'3W K H __ — — r~ A — — ~ ^ = =■ en = o r\ - ==== <= J = ~ ™ ■" — * =^ I r> Hi — m 1 J = ===== JD ^S Z D 1 = 33 ^~^~ m ^S =^ O 5 =i ===? ° ^^= «=" 7 5 =T 3> = — I — r~ ~— ■ I — 5 s s —^ 3D ^^ = === *■ s = = 33 J 9B ^^= < /I *™ ■^^^ -^ 4 = = J> .-— '_ 1 s ^^_ 1 — 1 IS ss^s -< 7 " WJKWV u w%m y mM^ h f\hm* A-ftA^*- ^^e^ : " j^j »^ SCWi$c ^:^i niversity of Southern R<| Library Fi ! ^/1a£' "^^a.^m^ .'/W^a'" THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES HOCHELAGA; OR, ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. EDITED BY ELIOT WARBURTON, ESQ. AUTHOR OF "THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS." IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II. Sfcotttr etrttion, ttebtsctr. LONDON: HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 1846. LONDON: Printed by Schulxe & Co., 13, Poland Stress*. CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME. CHAPTER I. BUFFALO SARATOGA . . . 1 31 CHAPTER II. ALBANY WEST-POINT NEW YORK . 32 — 60 CHAPTER III. PHILADELPHIA BALTIMORE . . 61 80 CHAPTER IV. BALTIMORE WASHINGTON . . 81 105 CHAPTER V, BOSTON ..... 106 131 CHAPTER VI. BOSTON LOWELL PLYMOUTH FESTIVAL — WINTER JOURNEY TO CANADA . . 132 160 I IV CONTENTS. CHAPTER VII. THE FAR WEST OREGON . . . 161 200 CHAPTER VIII. RELIGION — EDUCATION — MANNERS . . 201 226 CHAPTER IX. DEMOCRACY .... 227 — 248 CHAPTER X. PROSPECTS OF AMERICA . . . 249 — 269 CHAPTER XI. GENERAL REMARKS . . . 270 290 CHAPTER XII. TERRITORY OF THE UNITED STATES MEXICO — THE INDIANS .... 290 313 CHAPTER XIII. nova scotia new brunswick the islands — Hudson's bay . . 314 — 343 CHAPTER XIV. conclusion .... 344 — 368 HOCHELAGA; OR, ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD, CHAPTER I. BUFFALO. SARATOGA. Buffalo causes a total re-action in the mind after Niagara. It is one of the very best samples of Young Western America : full of foreigners — brave men busily changing every day — going ahead with high pressure force — Irish, French, Ger- mans ; principally the latter, but all Americanized, all galvanized with the same frantic energy. The population rush about on their different occupa- tions, railway engines scream, and steam-boats puff on every side ; waggons rattle about in all VOL. II. B HOCHELAGA; OR, directions, men swear, bargain, or invite you to their hotels, in the accents of half-a-dozen countries. The situation of the town is very good : at the head of the Niagara River is the outlet of Lake Erie ; at the end of the great chain of the Western Lakes — the commerce of twelve hundred miles of these broad waters is centered in this point, and condensed in the narrow passage of the Erie canal and Hudson River, till, at New York, it pours out its wealth into the Atlantic. The site has a gentle dip to the south, towards the lake ; across it, lying nearly east and west, is the harbour, separated by a peninsula from the waters of the lake. This affords secure and ample shelter for the shipping, numerous though they be, which crowd in day and night. The town was born in the first year of the nineteenth century. The English totally destroyed it in 1814, in reta- liation for the burning of Little York, or Toronto, by the Americans. The motley population numbers now twenty-five thousand souls ; they possess sixty steam-boats, and more than three hundred sailing vessels. There are many large public buildings, erected by a very enterprising man — among the rest is a jail, where he at present resides : he forged for large sums of money, bought land, ran up streets ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 6 and market-places, indulged in various specula- tions, prospered for a long time, arrived at great respectability, till at length he committed the heinous, unpardonable crime of being found out ; he was immediately cast into prison, by a virtu- ously indignant, but highly benefited people. This speculative and unfortunate individual's name is Rathbon. Lake Erie is but shallow ; the length is two hun- dred and forty, the breadth varies from forty to sixty miles, but there are many shoals and rocks, the causes of constant and dreadful losses. In stormy weather, the seas are short and dangerous. The harbours are few and distant, and, during the winter, the navigation is much impeded by ice. The level is three hundred and thirty-four feet above Lake Ontario. Lake Huron is larger and deeper, Michigan still larger and deeper, Superior largest and deepest of all. In these waters, the Americans have a far greater quantity of shipping than the English. In the last war, on the 10th of September, 1813, this lake was the scene of one of their greatest triumphs ; Commodore Perry destroyed or took the whole of the British squadron under Captain Barclay. Attn that engagement, the command of the navigation B 2 4 HOCHELAGA; OR, was retained by them. The gallant Barclay was frightfully wounded on this occasion, losing an arm and a leg. When he returned to England in this mutilated state, he did not venture to meet a young lady to whom he was engaged and tenderly attached, and sent a friend to inform her that she was free from her engagement. " Tell him," said the English maiden, " that, had he only enough body left to hold his soul, I'll marry none but him." The first vessel that ever sailed on these Western seas was of sixty tons burthen, built in the Niagara River, in January, 1579 : she was dragged up into Lake Erie, and started on her bold adventure, under the guidance of La Salle. In August they entered Lake Huron, through the St. Clair River, and here a violent storm assailed them. The stout hearts of La Salle and his sailors gave way to the terrors of these unknown waters : they knelt to pray, and prepared for death, except the pilot, who, as our old friend Father Hennepin says, " did nothing all that time but curse and swear against La Salle for having brought him thither to make him perish in a nasty lake, and lose the glory he had acquired by history and happy navigation of the ocean." They, however, escaped this danger, ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 5 and passed into Lake Michigan, where, after sailing forty leagues, they landed on an island at the mouth of Green Bay, whence La Salle sent back the ship to Niagara, laden with rich and valuable furs, procured by trade with the Indians of the coasts where they had touched in the voyage. The pilot and five men embarked in her, but they never reached the shore ; it is supposed that she foun- dered in Lake Huron. Such was the first and last voyage of the first ship that ever ploughed the waters of the West. To protect Buffalo, the Americans are building a strong fort at Blackrock, on the shores of the lake, near the entrance to the Niagara River. On the Canada side is Fort Erie, now in ruins. It was taken from the English, held for some time, abandoned and destroyed in 1814 ; as it does not cover any points of essential importance, it has never been restored. Near this place, on the river, is the village of Waterloo ; the name and situation are worthy of a more flourishing settlement. Returning, we travel by steam-boat to Chippewa, and, going down the Niagara River, pass, to the left, Grand Island, belonging to our Republican neighbours ; a fine tract of land, bearing, in proof of its fertility, a splendid white oak : no timber on the whole continent is more valuable for the Atlantic 6 HOCHELAGA; OR, dockyards. Next to this is Navy Island, in the English territory, of sympathizing infancy, far infe- rior in size and richness of soil to its American sister. A Canadian farmer was settled there, and lived for many years in happy prosperity ; he and his family had but little communication with the shore across the dangerous waters, except on one day in the week, when the sound of the distant bell warned them to loose their little canoe, and hasten to the house of prayer. It is not known what has become of them since the blood-stained sym- pathizers swarmed into their quiet retreat, but the buildings are burnt down, and the improvement gone to waste. The poor farmer's crime was not to be forgiven by these blasphemers of the name of liberty : in his youth he had been taught — and he strove to teach his children the same — " To fear God, and honour the King." Our primitive railway carried us again to Queenstown : we pass over the ferry to Lewiston, and are soon on board an American steamer bound for Oswego, in the United States, on the south shore of Lake Ontario. There were a great number of people in the steamer, all Americans, travelling for health or amusement. I talked to every one I could get to listen to me, and found them cour- teous, intelligent, and communicative, well read, ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. over a very broad surface, particularly of news- papers, but only a surface ; very favourably disposed to the English as individuals, but I fear not so as a nation, being rather given to generalize on our affairs ; on the state of the poor, from the Andover workhouse ; on the nobility, from the late Lord Hertford ; on morality, from Doctor Lardner. These are the sort of data on such matters, kept for ever before their eyes by their press, echoed and re-echoed through the remotest parts of the Union, till even the best informed and most liberal- minded among them are, more or less, acted upon by their influence. Towards night there was some wind, and a heavy swell came on ; this put an end to my investigations in national character, for all my samples were soon too ill for further examination. Among the pas- sengers were a lady and gentleman from Georgia very pleasing people, whose acquaintance I had made at the falls. I found that their route, well as mine, lay to Saratoga. Knowing that I had never before been in the United States, they made me promise that I would faithfully and without reserve, remark to them as we travelled every thing which appeared to me strange, in lan- guage, people, or customs : particularly with regard 8 HOCHELAGA ; OR, to themselves. I gratified them as far as was in my power, and we found it a source of infinite amusement. Criticism was borne with perfect good humour : one only subject I instantly found to be unsafe : its slightest mention made the fire kindle in the southern's dark eye. It is the black spot on the brightness of his country's Future, to which foes point with hope, friends with despair ; the cancer eating into the giant frame, deforming its beauty, withering its strength — it is the awful curse of slavery, which they say they would give all but life to cut out and cast away. Between an Englishman and any American, or between American citizens of Free and Slave States, the subject cannot be quietly argued or rea- soned upon — the very word rouses the angry passions like an insult. In one, the generous blood flushes from cheek to brow as he denounces the unholy law — in the other, where many a high and noble feeling may also dwell, the heart is stung at the probing of the loathsome wound which his trite and flimsy sophistry strives in vain to hide. Nevertheless, I felt and feel it to be a duty, as it is an impulse, to give to this great crime the voice of condemnation — utterly, unconditionally, be it in ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 9 public or in private, among friends or foes ; if the subject be touched upon, an Englishman should not hold his peace. Luckily for me, while carrying out these princi- ples my Georgian friend became exceedingly sea-sick, and seemed to find the remainder of my arguments quite unanswerable. Highly excited by my success in silencing my opponent, I walked proudly on the deck for some time, but several long voyages having deprived me of all sympathy with the principal feeling of my fellow-passengers, I soon became tired of isolation, and went to sleep Very early in the morning we landed at Oswego, then, after a short stay, embarked in a canal-boat for Syracuse. The names in this country are very amusing. Mrs. Malaprop could not have furnished a funnier or more unconnected string than those of the towns east from Rochester ; for instance — Pittsford, Canandaiga, Shortsmills, Vienna, Palmyra, Clyde, Lyons, Geneva, Waterloo, Seneca, Elmira, Oswego, Ithaca. The town of Oswego is situated partly on each side of the river from which it takes its name ; a large portion of it is built of wood, and it has that temporary look so general in American country towns ; it seems, however, to answer very well as b 3 10 HOCHELAGA ; OR, shelter for five thousand active, industrious people. There are places of worship here for no fewer than six different persuasions. The United States government have built two large stone piers and a lighthouse ; that the object of this liberality may be understood, it should be observed that Fort Ontario, protecting the entrance of the harbour on the eastern side, has been lately repaired and strengthened. They are quite right, for this is one of the most important naval and military points on their northern frontier. This being an American town, it is unnecessary to add that steamers, stage-coaches, and canal- boats are perpetually issuing forth and entering in on all sides. Our route was south ; the conveyance was much the same sort of thing as in Ireland ; the country on the banks cleared, but raw-looking and poorly cultivated; the houses and people had, however, the appearance of prosperity. I could not admire the scenery as much as my wish to please my Georgian friends rendered desirable ; for my un- manageable thoughts kept flying away to the canals that lie among the rich, verdant coombes of Somerset. In this free country, there are plank bridges ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 11 across the water wherever any free citizen chooses to place them : to these small types of liberality the traveller must meekly bow his head, or indeed his whole body, when he passes under them ; this gives rise to a curious series of gymnastics as you glide along ; particularly among the portly and not very active, but highly respectable class, of which I am a member. I met here, and elsewhere in my travels, with a great number of old acquaintances ; at least, people who were quite familiar to me from the description of their persons and habits given by different writers. Probably they are government officers, paid by the State to live perpetually in public con- veyances, for the purpose of blinding foreigners as to the real manners of the people, lest we Europeans, finding it too charming a country, should flock over in inconvenient crowds. These officers, how- ever, unlike all others, are evidently not removed with each new President, and may therefore become dangerous in time, as forming the nucleus of a conservative body ; but I do not think the in- creasing strength of democracy is likely to lessen their numbers. To say truth, they do blind and thoroughly deceive you, if they be taken as speci- mens of the manners of the people, at least of those 12 HOCHELAGA ; OR, of the Northern States. There is no doubt there are a few habits exceedingly disagreeable to those who are unaccustomed to them : these are of unpleasantly general practice, and sometimes ex- hibit rather too strong a regard for their personal convenience and comfort : nevertheless, kindness, readiness to assist, and a wish to give information, are almost universal. I am convinced that a lady, no matter what her age and attractions might be, could journey through the whole extent of the Union, not only without experiencing a single annoyance, but aided in every possible way with unobtrusive civility. Indeed, great numbers of Sophonisbas and Almiras do travel about, protected only by the chivalry of their countrymen and their own undoubted propriety. To them, the best seats, the best of everything, is always allotted. A friend of mine told me of a little affair at a New York theatre, the other night, illustrative of my assertion. A stiff-necked English- man had engaged a front place, and of course, the best corner ; when the curtain rose, he was duly seated, opera-glass in hand, to enjoy the perform- ance. A lady and gentleman came into the box shortly afterwards ; the cavalier in escort, seeing that the place where our friend sat was the best, ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 13 called his attention, saying " The lady, Sir," and motioned that the corner should be vacated. The possessor, partly because he disliked the imperative mood, and partly because it bored him to be dis- turbed, refused. Some words ensued, which at- tracted the attention of the Sovereign People in the pit, who magisterially inquired what was the matter. The American came to the front of the box and said, " There is an Englishman here, who will not give up his place to a lady." Immediately their majesties sw 7 armed up by dozens over the barriers, seized the offender, very gently though, and carried him to the entrance ; he kicked, cursed, and fought — all in vain ; he excited neither the pity nor the anger of his stern executioners ; they placed him carefully on his feet again at the steps, one man handing him his hat, another his opera-glass, and a third the price he had paid for his ticket of ad- mission ; then, they quietly shut the door upon him and returned to their places. The shade of the departed judge Lynch must have rejoiced at such an angelic administration of his law ! The course of the canal lies through the country of Salina, close to Canandaiga Lake, where immense quantities of salt are made: four or five villages, each with six or seven hundred inhabitants, have 14 hochelaga; or, grown up from this cause. Some of these salt springs are reserved by the State, but by far the greater portion are in the hands of individuals, who pay, instead of rent, a small duty, by the bushel, to the government. The fine salt is made by the evaporation of the brine by artificial heat ; the coarse, or solar salt, by the gradual effect of the sun, and is a very pure muriate of soda : no less than three thousand millions of bushels of all kinds are made in the year. Long before the visits of the white men, the Indians had discovered these valua- ble springs, and used them as far as their narrow means allowed. The reedy, ugly Lake of Canan- daiga, though in the middle of this district, is untouched by briny flavour. Seven hours of this not very agreeable journey carried us to Syracuse, thirty-eight miles from Lake Ontario ; but there, a modern tyrant, the conductor of an omnibus, forced us off without breathing time, to the cars of the Utica railroad. In this town, several lines of roads, railways, and canals meet : even our hurried drive through it showed that the usual high-pressure progress was at work here also. Every one knows American railway cars by description ; they are certainly far from comfortable. ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 15 This is a single line of track, the rate of travelling about sixteen miles an hour. A great part of the way lay through the forest, very grim and desolate ; poor trees crowded up together, choking each other's growth ; every here and there, where they had been burned, the tall, black, charred skeletons were dismal to behold. At each seven or eight miles of distance are thriving villages, built with the solidity and rapidity of the city of the pack of cards, and all named by Mrs. Malaprop : — Rome is situated in a valley, and looks as if it had been built in a day. There are also one or two battle- fields, where kindred blood was shed during the revolutionary war. Utica is a large and flourishing town, or city, as they love to call it. Through all these districts the stranger is astonished at the appearance of prosperity in every place and person; he sees no bad or even small houses, no poor or idle people ; ever} r place of business, transit, or amusement, is always full ; lecture rooms, railway cars, theatres? hotels, banks, markets, crowded to bursting. There is something infectious in this fever of activity, and I soon found myself rushing in and out of railway depots and dining rooms just as fast as any one else. The New York State Lunatic Asylum is 16 HOCHELAGA; or, here; it looks large and commodious, but there my praise of the building ends. I do not think it was at all a mistake to visit Trenton Falls, even so soon after having seen Nia- gara. The body of water, and the scenery around, are so different, that no ideas of comparison inter- fere with the enjoyment of their beauty ; a tedious journey of sixteen miles thither from Utica and back again, on a sultry summer's day, spoiled the effect much more. They are very beautiful, indeed more beautiful than any thing I ever saw in the States ; the immediate neighbourhood is almost untouched by the cultivation of man ; the deep gorge of the stream lies hidden in the woods, till you are upon its brink. For nearly two miles, the river leaps and races, races and leaps again, till it comes to rest in the plains below ; in one place there are three divisions of the stream, tumbling into a deep chasm in a direct fall of nearly a hundred feet in height; lofty, bare cliffs of lime- stone close it in. To get a proper view of this scene, you must nerve your heart for a far more perilous undertaking than the visit to Termination Rock. The only path is very narrow and shelving, close to the giddy waters, and overhung with gloomy rocks. There is an iron chain to hold on ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 17 by, fastened into the cliff side; few travellers can dispense with its assistance. In the neighbourhood of Utica, and on to the south-east, the country is fertile and well culti- vated. The line of the Erie Canal, passing directly through this district, gives vitality to all the towns and villages on its banks, lying in the rich valley of the Mohawk. The great line of railroad is also of much benefit to them : by it, we turned our course to Schenectady, passing through some fine farm lands and settlements; here and there factories for cloth, paper, anything — and everything. In a thinly-peopled tract like this, where man's labour is so costly, it seems madness to turn to manufactures ; but they do it, succeed, and become rich : nothing fails in this extraordinary country, except the strangers' old- fashioned notions of political economy ; these are not worth a straw here : wherever there is a " water- privilege," some sort of machinery is sure to be erected, and people come from the clouds to purchase the productions. But a few miles to the north of this busy district, lies a wilderness of great extent, called the county of Hamilton : some of it is as little known or explored as were the islands of the South 18 HQCHELAGA; OR, Seas a hundred years ago ; it is one of the great lines of travel ; its land and timber are not sup- posed to be of much value. The parts which are known abound with lakes and streams, richly stored with trout and other choice fish ; while numbers of deer dwell undisturbed among its shades. The people of the neighbourhood can spend their time much more gainfully than with gun or angle, and the pleasure of the sport is unknown to them. There are sulphur springs at two places south of the line of railway — Sharon and Cooperstown ; both are described as very picturesque ; the waters are said to cure all bodily ailments. At Schenectady we stopped for the night ; it is Syracuse and Utica over again. In 1690, on one of those nights of horror in the Indian wars, the Mohawks swept it with a sudden ruin — leaving nothing for the morning light but ashes and the dead. In 1845, we found a very good hotel there, and slept comfortably, without any dreams of the Indians. I found in the morn- ing, that I had indulged too much to be in time for the regular breakfast, but there was a side-table laid in the corner, where one or two stragglers from the town, and I, seated ourselves : one of ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. i9 the waiters having put on the table what was necessary for his and our use during the meal, sat down himself also, and entered into conver- sation with us. He spoke quite freely, but at the same time respectfully — his manner was quite proper. I talked to him a good deal ; on many points he seemed wonderfully well informed for a man in his situation; some of his notions of England were rather amusing. He under- stood that it was quite an usual thing for an English lord, when in a bad humour, to horse- whip his servants all round, particularly on a day when his gun had failed to kill a sufficient number of foxes. Perhaps you may think the ideas of the waiter at a county inn not worth being printed ; I think they are, in a land where his share of the government is as great as that of a doctor of laws, or a millionnaire. My Georgian friends expressed much surprise when they heard the waiter had been my com- panion at breakfast ; but I have seen similar cases in several instances : the horsewhipping notion did not astonish them in the least. Our ideas of their perfect equality are just as much exaggerated as are theirs of our tyranny of class; servants generally are called servants, and address their 20 HOCHELAGA; OR, superiors as Sir and Ma'am ; porters, cab-drivers and all those classes of functionaries, the same. I think there is very little difference between their manners and those to which we are accustomed, and they are quite as civil and obliging. There is one character perfectly abominable in America; you not unfrequently meet with an emigrant from the old country, who hates the land which gave him birth : usually hunted out of it for crime, he detests the laws he has out- raged ; from his former fears of their just pu- nishment, he reviles them and his countrymen : if ever you meet with unprovoked rudeness or insult, if ever you observe a more than ordinary length of hair, nasal twang, and offensive speech and manner, the chances are ten to one that you have met with an outcast Englishman. About mid-day, we arrived at an immense hotel at Saratoga ; my Georgian friend introduced me to the proprietor, who shook hands with me and hoped I might enjoy my visit ; in short, his reception was such as if he had invited me to pass some time with him, and he was in reality as kind and attentive as if I had been an invited guest. There were, I think, four hundred people staying in the hotel; all the rooms were ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 21 full, but our host procured me a very nice lodging in a house close by, and I lived at the hotel table. My bed-room had folding doors opening into the sitting-room of the family. Unfortunately for me, there was within, a piano, and the young lady of the house was learning the " Battle of Prague." The next morning, returning sooner than was expected after breakfast, I disturbed her in sweep- ing my bed-chamber; not to lose time, she laid aside her brush, and ran over a few of the most difficult passages, till I left the room clear for her to resume her more homely occupation. I do not give this little sketch with a sneer — far from it : I tell it with pleasure and admiration. Would to Heaven that some of our poor household drudges had such innocent pleasures ! I would rather hear one of them play the " Battle of Prague" than listen to Liszt for a week. I was very much amused and interested at Saratoga; there cannot be a better opportunity for acquiring a general idea of the national character in a short time, than a stay there in the autumn offers. T was introduced to hun- dreds of people ; and, though the weather was so very hot, all shook hands, as part of the cere- mony ; there were Southerners and Northerners, 22 HOCHELAGA; OR, Downeasters and Westerns, New-Yorkers and Bostonians, all different from each other in detail, and very different from Europeans. Though many of the young gentlemen adopted the newest Parisian style of dress and wearing the hair, I could have sworn to them anywhere ; there was something Transatlantic about them, which could not be mistaken. Some few of the older men, who had travelled and seen the world, were in their appearance and conversation free from any peculiarity. I could readily have supposed them fellow-countrymen ; it is never an unwelcome thing to an American to be mistaken for an Englishman, no matter how much he may dis- approve of our country and institutions. There were several families of the higher classes of society, people who would be admired and sought after anywhere ; but there was of course a very large alloy of the ill-bred and obscure, who, perhaps, by some lucky turn of trade, had got together a sufficient number of dollars for their summer amusement, without ever before having had the leisure or the means to play gentility. Opposite to me, at dinner, on the first day, sat a party of this latter class, whose conversation I enjoyed even as much as the very good fare ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 23 on the table. A gentleman addressed the lady next him — " Ma'am, are you going to Bosting (Boston) right off?" She answered, " No, Sir, I reckon I'll make considerable of a circumlocution first," and in this style they continued. In the evening there was a " hop" as they called it, graced by many very pretty faces. A young English officer, waltzing away at a great pace with the possessor of one of the prettiest of them, was tripped up by a n?il in the floor, and fell— his partner sharing his misfortune. The young lady's mother, highly indignant, rushed forward to pick her up, saving to the unhappy delinquent, " I tell you, Sir, I'll have none of your British tricks with my daughter." I suppose the old lady's wrath was as easily soothed as roused, for I saw the young couple spinning away again in a few minutes, as if nothing had happened. The higher class of visitors did not mix much in these general amusements, seldom appearing but at meals, and sometimes not even then. Riding, driving, playing at bowls, and drinking the very nasty, but, I believe, very valuable waters, were the pastimes of the day. Dinner was at half past three, in an enormous room, or rather two rooms at right angles to each other, thrown into 24 HOCHELAGA; OR, one ; upwards of five hundred people sat down each day, some of the ladies dressed splendidly for the occasion, as if for a ball ; they looked rather oddly I thought, afterwards, walking about in these gay costumes under the verandahs, or in the large and well kept gardens ; but there were much beauty and grace to carry it off; the shape of the head and neck is universally very good, eyes brilliant, features regular ; the failing is in the complexion and in the outline of the figure : many of them dressed again for tea, and, twice a week, on the nights of a ball, they dressed again for that. After dinner, the gentlemen lounged about, or sat outside the bar-room reading the papers, some of them in the extraordinary attitudes we have so often heard of, while they " cigared it," " mint- julepedit," or " sherry-coblered it," as their different tastes suggested. There were billiard-tables and shooting-galleries, where gentlemen with frightful beards and moustaches abounded. Nor is there any lack of opportunity for indulg- ing the taste for literary pursuits ; little boys are perpetually going about tempting you with six pennyworth of Scott, Bulwer, D'Israeli, and indeed all popular authors, with coarse and clumsy trans- lations of French works, from the filthy wit of ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 25 Rabelais, to the refined and insidious immoralities of George Sand. We were fortunate enough to be at Saratoga at the same time with a lady from New York, who sang brilliantly for the party assembled in the public room, and with as good taste as good- nature and self-possession. There appears to be a great, and, to our ideas, a very objectionable facility of making acquaintances, in such a motley concourse. A good deal of rivalry exists between the people from the different Atlantic cities. The peculiarities of each are strongly marked, especially among the ladies ; those of New York were the liveliest, the gayest dressers, and the best dancers ; those of Boston more reserved, but with greater powers of conversation ; they were besides, more carefully educated. The southern men were expensive in their style of living, off-hand in their manner, but little nasal in their accent, gay and courteous — the northerns more moderate and toler- ant, better informed and more sincere. Both are absurdly sensitive to the opinions of foreigners con- cerning their country; touched in every thought and feeling by the passion for traffic ; jealous, boastful, and wanting in individual character and freedom of thought. This is my opinion of their dark side ; what I have said is enough to condemn me for VOL. II. C 26 HOCHELAGA ; OR, ever in their eyes ; they cannot bear censure, or even conditional praise. Now I turn to the far pleasanter task of speaking of their virtues, virtues possessed by no people in a greater degree. They are brave, friendly, and hospitable ; keen, intelligent, and energetic ; generous, patriotic, and lovers of liberty. Such are the people in whom we see " the Promise of the Future :" even their very faults are necessary ingredients of character, for the fulfilment of their great destiny ; their virtues enable us to contemplate that destiny with less of dread. I have had the happiness of meeting with many Americans who enjoyed so large a share of the good qualities that they had no room for the evil ones ; men by every thought and action deserving of that proud title, " beyond a monarch's gift yet within a peasant's reach — " the title of gentleman. It is a pleasure and a duty to express, as I do now, my heartfelt gratitude to some amongst them, for their kindness and hospitalities. Within four miles of Saratoga is the village of Stillwater, memorable as the scene of Sir John Bur- goyne's disaster in 1 777 ; a disaster of so much influ- ence on the fate of the revolutionary war, that it may be almost said to have been decisive. Who dare speculate on what would have been our position ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 27 now, had that struggle ended differently ? The man whose voice was inferior only to prophecy, foretold ruin to liberty in the success of our policy at that time, and the freedom of the human race in its defeat. By the light of Lord Chatham's wisdom, we may read the tale of disaster in that fatal war, with a resigned and tempered sorrow for the splendid heritage then rent away from us for ever. The army of the ill-fated Burgoyne was the best equipped and the most effective of any that had entered the field during the contest : hig;h hopes were cherished of its success, but the insur- mountable difficulties of the country, the inclement weather, and the energy and skill of its opponents, were its ruin. Harassed by fatigue, and imperfectly supplied, its fate was hastened by two successive actions — the first a victory, the second a stubborn resistance, but both equally mischievous in their results. After the second engagement, on the night of the 7th of October, Burgoyne silently abandoned his position. Embarrassed by heavy rains and deep roads, as well as by the number of the Wounded, they retreated for three days. On the 10th they took their final stand above the Fish kill river. To c 2 28 HOCHELAGA; OR, retreat further was impossible. The Americans swarmed on every side in overwhelming numbers. Supplies failed ; water could be got only at the price of blood, for the river was guarded by the deadly rifle ; every part of the camp was exposed to the cannon of the enemy and to the marksman's aim ; there was no place of safety; as long as daylight lasted they were shot down like deer. In six days the spirit of English chivalry would not bow; at length, hunger and toil, the deadly sickness and the hopeless struggle, could be no longer borne ; on the 1 7th of October, Sir John Burgoyne and all the survivors of his troops surrendered as prisoners of war to General Gates and the republican army. From that day America was a nation. I have often been surprised that they do not attach more importance to this event, and to the services of General Gates ; but an American can- not bear that any one should share the laurels of his Washington. Wherever the real story of Saratoga is told, the names of two high-bred women will not be forgot- ten. In courage and endurance they were an example to the bravest ; in tenderness and devo- tion they were themselves again. Nor will due praise be withheld from the generous victors for ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 29 their considerate kindness to Lady Harriet Ackland and the Baroness Reidesel. Some time after the close of the war, Captain Ackland, the husband of the former lady, who had been badly wounded at Saratoga and shared in the generous treatment she had received, on some public occasion in England heard a person speaking of the Americans in terms of hatred and contempt, and at last calling them " cowards." He indignantly rebuked the libeller of his gallant captors ; a duel ensued the next morning, and the noble and grateful soldier was carried home a corpse. The morning I left Saratoga was made remark- able to me by almost the only instance of rudeness, or indeed of the absence of active kindness, which I met with in America. As I was walking in front of the hotel, a button came off the strap on the instep of my shoe. Seeing a shoemaker's shop close by, I stepped in, and in very civil terms, asked the man to sew it on for me ; he told me to sit down on a box and give him the shoe, which I did. He turned it round, looked at it, and then at me, and " guessed I was a Britisher." I owned " the soft impeachment." He then put the shoe on the counter, and took no further notice of me. 30 HOCHELAGA; OR, After about ten minutes, I meekly observed that as I was going by the twelve o'clock cars, I should be much obliged if he could sew it on at once. He " guessed" that he had not time then, but that, if I called in a quarter of an hour, perhaps " he'd fix it." I hopped over for my shoe, and, curious to see how the affair would end, returned in about twenty minutes, and again urged my request. " Sit down and wait" was the stern reply. Another quarter of an hour passed, and, though my patience was not in the least exhausted, I was afraid of missing the train by indulging my curiosity as to his intentions, so I again alluded to my button, and to my time being limited. He then called to a person in an inner room, " Fix this button for that man on the box if you have nothing else to do." A minute sufficed. I laid a dollar on the table, asking what I owed him, at the same time thanking him as quietly for the job as if he had been all kindness. He threw me the change, deducting a shilling for the button, and as I left the shop said " Well, I guess you're late now." His guess was, however, a bad one, for I was just in time. I confess my anger rose a little, a very little, but I drove it down, and determined, above all, that I ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 31 would not let the rude act of one unchristian churl give me, even for a moment, a false impression of a great and generous people. With much regret, I parted with my Georgian friends here. My next destination was Albany. I had to retrace my steps to Schenectady ; thence to Albany is sixteen miles, over a tract of sandy land, covered with stunted pines, and of rather a dreary character. The cultivation shews that human labour is there more valuable than land; there was no attempt at anything like neatness or ornament in the few farms. 32 HOCHELAGA; OR, CHAPTER II. ALBANY WEST-POINT NEW YORK. When you arrive at the entrance of an American town by the rail cars, the locomotive is removed, and instead, horses are harnessed thereto ; the railways are continued through the level streets to the depot, usually in some central place, and perhaps, on the way, you may be set down at the very door of your hotel. Albany is one of the oldest cities of the Union ; the choice of its situation proves the judgment of the men of those days to have been very good. The name was given in honour of James II., then Duke of York and Albany ; but it had previously been called, at different times, after half-a-dozen Dutchmen, probably quite as worthy people as he whose baptism has been most permanent. This place is the capital of the State of New York and is rich ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 33 in very creditable public buildings ; the museums, lecture-rooms, academies and other educational arrangements, are very good; there are a handsome square and neat walks shaded by trees — the latter, an improvement which we do not sufficiently culti- vate in England. The population is thirty-five thousand ; during the summer, it is said that, on an average, a thousand passengers pass through the place every day. The names of great numbers of the people are Dutch, but their character is become purely Ame- rican. The hotels are very good, as indeed they now are all through the States ; that is, good of their kind, for I do not like their system of management. About a mile off, from a height over the Foxes- kill, there is a magnificent view of the town, the beautiful Catskill mountain, and part of the Hudson river. At Albany I met with some very pleasing people, and with the unvarying American kindness and hospitality ; but I cannot go quite so far as an enthusiastic historian of the town, who says, " There are few cities of the same size anywhere which can exhibit a greater or more agreeable variety of society and manners. In Albany may be found talent and learning, accomplishment and c 3 34 HOCHELAGA; OR, beauty. The towns of Europe of the same size and relative importance can in this respect bear no sort of comparison with it." Though this sort of flourish, and the feelings which dictate it, are exceedingly ridiculous to strangers, I believe them to be greatly effective among the Americans, in fostering a love of country, and that they are thus a positive element of strength. If you persuade a man that he possesses any particular good quality, the chances are that he will acquire it. I met in my travels with several charming instances of this, their happy conviction of superi- ority in anything and everything. A young lady from a small town in Georgia told me that a friend of hers, a gentleman just returned from Europe, had not seen so much beauty in London and Paris put together, as in the city of Augusta, where she lived. She looked thoroughly persuaded of the truth of his statement, and exceedingly pretty at the same time. Their great admiration of all that belongs to themselves would appear more amiable, if they did not so often illustrate it by unjust and absurd comparisons. A very intelligent man, who showed me the Mint at Philadelphia, pointed to a machine for stamping coins, of which he seemed very ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 35 proud ; he was not content with telling me that it was a very fine machine, but must needs add that it was " allowed to be the finest in the world." As I had seen many quite as fine among the button- makers at Birmingham, the statement lost some of its effect upon me. I went down the Hudson in one of the splendid steamers which torture its waters day and nignt. We passed, to the left, the lands of the Van Reun- salaer and Livingstone's Patents — as they are called — the Tipperary of America. These estates are held from original royal grants, by the descend- ants of the first possessors. They are of great ex- tent, and, under a strong government, would be of immense value. The tenantry paid the very mode- rate rent charged on their farms pretty regularly, till some years ago, when they came to a determination to put a stop to such an old-fashioned and disagree- able custom ; they therefore " repudiated" the rent, and tarred and feathered the men sent to collect it. The militia of the State was called out, but the men composing it w 7 ere like the spirits of the "vasty deep" and would not come. At length, the anti-renters murdered two of their opponents ; this turned the tide of public feeling against them, and more active Bteps were taken to put them down. The affair has 36 HOCHELAGA; OR, since ended in a compromise, the landlords having been glad to get anything they could. I was rather disappointed with the much-extolled beauty of the Hudson river, except with Westpoint, where I stopped, and with its neighbourhood : they are indeed worthy of great praise, but still far in- ferior to the St. Lawrence, at, and below our beauti- ful Quebec : I find myself already infected with the spirit of comparison. The military college of Westpoint stands on a high table-land, in a mag- nificent situation ; there is a very good hotel near it. As the land belongs to the government, the license forbids the use of any fermented liquor in the house or neighbourhood, on account of the students. In summer, many people stay here for the enjoyment of the scenery, and of the air, which is purity itself. The buildings belonging to the institution are, I presume, meant to show all the different styles of architecture, ancient and modern, being varied in the most fantastic manner. The rooms where the cadets sleep are small and inconvenient, those for study are rather better. When I was there, the young men were encamped on the common, with a guard mounted, and all the arrangements of military life ; several guns and mortars, of rather a primitive ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 37 appearance, were placed in front of them. The , uniform is a light grey, and rather unsightly. The number of cadets is two hundred and fifty, by Act of Congress ; the age of admission from sixteen to twenty ; the length of time necessary to qualify for a commission, four years, during which period they receive sixty pounds a year. Thirty-four officers and professors are attached to the institution. All officers of the army must pass through this ordeal, and a very severe one it is ; fully one half fail. The course of study resembles much that at Woolwich in nature and quantity, but the system of discipline is widely different. At Woolwich everything is trusted to the honour of the cadet : his punishment is an arrest by the word of his officer ; no one watches that he keeps it. Often, for an entire week, he is confined to his room for some boyish freak, looking at his com- panions playing at cricket or football outside, and onging to join them ; but he is shut in by something far more effectual than bolts or bars — by his honour; whatever other rules he may violate, to break that is unknown. Again, when an irregularity is committed, and the offender cannot be identified, the officer asks for him on parade ; the culprit instantly follows, and says " I did it," and is 38 HOCHELAGA ; OR, punished accordingly. To establish a system of this sort among boys from fourteen (formerly, now from fifteen) years of age upwards, is a very delicate and difficult matter, but when accomplished, it is invaluable ; the boy must be thoroughly corrupt who does not imbibe a spirit of truth and honesty under its influence. It teaches to love what is great and good, and hate all that is false, or mean, or cruel. At Westpoint, to establish a system like this would be almost impossible. An officer of the institution told me that sometimes boys arrived at the college utterly ignorant of everything, especially of the difference between right and wrong ; they find it more difficult to qualify many of their pupils in matters of honour and principle than in mathe- matics and fortification. The appointment of the cadets rests with members of Congress, each having one ; in spite of this, and of its being of such essen- tial consequence to their army, there is every year the bitterest opposition to the rate for the expenses of the college. A great ground of jealousy is, that there is a decidedly aristocratical feeling among the officers of the army. I have had the pleasure of knowing many ; America may well be proud of them, they are highly educated and gentlemanly, ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 39 upright and honourable, zealous and efficient in their profession : with the greatest pleasure I bear witness that I have met with no exceptions. They are a most valuable class as citizens, and their high tone of feeling and good manners are not without an influence on society. They, at least, are clear of the eternal struggle for gain, and have leisure and taste for cultivating the graces of life. The enemies of America may rejoice when the institution of Westpoint is abandoned by the Government. The senior class of the cadets are allowed to go on leave, each year, for three months ; but many, on account of the distance of their homes, do not avail themselves of the privilege. Till within the last few years, the different services were chosen by the senior cadets who, had the power, as follows : — engineers, topographical engineers, artillery, infantry, cavalry. Now, I believe, the cavalry has become the favourite service, and is usually taken by the most successful student. The pay of the officers is rather more than in the English service, and they are besides rendered much more independent by the cheapness of living, and from not being liable to mess expenses. The promotion is by seniority up to the rank of colonel, the other steps are by selec- tion. At the chapel at Westpoint, the Church of 40 HOCHELAGA ; OR, England service is always performed ; all the cadets are obliged to attend it, whatever their religious faith. One of the officers kindly gave me a place in his pew the Sunday I was there; the decorous conduct of the young congregation was highly praiseworthy. At present nearly all the officers of the army are members of the Church of England, or, as it is called in America, the Episco- palian Church. I cannot speak so favourably of the rank and file of the army ; one third of them are Irish and Germans of the very lowest class. Although their term of enlistment is only for three or five years, thirty in a hundred desert annually. Their pay is about a shilling a day above the cost of their clothing and living. The uniform is not calculated to show them off to advantage ; their performance under arms is very inferior ; at drill only I mean, for it is known that they can fight very well. Their barracks are generally much better than those of our troops. At first sight, it appears strange that while the officers are so very good, the pri- vate soldiers should be so much the reverse ; but the evil of the short period of service, rendered greater by desertion, and by their discontent at being worse off than their civilian fellow-citizens, ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 41 makes them but indifferent materiel. They are not regarded in a very kindly or respectful light by the lower classes of the people. It seems an in- stinct of the Anglo-Saxon race to dislike regular soldiers, though they themselves make such good ones ; perhaps it is from the military being associ- ated, in their ideas, with despotic power. I heard dreadful accounts of the suffering and losses of the American troops during the Florida war. There is a neat monument at Westpoint, to the memory of the men of a small force destroyed by the Indians, after a most gallant defence. There is another to Kosciusko. The cost of war to the United States is enormous, the expenses of the commissariat incredible : it is calculated that each Florida Indian taken or slain, cost, I think, ten thousand dollars, and many lives — but the latter were not reckoned so jealously. The total strength of the regular army, in- cluding officers, is under nine thousand men ; their militia force is, however, enormous, being, in fact, the whole population fit to bear arms. A gifted English traveller, who lately published letters from America, quoting from a pamphlet by Judge Jay, states that the cost of this force is fifty millions of dollars a year ; that of the army 42 HOCHELAGA; OR, twelve millions ; making a total of thirteen millions of pounds sterling — more than the cost of the army and navy of England put together. In esti- mating the expense of the militia to the country, the principal item is the loss of the labour of the population while drilling. General Scott, the Commander-in-Chief of the United States army, was staying at Westpoint Hotel at the time of my visit ; he is a very fine- looking soldier, of dignified and pleasing manners. He was much distinguished for skill and valour in the sanguinary campaign of 1814, and is now the great living object of that strong love of successful military leaders so remarkable in his countrymen : he enjoys unbounded and deserved popularity. I left Westpoint, and its enlightened and gentle- manly inhabitants, with reluctance. The Hudson, thence to New York, is still beautiful, but the best is passed. Many objects of interest were pointed out to me by the way ; that which most interested me, as being most characteristic of the country, was an immense work erected in the river, round a place where, years ago, Captain Kidd, the cele- brated pirate, is said to have sunk his treasure- laden ship, in order to baffle his pursuers. I be- lieve that tradition and dreams are the only ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 43 grounds for fixing on this place. Thousands of dollars have been expended in the search ; that they have got hold of some wreck or other there is no doubt, but whether the right one or not re- mains to be proved. When the works are finished, the water is to be pumped out, and Captain Kidd's honest earnings are to reward the speculative ad- venturers. On the right bank, for twenty miles — beginning about three miles above New York — are the Pali- sades, a range of rocks faced with natural columns, varying from fifty to four hundred feet in height. In one place they rise perpendicularly from the water's edge ; their appearance reminded me of the cliffs near the Giant's Causeway. The island on which New York now stands, was discovered by Henry Hudson, an Englishman, sailing under the Dutch flag, in 1609. The Indian tribes inhabiting it were called Manhattans, (the People of the Whirlpool), for near at hand is Hellgate, where the waters rush and eddy with great violence. In 1613, New Amsterdam was founded by the Dutch ; fifty years afterwards, the English wrested it from them, and called it New York; for one year, 1673, the former possessors regained it, but yielded it again by treaty, and it 44 hochelaga; or, was held by the English till the revolution ; at that period it contained only twenty-four thousand inhabitants. The Americans point with great complacency to its much larger rate of increase since their becoming free from English rule ; but it is an undoubted fact, that the rate of increase in the whole Union, since the separation, has been precisely the same as before. The population of New York, at present, is three hundred and eighty thousand ; more than ninety thousand of these are natives of the British Islands. There is but little doubt that, for many years to come, New York must be the capital of the United States. The Hudson, the canals, and railroads open to it nearly as great an ex- tent of country as the Mississippi does to New Orleans ; while the superior climate, the greater energy of the people, the excellence of the harbour, and the shorter voyage to Europe, cast the balance decidedly in its favour. Many far-seeing poli- ticians tell you that Cincinnati or St. Louis, the great inland cities, must, even in the time of living man, be the seat of government. That Washington can long remain the capital, appears impossible; the increase of the interior States, and the establishment of American population and ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 45 commerce on the Pacific coast, every day more imminent, will naturally throw the centre of po- litical power upon the rivers of the West. This island of New York is long and narrow, the greatest breadth not more than two miles. On the west lies the Hudson, still and deep ; on the east an arm of the sea, called the East River, and the Harlem, which last joins the Hudson twelve miles above the city, by the Spuyten Duyvil Creek. To the south is the Bay of New York, spacious and sheltered, with anchorage for the largest ships; the end of the island washed by it is now covered with buildings. The city still spreads northward, and assists also, by its overflowing prosperity, the rapid growth of large towns on the opposite sides of the waters ; ferry-boats without number ply to them all day long. Perhaps there is no place in the world better situated for commerce than this city of New York: deeply-laden vessels, large enough to navigate the most distant seas, can discharge their cargoes, the handiwork of the thickly-peopled countries of the Old World, upon the very wharves, receiving in return the productions of the exuberant soil of the New, the superabundance from the wants of its scanty population. 