must be tlie great entrepot of the immense ocean, wliither
most of its countless keels will tend. The time is coming, too, when it
will become the greatest, whaling port in the world. With all the tine
ports and great cities of Asia it is to have intercourse, and none other
can interfere. Meri cannot make seaports. Heaven has done this for
us; and our beautiful bay cannot, by all the combinations of earth, be
despoiled of her position and destiny. We have the population. The
Americanized Saxon blood will do it.'

Here is part of an editorial juhilate on the sailing of four huge
steamers from San Francisco on the 15th of March last: —

* Four ocean-steamers, laden with passengers and treasure ! Tiiree
years ago, and no steamer iiad ever puffed her way u)) or down our
coast, or on our rivers ; and now we may almost challenije any of the
Atlantic cities to exhibit such a spectacle as we shall witness liere to-
morrow. If we progress in steam na\ igation dur'uKj ihe tjear to come as
we have for the year past, we shall have hues of steaniers established from
San Francisco to the islands of the Pacific, to China, to our whole
northern and southern coasts direct, and perhaps to Liverpool.'

Now for their views on ' Commercial Supremacy :' —

'In every sea where England had for nearly two hundred y^ars
been supreme, she now finds a hardy, bold, and shrewd competitor in
tlie Yankee, who brinu-s his own commodities in his own ships, and
oifers them at a successful price by the side of hers. The commerce
of India aggrandised in turn the Venetians, the Portuguese, and the
Dutch. England took it from them; and will soon be ready to
hand it over to us. For h"v<^, on the Pacific coast, the Waterloo of
Trade is to be fought. We mu^t beat our great competitor with our
home jiroducts, and coin witli those slu; produces herself. If she
chooses to break down our own markets with too great a supply of her
manufactured goods, we will use them to undersell her on her own
choice preserves in Mexico and South America. AVe camiot escape
our destiny if we would. It will be a struggle of intetise interest ;
hut of the result there can he nofjnestion. The Yankee, witii his clipper
ships — his steamers — his enterprise, his skill, his unceasing activity —
will defeat his rival ; and after establishing a successful trade with all

his

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Recent Travellers in North America.

61)

liis neighbours on the coast, he will then see open before him i]\vd great
Oriental trade which has contributed so nuicli to the proud commercial
supremacy of Britain.'

The news from California (besides the usual catalogue of de-
structive fires) shows that the country is still in a most disorderly
state. Tlie executive is too weak for the lawless bands with
wiiicli it has to deal; and the increase of crime is attributed partly
to tlie influx of escaped convicts from our Australian colonies.
That the })eople are horror-struck l)y the frequency of robberies
and assassinations is evidenced by the fact that Lynch-law has
been established in several districts. Among the victims of this
summary jurisprudence the case of an [englishman has excited a
newspaper controversy — it being alleged by some (probably
private friends, however) that he would not have been so treated
but for the prejudice against him as a native of the Old Country.
The mines continue very producti\'e ; but the operations are im-
peded by the Indian tribes, who have of late taken every oppor-
tunity to massa(;rc detached parties. Several bodies of the State
t'.()oj)s and of volunteers had moved up(m the scone of these violences.
Conferences had been opened with the Indians ; but attacks
were still occurring, and we expect that the next mails will bring
bloody tidings from the foot-hills of the Sierra Nevada. If the
Californian volunteers <mce get into warfare, the Indifuis will
meet with no mercy ; there will be ra::zias as compl -te as any
made by the ' moving columns ' of Bugeaud or Changarnier.
The hunters of the Far West, and indeed the whole frontier-men
of the States, care as little for the life of a Redskin as f(n' that of
a buffalo. And to all appearance the time is not far distant when
the abcn'igines of America will have vanished, like a heaven-
doomed race, from the face of the earth. What a theme for re-
flection is this annihilation of races I — an annihilation to which
the arclueology of almost every laud bears witness. Over the
corpses of his predecessors the Anglo-Saxon is now striding for-
ward ; and the death- bell is ringing for the old denizens of the
Australian and American worlds.

Not even excepting the wild, demoralising life of the gold-
seeker, the greatest social evil at present afllicting the Calirornians
is the scarcity of females. Those pcnsons are wrong who see in
the relation of the sexes in the United States onlv an imitation of
French gallantry. It is the natural result of this scarcity. For
two hundred years a tide of emigration, chiefly male, has been
flowing from Furope to America ; and in the three years 1847,
1848, 184*,), an excess of no less than 142,000 men thns en-
tered the States, bringing in as many extra competitors for the
hands of the native-born women. As these emigrants spread

themselves

Recent Traveller in No th America.

ik I

tliomsdves over tlio land, tlio nnmanicd fnnalos ainonj? tliom
aiv picked up before tliey have proceeded far from the sea-hoard :
and thus th(^ scarcity increases the farther westward we <;() ; and
the value at whicli they are estimated by the men and by them-
selves rises, till, in the I'ar West, they attain a famine jnice — and
there we have the paradise of women. The same cause has
operated in tlie opposite way amcmo; ourselves. The thousands
of our native youth who emis»:rate, never to return, leave l)eliin<l a
superfluity of the other sex. And tluis, as in the time of Medea,
if a woman has not wherewithal to buy a husband — beauty, fortune,
ccmncxious — she must wear out her unsoup^ht affectiims in an un-
valued and j)cr]iaps laboiious life. Ulrnm hoiiim?*

Not to mention weightier matters (leej)ly iniluencinj? national
morals — if the American ladies turn uj) their noses at the fjeneral
submissiveness {scrvilihi they call it) of their sisters of 10n<j:land,
we tliink it would not l)e difficult to point (mt frailties, perhaps
less amiable, amons;' themselves. Their freedom from parental
restraint borders too closely (m rebelli(m ; and their jLTreater self-
reliance and absence of reserve exposes them, especially in lar<j;e
cities, to dau'ijers from which our women are co)nparatively
exempt. Moreover ' spoilt beauties,' or non-beauties, are more
common, in jiroporiicm to the female j)()pulation, than witli us ;
and souji;ht after, courted, and indul<j:ed as they are, this is not to
be wondered at. But it is of material importance in the choice
of a wife. Xot merely do the rude but simple-hearted trappers
of the Far West prefer a Taos fjirl, or oth(>r of Spanish stock, to
the delicate and over-nice fair oxw?, of the States, but, as Mr. John-
ston rei)orts, the very Yankees in the St. Lawrence districts hold
a somewh.at similar opinion. ' I'll p() over to Canada for a wife,
when I marry,' said a youn;j: south-shore farmer to his friend.
' When 1 come home at nio;ht slie'll have a nice blazing- fire (m,
and a clean kitchen, and a comfortable supper for me: but if 1
marry a New-Yorker, it'll be, when 1 come home, John, ^u
down to the w(>ll for some water; or, John, go and liring: some
logs to put on the fire to boil the kettle. No, no ; a Canadian
woman's the wife for me.'

This greater influence of the female sex will not l)e without
good fruits for the humbler orders throughout America, if it bar

♦The decennial census of llie population of Gliisjjrow, just piililislied, shows (iiat
the females exceed llie males in that city hy more than sulceii t/antmiid. In Kdin-
burgii, tlieexcess of females in (lie Old town is 7^ per cenl. ; in the New tiiere are
actnally 151 women for every 100 men! In fjmerick the disproportion is still more
extraordinary, tliere being oidy 10,000 men to 28.000 women, or nearly two females
to each male. We have taken ti' se cases at random; l)ut they are important, as
showmg tlie actual ratio in the two great cities of Scotland, as well as in a princijial
seaport town of Ireland.

out

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Recent Travellers in North America.

out ono fiif»'lilful abuse wliith prevails amona: tlie working' classes
in this country. ' It has been computed (says Mr. Johnston) that,
ain()n!2: those whose earnin<js are from lO.s. to 15.s. weekly, at least
one-hall" is spent by the man upon objects (tobacco, spirits, cScc.)
in whi(;h the other members of the family have no share. Amonp^
artisans earninii^ from 2().<?. to 30.s'. weekly, it is said that at least
one-third of the amount is in many cases thus selfishly devoted.'
American society may consent to many inconveniences, if it can
save itself from the spread among its skilled labourers of sucli
habits as these.

In the face of this deartli and liijjli estimation of the female sex,
behold a strange contrast springing up within the Republican
borders. The Mornums, amidst the Christianity of the Far VYest,
are reproducing the polygamism of the East. Nay, worse — far
worse ; for no man in the world surpasses the Mussulman in the
jealousy with which he regards the lumour of his women, but
little of such a feeling is to be found among the proir-' >cuous hive
of the M()rm<mites. Their ' exliorters,' professing tlie most pious
adhesion to the doctrines of the Gospel, claim liberties whicli
justifved Luther in giving to kindred sinners of old their priestly
name of ' fathers.' Vet the sect is fast increasing ; and it is
mortifying to learn that most numerous accessions are daily made
to it from this country. From Liverpf)ol alone the hnon^n. Mor-
mon emigrants have amounted to about 15,000 ; and they have,
on the whole, been superior to, and better provided than, the other
classes of emigrants. ' Under tlie name of Latter-Day Saints,'
says Mr. Johnston, 'thedelusi<msof the system are hidden from the
masses by the emissaries who have been dispatched into various
countries to recruit their numbers among the ignorant and
(levoutlv-inclined lovers of novelty. Who can tell what two
centuries may do in the way of giving an historical position tc Jiis
rising heresy ?'

Their practices excited uncontrollable disgust wherever they
fust congregated ; and even 'universal tohnation' could not shield
them from its eflects. ()hi(., Missouri, Illinois, wild as they are,
would have nothing to do with them ; and after various struggles
and combats, their chief, Joe Smith, and some of his profligate
'saints,' were killed 'right off' by the incensed populace of the
last-named State. Tiie rest then betook themselves 'right off;'
and after traversing the wide prairies, the d serts of the Far West,
and the Rocky Mountains, they finally pitched their tents near
the Great Salt Lake in Greg(m. Mere tliey increase and multiply,
in the midst of a vast champaign, running north and south fen-
hundreds of miles, isolated by sandy deserts or the briny lake,
separated from the elder States by the Rocky Mountains, from

California

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Recent Travellers in North America.

