YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY AMERICA AND HER COMMENTATORS WITH A CRITICAL SKETCH OF TRAVEL IN THE UNITED STATES. BY HENRY T. TUCKERMAN. Here the free spirit of tnackind, at length Throws its last fetters off; and who shall i^lace A limit to the giant's unchained strength, Or curb his swiftness in the forward race ? For thoa, my country, thou shalt never fall, Save ¦withthy children: — Who shall then declare The date of thy deep-foun.led strength, or tell How happy, in thy lap, the sons of men shall dwell ? Bryant : Tlie Ages, NEW YOEK: CHARLES SCRIBNER, 124 GRAND STREET 1864. LONDON i S. LOW, SON & COMPANY. Entered, ftccording to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by HENRY T. TUCKEEMAN, In the Clerk's Office of tbe District Court of tbe United States for the Southern District of New York, E^f.^6 4-T JOHN F. TROW, PRIKTKH, STEREOTYPEH, AND ELECTROTYPER, 46, 48, & 50 Greene St., New York. PREFACE. The object of this work is twofold — to present a gen eral view of the traits and transitions of our country, as recorded at different periods and by writers of various nationalities; and to afford those desirous of authentic information in regard to the "United States a guide to the sources thereof. Incidental to and naturally growing out of this purpose, is the discussion of the comparative value and interest of the principal critics of our civilization. The present seems a favorable time for such a retrospective review ; and the need of popular enlightenment, both at home and abroad, as to the past development and present condition of this Republic, is universally acknowledged. There are special and obvious advantages in reverting to the past and examining the present, through the medium of the literature of American Travel. It affords striking contrasts, offers different points of view, and is the more suggestive because modified by national tastes. We can thus trace physical and social development, normal and casual traits, through personal impressions ; and are un consciously put on the track of honest investigation, made to realize familiar tendencies under new aspects, and, from the variety of evidence, infer true estimates. Moreover, some of these raconteurs are interesting characters either IV PEEFACE. in an historical or literary point of view, and form an attractive biographical study. In a work intended to suggest rather than exhaust a subject so extensive, it has been requisite to dismiss briefly many books which, in themselves, deserve special consideration ; but whose scope is too identical with other and similar volumes de scribed at length, to need the same full examination. It is not always the specific merits of an author, but the contrast he offers or the circumstances under which he writes, that have induced what might otherwise seem too elaborate a discussion of his claims. In a word, variety of subject and rarity of material have been kept in view, with reference both to the space awarded and the extracts given. The design of the work might, indeed, have been indefinitely extended; but economy and suggestiveness have been chiefiy considered. Many of the works discussed are inaccessible to the general reader ; others are prolix, and would not reward a consecutive perusal, though worthy a brief analysis ; while not a few are too superficial, and yield amusement only when the grains of wit or wisdom are separated from the predominant chaff. It is for these reasons, and in the hope of vindicating as well as illustrating the claims and character of our outraged nationality, that I have prepared this inadequate, but, I trust, not wholly unsatisfactory critical sketch of Travel in the United States. Those who desire to examine minutely the his torical aspects of the prolific theme, will find, in the "Bibliotheca Americana" of Rich, a catalogue of an cient works full of interest to the philosophical student. Another valuable list is contained in " Historical Nug gets," a descriptive account of rare books relating to America, by Henry Stevens (2 vols., London, 1853) ; and the proposed '" American Bibliographer's Manual," a dic tionary of all works relating to America, by Joseph PEEFACE. V Sabin, of Philadelphia, will, if executed with the care and completeness promised, supersede all other manuals, and prove of great utility. No fact is more indicative of the increased interest in all that relates to our country, than the demand for the earlier records of its life, prod ucts, and history ; * while the foreign bibliography of the war for the IJnion, and the American record and discus sions thereof, have been already collected or are in process of collection under Government auspices.f * " If the price of old books anent Ajnerica, whether native or foreign,. should continue to augment in value in the same ratio as they have done for the last thirty years, their prices must become fabulous, or, rather, like the books of the Sibyls, rise above all valuation. In the early part of the pres ent century, the " Bay Hymn Book " (the first book printed in North Amer ica'), then an exceedingly rare book, no one would have supposed would bring $100 ; now, a copy was lately sold for nearly $600, and a perfect copy, at this time, would bring $1,000. Eliot's " Grammar of the Indian Tongues " was lately sold for $160 — a small tract. The same author's version of the Scriptures into the Indian language could be purchased, fifty years ago, for $50 ; now it is worth $500. Por Cotton Mather's " Magnalia Christi Americana," $6 was then