46 HOCHELAGA; OR, In appearance, this is almost an European town; foreigners from every nation swarm in the streets. The stranger, as he walks along, is positively con- fused by the bustle and activity ; his eyes are bewildered with advertisements and signboards up to the fourth story of the houses, printed in all sorts of shapes and colours, to attract attention. The Broadway is very long and very broad, the pavement bad and dirty, the buildings irregular; the shops well stored, but to the European eye far from handsome ; the public conveyances are showy, the private carriages, generally, quite the reverse. The heat in summer is very great : in the beginning of August the thermometer stood at 9 6° in the shade for several days, and once reached 100°. At this season, every one who can afford the time and expense, leaves New York for a town in the north, the springs, or some of the numerous watering-places along the coast. New- port is the most fashionable of these, having usurped the former position of Saratoga as the most select and popular resort ; the sort of life led by the visitors is much the same at all of them. A large portion of the Americans live altogether ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 47 i at hotels and boarding-houses, always sitting in public rooms, where every one possessing the requisite number of dollars to pay for board, may obtain admittance. It argues very well for them that they can at these places allow of such general acquaintance : the fact is that, in many of them, very objectionable people do in- trude themselves, but under the strictest necessity of propriety; for, at the least suspicion of their conduct, or the slightest breach of decorum, they would be ignominiously ejected. This public life, led by so large a part of the people, leavens in no small degree the national character : the tone of feeling of each individual is formed by the masses, not by the narrow but more sacred in- fluence of that of his household ; there is but little trick of manner or speech peculiar to a family ; you can trace nothing closer than the State they may belong to. There is so little too of mutual dependence between members of the same family, that I cannot but think the bonds of affection lose much of their strength. Each man works and struggles on bis own account: if his brother fail it is • no affair of his, or if a man rise to eminence, it does not at all follow that his relations 48 HOCHELAGA; OR, share his elevation. I will not say that the Americans are deficient in the holy feeling of family love, but that certainly their institutions and habits of life tend to weaken it. By the system of boarding, a degree of luxury is obtained, quite beyond the reach of the small means here required, if they were applied to a separate esta- blishment. At New York, the hotels are very numerous, the tables well supplied, and the arrangements carried on with clock-work regularity. One of the hotels, the Astor House, is quite a curiosity from its great size, furnishing four hundred beds ; it is a granite building, handsome and solid, in the best situation in the city, and frequented by people from all parts of Europe and from every State in the Union. A great number of buildings were burned down this summer, near the Battery. The destruction was hastened by a tremendous explosion, the cause of which remains still unknown. The ashes were scarcely cold before these wonderful people were again erecting houses and stores, handsomer and better than those destroyed. There are annually twice the number of fires in New York that take place in London ; the passing of a fire-engine ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 49 causes no more excitement than that of an om- nibus; the brigades employed in this necessary duty are very numerous and well arranged, con- sisting of many of the most respectable young men of the city, who are in consequence exempted from militia service. In Philadelphia they are so formidable a body that they can sometimes afford to set the city authorities at defiance, and have lately occasioned considerable disturbances. There are great numbers of militia and vo- lunteer corps at New York ; their drill on certain days appointed for the purpose is an object of great admiration to the citizens. Amongst others is a regiment of Highlanders, splendidly dressed with kilt and red coat, the exact uniform of the 42nd. I thought Yankee-doodle sounded rather strangely on the bag-pipes. The Americans have a great love for military displays; the visitors to Canada in the summer are more pleased at the parades and the bands of the English regi- ments than with anything else they see in their travels there. The public amusements are very fair : a French company of some merit were performing at the Park Theatre. Niblo's garden — though not, i believe, considered fashionable among the New VOL. II. D 50 HOCHELAGA; OR, York exclusives, is a prettily-arranged place, with a stage partly open to the air, where there is very tolerable acting. There are several other theatres, and a sort of peep-show and fire- work affair at the Castle, on the battery. There are numerous public buildings, many of them of great size, and very costly, but generally badly situated, and without much beauty. The Hall of Justice is a most extraordinary master- piece of ugliness ; it goes by the name of the Egyptian Tombs, and possesses about as much architectural grace as a pyramid. The Merchants' Exchange, to secure it from the fiery fate of its predecessor, is built of a very fine granite, no wood having been employed in the structure ; it is ornamented by eighteen magnificent pillars, thirty-eight feet in height, each a solid mass of granite. There are one hundred and sixty churches, the Presbyterian the most numerous, the Episcopalian the next. I heard a very eloquent and useful sermon in one of the latter ; the faults were excess of ornament, and a constant effort for effect : the clergyman wore his hair in the fashion of Young America, and a beard which gave him rather too much the appearance of a dragoon to be ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 51 suitable to the pulpit. The congregation was very numerous and attentive ; but there was no public pew or place for the poor. The Americans have made several alterations in the words of our Liturgy, but the spirit is purely the same. Trinity Episcopalian Church, now nearly finished, is by far the handsomest building in New York ; it is in the very best style of modern ecclesiastical architecture, or rather of the judicious revival of the old. The Episcopalian Church in this State is very rich, from former grants, now grown of great value; its members are rapidly and steadily increasing here, as well as everywhere else in the Union. At the present time, the greater number of the wealthy and well-educated classes are Unitarian ; this is, decidedly, the most fashionable persuasion in the country. New York is, however, an exception to this rule ; here it possesses only two churches. Out of the four hundred guests at the Astor House, I do not think that a dozen went to divine service any where. Except in New England, the young men of America do not seem to be much of a church-going people. Tolerance among the members of the various sects is carried, in most instances, to the extent of indifference : a very favourite boast is that " they all meet on the broad d 2 52 HOCHELAGA; OR, basis of Christianity." In the provincial towns, in the list of churches for the different sects, you not unfrequently find that of " Christians" among them. This is universal without being Catholic. The New York Theological Seminary is under the direction of the Presbyterians, but open to all Christian denominations. A valuable library is attached to this very liberal institution. In the Bay, opposite to the battery, at the distance of half a mile, is Governor's Island, strongly fortified, and well situated for defence. Bedlow's and Ellis' Islands contribute to the means of resistance ; they would render the attack of the city a formidable undertaking; great loss would be sustained in overcoming the difficulties ; but steam power has changed the old axioms of naval science : for the modern school, Acre was the " First Pro- position ;" its ruins, the demonstration. Heaven forbid that those guns which crushed the maiden stronghold of the East under their fire, should ever be called upon to disturb the echoes in the harbour of the great city of the West, unless in a salute of friendship ! There are several other islands less grim than these, said to be worth visiting, and adding much to the beauty of the Bay. Staten Island is a very ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 53 favourite place for the pleasure-hunters of New York ; the little voyage thither and back gives perhaps, the best opportunity of seeing the harbour and the city. The Croton Water- Works, on the north side, are the glory of the State. For more than forty miles the stream is carried through an immense artificial conduit, passing over ravines, and through tunnels, into two great reservoirs near New York : it is a magnificent work, worthy of the wonderful energy of this wonderful people. The aqueduct over the Harlem River is a quarter of a mile in length, supported by eight arches, and built with great solidity, of handsome stone ; it runs a hundred and twenty feet over the river. No fewer than twenty other streams, some of them considerable in size, are passed in its course. There is much in the consideration of these great works painful to an Englishman : the mind is furnished by Americans, the result is for their benefit, but the bone and sinew comes from our islands. These proud and prosperous Republicans disclaim the labourer's common toil ; they are overseers, master bricklayers, and carpenters, en- gineers, and clerks of works ; but the mere drudges are our countrymen. The worldly condition of these last is vastly improved by emigration ; their 54 HOCHELAGA; OR, wages here are twice as good as at home ; food much cheaper ; after three years they become naturalized, and enjoy the sweets of being solicited for their votes by the different candidates for election with as much earnestness as their wealthy employers. In a few years, with common prudence and industry, they can save the means of purchasing and stock- ing a farm, and look forward to an evening of life of ease and plenty. Their children do not cry to them in vain for bread ; abundance dwells in their households, the best education is open to them, and they have as good a chance of being President as any other person's children, if they can only hit upon that happy medium between popularity and obscurity, which is necessary to please the majority without exciting their jealousy. It is very natural that this country should appear a Paradise to those who have left want and misery behind them ; they soon become thoroughly Ame- ricanized, and, sad to say, speak generally of the land of their birth with any thing but affection. They readily allow themselves to be convinced that the hard condition of the poor at home, is the work of a tyrant aristocracy, enriched by their unrewarded toil, and imagine that a good catalogue of wrongs excuses their throwing off allegiance to their ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 55 i country ; by bitterness of speech they keep their resentment warm against it. At this present time, when the odious subject of war is in every mouth, none are more fierce against England than this class of people. An Irish waiter at an hotel in Boston told my servant that there were enough British subjects in the States to defeat any force England could send out. This worthy at the same time used every inducement in his power to tempt the man to leave my service, telling him that it was a fine country, every one a gentleman. " As soon as I have done my day's work," said he, " I dress in my best clothes and walk about, or go into the smoking-room as well as any of them, with plenty of money in my pocket." In this class of people, where the higher motives act but little, who can be surprised at such feelings towards a country where their situation was so different ? The American ships, especially the ships of war, are filled with our seamen, but always in subordi- nate situations. In their employments, both by sea and land, they act on a principle of which we used to be justly proud — ' a fair day's wages for a fair day's work." Their higher classes of public officials, however, are exceptions to this rule ; their salaries are generally insufficient to be at all an 56 hochelaga; or, equivalent to well-educated and gifted people, for the abandonment of other pursuits. An American, in arguing with an Englishman on the defects of the two countries, is sure to bring forward the condition of our millions, as an effectual set off against slavery, repudiation, and plunder of copyright. They will seldom take into consideration the density of population in England — in proportion to the power of producing food to the extent that an Agrarian law could never remedy ; nor the infinite complications of interests in an old country, that cannot be disregarded in any measure of amelioration. To censure, in however measured and friendly a tone, of any of their national institutions, habits, or manners, when its truth is too obvious to be denied, this is their invariable apology : — " We are so young a country." I must do the tender babe the justice to say, that it can swallow any quantity or quality of praise without the least injury to its delicacy, or even diminution of its appetite. The plentiful employment and prosperous con- dition of the working classes in this country are not without exceptions. In the reaction which took place in 1837, numbers were thrown out of work, and in the winter of 1845-6, the damp cast ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 57 on the movements of trade by the rumours of war, has been fertile in influences inimical to their inte- rests. The value of houses and lands is also subject to very great fluctuations from similar causes : no commercial barometer is more sensitive than that of New York ; a cloud gathering in any part of the political horizon instantly affects it. The police of New York has long been famed for its inefficiency : a late alteration is not likely, I think, to add either to its usefulness or popularity. Its officers are dressed in plain clothes, and mingle with the people in the streets and all public places, without any distinguishing mark. I saw, the other day, a noisy sailor struggling violently between two of them, loudly proclaiming that they were common landsharks, and that he could tell by their clothes they were no policemen. This occurred near Five Points, a haunt of vice and misery, not yielding to the old St. Giles's, or to the cite in Paris. There are a great number of negroes in New York, indeed this is an observation you make in every American town ; they are all labouring under the same social ban, but one degree better than slavery itself. Between them and the Irish the most determined animosity exists, being rivals for the hardest ana simplest work that the community requires. The D 3 58 HOCHELAGA; OR, free negro is always a conservative ; whenever he is allowed a vote, he gives it to the Whig can- didate. The Irish are as invariably Democrats, and are so numerous and united a body, as mate- rially to influence the elections. In some of the Western States, the native Americans hold them in equal fear and dislike. I met, in my travels, with a very amusing character from Chicago, in Illinois, whose fixed idea w 7 as horror of them ; " Dogins" was the name by which he called them. He said that their delight was in drinking and fighting, that they only agreed occasionally among them- selves, that they might quarrel the better with any one else; that in some parts of the Western country, they would soon have things all their own way. But he could not deny that they were hard-working, honest fellows, always ready to lend each other a helping hand ; nor that their children made as good citizens as any others. The man of whom I speak was a capital sample of a certain class in the New States — active, ener- getic, boastful, vain, fiercely democratic, violent in his hatred of all European powers, particularly England ; quaint beyond measure in his conver- sation, and much given to ornament and illustra- tion. He left New Orleans, his native place, some ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 59 years since, on account of an awkward affair, in which a bowie knife acted a principal part, and is now a dealer in bread stuffs at Chicago. He said that war would be the making of the Western States ; that they would " chaw up" Canada in no time, and humble the bloody-minded aristocracy of England ; that France was only waiting for an opportunity to revenge Waterloo, and would assist them, or at least be neutral ; that they would say to her, as the Kentuckian said to Providence when he met the bear, " If you lend a hand to either, I say give it to the poor Kentuckian; but if you don't, why only just look on, and you'll see an everlasting fine fight." He let out afterwards that the main reason why he was so warlike against the Britishers, was that " thev are such etarnal fools as not to buy my bread-stuffs, and they just starving outright." These enlightened views were delivered on board a steam-boat, near the bar : his eloquence being assisted by numerous draughts of " gin sling," he soon became exceedingly confused in his ideas, and ended by vowing eternal friendship to all creation. The roads and streets in some of the suburbs of New York are almost impassable in bad weather. A railroad runs from the heart of the city to Harlem ; 60 HOCHELAGA; OR, horses being used instead of locomotives, the progress upon it is but slow. The visitor to New York at the end of summer, will not be able to form any idea of its society ; letters of introduction are delivered to empty houses ; in some instances indeed, he will find the doors and windows bolted, not even a servant remaining behind. Fortunately for him, however, a portion of the inhabitants have only fled to villas a few miles up the Hudson, where the usual kindness and hospitality of America is sure to be found. ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 61 CHAPTER III. PHILADELPHIA — BALTIMORE. I crossed to New Jersey city, and thence- started by railway for Philadelphia. Part of this six hours' travel is through the richest country I have yet seen in the United States. Pennsylvania has acquired, or assumed, the name of the " Empire State," from the fact of having on several important occasions cast the balance between the northern and southern interest. In the last presidential election, when the numbers were pretty equally balanced, her influence was decisive. The coal and iron resources of this district are now being developed to an im- mense extent, and are already a source of great wealth ; several contracts for Russia have been undertaken, by companies, on very profitable terms. The financial condition of this community is very 6*2 ^HOCHELAGA; OR, interesting to many people in England ; their moral condition even more so ; for there is no doubt that want of inclination, more than want of means, was the cause of their defalcation. The principal op- ponents of the taxation imposed to meet the inte- rests of the debts, are the German portion of the population, who are sunk in the grossest ignorance, but are apparently numerous enough to influence the State Government. The stinging satire of a late eccentric and witty English divine had no small share in at length bringing about the tardy payment of interest which has lately been made. The people of the solvent States are very strong in denunciation of their less honest neighbours, and bitterly com- plain of the injustice of the general charge of repudiation against the American people, made by men unacquainted with the subject. But, as long as they are part and parcel of the same empire, and share in its advantages, they must not expect to escape altogether from the odium which attaches to such immense collective roguery. Many of the buildings at Philadelphia are very handsome, particularly the banks; their outside appearance is sterling and solid. There are no small or shabby houses ; generally they are imposing- looking and showy, the doors white and very clean, ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 63 with glass or plated handles ; the bricks are very bright red, the Venetian blinds very bright green. The rows of trees in the streets have a pleasing effect, while a large portion of the town has that quiet, lonely air about it, which marks some of the great squares of London ; not that Philadelphia is by any means an exception to the usual bustle and prosperity of American towns, but that there is more separation between the districts of business and those occupied by the dwellings of the weilthy classes. The principal streets are called by the names of trees, and are contained in the old couplet " Chesnut, walnut, spruce, and pine, Market, larch, and peach and vine." Those crossing these main channels of communica- tion are known by numbers. I went to see an admirable painting by West, shewn in a room with very good light ; but a horrible little daub was hung on either side of it. The Post Office, formerly the unfortunate United States Bank, is very handsome ; but the Girard College, outside the town, is by far the handsomest building on the American continent. It is a square, each face the same, and bearing some resemblance to that of the Madeleine in Paris, but it is built of 64 HOCHELAGA; OR, pure and solid white marble, inside and out, pillars and roof, the marble white as snow. There are two other blocks of buildings of the same material on either side, of a heavy style, rather marring the effect. This College is built by the will of a French banker, who left an immense fortune to build and endow it for the education of orphan children, and to provide for them afterwards in life : from what I hear, the building will have absorbed most of the legacy. The testator insisted that the education should be wholly secular ; indeed no one suspected of being a clergyman is allowed to enter the College at all. This " city of brotherly love" has been notorious lately for several very serious disturbances — the burning of the Roman Catholic chapels, and the houses of the Irish population, followed by reta- liation, were attended with much loss of life. Again, fights between the Irish and the negroes, and lastly the flames of war lighted by the fire brigades. On the dinner-tables, as vou travel southward, there are many very original-looking dishes, with names as odd as their appearance, " mush," " squash," &c.; many of these are not at all disagreeable, though their flavour is not fine. At some places, as for instance near Charleston, the 'squash apples' are in such incredible ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 65 abundance that they infect the air as they ripen. Among the delicacies of the sea, the soft crab is in great request ; he is much like ours in shape, but wears only a silken doublet instead of a coat of mail, and consequently can be carved and eaten without the trouble of undressing him. It is, however, only at certain seasons of the year that his costume is so suitable. The hotels were as usual, full, many of the people being resident in them. This place is not quite free from the gold-chained and ringleted American dandy; but generally there is still a little, a very little, of the meek, sleek style of the Quaker ancestor, to be traced in the appearance and manner of his descendant of the present day. I do not think, however, that you observe the broad brims and single collars of the demure brotherhood much more than in other towns. The prison, penitentiary, workhouse, and chari- table institutions may be briefly and satisfactorily described as well conducted and highly creditable to their founders and administrators. There is also a plain, unostentatious building of dull-coloured brick, held in great respect by this new people ; it is the State House, where the independence of America was declared. They urge the traveller to visit this 66 HOCHELAGA; OR, sacred and venerable place, dwelling much on its antiquity. It is strange that antiquities and military conquest should be the great passion of the Ameri- cans : some malicious spirit seems to have sug- gested to them these unattainable ornaments, like the roc's egg in the Arabian fable. The water- works of Philadelphia are very fine and advan- tageous to the town; but in them, as in wealth and trade, she must yield the palm to New York. In this town, as well as the others of America, there is certainly a very fair exterior of morality ; through their streets flows not that noisy stream of glaring vice, which, in the uncontaminated mind, at the same time attracts attention and creates disgust. But, from this semblance, let not the Christian and the moralist deceive themselves with the hope that what does not meet the eye at the first moment, does not exist. The haunts of profligacy are as dark and as numerous as in the crowded cities of the Old World, and the silent and clandestine advertisements of their localities as little to be misunderstood. Every year, some of the Southern States afford an awful catalogue of crime, violence, and blood. The population, of a mixed race, their passions heated by a sultry climate, their uncontrolled impulses ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 67 fed by the exertion of unlimited power over their slaves, reckless of their own or others' lives, scarcely educated, familiar with the bloodiest and most ferocious duelling — the voice of public opinion is but feeble against the blackest Cain, provided he can adduce some received wrong or insult in his defence. In a ball-room at New Orleans, in the winter of 1 844-5, a young man, while waltzing, trod on the foot of another. When the dance was over, he was asked, in a private room, if he had done this intentionally. The reply was a disavowal of any intention to give offence hv the former instance, but accompanied by a hasty and angry remark upon being called to account. An altercation followed, and a blow was at length given, by the man who had sought the explanation. They separated — the striker went into the dressing-room before re-entering the ball-room, to cool his excite- ment and arrange his hair. The other went down stairs, put on an appearance of composure, and asked the cabmen at the door if any of them could lend him a bowie knife, as he wanted to cut a piece off the sole of his shoe ; they either could not or would not furnish him with what he sought, so he went into a neighbouring street and purchased one at a cutler's shop, trying the sharpness of several of 68 HOCHELAGA; OR, them on the counter before he made his choice : he then went to the dressing-room where his vic- tim was standing before the glass, and seized him unexpectedly from behind; before any one could interfere, he had given him three deadly wounds. This was, no doubt, a villanous murder, but in all countries individuals may be found capable of any atrocity ; knowing this, the horror that such a crime creates is not accompanied by astonish- ment. But that a jury of twelve men could find a verdict of " justifiable homicide," and that the laws of any country should sanction such a verdict, is indeed startling to our ears. A friend of mine saw the murder, assisted in apprehending the assassin, was a witness at the trial, heard the law of the case laid down, and the decision which fol- lowed — " an insult may be washed out in blood !' And the people who made this law profess to hold the faith of " Him of Nazareth !" In other cases, where the sympathies of the people are against the accused, they sometimes cannot tolerate the forms of trial and the uncer- tainty of conviction. I only add one to thou- sands of previous well-known instances, when I give the following, from one of the American ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 69 papers now before me, headed "Arkansas Tra- gedy." " A mulatto boy had murdered a mother and two children — at least, he was lodged in jail under the accusation. The people of Hickory Bridge, on hearing all the facts, became furious ; the cry of " burn the murderer," soon ran from one to another. They suddenly became calm, and resolute to their purpose, armed themselves with gun and knife, and came down to the town last Saturday, deliberately broke open the jail-door, put a rope round the murderer's neck, and compelled him to run alongside their horses twenty-five miles, to the scene of the murder. They then formed a court, went through a trial, and found the prisoner guilty. He was to be burned ! The next day, Sunday, they chained him to a tree, and had the wood piled round him to roast him by degrees. They kindled the fire, but the cry soon rose to hang him ; he joined in the cry. They did hang him, to the gate-post, covered with the bloody shirt in which he was supposed to have committed the awful deed." The tone assumed by the press with regard to these atrocities is a dreadful index to the senti- ments of the masses, whose tastes and feelings it effects and consults. The first instance I have 70 HOCHELAGA; OR quoted, the murder at New Orleans, is gently chidden as, " the over-hasty resentment of a deadly insult;" the other, as a, "generous but unlawful outburst of indignation in an excitable people." For many years, Philadelphia was more a place for spending money than for making it ; there were a greater number of people possessing pro- perty independent of the fluctuations of trade, gifted with the leisure so necessary for the higher and more refining pursuits of life, and forming, from community of tastes, a compact and ex- clusive body, with more of the features of an aristocracy than in any other city in the Union. But even these people have not escaped from the level- ling system of the last few years, and are now, to all public appearance at least, stirred up into the mixture of the democratic cauldron. Seven hours of railway and steamboat con- veyance, carried me to Baltimore. In entering Maryland the day's journey was rendered memo- rable to me, but it was by a very natural oc- currence. At the last stopping-place before arriving at the town, I saw a sight which filled me with a new and strange emotion — I saw a being which not one among thousands of our English people has ever seen. He walked, he spoke, he was tall and erect, ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 71 with active, powerful limbs, and shape of fair pro- portions. He was made in God's own image — but — he was a slave ! — Poorly, scarcely decently clad, he had carried to the station a load of peaches, which little negro boys sold in small baskets to the passengers. He stood beside them directing the sale, between whiles staring at us with a stupid gaze. He had the receding forehead, coarse neck, and thick lips, the symptoms or effects of the merely animal instincts and intelligence. His complexion was very black — black as the cloud hanging over the land of his captivity — black as the sin of its accursed law. The suburbs of Baltimore were different from those of any American town I had yet seen ; there were as wretched houses, and as miserable-look ing a population as Manchester or Birmingham could shew. This, as every one knows, is the first city you meet with, in travelling south- ward, which is under the laws of slavery — that re- markable exception to the famous Declaration of Independence, that " all men are equal ;" that ex- ( ■« ption being recognized as a fundamental part of the Constitution of this free, enlightened, and Christian Republic. The difference between the free and slave States ,2 HOCHELAGA; OR is seen by the traveller when he passes the line of division, in the comparative prosperity of both town and country, as distinctly as the colours mark them on the map ; in none more decisively than between Pennsylvania and Maryland. The former cut out the cancer, and immediately the wound healed, and the body became robust and vigorous ; the latter several times nearly made up her mind to the operation, but courage failed, and the disease still continues working in deeper roots, while the patient sinks in a rapid decay. In Mary- land the climate does not even afford the un- righteous and narrow-minded excuses of expe- diency or interest, for the continuance of slavery. It is known and acknowledged, that free labour is there more profitable; but then, the deadly rice- swamps and sugar-mills of Louisiana are capital consumers of their superfluous negro stock-raising ; it pays tolerably well ; they are unwilling to divert their capital into new and non-human channels. In the older northern slave States, the condition of the negroes, when they are employed as domestic servants and farm labourers to amiable and educated people, is often very comfortable ; but the fate of those who are sold to the outlawed villains of Mis- sissippi and Texas is woful beyond belief. ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 73 This subject of slavery is one in which I take a deep interest, and I am fain to dwell a little upon it, taking Maryland as my illustration ; first, because it is the State wherein are greatest the feeling for, and probability of abolition ; secondly, because it is the only one of the southern States which I have visited, and of which I can speak from personal observation. The population of Maryland is four hundred and fifty thousand ; of these, one hundred and fifty thousand are blacks, ninety thousand being slaves the remainder free. Since the year 1790, the white population of the principal slave-holding counties has diminished two-sevenths. In the greater number of them, the slaves at the present time are more numerous than the whites: there is a great extent of surface, once tilled, now gone to waste : the land is held in farms of large size ; when it ceased to be abundantly productive, the clumsy and wasteful process of slave-labour could no longer be applied to it. Tobacco is the only production of this State that seems to require slave labour ; but in Ohio even this can be raised by free labour to undersell the Maryland growers. The abolition of slavery tends to divide proper- ties into small farms ; this process would in a few VOL II. E 74 HOCHELAGA; or. years double the value of the crops, and consequently of the land. In the course of time the soil of each State subject to slave labour will be quite exhausted by its pernicious influences ; manufacturing, or improved agriculture must then be the resource. Moreover, the produce of slave labour here can no longer bear competition with the result of that on the rich lands of the southern valley of the Missis- sippi. The effect of this slave agency is fatal to the energies of the white population : they become accustomed to consider labour as servile ; all pursuits in which activity and industry are re- quired, are monopolized by men from the northern States, who speedily enrich themselves in this undivided field. The southern States become poorer every day, while the northern are rapidly made rich. I do not mean to say that the present inhabitants of the south become poorer, but that the country does ; the vitality — the soil itself, is exported in the cotton, sugar, and rice, to the north ; and to Europe, where it is consumed. Payment is received in all the handi- work of man, especially in the machinery used for the very purpose of more speedily drawing out — and of course exhausting — the natural wealth of the ground — their only capital. ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 75 The barren hills of New England produce little more than the industry and indomitable energy of the people who till their soil : there, the more the land is worked, the more rich and grateful is the return. But the pestilential hot-beds of the south, though rank vegetation be luxuriant under the un- natural forcing of slave labour, must soon find a limit to their productive power. Then will the undrained morasses exhale their noisome breath ; and the deadly fever will finish the work, begun in crime, pursued to poverty and ruin. To do the intelligence of the planters justice, few or none of them pretend to be blind to the evils of slavery, as it regards their own material interests. But, as a part of the social system, as a degraded condition of a portion of their fellow-countrymen, they will defend it to the uttermost. I have heard it argued by the hour, on those very rare occasions when the subject can be argued. St. Paul is re- ferred to thus, " He has given precepts for slavery, and thus recognized it as one of the various forms of social organization, bearing with it its peculiar duties and obligations. Let us reverently acknow- ledge the overruling power of Providence, by whose disposition an unrighteous traffic has been made e 2 76 hochelaga; or, the means of benefit to a benighted race. Through the ordeal of servitude in the United States, the negro has passed over the threshold of civilization into the portals of Christianity." This is indeed unanswerable, for contempt and disgust at its foul falsehood and hypocrisy deprive you of the power to speak. Heaven save the wretched negroes from the sort of Christianity into whose portals they have thus passed ! They do not feel its benefit in religious instruction, for teaching them to read their Bible is punished as a felony: they do not feel it in the sacredness of their domestic ties, for these the public sale violates every day : they do not feel it in the wholesome principle of morality, for they may be at any time the helpless victims of the grossest outrage. I can give but these few, from the long catalogue of evils inflicted by slavery, on the interests of both the oppressors and the oppressed. In 1831, the people of Maryland became so convinced of the injury done to their material prosperity by this institution, that they came to a sort of compromise between the emancipative and the slaveholding principles, as a first step towards getting rid of the evil Through jealousy of the, perhaps injudicious, ENGLAND TN THE NEW WORLD. 77 interference of the northern abolitionists, this ten- dency to better things received a check. However, four thousand pounds were voted annually by the Legislature for twenty years, to colonize with free negroes, going by their own consent, to a district on the western coast of Africa. As far as the means extended, this plan has been carried on with pru- dence, energy, and success. The colony, called Cape Palmas, begun with forty emigrants, now numbers a population of seven hundred. It is of course organized as a republic; Governor Russ- wurm, a negro, is placed by the Board of Directors at the head of it ; the other officials of the little State are elected by the people, or appointed by the Executive. There are houses of worship, courts of justice, schools, militia, officers of police ; roads have been opened with the interior, and a trade is carried on in the productions of the country. To prove, moreover, that they have a dutiful wish to imitate their Transatlantic mother, they have al- ready annexed a considerable and important ter- ritory ; the imitation, however, cannot be said to be perfect, for they obtained their extension by honest purchase, and not by astute and shameless spoliation of a weaker neighbour. 78 HOCHELAGA ; OR, This colony from Maryland, is perhaps the most successful of any of the American settlements on the African coast. An expedition sails from Bal- timore every year for Cape Palmas ; but as, in fourteen years, only seven hundred of the coloured population of the State have been disposed of, the speedy absorption of the one hundred and sixty thousand still remaining, is not very hopeful. It has long been apparent that, in case of eman- cipation, the difficulty of having fully one-third of the population of the State of an inferior caste, unprotected by the bonds of interest, cannot be avoided. Then let it be boldly met : in this land of equality, give them the citizen's right to vote ; then they will have at least the power to make terms with the dominant party ; they will remain no longer excluded by law, from any appointments they may prove capable of filling. Surely these will be of the humblest sort ; for the white man cannot dread their competition in any other. Already, nearly half of the black population has become free, and the inconveniences have proved bv no means so monstrous as the alarmists pre- dieted, although the mixture of slaves and free blacks creates a complication of the difficulty. ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 79 Even in Jamaica, the dawn of better things is apparent ; for years, the American slaveholder had pointed with triumph to its embarrass- ments — although caused by an infinitely greater disproportion of free blacks to whites, than any of the States could present. To the interests of the south, the result of slavery is certain ultimate decay ; the result of emancipation, at least an uncertain evil If in the scale, against its advantages, be placed every doctrine of Christianity, every honest impulse of the human heart, every principle of eternal justice, the balance is decisively cast in all minds but those of the dealers in human flesh. To any English people who may look over these pages, the joining of my weak voice to the loud outcrv from all the Christian world, for the freedom of their fellow-man, even though his face be dark, is of course not of the slightest use, as — thank God — it will not, through their startled ear, fall on a guilty conscience. But I know that the work of every En- glishman who attempts a sketch of America, how- ever feeble his powers or humble his pretensions, is read by some of the people whose country he describes. I have therefore given these remarks, 80 HOCHELAGA; OR that they may see that I am not an exception-— that every son of our own free land agrees in the denunciation of this stain upon humanity, and in earnest prayer that it may soon be blotted out for ever. ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. Si CHAPTER IV. BALTIMORE — WASHINGTON. Baltimore, during the war, had an immense trade, as long as the Americans remained neutral ; but, when England was found to be struggling against enormous odds, that neutrality gave way ; the opportunity to wound her was too tempting. At this critical moment, the vir- tuous and patriotic indignation against her in- ordinate pretensions suddenly became uncontrol- lable ; the wrongs borne patiently, if not uncom- plainingly, for years, were no longer to be endured, anrl the United States threw their whole weight into the scale of the apparently winning side. When, however, the stubborn will of England was worked out in Europe, and her inveterate and ter- rible enemy subdued and in captivity, the warlike rtorm from the West subsided into a peaceful zephyr, and the " inordinate pretensions" and the e 3 82 hochelaga; or, " wrongs of many years" were left just as they were before. But this unfurling of the " stars and stripes" had a very great effect upon Baltimore, though so little upon the international questions : its trade all but ceased ; it passed into other channels, and even now requires all the matchless energy and . enterprize of Americans to be regained. The Roman Catholic Cathedral is a large and imposing building. Most of the old families of that faith, the descendants of the original settlers, have gone elsewhere or merged in the population ; the present congregation is principally of Irish and other foreigners. The portion of the town inha- bited by the wealthy classes has a more solid and lasting appearance than in the other Atlantic cities ; the private houses are very good, but the crop of grass in some of the streets gives them a dreary look. The Washington Column is one of the best specimens of that kind of building I have ever seen ; it is one hundred and sixty feet high, of excellent proportions throughout, the material a fine white marble : a large statue stands on the summit : the situation is very well chosen ; even from the base of the pillar there is a commanding and magnificent view. A few printed words on a ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 83 board hung on the railing, entreat that this monu- ment may not be spat upon or otherwise injured : in spite of this appeal for respect to the me- morial of their greatest hero, it is defiled in a sickening manner. Near the hotel where I staid, is a monument to •immortalize those who fell during the defence of the town in the last war, in the attack when General Ross of Bladensburgh was killed. The scene of this skirmish lies a few miles from the city, on the banks of the Patapsco. On the morn- ing of this event, two boys, the elder not more than sixteen years of age, took muskets in their hands, and walked off towards the British advance, declaring their intention to " shoot some British- ers." Thev concealed themselves behind a hed»e by the way-side for some time. Unfortunately, General Ross and his staff happened to pass by this road, and the youngsters had the cleverness to distinguish him ; both fired, and both shots took effect. This circumstance eaused the failure of the attack. Th.' Americans speak of great atrocities having been perpetrated by the English soldiery in these expeditions; our accounts give these assertions a positive denial. I have no great opinion of the 84 HOCHELAGA ; OR, tenderness of an invading army, even consisting of our own countrymen ; but, at the same time, judging from the degree of exaggeration in Ameri- can descriptions respecting which we have satis- factory testimony, it is evident that they never lose an opportunity of holding up the British army to execration ; for instance, the stupid and mischiev- ous assertion echoed and re-echoed by their press, that the watchword given by the English General at the attack on New Orleans was " Beauty and Booty." I put no faith in the unusual cruelties attributed to our countrymen at Baltimore. It is much to be lamented that the talented and erudite author of the magnificent " History of the French Revolution" should have preferred American to English testimony, on the subject of the atrocious watchword now referred to. I had the good fortune, through the kindness of one of the officers, to see the evolutions of a troop, or as they designate it, a company of horse-artillery, on the drill-ground near Fort Mac Henry, a few miles from the city. It was said to be the best troop in the army, modelled in a great measure on the English system. The materiel, the harness, and carriages, were decidedly inferior to their professed examples, and in some ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 85 respects quite different, such as the use of the exploded system of the pole instead of shafts. Their brass guns were polished so brightly that they were painful to look at in the sunshine, and that to lay them correctly must be impossi- ble; they would afford a charmingly conspi- cuous mark for the shot of opponents. From their equipment, there were available for the working of the piece, only four men, a num- ber quite insufficient, and they were neither aetive nor soldier-like : the uniform is much like that of the French artillery. The horses were good, but too light for this service. The drill was slower and more complicated than the English. In either appearance or evolution it would be unjust to compare with them the horse-artillery or batteries of Woolwich. The officers were very well informed, gentlemanly men, zealous and efficient in their profession. I have said this generally, I believe, half-a-dozen times before, but I cannot repeat it too often. They have especial difficulties to contend with in this service: by the time a soldier becomes competent for its numerous duties, he gets his discharge, or he deserts ; they have no settled or general system of equipments ; indeed all they now have, may be said to be experimental. 