' ■

California by the Sierra Nevada; and here they are bnildintr tlieir
Cities of the Plain. Their position — an entrepot, midway on the
overland route to California — must of itself ensure importance.
Already thev have a place on the ma]>, and are strivinfj after hijjher
honours. Tliey form the nucleus of the new dominion of Ut' li,
this year erected into an independent territcny of the Cjreat Re-
public, ' and placed by tiie President under the orders of Governor
Younu:, Chief of this Sect.' — {Cnni/nf//iame, p. 134.) This Utah,
all reporters ajj^ree, is likely, in the very next session of C<mjjress,
to be elevated to the diijnity of a sovereiirn State. ' So rapidly
(says Mr. Johnston) has persecution helped on this olVsprinff of
ignorance, and tended to give a permanent establishment, and a
bright future, to a system not simply of pure invention, but of
blasphemous impiety and folly the most insane.' The strange sight
will soon be seen of Mormon deputies at Washington, shaming
Christendom with their retinue of women. What will the proud
fair of the Western States &ay then ? Unless the wild Missourians
remember their old grudge, and intercept the polygamous cavalcade
by their favourite tar-and-feathers, there is no help i'or it. I'^ach
State can make wliat social laws it pleases, and these laws must
be tolerated througliout the rest of the Union ; so that the Utah
deputies may parade their harem through the streets of Washing-
ton, ' none daring to make ihem afraid ;' and may recover a runa-
way wife (if they think it worth while), by means of the public
authorities, in the same way as if slie were a I'ngitive slave.

To return to our own provinces — Mr. Johnston's remarks
upon the present conditicm of the descendants of the original
French settlers in Lower Canada and New IJrunswick, though
scattered over different parts of his work, are worth (ollating
from their clearness and discrimination. In language, habits,
feelings, and religion, they an; little changed since the day when
Wolf won (Quebec — except that, according to all calm wit-
nesses, time has softened the animosity of the vampiished to
their conquerors. Inhabiting a pre-eminently healthy country,
where tliere is not an ague even among the forests and marshes,
and possessed of that cheerful insouciance so favourable to the
vital functions, they marry early and multiply rapidly. At
Kamouraska Mr. Johnston stojiped to get a fresh horse and car-
riage, and on starting (doul)tless knowing a Frenchman's foible),
expressed to the new cocker his admiration of his i)retty young
wife, and inquired her age. ' One-and-twenty.' ' And how long
have you been married?' 'Six years— and she was a widow
when I married her.' Fourteen and fifteen is a (onunon age
lor the marriage of females, and eigiiteen for males, on the shores
ol the St. Lawrence. And die wonuni continue ])roli(ic to a com-
paratively

;V-*t:*-

Recent Travellers in North America.

paratively advanced period of life. ' My driver,' says Mr. John-
ston in another phue, ' was one of fourteen chiklrc .. — was himself
the father of fourteen, and assured me that from eight to sixteen
was the usual number of the farmers' families. He even named
one or two women who had brought their husbands five-and-
twenty, and threatened le vimft-sixieme pour le prctre ! [This
alludes to the allotment of a twenty-sixth part of the produce of
the land to the priests.] I expressed my surprise at these large
families. ' Oui, M<msieur,' said he, ' vous avez raison. Nous
sommes terribles pour les enfants.' The result is, there are added
to this fertile population four persons for every one added to that
of England.

Lower Canada presents perplexing diversities ; and among
these are the various modes of holding land. The country
is laid out in townships and seignories — the tenure in the for-
mer being by soccape {i. c, free, by grant or purchase from the
Crown) — in the latter, en fief from the seigneurs. These free
and feudal settlements intermingle, yet differ totally from each
other in religicm, habits, systems of agriculture, style of houses,
and partially also in their laws — almost everything being
ihitish in the townships and French in the seignories. The
lands held in feudal tenure were almost all granted before
our ( ()n({uest, and amoiuit to about nine millicm acres : those
in soccage extend to about seven million acres, only half of
which have now been granted off. The remainder of the pro-
vince is known as the Waste Lands of the Crown — all liable
to be granted either in feudal or soccage tenure at the plea-
sure of the sovereign. The population of the townships is
still small in proportion to that of the whole province, but is
raj)i(lly increasing ; and, though hitherto with little success,
every inducement is held out for the gradual conversion of
th(! feudal into the soccage tenun;. It is a remarkable thing
to fuid feudalism still existing, and on a large scale, in the middle
of the nin(!teenth century, and in the liberty-loving regions of the
i\ew World, f^ngland respected it when she conquered Canada ;
and, after all, it is not even now without its advantages. It is
favourable to the reclaiming of the country, and makes it easy
for tlie poor and the young to establish themselves in life. All
that a young kabitant has to do is to go to his seigneur and ask
his permission (which is never refused) to settle on some portion
of unoccupied land, and thenceforward a small annual rent is all
that is required of him, and he becomes the legitimate possessor
of the ground he farms. In Canada feudalism has lost all its re-
pulsive features.

'Though seigneurs exist there,' says M. Marniier, 'they liave

neither

Recent Travellers in North America.

f |!

iieillior serfs nor viis.sals. Tlie seia;iieiir traiisniifs liis titles ami ri^Iits
to liis eldest son. lie lias a reserved seat in tlie cimreli ; the pilot
l)reseiits him vitli the holy water, and recommends him and his fimiily
tv) tlie prayers of tlie laitiifid, accordiiig- to the old customs of Fiiuicc.
l>u^ his annual rents. remainin<y at the same rate as in the seven-
teenth eeiitnry, are of little value, lie indeed g'athers also a iW'
(one-twelfth of the price) upon each sale or exeiianp^e of land within lii>
seig-nory ; and this becomes considerable when the land is culliviited
and houses have been erected upon it. Tliese dues, however, the
seigneurs are reihicing', out of respect to the altered circumstances of tin
times. Thus the Seminary of St. Sulpice, which is seigneur of the lsl(
of Montreal, and M'hose original right would now ])roduce a revemii
quite enormous, has successively lowered its rate of charge, and is every
day mai\ing new concessions. Nevertheless, as this reduction is im
compulsory, and as some seigneurs have declined to grant it, much di>-
satisfaction is arising, and the <!ent:i<i()gues are demandinn' the totiil
overthrow of the seignorial edifice. 'J'heir clamours have ah'eady ri'-
sounded more than once within tiie walls ol" Parliament. Certainly
they will not succeed, at least not soon, in accomplishing their act of
demolition, for they could not. in common justice, despoil the seigneurs
of their rights without giving them an indemnity, — and that would he
no small affair, lint it is probable that, in next session, the IMinistiy
will brin<»- in a bill for establishing a rcLirular tariff of dues on tiie siic-
cession to property.'

Few tvavollers make any mention of these seigneurs. Sovei.il
of theiM, we believe, are now the sole representatives of once
eminent families of French noblesse. The most are understood
to have no such heraldic claims. In a })ainj)hlet puldislied w
fjood many years ago, the Right Hon. Sir (leorgc Rose, fornierlv
our minister at Washington, gave somu' curious details as to tlieir
titles — which seem to have been largeh manufactured out of the
rerjimental nichnames of the bold dragocms sent out as settlers bv
Louis (juatorze, and accompanied, under bis paternal orders, bv
helpmates collected from off the streets of Paris by bis lieutenant
oi police. The present titularies — whether real old nobles, or
only Maniuesses de Rnut/e-Bec^ IJarons de L' Isle (TJniour, and so
lorth — seem to be almost invisible. We find in the books before
us but (me distinct notice of them, namely, where M. Alarmier
s])eaks of ' deux aristocraticiucs habitations ' at St. liyacinthc on
the Samaska.

' This village,' he says, ' is the chief place of a seigneiuy fwen///-
iliree leiujues iu extent, belonging to an agreeable young man wlio
liJis travelled nmcli in Europe, aiid brought back with him a liberal
ndnd and varied information. 1 could have believed myself in a
sdlau of Paris, from the aspect of the works of art with \vhich lie
has surrounded himself, lint what resend)les in nothing our dear
country is the prospect which spreads cmt beneath his wiiidows— the

rif^tii.'

I'll ri^lits
tlic priest
lis fillilily

France.
If .se\eii.
so a fee
vifliiii Ills
ultivatrti
ever. tin.
H'sof the
f the I sit

rcvt'iiii!

is e\('iv
>li is III ;
iiicli (li>-
the totiil
ready ru-
Jerfainly
ir act (if
eiiriiciirs
would be
iMiiiistry
tlie siic-

Severnl

ol" OIUC

lerstood

ll.sll(>(l 1)

ormcrlv
to their
t ()(' the
tiers l)v
lers, l)v
Milenant
l)les. or
and so
> helore
lariiiiei
lithe on

fwentji-
liUl \\\w
I liberal
'If ill a
lieli lie
ir dear
vs — the
rustic

Recent TrareUcrs in North America,

<()

rnstie banks of the Samaska, the immense silent plain, dotted with
sombre woods ( ut only on one side l)y the faint bine heights of
r>cll(i'il, and spreading away to the north like a shoreless sea. M. de

H has for neiglibonr a proprietor wealtiiy and well infortned. at

whose house I spent a pleasant evening, listening to two chilihcn.
fresli and rosy as two strawberries of the woods, who sang, to the ae-
compiuiinient of the piano, Canadian melodies and the simple wild songs
of tiie forest.'

I]y a lloyal ordonnanco of 1745 houses were forbidden to be
ere( ted on farms of less extent than one aero and a half in front
and forty in deptii ; but, though Canada had been ours Icmg before
tht! llevoluti(m, its prinfi})les as to divisi<m of property have been
in praetiee very largely adopted ani<mg the French population.
The right of primogeniture is no longer binding ; and in many
(ases, instead of leaving the home-farm to the eldest, the fa.iily of
sons parcel it among themselves. Four sons will divide a posses-
sion of two arpents in front, and thirty or forty backwards, into f(mr
long stripes of half an arpcmt broad in fnmt, and thirty or forty in
lenjith. Thus the evils attendant upon the original bad shape of
the farms become manifold increased ; the morccllenwnt proceeds,
in some localities, as raj)i(lly as in so many (uitricts of France
and Ijclgium ; and the J)o^ crty of the people a<lvances in propor-
lion. It is the exact counterpart of the subdivisicm into h)ng
sUipes whicli has led to such woful results among the subtenantry
in Ireland — a similar Celtic population.