thought a good price ; now, $50 is thought cheap for a good copy. Smith's " History of Virginia," |30 ; now $Y5. Stith's " History of Virginia," then $5, now $20. Smith's " History of New Jersey," then $2, now $20. Thomas's " History of Printing," then $2, now $15. Denton's " History of New Neth erlands," $5, now $50. These are but a few out of many hundreds that could be named, that have risen from' trifling to extraordinary prices, iu the short space of half a century." — Western Memorabilia. \ " The importance of this subject has been more directly brought to our notice in the examination of the foundation of a " Collection of European Opinion upon the War," now before Congress for the use of the members, and to be deposited in the Congress Library. This desirable collection is to com prise the various pamjAlets, speeches, debates, and brochures of all kinds that have appeared in reference to the war, from the attack on Fort Sumter to the present day, and to be continued to the end of the struggle. We have the leading editorials, arranged with great care in chronological order, from the most powerful representatives of the public press in England, France, Germany, &c. ; also, the correspondence from both armies in the field, of the special agents sent for that purpose. The various opinions expressed by emi nent military and naval writers upon our new inventions iu the art of war will well deserve study ; and the horoscope of the future, not only in our own country, but in its influences upon the welfare of the Old World, should be carefully pondered over by all political economists." — National Intelligencer. VI PEEFACE. Numerous as are the books of travel in and commen taries on America — ranging from the most shallow to the most profound, from the crude to the artistic, from the - instructive to the impertinent — so far is the subject from being exhausted, that we seem but now to have a clear , view of the materials for judgment, description, and analysis. It required the genius of modern communica tion, the scientific progress, the humane enterprise, the historical development, and the social inspiration of our owa day, to appreciate the problems which events will solve on this continent ; to upderstand the tendencies, record the phenomena, define the influences and traits, and realize the natural, moral, and political character and destiny of America. New Yobe, March, 1864. CONTENTS, PAGB Introotction 1 CHAPTER I. Early Disooverebs and Explorers 13 CHAPTER n. FREKCH MISSIONAUT EXPLORATIOK. Hennepin; Menard; Allouez; Marquette; Charlevoix; Marest; etc.... 37 CHAPTER ni. FRENCH TRAVELLERS AND WRITERS. ChasteUux ; L'Abb6 Robin ; Duche ; Brissot de Warville ; Qreveoosur ; La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt ; Volney ; Raynal 68 CHAPTER IV. FRENCH TRAVELLERS AUD WRITERS — Continued. Rochapabeau; Talleyrand; S^gur; Chateaubriand; Michaux; Murat; BriUatSavarin ; De Tocqueville ; De Beaumont; Ampere; Lafayette; Fiseh ; De Gasparin ; Ofiicers ; Laboulaye, etc '. 110 CHAPTER v. BRITISH TRAVELLERS AND WRITERS. Berkeley ; MoSparran ; Mrs. Grant ; Bumaby ; Rogers ; Burke ; Doug lass; Henry; Eddis; Anbury; Smythe 156 viii coNTEiirrs. CHAPTER VI. BRITISH TRAVELLERS AND WRITERS — Oontinjled. FAOB TVansey; Cooper; Wilson; Davis; Ashe; Bristed; Kendall; Weld; Cobbett; Campbell; Byron; Moore; Mrs. Wakefield ; Hodgson; Janson; Caswell; Holmes and others; Hall; Fearon; Fiddler; Lyell ; Featherstonaugh ; Combe ; Female Writers ; Dickens ; Faux; Hamilton; Parkinson; Mrs. TroUope; Grattan; Lord Carlisle ; Anthony Trollope ; Prentice ; Stirling 193 CHAPTER •vn. English Abuse of America 252 CHAPTER vm. NOBTHERN EUROPEAN WRITERS. Kahn ; Miss Bremer ; Gurowski, and others ; German Writers : Saxe- Weimar; Von Raumer; Prince Maximilian Von Wied; Lieber; Schultz. Other German Writers: Grun(^: Ruppius; Seatsfield; Kohl; Talvi; SchafF. 293 CHAPTER IX ITALIAN TRAVELLERS. National Relations ; Verrazzano ; Castiglione ; D'Allessandro ; Capobian- co; Salvatore Abbate e Migliori ; Pisani 334 CHAPTER X AMERICAN TRAVELLERS AND WRITERS. John and WUliam Bartram ; Madame Knight ; Ledyard ; Carver ; Jef- I^mRA Imlay; Dwight; Coxe; Ingersoll; Walsh; Pajjl^gJ Mint; Clinton ; Hall; Tudor; Wirt; gooper; Hoffinan; Ohnsted; 5SZSS.*; Government Explorations; "Washington; Mrs. Kirkland; Irrmg. American Illustrative Literature : Biography ; History ; flanuals ; Oratory ; Romance ; Poetry. Local Pictures : Everett, Hawthorne, Channing, etc SYl CHAPTER XL Conclusion 43g ^"^^^ 451 INTEODUOTION. La Terre, says Fontenelle, est ime vieiUe coquette. WhUe in so many branches of authorship the interest of books is superseded by new discoveries in science and superior art and knowledge, honest and intelligent books of travel preserve their use and charm, because they describe places and people as they were at distinct epochs, and con&m or dissipate sub sequent theories. The point of view adopted, the kind of sympathy awakened, the time and the character of the writer — each or all give individuahty to such works, when inspired hy genuine observation, which renders them attractive as a reference and a memorial, and for purposes of comparison if not of absolute interest. Moreover the early travellers, or rather those who first record their personal experience of a country, naturaUy describe it in detaU, and put on record their impressions with a candor rarely afterward imitated, because of that desire to avoid a beaten path which later writers feel. Hence, the most familiar traits and scenes are