86 HOCHELAGA; OR, In spite of these drawbacks, I should pronounce them, in my humble opinion, to be efficient, and fit for immediate service. The fort is well situated for commanding the entrance of the harbour, but its means of offence or defence are not very formidable. When I saw it, a number of workmen were employed in strengthening it, under a very skilful and intel- ligent engineer officer. Several of the minor ar- rangements were ingenious, though somewhat unfinished ; with them, indeed, they had the merit of invention, but in Europe they have long been used in a more perfect form. This invention of things long known elsewhere, is by no means con- fined, in the United States, to the military equip- ments of Fort Mac Henry. I went to the Museum, where there is a very fine and complete skeleton of the Mastodon, found, I think, near the Ohio. There was nothing else particularly worthy of attention ; so I went up stairs to the top of the building, where there is a theatre ; a performance was going on quite as good as could be expected. A man near me put his feet upon the rail of the seat before him and stretched himself out till his head was as low as was consistent with staring at the stage ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 87 between his upraised legs. The sovereign people seemed to disapprove of this graceful position, and a cry of " Trollope, Trollope," had at length the effect of influencing him to restore his head and heels to their usual relative altitudes. I have been told by very good authority that the satirical works of English writers have had a decidedly beneficial effect upon the habits and manners of the Americans ; within the last ten years, the im- provement has been perceptible to the most care- less observer. If this be true, the state of things formerly, in some of the- public conveyances, and the smaller inns, must have been such as to palliate any amount of sarcastic bitterness. Even now, I defy any one to exaggerate the horrors of chewing and its odious consequences ; the shameless selfishness which seizes on a dish and appropriates the best part of the contents if the plate cannot contain the whole; and the sullen silence at meal times. But it is only fair to say that the most eminent heroes of these per- formances belong to a class of people with which the traveller in England is not brought into contact at all: indeed I believe that there, such a class— in manners at least — has no existence; I have never met with such, though thrown, a). 88 HOCHELAGA ; OR, different times, among men in great extremes of social position. . The Troilope question being satisfactorily settled, I tore myself away from the pleasures of the stage, to read the newspapers at the bar of the hotel. This was a fortunate step for me — an earnest observer of the peculiarities of human nature ; for there I saw collected, four more per- fect specimens of the ruffian than I had ever hoped or feared to meet with in the course of my pilgrimage. I should have thought them, from their appearance, the most villanous and offensive things I had ever encountered, had I not heard them speak : their language outdid their looks — filthy, blasphemous, ferocious, deepening in abo- mination as they drenched themselves with liquor. The bar-keeper — who was addressed as " Doctor," to do him justice, seemed thoroughly disgusted with them, and relieved when they were gone. The custom of carrying the bowie knife, is universal in these southern States ; even boys at school are not exceptions, and, not unfre- quently, they have been known to use it for the settlement of their disputes. Education is far from being so general or so well conducted here as in New England, and is diminishing in many ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 89 places as the population increases. The growth of ignorance is always followed by a correspond- ing strengthening of democratic feeling : in this statement I quote the speech in Congress of a Loco-Foco member, as reported in all the papers. This person also boasted of having patriotically used his influence, to encourage more domestic habits in the schoolmaster in his neighbour- hood. I conclude, from one or two circumstances which fell under my own observation, that Baltimore is not remarkable for the security of property. I was advised not to leave my hat in the hall one evening, while paying a very pleasant visit to an agreeable household ; the weather was extremely warm, all the doors and windows were open, and they seemed to think this possible opportunity of stealing my hat would certainly be taken advantage of. In the hotel, an excellent one by-the-bye, there was a printed notice, earnestly requesting guests to keep their doors bolted at night, as frequent robberies had occurred from the omission of this necessary precaution. Here, it is only necessary for the safety of your property; further south, it is equally so for the safety of your life. From the specimens I saw of the lower classes of the slave States, and the information which I ob- 90 HOCHELAGA; OR, tained about them, I consider them to be, to a frightful extent, rude, demoralized, and ferocious ; some of the gentry appear only to the greater ad- vantage by the force of the strong contrast in which they are placed with the masses of their countrymen. In travelling by railway in America, there is an excellent arrangement about baggage, which might, I should think, be very advantageously adopted in England : for every separate article you receive a small plate of tin, with a number stamped upon it ; a duplicate of this is tied on the luggage at the same time. When you arrive at your destination, you deliver your number to the porter at the hotel, who gets the articles from the clerk at the Railway Station by producing it. So, from the time you part with your baggage on entering the railway, you see no more of it till lodged safely in the bed-room allotted to you. Nothing particular occurred in my journey to Washington, except that I had a good deal of con- versation with a very singular man, a Polish homoeo- pathic doctor ; he worked himself up at last into such a state of excitement, in speaking of the wrongs of his country, that he made it quite a personal affair with me that England had not interfered to prevent its partition, though I positively disclaimed ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 91 having been a foreign minister at the time it took place. Washington is so well described in the epithet of " The city of magnificent distances" that it is scarcely possible to add anything to convey a clearer idea of it. It is indeed a rich architectural joke — a boasting, straggling, raw, uncomfortable failure, of infinite pretension in the plan,wretched and imperfect in the execution. The situation is very fine, that is, the situation of the capitol — the city is everywhere. Hotels, lodging-houses, the dwellings of the official people, the public offices, dockyard and arsenal — scattered about at the most ludicrously inconvenient distances, on muddy, back-scttlement-looking roads, of enormous width — are the component parts of inflated absurdity. I admired the Capitol very much. My ignorance of architectural science I suppose blinded me to the faults of which it is so freely accused. Two statues, by Persico, have been lately placed on the left-hand side as you enter — one, of Columbus holding the globe in his hand, (the character of his position and face I could not quite understand) the other, an Indian woman, stooping forward to look up to him. The latter struck me as very beautiful ; an expression of vague teiTor and yet of admiration is given to her 92 HOCHELAGA; OR, face with exquisite art. It is said that some ladies do not quite approve of the arrangement or quantity of her draperies. At a little distance from the Capitol is the gigan- tic statue of Washington, by Greenhow. The sitting attitude appeared to me stiff and undignified, but the head is the redeeming point. The figure is covered in by a wooden building, to guard it from the weather and from being injured ; the latter object has totally and disgustingly failed. Among the minor outrages was the name of" John H. Brown," written in large letters on the upper lip, so as to look like moustaches ; it must have required some active exertion to get up there for the purpose of putting on this ornament. The interior of the Capitol is judiciously arranged : both the Hall of the Senate and the House of Repre- sentatives are handsome, and of the most convenient form. The entrance hall of the building is circular, of a fine height and proportion; some historical paintings ornament, or disfigure it, according to the taste of the observer. I went to the top of the building ; as the ther- mometer was at ninety-four degrees in the shade, it may be imagined to have been tolerably, or rather intolerably, hot upon the roof. The view was splendid, ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 93 but I was not prepared to suffer so very painful a death as being roasted alive, for the sake of seeing more of it ; one glance round was all I could afford. I then jolted off to the dock-yard and arsenal ; both are on a very small scale, and not remarkable in any way but for the kindness and courtesy of the officers who are good enough to shew them. The post office is a handsome edifice, of white marble, and the patent office is well worth seeing, being filled with models of all inventions by Americans ; many of these are very ingenious and useful, others only complicated means of performing the simplest pos- sible operations. The electric telegraph between Washington and Baltimore, (soon, I understand, to be continued to Boston,) is very simply and cleverly arranged ; the mode of conversation is much more i asy and rapid than that in London, which I have since visited, and only one wire of communication is made use of. The public offices are convenient, plain in appearance, and with but little bustle ob- able in them. There was no public reception during my very short stay, but I had the honour of being presented to the President. At eleven in the forenoon, we arrived at the White House, under the shade of our umbrellas ; from the intense heat, a fire-king alone 94 HOCHELAGA ; OR, could have dispensed with this protection. The house is a handsome building, of about the same size and pretensions as the Lord Lieutenant's residence in the Phoenix Park, in Dublin ; but much as I had heard of the republican simplicity of the arrange- ments, I was not prepared to find it what it was. We entered, without ringing at the door ; my kind guide, leading the way, passed through the lower premises and ascended the staircase, at the top of which we saw a negro, dressed very plainly, in clothes of the same colour as his face. He grinned at us for a moment, and calculating, from the re- spectability of my companion, that I did not mean to steal anything, was walking off, till he saw me, with a simple confidence, which seemed to him too amiable to be allowed to suffer a betrayal — place my umbrella in a corner, before entering the gallery leading to the private apartments : he immediately turned to correct my error, informing me that if I had any farther occasion for its services, I had better not leave it there, " for some one would be sure to walk into it." I took his counsel and my property, and proceeded till we arrived at the door of the President's room. My guide knocked, and the voice of the ruler of millions said, " Come in." Before obeying this command, ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 95 I of course left my unfortunate umbrella outside ; this done, I walked into the presence and was introduced. At the same moment, the watchful negro, the guardian spirit of my endangered pro- perty, thrust it into my left hand, with another and stronger admonition to my simplicity ; but this time his tone of compassion for my ignorance had degenerated into almost that of contempt for my obstinate folly. In the mean time, my right hand was kindly shaken by the President, according to custom ; he told mc to be seated, and conversed with much urbanity. I of course trespassed on his valuable time but for a very few minutes, and then departed. He was sitting at a round table covered with papers ; another gentleman, I presume a secretary, was seated at a desk near the window, writing. Mr. Polk is a remarkable-looking man ; his fore- head massive and prominent, his features marked and of good outline. The face was shaved quite close, the hair short, erect, and rat; er grey. Judging from his dress and general appearance, he might have been either a lawyer or a dissenting minister ; his manner and. mode of expression were not incongruous with his appearance. Al- though, a few years ago, his name was unknown, 96 HOCHELAGA; OR, every one is now aware that Mr. James Polk was a lawyer in the State of Tennessee, holding a re- spectable, but by no means a commanding position. At the eleventh hour of the last presidential election, the democratic party, fearful of further delay, agreed to support him, as a man not suffi- ciently conspicuous to have made himself ob- noxious to any of their sectional prejudices ; and, by a small majority, they succeeded in placing him at the head of affairs. Although the Whig party were at first highly indignant at comparatively so obscure a person being made the instrument of their defeat, they have submitted with a good grace to the exercise of the presidential authority, and are now, in general, not unfavourably disposed to the individual pos- sessing it. Most of the offices under govern- ment, down to the very lowest, to the number, it is said, of more than sixty thousand, changed hands on this occasion, as the punishment, or reward, of political opposition or support. It is by no means a matter of surprise to me that the framers of the American Constitution should have been so jealous of the presidential authority. The patronage is now becoming enor- mous ; the immense quantities of offices to be ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 97 given away, is far more important than their value, in a community where the bestowal of political power depends on numbers. As long as the executive acts in accordance with the general party views of its constituency, it enjoys, in particular instances, the possession of almost despotic power. Politically, the President is the mere organ of the masses, the mouthpiece to express their passions and prejudices, not the strong .arm to repress their excesses. The effect of this on their domestic affairs is their own 'look-out,' but the inaugural address and the " message" of the present Presi- dent are specimens of its pernicious influence on their foreign relations. The poor apology, that these threatening and high-sounding manifestoes are only meant as political capital, to tell on the minds of the grasping and turbulent popula- tion of the West, is but little consolation to the fund-holder or the merchant, whose property is damaged by the alarm which they excite. By degrees, the people of Europe are beginning to set the proper value upon them ; from causing uneasiness, the next step will be to cause con- tempt. As for the bombastic absurdities and virulent attacks upon the governments of the old world, VOL. II. F 98 HOCHELAGA ; OR upon that of England, especially, that now disgrace the House of Representatives, and even the Senate — their mischief is incalculable. They have been the cause of changing a simple matter of right, and diplomatic arrangement, into a question of national pride ; and of placing at the council-board the passions of the people, instead of the wisdom of their rulers. After the States of America had succeeded in throwing off the rule of England, it became, obviously, necessary to establish one of their own instead. In 1787, all the States excepting Rhode Island, sent delegates to Philadelphia for the pur- pose. After two years' consideration, and reference to the different districts concerned, the Constitu- tion was declared, and put in operation. The powers of government were placed in the hands of three authorities, the President, the Senate, and the House of Representatives, each of these being directly and frequently subjected to the ordeal of election, and all emanating from the same source, being neither more or less than different mouths to express the popular will. On this subject Mr. Biddle says, " The tendency and danger of other governments is subserviency to Courts ; that of ours, is submission to popular excitement, which i ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 99 statesmen should often rather repress than obey. Undoubtedly, the public councils should reflect the public sentiments ; but that mirror may be dimmed bv being too closely breathed upon ; nor can all the other qualities of a public man ever supply the want of personal independence: it is that fatal want that renders so many ostensible leaders only followers, which makes so many who might have been statesmen degenerate into politicians, and tends to people the country with the slaves, or the victims, of that mysterious fascination, the love of popularity." The President is elected for the term of four years, by the majority of all the male naturalized inhabitants of the United States. He commands the naval and military force of the country ; he nominates all officers of the Federal Government who arc not elected by the Senate, but this is subject to its annulment of such appointments ; he has the power of making treaties, but these require the ratification of the Senate ; he may grant pardons for all offences but treason, and can place his veto on thn acts of the other two Estates ; if, however, an act be returned by two-thirds of the Elective Houses, he can no longer forbid its passing. A Secretary of State, and Secretaries of the Trea- f 2 100 HOCHELAGA ; OR sury, of War, and of Naval Affairs, assist him. These are not, however, allowed to have a place in either House of Congress. The Senators are elected by the members of the legislature of the different States, two from each, whether large or small ; they are chosen for six years, one third going out every two years. Each member must be thirty years of age, nine years a naturalized citizen of the United States, and a resident of the State which he represents. From this body committees are formed, for foreign affairs, &c, which perform a large portion of executive duties confided in other countries to the Secretaries of State. The members of the House of Representatives are elected every two years, on the basis of population; in most of the States by universal suffrage, at the rate of not more than one member for thirty thousand inhabitants; none can be elected under twenty-five years of age, or who is not a resident of the State for which he is chosen. The owners of slaves are allowed to vote for them, at the rate of three to five for the number in their possession, besides voting in their individual capacity. Each member must have been at least seven years naturalized. All legislation and taxation must be approved of ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 101 by these three authorities ; in the Senate and the House of Representatives, the majority being the will of the body ; while for any change in the Con- stitution, two thirds of each must consent. From these few statements it will be seen that all power, Executive and Legislative, not only emanates, but is held almost directly from the hands of the majority of the people. As far as external relations are concerned, their control over the minority is absolute, no matter how strong that minority may be in virtue, wealth, and num- bers. At this present time it is the inclination, and, perhaps, the apparent interest, of the Western States, to go to war with England ; in the older and better districts of the Atlantic coast, the incli- nation and the interest are to remain at peace. The former party may prove more numerous ; war may be brought on ; and the latter have to sutfer the loss of its trade, and, probably, injuries from the enemy, in a contest to which it has been throughout opposed ; while the Central States, heedless of the sufferings of which they can feel no share, look forward to the conquest of valuable neighbouring territories as the reward of their efforts. In carrying out this Constitution, two great 102 HOCHELAGA; OR, principles have been acted upon, by two different parties — Conservative and Democratic. In Wash- ington was embodied one, in Jefferson the other. Washington stands among Americans " first in peace, first in war, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." Jefferson was his treacherous enemy. Jefferson disclaimed alike reverence for the past and regard for the future : the attainment of pre- sent advantage was the sole object of his school of policy ; to the means and the consequences he was equally indifferent. Of these two principles, the high-minded, the educated, and the wealthy, adopted the former; the unscrupulous, the ignorant, and the needy, the latter ; and to the hands of the latter, as the more numerous, has the working of the Constitution fallen. But there is such a weight of all that is good and sound, in this great Anglo-Saxon Republic, that on several occasions it has returned, for a season, to the rule of this worthy minority ; the stream of Demo- cracy could however, only be delayed ; now, it has swept it quite away, and the men of character, talent, and wealth, are borne unwillingly and help- lessly on the turbid waters. So, the principles of Jefferson have triumphed over those of Washington. ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 103 The results are unjust aggression, the dishonesty of whole States, the injury of social liberty, and the debasement of public men. One of America's most gifted sons, in his " Essay on Heroism," gives these words : — "Who, that sees the meanness of our politics, but only congratulates Washington that he is already long wrapped in his shroud, and for ever safe ; that he was laid sweet in his grave, the hope of humanity not yet subjugated in him?" There is only one court in which the Judges are not subject to the perpetual action of the popular will : the Supreme Court of the United States is independent, none other. By this elective arrange- ment, they have attained as near an approach to the system of Judge Lynch as could be decently managed. The man to whom the power of life and death is intrusted, is often a very inferior lawyer : no successful one would be contented to take the niggardly salary of the office, instead of his practice. The Judge will, most likely, be dependent on his re-election for his bread. In Mississippi or Arkansas, the people have far too lively a regard for their liberties to elect to the judicial chair a man who would throw obstacles in the way of the 1 04 HOCHELAGA ; OR, free use of their beloved bowie knife. Even in the enlightened Philadelphia and Boston, we have seen the attempt to punish popular rioters end in a failure and a farce. In this strange community, the very class of people who most need the restraints of civil and religious law, choose and pay the ministers, and can discard them when they cease to be complai- sant. In the machinery of the Constitutions of the different States, there is great variety, but in the principle, none ; " the people are the source of all legitimate power;" numbers are represented, not property — stake in the country, intellectual power, character, confer not a feather weight of political strength on their possessors. Many of these do not vote at all ; it is well known that in some dis- tricts not half the number of the inhabitants exer- cise their franchise ; the hustings are crowded with the idle, the rapacious, and the interested. Their choice often falls upon the scheming, briefless lawyer, who, without talent or industry enough for his profession, is gifted with the necessary degree of assurance, pliability, and cunning, to persuade them, not that he has merit, but that he will be their readiest tool. In this creature their ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 105 vanity, as well as their power, is concentrated ; and, unless he can, by his turbulence and ver- bosity, consume the share of the public time which their dignity requires to be given to them, he is ejected, to make room for some more tur- bulent demagogue. F 3 106 HOCHELAGA; OR, CHAPTER V. BOSTON. My time being very limited, I was obliged to return by Baltimore and Philadelphia, that being by far the shortest and easiest route. I found New York as hot and busy as when I left it, and highly excited by the first arrival of the Great Britain steam-ship from England. Thousands of people assembled to see her enter the harbour ; they seemed generally disappointed in her apparent size, but much struck by the beauty of her model. They were unanimous in their indignation at being obliged to pay for going on board ; and when they saw her decked with the flags of all the nations of the earth, except that of America, the state of pub- lic feeling became quite alarming, and the papers of the day contained tremendous articles on the supposed insult. It turned out that, by way of the ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 107 greatest compliment, the English and American flags had been joined together in the most affec- tionate manner, and had proved such a curious mixture that no one was able to make out what it meant. There had been a good deal of betting as to the length of time the vessel would take in her first passage ; some were so near in their " guess" that the difference between Liverpool and New York clocks, raised points to be decided by " Bell's Life." There was great eagerness for English news : all the names and actions of our public men seem quite as familiar to the Americans generally as to ourselves — the state of the markets much more so. They have a profound respect for the English press, indeed, the leading article of the ' ' Times" they seem to think the undoubted exponent of the feel- ings of the wealthy classes in England. The power and severity with which that magnificent paper sometimes treats on Transatlantic affairs, though it exasperates them, has a decided influence on their ■pinions. The extraordinary ability and zeal dis- played in attacking the Corn Laws are certain passports to thdr approbation, and in some measure reconcile them to the offences against their national ranity. In my short wanderings, I had opportunities of 108 HOCHELAGA; OR, seeing a little of their navy : every one knows that their ships are excellent in their construction and performance ; those I saw were also highly credit- able in the appearance of order and discipline on board. The number of ships in their navy list is seventy-six : fifty-five of these, including six ships of the line, are available for service ; there are only two steam-vessels in commission. The ships are all, of their kind, of the very largest size ; some of their frigates are of as much tonnage as our old line-of-battle ships. The number of seamen em- ployed is about six thousand; one-sixth of these only are Americans, the remainder being nearly all English. Their pay is very high, from three pounds to three pounds ten, sterling, per month. The American navy is a most formidable force to the enemies of the country, as well as to its country's exchequer ; in proportion to its numbers, the ex- pense is far greater than that of any other power. The officers stand very high in public estima- tion ; but the rank of Admiral is denied them by the absurd jealousy of their countrymen, as, though popular demagogues may be militia Generals by the score, they have not yet made their naval commands elective. The short history of this force is very brilliant and adorned by many gallant actions ; by far ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 109 ■ the greater number of these having been performed against ourselves. They always wisely worked with the choicest tools ; in their successes, the size of their ships, the weight of metal, and the strength of the crews, were invariably greater than ours. In the contest of these two great branches of the Anglo-Saxon race, both by sea and land, the cir- cumstances of skill in the individual commanding, the strength and discipline of the force employed, or local advantages, have always been the causes of victory declaring for either party. As to the boast of superiority in national valour, of either the one or the other, the bloody decks of the Java and the Chesapeake, and the indecisive carnage of Lundy's Lane, bear witness to its vanity. The American people are very justly proud of the achievements of their navy, and treat it with far greater liberality than the other departments ; they also modestly refrain from interfering with its arrangement and discipline ; in short where it is concerned they can stand anything but Admirals. At both New York and Boston they have very fine line-of-battle ships for the commodore's flag — the North Carolina and the Ohio. I should think the patience of the officers must be often sorely tried, from the number and nature of their visitors. There 110 HOCHELAGA; OR, « is a stout little squadron off the coast of Mexico, ready for any emergency that may occur in that quarter, should the unreasonable inhabitants resent having Texas taken off their hands by their liberty* loving brother republicans ; or the probable gift of their inestimable institutions be rejected by the province of California. Now, these ignorant Mexi- cans have not yet received the undoubted fact — part of the education of all the rising generations of Americans — that Providence made the whole of this northern continent expressly for the United States, and that their continuing to hold any part of it, is nearly as preposterous as England or any other European power continuing to do so. Among the Americans, there is a very strong wish to enlighten this Mexican ignorance as soon as possible, and also a pious zeal that the evident designs of Providence may no longer be delayed. This devotional feeling has manifested itself lately in several instances ; among the valuable members of society who forwarded the Divine views by the taking of Texas, and introducing slavery there, (which the Mexicans had abolished) ; by the noble, but unsuccessful deeds of the Canadian sympa- thizers, and above all, by the high-minded statesmen who contend for the lion's share of Oregon, ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 1 1 i uniting the virtues of a Yankee pedlar and a pet- tifogging attorney to the strength of their diplo- matic skill. From New York to Boston, I proceeded by the Long-Island railway, and by steam-boat, at an incre- dibly small expense, and with a party large in an inverse proportion. The quantity of luggage on these occasions is enormous, although many Ame- rican gentlemen travel very light, the great coat pocket containing all the necessary assistance for the toilet ; those, however, who do use portman- teaus, use very large ones, generally of strong but light wood, bound round with straps of iron, and ornamented with brass nails. The initials of the proprietor, and those of his town and State, are marked on them in immense letters, either in white paint or in these brass nails. There is usually too, something very complicated in the locks. Altogether, there is a peculiarly cautious and know- ing look about an American portmanteau ; I could recognize it anywhere, among thousands. Among the number of my fellow-passengers there \^'re neither old nor young, at least there were no venerable grey heads or cheerful boyish faces. In no part of the United States do the people seem to ar- rive at the average length of life of the Old World. 112 hochelaga; or, The great and sudden changes of temperature, while, perhaps, they stimulate the energies of those who are exposed to them, wear out the stamina of the body and exhaust its vitality. The cares of manhood and the infirmities of second childhood are equally premature, denying the population the two loveliest but most de- pendent stages of existence; the idle but fresh and generous morning of youth; the feeble but soft and soothing evening of old age. In this country, we find even the climate in league with the practical, in its influences on the powers of man — a goad to material prosperity. The child is pushed, with a forcing power, into the duties and pursuits of maturer years ; the man, when he ceases to be of active use, is hurried out of the busy scene, his part played. The cumberers of the ground are few, all work, none play. They go more awkwardly about their amusements than any people I have ever seen elsewhere : theirs is a dark and sombre path through life, though every step were on gold. Sarcastic wit will win from them a sarcastic grin ; the happy conclusion of some hard-driven bargain may raise a smile of satisfaction: but the joyful burst of cheerful laughter, the glee and hilarity of a happy heart, ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 113 you must go elsewhere to seek. They are not a healthy-looking race ; the countenance is sallow, and marked, early in life, with lines of thought. The fresh, pure glow of the Saxon cheek is never seen here. The men are tall, but not robust or athletic; they have no idea of the sports of the field, and rarely or never join in any more active game than bowls or billiards. They do not walk, if they can ride ; ride, if they can drive ; or drive if they can go by railway. Mind and body, day and night ; youth and age, are given up to the one great pursuit of gain. But this inordinate appetite for acquiring is, in their character, deprived of some of its most odious features ; it is rarely accompanied by par- simony or want of charity. I believe no people on earth can be more hospitable to their equals in worldly wealth, or more open-handed to the poor. Their establishments for the relief of the distressed arc almost unrivalled in liberality and excellence of arrangement ; and many among them are as lavish in their expenditure, as energetic in possessing themselves of the means to supply it. That money should be the great stepping- stone to the consideration of their fellow men 114 HOCHELAGA; OR, is both the cause and effect of this universal tendency. Of course, the lower in the scale of rank and education you descend in your studies of character, the more openly and odiously is this trait developed; you must go very high in- deed before you cease to trace its influence. It is a painful consideration to any one whom the sense of truth obliges to make general remarks of this nature, not altogether favourable to the national character, that many of those whose kindness he has experienced may feel hurt, and be disposed to look upon them as evidences of ingratitude. I cannot however but hope, that the effort, — though it may be unsuccessful — to present fairly both sides of the picture, may not be mistaken for a cause to give offence, or even for a want of full and grateful appreciation of the kind offices received. I look upon it as the duty of an Englishman to be unrestrained by any personal consideration, from giving the full weight, but not an atom more, of the evil effects produced on the character and manners of a people, by a system of government and education so totally different from that under which he has been brought up — that which his honest con- ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 115 viction and his experience assure him is the best yet devised by man's finite wisdom. If the words I have written should prove in the least degree offensive to any of those kind friends in America to whom I am so much in- debted for disinterested and most agreeable hos- pitality, let them attribute their spirit to prejudice — ignorance — to anything but want of gratitude and friendly feeling towards them. The distance from Newport to Boston is two hundred and twenty miles, of a most fatiguing journey ; rushing from steam-boat to railway, and railway to steam-boat, crushing into the dining saloon, a disgusting dinner, wonderful alacrity in dispatching it by one's fellow passengers, heat dreadful, smoke from the engines annoying — in short, we arrived at Boston extremely tired and in a very ill humour When we — I include two English officers whom I met and joined company with at New York — when we arrived at the Tremont House, we were informed that every bed in the establishment was engaged, except three in the same room. While we stood aghast at this intelligence, some other people came in to look for accommodation, saying they had tried 116 HOCHELAGA; OR, several other hotels in vain. So we made the best of it, and ordered our valuables up stairs, where we found that the three beds for ourselves were in the same room with three more beds for other individuals, each couch being flanked by one of those American portmanteaus I have so particularly described, with the lock well secured, and no loose articles lying about. However, it was very late, and we had had quite enough locomotion for that day, so it ended in our remaining; being further influenced by a promise to provide separate rooms for us the next day, which was faithfully fulfilled. I found this altogether the best hotel in which I had been in the States. We had one corner for our three beds, our luggage was piled up in a central situation, and, confident in numbers, we went to bed and slept. I was fortunate to waken just as the American gentlemen came in, for it gave me an opportunity of seeing a dispatch in going to rest, rivalling that in the dinner department. From the time the door opened, there appeared to be only a hop, step, and jump into bed, and then a snore of the profoundest repose. Early in the morning, when these gentlemen awoke from their balmy slumbers, there was another hop, ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 117 step, and jump out of the beds, and we saw no more of them. We found breakfast every- thing we could wish, the people of the house very kind and obliging, and comfortable rooms an hour or two afterwards. I found several of my Saratoga friends staying here : we had all been travelling about in different directions, and had now arrived at the same point ; some of them were bound for England by the next mail steam-packets, as were my companions and myself. We had however left ourselves ample time for sight-seeing, sowing our letters of introduction, and reaping, as usual, an abundant crop of kindness and attention. The hotel is divided into a family and bachelor es- tablishment; but, at meals, the lonely, unblessed ones are allowed the privilege of joining the ladies if they arc acquainted with any of them, or indeed, if they feel inclined. There was a large drawing-room, with a piano, and a gay circle was always to be found in it. The bar and the smoking-room evidently offered much greater attractions to most of the gentlemen ; the expenditure of cigars and saliva in these localities was enormous. The reading-room was a very good one, there were heaps of papers belonging to all parts of the States, from the 1 1 8 HOCHELAGA ; OR, " Bangor Whig" to the " New Orleans Picayune" and "Arkansas Democrat;" in a corner, from a pile in a frame, " The Times" hung out its broad and well-thumbed sheet. The wall was hung round with maps of the city, the States, and the United States, where the blue of the American territory always thrusts itself up into the red of the English, to the farthest line of the different disputed points. At the top, they were ornamented by some appropri- ate national design, such as the American eagle carrying the globe in its talons, with one claw stuck well into Texas, and another reaching nearly to Mexico. While the noble bird's feet are thus profitably employed, his beak is not idle, for there he holds a staff, from which the flag of the " stars and stripes" floats over the prostrate world. Boston, the social and commercial capital of New England, is, in trade and opulence, inferior only to New York, among the cities of North America. The harbour is excellent, but beyond that, it pos- sesses no great natural advantages ; the soil around is poor, and the country deficient in the mine ralpro- ductions necessary for the uses of man. No navi- gable river opens the resources of distant districts ; on one side is the oceanj on the other, the stern hills and ungenial climate of New England. But ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 119 this unpromising territory was fixed on by a set of men, of a courage, hardihood, and energy, capable of overcoming any danger or difficulty that presented itself. Their descendants have inherited these virtues, and by their exercise have changed this barren shore into a city of luxury and wealth. Boston was founded in 1630, about ten years after the landing of the pilgrim fathers. For half a century it made but little progress. When the colonies became independent it rapidly increased, like all the other Atlantic cities ; for, from the Old World, especially from England, religious enthusi- asts, adventurers, disaifected men, and admirers of republican institutions, flocked over in crowds to swell the population. Of late years, Boston has been favoured by particular commercial enactments, and has progressed more rapidly than ever. It is said to contain at this day one hundred and twenty thou- sand souls ; certain it is that building is going on to a prodigious extent. I have visited it at differ- ent intervals, and at each period the increase was plainly visible. The city stands upon a peninsula in Massa- chusetts Bay, marked by three bold hills ; from north to south, three miles long, from east to west one third of that length, but of an indented and ir- 1 20 HOCHELAGA ; OR, regular outline. As the number of the inhabitants so rapidly increased, this piece of land became too small for their accommodation, and they have spread themselves over the island and other parts near at hand, keeping up still their intimate connection with the town on the Peninsula by bridges and ferries. Of the former there are six, of great length but no beauty ; the material of their structure is wood. Canal bridge, leading to East Cambridge, is the largest, measuring nearly a thousand yards. In the old parts of the town the streets are narrow and inconvenient ; in the new, they are wide and regular, with massive and comfortable dwellings, built chiefly of a bright red brick, and having doors and blinds of lively colours ; many have also windows of purple glass, giving them, altogether, a cheerful but fan- tastic appearance. Everything in Boston is scrupu- lously clean ; from the roof to the road not a speck or stain ; no one is allowed to enjoy the selfish indulgence of smoking in the streets, and chewing is not nearly so popular here as in the south. The harbour is excellent, easy of access to friends, difficult to foes ; when within its shelter, there is ample space and safe anchorage for a great amount of shipping. Fort Independence, more formidable by nature than art, protects the narrow entrance ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 121 of the channel, at a point-blank range. The wharves are extensive and solid ; of late, great ranges of store-houses have been built close at hand, of com- modious size and lasting materials ; these districts are scenes of constant and active industry. On the island opposite, in the harbour, is East Boston, only ten years old, but already in maturity ; the English Mail Steam-packet Company have their dock and stores there, and a steam ferry-boat crosses between this offshoot and the main city every five minutes. The State-House of Massa- chusetts stands on the highest point of the Penin- sula ; from the cupola on the dome at the top, you see the city and the surrounding country under you like a map, and get the best idea of its extent and position ; for, as long as you move about below from street to street, you are sadly puzzled among the numerous bridges and ferries. This dome is a copy of that of St. Paul's ; of this it is necessary to be informed, for the likeness is not verv striking-. You will probably also hear that the view from it is the finest on the earth ; this too it is essential that you should be made aware of by the authority of your guide, for, without being told, it might perhaps escape your observation that such was the case, But, in truth, it is a very fine and interesting sight VOL. II. G 122 HOCHELAGA; OR, whether it be the finest in the world or not. In an architectural point of view, the Custom House is the most remarkable edifice ; it is built of solid granite, rather heavy in ts general effect. There are nume- rous churches for every variety of religious faith. One, called Kings' Chapel, was many years ago devoted by its founder to the Church of England ; the will declared that divine service should always be per- formed according to the Rubric, under penalty of the endowment being forfeited. In course of time the majority of the parishioners became Unitarians, and adopted the Jeffersonian principle that the dead should not have any influence over the living : there is, however, some law in Massachusetts indenen- dent of the popular feeling, and the congregation could not seize the funds without submitting to the will. A sort of arrangement was therefore entered into, by which the English Liturgy was still used, but carefully purged of anything alluding to the objectionable Trinitarian doctrines. I once attended the service there without being aware of this extra- ordinary compromise, and without having heard the American Church of England Liturgy anywhere else, and I certainly was sadly puzzled to know what had happened to it in this instance. A very clever sermon was preached afterwards, commencing ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 123 with a profession of avoiding all doctrinal points, and of addressing the congregation oh the broad basis of Christianity ; but the spirit of the preacher's faith breathed through every word he spoke. I un- derstand that a great many worthy and amiable people joined in this arrangement for setting aside the dead man's will by a side-wind ; indeed, I do not recollect having heard any one there speak of it with disapprobation. The Unitarians are very numerous and influential at Boston, and the clergy- men of the highest repute. The Fanevil Hall is an interesting place, it is called after its founder, who gave it to the citizens for public meetings. It is nearly a hundred feet square, and three stories high. In the centre story, which is the one more generally used, there is a desk and a row of seats for the prin- cipal speakers. When I saw it, this room was being fitted up with branches into a sort of honey- comb of bovvers, where stalls for an abolition bazaar were to be placed the next day. Close by this building is the magnificent Fanevil Market, five hundred and thirty-six feet long, and fifty wide much to be admired for the abundance and variety of good tilings to be purchased under its walls, as well as for the style of its structure. G 2 124 HOCHELAGA; OR, In my visit to this place I was fortunate enough to have for my companion, a gentleman of great worth, and of the highest estimation among his fellow-citizens ; his head was grey, but his kind- ness of heart as warm and fresh as if he had been still in early youth : but lately returned from a visit to England, he had been confined by indispo- sition since his arrival ; as he walked through the market, several of the keepers of stalls to whom he was known, came out, with evident pleasure, to meet him, shaking hands with him in the most cordial manner, and expressing their joy at seeing him again. In spite of this familiar and apparently equal greeting, the respect they bore him was evidentlv shewn, and as little to be misunderstood as if they had only doffed their caps to him. We had much conversation on this little scene after- wards, and he was gratified that a stranger had been witness to it, as in its way so characteristic of the manners of New England. One evening, he was kind enough to take me to the meeting of a sort of club, held for the purposes of social intercourse, every second Friday, at the house of one of the members. About a dozen gentlemen were present on this occasion, all of them past the noon of life, except the host, who ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 125 was a very distinguished lawyer, well known else- where as well as in Boston ; one of the others held a high judicial situation. Some were leading members of the press, others medical men of the best standing, others connected with the manufac- turing and commercial interests. Among the latter were two who had begun life before the mast, and by their own abilities and merit arrived at great wealth ; both in manners and conversation