Such a subdivision, followed by the building of houses along
the roadside up<m each lot, has great effec^t in adding to the ap-
])areiit j)opulousness. Continucms rows of hou^ !s, separated by
one or two intervening fields, accomjiany you for miles of journey,
hi lact, wherever the country is fully settled, this is the case
— unless the travc^hn* happens to turn uj) a cross-road, when a
(ouple of miles iitai/ occasionally be passed without meeting
Mith a farmers house. This peculiar arrangement of the farms
■ — ridopted at first to concentrate the resources of the young colony,
and to provide against the attacks of the Indians — has been ad-
li'TiMl to, no doubt, from that love of society for which the French
])()j)ulation are remarkable, alike in Canada, Nova Scotia, and
Aew Jirunswick. l^ut such a system is very adverse to agricul-
tural iiiijirovement. 'Tlie amount of labour, both fen* men and
horses,' says Mr. Johnston, ' is much increased by placing the
<('nire of oj)erati(ms and the home of the labourers and stock at
tlie extremity of these stri])es ; and the diHiculty is greater
m jiroperly superintending the farm. Separated more widely
from each other, too, lliey might possibly <;ossip less and labour
nior(\'

Recent Travellers in North America.

i t

\n manv placps the outward ivscmblanco of this i)coplc to oui
poorer Irish is very strikinj;. The broken panes in the windows
are stuffed with ohl hats, and the clothes of the peasantry often in
tatters. The smart Freneh character of not a f('w modern houses,
whitened over with quicklime, sujrj::ests a j^rowinj,^ aversion to live
in the old Celtic filth ; — even these more inviting' abodes, liow.
ever, are within anythinji: but clean and comfortable — accordiii;'
to our notions ; and then, what is Irish enough, the new taste tor
this kind of display too often leads the fanner to spend upon a
dwellinfj^ what he must raise by a m()rt<ra<i:e upon his acres— in
the upshot losinj? both house and land, and compelled to be|,'ii:
the world anew in a lojj-house. Thouj^h comparatively uncd,.
cated, thev are ready-witted ; and in morals, all writers assi.\i
them a hij2:h })lace. Robbery and violence are unknown anions
them — even theft is almost unheard of. They are modest and
sinjple-hearfed ; and owinj; probably to the practice of early in;\i-
riajjes, the sexual licence, too prevalent in France, is here nUo-
gether absent. Tliey are an easy, fjay, fj^oodnatured race. Thev
never seek employuu>nt abroad so lonjj^ as they have a banc!
of flour in the house ; and when hired they are not to be de-
pended upon as servants. A trifle will take them away from
their Avork — and so many church-holidays interfere with it — lui
they are all zealous Roman Catholics — that IJritish settlers rarely
retain them unless when no other hvlp^- are to be had, or when
they are willinij^ to bind themselves to regular attendance, despite
of their Saints' days.

These arc not men able to cope with the sturdy Anglo-Saxon
in the great battle of life ; and wherever the two races are inter-
mingled the French go to the wall. At Belledune, for inst.uKc,
the present settlers are Ayrshire men, though all this coast was
not long since extensively occupied by the French. These canny
Scots have their wits about them wherever 'Johnny Cra})aud '
happens to possess good or easily improvable land. His thouglit-
lessness and improvidence give them too many opportunities
of buying him out ; and the liabitans are fast retiring into the
interior.

' With all this,' says Mr. Johnston, ' the Frencii are the most cheer-
ful people in this country ; and one cannot mix with them without feel-
ing that their easy contentment may possibly be more productive of
positive worldly happiness than the restless, discontented, striving,
burning energy of their neighbours.'

Mr. Johnston, like most other travellers in the United States,
was struck with the gravity and decorum with which public dis-
cussions are there usually carried on, and the complete apparent sclt-
possession of the speakers. Our insular nervousness is a tiiinji

unknown

\mk

liigi

,> ^* « »

Recent Travellers in North America.

'<>1>1<' to our

try often in
Hern linnscs,

siou to live
'O'lcs, liou-.

■«'U'C()l(|il);r

•w tnst(! for
•t'nd u])()ii;,
s a(i(>s— ill

f(l to |)(.n^i,

[voly lined,.
t<"i-s ;issi:ii
>wn anion:;
nodest niid
' early mnr-
horc iilto-

ICC. '\\,y

e a barri'!
: to be de-
awaj from
^ith it— f„r
ttlers raiclv
k1, or when
lee, despite

nglo-Saxoii
i are infer-
)r inst.-niee,

coast was
liese caniiv

Cra]);iii(l '

is tll()U«rIlt-

portunifies
^ into th'j

nost clieer-
ithoiit ft'ol-
d active of
, striving,

?d States,
ublic dis-
irent self-
5 a tiling'
unknown

unknown to tlie American republican. Acknowledf^in": no
\\\yr\\vv rank than liis own, and naturally thinkln^jf his own opinion
the rijrht one, he (•xj>resses his sentiments with a confident frank-
ness, whi(;h amonfji; us is only the result of lonjj^ traininjr. Partly
also, says Mr. Johnstcm, it is to be attributed to the undisciplined
and uncontrolled way in which childrtin are brouffht up ; and he
;rivcs the followinjr little anecdote in illustration :—

' A friend of mine had a boy of twelve or thirteen years employed
ill his office to run messages. Tliis boy several times brought me notes,
and whik; waiting for an answer, he would walk first to one table and
examine the books and papers, then to another and do the same; and,
finally, to the mirror ami arrantje his hair in the coolest manner ima-
ginable. I was amused with this for one or two visits. At last I said
to liim that in my country we did not approve of little errand-boys
takiii}^' such liberties and showing so much conceit wlieii they came into
a gentleman's rooms ; and I rerpiested that when he came in future he
would sit down quietly till I wrote an answer. The boy was amazed,
but was very respectful ever affer. His master told me nothing had
ever mortified him so much, and at the same time done him so much
good ; but, when 1 asked why he had never set the boy right himself,
he gave me no rejjly. On telling the matter to an American lady of
my acquaintance, however, she asked me immediately — " Were you
not afraid to speak to the boy in that way ? That boy may be Pre-
sident of the United States yet." " And what then? " ""Why, he
luiiiiit do you a great deal of harm." It was now my turn to look
aiiia/.ed. It is not a persuasion tliat it is best for the boy which re-
strains reproof, but a fear tiiat it may be worse for the reprover. This
fear of one another, I was assured ))y various persons, amounts often
to a species of tyranny throughout tliis Union.'

This mode of training the ytmng is one of the most im-
portant of the social and domestic traits by which the United
States are distinguished from (mr own homes, and from most, if
not all, of our colonies. What would even the ancient republics
ol Tilreece and Rome have thought of such a ' running wild' of
children? How would Cato or Cicero have stood aghast at the
following anecdote, narrated to Mr. Johnston by a friend? —

' A settler of many years at Dalhousie, a shoemaker by trade, had
saved 500/. in money, and had five or six boys growing up, when he
fooi< it in his head to go otl' to Wisconsin. Six months after his
departure, a small vessel from Quebec entered the harbour of Dal-
housie, and, when evening came on, a depressed-looking man in
siial)by clothing landed and walked ui) to my house. I was .>>urprised
to recognise my old neighbour the shoemaker. " You are surj)rised,"
he said ; " but tiiough I w as a fool to go away, I have had courage
enough to come back. When I had got to AVisconsin, my boys —
who had been good boys here — began to neglect their work and dis-
regard

Recent Trarclfcrs in North America.

1%
It.

resjard nie. I durst ni>t corrtH't tliem, sir, or I slujiild lia\p Ixcn
niobbt'd. 'I'lu'y soon k'ariud tliis, and my iintliority was gone. .\|\
heart was sore — my nioiiey was meltinu^ away — my cldhlrcii wcic n
sorrow instead of" a coiidort U\ me, and talked of starlin|j^ for thcin,
selves. 1 sold oHund eame down to Canada. '' Now, my l>oys," sivi
I, "I have jj^ot you nnder the I'ritish tiay ayain, and we'll havi; no
more rel)ellion." So I kept my hoys in hand — but we didn't {^ct on
as we usrd t() (h) — and at last I dctennined to come l)a(!k to Dal-
honsie. What's the world to me, sir, if my hoys are to he a vcxatidii
torn*;? I5ut 1 haven't a [)eimy of money; and our <'lothin^• is >.:
scanty that I am ashamed to hrin<:c them all ashore in dayliyht.'

The independeiue of Ixdiaviour produced by the (loctrliie d
perfect individual c(|uality shows itself soinetinu's in very aiuusiii.'
ways : —

' T was told at Boston,' says Mr. .lohnsfon, ' of a L>entleman in ili^
neighbourhood, who, liaviiiy engag«'d a farm-scrxanf, found him vtiv
sati>factory in all respects, except that he invariably came into tli
house, and even into his master's room, with his hat (»n. "' dohn," he saiil
to him one (lav. " vou ahvavs keep V"*"' hat on when vou come intu
the house." " Well, sir, haven't 1 aright to?" " Yes, I snppoM
you have." " Well, if I have a right to, why shoiddn't I?" Thi.
was a poser. After a monu'ut's rcHcction he shrewdly asked, " Now.
John, what" 11 you take — how nuich more Mages will you ask — to take
your hat ottwlien you come in?" " Well, that requires consideration.
I g'uess." " Take the thing into consideration then, and tell me t((-
nioriow morning." The morrow conies. '* \\'ell,dohn, have you con-
sidered?" '' Well, sir, I guess it's Morth a dollar a monfii." •' lt'ssctti<d
then, .John, you shall have another dollar a month ;" and the genih •
man retained a good servant, while John's hat \uis always in his hand
when he entered the house in future. So works democracy. Tlii'
Kentucky people cast in the teeth of the IJostoniaus that they woislii|i
the ainughty dollar. At all events, even in a deiuociacy, the stiHc.-t
has his price, and wealth cannot be tieprived of a certain auu)unt ut'
influence.'

' Travelling nnich in the stngc-(oachcs,' says Lord Carlisle, ' 1
foun<l it amusing to sit by the (lin'erent coachmen, who were
generally youths from the Eastern States, pushing their wa\
in life, and full of fresh and racy talk. One of them, who pro-
bably came from New York — where they do not like to use tl.c
word master in speaking of their cm])loyers, but prefer an old
Dutch name, loss — said to me, " 1 suppose the (»)ueen is youi
boss now ?' '

This Lecture is a model of what a discourse on such a subject,
delivered to a popular assembly, should be. It is a scries of pic-
tures — or etcliiiifjs — clear and compendious, of the leading nu'U
and leading places in America, and evinces at once delicacy ot
observation and the gentlest and kindest heart. From a productiou

Rnrnt Travrllcrs in North America,

n were li
for Uiciii.