they were exceedingly pleasing. One of them had traded for some years to the mouth of the Co- lumbia River, and was well acquainted with the Oregon territory and its inhabitants, both abori- gines and settlers. This gentleman has written one of the best pamphlets on the boundary ques- tion at present in dispute between England and the United States, that the universal interest on this subject has called forth : his views, as ex- pressed in this pamphlet, as well as in conversation, appear clear, sound, and moderate, he strongly advocates a peaceful arrangement of the difficulty, as did, indeed, all the company ; but at the same time they expressed their fixed determination to sup- port their countrymen in claiming a full and fair division. I was sorry to find that all seemed to agree that the free navigation of the Columbia 126 HOCHELAGA; OR, River was a point not on any account to be con- ceded to England. I consider that the opinions of these highly in- telligent and wealthy men, belonging to this most moderate portion of the Union — men, who, having their shipping on the seas at this moment, would have the most to lose in a war — whose feelings towards England appeared of a friendly nature, and whose ideas were generally tolerant and sober — are to be taken as decidedly a most favourable specimen of American feeling on this particular point. But on several former proposals of settlement made to England, the free navigation of the Columbia was part of the offer ; and it is not for a moment to be supposed, that any English ministry can accept another proposal in the style of the Sybil's books. The disagreeable deduction from all this is, that the matter is one that requires the highest diplomatic skill, and very favourable circumstances, to carry it to a peaceful termination. At about ten o'clock, we sat down to supper at a round table covered with all sorts of good cheer, and remained in very animated and interesting conversation till midnight, when the party broke up. It is highly gratifying to an Englishman to find ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 127 that in America — and particularly at Boston — where his introductions point him out as not undeserving of kindness, his country is at once a passport to the good offices of the people ; and the higher they ascend in the social scale, the more strongly this is marked. At the same time, they are exceedingly keen in their observation of manner and conversa- tion ; I have no doubt they could at once detect, and treat accordingly, any one who might try to impose upon their sagacity, by representing himself to belong to a class of society, in his own country, to which he had no pretensions. The Common is a park of about fifty acres, laid out with gravel walks, and ornamented with fine trees ; many of the houses of the wealthiest inha- bitants range along one side of it ; both in health and beauty this space is a great advantage to the people of Boston. This city stands first in America for the number and excellence of its public schools ; there are ninety — including a Latin grammar- school, and a high school for mathematics and the more advanced branches of an English education. They are all sustained at the expense of the com- munity, and cost about forty thousand pounds a ir. It is singular that, although the opportuni- ties of education are so much better in the great 128 HOCHELAGA; OR, towns, even for the lowest classes, the inhabitants are not usually so successful in the pursuits of life as those of the country. I know several instances of country lads who had commenced by sweeping out an office of business, and afterwards, by their skill and industry, had become among the richest of the State ; but this seldom happens with those " raised" in the cities. The Athenaeum contains one of the most valuable libraries in the States ; between thirty and forty thousand volumes. Good private libraries are very rare ; if, indeed, they have any existence. I went, of course, to see the monument on Bunker's Hill, and, in spite of the warning of the thermometer, climbed to the top of it ; the view is very fine, but not so good as that from the dome of the State-House. I found several visitors at the top, looking out, two of a most singular class ; they were Texian frogs ; large, toad-like-looking rep- tiles, squatted on the hot stone of the battlement, staring down with their beautiful bright eyes j they were covered with thick scales, and spotted with black, their feet like those of aquatic birds. They belonged to a man almost as extraordinary- looking as themselves, who told us that he had just arrived from Texas, and was going back thither ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 129 immediately ; that it was a delightful country, with no troublesome restrictions of laws. As soon as his strange pets had looked long enough on this scene sacred to liberty, he put them carefully in his bosom, for, he said " they were very particular how they travelled." The column is two hundred and twenty feet high, and thirty feet square at the base ; the hill is merely a gentle inclination ; but, when defended with breastworks, it must have been a most formi- dable position. On the 17th of June, 1775, was fought the battle that has made it memorable, and Englishmen never showed more determined cou- rage than on that day. They were all English- men then, though ranged on adverse sides — for the Crown and the Colony. When Howe was at length successful at such tremendous cost, he had good reason to say, with the old Cavalier, of the Puritan army, * * * * To give The rebel dogs their due, When the roaring shot Poured thick and hot, They were stalwart men and true. It was a gallant fight, and the Americans may well be proud of it. G 3 130 HOCHELAGA; OR, Boston has made great and successful efforts to create the internal advantages of communication which nature has denied her. The Middlesex Canal, the oldest in the United States, joins to the Merrimack River, at Concord ; railroads branch out in all directions ; by them the Hudson, and the canals and railways of New York open the line of travel to the far West. Lines of packets run regularly to all the principal sea-ports of the At- lantic. The shipping of Boston is second in quantity to that of New York only, and no in- considerable part of the trade of other ports is carried on by it. The exports are very large — cot- ton and woollen manufactured goods to China and elsewhere ; tools and machines of all sorts for the southern States, and not least on the list, three or four million pairs of shoes every year. Whatever skill or industry can supply, is plentiful in New England ; the surplus finds its way elsewhere, through the port of Boston. There is just the same evidence here, of activity and prosperity, as at New York, but not the same bustle and fuss ; everything is more orderly and steady. Even the dray-horses seem to partake of this character; they are larger and fatter, more English-looking ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 131 than any I have seen elsewhere. In hot weather, every horse, no matter what his station in life may be, is provided with a netting to keep off the flies ; and they all seem well fed and cared for. 132 HOCHELAGA; OR, CHAPTER VI. BOSTON LOWELL PLYMOUTH FESTIVAL WINTER JOURNEY TO CANADA. The beautiful cemetery of Mount Auburn is the sight best worth seeing in Boston and its neigh- bourhood. The grounds are extensive, containing a great variety of hill and dell, the miniature features of a picturesque country. It is but fifteen years old, and many of the tombs are still unoc- cupied. I think the impression which the sight of this cemeterv leaves on the mind, is far more sad than that of Pere la Chaise, or any other place of interment I have ever seen. Its duties have scarcely begun, but, in a few years, many among the troubled thousands we have just left, will sleep in its shades ; their cold beds are ready for them, the inscriptions written for them, nothing is wanted but the date of their going to rest. As, ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 133 in the course of time, the busy swarms of the neighbouring city multiply and spread over her space, so will the silent population of this dark rival swell and fill its limits. The new and thinly- peopled cemetery seems to intrude its offers of ghastly hospitality upon the living, more than to guard the slumbers of its solemn household of the dead. Deep woods, of many and various trees, clothe the undulating surface ; at this autumn time of the year, the shades of their foliage are very rich and beautiful. No sounds disturb the echoes ; there are no birds, no noisy insects ; silence and the dead dwell there together. The tombs are, in general, very unsuited to this lonely place : showy, obtru- sive in their pretensions, very white and very new ; the epitaphs speak to you more of earth than of heaven. There are no humble graves covered with the soft green turf; here the grass is tall, and rank, and withered. The neighbourhood of Boston is very pretty ; there are many neat villas, some on a handsome scale. The roads arc good, the fences well kept ; you can easily fancy yourself in England ; there is more of a rural appearance about it than any other place 1 have seen in America. It is quiet and 134 HOCHELAGA ; OR, tranquil-looking, neither are there everywhere the signs of money-making. An Englishman cannot fail to be much pleased with Boston, its vicinity, and its inhabitants ; it is his own country over again, deficient indeed in the charm of association with the virtues and glories of antiquity, but, on the other hand, free from the blight of poverty and the sorrows of ill-rewarded toil. About two miles from the cemetery is the town of Cambridge, containing nearly nine thousand people. Twenty years after the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers, a college was founded here, which now exists, in great prosperity. Harvard Univer- sity is more richly endowed than any other in the Union ; it has a President and twenty-seven pro- fessors and instructors ; from four to five hun- dred students are generally upon its rolls ; they are younger than those at our colleges ; in many re- spects it more resembles one of the large public schools. No particular religious tenets are incul- cated ; the youths have the option of attending the doctrinal exercises or not, as they think fit. The Navy- Yard of the United States is at Charleston, about a mile from Boston ; it is of considerable extent, containing about sixty acres. There is a magnificent dry dock, of hewn granite, ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 135 fit to receive vessels of the largest size ; also large wooden sheds for ship-building, where two large vessels are now in progress. I passed a very pleasant day at Nahant, with a most agreeable family, who had a nice and roomy cottage near the water's ed2;e at this favourite bathing-place. On my way there, I passed by the village of Lynn, containing six or seven hundred people ; every one of these who is old enough and strong enough to carry an awl or a needle, is a shoemaker ; they make millions of pairs of boots and shoes every year, which are afterwards sent off and sold to tread the cotton-fields of the South, the prairies of the West, and the streets of the Atlantic cities. From this useful little nook, when the tide is out, part of the road lies along the sandy beach, and is as hard as granite. Nahant is a peninsula, bare, rocky, and uneven ; the shore, towards the Atlantic, is bold and preci- pitous, but there are sheltered places, with an in- clined beach for bathing. The air is said to be very healthy, and much cooler than that of Boston. I can vouch for the truth of the latter statement. In the evening we went to the hotel, where some very good tableaux vivans were got up by the visitors, the subjects all taken from Master Hum- 136 HOCHELAGA ; OR phrey's Clock. The author of that work, in spite of their soreness about his " Notes," is universally admired by the Americans. There were about a hundred people staying in the house, leading much the same sort of life as at Saratoga ; but the com- pany appeared to be less mixed in rank ; nearly all of them were from Boston. Nahant is the place where the great Sea Serpent was included by the papers, among the fashionable arrivals, for several successive seasons. This an- nouncement, no doubt, greatly increased the number of visitors, all hoping to witness so remarkable an arrival, and was proportionately useful to the hotel-keepers and the proprietors of houses in the neighbourhood. At present the accommodations are always speedily taken, usually at very high rates, so the huge fish has not lately found it necessary to appear upon the coast. I think Nahant affords the most extraordinary mixture of religious tolerance I have ever heard of. There is a small church, of the simplest structure, for the use of the inhabitants and visi- tors, in which the clergymen of different per- suasions who happen to be staying in the neigh- bourhood, perform service according to their own views, either in turn, or as their leisure may allow. ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 13 — All the people, at least all those who would go to any other church, attend this ; not know- ing, perhaps, till they enter the door, whether their pastor may be a Roman Catholic or a Bap- tist. These unprejudiced people are furnished with a very favourable opportunity of judging of the merits of every different shade of Christianity, and modifying their views on the subject accordingly. The only thing my informant seemed to think singular about it was, that it astonished me. There were few things in the United States that I had a greater wish to see than the factories of Lowell, and I accordingly took early steps to ac- complish it. It is, by railroad, twenty-six miles from Boston, on the Merrimack River ; the site was chosen on account of the extensive available water-power which it possesses ; a canal sixty feet wide supplies the stream to the wheels of the mills. It extends to the length of a mile and a half from the head of some falls higher up the river, called by the euphonious name of Pawtucket. Five-and-twenty years ago, Lowell was a solitude ; now, there are five-and-twenty thousand people; there are ten wealthy companies of cotton manu- facturers, employing six thousand five hundred females, and two thousand five hundred males ; 138 hochelaga; or, there are also cloth factories, a powder-mill, foun- dry, and various other sources of employment for the population. These ten companies have thirty- three mills, besides printworks. The average wages of men are ten shillings a week, of women seven, over and above their expenses of living. They are well fed, and have neat and airy dwellings. I was shewn over some of them ; they were very clean, and a few had little book-cases, bird-cages, and boxes of flowers, with altogether a great air of comfort. Any flagrant case of immorality is punished with dismissal, when brought to the notice of the authorities; both sexes are generally well con- ducted, considering the temptations of so populous a town. It is, however, I grieve to say, insinuated, that their moral state is not so immaculate as many people fondly believe, nor does the increase of purity keep pace with the progress of the town. There are a great many schools, with wise regu- lations for the education of the people employed, and no fewer than fifteen places of worship, of different denominations. The place was named after Mr. Francis Lowell, of Boston, the great founder of the cotton manufactures in his country. There is little doubt that, without the tariff pro- ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 139 tection, now so likely to be removed, these works could not have prospered and increased as they have done. The duty, of more than a third of the value charged on cotton cloths has been nearly prohibitory to the produce of English looms, and thrown a great part of the home trade into the hands of the American manufacturers. Now, they have so much improved their arrangements and are so firmly established, that in China and in other foreign markets they can rival the English in the coarser kinds of cotton cloths; for in them they can afford to put a better material, as they get it cheaper, and but very little labour is required. Their advantages are, that their choice of cotton is at hand, water-power cheaper, and poor rates less. In England, on the other hand, wages are lower, capital demands less return, and machinery is better and cheaper. In the fabric of the finer sorts and in the printing of all, Lowell cannot compete with Lancashire ; in the manufacture of woollen cloth it is far inferior to Yorkshire. But, in an infinitely higher point of view, Lowell stands unquestionably pre-eminent among manu- facturing towns ; the interests and welfare of the people are attended to with the most enlightened liberality, and, as yet, it is comparatively free from 140 HOCHELAGA; OR, that dark mass of crime and misery which defiles our large communities. But it has had no stormy times, no working short hours, with crammed warehouses and none coming to buy. I fear the evils which have hitherto been found inseparable from the system of great congregations of people, are beginning to appear : the alteration of the tariff will bring on the day of trial. The establishment of any sort of manufacturing industry here, from shoes upwards, appears to me an error. The men so employed could get higher wages in the agricultural labours of the West, where they would be free from the danger of contamina- tion in crowded cities. If the English Corn Laws be materially relaxed, the cultivation of these grain- growing districts will be still more profitable ; while, by a removal of the American prohibitory duties, all articles of clothing could be obtained at one- third less price than that now exacted, and paid, in food, to England. Without giving an opinion on the advantages of free trade for ourselves, I cannot see the possible cause of its being denied to the people of the United States, where there is no vital interest to be endan- gered, no great mass of people or capital to be put out of employment ; for who can doubt that a few ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 141 months would absorb the scanty manufacturing population of New England among the millions of the new States, and that, in all probability, their condition would thus be very much improved? I have said already, that they can in some coarse cloths rival the English factories ; but whv should they try, when they would be so much better off elsewhere ? I have not the least doubt that, if my friend from Chicago, and his western neighbours, could sell their corn in England, they would not for any length of time allow the interests of the Lowell capitalists to stand in the way of their barter. The factories are well built and ventilated ; from water-power being used, cleanliness has not got smoke to contend with. There were three hundred women in one which I visited, all young, and not more sad or unhealthy-looking than the generality of Americans; but I cannot say that I was so much struck with their beauty and neatness of apparel as many of my predecessors have been. I s;tw, however, one very pretty girl, her hair smoothly braided, with a bow of blue ribbon placed coquet- iMily among the folds; her manner was very pleasing, and her conversation highly intelligent. She looked so gay and happy that I am sure the dark brown hair, and the blue ribbon, and the still 142 HOCHELAGA: OR, > v - ,iv 5 bluer eyes (for whose glances I found the spinning- jenny a most formidable and successful rival,) had just made some conquest ; I mean besides myself, for I certainly was one. I went to the extent of purchasing a " Lowell offering" for her sake, but mv constancy failed me and I did not read it. Should this ever happen to meet those bright blue eyes of hers, I wonder whether she will recollect a fat elderly gentleman admiring her through a pair of spectacles, and saying as many agreeable things as the quick ascent of a long flight of stairs had left him breath to utter ! Boston is not, at present, much given to dramatic amusements: in the winter there are two or three theatres ; one, the " Howard Museum," is a large, rickety affair, which is constantly examined by the city authorities, to learn when it will probably tumble down. It was built as a place of worship for the " Millerites." The proprietor of the ground — on the bold speculation of the world's lasting longer than, I think, the year 1843 — the limit they con- sidered fixed, let it to them for a short period, at a fair rent, on condition that, in case there should be a world at the end of the time arranged, the portion of its surface in question was, together with the buildings to be erected upon it, to become ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 143 his. To the great surprise of the Millerites, and to the great profit of this enterprising speculator, the unlooked-for contingency did occur, and he immediately converted the church into a theatre. The night I was there, " Money" was the play acted. Sir F. Blount was dressed in the newest style of New York fashion, that the tailors' pictorial representations could supply. I must say that the audience seemed to appreciate highly the heavy hits at English failings and climate, so numerous in this piece. There were no divisions of pit, gallery, and boxes ; every one had a chance of getting a good place ; mine was a very bad one, so I did not stay long in any one's way. The audience was very orderly, the manifestation of applause or displeasure, very slight. The mixture of people was curious enough ; the country clown in his fustian, sitting next to the gold-chained, long-haired dandy, look- ing much the better and honester fellow of the two, by the bye. The Americans are very fond of wit and humour, and no joke passes unobserved : in their own peculiar way they abound in them, and there cannot be a surer road to their favour than by their exercise. From their grave manners and exterior, this love of fun is not at all observable at first sight ; it is developed in so quiet a way, particularly 144 HOCHELAGA ; OR, if played off upon yourself. No people are better able to put any absurd peculiarity or groundless pretension, in a more ludicrous light ; and I believe any degree of wrath might be turned away, if you could only once get them to laugh. With them, even jokes must appeal more to their reason than their fancy, and be more or less connected with the train of their familiar ideas. Some years ago a New England newspaper gave the following, headed " Shocking dishonesty." " The inventor of the perpetual motion decamped last night, without even paying the man who turned the crank in the cel- lar." Every one has heard this before, but I bring it forward here as a sample of fun purely American. The usual family dinner-hour at Boston is from three to four, and, unless in a very large party, this rule is not infringed; the hours of evening parties are also very early. Among people who are tolerably intimate, the greater part of the visit- ing is carried on in the evening. Dancing is not usual at small parties, and, indeed, where society is so very agreeable, it would be great waste of time. The ladies, particularly, struck me as being very well informed, and much more efficient in conver- sation than — certainly the younger portion of, the men. Perhaps they do not altogether conceal their ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 145 knowledge of this fact, and, in some measure, but verv slightly indeed, take rather a tone of instruc- tion, looking upon the initiative as their duty, as also the explanation of any difficulties which may arise. A very pretty young lady, one evening, quoted three or four words of a well-known Latin sentence while speaking to me, and, lest I should feel puzzled, kindly translated it before continuing her observations. This must have been from habit, for as she had never seen or heard of me five minutes before, she could not have had time to discover any classical deficiencies on my part. There are many comfortable and almost hand- some equipages to be seen in the streets of Boston ; crests and armorial bearings are not uncommon, but liveries are seldom used. The horses are very good, but the shape of the carriages is not sightly, and the work rather clumsy, reminding you more of France than of England. The business parts of the town are so filled with conveyances of every sort that you are often detained for minutes at a crossing. In cases of collision, the laws are always against the driver ; whether through his awkward- ness or not, he is sure to get the worst of it in case of complaint or accident. The public conveyances are very good, and under strict police regulations. VOL. II. II 146 HOCHELAGA; OR, For a short time in winter, sleighs are in general use, but they are not usually got up with such taste and expense as in Canada. Some of the ladies of the wealthy classes are seen in the very cold weather driving about in a covered conveyance, enclosed partly with glass; it is a monstrously grotesque- looking affair, and its name is worthy of the appear- ance ; it is called a " Boobyhut." In the coldest weather it is unusual to see people wrapped up in furs as at Quebec or Montreal ; they brave out the frost in common bonnets and hats, even when the thermometer is below zero. The harbour is occa- sionally frozen over ; the mail steam-packet for England had, on one occasion, to be cut out, for a considerable distance. I was, on another occasion, for some time at Boston during the winter, and was present at the two hundred and twenty-sixth anniversary of the day when " A band of exiles moored their bark On the wild New England shore," the 21st of December 1620. In December 1845, the 21st fell on a Sunday, so the celebration was appointed for the Monday after. The small town of Plymouth was the first place of settlement of the pilgrim fathers, and the scene of the festival ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 147 held to commemorate the event of their landing. A railroad had just heen completed from it to Boston, by which thousands of people were conveyed on the appointed day. The morning was very cold, the thermometer some degrees below zero, the sun shining with a dazzling but frigid brightness. The snow lay deep on the ground, trampled into a dry white sand by the crowds of people swarming in the roads. Ply- mouth is a .dreary, irregular place, the buildings chiefly of wood, the streets very wide, with large gaps between the blocks of houses, and two or three staring new white or green hotels, with summer verandahs round them, adorned bv close rows of icicles, long and sharp, like some monster's teeth. I shouldered my carpet-bag and soon took posses- sion of a room in one of them, engaged for me beforehand by a friend, where a warm stove consoled me for the absence of any other furniture. At twelve o'clock, the members of the Pilgrim's Society and many strangers, myself included, formed into a procession, walking two and two, com- mencing at the railway station and proceeding to the principal place of worship, which belongs to the Unitarians. We passed by the " Plymouth H 2 148 HOCHELAGA; OR, Rock," the first stopping-place of the pilgrims in the New World ; it has been carried into the principal street of the town, where it is surrounded with an iron railing on which the names of the " Fathers" are engraved. Opposite to this was paraded a body of militia of about fifty or sixty men, in handsome uniforms ; these are called the " Standish guard," in honour of Miles Standish, the military leader of the first expedition ; they appeared to bear the cold with uncommon for- titude. The chapel is a large square building, capable of accommodating about a thousand people ; on this occasion more than treble that number managed to squeeze in. A great number of ladies, who had gone in before we arrived, filled up the pews around the walls, and not a few of this fair por- tion of the congregation wept during the service. In the pulpit were two clergymen of most striking and venerable appearance, one a Unitarian, the other a Baptist. By the reading-desk were two others ; one also a Unitarian, a man more than fourscore years of age, very handsome and still vigorous, with long white hair falling down to his shoulders, and with an air, altogether, of a sort of ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 149 patriarchal dandyism. On either side of the pulpit stood a marshal of the ceremonies. In spite of the difficulty of obtaining seats, or even admission, perfect order, courtesy and respect- ful attention to the service prevailed ; the same good feeling afterwards pervaded the dinner and all the other proceedings of the day ; and I was in- formed that there was no policeman or constable of any kind in the town at the time. The choir, accompanied by an organ, sang an ode written for the occasion, describing the landing of the pilgrims in hardship and poverty, and alluding to the now great empire of their descend- ants. The air was " God Save the Queen." After this the Baptist minister read several portions of Scripture suited to the time, in a clear, impressive voice ; a prayer by his companion, the Unitarian, followed, at first of much merit, but it became too long and fell off into verbosity and repetition. Next, all joined in a hymn, beginning " Hail Pilgrim Fathers of our Race !" to the air of the magnificent " Old Hundredth Psalm," the man of fourscore years giving out the words of each line before it was sung. A benediction from the minister who had given the prayer concluded the service. Then, one of the marshals, with a loud voice, 150 HOCHELAGA; OR, proclaimed that we were to form in procession on leaving the church, in the precedence which he would give out ; that we were to proceed to the shore, pass over where the " Plymouth Rock" had been, and " heave a sigh on the spot." He first called out the presidents and vice-presidents, then the clergy, next the invited guests, next the members of the New York and other distant pilgrim associations, then those of astronomical, historical and all sorts of societies, lastly the Boston and Plymouth pilgrims ; the whole of those who remained then rose and made their way out with much good-humoured crushing. The foremost ranks of the procession had reached the dining- room, before more than half of their followers had " heaved their sigh" and uncovered their heads, in passing over the hallowed bed of the stone. The consequence was that some of the hungry pilgrims in the rear passed this altogether, hurrying on at once by short cuts to the goal of their pilgrimage for that day — the dinner-table — leaving those behind with increased appetite, and diminished chances of satisfying it. Covers were laid for six hundred people, in the railway station-house, on about twenty tables ranged in rows. On the left side of the entrance sat the ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 151 President, in a chair which came over with the pilgrims in their ship, the Mayflower. His table was on a dais, and about a dozen of the heads of societies and the principal guests were seated near him. The tickets for this dinner are obtained by purchase ; but the names of the applicants are all examined by the committee before they are issued, so that the admission of objectionable people is guarded against. Beside each plate were put a few grains of dried Indian corn, to keep up the memory of the first gift of the friendly natives to the exiles in their distress. The dinner was well arranged and went off with order and regularity ; but the room, large as it was, was crowded to excess, and painfully warm. No wine was put on the table unless called for ; a great proportion of the company did not drink any, many being mem- bers of Temperance Societies. A band was in attendance to play something suitable to each toast or sentiment given. At about four o'clock, the President rose, and spoke for some time with fluency and effect ; his subject was the event that had caused their assem- bling that day. He sketched, in a very interesting manner, the landing of the pilgrims, the difficulties they met with, the persecutions they fled from, 152 HOCHELAGA ; OR, their gradual advancement, the present prosperity and power of their descendants. Frequently, during the evening, he had occasion to speak, and performed his office admirably, with infinite tact and good-humour, readiness and wit. After each toast or sentiment, the President named the person to respond, who immediately rose and made his way to the dais, whence he delivered his speech. All being of course, prepared beforehand, the effect was that all said very much the same 'thing, beginning with — English persecution, continuing with — the landing in the howling wilderness — ice-bound waters — pestilence — starvation — so on to foreign tyranny — successful resistance — chainless eagles — stars and stripes — glorious independence ; — then, unheard-of progress — wonderful industry — stronghold of Christianity — chosen people — refuge of liberty ; — again, insults of haughty Albion — blazes of triumph — the queen of the seas deposed for ever — Columbia's banner of victory floating over every thing — fire and smoke — thunder and lightning — mighty republic — boundless empire : — when they came to the " innumerable millions" they were to be a few years hence, they generally sat down greatly exhausted. One gentleman gave us all this in verse also, very cleverly and neatly done. ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 153 One of the speakers, on rising, was greeted with long-continued applause : he spoke with con- siderable eloquence and much energy of action, but occasionally approached very closely to the sublime's dangerous neighbour. One expression he made use of, I confess, rather startled me ; in referring to the Plymouth rock, he said : " This spot, sacred as Runnymede, sacred as Bunker's Hill, ave, sacred as Nazareth itself." At the close of the evening, the President proposed ' The Stran- gers', with some friendly and neatly-expressed allu- sions to England, calling on Mr. Everett — lately the American Minister in London, to respond. Hearty cheers and expressions of regard hailed him as he rose. He was suffering much from indispo- sition at the time, and gracefully claimed indul- gence on that ground ; however, he spoke at some length, and the impression he left on my mind was that of unqualified admiration. His manner and delivery were perfectly gentlemanlike and sin- gularly pleasing, his style classic and finished, with- out a taint of pedantry, animated, eloquent, and totally free from effort, while good taste and kindly- feeling were in every sentence he uttered. In the latter part of his speech, he announced a strong conviction that, " Though the relations of America H 3 154 HOCHELAGA ; OR, and England seem at this present moment in difficulty, they will ultimately be arranged to the honour and satisfaction of both countries, which, of aU other nations of the earth, are the most capable of mutual good in peace, and mutual injury in war." The whole assembly, to a man, cheered heartily this promise of peace. Would that all the people of the Union were of the same class of intelligence and worth, as the hospitable and courteous assem- bly at the Plymouth festival ! At about eight o'clock, the train for Boston was in readiness, and in a few minutes the room was empty, the whole proceedings having concluded without an angry word or the slightest breach of good order. An hour afterwards, some five hun- dred people assembled in the Pilgrim's Hall for the ball, some few from Boston, but far the greater number from the neighbouring towns ; there were many very pretty faces, and, though evidently by no means an exclusive affair, there were won- derfully few to be criticized or quizzed. The dresses of the ladies were quiet and in good taste, leaning rather to the French style ; the hair was generally worn much off the face, plain in front, at the back of the head either in ringlets or voluminous folds. Their figures, though not so much to be admired ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 155 as their faces, had much grace and freedom of movement; very few being afflicted with those dread- ful laced-up enemies to natural symmetry, which sacrifice so much beauty as well as health among our fair country-women. Many wore dresses made in a very peculiar manner, appearing as if a long garment of equal width all the way down were put over their heads, and gathered close round their throats and waists, with running strings ; then, a pair of tight sleeves, setting wide at the wrist, like the mouth of a blunderbuss, made the costume complete. The dances were a sort of quadrille be- witched, called Cotillon ; occasionally a waltz in which very few joined ; an intricate performance named a Spanish dance, of which I protest that Spain is perfectly innocent ; and a country dance with the latest American improvements and com- plications ! The room was well lighted and prettily orna- mented, hung round with portraits of grim old Puritans frowning down on the revels. The music was very fine and the performers were highly amus- ing ; they stretched themselves out on their benches in a most independent manner ; of the double bass there was nothing visible but a pair of boots, 156 HOCHELAGA; OR } "«> and the head of his huge violincello, over the side of the orchestra. The leader gave out all the dif- ferent movements of the dance, timing and attun- ing his voice with the music as he spoke, or rather sung, " hands across," " ladies' chain," " turn your partner," and so on. The musicians gave us the pleasure of their company in the supper-room afterwards. There were some gentlemanly-looking men in the room, free from any peculiarity of dress or manner ; but also some striking contrasts, with By- ronic neckcloths of rainbow colours, every sort of hirsute abomination on their faces, besides ringlets, and flat greasy locks on the back of the head, waistcoats of dazzling magnificence, coats with col- lars scarcely visible and skirts of enormous size, pan- taloons with enormous plaits round the waist, and ample width down to the foot, where they suddenly contracted into a sort of gaiter, leaving visible only the square end of a boot of vast breadth and wonder- ful acuteness of angle, and in short, altogether the very worst style of Young America. By the bye, New York is much more fertile than this place in those bearded cavaliers, ' dealers in bread stuffs ;' and ' importers of dry goods,' with moustaches to make colonels of hussars die with envy. ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 157 Let it be remembered, however, in the sketch which I have just attempted, that this Plymouth ball was quite a country affair, with an admixture of various classes of people. The same courtesy and good order that had cha- racterized the dinner, was carried on through the evening. The greatest respect and attention were paid to the ladies present ; as soon as each dance was over they returned to their seats and chaperons, so that their bearded beaux appeared to have but little opportunity of adding the charms of conver- sation to the impression which their engaging ap- pearance must have made on their fair partners. At three o'clock, the festival was over ; at four, I was in the car of the railway for Boston, at seven, in the train for Concord, and at eleven in a stage sleigh, from thence to Burlington. This convey- ance is a long narrow coach with two cross benches, one at each side of the door, having a broad leather strap as a support for the back, thus giving four seats, on which eight people sat, two and two. What becomes of all the passengers' legs I am not prepared to say ; indeed mine were so cold and be- numbed that I cannot to this moment tell what happened to them. Stuffing oneself into this human pic is a great difficulty, but that labour 158 HOCHELAGA; OR, fades into insignificance when compared with the achievement of getting out again. Buffalo robes are crammed in to fill up the interstices, and over all appear eight faces, blue with cold, thoughtful and silent, evidently impressed with the profound importance of something or other. Two pair of sleigh runners supported this coach and its jolly load ; those in front on a moveable pivot, like the fore axle of a carriage. Four very good horses, necklaced with merry, jingling bells, carried us along. All this time, the thermometer had been sinking, till, at length, it reached twenty-one degrees below zero, almost a phenomenon of cold for that part of the country, causing really great bodily suffering to we poor travellers. At eleven that night we stopped at a wretched inn, at a place called Royalton, and received our sentence to start at four in the morning. As we entered, some half dozen scowling ruffians were smoking and chewing round the stove in the public room, with their usual accompaniments ; the walls and floor stained, and the house reeking with filthy fumes ; when the puff's of rank tobacco ceased for a moment, it was only that their mouths might emit language of grossness and dis- courtesy still more nauseous. The supper was well ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD 159 suited to the company ; without being over-fasti- dious, the appetite may well fail when your next neighbour — one of the chewers — after having used his knife as a spoon, stretches across you to cut the butter with it, or to take salt out of the saltcellar. At most of these countrv inns, the knives are of a peculiar form, made round and wide at the end, with the edges blunted, to save the lips, and I may almost add, the throat, from the dangerous wounds which the swallowing process would otherwise in- flict. The sister instrument is usually a tw T o-pronged iron fork, used to assist in piling the provisions on the knife, to prepare the mouthful. In the bed-room, where, by-the-bye, they for some time insisted on putting my servant in the second bed which it contained — the water in the jug was frozen. After much difficulty I lighted some w 7 ood in a small stove, which blazed and roared but gave no heat. I prayed for a little hot water, " No, it is too late." I begged to be awakened in the morning in time for the stage, " I guess you had better look to that yourself." — I had, in the course of my life, slept in a bivouac, among the fierce Chapelgorries of Biscay — in a mountain hut among the wild Celts of Connemara — in the " bush" of Canada, with the Indians — but from the white savages of Royalton 1 160 HOCHELAGA; OR, had something still to learn of barbarous manners. The next night we reached the neat town of Bur- lington, the next, St. John's, Lower Canada, of which but little favourable can be said, and by noon the third day arrived at Montreal, having crossed the St. Lawrence on the ice, three miles below the town. ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 161 CHAPTER VII. THE FAR WEST OREGON. In one of my Transatlantic voyages in a steamer, I met with a very singular man, a German by birth, who was on his return from Europe to America. He was about thirty years of age, of a rather small but active and wiry frame, his features very handsome, of a chiselled and distinct outline ; his bright black eye never met yours, but watched as you looked away, with penetrating keenness ; the expression of his mouth was wild and somewhat sensual, with two perfect rows of large teeth, white as ivory ; his hair was black, worn long behind ; complexion fresh and ruddy, but swarthcd over by sun and wind. He was never still, but kept perpetually moving to and fro, even when seated, with the restlessness of a savage animal, always glancing round and behind as though he expected, but did not fear, some 162 HOCHELAGA; OR, hidden foe. His voice was soft and rather pleasing, very low, but as if suppressed with effort. This strange being had been educated in a German university, and was very well informed ; the Euro- pean languages were all equally familiar to him ; he spoke them all well, but none perfectly, not even German ; in several Indian tongues he was more at home. While still young he had left his country ; struggling out from among the down- trampled masses of the north of Europe, he went to seek liberty in America. But even there, the restraints of law were too severe ; so he went away for the Far West, where his passion for freedom might find full vent, under no Lord but the Lord on High. Hunting and trapping for some months on the upper branches of the Missouri, he acquired money and influence enough to collect a few Indians and mules, and drive a dangerous but profitable trade with the savage tribes round about. In course of time, his commerce prospered sufficiently to enable him to assemble twenty-four men — hunters, Canadian voyagers, and Indians, well armed with rifles, with many mules and waggons laden with the handiwork of the older States. He started with his company, in the beginning of April, for the Rocky Mountains, from Independence ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 163 ■ — the last western town, originally settled by the Mormons, four miles from the Missouri River. They travelled from twelve to fifteen miles a-day through the "Bush" and over the Prairies, and were soon beyond the lands of friendly or even neutral tribes, among the dangerous haunts of the treacherous and warlike Blackfeet. By day and night the party was ever on the watch ; though they rarely saw them, they knew that enemies were all around. The moment there was any apparent carelessness or irregularity in their march, they were attacked, with horrible whoop and yell , if there was sufficient time, they ranged their waggons round, and used them as rests for their rifles, and for protection from the bullets and arrows of the Indians. Once, they were suddenly surrounded by a more than usually numerous and determined body, all well mounted ; there was no time to form their ac- customed defence ; so each man fell on his face ; the bowie knife, stuck in the ground, gave him in its handle a rest for his aim, and the hunter of the Prairie seldom shoots in vain ; when he had fired, he turned on his back to reload, thus always exposing the smallest possible surface to the unskilful eye of the Blackfoot marksman. Many 1 64 HOCHELAGA ; OR, of the assailants were slain, and the survivors attacked openly no more. These travellers carried no tents, sought no shelter: wrapped in their blankets, they braved the wind, dew and rain; their rifles gave them abundance of buffalo, deer, and mountain sheep ; and they sometimes had the luxury of wild po- tatoes, roots and nuts. They did not burthen themselves by taking with them spirits, salt, flour, food, or luxury of any kind ; for their horses there were rich and plentiful grasses. Sometimes, but that very rarely happened, they ate their beasts of burthen, when the chace had been for a long period unsuccessful; fuel was not always to be had, and then they were fain to devour their meat raw. There is one great salt prairie, where some white men lost their way, fainted and died of thirst. Occasionally these adventurers had lack of water, but when they got five hundred miles on, and into the Rocky Mountains, they found abundance, with many mineral springs, some of them of rare virtues, and a few salt lakes. The peaks of this grim range are here ten thousand feet high, always white with snow ; but the company, keeping in the gorges and the valleys, felt no great cold at any time. ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 165 They steered their course through the wilderness by the compass. Besides the Blackfeet, they had fierce but seldom unprovoked enemies, in the huge grizzly bears. Some of the hunters were dainty in their food and liked the flesh of this monster, and they were very vain of his spoils, the rich fur and the terrible claws : he can run very fast and may be struck by many a bullet before he drops and yields ; he knows no fear, and never declines the combat when offered ; if he once get within reach to grasp, the hunter must perish : but, somehow, these white men, weak in body, strong in mind, in the end crush alike the stalwart and active Indian, and the fierce, grizzly bear. For five hundred miles more, their way lay through these Rocky Mountains ; for six hundred beyond them, they still steered for the north- west, till they struck on the upper forks of the Columbia River. Here they met with more friendly natives, and some of a race mixed with French-Canadian blood, besides a few lonely hunters and trappers. Here, and further on, they traded, and got great quantities of rich and va- 166 HOCHELAGA; OR, luable furs, in exchange for their blankets, knives, guns, and other products of civilization. Now, a great part of these vast lands on either side of the river are poor, wild, and de- solate, and offer no home to the hardy settlers. This inhospitable and distant country is called Oregon — God grant the name may not be written in blood ! California, to the south of these regions, has a soil of exuberant fertility ; the climate is genial, rich woods cover it, lakes and rivers suited to the uses of man intersect it; San Francisco has a noble harbour : but the people are vile and degraded down to man's lowest level. They live chiefly on a large species of grasshopper, found in the villages in incredible numbers ; they roast them and break them between stones into a mixture, with Indian corn. They are nominally under the Mexican government ; but at that distance, its sway is merely a shadow. An adven- turous German, called Captain Suter, raised an army of five hundred Indians, drilled them with words of command in his own language, equipped them, besieged the Mexican Governor in his capital of Monterey, and drove him out with ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 167 shame. American emigrants are crowding in every day, they are already nearly strong enough to seek annexation to the Giant Republic, and to drive out the feeble Mexicans : but the powers of Europe will be more cautious in allowing the game of Texas to be played a second time, and on this will arise a question between England and America, far more difficult of adjustment than that of Oregon. The adventurer prospered very much in his traffic, the next few years' gain enabled him to increase his party of traders to the north-west to sixty or seventy men, with three or four hundred mules ; while he, with a small body, crossed the Rocky Mountains to the south-west from Independence, and journeyed nearly a thou- sand miles, entering the province of Santa Fe, and bartering his goods, with great advantage, for the gold and silver of the rich Mexican mines. In this district, the people are a mixed race of Spaniards and Mexicans, lost and degraded, free in name, but in reality slaves to the twenty or thirty landholders who possess the whole country, and tied down by the bonds of debt, mortgaging their labour for months together for 168 HOCHELAGA ; OR, some such miserable necessity as a blanket, or a knife. They are cowardly, servile, and treach- erous, retaining the vices of their European and the effeminacy of their Mexican ancestors. Not one in a hundred of the inhabitants is of pure Spanish blood, and even these are redeemed from contempt only by a certain degree of ferocious courage above that of the rest of their country- men. The vast central region of North America, between Canada and Oregon on the north, and the United States and Mexico on the south, is inha- bited, or rather, haunted, by four great Indian nations, the Blackfeet, Crows, Apaches and Co- manches. The first are the most dangerous, the last the most powerful and warlike ; all are and ever have been alike in their hatred to the pale- faces. It is impossible to arrive at a fair estimate of their numbers : but it is known that thev are decreasing very fast : their war against civilization is constant ; its result, of defeat, is constant too. As surely as day dispels night, as eternity swal- lows up time, the steel of the white man sweeps them away. M Among: the followers of the German was a French-Canadian, who had been several times over ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 169 the Rocky Mountains : he was of daring courage, capable of enduring great hardship, and one of his most valuable hunters. This man wandered one day from the encampment into the neighbouring town of Casa Colorada, in Santa Fe, where there are about two thousand inhabitants ; being at the time unarmed, he was insulted and beaten^ by the people, and could make no resistance. When he escaped from their hands he hastened to his tent, seized a rifle and ammunition, and returned to the town, to the dwelling of his principal assailant. The Mexican saw him coming, and bolted his doors. The Canadian ran round the house, firing in at the windows, vowing vengeance against the unhappy inmate. The people of the town fled terrified, in all directions, barricading themselves in their houses till some of the other travellers came and removed the enraged Canadian. Some time after this, at Chihuahua, he was killed in a drunken scuffle with one of his companions ; their leader, who happened to be absent for a few days, learning on his return the disaster that had taken place, gave the slayer a horse and some money to assist his escape, and heard no more of him. Meanwhile, the priest of Chihuahua had gone to the encampment, and buried the Canadian *vitb VOL. II I 170 hochelaga; or, the rites of the Roman Catholic Church, sending in a bill of four pounds to the German, for the burial expenses of his follower, and prayers for his soul ; this he refused to pay, as he had not ordered them, nor did he think them very useful for the journey either of the departed spirit, or, what he considered much more important, that of his com- pany. He was summoned before the Alcalde, where he found the priest ready to substantiate his claim by the oaths of two witnesses, who swore that the German had, in their presence, ordered all the services for which payment was claimed. As it was an object to keep on good terms with the inhabitants, the money was paid. The adventurer, however, upbraided the priest for unfair play ; not for suborning the witnesses, for that was a matter of course ; but for not giving notice of it in time to give him an opportunity of getting three other witnesses, for three dollars, to swear the contrary. The priest and the Alcalde, having applied all their energies to getting these dollars, had none to throw away on the pursuit of the murderer ; so they did not trouble themselves any more about him. The burning of the Prairies is one of the dan- gers and hardships to which these traders are ex- posed. In the autumn, the tall rich grasses dry up ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 171 and wither ; the slightest spark of fire suffices to set them alight, and then, whichever way the wind may carry it, the flame only ends with the moun- tain, the lake, or the river. The heat is but for a few moments, as the blaze sweeps by, but it leaves no living thing behind it, and the smoke is dense and acrid. When the fire approaches, no man mounts his horse and trusts to its speed; that would be vain ; but they fire the Prairie to leeward and follow the course of the burning, till enough desolation lies between them and their ravenous pursuer to starve it into tameness. The German once found the blackened track of the fire for nine hundred miles, and could only obtain scanty grazing for his cattle by the borders of the lakes and rivers on his route. In the year 1844, he was delayed much beyond his usual time in collecting mules sufficient for his expedition, and could not start for Santa Fe till the middle of September. There is a low, hollow country, many miles in extent, about fifty days' journey on their road ; it is covered with gravel, sand, and stone ; there is no hill, rock, or shelter of any kind ; it supports no animal or vegetable life, for a strong, withering wind sweeps over it, summer and winter. The adventurers have named this I 2 172 HOCHELAGA; OR, hideous place — probably from the wind — the Simoom. Great caution is always taken to pass it before the winter begins ; this year they were late, and the rigour of the season set in very early ; and, when they were well advanced into the danger, a thick snow-storm fell. There was no track; the cattle moved painfully ; they were without fuel, and the stock of forage was soon exhausted. Many animals dropped by the way ; and, in one night, a hundred and sixty mules died from cold, weariness, and hunger. Then, the hunters, who had faced many great dangers and hardships before, became appalled ; for the snow still fell heavily, and the way was far and dark before them.' The next morning they con- sulted together, and agreed to abandon the convoy and hasten back, to save their lives. An old hunter, who had served long and faithfully, and was known to be much esteemed by their leader, was chosen to state this determination to him. The deleg-ate came forward, and, in a quiet but determined way, declared the mutiny. As he spoke, the German shot him dead : the rest returned to their duty. Leaving orders to his company to remain where they were, the leader, escorted by two Indians, rode back to the settlements : thev had but little food ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 173 with them ; the journey was seven hundred miles, and they had to cross many rapid, swollen streams, but he arrived safely, procured supplies, returned to his people, and, after a prosperous expedition, they all came back in safety. His narrative of these events was as free from bravado, as from the expression of human feeling or remorse. The adventurer, being now wealthy, went to Europe, with the intention of settling, or at least of spending some time with his friends in Germany. He remained, for a month in London, where he met some connexions who treated him with kind- ness. But the bonds of society proved intolerable to him ; he gave up his plan of going home, and once again turned to seek the wild but fascinating life of the Prairie. This strange man was tho- roughly well informed on all the political and social conditions of the nations of the earth, in their poetry, philosophy, and even their novels. He had read and thought much : with an anxious effort to overcome this love of savage life, he felt deeply the evil of yielding to its influence, but succumbed. By this time, he is again in the deep gorges of the Rocky Mountains, or chasing the buffalo on the Prairies of the West. 174 HOCHELAGA; OR, The Oregon territory, the present subject of discussion between England and the United States, is that portion of the North American Continent lying between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean — bounded to the north by the Russian pos- sessions, at fifty-four degrees forty minutes, and to the south by California, at forty-two degrees. The mean breadth is five hundred miles, the length seven hundred and sixty ; it contains a surface of three hundred and sixty thousand square miles, more than three times that of the British Islands. A great river, called the Columbia, drains this district, receiving numerous tributaries in its pro- gress. About three hundred miles from the place where the Pacific receives the waters of this river, at the 46th parallel of latitude, two large divisions meet, one from the north-east, another from the south- east, both taking their rise in the gorges of the Rocky Mountains. There have been so many conflicting opinions given with regard to the nature of this country and its fitness for cultivation, that it is very difficult to arrive at the truth ; I have conversed with several people, who have been for years in the country and are familiar with its soil and climate, and I speak from what I have been ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 175 able to collect from these and other sources. Some have declared it to be a paradise, where the genial breezes of the west play among fragrant flowers and luxuriant foliage. Others tell you that it is black and sterile, darkened by perpetual fogs, and deluged with destructive rains. Those who descend from the grim passes of the Rocky Mountains see it with favouring eyes, while the sailor who has coasted along the beautiful and fertile shores of Mexico and California, despises its comparative poverty. The climate is much milder than the corresponding latitudes on the Atlantic coast. A gentleman who had passed seven winters there, informed me that, in the same latitude as the southern part of the Hudson's Bay Company's territory, where the win- ters are awful in their severity, his ship was often moored to the shore by a cable tied to the trees, and only once was there ice sufficiently strong to support a man. There are at the present time many servants of the Hudson's Bay Company set- tled as English subjects, from the mouth of Umqua river, in latitude forty-three degrees, northward to the Russian possessions. These people are under the laws of Canada, subject to the decision of her Courts : officers arc appointed for the administra- 176 HOCHELAGA; OR, tion of justice and for enforcing its decrees,, but the English have always carefully refrained from interfering with Americans, though these are settled side by side with the English, and mingle with them. The number of Americans increases by immigration from the United States. They can at present only hold the lands where they settle by the tenure of possession, as the international treaties forbid the recognition of property in the soil by any individual of either country. The English have still a decided superiority in these regions, but the Americans are increasing more rapidly : they have not the patience to wait till the balance is cast in their favour. While the possession of this distant country is the theme of acrimonious discussion between two great nations, there is yet a third party, insignificant in might, but strong in right. This party claims by no subtle reasoning upon transfer by treaties, prior discovery, or temporary settlements ; but they hold now, and have held undisturbed posses- sion for ages — they and their fathers. To their claims none listen ; they have no astute diploma- tists to plead their cause, nor powers to enforce their rights : they have not even been mentioned in the negotiations. What a satire on human ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 177 justice is this quarrel of ours ! We are both strong, both grasping ; in the heat of the dispute^ the real owners are lost sight of, and altogether forgotten. All over this broad continent it has been the same ; the red man has been looked upon with no more consideration than the bear and the buffalo. The Indians have the undoubted right to the land, but that, unaided by power to maintain it, is valueless. For the present they are tolerated in Oregon, because they are useful as hunters, to procure furs for the traders, and as boatmen and porters to carry their merchandize ; but when agriculture succeeds to this uncertain trade, they, like those of the Eastern coast, will be swept away. There were several early voyages to the North Pacific, but very little reliance is to be placed on the histories given by the navigators. Some Span- ish vessels, under the command of Perez, are said to have explored the coast, from California to beyond the northern limits of the present Russian possessions, anchoring in Nootka Sound, in 1774 : they then called it San Lorenzo. This is, perhaps, the first apparently authentic record of a visit by Europeans to these regions. Spain then claimed, under the Pope's Bull, the whole Western coast of i 3 178 hochelaga; or, the continent, from the Isthmus of Panama to the extreme North. In 1778, Captain Cook, the British navigator, anded at this Nootka Sound, to which he gave the name of King George's Sound. He also dis- covered and named several other remarkable places on the coast to the north-west, but did not land any where else in the territory. The English were not aware of, and, indeed, to this day have strong reason to doubt, this claimed priority of discovery by Perez, the Spaniard, and they disputed the pos- session of the country. When the result of the adventurous Cook's discoveries was made known, many vessels sailed for the purpose of carrying on a fur trade there. In 1788, one Mears, an Eng- lishman, who traded from Macao in an English ship, and with an English crew, but under Portu- guese colours, made a temporary settlement, and built a vessel in the Sound ; but the following year Don Esteban Martinez, a Spaniard, arrived, and took formal possession for his country, cap- turing two of Mears's vessels. The Englishman appealed to his government for protection. Pitt instantly took up his cause, and demanded repara- tion of the haughty Spaniards. For a long time the Court of Madrid refused to give satisfaction. ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 179 The negociations became complicated, and both sides made preparation for war, but finally Spain yielded, and agreed to make ample indemnity to the injured British subject, recognising at the same time the right of Englishmen to trade and fish even-where in these seas, and to land and occupy any spot that was not the previous possession of other people, for the purpose of carrying on com- merce with the Indians, or making settlements there. From all this it appears that, as far as civilized nations were concerned, England and Spain had the only claims of discovery and occupation. The ground of the claim made by the United States is, that, in the year 1 8 1 9, Spain ceded to them all her rights on the American continent, by a treaty; in all the late negociations this has occupied the principal place. The Washington government, however, introduced several subsequent discoveries by citizens of the United States, on whose authority they consider this Spanish claim confirmed by a fresh title totally unconnected with the former one. Surely there cannot lie virtue in both titles ! Either one must destroy the other. It appears that in the years 1791 and 1792, Vancouver, an English navigator, was employed in surveying this coast. At the same time — say the 180 HOCHELAGA ; OR, Americans — subsequently, say the English, Cap- tain Gray, in the ship Columbia, of Boston, also visited these shores, and in the year 1792, sailed up the river Columbia for twenty miles, and named it after his ship: the name having since been retained is the only ground for supposing that he was the first who entered it, and this priority is strictly denied. At the time, Captain Gray's discovery excited little or no attention in America, as they had then no claim to any thing beyond the Rocky Mountains. In 1803 they acquired Louisiana, and, with truly American reasoning, concluded that, as the boun- dary was not fixed to the North-west, it must extend, in that direction to the Pacific Ocean — an extent of many thousand miles. Accordingly, Mr Jefferson, the then President, sent, in the following year, Messrs. Lewis and Clarke, to explore this coveted region, by the route across the continent. In the year 1805, after having passed the Rocky Mountains, they struck upon one of the branches of the Columbia, and in less than two months floated down in canoes to the Pacific Ocean. Having passed the winter there, they returned to the United States in the following year. This was the first effectual exploration of the Southern portion of the interior of this territory. ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 181 In the same year, Mr. Simeon Frazer, of the British North- West Company, explored the North- ern districts, and formed an establishment there, — the first settlement in the interior. In 1811, the ship Tonquin, sent by Mr. Astor, of New York, arrived at the mouth of the Co- lumbia River, and a settlement was formed for the purpose of trading with the natives. The beautiful history of " Astoria" gives the particulars of this disastrous expedition, and clothes it with an inte- rest which cannot soon be forgotten. Mr. Thorne, an officer in the navy of the United States, com- manded the ship ; he was a good sailor and a con- scientious man ; but he was ignorant of the coast, of the inhabitants, and of the happy art of encouraging unanimity and good feeling among his passengers and crew. The mate of the vessel had been there several times before, and knew the danger of trusting to the natives ; but he was lost at the entrance of the Columbia River, with the boats' crew : this damped the spirits of the adventurers, and deprived them of his valuable experience. When the settlers and a portion of the cargo were landed, the ship Tonquin started for the Northern districts, for the purpose of trading with the Indians ; but at Clayoquot, near Nootka Sound, a 182 HOCHELAGA; OR, dispute arose between them and the well-meaning but injudicious Captain. He neglected proper preparations for defence, despising his savage foes ; they suddenly assailed him ; resistance was vain ; he and his whole crew were destroyed. The next year, a party headed by a Mr. Hunt, reached the settlement of Astoria by land, after having gone through incredible hardships and dangers, and leaving the bones of many of their companions to whiten on the trackless desert. This reinforcement, though almost as much in need of aid as capable of bestowing it, revived the drooping spirits of the colonists. Yet another year, and the British sloop-of-war, the Racoon, took possession of the settlement, in consequence of the war between her Sovereign and the United States. The shrewd Americans had had notice of the coming danger, and had sold all they possessed to the English North- West Company a few weeks before, so that the captors had but little gain from their conquest. At the treaty of Ghent, in 1814, when the mutual restoration of conquests was agreed upon between England and the United States — a dead letter for the latter by the bye— the settlement of Astoria was delivered up in due form to the ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 183 previous possessors. In this treaty no arrangement was entered into of the claims of the two coun- tries. Since then there have been several at- tempts to settle the division of the Oregon Territory by negociation ; the first, in 1818, by Messrs. Goulburn and Robinson for the British Government, and Messrs. Rush and Gallatin for the United States ; they agreed to take the 49th parallel, from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains, as the boundary ; the Americans wished to continue the same to the Pacific Ocean, which the English declined, and the negociation on this point ended in the following arrangement : " It is agreed that any country that may be claimed by either party on the north-west coast of America, westward of the Stony Mountains, shall, together with its harbours, bays, and creeks, and all rivers within the same, be free and open for the term of ten years from the date of the signature of this convention, to the vessels, citizens, and subjects of the two powers ; it being well understood that this agreement is not to be con- strued to the prejudice of any claim which either of the two High Contracting Parties may have to any part of the said country, nor shall it be taken to affect the claims of any other Power or State to any part 184 HOCHELAGA; OR, of the said country ; the only object to the High Contracting Parties being to prevent disputes and differences among themselves." At the Florida treaty, in 1819, the Spaniards made over to the United States, all their rights on the Western Coast of America above the confines of California. By a convention with Russia, signed in 1824, the latitude of 54 degrees 40 minutes was fixed on for the Russian boundary. The claim- ants therefore for the Oregon territory lying between the Russian Possessions and California, are reduced to two — England and America. In that same year, another attempt was made in London to settle this difficulty ; but the President of the United States, Mr. Munroe, announced in his mes- sage to Congress, made in the style of Mr. Polk's message this year, " That henceforth the American Continent was not to be considered as subject for colonization by any European power." This so startled the Trans- Atlantic politicians that negotia- tions ceased. Again, in the year 1826, an effort was made in London, but without result ; except that it was agreed upon to continue the joint occupancy entered into in 1818, till one or other of the High Con- tracting Parties should abrogate it, and that a year's ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 185 notice should be necessary from the power annul- ling the convention. In all these negotiations the Americans desired to continue the 49th parallel to the Pacific Ocean as the boundary. The British Commissioners offered to accept this boundary across the Rocky Mountains, and west of them till it struck the upper branches of the Columbia River — the centre of the stream continuing it to the Pacific Ocean ; the north and west to be English, and the south and east American territory ; the navigation of the river being free to both nations. Subsequently, the English offered to give up the country north of the Columbia to the Straits of Juan de Fuca, and east from the sea to Admiralty Inlet, but still insisted on the free navigation of the Columbia ; on this point they have always been firm. England has thus agreed to relinquish a consider- able portion of her claims, but the United States insist on her giving up all, and so the matter now stands. Messrs. Huskisson and Addison, on the part of Great Britain, put forward her rights in the year 1826, in the following summary — " Great Britain claims no exclusive sovereignty over any portion of the territory on the Pacific between the 42nd and 49th parallels of latitude ; her present claim, not in 186 HOCHELAGA; OR, respect to any part, but to the whole, is limited to a right of joint occupancy in common with other States, leaving the right of exclusive dominion in abeyance ; and her pretensions tend to the mere maintenance of her own rights in resistance to the exclusive character of those of the United States. " The rights of Great Britain are recorded and defined in the Convention of 1790; they embrace the right to navigate the waters of these countries, to settle on or over any part of them, and to trade with the inhabitants and occupiers of the same. These rights have been peaceably exercised ever since the date of that Convention. Under that Convention valuable British interests have grown up in those countries. It is admitted that the United States possess the same rights, although they have been by them exercised in only a single instance, and have not since the vear 1813 been exercised at all ; but beyond these rights they pos- sess none. " In the interior of the territory in question the subjects of Great Britain have had numerous settle- ments and trading ports ; several of these ports are on the tributary waters of the Columbia, several upon the Columbia itself, some to the northward and some to the southward of that river, and they ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 187 navigate the Columbia as the sole channel of con- veyance for their produce to the British stations on the sea, and for the shipment of it thence to Great Britain. It is also by the Columbia and its tribu- tary streams, that these posts and settlements receive their annual supplies from Great Britain. " To the interests and establishments which British industry and enterprise have created, Great Britain owes protection; that protection will be given both as regards settlement and produce, free- dom of trade and navigation, with every atten- tion not to infringe the co-ordinate rights of the United States ; it being the desire of the British Government, so long as the joined occupancy con- tinues, to regulate its own obligations by the same rules which govern the obligations of any other occupying party." It must be evident, to every one who looks carefully and impartially at this question, that each of the parties has some rights, and that an equitable divi- sion may be agreed on to the honour and satisfac- tion of both . But when the President of the United States claims the exclusive possession of a territory which has been held in joint occupancy for fifty-five years, it is not surprising that England should speak out firmly in reply. I have, however, little or no 188 HOCHELAGA; OR, doubt that the question will be peaceably settled notwithstanding the President's refusal to refer the claim to arbitration, either as to title of the whole, or fair partition. In these enlightened times, we can scarcely be guilty of the wicked madness of going to war on such a subject. The natural boundaries of the Oregon territory are, to the east, the Rocky Mountains; to the south the Snowy Mountains, being nearly the line of the 42nd parallel of latitude ; to the west, the Pacific Ocean as far as the Straits of Fuca, to the north the Straits of Fuca from the sea to the eastern ex- tremity, and thence a high ridge to the Rocky Mountains, in a north-easterly direction, separating the regions drained by the Columbia and Frazer's River. The two branches of the Columbia drain the whole of this territory ; the north-eastern is the greater of the two. This last rises in a cleft of the Rocky Mountains, within a few feet of the source of the Mackenzie River, which falls into the Arctic Sea. For the British traders, the source of the Colum- bia is one of the principal passes through this chain ; it is described as an awful and magnificent scene. Two huge mountains, more than fifteen thousand feet in height, overhang the chasm. This branch ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. lby is interrupted in its course by numerous rapids and cataracts, to such an extent as to preclude the possibility of ever navigating it without frequent " portages." The great southern branch of the Columbia rises in the valleys of the Rocky Moun- tains, near the 42nd parallel of latitude, close to the source of several other large rivers ; the general direction is north-west. After an irregular course of a thousand miles, receiving nine considerable streams on the way, it joins the upper branch of the Columbia, in about the 46th parallel of latitude: These rivers are all bordered in most places by steep mountains, of volcanic origin ; some of the waters rush through their narrow chasms with great rapidity for long distances, and this renders them unfit for navigation. The breadth of the Columbia, below the meeting of the two branches, is three-quarters of a mile ; thence it continues to the west, growing narrower to the chain of mountains near the sea-coast ; here a fall is formed, over ledges of rock, between perpendicular walls of basalt. For more than thirty miles below, frequent falls and rapids occur, and there it meets the tide-water of the Pacific. A.11 these fulls and rapids have been passed by boats descending with floods, but they are very perilous, 190 HOCHELAGA; OR, and the rugged features of the country render an artificial communication impossible. The last of these rapids is a hundred and twenty-five miles from the sea. The entrance of the river is seven miles wide ; six tributaries, all from the south, swelling its waters between the junction of the two branches, and the falls. The mouth of the Columbia is the only harbour for ships on the whole coast, from the Bay of San Francisco in California, to the Straits of Fuca ; as great a distance as from Gibraltar to Dover. During the greater part of the year, it is difficult and dangerous of access ; the channel is in- tricate and variable, and the breakers are very formidable; many vessels have already been lost there when circumstances appeared most favourable. The dreary coast south of the Columbia is bordered by dangerous reefs, and everywhere steep and rocky ; while the north-west wind, which prevails, rolls the waves of the Pacific with great violence against the rugged barrier. The coast to the north, as far as the Straits of Fuca, has no harbour worth mention, but these straits contain some of the finest in the world. They are an arm of the sea, which separates Vancouver's island from the Continent, extending for a hundred miles to the east, and ranging in breadth from ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 191 ten to thirty miles ; it then turns to the north-west, in which direction it continues for three hundred miles further, in some places expanding into wide bays, at others contracting into narrow and intricate passages among numerous islands, till at length it rejoins the Pacific. From the south-eastern ex- tremity of the Strait, a bay, called Admiralty Inlet, extends south for a hundred miles into the Conti- nent, containing numerous creeks and harbours ; the shores are healthy and fruitful. The country near the Pacific consists of ranges of hills and narrow valleys, running parallel to the coast ; the soil in some of these valleys is good, and favourable for the growth of the same agricultural products as that of England, though the weather be- ing warm and dry, there is often great lack of water. Snow seldom lies in the valleys, and the ground is but rarely frozen. The hills are covered with timber : here are perhaps the largest firs and pines in the world ; one of the former was found near Astoria, three hundred feet high and forty-six feet in cir- cumference. Not more than four thousand square miles of all this westernmost country is capable of cultivation. The best lands are near Admiralty Inlet and on the banks of the different rivers. The interior is com- 192 hochelaga; or, paratively level, but the soil is less productive and the climate more variable, though very healthy, Plains of great extent, covered with coarse grass, small shrubs, and prickly pears, form the face of the country. As you go south, the land improves a little, and is clothed in some places with timber, but of a useless kind, such as the sumach and the cotton wood. This part of Oregon may become an extensive grazing country, but the want of wood and moisture must always be a difficulty. To the east, towards the Rocky Mountains, the country is bare and sterile, covered with stony hills and deep gorges, where torrents rush along, fed by the melt- ing of the snows on the summits of the mountains. The country north of the 49th parallel is called by the Hudson Bay Company, ' New Caledonia.' The interior is a dreary region of lakes, frozen more than half the year; mountains covered with perpetual snow, and fierce torrents. Agriculture is forbidden by the severe climate and barren soil ; it is, however, well stored with fish and animals of the chace, and numerous inlets and harbours give communica- tion with the ocean ; the rivers are shallow, and unfit for navigation. Many thousands of islands lie along this north- west coast, filling up a curve nearly seven hundred ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 193 miles long by eighty broad, in the same parallel of latitude as Great Britain. They cover, altogether, a space of fifty thousand square miles, but many are mere rocks, and, with the exception of nine, they are very small. The larger ones are traversed by a range of mountains, apparently the continuation of the great chain running along the western part of the continent. This cluster of numerous islands is called the North-Western Archipelago. Their in- terior has not been examined, but they are supposed to be rocky and barren. Their outline is extremely varied, and they present innumerable harbours and passages. This labyrinth of rocks has been lately surveyed, in the hope of finding through it the long sought-for opening from Baffin's or Hudson's Bay to the Pacific Ocean. The northern part of this Archipelago is in the Russian dominions, the southern, of about an equal extent, in Oregon ; the largest of the islands is called Vancouver's, and is about two hundred and forty-five miles in breadth ; a great number of small ones lie round it. Queen Charlotte's Island is next in importance ; it lies about two hundred miles to the north-west of Van- couver's, and, like it, is surrounded by a great number of smaller islands. There are many ex- VOL. II. K 194 HOCHELAGA; OR, cellent harbours on the coast ; to the north-west the land is fertile and the country beautiful ; the climate too is far milder than usual in such hiy-h latitudes. Another large group, called the Princess Royal Islands, lies between this last, and the Continent; but little is known of them, and they are supposed to be of small value. Missionaries of several per- suasions have been long labouring among the fierce and savage aborigines of these countries, with but little success. The Roman Catholics indeed, some- times baptize a whole tribe in a day, but the effect is not supposed to be very deep or lasting. The Protestant missionaries have tried to induce the natives to occupy themselves in agricultural pur- suits, but the poverty of the soil is a great drawback to their success. Instruction is attempted to be conveyed to them by their own language ; books have been printed in it for their use. The people of the islands, especially, have proved themselves ferocious and dangerous, bold and treacherous. Numerous vessels of European traders have been seized by them, and all on board massacred, without there having been any reason beforehand to doubt the friendliness of the natives. It is also said that ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 195 they are cannibals, and devour the bodies of their enemies slain in war. The settlements of American citizens in Oregon are all agricultural, and on a very small scale ; up to the year 1842 not more than two hundred were in the country, principally on the banks of the Wallamet River, which flows into the main stream of the Columbia from the south. In the years 1842 and 1843 nearly a thousand emigrants went thither from the United States, and some hundreds since, but little is yet known as to their fate ; many of them, however, have wandered away to the southward, to the richer soil and milder climate of California. Indeed, it is merely under the name of going to Oregon, where they possess certain rights, that they emigrate to California, where they possess none ; but they will soon try to create the right of possession, as their countrymen did in Texas. In Oregon, the people get on very well, being energetic and hardy; but at present their settlements are little more than missionary stations ; they have established a sort of off-hand Republican Government for themselves. The Hudson's Bay Company's forts are twenty- two in number, all sufficiently fortified to guard K 2 196 hochelaga; or, against sudden attack, such as they might be liable to. Several are situated on the coast, and they have six sailing-vessels and a steamer, all well armed, cruizing in these seas. The furs which their hunters procure or the Indians sell them, and the English goods which are necessary for their supply, are stored in depots on the coast. The transportation up the country is by boats on the rivers and lakes ; between the waters the goods are carried by the voyageurs — the boatmen they em- ploy ; these interruptions they call " portages." The regular servants of the Hudson's Bay Com- pany in Oregon are about four hundred in number, generally Scotchmen, with some few Canadians. The voyageurs are all Canadians, or a mixed race between Canadians and Indians. A great number of Indians are also employed as boatmen and por- ters, and the influence of the Company over all the native tribes is very great. The head-quarters of this commercial and mili- tary organization are at Fort Vancouver, a hundred and twenty miles from the mouth of the Columbia, by the river. It is a large square enclosure, con- taining houses for the factors, clerks, and other servants of the Company, magazines for goods, and ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 197 workshops of various kinds ; close at hand are a garden and an orchard, also a farm of six hundred acres, near the river. Two miles further down the banks are grazing grounds for numerous herds of cattle ; beyond these are water-mills for grinding corn and sawing timber, with sheds for curing fish. Outside the fort, the voyageurs and Indians have their houses. This little community, includ- ing native Indians, contains nearly seven hundred souls. The superior servants of the Company rule here with almost despotic authority. How then is the question of the division of this territory to be settled ? By the arrangement most considerate to the peculiar interests of both parties. Great Britain has given the exclusive right of hunting, and the fur trade of her subjects, to the Hudson's Bay Company ; so far, she has made no use of the country except for the settlements necessary for the trade and support of the officers of this corporation ; and to them the navigation of the Columbia for the purposes of traffic is evidently of the last importance. It is said that already the stock of wild animals in the southern portion of this country has very much diminished, from the vast numbers which have 198 HOCHELAGA; OR, been killed, and that therefore it is of much less value to them now than it was twenty years ago. Some of the harbours inside the Straits of Fuca are also essential to British interests, for the safety and convenience of the shipping trading in the Pacific. The American Government seeks the acquisition of the Oregon territory in order to form new States of the Union. For this purpose the southern portion is the best adapted, being most fitted for agricultur- al and manufacturing purposes. Mr. Gallatin, who has been for many years employed by the United States' Government in this negociation, has lately published in America a series of letters stating his views on the subject. His proposition is that the boundary line should run from where the 49th parallel strikes the upper branch of the Columbia River, to the tide-water opposite the Straits of Fuca — about forty-eight degrees twenty minutes, thence through the centre of the channel to the Ocean. This appears to me equitable, except that the tree navigation of the Columbia is still withheld from England, though formerly offered as a part of other proposals. I sincerely hope that nothing ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 199 may induce the British Government to yield this point, so important to the future interests of her subjects ; for, difficult as are its waters, and barren though the upper country which it drains may be, they are both vital to the fur-trade of a very con- siderable portion of the north-west. Besides, it would be unseemly to accept now, under the threat- ening messages of the American President, a settlement in which an essential point, always before insisted upon, should be abandoned. In the settle- ment of the north-eastern boundary, England con- ceded to them the free navigation of the St. John's River, a far more important one, at least at present, than the Columbia. I consider that Mr. Gallatin's offer, with the free navigation of the Columbia added, would be a fair and equitable settlement for the interests and honour of both parties, being a little more than either side has ever yet offered. Thus, in short ; the boundary to be the 49th parallel from the Lake of the Woods, through the Rocky Mountains, to the upper branch of the Columbia River — from this point a line to be drawn to the tide-water opposite to the Straits of Fuca ; the Straits to be for ever free to the ships 200 HOCHELAGA; OR, of both nations. All to the north and west of this line, together with the whole of Vancouver's Island, to be British ; all to the south and east, American territory — and the navigation of the Columbia River, by its upper branch, to the Pacific, to be common to the people of both nations. ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 201 CHAPTER VIII. RELIGION — EDUCATION — MANNERS. The first great point which we notice in the frame-work of American society, is, that it is without any provision for religion, as a State. Perhaps they consider their State so perfect that it has no necessity for connection with Christianity. In this respect they stand alone among the nations of the Christian world ; England, France, and Russia may each be mistaken in their conviction of theirs being the only true Church ; but they are all equally persuaded of the necessity of having some one or other to minister to the people : they, of course, choose that Church which they believe to be the true one, and assist it with their temporal influence. In America, no means are allotted for any K 3 202 HOCHELAGA ; OR, system of religious education. Th e Sta te, in some places, at least, pays very great attention to a boy's progress in arithmetic, that he may in due time become a useful money-making citizen ; such an important matter as this could not be left to parental solicitude ; but, as to mere matters of religion, the youth is allowed to pursue his own course unrestrictedly. The clergy are supported, like favourite actors, by the houses they draw, and by the gifts of their audience. In this, as in all other pursuits in this active country, there is a good deal of competition. In every considerable town there are many churches, devoted to a great variety of sects and shades of sects; there is no sort of influencing principle in the choice of that to be frequented : if the Presbyterian Church happen to have the most exciting preacher, its pews rapidly fill ; if the Socinian be more fortu- nate, the result is the same for it. All the pastors are elected by their congregations, and maintained as long as they please to keep them. The spiritual power is rarely used as a poli- tical engine, but in social life it acts very powerfully, particularly among women ; this standing aloof from the turmoil of civil life is wise and proper. The Unitarian faith, as I mentioned elsewhere, ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 203 generally comprises the most influential members of the community, the Episcopalian the most fashionable, the Presbyterian the most numerous, and the Roman Catholic, apparently, the most devout. The Episcopalian increases the most rapidly at present, by secession from others, over and above the regular increase of population and bv immigration. Except in New England, I was much disap- pointed with the general signs of religious feeling among the American people. In the South, a great proportion of the men do not attend any divine service at all, and their habits and conversa- tion are such as might be expected in consequence. It is said that, in the rural districts of New England, the manners and principles of their Puritan an- cestors are still strong ; and to their influence on the government of their States, is due the support of many of the severe ancient moral laws. In the original settlement of America, the men whose race has had the greatest share in leavening the now national character, were, undoubtedly, those who left the mother country from a determination to resist what they considered an unholy ecclesiastical hority, and for the sake of exercising free indi- vidual opinion in religion. In this they succeeded, 204 HOCHELAGA; OR, and a similar disinclination to acknowledge any civil rules which did not emanate from themselves, was a natural consequence. This junction of reli- gious feeling with a peculiar political tendency has given such an impetus to the latter, as to render it now irresistible. The Irish Roman Catholics, a very numerous body in the States, who left their country during the action of the horrible Penal Laws, have, from their youth up, been accustomed to look upon any favoured classes as the enemies of their religion, and they have always thrown their full weight into the scale of extreme Democracy. Their union, more than their numbers, renders them at the present day the most important, in a political point of view, of the religious divisions. The clergy in the United States, besides being well known to keep clear of party interests, exer- cise but little sectarian zeal even in attempts to proselytize; but their real influence is great and salutary : to them, in a most important degree, is due the barrier, still in many places remaining, between the extreme of rational liberty, and the anarchy and licence which lie beyond. By acting on the minds of a majority of individuals, in the cause of virtue, they enlist on its side the powers ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 205 of government, which only represent the mind of this majority. Although there is a very great number of churches in the United States, the actual accommo- dation in many of the thinly-peopled districts is, necessarily, but small : there is, also, a deficiency of ministers in proportion to the number of churches. The only source of income for the building of a church, and the support of its clergyman, being voluntarily supplied, the people who have, as they think, only sufficient for their temporal wants, and no particular care for their spiritual necessities, are left without any provision for the latter ; and those who most stand in need of the offices of a minister of religion, are the very last to make any effort or sacrifice to obtain them. At the present time, the American people are nearly all so prospe- rous, that they can without difficulty supply them- selves with assistance ; but, as population increases, and as the value of labour and individual prosperity diminishes, the poor can have no resource. Already there are millions who have no place of public worship open to them at all. As this state of things proceeds, the powerful incentive to virtue afforded by attendance at public worship, and by the example and instructions of 206 hochelaga; or, their ministers, will cease to act upon individuals to the extent to which it now does ; their majority may cease to be virtuous, and the powers of government will then be ranged against virtue. The immediate evil, however, of this voluntary system is, that its tendency is to silence the minister on the subject of any darling sin in his flock ; far be it from me to say that this is always the result, but that such is its tendency there can be no doubt. Setting aside the pecuniary loss which the minister must undergo in being removed from his sacred office by a displeased congregation, he dreads it as destroying his means of being useful in his generation. He is thus tempted to adapt his words more to their tastes than their wants, and liable to follow, instead of directing, their spiritual course. Religion, in America, in spite of the difficulties under which it labours, and the innumerable sects into which it is divided, is the ark of even its poli- tical salvation. Its professors, all meeting on the broad basis of Christian morality, predominate, at present, so decidedly, that in this strength is its safety ; and no act of the government could take place directly and ostensibly contrary to religion or moral right. The wise among the Americans ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 207 make certain efforts to prepare the minds of the people by the purification of religion, so as to enable them to bear free institutions, considering this the only safeguard from the threatened dangers by the latter. Happily for this great country, the interests of religion and of national freedom, are indissolubly bound up together. From different forms of belief being adopted by every one, merely from inclination or circumstances, like a civil profession, and also from its admixture with the earthly and practical, the inexpressible beauty of religion becomes less radiant. Christian- ity is here more a belief than a faith, more a certainty of present advantage, than a promise of future good. The great number of sects, and their perfect equality, tends much to weaken the bonds of family affection. It is not at all unusual for four or five different persuasions to have members in the same household. The father, who perhaps is a Presby- terian, may use his best efforts to bring up his son in the same belief; but, as the youth proceeds in his education, he is taught that all Christian creeds are the same in the eye of the law, and that each man should choose according to his own taste; so probably the first proof of his independence is giwu 208 HOCHELAGA ; OR, bv selecting; one different from that of his father. Members of the same family, who travel by dif- ferent roads to heaven, are not near enough to each other to hold out the helping hand in the dark and stormy day of life; the strongest, holiest tie of sympathy is severed, when they are deprived of a common hope beyond the farewell at the grave. The people of New England are, without doubt, very generally, educated ; rich and poor indeed have apparently the same opportunities, but practically they are different. The poor man's son has to lay aside his books for the axe or the plough, as soon as his sinews are tough enough for the work ; the rich man's, has more leisure to pursue his studies and complete them afterwards. However, he has but little to gain by eminence. The pursuit of wealth offers a readier course to distinction; he meets here with numbers who have like objects, and whose conversation and habits of life are formed by them. The man who labours to be learned condemns himself to a sort of isolation : however precious the object may be to him, it is not current as value to others. Some there are, whose love for knowledge is for itself alone, not for the honours and advantages derivable from it; these few conquer the great difficulties in the way ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 209 and become really learned ; but the tendency is to acquire as much information as may be absolutely necessary; then to set to work to apply it, and make it profitable for other purposes, but not to increase itself. Consequently, the greater part of the na- tional mind is but a dead level, — like the Prairie, rich and productive immediately round about the spot where it is worked for the uses of life, but with few elevations from which any wide or com- manding view can be taken, in the search for yet more fertile soil. This equality of education tells very well in enabling men to fulfil with propriety very different social positions from those in which they were born. The blacksmith who has made a fortune, has only to wash his hands ; and he does not find his new associates either so very highly cultivated, or himself so much the reverse, as to place him in an uncomfortable situation. For general utility to the State, for the practical affairs of life, and for forcing men up to the almost universal level of intelligence, the democratic power has made admi- rable arrangements ; but to go beyond that it has thrown almost insurmountable difficulties in the way, not by its laws, but by the habits which its laws engender. 