IlilVC III,

to l);il-

Vt'Xiltioii

SO ul<l<'lv (inn

lilted

we irnist borrow

hut

spariiiir

ly. n

ore IS a

1 ill))

" IS'ow.

'I'll

iiiast<'rly sk<'f<!i t'roin the rail.

• Fniiu Albany to Iltica tlic railroail follows the stream of the
Moliawk, wliieh reealU the name of the early Itidiaii dwellers in that
Idiylit valley, sliU retaiiiiii<^' its swellin<^ outline of wood-eovered hills,
l)iit ^lly with prosju'rons villaj^es and lm>y (rultivaticMi. I was perhap.-*
>tiil uKtie strnek the next ev(Miin<j;^, thon<^h it was a more level country,
wliere tlit; railway passes in the midst of the imcleared or clearinjLf
t()re>t, ami suddenly bursts out (d' a pine g'hule or cedar swamp into
tlie iiciirt of some town, probably four, three, or two yoars i)ld, with
tall white houses, wiill-lighted shops, billiard-rooms, c^e. ; and
iMiier^in'jr, as we <lid, from the dark shadows into the full inooidii^ht,
the wooden spires, donu's, and porticos of the infant cities looked every
hit as if they luul been hewn out of the marble (juarries of Carrara. 1
iiiii aware that it is not the received opinion— but there is soinetliin<jf
l)()tli in the outward aspect of this region and the general slate oi
society accompanying it which to me seemed euunently poetical.
What can be nujre strikiuL;' or stirrinj^, des])ite the occasional rudeness

S(»

of the forms, than all this enterprise, energy, and life, wellinijc up in
till! de.-ert? At the towns of Syracuse, of Aul)nru, and of Rochester,
I experienced the sort of feelin<r whii'h takes away one's breath; the
process seeuu'd actually ooiny on t)efore one's eyes, and (»ne liunliy
kiious whether to think it as grand as the Iliad, or as (luaint as a hur-
Icciuin faice.'

Take this a specimen of tin; t()wn-j)Ictures.

• I took up my winter (piarters at iS'ew York. I thought this, the
i'liiiunercial and fashionable, tliou'jfh nt)t, the political capital of the
I'liion, a very brilliant city. To yive the best idea of it, I should
(! ■scri!)e it as something of a fusion between Liverpool and Taris —
crowded quays, long perspectives of vessels and masts, bustling stieets,
^^ay shops, tall white houses, ami a clear brilliant sky overhead. There
is ail absence of solidity in thif general appearance, but in some of the
new buildings they are successfully availing themselves of their ample
rosoiirces in white marble and granite. At the point of the Battery,
where the long thoroughfare of Uroadway, extending some miles,
pushes its green fringe into the wide harbour of JS'ew York, with its
glancing waters and graceful shipi)ing, and the limber, long raking
masts, which look so different from our own, and the soft swelling-
outline of the receding shores ; it has a special character and beauty
of its own. 1 si)ent about a month here very pleasantly ; the society-
appeared to me, on the whole, to have a less solid and really refined
cluiracter than that of Boston, but there is more of animation, gaiety,
and sparkle in the daily life. In point of hospitality, neither could
outdo the other.'

The rapid growth of New York and other cities of America is
a leading topic with all travellers ; and we are in the habit of
iiearing so much of this, that we are apt to forget what is doing
nearer us. Our Transatlantic cousins, justly proud and delighted

with

Recent Travellers in North America.

•!

with their progress, and above troublinp^ themselves with investi-
gating tlie causes of it, make each other believe that they stand
alone as an innately energetic people. Moreover, ninety-nino
out of every hundred of our emigrants know little or nothing of
their native kingdom beyond the locality in which they have boon
brought up, and generally nothing more than the outside appear-
ance of that ; so that when they cross the Atlantic everything is as
new .and wonderful to them as London or Birmingham would
be if they had been taken to these cities instead, and tliey very
soon gratify all they talk to by agreeing that what they have not
seen does not exist, and ' that there is nothing equal to tliis in tlit
Old Country.' To such persons it is of no conscqu^noe that flftv
physiologists assert that the Anglo-Saxon race degenerates in
America, and that it cannot be kept up beyond its natural region
without constant act.^Msi<ms of new blood. They point to New
York as a fact worth a dozen theories. I3ut the growth of this
city proves nothing on the general subject — it is a testimony
to the energy of its actual inhabitants, but nothing more. As
the Atlantic port of an interior country of great extent and vast
promise. New York has certainly attracted many native-born
Americans to settle within its bounds for the purposes of traffic ;
but it is from this side of the Atlantic that its main increase has
been drawn. I'^very manufacturing district in Euro])e, and every
large commercial port, has sent its agencies and branch establish-
ments with similar trading objcxts; so that, during these sixty years,
New York may be said to have been built up by Europe ratlui
than by the exerticms of America herself.

The- progress in population of Glasgow and New York, savs
Mr. Johnston, is represented by the following decennial returns : —

'.NOII-l. .1820-1. 18:!0-1. IR-lll-1. 184,). 18:)0.

Glasgow, 77,OUO 147,043 •20:i,4-Jfi 28-2,134 — 3G7,SO0

Probablv
New York, 60,489 123,706 203,007 312,710 371,102 400,000

'These numbers show that, without any of the advantages of an
eiionnous transit-trade, Glasgow lias in a remarkable decree kept pace
with New York. During tiie first thirty years of the century, New
York barely gained upon it the originai tlitierence of 17,000 souls.
During the last twenty, its comparative progress lias been more
rapid, lint then tuw-Ji/ths of the New York popnlafio?i are foreigners
horn, and they and their families make up more than half the inha-
bitants, lioth cities.it is true, have been almost equally indebted to
immigration, but— excei)t the low Irish who have been drifted into
both cities, and wiio are an incubus rather than an ai<l, and far from
being an element of progress— (J lasgow is peopled wholly by native-
born Scotch. 'J'jiis city, therefore, may be regarded as a true testimotiy
to the enterprise and perseverance of the people wiio iidiabit tiie westein
Lowlands of Scotland. It is far more wonderful, as the result of half

a century

II'

Recent Travellers in North America.

a century of exclusively home exertion, than the rapid rise of New
York is, or than that of any other American city in which I have
been.

' The inland city of Birming-hani with its suburbs is not less an
illustration of native energy. Since the beginning of the century its
nrouress lias been as follows : —

l^iOl. 1811. 1821. 18.3!. 1841. 1851.

73,G70 85,755 100,722 146,9«!() 220,000 300,000
It does not equal either Glasgow or New York in size — but its growth,
in the centre of an inland district, through the instrumentality of
native-boiij talent working upon native mineral productions, leaves
no doubt as to the physiological question of the inherent energy of the
home-born who inhabit it.'

The value of immigrants to America may bo judged of by the
fact that, assuming each to bring with him only 10/., this, for
the 2()0,0()() who yearly land at New \ Ork alone, makes an annual
addition of two millions sterling to the money capital of tlu?
country. Then a sinirle year's labour of these 200,000 in agri-
cultural operations upon now land, must add at least 5/. a-hcad,
or another million to the capital of tlie new States ; while the in-
creased consumption of imported articles, by the added popula-
tion, augments the federal revenue, wliicli is — and in spite of our
preaching and practice will continue to be — deri^etl from the
duties levied upon imports.

It is l^urope, therefore, that is the main-spring of the wondrous
irrowth of the United States — European capital, European hands,
and European energy. The revolts, re> olutitms, and proscriptions
of the Continent, and the bitter discontents and overllowing popula-
tion of these our islands, are t' life and aggrandizement of the
(ireat Republic". New emigrants are not mere adtlitions to its
stock of labour and capital ; tliey consist of, or at least compre-
hend, those daring and res()lut{\ if not always prudent s})irits,
who are driven from disturbed, or who voluntarily leave more
peaceful coantri(>s. Thus, a stream of select men is constantly
llowing from l^urope, by whose audacious activity the filling up
of the vast western continent Is hurried forward, its material re-
sources developed, and, by the sacrifice of many foreign lives,
the first dithcidtles of settling it ov(>rcoine. ' If all the native-ljorn
Americans,' says Air. Johnston, 'not being the sons or grandscms
of I'AU'ojx'ans, were to sit down and fold their hands and go to
sl(>ep, the progress of the country would scarcely be a whit less
rapid, so long as peace between AuKuica and lUiro])<! is main-
tained.' Ijiit disturb bv the signals of war tlie now undreaded
nayigalion of the Atlantic, and this stream of brave luvirts is
aircstcd. Thenceforward th(^ ])()j)ulation, like that of I'Airopean
States, will augment by a natural increase of tamer men only.

VOL. LXXXIX. NO. CLXXVU. a Tiie

Recent Travellers in North America.

The superfluous mind of other countries, the <j:reater force o]
character which is produced by the breakinj; up of lionie associu-
tions, and by the excitement of a new world, as well as tlu^ in-
fluence of its example (m the minds and character of the native-
born, will all be lost. The jj^n^at breadth of unsettled land wouhl
then, like the forests and plains of Russia and l*oland, rather
indicate what the country vii(/lit become, than what, within an\
asbifjnable time, it is likely to be.

Another set of facts is properly dwelt upon by the same writer.
Of all quarters of the Union, the New l^ny^land States, it is well
known, receive the jjreatest influx of British settlers, and in
character and habits approach most closely to the old country ;
and it is precisely by these restless New I^^njj'landers that the
political, reli<?i()us, and educati(mal institutions of the great northern
and western States are mainly influenced.