2 1 HOCHELAGA ; OR, The members of the legal profession are usually exceptions to this democracy of intellect ; in con- sequence, their influence over an intelligent people is proportionably great. They, as a class, are highly educated ; the wealthy, engaged in other pursuits, are sometimes so as individuals. The historical education of youth is guarded with the strictest attention ; works cleansed of anything which could militate against the only Catholic creed among Americans— that of their superiority in everything, over everybody, are used, as the Romish teachers give the Douay Bible to their pupils. Democratic ideas are instilled into their minds, as a portion of every sort of instruction. The man who might dare to propose freedom of political, as well as of religious opinion, would be looked upon with nearly as much horror as an abolition preacher in South Carolina. With her numerous schools and colleges, and people participating in their advantages, it is a striking and oft-repeated remark, that America has given but very little to the world's treasury of liter- ature. There have indeed been, and still are, some bright names among her contributors, brilliant stars, but of the second magnitude. The excuse of her youth as a nation, will not be a valid plea in ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 2 I 1 this case ; from the beginning of the present cen- tury she started with a greater number of educated men, in proportion, than England could boast — I mean of course in rudimental education ; now, her population is nearly a third greater than that of England, but who can compare the value of the writings from the two countries during the period ? The imagination of the American may be strong in flight, but the dead weight of his pursuits, and the tone of his associates, keep it very near the ground. He is more ingenious than inventive, more bold than original ; his mental vision has but a narrow range, though very clear ; he may be a wise man but not a philosopher. In mental, as well as political power, the ten- dency of their habits and institutions is to force all from above and below into the mass of mediocrity. Literature, like fine cotton goods, can be imported from the Old World at a far easier rate than it is manufactured here ; they have neither the time to devote to it, nor the machinery to make it. I do not mean to say for a moment that the Americans are deficient in any innate mental capability neces- sary for the higher class of intellectual culture ; they no doubt have the power, as they possess the iron and wood of which the English cotton looms 212 HO'CHELAGA; OR, are made ; but it does not pay to work their mate- riel for that particular purpose ; therefore they get philosophy, poetry, and history from us, always however, changing the latter so as to render it fit for wholesome consumption among republicans J thev send us cotton and bread in return. I would not have it supposed, from these gene- ral remarks, that I am ignorant of, or blind to the great merit of some of their writers : a string of names could be of no use here ; they are already well known in England to all who are likely to form an opinion on the subject. Although, as I said before, the finer sorts of literature are generally imported, there is an enor- mous quantity of coarse stuffs for daily use ; manu- factured for the home market, and there consumed : the materiel is of native growth ; but little labour is bestowed upon it ; the texture is very coarse ; it serves the uses of those who purchase it for the day, and then is thrown aside. The patterns with which it is stamped are all glare and gaud, to catch the eye, but, when put in wear, they are found to mix up together into a miry hue, the effect of the " devil's dust" used in making. It does not sig- nify to the manufacturers, so their labour sells; whether it stain those who use it or not, they do ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 213 not care. Beyond anything ever known in the world before, this vast factory diffuses its produce among the American people, whether for good or evil, this gigantic power — the press. In a country where the opinions of the majority are the laws for all, any of the causes contributing to mould these opinions must be of great import- ance ; next to religion, the most perfect is the press. If all men w 7 ere virtuous and wise, there could be no doubt that a pure democracy would be the most perfect form of government for human communities ; if all the powers of the press were united in the cause of virtue, there can scarcely be conceived a greater blessing than it would become ; the reality is, however, widely different. A fair share of talent is employed in its conduct, but em- ployed in fanning into flame the sparks of party violence, personal hatred, and national antipathy. Neither the floor of the Senate nor the domestic hearth is safe ; the political opponent is assailed in his public capacity — then with blood-hound scent tracked to his own fireside; nor is even woman secure, if through her tender bosom a deadly wound may be dealt to him. Whatever public opinion may be on the subject, it cannot, or docs not repress these atrocities ; the 214 HOCHELA.GA; OR, press, the supposed voice of public opinion, will not speak in condemnation of itself. It supports this system as an element of power, before which the bravest must tremble. Any still small voice ven- turing to remonstrate is lost in a loud roar of " the freedom of the press." The law nominally pro- vides for the sanctity of character, but it becomes a dead letter when jurors will not convict a popular offender. Sometimes its invasion is revenged by the awful retribution of the pistol and the knife. The tendency of the press in America is to apply itself to that particular portion of the character of the people through which their actions may be most readily influenced. Among the masses, the com- paratively unenlightened, the passions are far more easily worked upon than the reason ; therefore to the passions does it apply. Every remote village of log-huts has one or more newspapers ; there is no censorship or tax of any kind ; paper and print- ing are very cheap. Some mechanic, probably, is the editor, in the intervals of his bodily labour ; no capital, of character, talent, or money, is required, and the engine is set in motion. One column is per- haps devoted to local affairs, roads, rivers, &c, in which the name of any one obnoxious to the editor is at his mercy, if he chance to be in any way ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 215 concerned in these matters, and sometimes even when he is not. General politics follow 7 , when the opposite party, men and measures, are assailed with the coarsest and most virulent abuse. Then scraps of foreign intelligence, distorted and rendered agree- able to their readers ; a collection of jokes, descrip- tions of sea serpents or other wonders, scraps of heart-rending romances, by some village Alphonso or Altamira, and advertisements of various kinds, till up the remainder of the valuable publication. Of these last, some deform the public prints by a grossness of language and detail, difficult to convey an idea of without imitating the fault. I am aware that, in a country constituted like the United States, the freedom of the press is an absolute necessity • when all are judged fit to govern, all should be capable of distinguishing between the guud and evil which the press sets before them. The immense number and variety of newspapers, and their very low price, in a great measure nullify tlu; evil of their licence ; opinions directly contrary to each other, on almost every subject, are given to the public to choose from ; facts being stated in a great many different ways, tlu; chances are that the truth may be clearly inferred. The Chinese proverb $ays — " A lie has no legs and cannot stand, but it 2 1 6 HOCHELAGA ; OR, has wings and can fly far and wide." So do the mis- statements of the press, but others just as numerous and entirely opposite, fly with them at the same time. Where every public man, on one side or the other, is branded as a traitor, a coward, and a villain, the force of these epithets is diminished, if not destroyed; the real evil inflicted upon the good is but slight, while the restraint upon the corrupt and bad is very great. The press is ever on the watch to seize on, and shew up, the slightest dereliction of duty in an opponent; and, though the motive of the attack may be mean and personal, the public is the gainer by the punishment of the offender. With people like the Americans, so entirely en- gaged in the toils of life, there is but little leisure for any other sort of reading. The press, with all its rainbow variety of colours, in the main, blends into light ; the suggestions and ideas of men in far distant places are laid before the people with wonderful rapidity ; the science of government takes some sort of form in their minds when the discus- sion of its details are ever before them. On the great principle of their institutions, the press and the people are agreed ; of the men en- trusted with their administration, and of their measures, the variety of opinions is infinite ; every ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 217 possible point of good or evil is placed before them in the clearest light, by one or other of the con- tending parties. The practice of receiving convic- tion from these materials, is the practice of govern- ment itself. All these numerous varieties are but fractional sections of two great parties, one ranged in the attack, the other in the defence, of the exist- ing Executive. In these combats there is no broad principle of action employed or recognized by either party, but in its place, an infinite number of small and local interests, whose only bond of union is in this attack or defence. If, at any time, a large proportion of the press can be brought to bear upon any particular subject, its power is enormous — irresistible, if not opposed by counteracting effort. The means of forming pub- lic opinion by the press, which is sometimes employed by a compact and intelligent body, for a given purpose, are very injurious. I can best illustrate them by an imaginary example. A certain body of merchants at New York are very anxious for the speedy and peaceful settlement of the Oregon question ; they determine that a fair arrangement and one to which England would probably accede would be, to grant her all the territory north of the Columbia, and that she in VOL. II. L 218 • HOCHELAGA ; OR return should open the navigation of the St, Lawrence to the United States. A few days after- wards, paragraphs appear in some obscure country papers, at Bangor in the north, Chicago in the west, and Savannah in the south. "We understand that a large and influential body, in one of our principal cities, have declared favourably upon the lately proposed arrangement of the Bangor diffi- culties, on the principle of mutual concession, &c, &c. We are usually inclined to regard with distrust the views of our wealthy neighbours of the great mercantile communities, but we cannot deny that this mode of settling the question, presents ad- vantages which are at least worthy of consideration, but we would recommend caution to the numerous citizens who appear to have taken it up so warmly and decidedly." Next day, at Portland, Buffalo, and other places, with slight variations, you read as follows — "We see that our Bangor contemporary yields a sort of reluctant approbation to the Oregon arrangement lately proposed by some of the most distinguished men of the Union, and received so favourably by our fellow-citizens. For our part, we have Iways expressed our preference for an advantageous and honourable peace to an expensive and doubtful ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 219 war ; we shall however let him speak in his own words." Here follows the first paragraph. A short time afterwards, some leading journals at Boston, New York, and New Orleans put forth this sort of article : " We find with much pleasure that the fair and advantageous adjustment of the claims of America and England upon the Oregon territory, which has lately been so extensively discussed in private among our fellow-citizens, has found loud and able advocates in the press, of various shades of opinion, in distant parts of the Union. The public mind seems generally to regard it so favourably, that it will no doubt be taken into serious consider- ation by those entrusted with the care of our interests. It is needless to multiply evidences of this state of feeling, for it cannot have eluded general observation ; but we give the remarks of some of our distant cotemporaries, the organs of the different parties in their immediate districts." Here follow portions of the former paragraphs. By this ingenious arrangement and combination, the majesty of public opinion is thrown into the scale of the reader's doubts, though perhaps he may be one; of the first persons, except the original con- trivers, and the editors in their interest, who ever 220 HOCHELAGA; OR, thought of, or argued in their minds the question in that shape. The very eminent men in America are never directly connected with the press ; its combats are too close and disabling to be entered upon without loss of dignity ; but they frequently avail them- selves of it as a means of giving their opinions upon any particular crisis, and supply it with care- fully-amended copies of their speeches, that is, what they should have said, not what they did say. The general class and tone of the American news- papers is very much that of the unstamped pub- lications of London. Some of those published in the Atlantic cities are, however, of the highest respectability, and conducted with great talent. All are very cheap, the expensive system of cor- respondents, and the first-rate writers employed by the London papers are, of course, out of the ques- tion here. A French paper is published at New York, and conducted with considerable ability ; its views are moderate, its circulation very great ; and it is said to be worth a large yearly sum of money. Manners are of more importance than laws; upon them, in a great measure, the laws depend ; the laws touch us here and there, now and then ; ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 221 manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine, by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation, like that of the air we breathe. They give their whole form and colour to our lives ; according to their quality they aid morals ; they sustain or they totally destroy them. The eloquent historian of the French Revolution has dismissed the subject of American manners, in a single paragraph : " The manners of the Americans are the manners of Great Britain — minus the Aristocracy, the landholders, the army, and the Established Church." This would, I think , have been more correct, if he had said the influences of those bodies. In England, when a man rises to the upper ranks of the community, he usually adapts himself by degrees, in the progress of his prosperity, to the habits and tastes of the class he aspires to join. Those who have been born in it furnish him with examples ; when he is admitted into their society, his pursuits, interests, and man- ners become, to a considerable extent, identified with theirs. In America, the prosperous man finds no fixed class to look up to for example, no established standard of elegance and refinement to guide him, no society of men of leisure to mix 222 HOCHELAGA; OR, with, none who have been able to devote their time to the sole cultivation of the graces of life. The polish of his manners must be, therefore, due to some innate virtue of his own, not to the tuition of others. I have met with people in America, as well bred and graceful in their manners as men need be ; but they are the exceptions ; the ten- dency is to force manners, as well as everything else, into mediocrity. From the want of high stand- ards of refinement, not only the higher, but the "various downward steps in the social scale, suffer a certain inconvenience ; becoming of course less, as the condition of the person requires more exer- tion for the rnere support of life than for its orna- ments. Hence it is that the manners of all classes of Americans, except the very lowest, are decidedly inferior to those of the corresponding classes where- evefr an aristocracy exists. An American may be well educated, have travelled a great deal, be of the kindest disposition, possess imperturbable good- humour, but he has very rarely natural tact, or that admirable schooling in society which supplies its place. His real goodness of heart will prompt him to avoid bringing to the notice of a stranger any object or subject which might be disagreeable or painful ; but the probability is, that it will be ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 223 done in such a way as to make it more unavoidably remarkable. For instance, a friend in giving me hints as to what was best worth seeing in the Capitol at Washington, said " There are some very interesting paintings. Oh ! I beg pardon, I mean that there is a splendid view from the top of the building." I knew perfectly well that those paintings, which his good-nature rebuked him for having incautiously mentioned, represented the surrender of Burgoyne and other similar scenes — in reality about as heart-rending to me as a sketch of the battle of Hexham would be. To this day, I admire my friend's kind intentions more than his tact in earning them out. American society is exclusive even to a greater extent than that of other countries, but it is so by degrees, not by classes. A certain body will reject candidates for admission to its number, not because they are deficient in character, politeness, education, or wealth, but merely be- cause those who already belong to it, hold a cer- tain sort of irresponsible power, which is strength- ened by being capriciously exercised. Since in public life their institutions forbid the existence of a privileged class, the natural longing of the human heart for some vain position of superiority, finds 224 HOCHELAGA ; OR, vent in private coteries. The few titles they can attain are sought after with avidity, and retained with fond pertinacity ; the number of honourable^, and of men of high military rank, provoke the observation and the smiles of every traveller in this country. On one occasion, in a steamer, a number of passengers signed their names' to a certain document ; several of these titles were on the list. I found out subsequently that the principal ' Honourable' was the editor of a small paper; the leading 'General,' a tamer of wild beasts. These titles, however, do not convey to the Americans the same ideas which they do to us ; they are connected in our minds — though there may be exceptions — with certain high and respected social conditions, and they are, there- fore, passwords for consideration : from them, on the contrary, they obtain no consideration, and are, probably, connected in their minds with the editing of small newspapers and the taming of wild beasts. The only real eminence among Americans is the possession of wealth ; it is at the same time the criterion and the reward, of success, in the great struggle in which all are engaged. In con- versations with foreigners, the Americans impose ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 225 upon themselves the difficult task of defending and apologizing for every weak point of their people, country, or climate. They fancy that they have convinced themselves of their superiority over every one in the world, and are very uncomfortable if they cannot persuade others into the same difficult faith. As, in spite of their utmost eloquence, they sometimes fail in this, they then remain uncom- fortable ; their vanity is wounded ; they have not the pride of an acknowledged position to fall back upon, and perhaps are haunted by some faint doubts as to the justice of their pretensions. These subjects are sure to be more or less disagreeable, and yet they are almost invariably introduced. As a nation, their ideas may be compared to those of an individual, who is suddenly raised to a rank above that in which he was born. A well-known peculiarity of the Americans is their curiosity. This is naturally more observable among the lower classes. They do not hesitate to ask you the most impertinent questions, with- out in the least intending to give offence by doing .-30. They cannot bear that anything should be kept secret from them, reserve, and aristocratic exclusiveness being, in their minds, associated to- gether. They have no objection to tell you all their l 3 226 hochelaga; or, own affairs, and consider that you should be ready to barter by telling them all yours. I think, how- ever, that the descriptions of this peculiarity have been exaggerated ; I never found it carried to any very disagreeable extent, for they readily see if it be annoying, and are too good-natured to continue it. ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 227 CHAPTER IX. DEMOCRACY. We have already seen that the government of America is now a pure Democracy, without check or stay ; it is free from all agitation for increase of power to the many, for they possess all. In the formation of their Government thev had no diffi- culties to contend with, no conflicting principles to embarrass them, no small but powerful class en- joying vested rights, ready to defend them to the utmost and to revenge their loss, no memory of oppression to wipe out with retribution, no indi- vidual or co-operative willing or able to make an effort for power. They had no existing depository wherein to place the supreme rule; they declined creating one, and kept it to themselves in each different State, as well as in the Federal Government, no 228 HOCHELAGA; OR, matter what were the varieties of race or social circumstances. At first sight, it would appear probable that the people would select the most able and virtuous men from among those whose views suited their own, to be their organs of administration ; as, of course, they are anxious for the prosperity of the State to which they belong. But the practical effect of their system is, that such men are nearly excluded from any share in public. The mass of the electors are men not sufficiently enlightened to make a good choice; and it cannot be expected that the majority of individuals among the working classes should be able to discover and discriminate the powers of a statesman. They are, therefore, very liable to choose a person without these quali- fications, but possessing the art of making them believe that he has them, and of assimilating him- self to their tastes. Again, many men are jealous of the advantages of office, and do not like to add them to the already enviable distinction of merit ; this superiority would be obnoxious to a powerful, though unacknowledged, feeling of the human heart. Wealth is often a stumbling-block in a candi- date's way : people are not exactly angry with him ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 229 for being rich, but there is a sense of irritation in their not being so too ; neither is he, they think, one of themselves. Men enjoying the qualifica- tions held necessary for public office in other countries, most likely withdraw from the arena altogether in this, finding that their merits are actual drawbacks to their chance of success. Tn ordinary times, it is not, perhaps, essential to have eminent talent and virtue at the head of affairs ; for their direction is held and controlled by the people : in times of peril, when the people must, for a season, trust this guidance to individuals, they have usually the good sense to choose better ; if their choice does not answer, they change, but in the mean time, much mischief may have been done. In the Southern and Western States, where education is imperfect, religion and morality but w — more than the latter is likely to possess alto- gether, for many years — but this vast number is made up of varied races, the great majority of them merely the subjects of military conquest, with no common bond of interest or feeling but that of the safety of submission and the sense of England's pre-eminence : the population of the latter is homogenous — (with the exception of the portion of the negro race,) possessing Anglo-Saxon courage and perseverance, spurred on by the frantic energy given by republican institutions, rich in the endless resources of a country producing nearly everything necessary for the use and luxury of man, assisted by the many wonderful means of internal com- munications, bestowed by nature or created by art. There is just enough of difference between our two nations to make their manners and institutions harmonious, and just enough resemblance to give the Americans most of the elements of our strength. They already approach to a rivalry in commerce and manufactures : their soil and abundant territorv have enabled them to beat us ENGLAND IN THE NEW WOULD. 265 completely in agricultural produce. Our pursuits are so similar that I much fear sooner or later they must clash. We have not yet begun to regard them with sufficient attention, but they watch us narrowly and jealously ; they view with indifference the pro- gress of France and Russia; their missions are different : but they think that every step of Eng- land is in the path of universal dominion. It is sometimes ludicrous to hear the contradictions which jealousy and dislike introduce into their speeches and writings. In the same page you will see " Her insatiable grasping ambition to enslave the world," and then, that " She is no more able to harm the United States, than a baby in its nurse's arms." The Chairman of the Com- mittee on Foreign Relations, in the Senate, spoke to that effect, indeed, I believe those very words, in one of the interminable debates on the Oregon question in February, 1846. They are irritated at our late successes in the settlement of affairs in the Peninsula,, in Syria, China, and India ; and they are very suspicious of the views which they think may have led to our interference with the tyranny of Rosas in the river Plate. Our popular institutions are to them a VOL. II. N 266 HOCHELAGA ; OR, source of uneasiness ; for they feel we there possess a strength of which they well know the value. The points of similarity between the two countries, are much more likely to cause a rupture than the points of difference. From policy, as well as from motives of Christi- anity, it is evidently right of England to avoid collision . with America by every means consistent with na- tional honour ; it would cause a vast inconvenience by stopping the supply of cotton to manufacturers, and deprive us of an extensive market for that produce, exposing our shipping to the enterprise and activity of American privateers; and it would involve besides, the enormous expense of a sufficient fleet to blockade the sea coasts of America, and to protect the great lakes, as well as the large body of militia and regular troops that would be necessary for the defence of Canada. England has nothing to gain by war with the United States ; she may inflict enormous injury, nay, total destruction, upon any part of them accessible to her steamers : but the people, the tyrant majority of the West, will rather rejoice at this/ and will send out their turbulent thousands to threaten and revenge themselves upon the unpro- tected districts of Canada, while they remain secure in their inaccessible prairies. Money or credit ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 267 they will have none ; one perishes with their trade, the other does not exist. One of the ablest men in the Senate, Mr. Calhoun, declared in a speech delivered to that body in March, 1846, that from the enormous rates of interest they would have to pay in raising money, the most successful war would leave the United States with a debt of a hundred and fifty millions sterling. The little bullion there is now in circulation in the United States would very soon find its way into the mili- tary chest of Canada, as the price of English government bills, — a security of investment too tempting for American patriotism to resist : then would ensue all the ruinous train of "assignats" and national bankruptcy. But the Americans have endless materiel: their teeming corn-fields give them plenty wherewith to feed their soldiers, the looms of Lowell can supply clothing ; Pennsylvania is inexhaustible in iron and coal ; and whole states of unappropriated land may be given to reward their army. Any idea of permanent occupation by England of a part of the United States' territory is vain ; even were it pos- sible, the immense establishment it would require, would be out of all proportion to the benefit to be derived from it. Any compulsory treaty of com- N 2 268 HOCHELAGA; OR, merce, stipulated as the price of peace, would be disregarded the moment the fleets and armies were removed. Of the result of a war at present I have no doubt : the parsimony of Republican institutions has brought the naval and military establishments of America to the lowest ebb. The energy of de- mocracy may, indeed, make up for many deficien- cies ; but in such a war their people would be far from unanimous ; the hardships of the struggle would soon change the first enthusiasm — even among many of the most warlike, into coldness. They will find themselves worn out in the combat against the strength of that country which has always progressed most rapidly in war, and which has never yet receded before a foreign foe. The rude waves of Democratic America will beat in vain i n the rock of England's Aristocracy. Britain, though no longer in the spring of youth, is still in the prime and vigour of life : her people are not changed ; those resources are not dimi- nished which once subsidized half the world ; her sailors have not at any time since proved them- selves unworthy of those who crowned her Queen of the Seas at Trafalgar — her soldiers, of the stub- born men who fought at Waterloo. ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 269 Peace is the true conquering policy of America : bv it she will, if she remain united, become the first in wealth and prosperity in the family of nations ; the Rocky Mountains will yield a willing tribute of their mineral treasures to the peaceful invaders : and the fertile wilderness of the West, changed by the hand of industry into a garden., will smile gratefully upon its conquerors. 270 HOCHELAGA; OR. CHAPTER XL GENERAL REMARKS. I will bear willing testimony to the, in many respects, excellent qualities of the Americans ; the traveller will meet with almost universal kindness ; not the mere civilities of an hour, or a ready answer, but, if he be worthy of it, he will receive active and considerate attention. A letter of introduction will prove not only a passport to the good offices of the person to whom it is addressed, but the means of extending acquaintance in other places, by further recommendation, so that everywhere he can make himself known. The Englishman is, I think, better received than the native of any other land, particularly in New England. The jealousy of his country is an affair of politics ; the regard for the individual is an affair of the feelings. The common ancestry, language, and faith, are bonds ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 271 which events have loosened but not destroyed. Their enlightened gentlemen speak with pride of the ancient glories of our race ; the name of Run- nymede is sacred to them, the poetry of Shakes- peare is music to their ears ; happy is the man who can trace his descent from some well-known family in the old country. Circumstances have thrown these tendencies rather back, but they still exist, and exercise an influence over the American mind. In the war of 1812, the New England States violently opposed the Federal Government, and two of them refused to send their complement of militia ; at the present day their voice is raised for peace. In speeches at their public meetings, in their writings and conver- sation, they accuse a party, and not the English nation, of being the cause of their differences. I am convinced that, in spite of the political dis- putes and national difficulties which have existed, there is still a place left in the honest hearts of the people of New England, for a lurking, lingering, feeling of affection and respect, for that venerable land from which their pilgrim fathers sprung At Boston, an Englishman will meet with many people, in whose society he will find himself quite at home : in their manners, conversation, or class, 272 HOCHELAGA; OR, there is but little to remind him that he has cross- ed the Atlantic, and is in a foreign country ; in- deed, I recollect having once almost started at the word ' foreigner,' being applied to me in a circle of people so like those of my own country. You find that conversation turns upon much the same subjects as in England ; that all the books you have read are also known to them, and the Con- stitution and history of your country ; that events in England are looked upon with almost equal interest by them ; and that all our public men have transatlantic fame. If you express a wish to see anything remark- able, facilities for doing so are at once proffered ; if you accept hospitality, it is bestowed to the greatest extent. Full tolerance is always given for your opinions ; they may be totally different from theirs, but they will be heard with courtesy and attention ; even though disagreeable, they never interrupt you while speaking. Their manners are graceful and orderly, but they delight in a joke; anger may be soothed, or good-fellowship strength- ened among them by a piece of happy humour, more easily, perhaps, than among any other people ; they can even bear a hit at their own weaknesses, if the keenness of the wit redeem the severitv of the ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 273 criticism. They are liberal in their entertain- ments, and, indeed, sometimes disagreeably liberal in paying little joint expenses incurred in sight- seeing, at theatres, &c. The people of New England retain a good deal of the austere and solemn habits of their ancestors, even in their gaieties ; they keep very early hours, the waltz and polka find but little favour in their eyes ; the theatre is not so much frequented as elsewhere. Scientific lectures are a far more popu- lar attraction. Two or three years ago there was an absolute enthusiasm for these contrivances for uniting learning and amusement : ladies frequently went to two or three the same night, and a con- stant supply of lectures was indispensable for the fair listeners. The people of this grave city are not an exception to the general American charac- ter in their love of excitement ; but it is here more quietly developed than in the South and West : ' powerful preachers,' mesmeric, and phre- nological lecturers, are its ministers. Charitable and religious societies are very nu- merous, and liberally supported by all the different sects ; they are to them a common bond of union. The government of these bodies is to the people an object of ambition, supplying another sort of N 3 274 HOCHELAGA; OR, reward in public life to those who, perhaps, have been unsuccessful in seeking influence in the State. The collective strength of these societies is so great, that, if they were all brought to bear upon one point for any religious object, the chances are that they would be successful. A union of this sort has already been proposed ; to effect by their joint efforts, the election of a religious govern- ment, without distinction of creed, but simply that its members should be well known to be religious men. By this means they hoped to throw all the influence of the ruling power into the scale of Christianity. The total annual income of these societies, raised solely by voluntary contributions, is at the present time little short of two millions sterling. Some of them are very useful, and ad- mirably conducted. Wherever arrangement and conduct of affairs are necessary, the Americans appear to excel all other people ; everything is done in the manner to which their business habits accustom them. The Temperance Society has grown to an enormous size, reckoning nearly a million and a half of members, and is, in the main, productive of great good; the Americans are not prone to get drunk, but they are very prone to drink ; drams are swallowed by half the passengers ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 2/0 of a stage-coach at each stopping-place ; the bars of the hotels derive great profit from the skill shewn in mixing all sorts of tempting draughts for winter and summer, in spite of the temperance move- ment. Though these associations generally tend to the improvement of morals and manners, and are always intended to do so, they sometimes rather overstep the bounds of prudence, and interfere a little too much with private life. For, occasionally, they are formed for purposes most laudable in themselves, but in their execution more likely to cause evil to the members, than good to the objects of their solicitude. Ladies frequently take a prominent part in these affairs, and are consequently brought in contact with people into the details of whose character it is un- suitable for them to inquire. I cannot but think that an intimate acquaintance with the state and causes of vice, must have a demoralizing effect on all but the strongest minds. The enthusiastic desire to extend the utility of their society, some- times urges them into scenes which cannot be •vitnessed without injury. Again, these associations strengthen the tyranny of public opinion. At their meetings, any offender against the particular code of morality which they 276 HOCHELAGA; OR, may have set up, is liable to be named and con- demned. The practice is, no doubt, a powerful assistant in checking the appearance of a vice, but I doubt if it cause the real conversion of a culprit. They will never of themselves be the cause of any great moral reform ; indeed they often substitute the fear of public opinion for the fear of God. Political associations are also very general in America ; they are almost the only weapon remaining for the weaker party to use in combat against the majority. When a minority feels itself strongly oppressed on any particular point, it often unites in a convention, receiving delegates from those who share its discontents in other places ; they make rules for self-government, draw up de- clarations, and, in short, establish, as it were, a separate and hostile community. In the political war which ensues, they issue their orders to their followers, and organize themselves in opposition. Sometimes they are so formidable and energetic, that this voluntary association, unsupported by the powers of the State, unrecognized by the Constitu- tion, actually dictates terms to the majority. In the United States this unlimited power of associa- tion is less objectionable than it would be under any other form of government ; now, it can only ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 2 ] I be used as a check to a tyrant majority. The necessity of association shows them at once to be the weaker party, for the government of the country is the association of the stronger : the only weapons they can use are arguments, and, if these can in the end prevail, they are, probably, well founded. In aristocratic countries, where the less powerful party is often far the more numerous, it is obvious that the organization of the masses into, as it were, a separate government, is fraught with great peril. Even under the British Government, liberalized though it has lately been, we have seen Repeal Associations and Chartist Societies, whose language and actions clearly show their dangerous objects. These men profess that they are not sufficiently represented in the legislation — that their interests are disregarded ; so, to give their complaints weight, they create a nation of their own within the nation, with a view of carrying on negociations with the weight of an independent State. But I believe that, altogether, the good of this power of association much preponderates over the evil, and that both with us and in America, it is a most valuable safeguard for our liberties : it becomes formidable only when there is some real grievance 278 HOCHELAGA ; OR, to complain of, and then, within the limits of the law, it cannot be too strongly urged. From the constant habit of carrying on public business, Americans are astonishingly apt in organizing meetings. The day before landing at Boston, in one of the English mail steam-packets, while we were at luncheon in the saloon, one of the passengers stood up, and proposed that the party should form itself into a meeting, and that the Honourable Mr. So-and-So should take the chair : another seconded this motion, upon which Mr. So-and-So accepted the office, and requested our attention to the affairs about to be brought forward. In five minutes from the first words spoken, it was proposed and carried: — "That a piece of plate should be presented to the Captain of the ship, in token of our high sense of his atten- tion, and merits as a seaman ;" also, " That the Honourable Mr. What's-his-name be requested at dinner this day to deliver to the Captain an address, with the promise of the plate," which was to be got when we landed. The honourable gentle- man did deliver an address and speech of a highly complimentary nature, such, indeed, as might have been appropriately delivered to Nelson, if he had survived Trafalgar. We were all making ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 279 most painful efforts to restrain our laughter the whole time, and the Captain, who was a very good, plain kind of man, was quite bewildered when his American panegyrist concluded with : — " This trifling token of the deep and lasting esteem and regard which we entertain for you as the accomplish- ed sailor, and the finished gentleman." Luckily, the loud applause with which the conclusion of a speech is usually hailed, drowned the uncontrollable bursts of laughter at the orator's expense. I have said elsewhere that the great majority of public men are lawyers. This results from their being a class which devotes itself to the improve- ment and strengthening of the mind, as a means of attaining wealth and distinction, so that they are usually qualified to take the lead among their fellow citizens. Their habits of speaking in public are also highly favourable to success, giving them an immense advantage over an unpractised opponent. Lawyers wishing to bring themselves forward, can be found to advocate any extremes of opinion ; but generally they act as, perhaps, the most conserva- tive body in the country, and even very dangerous measures are, in some degree, deprived of their pernicious effects by passing through their hands. As the law is their profession and study, they are 280 HOCHELAGA ; OR, usually anxious to make it as much as possible respected, and to encourage order, which is so indispensable to the law's supremacy. They have also generally far better manners and a higher range of thought than the other classes, and this to no small extent influences their political characters. Appearing before their fellow-citizens as a class clothed with the authority of arbitrating among them, possessing a difficult and necessary science, to them unknown, these advantages render the lawyer accustomed to lead and the people to follow. Though it cannot be supposed that lawyers have all a common interest, except that of supporting their profession, they have certainly a similarity in their habits and tone of mind, tending to unite their views and objects, probably raising both above those of the people, and imbuing the lawyer with hatred and contempt for the blind and turbulent passions of the mob. The profession of the law in America has many rew T ards for the successful ; but there must always be a certain portion of candidates who fail ; from these ranks are usually recruited the advocates of extreme democratic measures, while from the prosperous and success- ful, the cause of stability and order draws its ablest supporters. The lawyer belongs not naturally to ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 281 the masses of the people ; he will therefore proba- bly attack the enormous power and privileges which the masses possess. The Americans are not unaware of the influence wielded by this particular class ; but it is not feared by them, as its members can only apparently arrive at power by the people's choice, and are conse- quently interested in their service; besides, they are indispensable, and their presence is perhaps, in a great measure, only tolerated by necessity. The Supreme Court of the United States is the only power completely independent of the popular will; and, though all acknowledge its value and respect its influence, there is a great secret jealousy of its being beyond their reach, and it is to be feared that it will ultimately fall, as every other safeguard of rational liberty has already fallen. It has the very important power of declaring the acts of the Legislature unconstitutional, and protecting from their action any one who appeals to it. But it possesses no means of enforcing obedience to these decrees ; the Legislative power which it may oppose, is armed with the Executive authority ; and it is not to be doubted that if the Supreme Court were ever to oppose itself firmly to any popular pressure, it would at once be swept away. 282 HOCHELAGA; OR, At first, nearly all the judges in the different States were either appointed by the Executive or elected for life ; but the tendency has ever been to bring them more and more under the will of the majority ; and now, in many States, they are sub- ject to frequent re-election, and, I believe in all, liable to be removed at the pleasure of the Legisla- ture, being thus altogether deprived of the most necessary qualification for the fit discharge of their judicial duties — that of independence. The system of the defence of the country by a militia force is very important as a political institu- tion, though a source both of waste and weakness; the enormous cost mentioned in another place proves its extravagance, and its inefficiency also has been frequently demonstrated. For instance, when Washington was taken by four thousand British troops, there were a hundred thousand militia com- batants on paper, within a few days' march ; and, in the case of the Anti-renters in the State of New York, the local force was worse than useless. The unfortunate American General, Hull, in his defence before the court-martial by which he was tried after his failure and surrender in Canada, attributed his misfortunes altogether to the inefficiency of the troops he commanded, stating that discipline and ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 283 subordination were out of the question, the officers being elected by the soldiers, and more obeying than obeyed. They are however, highly useful in defending their own neighbourhood, when well posted and commanded, as they were at New Orleans ; but, for manoeuvres in the field or retali- atory invasion of a hostile country, they are not to be depended upon. There is no doubt that, after a time, they would make as good soldiers as any in the world, but it must always be a matter of the greatest difficulty to keep together men who have the interests of their farms, or their business, probably going to ruin in their absence. The feeling of enthusiasm may earn - them through a sudden effort with gallantry and success, but for a continuous struggle they are less valuable than one-fourth of the number of regular troops. In a political point of view, however, the esta- blishment is of great importance and value ; it inspires the people with a sense of their patriotic duty, they feel a self-dependence as they muster on parade ; they know that to them is confided the sacrod trust of defending their country, their hearths, and their families ; each individual feels that he is a part of the bulwarks of his nation. By 284 hocheiaga; or, the constant habit of electing their officers, they may perhaps render the soldier inefficient, but the citizen becomes more practised in his duties ; their drill brings them together for friendly intercourse, and for a season takes them from the worship of mammon. But the great thing is that the country and laws, which they assemble as soldiers to defend, become precious in their sight. Their militia at present outnumbers the host of Xerxes, but this need not be at all alarming to foreign powers ; no Leonidas will ever be required to stem their invading march, and any open field will serve for a Thermopylae. A standing army may appear to the Americans very inconvenient, and injurious to the cause of freedom ; but, in the first great war they undertake, its necessity will become evident. In the last collision between England and America, the colony of Canada, with four British regiments, was, for two years, all they had to overcome; and in this they miserably failed ; not from any want of zeal or courage, but simply from ignorance and inexperience. How- ever it may be the fashion to sneer at the soldier's trade, it cannot be so very readily learned, and Heaven defend me from being protected by amateurs in time of difficulty ! When the day of trial comes ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 285 there are punishments and disasters in store for the American militia, as great as were suffered by those who followed Generals Hull and Hamp- ton, in the last war. The style of oratory in America is very peculiar ; the speaker, to do him justice, generally aims at the very highest order, no matter what the occa- sion may be. In every case, whether presenting a snuff-box, or making a motion in the Senate, he will try to give importance to the subject by the splendour of the language. The sun, moon, and stars ; oceans, deserts, hurricanes, are all introduced as necessary illustra- tions, to convey to the individual who receives the snuff-box, the feelings of the givers ; very likely the "Chosen People," "Mighty Republic," and " Boundless Empire," are also called into requisi- tion. A speech usually concludes with a toast, if the meeting be a convivial one, or on more solemn occasions, a sentiment, in which great matters are condensed into a few words. I heard an honoura- ble gentleman — an American, once address a mixed assembly of English and of his countrymen at a sort of convivial dinner, on the subject of our present difficult relations ; his desire was peace, as was also that of