' The enii<frants wiio <^o out from Europe — the raw bricks for the
new State buihHiigs — are g-enerally poor, and for the most part inilii-
ferently educated. ljein<j^ straui^ers to tiie institutions of the country,
and to tlieir mode of workinsj^, and, above all, being' occupied in
establishing tliemselves, the rural settlers have little leisure or incli-
nation to meddle witii the direct regidation of ])ublie atf'airs for some
years after tiiey iiave first begun to liew tlieir farms out of the solitary
wilderness. The New Englanders come in to do this. The west is
an outlet for their superfluous lawyers, their doctors, their ministers
of various persuasions, their newspaper editors, their bankers, tlieir
merchants, and their pedlars. All tlie professions and infliu'ntial
positions are filled up by them. They are the nu)vcrs in all tiie
public measures that are taken in tlie organization of State govern-
ments, and the establishment of county institutions ; and they occupy
most of the legislative, executive, and other official situations, by
means of which the State atiairs are at first carried on. Tims the west
presents an inviting field to the amhitious spirits of the east; and
through tlieir means the trenius and institutions of tiie New England
States are transplanted and diH'used, and determine, in a great measure,
those of the more westerly portions of the union.'

This piaragraph helps to explain the phenoniemm which of all
others i".c)st ast<mishes the stranger — viz. the ' power o ibscnption
of the American character. Suppose a skilful chemist throwing
five or six diflerent ingredients into bis crucible, and mingling
and crushing them until he extracts one hoinogeneous essence,
and we have an apt image of the moral and intellectual chemistry
which is continually acting upon the populati(ni of the States.
Its founders came from England, but ever since it has been re-
ceiving recruits from almost every country of I'^urope. Scotland,
Ireland, Wales, France, Cicnnany, the mountains of Switzerland,
and the shores of the Baltic, nay, even distant and isolated Russia

herself

'"^srrtl-T*-.

Recent Travellers in North America.

herself — all have sent out representatives as to a ton<>iess of the
nations. At first this agjj^lomeration proceeded slowly and by
small detachments, but now it annually consists of whole armies of
artisans and tillers of the ji;round, and of thousands upon thousands
of families.

" All these foreigners,' says M. Mannier, ' carry out with tiiern
their particular predilections and prejudices. At first the character of
the American tloes not charm them — they are disaj^reeably surprised
by his habits. Tiiey resolve to keep aloof from lum, to live apart
with their own countrymen, to preserve upon that distant continent the
niannersof their native land — and in their mother tonj^uethey energeti-
cally protest that they never will become Americans. Vain is the
project! useless the protestation ! I'he American atmosphere envelopes
tliom, and by its constant action weakens their recollections, dissolves
their prejudices, decomposes their primitive elements. Little by little,
by insensible modifications, they cliange their views and mode of living,
adopt the usages and language of the Americans, and end by being
absorbed in the American nation, as are the streandets from the
valleys in the great rivers that bear them onward to the ocean. How
many are the honest Germans, who, after cursing the rudeness of
American manners, and bitterly regretting their good kindly Father-
land, have come at last to stick their hat. Yankee fasliion, on the
back of their head, to stiffen tliemselves, like the Yankee, in a coat
buttoned up to the chin, to disdain all the rules of European courtesy,
and to use no other language but the consecrated dialect of business !'

This blending of the natiims, this assimilation to (me standard of
so many different human tribes, bears certainly an unimpeachable
testimony to the energy of the race which thus suj)erinduccs upon
others its own t;haractcristi(S. Brief as our limits com})el us to
be, we cannot quit this most remarkable phenomenon of xVmeri-
can society without giving a few sentences of Lord Carlisle's,
which contribute somewhat more to its elucidation. Amidst all
their vaunted equality, he says, ' there is a more implicit defer-
ence to custom anu)ng the Americans, a more passive submissicm
to what is assunu'd to be the public opinion of the day or hour,
than would be paralleled in many aristocratic or even despotic
f ommunities.'

' This quiet acquiescence in the prevailing tone, this complete abne-
gation of individual sentiment, is naturally most perceptible in the
domain of politics ; but I thought that it also in no inconsiderable de-
gree pervaded the social circle, bias-sed the decisions of the judicial
bench, and even infected the solemn teachings of the pulpit. To this
source may probably in some measure be traced the remarkable simi-
larity in the niaimers, deportment, conversation, and tone of feeling,
which has so generally struck travellers. AVho that has seen can ever
forget the slow and melancholy silence of the couples who walk arm-
in-arm to the tables of the great hotel, or of the unsocial groups who

o 2 gather

Recent Travellers in North America.

gather round the greasy meats of the steam-boat, lap up the five
minutes' meal, come like shadows, so depart ? One of their able pub-
lic men made an observation to me, which struck me as pungent, and
perhaps true — that it was probably the country in which there was less
misery and less happiness than in any other of the world.'

In regard to the physiological conjecture that tlie Anglo-Saxon
race does, and ever will, degenerate in the New World, all that wo
can gather from casual remarks in Mr. Johnston's book is con-
firmatory of the supposition. Take; even provinces whicli lie
nearly in the same latitude with us, and whose climate, of all
others, most nearly resembles our own. A European landing in
Halifax is pleased to see the fresh and blooming complexions oi
the females of all classes, and we may say of almost all ages ;
he will scarcely believe that in stepping from England to Nova
Scotia lie has reached a climate which bears heavier upon
young looks and female beauty than our own. On this side
the Atlantic it is in countries whicli, like Great Britain, Ireland,
and Holland, are surrounded by an atmosphere rarely Jirid or
dry, either from excessive cold or excessive heat, but which, more
or less loaded with moisture, always softens and expands tlie skin,
that hetilth and freshness of complexicm in both sexes is most
conspicuous and most permanent. A similar phenomenon is more
or less evident in mountainous districts, from the fogs and rains
which so frequently visit them ; and it is doubtless to the ana-
logous climate of Nova Scotia, and other parts of the North
American coast lying within the influence of the Gulf Stream,
that the healthy looks of the people are mainly to be ascribed.
Yet even here it seems to be the fact that, as a general rule,
British-born settlers succeed better than the natives. And why?
' I could not help remarking,' says Mr. Johnston, ' that, in New
Brunswick as a whole, the regularly settled inhabitants did not
appear to work so hard as tlie same classes do at home.' ' No
doubt,' he says when in another jdace, ' there must be some truth
in the statement' (which he met with everywhere) ' that the sons
and grandsons of British settlers do not display the same energy
as their emigrant fathers.' ' Here, too,' he adds in a third district,
' the praise of superior industry and perseverance was awarded to
the emigrant. This opinion from the mouths of natives is cer-
tainly very provoking, since I can sincerely say, after a very long
tour in the province, that, in my opinion, a finer looking body of
yeomanry is not to be seen in any j)art of the world. The first
provincial-born generati(m shoots up tall and handsonu^ men and
women, pleasant to look upon. It may be tliiit the nu)re slender
form is iu( lined less to steady labour, and that with the bodily
figure the habits and tempers of the descendants of inchistrlous

settlers

Recent Travellers in North America.

settlers t:hano:e also. But where men arc subjected to so many
new influences as they are in this new country, it is very diffi-
cult to specify or distinn^uish how much of any observed change
of habits is due to Ctacli.'

When speaking of the ' gloomy unsociableness ' of the tables
d'hote in the States, Mr. Jolmston has some observations which
may be considered in connexi<m with the foregoing : —

' Whether this silence at table and rapidity of meals be a cause of
indigestion, or a consequence of (hseasc arising from other causes, it
is certain that diseases of the digestive organs, and deaths from such
diseases, are much more frequent in the United States than they are
in Great Britain. This is very strikingly shown by the following
numbers, which represent the average cases of disease and death from
(lisease of the digestive organs in every thousand inhabitants in the
two countries : —

Diseases. Deatlis.

Unifed States .... 5J(i II

Great Hiitain . . . . !)o .^

More than one-half liie population appear to be affected by such
diseases in the United Stales, and less than one-tenth in Great Britain ;
and wiiile fourteen out of every thousand die of such disease in North
America, only one in two thousand actually dies of it in our island.

' If half the i)opulation be subject to a disease which, more than
almost any other, interferes with bodily comfort and equability of
temperament — -which creates a restlessness and nervous irritability that
is scarcely to be laid asleep — it must have a most powerful influence
upon tiie habits and general character of the whole people. The pre-
vailing nervous temperament of the New Englanders is ascribed by
some of my friends, in the country Itself, to the peculiarly dry and
searching qualities of the climate. If this temperament lead to choice
uf food and habits of eating wiiich bring on indigestion, this latter dis-
ease will again react upon tlie temperament, and thus a confounding
of cause and efl'ect will take place, which makes it very difficult to
decide whieli is the first or chief agent in producing the observed
result. I am Aery nuich incliiie<l, however, to the opinion, that a great
number of those who emigrate arc already more or less affected by
the disease in question before they forsake their homes. Privation,
hard labour, anxiety of mind, too close confinement (ku'ing opening
niaidiood, and other causes, produce stomach diseases and nervous
restlessues, whicli make men move to more hopeful regions, or
which, being transmitted to children, impel them to new homes. The
anxieties which attend the cliange of life in the new ccmntry continue
and prolong the excitement; so that, independent of all special climatic
action, some generations of tolerable comfort might elapse before the
family restlessness would be soothed down. But if, besides, in the
nature of the climate and the general example of the people there be
causes of Pciw excitement, we may expect the disease to be indefinitely
continued, atid the temperament to become characteristic of the people,
and a national distinction.'

Agriculture,

Recent Travellers in North America.

ji ii,,f

Affviculturo, accoi(]ins>: to tlic Durham Professor — wlio should
here be on liis stronji^est pound — is as yet in its infancy in Anierira.
The system nmsists in exhaustin*? the natural soil by a scourij^-
injj succession of <rvain crops; then desertinfj the farm, and
•ifoin'i; on to fresh territories, which are exhausted and deserted in
turn. In short, land is so cheap that it is more profitable to buy
new fields than to manure old ; so that nothinp^ like proper
restorative culture is practised. Accordinjjly, says lu;, the j;reat
wlieat retjion is ever retirintj farther and farther to the west; while
some Atlantic districts, including; the whole State of New York,
have become comparatively used up, and (mly suffice to support
their own population. Hence Mr. Johnst<m infers that there
is no probability of the price of British produce bein*]^ per-
manently depi'essed by the free importation of American wheat
and flour. ' My persuasion is, that year l)y year our Transatlantic
cousins will become less and less able — except in extraordinary
seasons — to send lar</e supplies of wheat to our island ports ; and
that, irhen tJieir freshness shall have been rnhhed ojf tJieirnew laiids,
they will be unable, icifh their present kmncledtje and methods., to
send wheat to the l^ritish market so cheap as the more skilful
farmers of Great IJritain and Ireland.' A declaraticm so fenced
with irritant clauses we have rar(»ly encountered. What, in trutii,
does this proposition amount to? It is undeniable that America
sends large supplies of wheat to our markets at present ; and the
Professor states iiis opinion, firstly, that it will continue to do
so until the virgin freshness shall have been rubbed ofi' its new
lands, but no longer. Now, when is this likely to be? Not this
century, anyhow — and if the Yankees manage to retain their
whole territory even to the year 11)00, they will certainly 'go
a-head .9/?c/< ' in the interval. Secondly (not to menti(m the fur-
ther exception of ' extraordinary seas(ms'), the Professor admits
tliat these large supplies of grain, even at that very renu>te and
indefinite period, will only cease if the American farmers adhere
to their present methods — in other words, if, when everything
else in America is ' going a-head,' agriculture should stand still
lor half a century — an impossible supposition. Lastly, ho\. could
the present mode of farming l)e adhered to after the new lands
are exhausted, when this system (depending, as it does, on the
cheapness of land, and the desertion of old farms for new) cannot
go on for one moment after the new lands are occupied?

Let us see how the matter actually stands. Accepting as cor-
rect the ayermi^nt that the State of New \'ork is not at present
an exporting one, it is always to l)e rememl)ere(l that this by no
means applies to the Atlantic States generally — as it appears
horn one of the Professor's own footnotes that "Pennsylvania and

V irginia

-:rr

Recent Travellers in North America.

sliould
nu'iica.

11, and

'itod in

to buy

V ivjfinia are among the jj^roatest wlieat-oxporting districts of tlip
Union. Moreover, as long as New Vork State supports itself in
sriain (and our author, as we shall by and by 5>ee, holds that it is
now at its lowest point of production), the whole surplus of the
interior States is exportable without any deduction. What that
surplus is, and how rapidly it is increasing, may h^ seen from
IMr. .Johnston's statement, that in 1838 whcaten flour was shipped
at IJuffalo for the West, but that in 1847 no less than four
hundred thousand tons of wheat and flour reached the banks of the
Hudson from the West. An increase of 400,000 tons in nine
years is most astounding ; but considering the un})aralleled influx
of emigrants from Europe during the last four years (double that
of any former experience), it cannot be doubted that the surplus
must be now increasing even still faster. The State of Michigan
alone, in 1848, produced 4,740,000 bushels of wheat, of which tivo
millions were exportable ; an extnvordinary quantity for so young a
State, wliich at that time had only one-seventieth part of its whole
cultivable area under wheat — the soil of which, as Mr. Johnston
tells us, is indifferent, and its climate humid, cold, and un-
favourable to agricultural pursuits. The fact is, the power of
exporting larg<! quantities of wheat implies neither great natural
productiveness, nor permanently ricb land, in a district which,
from a state of nature, is beginning to be subjected to arable
culture. The exjilanaticm of it is, that nearly the whole popula-
tion of such districts is employed in agricultural pursuits, and
that wheat is the only grain they produce for which a ready
market can be found. Let us not be wilfully blind. As long
as the I'^astern States continue simply self-supporting, the sur-
j)lus of the interior, of the new lands constantly being re-
claimed, will year after year pour down the river-higli-w.ays
to the sea ; and long before the advancing tide of cultivation
has reached the barrier of the Kocky Mountains, another tidal
wave of superior culture will have rolled westwards over the
Alleghanies. The three great causes of the wretched system
of agriculture hitherto practised in America are — cheapness of
land, dearness of labour, and want of capital ; and in the ordinary
course of things all three will diminish together. The fact that
7 per cent, can now be had by merely lending money, while
farming usually yields only 5, will retard for some time any
costly improvements in agriculture. But such a state of things
cannot hnv^ continue; and the extraordinary exertions now every-
where making, both in our Provinces and in the States, and which
Mr. Johnston himself has been so ably helping forward, promise
soon !o restore to vigour the <mce highly jnoductive soils of
North- l£astern America. Mark his own admission, a little fur-
ther

i<iiiilii(riii8(tiiiiiiiliifiiiii

Recent Travellers in North America.

I ',

ther on : — ' I would not be so rash as to say that the wlioat-
producin<>: jxiwers of the region east of Lake Erie, and south
of the St. Lawrence^ will never be much greater than it is
now ; I believe it may become, and / hope the time may soon
arrive when more skill and knowledjje shall have force<l it to
become, far more productive, as a whole, than it is now.' The
Professor adds the formidable anticipation, that there we may
by and by ' find new Lothians, and Norfolks, and Lincolnshires,
and a reproduction of the best farmers of all these districts — their
very sons and jjrandsons, in fact, settled on American farms.'
Our Professor is a candid liberal ; without question, if the
present Free Trade work go on much longer, our farmers, both
sons and fathers, will be found anywhere, everywhere, but at
home ! If the New York farmers grumble at being supplanted
by others of their own country, it is no ways strange that ours
should grumble at being supplanted by the foreigner ; and if they
tax Canadian grain 20 j)er cent., does it not seem reasonable
enough that wc should reciprocate the impost? Moreover, they
tax grain-imports merely to keep farming j)ro(itable in exhausted
districts ; tlie former legislation of Cireat Britain on this subject
had a far different motive. It matters nothing to the Americans,
as a nation, whether they get their bread-stuffs from one part oi
the Union or another; but it is of migiity importance to us whether
we raise our supplies at home, or become de])endent for our staple
food upon countries which may any day bet^ome our relentless
foes ; among others the Union itself, and France.*

Mr. Johnston's account of Lowell, the well-known manufactur-
ing city of Massachusetts, brings us to another branch of the
great controversy of the day. This town stands on the beautiful
river Merrimack, from which it derives the motive power for its
machinery. It is a clean, spacious, busy place, with wide streets,
abundant shops, comfortable hotels, rows of neat lodging-houses
for the employed, and fifty large mills, upon which the whole
population depends. Cottons, plain and printed, woollen cloths,
carpets, and the machinery necessary for the spinning and weaving
departments, are the principal manufactures of the town. Its rise
has been very rapid. In 1828 the population was only 3500 ;
in 1850 it was estimated at 25,000. When compared with the
fine produce of the Glasgow mills, the cotton manufacture is
almost in its cradle. The cloths are coarse sheetings, shirtings,
drillings, and printed calicoes, which are made of low-priced cotton,
and are heavy to transport. But in this department they have no

* Free-trade propliecies are already at a sad discount. France, almost tlie last
coiuitry, we were assured, i'ruxn wliicli grain-imports were to he expected, now sends us
annually 500,000 (quarters of wheat, aiid 2,000,000 cwt». of flour !

competitors ;

^.» ^_

Recent Travellers in North America.

|o Wlu'ilt-

iiid soutli
fan it is
\m(iy soon
•o(l it to
iw.' Tho
we may
^)lnsliires.
Its — their
In I'arins.'
Ill, if tlie
lers, both
, l)ut at
pplantod
that ours
i<l if thej
casonablc
>vor, thev
xhausted
is subject
mericans,
lo part ol
s whether
our staph'
relentless

nufactur-
li of the

beautiful
^er for its
le streets,
•^-houses
he whole
?n cloths,

weavinjr
Its rise
y 3500;
with the
acture is
ihirtinifs,
d cotton,

have no

ist tlie last
)W semis us

letitors ;

competitors ; for the cost of trans[)ort upon European floods of
this kind forms so larj^e a percentaji^c of their whole value, as to
{five the American manufacturers the sole command of their own
market for these articles, and even of great part of the South
American market also. Our Professor thus winds up bis
remarks ; —

'The deduction which I \\\A\ the reader to draw, and which I
tiiink he will draw from this c()n)|)arison, is, that New England is
employed almost solely in producing coarse and inferior goods, in which
the quantity of raw material is great, and upon which the labour
expended is comparatively small. The goods which it is of importance
to us to produce are those into the price of which labour enters to the
extent of from 50 to 80 {)er cent, of the m hole cost. Such goods
Glasgow chieHy makes, and such goods Lowell does not; and none of
tiie American ma rnifacturers can yet make them so as to come into
successful competition with Britisii and German products, even in their
own protected markets. We have not, therefore, cause for those
gloomy apprehensions which alarmists delight lo hold up constantly
hefore our eyes, as if the honest and praiseworthy endeavours of our
Transatlantic brethren were incompatible ahnost with our manufactur-
ing existence. Let them advance, as we should "vish they might.'

Whatever we should wish, it is too certainly the fact that not a
little of our recent legislation has been based upon a very different
hope and expectation. We have been depreciating many other
interests at home for tlie sake of pushing tlie foreign trade in
cotton manufactures ; and it becomes us to examine whether we
are likely to acbieve so great success in this design as will com-
pensate the acknowledged misery which it is occasioning. What,
then, is our chance of maintaining (for extending is manifestly
hopeless) our ground in the American market? In all the rougher
kinds of cotton goods, as we have seen, we are already totally
supplanted ; not even Manchester, with its coarse fabrics for
exportaticm, can enter into rivalry with the produce of Lowell.
Let us consider, then, whether we can hope long to hold our
supremacy in the finer fabrics. The two great obstacles, we are
told, to the States' successfully competing with us in these, are
'the high price of labour, and the expensive way in which
manufacturing is generally conducted.' As to the first — not to
mention the slow but certain fall in wages owing to the vast
immigration and natural increase of population — it must be recol-
lected that our mills are driven by steam, those of Lowell by
water power — an economical advantage which cannot easily be
over-estimated, and which goes far to counterbalance the higher
price paid for human labour, if indeed it does not compensate
it in full. In regard to the second obstacle that so cheers our
I'rofessor — we must content ourselves with the very obvious hint,

that

Recent Travellers in North America.