the audience. The opportunity 286 HOCHELAGA; OR, . did not allow of any very long oration, but he made the most of it : he gave us a brief historical view of the world, from Adam to the year 1845, a slight sketch of the march of intellect and the pro- gress of society during this period, a short struggle between the colonies and England, a succinct account of the advance of the former after the separation, a narrative of the speaker's adven- tures and opinions in an European tour, a com- parative view of the naval and military power of the two countries, some interesting statistics relating to their trade, a feeling appeal to Providence that our harmonious relations might not be dis- turbed, and concluded with the following senti- ment — " England, America, and Oregon; may the latter be overwhelmed in the roaring billows of the Pacific, ere it cause the demon of discord to spread his crimson wing over the two former !" In the House of Representatives, this manner of fine speaking is sometimes carried to the most absurd extent. Another habit — that of speaking too long, has been lately put a stop to ; it had arrived at so great a pitch that the evil became intolerable ; an hour is now the limit, and when exceeded there is always a remonstrance. This arrangement was very readily adopted ; as ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 287 only one could speak at a time, all the rest were obliged to remain as listeners ; each individual supposed that all his neighbour's speeches were of preposterous length, since by them he was kept so long from enlightening the assembly. In the Senate this rule has not been found necessary, for it is not customarv to turn it into a school for practising elocution ; the fact is, that the Federal Legislation has but little to do, and time can gene- rally be afforded for these flourishes ; particularly as very little attention is paid to them, and they are merely given for the benefit of distant constituen- cies. Perhaps it is from the features of their country — the great rivers, the broad prairies, the huge forests — that they imbibe the habit of always describing in the superlative degree. In public speaking you rarely hear them make a grammatical error ; some of their words are pronounced diffe- rently from our habits of pronunciation, but you seldom hear an American word used on these occasions ; whatever their weaknesses may be in private conversation, in the way of " guessing" and "expecting," you will hear neither one nor the other in public. The present debates on the subject of the difficulties with England, elicit some of the 288 HOCHELAGA; OR, most amusing contradictions and diversities of opinion in the argument. One honourable gentle- man says " We are about to provoke a war with the greatest power the sun ever shone on ;" the next declares that " England only requires a spark to be applied to her own dangerous material, to blow the feeble and antiquated structure into the skies." Lest any of these valuable orations should be lost to the world, it is usual for the speakers to send their speeches, before they have been spoken, to the editor of the paper where they wish them to appear ; so that sometimes the voice has not ceased to echo, before the public out of doors are furnished with what has been said. " Fine writing " is also a great weakness of theirs ; if left to themselves, and uncorrupted by foreign taste, for which they have a great respect, they would prefer probably some tremendous " war article " in an obscene country paper, to the chaste and elegant simplicity of Washington Irving's works. As I said before, comparatively few men write books in America ; the lighter food of daily news is more suited to the national appetite. The number of English publications, and the rapidity with which they are brought out are extraordinary ; they are generally printed with bad type, on ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 289 a i etched paper, and sold at a very low price ; all this time the poor English author, however he may be flattered by the publication of his work in another country, derives not the slightest benefit from it. Many of the best works by Americans have been published in London, as the property of the copyright is there much more valuable than in the United States. This seizing on the labour of the author's brain, and appropriating it as they do appears to me highly reprehensible, and many of their wisest and best people desire a law of inter- national copyright, on the principle of getting literature honestly, instead of cheaply, as by the present plan. There has always been a great majority against such a law hitherto : all acknow- ledge the existence of an injustice, but, as it is a profitable one, few wish to do away with it. vol. II. o 290 HOCHELAGA J OE ; CHAPTER XII. TERRITORY OF THE UNITED STATES- — MEXICO— THE INDIANS. The territory of the United States presents more natural advantages than any other region of the earth. Its vast extent — now upwards of three millions of square miles, affords every variety of soil and climate, from the burning sun of the Tropics to the ice-blasts of the North. An enormous length of sea-coast, with convenient harbours, invites the com- merce of Europe; the Mississippi and the great lakes open the resources of the far distant interior ; every variety of minerals for industrial purposes abounds in inexhaustible quantities ; the finest timber in the world stands ready for the woodman's labour; numerous springs, of every variety of quality, and every medicinal virtue, are found on ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 29 i its surface. On the Pacific shore, the proximity to the rich countries of the Old World is an earnest of future wealth ; while, through the valleys of the Rocky Mountains, Nature has left an easy commu- nication from the Atlantic States to the Western side. In the still untenanted wilderness of the interior, countless herds of buffalo, deer, and other animals of the chase, tempt the hunter to explore, and send him back enriched with their spoil. It is usual in description to divide this vast terri- tory into three regions. The first lies between the Atlantic and the Alleghany Mountains ; the second between this tract and the Rocky Mountains ; the third extends to the Pacific Ocean. The Atlantic States are less favoured by a fertile soil than the interior, but the indomitable energy of the British who settled them, has caused largerand more prosperous cities to rise on the inhospitable coast, and made it the abode of a numerous and wealthy population. Up to the close of the eighteenth century, but few settlers had crossed the Alleghanies ; it was known that there lay a boundless extent of fertile wilderness ready to be made the dwelling of man, but the then scanty population of the coast had abundant occupation and means of wealth near them ; and it was not O 2 292 HOCHELAGA ; OR, till their increase diminished the facility of becoming* prosperous, that the great tide of emigration, now producing such astonishing results, began to flow. With wonderful rapidity the settlers, from hun- dreds became thousands, from thousands, millions ; still the human stream continues to pour on, year by year, over the mountains to the land of plenty, and still each new-comer finds its riches inexhaustible. As the flood of civilization receives these constant accessions, it spreads widely over the land ; the first comers sell their cleared fields to those who follow, and then push forward for fresh conquest over the wilderness. Every year, the frontier of cultivation advances, on an average, seventeen miles along its whole length ; still but little is covered, for its surface is thirteen hundred thousand square miles. The great Mississippi, " the father of rivers," drains the whole of this valley, for two thou- sand five hundred miles ; numbers of navigable rivers flow through the rich plains on either side, and pay it tribute. On the banks the vegetation is luxuriant beyond parallel : the soil is the accu- mulated riches of the growth and decay of thou- sands of years, formed on the alluvial deposits of the stream. But Nature has fixed the penalty of disease on ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 293 those who reap these riches ; in the exuberant but swampy plains of the North-west the pale face and emaciated figure of the settler shew how the slow fever and the withering ague have been at work ; and, in the fertile savannah of the South, pestilence and death are borne on every breeze. As the peo- pling of these districts proceeds, a* great improve- ment may be worked out by the draining of the soil, the felling of the forest, the training of the exube- rant fertility, which now only raises its immense vegetation to die and poison the air in its decay. In this vast valley of the Mississippi lies the future dwelling of a greater people than the world has yet seen. The lands lying near the slopes of the mountains are broken and barren ; the deposits of alluvial soil are less abundant ; here and there the rough granite rock peeps through ; and, as you ascend, huge stones and sand cover the surface. Beyond the Rocky Mountains, extending to the Pacific, lie the territories before spoken of — Oregon and Cali- fornia. The northern portion of the Atlantic States offers apparently but few natural attractions. The coast is bleak and dangerous ; dreary sand-banks and rough rocks form its barrier ; the country is 294 HOCHELAGA ; OR, but little adorned by picturesque undulations ; sombre forests of the dark pine and the knotted oak cover its slopes. But this soil, though not of great fertility, has been found capable of producing all the necessaries of life, when aided by the industry of man. The difficulties to be overcome continue strength and energy to the inhabitants ; healthy toil has enriched them ; luxury and idleness find no place on this stern shore. On the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, the extreme south of this country, the sea is clear and tranquil ; under its calm waters the eye can trace an abundant vegetation ; corals enrich these inacces- sible fields of ocean, and beautiful fish wander through the forests of their depths. On the shore, flowering shrubs and trees of lovely foliage droop their leaves and dip their buds into the sea ; fruits of luscious and elsewhere unknown flavour hang in boundless profusion ; blossoms and birds, each of wonderful brilliancy and variety of colour, lend their tints to the scene ; gaudy flies by day, and bright glow-worms by night, add to its beauty ; and every production of the earth grows with un- paralleled richness. But this lovely land, so teeming with life, is for the European a charnel-house ; the deadly fever is ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 295 inhaled with the odour of the scented gale ; and few have been able to withstand the enervating influence of this delicious but deceitful climate. Even the iron Anglo-Saxon race has yielded the noble duties of labour to slaves, and has lost, together with the habits of industry, many of its characteristic virtues. To the west of this southern portion of the United States lies a country which has long been neglected, a prey to anarchy and oppression. It is inhabited by a mixed race of Europeans, Indians, and Negroes — a wretched, slavish population, com- bining the vices of all, unredeemed by the virtues of any. Originally held by a simple and contented people, it became one of the rich prizes of the early Spanish conquerors. The mind does not know whether most to admire the wonderful courage of these invaders, or to denounce their villanous cruelties to the conquered. For many years, the avaricious, the profligate, and the desperate, poured in by thousands from Old Spain upon this devoted land, seized the produce of the country, drove the wretched inhabitants to labour in the mines, destroyed their cities and their chiefs, and Left their country nothing but its name of Mexico. At the present time, nine millions of people, de- 296 HOCHELAGA; OR, scendants of the oppressor and the oppressed, with some admixture of Africans, who have been at one time in bondage but are now free, inhabit this splendid country, a country ten times the .extent of the British Islands. The Rocky Mountains run through Mexico from north to south, and are in some places upwards of five thousand yards in height, with summits covered by perpetual snows. The mines of gold and silver among these rugged hills are wonderfully productive, and at a moderate height from the level of the sea. There are great varieties of climate and soil in this country ; immense steppes of rich land rise in some places from the shores of the pacific or the tropical coasts of the Gulf of Mexico, to the cool and salubrious gorges of the rocky heights. A great portion of the land is of such extraordinary fertility that the grain returns crops ten times greater in proportion than in England. The de- graded inhabitants receive these alms of Nature ; no effort is required to obtain food ; the delicious climate renders but little clothing necessary. With the habit and need of exertion, ceases the power, and but energy enough remains, for every now and then a bloody and objectless revolution. It is well known that, not long since, these ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 297 Mexicans seized the opportunity of Spain's prostra- tion, to throw off her yoke and set up a republic. They had none of the necessary qualities for the success of such a system, and miserable oppression and anarchy have been the results. First, a few American adventurers succeeded in wresting Texas from this feeble grasp ; now Yucatan has declared itself independent, and the insidious process of an- nexation is making rapid progress in California. In short, they have already proved themselves in- capable of self-government and self-defence. The authority of the law, during the time of Spanish supremacy, was at least in a measure respected ; justice was something more than a name, and the miserable country was not harassed every year by the bloody rise of some new tyrant. Already many of the down-trampled people sigh again for the com- parative blessing of European rule, and for some protection from the grasping ambition of their neighbours of the United States. It would be the greatest benefit for this unhappy country, as well as the soundest policy for the European powers, to bring it back to the dominion of the Spanish monarchy, or to make it a kingdom — independent, but with its integrity guaranteed against any aggres- sion, whether by conquest or under the mask of o 3 298 HOCHELAGA ; OR, colonization, as in Texas : — thus opposing a barrier to the depredating aggrandizement of the United States. The attempts at republican governments made bv the descendants of the Peninsular races, have all proved failures ; insurrections, revolutions, and wars have multiplied, till the European politician has almost ceased to bewilder himself with their details, and the general reader hears the mention of some contemptible little republic for the first time when it becomes the scene of a tragedy of unusual horror. Brazil offers a much more grateful subject of contem- plation ; there, under the guardianship of aristocra- tical institutions, society exhibits far greater stability and regularity ; industry prospers, trade flourishes : the harbour of Rio Janeiro ranks among the first in .the world for the quantity of its shipping and the value of its cargoes. At the same time the splendid country at the north of the River Plate is devastated by the wars of the miserable little States whose existence was scarcely known in Europe, till a handful of English and French sailors battered down the strong-hold of the greater tyrant of the two. The regeneration of Mexico may appear a hope- less task, but at any rate her state cannot be worse ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 299 than it is at present, and a constitutional monarchy may work good. It is, however, absolutely neces- sary for the European powers to preserve her from falling piecemeal into the hands of the Americans : they have marked her for their prey, but they must be disappointed ; if successful in this, no one could imagine that they would then cease from further aggression. In the last " President's Message" there appeared a paragraph not particularly called forth by any- thing at the moment, stating " That the United States will not permit the interference of any European power in the affairs of the American Continent :" so that, in the event of their seizing upon Mexico, any remonstrance by Cis-Atlantic powers will be looked upon by the Americans as ground for war. This sweeping prohibition falls rather heavily on England — at least it would do so if en forced, as she happens to possess a greater extent of territory on the continent than the United States, and may, through Canada at least, lay some claim to an interference in the affairs of the New World. Even France, as one of the great family of nations, considers that she has some interest in America, so the English and French guns at Parana spoke the 300 HOCHELAGA ; OR y answers from these powers to the President's pro- hibitory manifesto. When the benighted countries of Europe are rash enough to make this sort of mistake, the Americans should look with forgiveness and pity upon it, for though they know perfectly well that they are the most powerful, enlightened, and irre- sistible people in " all creation," we have not had the advantage of the same education, or the study of the same versions of history ; we are still ignorant enough to doubt their supremacy, and even to hesitate to yield an immediate obedience to their President's mandates. The , silly habit which they have acquired of speaking contemptuously of the monarchical powers of Europe, becomes mischievous when indulged in by those holding high official situations. Not the least among the evils of such a class of men being raised to sudden power is, that they often carry with them the absurd and narrow-minded ideas of the strength and merits of other countries, which were current among their former obscure and vulgar associates. I am happy to see, however, that the wise and respected body, the American Senate, did not confirm the declaration of the President as to the " Interference of European powers ;" so that ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 301 the " message" on the subject is but " words," and conveys to the governments alluded to nothing more than the individual prohibition of the respecta- ble but somewhat imperious citizen himself. The French Minister has courteously, but gravely and determinedly, noticed this paragraph, and seems but little inclined to acknowledge the authority assumed, while the lively and high-spirited Parisian press is greatly indignant at the assumption of this transatlantic potentate. At the moment of diffi- culty with England, it seems highly impolitic of the American authority to put forward an abstract principle of this nature, with no particular view or object of immediate benefit, followed up by no action, and highly irritating to friendly powers. The treatment of the Indian race in America by the Europeans, has generally been contemptuous and cruel : the Spaniards were apparently the most unmerciful to them, but the inhabitants of the United States have been the most faithless. Since the Union has become a nation, many treaties have been made with the Indians, but none re- spected ; year after year, some great extent of territory is taken from them, and a paltry bribe given, instead, to the ignorant and corrupted chief. The people of the gentle and generous Pocahontas 302 HOCHELAGA; OR, have perished from the land, and the magnanimous Mohicans are only remembered through the pages of a romance. The Indians who hover round the magnificent country of their fathers, now, the " land of the stranger," are far and scattered, weak and helpless, but the inextinguishable pride of their race upholds their spirit ; they know that to resist the European is vain, but they despise him still, hate him and shun his civilization, although the manufactures and arms of the white men have become necessary to them. The animals of the chase recede constantly into the interior, they become fewer and more difficult of access ; the only resource of the Indian is thus failing. When the English settlers first landed in America, some of the tribes received them with kindness, others with a fierce hostility, but the fate of all was ultimately the same ; as the mysterious prophecies of their old men declared, " a destruction came from the rising sun." Wherever the axe of the settler rings in the forest, the wild animals leave for far distant haunts, and the Indian must follow them. When the Americans have thus driven away the only supply of food, they call the Red Men to a meeting, and explain that this land is no longer useful for the chase, that the pale-faces ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 303 will soon take it at any rate, while further away to the West there are boundless tracts ready to receive the Indians. At the same time are spread before them arms, clothing, and tinsel baubles, beads, and mirrors, to tempt them to the form of a sale ; above all, the blinding and deadly fire-water decides the bargain. To obtain this poison, they will sacrifice lands and life itself. In this manner hundreds of thousands of acres have been purchased for a few thousand dollars ; each sale accompanied by a treatv promising them protection in their remain- ing rights : but in a few years the attack is renewed, and so on, till none remain. It seems to be ascertained that the Indian race cannot increase, or even exist, in contact with the Anglo-Saxon. Their ultimate fate must be to wander off, a wretched remnant, to the dreary regions of the Hudson's Bay territory, till misery ends in death. But a very short time in the world's history will have cleared the buffalo and the deer from the South and central districts of America, by the spread of cultivation ; their only refuge will be th'' North, and there will be found the last of the aboriginal men and beasts of the New World. England has always been more strict in her dealings, and more considerate towards the Indians 304 HOCHELAGA; OR, than has America : the consequence is that her faith and credit stand much higher among them, and by the distant shores of the Great Western Lakes the wandering Indian holds sacred the honour of an Englishman, as does the Egyptian in the streets of Cairo to this day *. Many efforts have been made to civilize and save this doomed people ; all have proved vain, for civilization cannot proceed without labour, and that they hate and regard as a degradation. There have been numberless instances of Indians being tolerably educated and accustomed to civilized life, but almost invariably they have returned to the freedom and hardships of the forest as soon as opportunity offered. There are indeed settlements of the Cherokees and other tribes, which have exhibited some appearance of success and prosperity ; but, every now and then, a sweep of disease thins their numbers, and, besides, their race mingles with the European blood, till they too melt away. The great feature of the Indian character is pride. He considers war and the chase as the only occupations worthy of a man. Now, they have * The Crescent and the Cross, p. 49. vol. i. ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 305 comparatively but scanty grounds whereon to hunt and they are too weak for war, but still the pride remains indomitable — fatal. Even in the rare cases where they do make the effort to till the soil and enter upon a life of civilization, the sense of inferiority to the white man in these arts drives them to despair. Their unskilful hands and simple ignorance soon leave them in the very lowest grade of social condition. Most of the necessaries of life must be purchased from the white man ; the scanty crops soon cease to supply the means ; they become miserably poor, having contracted the wants of civilization without the power of satisfying them ; their pride revolts at being thus bowed down before the strange race; and they either return to their life of savage freedom and hardship, or the firewater renders them insensible to their misery and degradation. The lands which even their imperfect toil has in some measure made valuable, are sold to supply present wants, and they go forth lost and outcast to the wilderness. The few who struggle on against all these diffi- culties are looked upon but as troublesome aliens in the land ; the white population surges round them on every side; year after year, the Indians decrease in number; portions of their land pass 306 hochelaga; or, from their hands, till, at length, no trace remains to shew where they once dwelt. In all these invasions and aggressions, the States have supported the white men, sometimes under the form of admitting the Indians to equality and receiving them as citizens, when of course they are instantly lost in the superiority of the European race. Many Americans do not scruple to assert in conversa- tion that the final object of their system with regard to the Indians is their complete extirpation. The hard laws indeed allow them an alternative of wandering farther away to the West, into unknown tracts, or perishing miserably where they now are. The central government has tried several times humanely to interfere for their protection, but its feeble efforts proved useless where the interests of the separate States were concerned. An attempt was made to secure them a retreat in the distant territory of Arkansas, but already the spread of white population has reached these wilds, and ex- tends to the confines of Mexico ; while the poor Indian emigrant from the East had to struggle even there, with the fierce native tribes, who still retained the energy and courage of their savage state. When he obtained a footing he had no encouragement to till the land, for ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 307 he knew that even this was but a temporary residence. Several times before, the American nation had given them solemn guarantees in treaties, that they should never be disturbed in the possession of the lands then theirs ; but the turbulent and lawless settlers forced in everywhere among them and around them, till they could no longer remain. But now the tragedy is nearly over ; few and feeble, weary and hopeless, up the far distant branches of the Arkansas they are hemmed in by the advancing tide of civilization on one side, by the jealous and hostile tribes of the interior on the other ; and they now rapidly seek their only refuge, whither the white man must soon follow, not to oppress them more, but to render an account of his misdeeds — the refuge of the grave. M. de Tocqueville quotes the following beau- tiful passage from the petition of the Cherokee Indians to Congress : — " By the will of our Father in Heaven, the Go- vernor of the whole world, the red man of America has become small, and the white man great and renowned. When the ancestors of the people of these United States first came to the shores of America, they found the red man strong ; though 308 HOCHELAGA ; OR, he was ignorant and savage, yet he received them kindly, and gave them dry land to rest their weary feet. They met in peace, and shook hands in token of friendship. Whatever the white man wanted and asked of the Indian, the latter wil- lingly gave. At that time the Indian was the lord and the white man the suppliant ; but now the scene has changed. The strength of the red man has become weakness. As his neighbours increased in numbers, his power became less and less, and now, of the many and powerful tribes who once covered these United States, only a few are to be seen — a few whom a sweeping pestilence has left. The Northern tribes who were once so numerous and powerful, are now nearly extinct. Thus it has happened to the red men of America; shall we, who are the remnant, share the same fate ? " The land on which we stand we have received as an heritage from our fathers, who possessed it from time immemorial, as a gift from our common Father in Heaven ; they bequeathed it to us, as their children, and we have sacredly kept it as con- taining the remains of our beloved men. This right of inheritance we have never ceded and never forfeited. Permit me to ask what better right can the people have to a country than the right of ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 309 inheritance and of immemorial peaceful possession? We know it is said of late by the State of Georgia and the Executive of the United States, that we have forfeited that right; but we think this is said gratuitously. At what time have we made the forfeiture? what great crime have we com- mitted whereby we must be for ever divested of our country and our rights ? " Was it when we were hostile to the United States, and took part with the King of Great Britain in the struggle for independence ? If so, why was not this forfeiture declared in the first treaty of peace between the United States and our beloved men ? Why was not such an article as the following inserted in the treaty ? ' The United States give peace to the Cherokees, but for the part they took in the late war, declare them to be but tenants at will, to be removed when the con- venience of the United States, within whose char- tered limits they live, shall require it.' That was the proper time to assume such a possession. But it was not thought of, nor would our fathers have agreed to any treaty whose tendency was to deprive them of their rights and their country." In Mexico and South America, where the Peninsular races once exercised such enormous bar- 310 HOCHELAGA ; OR, barities upon the Indians, they have ultimately amalgamated with them, and the condition of the nation has been somewhat raised in the scale of civilization. This result was rather from causes of inferiority in this European branch, than from any merit on their part ; their place above the Indian was not so high, that they could not mix and be confounded together. But the Anglo-Saxons, haughty, repulsive, contemptuous, will brook no equality — those with whom they mix must become slaves, or die. The negro lives in chains — the Indian dies in freedom. The instinct of territorial aggression prompts the Americans to intrude upon the rights of a power better able to defend them than the hapless Indians. They look upon our maritime provinces as part of the spoils of Canada, and speak with the same confidence of obtaining pos- session of all, as of any one of our transatlantic possessions, whether in the North or in the West Indies. Their press inculcates this idea perpetu- ally, " The American people will it, and it must be." Such is its tone ! Even many of the enlightened and well-informed among them have got into a habit of thinking that ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 311 England's day is gone by ; that she is exhausted under the pressure of the chains of her institutions, crushed by taxation, torn to pieces by internal dis- content ; wasted by the poverty of her people, and passed from the vigour of manhood to the decrepi- tude of old age ; that her star already wanes before that of America, and that the date of their collision will be the date of England's ruin. Among other instances, I heard a fiery young man speak on these subjects at a dinner-party at Boston : he was well born and educated, of good fortune, and belonged to the Whig, or, as we should call it, Conservative party. The conversation turned on Oregon ; he thought our claims unfounded, and hoped that they would not be acknowledged by the American government, even at the cost of war. " Although," said he, " our commerce might suffer in the com- mencement, in the end England must be ruined : of course she could not hope to save her American colonies. The French are ready to seize the moment of her embarrassment ; Ireland longs for a chance of freedom ; the Chartists are organized in all the manufacturing districts ; the agricultural population starving, Russia ready to pounce upon her Indian possessions." In short, he made the destruction so complete, that at length he was 312 hochelaga; or, struck with something of remorse, and added : — ■ " But, poor old England ! I should be sorry if after all, her own children were to trample her under foot." I give this, not as the opinion of an individual, but as the idea prevalent among many of all classes in the United States. From their versions of the history of our colli- sions on former occasions, they learn that England has always succumbed to their prowess. Among their children (as it used to be in England when a boy believed he could beat three French boys) they teach that every American could " chaw up" three " Britishers." There is no doubt that it is to a certain extent politic to instil these ideas into the mind by education ; for, if you can, as I said on a former occasion, convince people that they excel, they are likely to use their utmost exertions to prove the truth of your assertion. But, as occurs in every case where truth is deviated from, a vastly greater amount of evil is the certain ulti- mate result. For instance, at the present time, when the cry from the West is war, one motive is, that they are convinced they can overpower us, and wrest from us our American possessions. " The American people will it." I have over and over again seen them looking affectionately and ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 313 approvingly at the fortifications of Quebec, as the future stronghold for their northern territory; observing its noble position, solid bastions, and skilfully-drawn lines, with the careful eye of an heir presumptive. 1 soon found that it was quite useless to make any effort to persuade my American friends to take a clearer view of the position of England, or to believe that her arm is not yet quite withered : it was vain. " All Englishmen say the same, they are blind to what is going on, behind the march of the age, brought up with bigoted notions." They think, in short, that we deserve a severe lesson, and that they are the people to give it us. All this sort of thing is said with the most perfect good feeling and friendliness towards the individual whom they may be addressing, and with general expressions of regard to us as a people ; but what they call our dreadfully despotic and tyrannical system of government is the real object of their ignorant wrath. VOL. II. 314 HOCHELAGA; OR, CHAPTER XIII. nova scotia new brunswick the islands Hudson's bay. The last sight I visited at Boston, was the steam-packet which was to carry me to England, for the purpose of securing a berth ; being one of the latest applicants I got but an indifferent one. She was a splendid vessel ; even to a landsman's eye, it was evident she would not disappoint those who had built her for strength and speed. Some dozen of the passengers were known to me, enough to form a very pleasant party, and many among the remainder were infinite sources of fun. There were Hamburgh Jews, Spaniards from the Ha- vannah, Northerns and Southerns, Westerns, En- glish, Canadians, and a few who had no country in particular. One man was going to England on a speculation of selling Indian corn to the poor- law Unions ; another was the owner of a large im- ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 315 portation of Yankee clocks, and was of course christened ' Sam Slick' ; another was going to ex- amine the last improvements in cotton-spinning; and a family of four brothers and a sister were going to sing in England. When the gun was fired, as we started on our voyage, this family sang, with much feeling and effect, the ' Farewell to New England,' Their music was a great source of enjoyment to us on the voyage. Some of the Yankee songs were excellent, rich in native wit and the inimitable ' Down East' twang. They were children of a farmer in Massachusetts, had made some money by singing in their own country, and were then on their way to try their chance abroad. The sister was a pretty and very interesting girl, not more than six- teen years of age. I have not heard of them since they reached England, but we all felt quite an interest in their success. I hope their voyage to Europe may not have proved too bold a specula- tion. There was also an ' Abolitionist Lecturer,' on board, a man of colour, who had been a slave to his r own father, and made his escape from the most cruel treatment He had not received any education till after getting free, which was not very long ago, but appeared to be intelligent and well p 2 316 HOCHELAGA; OR, informed at this time. He was bound for England, to collect funds by his lectures, for advancing the cause of Abolition in the United States. The Ro- man Catholic Bishop of Oregon and several Bel- gian priests were also among the passengers. We had a fair passage of thirty- six hours, to Halifax. This is one of the finest harbours in the world, affording sufficient anchorage and shelter for twice the number of ships in the British Navy. The entrance, when not obscured by fog, is so safe that the largest-sized ships need no other guide into it than their charts. There are several small islands in the channel, not interfering with its navigation, but assisting its defence. In winter, the ice very rarely closes its shelter, and on that account it is the great naval depot for our North American possessions. Three formidable forts protect the entrance. There are many splendid harbours on this coast, far more numerous than those of the United States, but as yet the scanty and indigent population have turned them to but little account. The town of Halifax is on a small peninsula, standing on a slope, which rises from the water's edge to the citadel ; this strong-hold crowns the summit, and is now able to withstand any force ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 317 likely to be brought against it. At first it was built by contract, and so badly, that most of it fell down ; but afterwards it was fully repaired and strengthened. A detachment of artillery and three regiments of the line are allotted to its de- fence. The streets of the town are wide and convenient, crossing each other at right angles ; its extent is nearly two miles in length by half a mile in breadth, and it contains about twenty thousand inhabitants. The wharfs are well suited for the purposes of commerce, and furnished w r ith roomy warehouses, but, to say truth, the place has anything but a prosperous appearance, and but little trade or busi- ness is carried on. The houses are principally built of w 7 ood, and poor-looking, but some of the private dwellings are handsome and comfortable, and the ' Provincial Building' is one of the finest in North America. There are also several other cre- ditable public buildings, and the dockyard is on a large scale, but I understand that at present it is not well supplied or in good repair. When the French first settled in this country, they called it ' Arcadie.' They lived amicably with the Mic-Mac Indians, the principal of the abori- 318 HOCHELAGA; OR, ginal tribes, and taught them the vices, if not the virtues, of civilization. They converted them in- deed nominally to Christianity, and turned this to account afterwards by telling them that the English, with whom they were at war, were the people who had crucifiedthe 'Saviour'. These Indians were fierce and warlike, of tall stature and great activity, but these gifts availed them little ; the poison of the fire-water, and the white man's wars, wasted them away. Now, perhaps, there are about two thou- sand left, the poor remnant is humanely treated, and, in some instances, has made progress in civilization ; but far the greater number still roam the forests in the chase, and dissipate the spoil in drunkenness and debauchery. There are still a number of the French in Arcadie, descendants of those who remained in the country after the English conquest; but by far the larger portion of the population at pre- sent is of the British race. The name of Nova Scotia was given to this province after its becoming an apanage of the English Crown. The Southern portion of the country is rocky and poor, the Northern shore far more fertile : the climate, though severe in winter and foggy at all ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 319 times on the coast, is very favourable for the health of man and for vegetation. The peach and the grape ripen in the open air, and the labours of agriculture are now vigorously plied, and gratefully repaid. The mineral riches of this colony are very great ; good coal is found in inexhaustible quanti- ties ; the fisheries are also mines of wealth. These resources have been as yet but little developed ; now, the increasing population and the greater attention paid in England to their interests is beginning to operate. Nova Scotia contains a population but little short of a hundred and eighty thousand : the area of the province is about fifteen thousand square miles. The form of colonial government is much the same as in Canada. The people have always proved themselves loyal and faithful subjects of the British crown, particularly at the time of the Ca- nadian troubles. A few words about the other British North American possessions may not be out of place before we leave these shores. New Brunswick lies between Canada and the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the north and east, the State of Maine to the west, and the Bay of Fundy, opening into the Atlantic, to the south, and con- 320 HOCHELAGA; OR, tains nearly thirty thousand square miles of extent . The surface of the country is much like that of Canada, except that a few prairies vary the mono- tony of the dark woods. There are many noble rivers, well fitted for navigation ; the timber which is floated down by them to the sea, is as fine as in any part of the New World. The principal river, the Miramichi, pours riches and its waters into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. On its banks, in 1825, at the beginning of October, the woods, long parched up with the drought of an intensely hot summer, took fire. For some time the progress of the flames was slow, but on the 7th of the month there arose a dreadful tempest of thunder, light- ning, and wind, which carried on the destruction with frightful rapidity ; for a hundred miles along the north bank of the river, every tree and house was destroyed ; Newcastle and Douglastown, two thriving villages, numbers of vessels, and more than five hundred people were burnt that day, and those who survived lost all their means of subsistence in the ruin of their dwellings and farms. Their fellow-subjects of England and America sent them forty thousand pounds to relieve their distress. The tracts of country near the Mira- michi are very rich ; the interior, to the North- ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 321 west, is but little known. Along the navi- gable waters, the distriets then burnt are now re- settled and more prosperous than ever. The villages have been replaced by handsome towns, and nearly two hundred and fifty vessels sail each year from them to the English shores, laden with noble timber. There are numerous lakes and streams in the central parts of this province, with a great extent of rich land, as yet unsubdued by the labour of man. On the sea-board there are various deep and safe bays, stored with vast quantities of fish. St. John's, the largest town of the province, is well situated, and has some fine public buildings ; it is improving rapidly and contains about fifteen thousand people ; the harbour is very good, and the noble river of St. John, six hundred miles in length, flows by the walls, and is navigable up to Frede- rickton, the capital, ninety miles distant, through a beautiful and in many parts fertile country. Frederickton is built chiefly of wood, with the exception of the public buildings ; the population is about seven thousand, and they are very prosperous. There are several other improving towns in diffe- rent parts of the province. Here also mineral productions are in considerable quantity, coal and p 3 322 HOCHELAGA; OR, iron are abundant, and some copper has been found ; there are also numerous mineral springs of great value ; but all these natural advantages are as yet turned to but little account. The climate is much the same as that of Nova Scotia, but less foggy. The population of New Brunswick is about a hundred and sixty thousand ; they are tall and stalwart, hardy woodsmen and bold fishers, loval and faithful to the mother country. Their Colo- nial Government is like that of the other North American provinces, and like them their Parlia- ment has its violent internal political struggles. Within twenty years, the revenue has trebled ; the roads and other internal communications, and the education of the people, are now attracting due attention and receiving great improvement. This province formed a part of Nova Scotia till the year 1785, when Colonel Carleton was appointed its Governor as a separate administration. To his exemplary rule its progress in civilization is chiefly due; for twenty vears he devoted himself to its interests. The original settlers were nearly all men who had adhered to the royal cause in the rebel- lion of the United States, and to whom lands were given in this country : their high and loyal spirit has not weakened in their descendants. The most ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 323 anxious period of the history of this province was when the boundary between it and the American State of Maine was in dispute ; its inhabitants more than once came in contact with their repub- lican neighbours while cutting timber on the disputed territory. At length the difficult question was set at rest by the mission of Lord Ashburton, and the great struggle of principles between the two countries deferred to some other occasion. There was a furious excitement in the Northern States of America at this period (1842,) and a strong tide ran against any concession to England ; but the very politic step of sending out a Plenipo- tentiary of high rank, and connected in America, flattered the angry passions to rest. The best terms consistent with peace were then no doubt made for England, but it has not unjustly been called a " capitulation :" it was a yielding of strongly-grounded rights to the threat of war. It is well known that Lord Ashburton's settlement was at first indignantly rejected by the Eastern States of America. But their ablest man, perhaps the ablest Statesman America has ever produced, the present Senator for Massachusetts, Mr. Webster, whose head was clear from passion, and keen in the interests of his country, saw at a glance that a 324 HOCHELAGA. J OR, most advantageous offer had been made, and devoted his best powers to cause its acceptance. His difficulties were very great ; the men he had to deal with were the epitomes of the frantic and greedy mob, and for a considerable time he found them impracticable. Fortunately, however, during this delay, an old map of North America, formerly the property of Benjamin Franklin, was found : on this was marked the boundary settled in 1783, the close of the revolutionary war, with observations in his own handwriting. This gave the exact division claimed by the English ever since. Armed with this important document, he again addressed his refractory countrymen, shewing them the map, telling them that its contents would probably very soon transpire, and then they would be obliged to yield, in justice, the whole territory in dispute ; but, if they concluded the treaty on Lord Ashburton's offer, they would make a most advantageous bar- gain. This remonstrance was instantly successful ; the arrangement was agreed upon, and they had the gratification of knowing that, though the full extent of their claims was not allowed, they had at least been able to get more than then due, and to circumvent England in the transaction. ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 325 Although Mr. Webster displayed such consum- mate skill in this affair, and in a manner so congenial to the Yankee heart — strange to say, it has been among the sovereign millions a great element of unpopularity for him ; however, he is consoled by the estimation of his valuable services by the wealthy and enlightened of his fellow-citizens, who are very grateful to him, and shew their gratitude in a manner more solid than mere popularity. He gave his country a most advantageous peace instead of a devastating war. After leaving Halifax, we pass the island of Cape Breton. At present, with several other smaller islands, it forms part of the government of Nova Scotia, from which it is divided bv a narrow arm of the sea. Its surface is about two millions of acres. Sebastian Cabot discovered it in 1497, but it remained unnoticed till the beginning; of the eighteenth century, when a few French tishermen began to frequent its shores in summer, and in winter the fur-traders from Nova Scotia opened a small commerce with the Indians. In 1720, Louis XIV. of France colonized the island and erected strong fortifications at Louisbourg, on the south- east coast : the fisheries had become important, and these harbours were a great security to the 326 HOCHELAGA; OR, trade of the Canadian settlements. The Indians were friendly to the French, and assisted them in their wars with the English of Nova Scotia. In 1745, an expedition of the always brave, and then loyal, colonists of New England, number- ing four thousand men, under General William Pep- perall, besieged and took this stronghold of Louis- bourg in a very gallant manner ; ten years afterwards however, it was restored to the French by treaty. Again, in 1758, Admiral Boscawen and General Amherst retook it after some sharp fighting, and inflicted a severe injury on the French navy. On this occasion General Wolfe commanded a division, and shewed himself worthy of being chosen for the glories of Quebec. Soon after the capture, the fortifications were razed, and have never since been rebuilt. This island attracted but little attention till after the separation of the colonies from England, when some of the expatriated loyalists settled there. In this century, many hardy Scottish Highlanders have increased the population. The shape of Cape Breton is very singular ; the outer lines are nearly those of a triangle, but indented with many harbours and numerous inlets. A great arm of the sea, entering opposite to Newfoundland, nearly ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 327 divides it into two equal parts, and almost joins the narrow passage between this island and Nova Scotia. The neck of land separating these waters is not a mile broad, and will no doubt be cut through at no distant day, for the whole of this sea lake is navigable by large vessels, and this slight obstruction cannot long be allowed to check the free transit. Creeks and inlets from these central waters open up almost every nook in the island to the free access of shipping. There are also large fresh-water lakes, one, Lake Marguerite, twelve miles in diameter. Louisbourg has an admirable harbour, but the entrance is narrow ; its shores are now nearly- desolate, and flocks of sheep graze peacefully over the ruins of the stronghold so hardly won ; to this day may be seen, under the pure waters, the wrecks of the large French ships sunk in the struggle. Where the warlike and prosperous town once stood, are half a dozen huts, giving shelter to a few fishermen of French descent. The North and West districts arc the most fertile and thickly peopled, but their seaboard is bleak and dangerous. The various rocks and islands of the coasts of Cape Breton have been the cause of frequent and horrible disasters ; their full extent can never be ascertained, 328 HOCHELAGA ; OR, but it is known that, within thirty years, more than a hundred thousand tons of shipping, and two thousand human bodies, have strewn this stormy shore, from Sable island to the Gulf of St. Law- rence. Any one who has skirted these wild coasts in the dark and chilly winter nights, while the strong south-east wind rolls the waves of the great Atlantic against their rough barrier, cannot forget their terrors. In the north-eastern part of the island is a district of rich coal-beds, a hundred and twenty square miles in extent ; there is also a coal country in the west, but this last is not much known. In a small river flowing through an explored tract, the water is highly charged with gas ; women often make a small hole in the bank, fill it up with stones, and apply a light ; a blaze immediately springs up ; the water soon boils, and is available for their use in washing and other household pur- poses ; the fire would last for weeks, or months, if not extinguished. This phenomenon has only been observed since the opening of a large mine, whose outburst of water flowed into the river. The island produces a vast quantity of valuable gypsum, ot which the people of the United States purchase ship-loads every year. Nature has also supplied ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 329 abundant salt springs, and there is coal close at hand to complete their usefulness for the inexhaust- ible fisheries of the coast. Copper, iron, and lead are found in variety and plenty. The soil, except on the banks of the lakes and rivers, is light and poor, but a great extent of it is capable of cultiva- tion; the climate resembles that of Nova Scotia. Remains of animals of a great size have been found in the earth; when the country was first settled moose and cariboo-deer were very numerous, but they have shared the fate of the Indians, and are now as rare as they ; only about three hundred of the Mic-Macs remain there at this day. The population is about thirty-six thousand ; they export provisions to Newfoundland, and fish, timber, coal, and gypsum to other countries ; their little trade increases rapidly. Sydney, the capital of the island, is near the entrance of the " Bras d'Or," or great central arm of the sea, built on ;i small promontory, and has a good harbour. The people of Cape Breton are a simple, honest, and virtuous race, well affected to Great Britain, but not so far advanced in social progress as their western neighbours. Schools arc now spreading over the country, and as wealthy and adventurous people become better acquainted with the great 330 HOCHELAGA; OR, resources of the island, the general prosperity increases. Prince Edward's Island lies in a great bay in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, formed by the northern outline of the three districts I have last spoken of. It is a hundred and forty miles in length, and thirty-four in breadth in the widest part. Northumberland Strait, in some places only nine miles wide, separates it from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The area of the island is about two thousand square miles. The features of this country are softer than those of its neighbours ; there are no mountains, but gentle and fertile undulations, clothed to the water's edge with valu- able woods and rich verdure. The north shore is very beautiful ; many cheerful villages and green clearings, with small lakes, shady harbours, and numerous streams, diversify its scenery. In the course of ages, the vast flood of the River St. Law- rence has worked indentations into every part of the coast : there is not a spot of this district more than seven or eight miles distant from some arm of the sea; many of these afford shelter to large ships, driven by stress of weather into its crescent- shaped shore, while all are deep enough for the small vessels used in the coasting trade. ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 331 On the south-east of the island stands Char- lottetown, the capital, at the confluence of three rivers, at the end of Hillsborough Bay. This is an excellent and well-defended harbour : the town is, as yet, but small ; it contains the public buildings of the island. The neighbourhood only yields to Quebec in beauty among the scenes of British North America. Its shores are soft, and partly cleared ; the rivers wind gracefully through forests of varied foliage ; life is given to the picture by the cheerful town ; grandeur and variety by the blue and lofty mountains of Nova Scotia in the dis- tance. This island was also discovered by Sebastian Cabot in 1497. The French first used it as a fishing station, and began to colonize it about the beginning of the eighteenth century. These settlers took part vigorously against the English in their endless wars in those countries. When the con- querors of Louisburg took possession of this island of St. John, as it was then called, they found a number of their countrymen's scalps in the French Governor's house. At the end of the last century some Scottish emigrants found their way hither, and most of the present inhabitants are their descendants. The late Duke of Kent, when Go- 332 HOCHELAGA ; OR, vernor of Nova Scotia, paid great attention to this island ; since his time it has improved very much, and its name, in honour of him, was changed to Prince Edward's Island. The land is admirably adapted for pastoral and agricultural purposes, but is denied the mineral wealth of the neighbouring districts : sixty thou- sand people are scattered over its surface; ten times the number would find abundant room and support. There are about eighty schools, and a proportionate number of churches. A Governor is appointed by the English crown, and the internal government is the same as in the sister colonies. Two or three newspapers are published in the island, and it is not without its mustard-pot storms of politics. The fisheries of these shores are of great value, but little advantage is taken of this resource. Many ships are built on the island, and sold to the neighbouring colonies, but year by year its increasing trade requires a greater number for its own uses. Prince Edward's Island is more favoured in climate than any other part of North America : it has neither the extremes of heat and cold of Canada, nor the fogs of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton ; fevers and consumption are almost unknown ; the air is dry and bracing ; the sickly ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 333 and weak, under its salubrious influence, soon become healthy and robust : and the age of five score years is often reached in vigour of mind and body. This happy country furnishes plenty, but not wealth : the people are hospitable, moral, and contented. There is in this Western World yet another re- gion, of vast size, belonging to the British crown ; it extends from the Labrador Coast to the Pacific, four thousand miles from east to west, and from Canada to the North Pole. In its untrodden solitudes, and among the eternal snows of its mountains, lie the mysterious sources of those vast rivers which intersect the plains of the Northern Continent. This dreary tract is called the Hud- son's Bay Territory. A ridge of mountains runs some degrees to the north of, and parallel to the St. Lawrence River, as far as the sources of the Ottawa ; there it bends away to the north- west, till, above Lake Superior, it again inclines to the south, sending out a branch to the unknown regions of the north-west. About three thousand miles from the eastern shores of the continent, these branches meet the great line of the Rocky Mountains, running from north to south. Num- bers of large rivers flow from these ranges, some 334 HOCHELAGA ; OR, to the Gulf of Mexico, others into the Pacific ; some into the Great Lakes and the St. Law- rence, others into Hudson's Bay and the frozen oceans of the North. These mountains are nearly five hundred miles in breadth ; to the east lies a marshy country where coal abounds; next to this are immense plains or prairies ; and, still further east, a desert of rocks and sand, lakes and rivers, stretches away to an unknown distance. On the north, this dreary, trackless waste extends to the frozen seas. On the south-west of the ' Barren Land' are the Great Bear and Slave Lakes, nearly as large as Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. The southern shores are rich and level, the waters dotted with islands, which are covered with dark woods, and well stocked with Indian deer. The Lake Athabasca, lying north- west of these, is of great length but very narrow ; the hardy adventurers who have reached its distant shores, describe them to be of great beauty ; two other extensive sheets of fresh water communicate with it. In this neighbourhood, and between it and the great lakes of the St. Lawrence, are many fertile plains, fit for the habitations of mil- lions of civilized men. Again, Lake Winnipeg fills up a portion of ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 335 the remaining space towards the source of the St. Lawrence ; its length is two-hundred and forty miles ; the breadth varies from ten to fifty. A portion of its waters flows into Lake Superior, through the Lake of the Woods ; the greater part, however, falls to the north-west, by large rivers, but little known, leading to Hudson's Bay. In all these vast lakes the northern shores are rocky, abrupt and barren, the southern, rich and level, as though the alluvial deposits of some great flood, flowing from the north-west to the south-east for many ages, had poured their riches upon them. The rivers which flow through this region are but little explored, and but imperfect knowledge is yet obtained of their size and capabilities ; how- ever, several of those falling into Hudson's Bay have been traced for more than two thousand miles, but their extreme sources man has not yet reached. In speaking of the Pacific coast of the Hudson's Bay Territory, we shall pass over that already de- scribed under the head of Oregon. The districts further north are called New Georgia, facing Van- couver's Island, or Nootka, the more familiar name. Hen; some mountains rise to a great 336 HOCKELAGA; OR, height, white with eternal snows ; but the plains and valleys are fertile, and dotted with rich woods. Clear brooks wander among these undulations, and an exuberant vegetation shews the wealth of the soil, and the mildness of the climate ; all the trees of Europe flourish here, and grow to an enormous size. Winter spares the western coasts of the American continent ; the soft breezes of the Pacific temper its severity. For three hundred more miles of seaboard to the north, the country is called New Hanover; its general characteristics are like those of the district last described, but rather more severe. New Cornwall extends thence to the Russian posses- sions : the climate and the productions show the approach to the Pole, but near the sea, the forests are still luxuriant. Many hot springs are here observed among the rocky hills. The numerous islands along the coast are covered with lofty pines, and have a comparatively mild climate up to the Straits which separate the Old World from the New. Many mountainous islands, of rare and beautiful rock, form almost a connecting chain be- tween the two promontories of Kamschatka and Alasca; some of these spout up volcanic fires, others are bound in perpetual ice. ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 337 From Behrings' Straits along to the north-east are numerous other large and dreary islands, some nearly of the extent of Ireland, but the snow, and rank, poor grasses, are their only covering : beyond them is the bound of human enterprize. The northern shore of Hudson's Bay is the land of desolation ; lofty mountains of shattered rock, covered with ice which the sun has never con- quered ; valleys where the deep drifts of snow have hidden their slopes since the flood. In a few favoured spots, during the brief and fiery summer, some stunted pines and coarse moss shew that Nature is not dead, but sleeping. Lakes, swamps, and eternal solitudes, cover the interior. On the south-western shore are many symptoms of recent volcanic action : there are great seams of coal, iron, and copper. On the south shore, potatoes and other vegetables have been produced, and corn would, probably, succeed, but has not yet been tried. Further in the interior, the productions are those of a milder climate than that of Lower Canada. On the coasts of the bay the winter is awful in its severity, and for six months all nature is imprisoned in ice and snow : at some of the settlements of the fur-traders, the thermometer in January is often down to fifty degrees below zero, the rivers and VOL. II. Q 338 hochelaga; or, lakes are frozen to the bottom ; and even in the rooms inhabited by the traders, spirits have been known to freeze into a solid mass. When the withering north wind blows, it is almost beyond the power of man to bear it. The particles of ice borne on its frozen breath, are driven like poisoned arrows into the flesh, and cover it with sores Notwithstanding their warm fur clothing and careful habits, the Europeans are often frost-bitten in these awful winters : the wretched natives frequently perish. Rocks are rent by the grasp of the frost, and, with a crash like the roar of artillery, burst into fragments, scattered to a great distance round. Often, for many days the sun is hidden by dense masses of vapour, rising from the sea, and condensed by the cold on the coasts. In the severest times, false suns and moons throw their chill and ghastly glare over the white waste ; and, from the inacces- sible regions of the Pole, livid flashes illumine the dark skies with a sinister and mysterious light. For the three months of summer a more than tropical heat opens this dreary wilderness to the fearless sailors of England, but squalls and currents of terrible violence are to be braved in reaching it. Borne by the tides and winds, huge icebergs glide among these perilous seas, sometimes crushing the ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 339 largest ships like nut-shells : in one month of one year, April, 1825, twenty-five vessels were lost in Melville Bay. Three distinct native races are condemned to inhabit this dismal country. All are on very friendly terms with the servants of the Hudson's Bay Company. They are expert in the chase, and gifted with wonderful endurance ; their manners are mild and kind, and they are faithful when any trust is reposed in them ; but when the accursed fire-water is within their reach, no tiger is more fierce and blood-thirsty. Very little can be said in favour of their moral character, and they, too, are rapidly diminishing in number. The race sinks lower in the scale of humanity as they spread towards the north and east : there they hunt with the bow and arrow, and fish with nets made of thongs from the skins of beasts ; many eat their food raw, others seethe it in birch bark vessels, filled with water heated by hot stones. They are filthy and disgusting in their habits ; their horses and other domesticated brutes eat animal food ; grass and herbage, even in the summer, being very scanty. These Indians leave their dead to the carrion birds and to the wild beasts of the hills. When old acre Q 2 340 HOCHELAGA; OR, comes on, and they are helpless, their fate is to lie down and perish; neither child nor friend will minister to their wants. In nearly all qualities of mind and body, they are a mean and wretched people. The Esquimaux dwell further to the north, and from time immemorial have warred against these Indians, who are stronger, and treat them with great barbarity : these are a feeble and timorous race, inhabiting chiefly the islands and peninsulas, where they think themselves more safe from their dangerous neighbours. Of late years the English have made peace between them ; but the Esquimaux do not yet dare to venture near the trading factories. In the summer a sloop visits their coast, and receives their furs in exchange for European goods. They are of a low and unsightly figure ; their weapons clumsy and ineffi- cient, but much ingenuity is displayed in some of their attempts at ornament. In winter they wander from lake to river, cutting holes in the ice, catching fish and eating it raw: their huts are low and wretched, covered with the skins of deer. Various tribes of these Esquimaux are scattered through this vast northern region, and along the shores of the Polar sea. The moose, rein-deer, the buffalo, the bear, and many other animals, are here to be ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 341 found, with nearly every bird which we have in England. Whales and seals frequent the neighbour- ing waters in great numbers, with salmon, capelines, and many other dainty fish : in winter they seek some milder climate, and leave the wretched inha- bitants to starvation. Stores are laid in against these times of famine, and some of the coarse herbage assists in the support of life. The first European that reached these seas was Henry Hudson, sent out in 1610, by the Russia Company, to seek the north-west passage. His crew mutinied, and left him, his son, and some others, to perish on the desolate shores. The same company sent out several other trading expeditions to these countries, and finally, in 1669, received a royal charter, giving them the exclusive privilege of commerce and settlements in the whole of the coasts and districts within Hudson's Straits. They retain these rights up to the present day, employing a great quantity of shipping, and a number of ad- venturous men, who hunt among these vast plains and forests, and barter English goods with the tribes of the interior for their portion of the spoils of the chase. In the middle of the last century, two or three expeditions were sent to Hudson's Bay by the 342 HOCHELAGA; OR, English government, but no important information was obtained ; and of late years we have all heard of the gallant, but hitherto unsuccessful attempts to discover the north-west passage, made under the royal authority. The few settlements or factories round Hudson's Bay are at the mouths of rivers, and well fortified : they are Forts Churchill, York, Albany, and Moose ; there are other smaller settlements in the interior, on the great rivers. After the French were driven from Canada, a rival company was established to trade with the Indians from Mont- real, called the North West Company. They entered these regions by the great Canadian lakes, built numerous forts near those of their older rival, invading their chartered rights. For a great part of a century they were almost at open war ; several collisions took place between their people, and in one of these twenty-three lives were lost. Lately the interests of these ancient rivals have been joined, to the great advantage of both ; and they are now so powerful a body as to defy all chance of successful competition. To their establishments in the Oregon Territory is due the superior strength of the English power in those districts. Nearly all the Indian tribes are friendly and obedient to them, ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 343 and as ready to defend them in war, as to serve them in peace. The British possessions, lying to the north and west of Canada, contain three million, seven hun- dred thousand square miles of land — a greater extent than the whole of the United States. Vast though it be, only a small part of this dominion can be inhabited by civilized man : from the remainder, the Desert and the Polar snows shut him out for ever. To the west, along the favoured shores of the Pacific, millions upon millions of the human race could find abundant sustenance. 344 HOCHELAGA; OR, CHAPTER XIV. CONCLUSION. Upon the possession of Quebec and Canada, depends that of the vast territory of Hudson's Bay. The Lower Provinces, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and the Islands, will probably be the last strongholds of England's power in the West. Till her naval superiority is lost, they are secure. It has lately been proposed by many loyal and enterprizing men, to connect the whole of British America by a railroad ; from Halifax to Quebec, thence, by Montreal, Kingston, and To- ronto, to Amherstburg and the Far West. The latter part of the extension is not so very import- ant at present: for, beyond London, the scanty population cannot claim more convenient means of transit than the great lakes afford. But the line from Halifax to Quebec is absolutely essential to ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 345 the future possession of Canada. During the six months' winter, that colony would be thus kept open to the assistance of British troops ; and, at no very distant time, perhaps, this may be a mat- ter of importance. Any amount of force can be poured into the harbour of Halifax, and, in a couple of days they could man the ramparts of Quebec. With the few troops at present in Canada, a sudden winter irruption into the country by our republican neighbours, could only be met at a great disad- vantage ; before the opening navigation allowed fleets to ascend the St. Lawrence, infinite mischief might have been done, and the few gallant regi- ments crushed in disastrous defeat ; but a great artery by which the vigour of England could flow with rapid throb into the frozen heart of Canada, would, in a military point of view, secure the " Brightest jewel in the British Crown" from the rude grasp of its rapacious neighbour. In the spring of the year 1847, by canals and the St. Lawrence, the great lakes will be opened to the ocean fleets of England ; thenceforth our sovereignty of their waters will be complete, and the war-steamers lying at Portsmouth or Woolwich can in a month open their thunders among the rocks of the Far West. Such is the importance of free communication in q 3 346 HOCHELAGA ; OR, winter and summer along the course of the St. Law- rence, that upon it hinges the question whether Canada will stand or fall. But there are moral and commercial objects quite as valuable, to be gained by this great work. It will strengthen the intimacy between this splendid colony and the seat of govern- ment ; the emigrant from home, and the produce from the west, will then pass through British waters and over British territories only, without enriching the coffers of a foreign State. The Americans, with their great mercantile astuteness, are making every effort to divert the trade of Canada into their chan- nels, and to make us in every way dependent on them for our communications. The Drawback Bill, by which the Custom's Duties on foreign goods are refunded on their passing on into our provinces, has already been attended with great success in obtaining for them a portion of our carrying trade, especially during the winter, when our great high- way of the St. Lawrence is closed. A numerous population would soon spring up on the line of the railway, a great extent of fertile land be brought under cultivation ; cheerful and prosperous settlements would replace the lonely forests on the southern shore of the St. Lawrence, while to the hundred thousand people who already ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 347 dwell there, would be given the incalculable advan- tages of a market, and ready communication with the more highly civilized and enlightened inhabi- tants of the towns. The mail-bags and passen- gers would reach Quebec from London in eleven days ; a greater identity of feeling would be estab- lished between the colony and the mother coun- try. I am certain that it would do more to secure the connection between the two than an army of twenty thousand men, and in ten years give an impulse of half a century's prosperity to Canada. The cost of the undertaking will be considerable — far beyond the reach of private enterprise in the colonies — three millions of money to complete it to Quebec. It is impossible th t it can be done with- out effectual aid from the Imperial Government : the local legislatures are disposed to make efforts for its accomplishment, but they will not be suffi- cient ; besides, it is obviously the duty and interest of the whole empire to assist it. The prospect, as a matter of more immediate return of profits, is very good ; a portion of land by the line of travel will of course be granted to the company, which, by the ready means of communication, will become instantly of. great value, and repay a large share of the expenses of construction. 348 HOCHELAGA ; OR, The engineering difficulties are very slight, but little greater than those to be overcome in the great military road which has been already surveyed by order of the Home Authorities. Surely the sum set apart for this latter work and some in addi- tion, may well be loaned for this infinitely more useful object ; one, both in peace and war, of such vast and vital interest. Of the importance to England of the Canadian provinces I have already spoken ; would that I could speak in a voice of thunder, to reach the ears of all our British people ! They should, indeed, prove the staff of England's old age, and the strong- hold of national liberty in the New World. Sin- cerely do I hope that this certain means of increas- ing our mutual dependence and good-will, may be heartily adopted. A number of gentlemen in these colonies have taken up the scheme in the best and noblest spirit ; as far as their powers go, they will contribute to its advancement. They have origi- nated it ; many of them have already made sacri- fices in the cause; they hold out no exaggerated and over-tempting inducements, no promise of im- possible profits, no hope of immediate return: they naturally seek and expect a reasonable return ; ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 349 it could not be supposed they would sacrifice alto- gether their own interests ; but, loyal to the Crown, faithful to England, and true to their native soil, their high and honest patriotism is a motive of action stronger than the mere vulgar thirst of gain. England should cherish these sentiments, and hold out the liberal hand of aid and encouragement to such men, engaged in such a work. On the co- operation of England all will depend — without her help, the plan is impracticable. The capabilities of the maritime provinces deserve deep attention. These contain a surface of forty- eight thousand square miles — more than half that of the British islands : and are able to maintain on the produce of their soil a population of six millions. The climate is highly favourable to health, and to the growth of nearly every tree and vegetable of the mother country. The harbours and internal water-communications are far more convenient by nature than those of any other country in the world. Numbers of rapid streams supply power a hundred times greater than the mills of Manchester; the mineral wealth in some districts equals that of Staffordshire and Durham ; great forests of mag- nificent timber supply the materials for buildings, machinery, and for ships to bear the commerce 350 HOCHELAGA ; OR, to distant lands; the riches of the coast fish- eries are another element of prosperity. They are, besides this, highly favoured in their posi- tion; between the old countries of Europe, and the new but maturer States of the American Union, the great and rising districts of the valley of the St. Lawrence, the frozen regions of Hudson's Bay, and the dreary shores of La- brador — rich in furs and oil — and the beautiful but pestilential islands of the Caribbean Sea, with their abundant tropical productions. The inhabitants too, of that race whose destiny seems indeed a wide dominion, whose step of conquest — whether with sword or plough, whether against the feeble millions of China, or the warlike tribes of Northern India, the rich prairies along the West- ern Lakes, or the fertile regions of Southern Africa, the vast continent of Australia or the delightful islands of the South Seas — presses on with irresistible force. This people start as it were into political life with the sober experience of centuries of freedom, with education widely diffused, the church esta- blished as an anchor of religious faith, and yet with a perfect freedom of opinion and a generous toler- ance : governed by the inestimable institutions and ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 351 laws which the experience of our favoured land has proved to be so well suited to her sons; their numbers rapidly recruited from the adventurous and energetic spirits of our population, their early efforts nursed by the wealth and commerce of the older country, they must occupy an important place in the future history of the world. Perhaps, at no very distant time — but long after he who now writes, and he who reads, shall have passed way — a great and industrious people will fill these lands. Cape Breton will be the seat of manufac- tures ; where its dark forests now hide the deep veins of coal and iron, will rise the Birminghams and Wolverhamptons of the New World, and the waters of the " Golden Arm" be ploughed by steamers as numerous as those of the Mersey at this day. The rich interval of New Brunswick will supply abundant corn for the use of this popula- tion, and the soft pastoral undulations of Prince Edward's Island yield them plentifully, sheep and cattle. The coal mines of Nova Scotia afford it a similar prospect, and railways will develop the varied resources of its mineral and agricultural wealth. The inexhaustible supplies of fish from its waters, will be borne into the interior to add to jt> luxuy and wealth; and thence, grain and 352 hochelaga; or, manufactures to the fishers and traders of the coast. Steamers will pry into every nook and bay along the shores, and from their vivifying touch pros- perous towns will spring up on each accessible point. As the forest falls before the axe, and the labour of man dries up the morasses and tills the wastes of the interior, the heavens will reflect the softened face of the earth, the frosts of winter relax their iron hold, and the gloomy curtains of the mist rise for ever from off the rocky shore. These are no vague speculations, no mere pro- babilities, they are as certain as any human prospect can be. The experience of two hundred years in British colonization not ranging as much as the crops of different seasons, the general progress is reduced to an absolute certainty. In a particular ratio the populations have increased, from the' first men who trod these western shores to the millions of to-day. The general proportion of increase in these lower provinces since any census has been obtained, is that of doubling in twenty-five years ; by this rate — to which there is scarcely an excep- tion on the American Continent — in a hundred years they will contain more than six millions of souls. It is therefore of vast moment now to the Christian, the philanthropist, and the politician, ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 353 to guard the infancy of such a people, to watch with paternal care the development of national character, to foster feelings of affection and respect for their mother country, to observe with untiring eye the progress of religion and education. There is no doubt or anxiety with respect to the progress to be made by these provinces in material prosperity ; as certainly as years roll on they will become rich and populous. But on the events of the present day their moral progress must mainly depend. England is never backward in the cause of Christianity and enlightenment, but sometimes perhaps, injudicious in her exertions. The noble courage and uncomplaining devotion of many of her sons among the dark and hopeless millions of the heathen, must ever be a source of pride, and a high example; but, had half these sacrifices been made in the wilds of North America, to retain the distant settlers in the faith and habits of their fathers, the result would have been infinitely more important. 1 am rejoiced to say that lately much has been done, suid that much more is doing ; that the " Spirit of the Age" now influencing the brightest minds and warmest hearts in Church and State — no matter by what nickname it may be called — purifies the 354 HOCHELAGA; OR, blood which throbs in the heart of England's empire, and already the vigorous and healthy cur- rent reaches the most distant and the most humble portion of her wide dominions. The Church of England is at present that of only one-fourth of the population of these pro- vinces, but by far the most enlightened and wealthy portion of the community belong to it, and it is the established church. Of late years, the class of men obtaining orders is very much improved, and their supply better adapted to the necessities of the congregations. The Bishop of Nova Scotia, who resides at Halifax, exercises ecclesiastical jurisdic- tion over them all except New Brunswick, which has one of its own. The Scottish Communion has the greatest number of members ; the Roman Catholics are about the seventh part of the popu- lation. A voyage across the Atlantic in the autumn, on board a steamer, does not afford much variety of incident. Our prospect of pleasant society was spoiled by the effect of the sea, calm though it was, upon the health of some of our fellow-passen- gers. The first week was intensely dull, a little ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 355 concert on the deck, and a rubber of whist, our only resources ; there were indeed a few books, but of course they were not those we wanted, and besides in no place is one so idle as on board a packet- ship. There is always some little interruption, some slight rut in the smooth road of monotony, to disturb the attention, and to prevent you from sitting down quietly to read. One morning, earlier than the usual time of rising, the steward awakened us with the news that icebergs were close at hand. This was charming intelligence, for so late in the season they are but rarely met with ; we were all soon on deck, and for a worthy object. One w T as a grand fellow, with two great domes, each as large as that of St. Paul's; the lower part was like frosted silver. Where the heat of the sun had melted the surface, and it had frozen again, in its gradual decay it had assumed all sorts of angular and fan- tastic shapes, reflecting from its green, transparent mass thousands of prismatic colours ; while, below, the gentle swell dallied with its cliff-like sides. The action of the waves had worn away a great portion of the base over the water, into deep nooks and caves, destroying the balance of the mass; while we were passing, the crisis of this tedious process 356 HOCHELAGA; OR, chanced to arrive ; the huge white rock tottered for a moment, then fell into the calm sea, with a sound like the roar of a thousand cannon; the spray rose to a great height into the ah', and large waves rolled round, spreading their wide s circles over the ocean, each ring diminishing till at length they sank to rest. When the spray had fallen again, the glittering domes had vanished, and a long, low island of rough snow and ice lay on the surface of the water. There is something impressive and dismal in the fate of these cold and lonely wanderers of the deep. They break loose, by some great effort of nature, from the shores and rivers of the unknown regions of the north, where, for centuries perhaps, they have been accumulating, and commence their dreary voyage, which has no end but in annihila- tion. For years they may wander in the Polar Sea, till some strong gale or current bears them past its iron limits ; then, by the predominance of winds and waters to the south, they float past the desolate coasts of Newfoundland. Already the summer sun makes sad havoc in their strength, melting their lofty heights ; but each night's frost binds up what is left, and still on, on, glides the great mass, slowly, solemnly. You cannot perceive that ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 357 it stirs, the greatest storm does not rock it, the keenest eye cannot discover a motion, but, moment by moment, day by day, it passes to the south, where it wastes away and vanishes at last. In June and July they are most numerous in these seas, and there is often much danger from their neighbourhood in the dark moonless nights ; but the thermometer, if consulted, will always indicate their approach ; it fell eight degrees when we neared the iceberg which I have now described, and the cold was sensibly felt. As the vessel became lighter, from the consump- tion of the coal, her speed increased, till we gained nearly three hundred miles a day. In an incredibly short time we had a view of the blue mountains of Ireland. There are few people in these days of general travel who have not enjoyed at some period of their lives the rapture of the first sight of the British Isles, after a long absence from their beloved shores ; in that distant view the picture is filled up with happy memories and joyful anticipa- tions. As you approach nearer and the hills and valleys are distinguished, with their dark groves and rich verdure, the ruined town, the humble cottage, the peaceful village, and the tall spire 358 HOCHELAGA ; OR, " pointing up to Heaven ;" the days of absence seem but a moment, and the recollection of parting grief yields to the joyful hope of the approaching meeting. It was announced to us that the next morning we should be at Liverpool. On the concluding day of the voyage it is usual to prolong the dinner hour beyond the ordinary time ; a quantity of wine is put upon the table, and the gifted in song and eloquence edify the company by the exercise of their powers. The sea, by this time, has lost its horrors to even the most tender susceptibilities ; every one is in high good-humour and excitement at the prospect of a speedy release from their con- finement, and it is generally made the occasion of great rejoicing. Very flattering things are said of the qualities of the ship and the skill and virtues of the captain, and of the vast advantages of such speedy communication between the two greatest nations in the world — which is always a highly popular observation. Then the captain " is quite at a loss for words to express the deep sense he entertains of the honour conferred on himself and his ship by the gentleman who has just now so eloquently spoken." As soon as these agreeable subjects are exhausted, ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 359 the passengers find it agreeable to walk on the deck a little and cool their heads, heated with champagne and eloquence At this unfortunate time, on the occasion I speak of, the negro Abolition preacher made his appear- ance on the quarter-deck and commenced a lecture on the evils of slavery, and the stain fixed by it on the character of the United States, using no measured terms of condemnation of the free and enlightened community. A large circle of his supporters gathered round him to hear his speech, those who differed from him also listened with great patience for some time, when, I must say, he became very abusive to Americans in general, trusting to being countenanced by a majority of the audience. A New Orleans man, the master of a ship in the China trade, and who had been, during the greater part of the voyage, and was more particu- larly on this occasion, very much intoxicated, poked himself into the circle, walked up to the speaker with his hands in his pockets and a " quid " of tobacco in his mouth, looked at him steadily for a minute, and then said, " I guess you're a liar." The negro replied with something equally com- plimentary, and a loud altercation ensued between them. Two of the gentlemen in the circle stood 360 HDCHELAGA; OR, forth at the same time to restore order, both begin- ning very mildly, but unfortunately suggesting different means of accomplishing the desired object. After a few words had passed between them, they became a little heated, matters quickly grew worse, and in two minutes they were applying terms to each other quite as equivocal as those used by the Chinaman and Negro. Mutual friends interfered, who immediately got up quarrels on their own account ; and, in a shorter time than I have taken to describe it, the whole party — who had but half an hour before been drinking mutual good healths, and making all sorts of complimentary speeches, were scattered into a dozen stormy groups on the deck. In the centre of each, stood two or three enraged disputants, with their fists almost in each other's faces ; while threats and curses were poured forth in all directions — " I'm an Englishman, I won't stand this." " I'm an American, I won't stand that !" — the English siding with the Negro, the Americans with the Chinaman. In the mean time, this demon of discord had vanished, and we saw or heard no more of him or his lectures. For at least an hour the dire tumult lasted ; luckily, the better class of the passengers of both countries, ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 361 and the military officers on board, kept clear of the squabble, and finally their good offices lulled the tempest, and separated the contending parties. All the rest of the night was however passed in explanations and excitement. One very short man, of an immense rotundity of person, kept vehemently " guessing" that, if it had not been for some untimely interference of two of his friends, he would certainly have knocked down a broad- shouldered, good-humoured Englishman, about six feet high, who was standing by with his hands in his pockets, chuckling with the most unfeigned delight. ^Ye landed early the next morning, and all the men of angry passions were scattered about in an hour, perhaps never to meet again. This was alto- gether a disgraceful affair ; the quarter-deck, of a public packet-ship should never have been used for the purpose of attacking the institutions of a country to which so many of the passengers be- longed, no matter what opinion, as to these insti- tutions, people may entertain. I am convinced that, but for the certainty of being immediately amenable to English law, it would have been the occasion of great violence, ilnot loss of life. The affair was a goo ! deal remarked upon in the VOL. II. R 362 HOCHELAGA ; OR, American papers subsequently, and, as far as it went, had an injurious and exasperating effect. It never, to my knowledge, was noticed by the English press. I understand that strict orders have been issued by the steam-packet company to prevent the possible recurrence of such an affair. We had an excellent passage, and very good reason to be satisfied with the ship and all the arrangements on board ; but I must protest against the exorbitant price charged. In winter, the passage to America is forty pounds ; at that season it is a monopoly, no other steamers cross, and the outward voyages of the " Liners " or sailing ships, are very uncertain ; these mail-boats are conse- quently well filled each time. The English govern- ment pay ninety-five thousand pounds a year for the carriage of the mails ; and, as the Great Western can convey passengers at four-fifths of the cost, without this assistance, the profits of the Mail Steam-packet company must be enormous. The Americans are of course highly indignant at these charges, and their government have already con- tracted for the building of steam-packets to run in opposition. I should be sorry to be of the least annoyance to the company by these remarks, for they deserve every credit for the speed and safety ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 363 of their vessels, and there is no just cause of com- plaint against the accommodation, or the fare on board. At the same time I consider the charges an abuse, and take this means of pointing it out to the notice of that small portion of the public who may chance to see this book. I landed on English soil. I have no more to say about what I have seen or heard in my travels, but I have endless subjects for thought, and am fully impressed with the importance of the Future in the land which I have just left. I went thither in ignorance and indifference, but return with an undying interest, and with a knowledge — imper- fect though it may be — forced upon me by the scenes through which I have passed. Were it not for the noble stake we still hold in the destinies of the New World, I confess that my impression would be undivided anxiety. The progress is astounding, the geometric ratio of increase of wealth and num- bers of this young people startles me by its enormous results. In a very few years they will exceed the population of the British islands ; we cannot conceal from ourselves that in many of the most important points of national capabilities they beat us ; they are more energetic, more enterprising, less embarrassed with class interests, less burthened by the legacy of r 2 364 HOCHELAGA; OR, debt. This country, as a field for increase of power, is in every respect so infinitely beyond ours that comparison would be absurd. Their varieties of production, exuberant soil, extraordinary facilities of internal communication, their stimulating climate, the nature of their population, recruited constantly from the most stirring, though perhaps the least virtuous members of our community, their institu- tions, acting with steam-engine power in driving them — all these qualifications combine to promise them, a few years hence, a degree of strength which may endanger the existing state of things in the world. They only w r ait for matured power, to apply the incendiary torch of republicanism to the nations of Europe. No one can deny that their specious promises of equality, backed by the example of the prosperity and independence of the masses on their own fertile soil, will have a most disquieting effect upon the minds of the lower classes in the old monarchies. Who can say but that they may lead to results so terrible that the French Revolution will be forgotten in the history which is to come ? A member of the House of Representatives of the United States, brought forward a motion, this year of i 846, to request that the President would take steps to relieve the suffering people of Ireland from the ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 365 pressure of British tyranny, and bestow on them the inestimable benefit of American institutions. His motion, it is true, was not entertained, but no one rebuked him for it. It is impossible to doubt their intention of obtaining complete dominion over the North American Continent : in a State paper addressed by Mr. Buchanan, the American Secre- tary of State, to Mr. Pakenham, the English minis- ter, in reference to Oregon, this paragraph appears — "To England, a few years hence, in the natural course of events, it will be of but little importance." A large proportion of their press advocates this system of universal spoliation. Kings and nobles, the law and constitutions of Europe, are perpetually held up to the people as objects of hatred and contempt. They sum up all the darkest feelings of the human mind, place them in a mean and feeble body, actuate it by low, selfish, and sensual motives, and, when the picture is complete, they place a crown or coronet upon the head. But too often, even the pulpit is made a means of spreading these ideas. With a more than Jesuitical perseverance, all this is instilled into the minds of their youth : their spelling-books, their histories, the press and th< pulpit, confirm these impressions, and the young American is ready to go forth to the world to 366 HOCHELAGA; OR, spread his political faith with fire and sword. It is impossible to give a full idea of the manner in which history — ay and the interpretation of the Bible itself — is perverted, for the sake of biassing the tone of feeling in the young. Not only do they indulge in the most bombastic and extrava- gant praises of the civil and military achievements of their fellow-countrymen, but in the greatest depreciation of every other people. You will find this in every publication, from the halfpenny news- paper to the grave history. Were an English boy to receive his first impres- sions from these sources, he could not think of his country without horror; such records of tyranny, cowardice, treachery, and dishonesty were never before accumulated against a single people. At first, these extravagances are rather amusing to an English traveller ; but after a while, when they are kept continually in his ears and eyes, they become irritating and obnoxious ; for he cannot but see that they influence the American mind, and pro- duce in the lower and governing class an undis- guised hatred and contempt for England. The intelligent and wealthy people of the community will tell you that this sort of thing is mere flourish on the part of their countrymen, that they do not ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD. 367 mean what they say, that it is but a habit of speaking. But the habit of speaking becomes a habit of thinking, and thinking, sooner or later will become acting. For many years to come there is but little to dread from the open aggressive efforts of America : any long continued exertion or sacrifice is next to impossible, under their present constitution. The short but soiled records of their national existence, show them rushing into war against their kindred people, as soon as a favourable opportunity of in- suring them appeared to arrive ; but, when they felt its harassing results, they rushed out of it again, without the grace of having gained a single point which they contended for, and having wretchedly failed in their attempts upon a remote, and at first almost unassisted colony — their capital taken, their commerce destroyed, and the stability of their Federal Union threatened. The stern lesson has had its effect for thirty years, but, unfortunately for the interests of humanity, it seems by this time well-nigh forgotten. Now we part, kind reader. May sorrow be a stranger to your blessed English home! These pages have been an occupation and inte- rest to mc during many dark days. They were 36S HOCHELAGA. written when a shadow was upon me, in a lonely room, thousands of miles away. In brighter times, to come, they may be a source of pleasure to me, if I find that you were not wearied with my by-gone tales of Hochelaga, or imperfect sketch of England in the New World. THE END. i\ LONDON: Printed by Schuhe and Co., 13, Poland Street. . SOUTHERN RegToL / Cal ^rnia 305 De Neve DnVe '° a ?w AL L ' BRA *V FAC.L/TY UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY AA 000 535 541 9#W a K s *>V58to/w A^, a h\S n ■-' »<=»>' ■ ^ - ■"■ «•''*! *%$. •kfiltiL ?\?/\ftf\/\ti/\ ' v ^ ^ f^^^^^^^l .^ /\ /^ JL /., ^ . University Southerni Library 'V >*£fi£jS£\