I: i ■

that with tho Anjorlcans tliis inanufacture is still very youn}r.
Two-aml-twonty years a<]j() thore was not a loom in Lowell ;
and yet what is the state of matters now? Why, there are
now ii2(),0^)<^ spindles at work, and more than ;ir)(),()()() yards
of cotton cloth made daily ! If such has been its profjress, is
it likely now to stand still? Are the \ ankees so <lifhdent
of their powers, so slothful in temperament, or so careless of j?ain,
as to rest contented with their rpiickly-won supremacy in tli(«
coarser fabrics, and leave our fmer stuff's in (piiet possessicm of
their markets ? 'J'he only real difliculty in economising; a j>rocess
of this kind is to Invent machinery that will produce tho same
results with less attendance or in less time. Hut in tho case ot
Lowell, this difliculty is more imaj^inary than real. JVe have
made such inventicms, after <;reat labour and <i:reat expense — tliei/
have onUj to cojty them. The en<»ineers that work for Manclu^ster
will work for them — we will cast what they need in our foimdries,
and send it out to them; and should they want to know still more,
they have every opportunity for (loin<; so at our Great Exhibition.
Such are the state and pr(>«pectsof tho cotton manufacture in the
Northern States. Hut the South also has befjun ; and it is rushinir
ahead even faster than the North, and with advantajj^es peculiar
to itself. The water-power, as we have seen, fjives Lowell a ^reat
advantajje over the steam-mills of Manchester; and the hip^h price
of labour in Massachusetts is the only real obstacle to its compef-
inu even with our finest fabrics. The South also has its mau:-
nificent streams and abundant water-power, but it has also c/irv//>
labour. It is the black that there works in the mills — it is slave-
labour that there comes into competition with the already down-
crushed workmen of Entjland. In V'irjjinia, Kentucky, tho Caro-
linas, Georfjia, Tennessee, and Mississippi, there are already
some scores of factories — consuminji: fioui 8()0,()00 to 4()(),()()()
l)ales of c()tt(m a-year ; and the same power which compels tlu^
nep^roes to toil in pfanpfs under a burnina; sun will ccmstrain them
to waste life in hundreds more of such factories. There is even
a double motive for thus employing: them — not merely tho pros-
pect of vast jjain in this manufacture, but because some of the for-
mer industries are all but quite unprofitable. The tobacco-
jrrounds were yearly becominp: move and more exhausted :
thousands of acres were annually abandoned ; and tho slave-
lords had been removinjj their black stork or phint further nnd
further from the coast, for \\\v. sake of reaching: richer soils. l]ut
the cofton-iuanufacture has at once rolievetl their end)arrassmcut ;
and they are now driving: it on with all the eagerness of men who
have just discovered a u:oldea mine. With operatives who ask no
wages — whose sole cost is keeping soul and body together — who

never

Recent Travellers in North America.

novor dream of strikes^ .and who work as ohedicntlj and mocliani-
cally as tlic niacliincs tlicy su|)<'rint('nd, tlio slavc-owncMS ol' the
South will soon make their influence felt on both sides of t!»e
Atlantic. I'^ven our ProfessiH' repjisters ' the prediction of many,
that the manufact\ners of the I'^astern States will sink hefon; them.'

Leavin<r flic Jui.sfeni IStatcs to look after their own dollar, we
jjuess it is time for Old l']njjland to drop the beatific vision of
spimiinj:; for all the world. W(^ are receivin«f a smart rebuff in
what all our wise men had pronounced the most promlsin<r market
for our cotton ju;oods. Moreover, with these hundreds of mills
both in the northern and southern States, and new (mcs yearly
sprinjfin^r up on the banks of their noble rivers, it is plain
euoujxh that ere Ion;? there will be little surplus cott(m to send
to us. J'his the mill-men of Manchester already perceive, and
hence the fj^reat interest they now take in India, and the Com-
mission sent out to rep{)rt on the possibility of i>rowin<^ cotton
there on a irifjantic scale — with a profit. Add to all this the diitij
of from tkirty to fiftif ycr cent, levied on our manvj'actures by the
States, and we complete a picture which merits the serious con-
sideration of our JVIinisters — indeed of their masters.

We caimot conclude without advertinj]^ to the general prospects
of th(' poor Nef>;roes in the Union. One of the most melancholy
results of the system of slavery in Virjyinia, especially since the
land became exhausted, is the breedinif and rearing of slaves for
th(; suj)ply of the South. Doubtless the jjreater attention which
j)roprietors are thus induced to bestow on their stuck cannot be
without some fjood to the physical interests of the blacks ; but it
is a humbling thing to see ' human produce ' made a branch of
comnum rural industry in a Christian State ! — ' Virginia,' said
not long since one of its representatives, ' has a slave poj)ulation
of near half a million, ivhose value is chiejiji dependent on Sout/iejm
demand.^ ' In plain Mnglish,' retorted Mr. Stevens, a l\^nnsyl-
vanian member of Congress — ' what does this mean ? That Vir-
ginia is now fit to be the breeder, not the em})lo) er of slaves ;
that her proud chivalry are compelled to turn slaves-traders for a
livelihood. Instead of attempting to renovate the soil, and by
their own honest labour compelling the earth to yield her abund-
ance — instead of scu^king for the best breeds of cattle and horses
to feed on her hills and valleys, and fertilise the land — the
sons of the Great State must devote their time to selecting and
grooming the most lusty sires and the most fruitful wenches,
to supply the slave-barracoons of the South! ' And so profitable
is this slave-iearinjr husbandrv, that Mr. Johnston tells us it
brings in move money yearly to Virginia than all its tobacco and
cotton do!

The

■ .««ili|Mi'i«'iJW'iHiYii)iiii

Recent Travellers in North America.

Tho iiuioasrd appliciition of Ncfjro labour to tlu* jrrowtli ol
8U«mr ill the Southern States is anotlier eireiimstaneo of" inoiii(>nt.

* III Ijouisiaiiii,' says Mr. .loliiistoii, ' tlu>rt' were of siiyar estates, ami
of slaves employed in the eiiltivatioii of sugar, in

With lloi>f-|i(iwi'i-. Willi Sti'.un power, I'Miilcs. Slmci.

1844-Jr) .. ;{.)4 .. -4^0 .. 7«J .. «;{,(t{)(i

18-ll»-50 .. (171 .. 8<)5 .. ir)3(> .. 12(5,01)0

The eultivation of sugar, therefore, is rapidly increasing — a proof that,
with the aid of the dnty imposed upon foreign sugar in the States,
these countries can now compete profitably with Cuba and the Iba/ils.
Much more, therefore, when the sl.vve-trade to these latter countries
shall come to be aDolished, and the expense of cultivation therebv
raised, will they be able to strive successfully against them for the
supply of the whole Ignited States market. And if we conshler that
into this latter market raw sugar to the value of about nine million
dollars is now annually imported from Spanish and lirazilian ports, we
shall be able to form an idea of the very great development of which
this branch of culture, in the Southern States, is still susceptible.'

If to the cotton culture — hitherto the ijreat slave-inultijdier — be
now added a largely increased slave-culture of sugar, and to both
the employment of negroes in cotton and other fact(nies, it can-
not be doubted that a fr(>sb and most potent stimulus will be g'ivcii
to this breeding and traflic of blacks, and a stronger enthusiasm
nourished for those 'domestic institutions' by which slavery is
established and made legal. ' And, if in free Mngland the factory
system has been productive of so many evils, physical, moral, and
social — who shall say to w hat new forms of oppression and misery
it may give rise in vast w<nkshops peopled by human beings who
have no civil rights, and \\\\o are su})erinten«le(l by others whose
immediate j)ro(it may be the greati'st when their sulferings are
rencU'ied the most unbearable y' Can any <jne doui)t that the
evil must tell upon us also ?

* It can scarce! v fail,' savs AFr. Johnston, • to affect in a marked
manner the future comfort and condition of our home population. Jf
the labour of coloured slaves, so employed, really prove cheaper than
that of free white men, then eitiicr our m an it fact u res must decline and
decrease, or tlie condition and enwltinients of oar uorhmen must he
gradualhj reduced to the level of those of the slavk opkkatives (ftltc
American factories. Tlie })ossibility of such a result is melancholy
and disheartening, at a time when so many are anrious rather to im-
prove and elevate than further to depress oar labouring people.'

We thank the Professt)r for the frank admission of this pas-
sage : — but what right has he to insinuate that there ever was a time
when it was the wish of the British fjovernment, or of any influ-
ential class of this community, to 'depress our labouring people.''"
This slang is exceedingly unworthy of such a writer. But to return

Recent TravcUcm in North America.

Iwtli <(|

MICIlt.

ros, anil

1,1)00
, 000

|()f tliaf,

States,

|I»ia/,iI.s.

•mitrics

|for tlic
ItT that
inillioii

>l tS, MO

which
e.

to his proper topic — wo may add, that our AlVicaii S(|ua(lron, arul
other efforts lor repressinu: the shive trach', are here worse than iise-
h'ss ; lor just in proportion as shivery }>-oe8 (h)vvn in IJra/il and
(!uha, will the stinuilus to shive-!)ree(linjf Ix' increasiMl in Virjjinia.
What is to Im' done with the Anieri«an negroes? 'I'his is, per-
haps, a question ol' as jrreat perph'xity to th«' iViends ol' tlx; blacks

as to their sternest taskmasters, Hesides tl

H> a(

tual slaves, the

)\\'nv^ body of free (oloured people is a source ol" extreme
xiety. At the beuinninj; ol' the century their nund)er in V'ir-
ijinia was only l(),()l)(); it is now <'stimated at six times that
amount. Tbey are most nununous in Eastern Virfjiuia ; and as
the whites in that re<>;ionare diminishinu:, while the I'rec blacks are
increasing:, it is not unnatural that the lornu'r should dread the

•f

inlluence ol the latter upon the minds ol" the slaves. Attempts
have accordin<;ly been made to repress this increase, by dis-
couraijinu: the emancipation of the shives, and forbiddiuii' such
as are emancipated from remaininij in the State without the
special permission of the county-courts. lUit the a<i-ent most
relied on has been the American Colonisation Society — that is,
the scheme for (onveyinj; all free blacks who choose to the
Liherian settlement in Africa, — a scheme proj)osed by Presi-
dent Jeffers(m at the close of last century, established in 1817,
aided and countenanced by the Icijislature of Virjjfinia, and recently
supj)orted by Messrs. Clay and Webster. The latter statesman,
in March, l^')!), explicitly said, — ' If Vir<jinia and tlu; South see
lit to adopt any proposition to relieve themselves from the free
l)e()ple of colour amonjj; them, or such as may be made free, they
liave my full consent that the Goyernment shall pay them any
sum adequate to the purpose out of the proceeds of the sale of
the territories ceded to the jicneral (loyernmcnt. — and which has
already produced 80, 000, 000 dollars.' In session I8r)0 the legis-
lature of \ irijinia passed a bill appropriatinji' 50,000 dollars a-year
for live years, to remove from that State, under the auspices of the
Colonisaticm Society, each free person of colour wlio mi<;ht be will-
ing to emi<;rate to Africa; and imposinif on those who remained
a tax of a tlollar a-head, to be added to the same fund. And in
the j)resent Congress (18r)l) Mr. ("lay has })roposed the establish-
ment of a line of Goyernment cmif/ration steamers to the coast of
Alriia to promote the e»2,ress of free blacks.

We are happy in believinjj that the settlement of Liberia has
already had some effect in repressing: the slave traflic on tlie ad-
joininij: Coast of Africa, anil promotinsj better industry there than
that of kidnappin<2:. But, as respects its main avowed ])urpose,
this Colonisation Society has not as yet succeeded. The free
coloured people in th<» States increase at present at the rate of

11,000

MMi

Recent Travellers in North America.

lit r'-

! ~l[

.1 .!,•.'[

i!.i

1 ■

'!'

11,000 a-yoar, while tlie Society in thivty-tliroe years has trans-
ported only 7000 in all, many of them slaves manumitted lor the
purpose. Should Mr. Webster, now in oHi(( , still adhere to his
al)ove-quot(Ml sentiments on this matter, and it' Mr. ('lay succeed
in his present proposal, something; useful may yet be done hv
means of the Society ; thoufjh from the almost iniiversal n^luct-
ance of the nejjroes to emijjrate, and other obstacles, it seems des-
tined never to realise at all the hopes of its founders.

' It camiot be (says IMr. Johnston) that statesmen really look for any
relief of tlie supposed evil to tliis plan of deportation. Tlie jjroposals
must rather be made as temporary expedients, and for tlie purpose of
political conciliation. So it must have been also with JMr. Clay's plan
for the gradual abolition of slavery in Kentucky, that all born after
1860 should be free when they readied the agf of twenty-tive, and
that they should then be api)reiiticed for three y ^ars, to raise a sum
siifhcient to transport tlieni to a colony, to be providetl for the purpose.
Who can foresee what is to be the state of the Union i.self, Or tlic
political position of ihis constantly increasing body of coloured people,
in the year 1888, when the first of these freed slaves would be in a
coiuHtion to h^ expatriated ?

'There are now in tiie Union about 3,300,000 slaves, and 500,CU()
free coloured people. If these increase at the present ratio of 3 or
even 2^^ per cent, per annum, they will amount respectively, in 1690,
to l,2oO,000 of free coloured, and to upwards of 7,000,000 of slaves!
The new constitutions ado|)ted in Kentucky and Illinois forbid the im-
migration and settlementof free peopleof colour in these States, and order
the expulsion of such as are made frjc. But wiien numbers umltiply
so greatly, what law, uidess it be that another St. Bartholomew shall
be enacted, will prevent, these numbers from spreading over the land i'

Are, then, these poor creatures destined yet to struggle throtigh
blood and fire to some half-savage inonarchy of their own? or, hu-
manised by generations of })ea(e, will they emerge gradually, and
almost unnoticed, into a civilised and ( christian community ? An-
other St. Bartholomew will not d():--a th:^ught so devilish .ould
never creep into the manly American heart; and if their present
ratc^ of increase contiimes ;.s it seems likelv to do, ere this centurv
has, .closed the expense of retaining sucli a population in sid)-
jection will outweigh any profit derivable from their compul-
sory labour. A naticm of ten million Africans cannot be held in
a silkeri leash : I 'russia, under the Grcjit Frederick, had hardh'
half that number, and yet she ballled the leagued forces of three
empires. With tliC excessive antij)athy to ev(uy shade «)♦" black
blood which pervades every part of tlu; Union, it ma^ he long
before a Negro State will be permitted to rear its head. Bui
every /ear is 1-inging this (Umax U" irer ; and the very care at
present bestowed upon the breeding- of slaves, revolting- though

Recent Travellers in North America.

it be, mfiy be one of the aojcncies by which Providence is hasten-
jn<f on the final extinction of bon(la<>;c in tlie Transatlantic World.
A New St. Dominjio, indeed, would never be tolerated in the
midst of An^lo-Saxon li<>;ht and ener<>y ; but tlie Nej^roes of
the States are already a very difterent race of men from those who
sixty years a<::o made a hell of that noble island. Those were
fresh from the African wilds, burninsj wiJi all the fierce lusts of
savage existence, and wrathful under the new thraldom of their white
masters. The others have lonfj; been encircled by many civilising
influences ; their orif/inal hatred to their masters has long passed
away ; the pleasing symj)tom of hundreds redeeming their free-
dom is witnessed every year ; not a few of these freedmen have
distinguished themselves in the humble career thus opened to them,
and probably many more would do so but for the repressive
jealousy of their white brethren.*

True, that improvement is yet in its infancy — true that, standing
side by side with the lordliest type of our race, the inferiority of
the Negro Still seems excessive. But Cimsider the long glory
of the one and the almost inniiemorial degradation of the other.
Cnn the d(!ep debasement of three thousand years be rolled from
off the Nejjro's soul like a mist of die nioininjj? Can half a
century in the green savannahs of America efface the scorching
marks of the sun of Africa — the debasing sterility of its glowing
deserts? The fertile region where now he dwells is not his own —
its riches, its fruits, its beauty, are not as yet for him ; and can
we, remembering all this, still reject his case as hopeless because
he has not risen nearer to a fellowship with a world which disowns
him. and wlii''h too bitterly thrusts liiin back from its portals ?

Colonel Cunynghaine shrewdly says : —

' The Airiericatis of the Southern States are very anxious that all
strangers should come to an unfavourahle conclusion respecting the
mental caj)abilities of the black man, invariably statinu: that tiie race
are susee|)tible of no improvement, however much attention is lavished
upon the cultivation of their minds; but that this cannot really be their

* r.i ciilculatint:; the jiiohabilities oi" flie rutuie estiiblisliment. of a great negro
<lon'ini()ii, we must not overlook the myriads of that uiilia|)j)y race in the isl^ds of
the Mexican (iiiif. Tiie decree of llie Provisional Government in 1818, by which all
tlie l)lacks in the Frencii islands were declared fiee. has worked very badly. ' All the
emi<fraiits frotn GiiiKlalonpe and Martinique witi; wlu)m I conversed,' says Marmier,
' foresaw a blooily and tenihOe cata; troplie. Faiiing energetic repression, tliese islands,
like St. Domingo, will be lost to us. But we shall liave the satisfaction, jieriiaps,' he
adds, with misplaced levity, 'of witnessing the foniulation of a new kinirdom of the
blacks, and of manufacturing at Paris the ciown and oceptre of another Faus*i;i I.!' In
the c((uvs<? of ages, should liiere indeed arise a negro dominion in the l\ew VVdrld, it
will probably lie attended by a concentration of llie lilacks from Maryland to Brazil.
A cential position, such as the possession of St. Donii'.go and one or two otln islands
of the Ciulf would atl'ord them, might be best both for themselves and for tln.ir white
bretliren, as at once cuncentrating and isolating them.

own

Recent Travellers in North America.

II f!'

own impression is too clearly ilemonstraled by the necessity wliioh
these citizens h.ive advocated, of passing- laws in the senate against all
instruction being granted to this race. If, in their opinion, no
harm could arise to their own interest from increased knowledge in the
slave, or if he were utterly incapable of receiving useful impression.s,
why adopt such vigorous measures to preclude him o'lly from eating of
that fruit, which they acknowledge, by their universal system of edu-
cation, to be so invaluable to themselves?' — Glimpse, p. 146.

'It has been stated by persons worthy of credit,' says Mr. John-
ston, ' that the older skulls disinterred from the Negro burying
ground at New York, are much thicker, and indicate a less in-
tellectual character, than those of more modern date. Dr. VV.irren
showed me, in his collection, skulls of pure Negroes of full blood,
which he assured me were of enlarged size, and manitested greater
signs of intellectual capacity; and he expressed to nie his conviction,
that the race, by long residence in this more intellectual country,
was itseif becoming more intellectuid. This is certainly in consonance
with one's hopes and wishes, and in accordance with the ideas of
Blumenbacli. The upholders of the permanence and inalterubHily
of pure races meet us with the ol)jection. that there art ir^ Kf. .
different tribes with ditierent degrees of intellectual endo\, iX n ,
and that, to prove our cnso, we must trace the same family always mix-
ing with the same blood for a couple of centuries, and show f)>at the
last of the successive generations is wiser and nobler in mind tisan
the first. But though this has not been done, I am not willing to
estimate lightly the matured opinion of so old and practised an observer
as Dr. Warren.'

Most lamentable is: the unmeasured aciimony and virulence
which the Slavery Question is at present exciting throughout the
Union. The Free States, galled by the gibes and sarcasms hurled
•It them from Europe as tolerators of slavory, and roused by tlic
sight of horrors wiiich the r\igitive Slave Bill has now brought
to tlioir doors, have lost sight of all prudence, and cast forbearance
to the winds, in their antipathy to slavery and the Slave States.
They overlook the immense dlHiculty of dealing with such a
question — they forget of how old a standing the evil is, and how
closely it has become mix(Kl up with the material interests and
social ipstitutu/ns of the s<mthern part of the Union. As M.
Marmier sharply reminds them- —

' They discuss this question quite at their ease, liy the nature of
their soil and climate they have no need of slavery, and there are but,
few negroes v,ithin their territories. I will add that the States of tlic
North have no right to boast of their emancipation of the blacks, sint
they have conceded to theni only an aHVontiiig liberty — since they
hold them like helots to tlie lowest trades, and brand tiiem with a
stigma of reprobation like pariahs.'

It is a (iordjan knot that dare not be cut. It is a task for a

Nanoleon —

Dennistouii's Memoirs of the Dukes of Urhino.

Napoleon — how Is it to be accomplished by shallow spouters
and turgid pamphleteers ? If they will not forbear for the Union's
sake, it is needless to implore them to be prudent for the sake of
the Negroes. But what other result can all this blind fury and
inflammatory harangue have upon the helpless slaves, save to fill
them with discontent or rouse them to revolution ? There must
be wise heads and iron wills in Virginia to have thus long
repressed the effervescence ; but if the rabid declamations of the
North continue much longer, there cannot fail to be such a
crisis as America has never yet beheld and will never cease to
deplore.