apt to be less dwelt upon, the oftener they are described ; and, for a complete and naive account, we must revert to primitive travels, whose quaintness and candor often atone for any incongruities of style or old-fashioned pfolixity. . A country that is at all suggestive, either through associa tion or intrinsic resources, makes a constant appeal to genius, to science, and to sympathy ; and offers, under each of these 1 2 INTEODUCTION. aspects, an infinite variety. Arthur Young's account of France, just before the Revolution, cannot be superseded ; Lady Montagu's account of Turkey is stUl one of the most complete ; and Dr. Moore's Italy is a picture of manners and morals of permanent interest, because of its contrast with the existent state of things. Indeed, that beautiful and xmfortu- nate but regenerated land has long been so congenial a theme for scholars, and so attractive a nucleus for sentiment, thai, around its monuments and Ufe the gifted and eager souls of aU nations, have delighted to throw the expression of their conscious personality, from morbid and melancholy Byron to inteUectual and impassioned De Stael, from Hans Andersen, the humane and fanciful Dane, to Hawthorne, the intro spective ISTew Englander. What Italy has been and is "to the unappropriated sentiment of authors, America has been and is to unorganized pohtical aspirations : if the one country has given birth to unlimited poetical, the other has suggest ed a vast amount of philosophical speculation. Brissot, Cob bett, and De TocquevUle found in the one country as genial a subject as Goethe, Rogers, and Lady Morgan in the other ; and while the latter offers a permanent background of art and antiquity, which forever identifies the scene, however the light and shade of the writer's experience may differ, so Nature, in her wild, vast, and beautiful phases, offers in the former an in spiring and inexhaustible charm, and free institutions an ever- suggestive theme, however variously considered. The increase of books of this kind can, perhaps, be real ized in no more striking way than by comparing the long catalogue of the present day with the materials available to the inquirer half a century ago. When Winterbotham, in 1796, undertook to prepare an " Historical, Geographical, Com mercial, and PhUosophical View of the United States " * — to meet an acknowledged want in Europe, where so many, con templating emigration to America, anxiously sought for ac- * Four vols. 8vo., with a series of maps, plates, portraits, &c., London, 1'796. " A valuable record of the state of this continent at the end of the last century, selected from all accessible sources." JNTEODXrOTION. 3 curate knowledge, and often for local and poUtical detaUs, and where there existed so much misconception and such vision ary ideas in regard to this country — he cited the foUo-vring writers as his chief resource for facts and principles of his tory, government, social conditions, and statistics : the Abb6 Raynal, Dr. Franklin, Robertson, Clayigero, Jefferson, Bel knap, Adams, Catesby, Morse, Buffon, Gordon, Ramsay, Bar tram, Cox, Rush, MitcHll, Cutler, Imlay, Filson, Barlow, Brissot, and Edwards. The authenticity of most of these writers made them, indeed, most desirable authorities ; but the reader who recaUs their respective works wiU readUy per ceive how limited was the scope of such, considered as illus trating the entire country. Dr. Belknap wrote of New Hampshire, Jefferson of Virginia, Bartram of Florida and a few other States ; Ramsay, Gordon, Adams, ahd Franklin fur nished exceUent political information ; but Morse's Geography was quite crude and limited, and Brissot's account of America was tinctured with his party views. We need not lose sight of the benefits which our early historical authors and natural ists conferred, while we fuUy recognize the superior complete ness and scientific insight of later and better-equipped authors. Dr. Belknap, it wUl ever be conceded, stands foremost as a primitive local historian, and benign is his memory as the indefatigable student of venerable records when the steeple of the Old South Church, in Boston, was his study ; while, as the founder of the Massachusetts Historical Society, every explorer of New England annals owes him a debt of grati tude : yet his description of the White Mountains is more valuable for its early date than for those scientific and pic turesque details which give such interest to the botanical researches of contemporary authors. The data furnished by Catesby and Bartram have still a charm and use for the savant who examines the flora and ichthyology of Florida and the CaroUnas — notwithstanding the splendid work of Agassiz ; and there are temporary aspects of Ufe at the South noted by Paulding, which give emphasis to the more thorough statistics of Olmsted. 4: INTE0DT7CTI0N. To a phUosophical reader, indeed, there are few more striking Ulustrations of character than the diverse trains of thought, sources of interest, and modes of viewing the same subject, which books of travel incidentaUy reveal : from Herodotus to Humboldt, the disposition and idiosyncrasies of the writers are as apparent as their comparative ability. There is, imdoubtedly, great sameness in the ntunerous jour nals, letters, and treatises of traveUers on America ; only a few of them have any claim to originahty, or seem animated by vital relations to the subject ; a specimen here and there represents an entire class ; and to analyze the whole would be wearisome ; yet, in aU that bear the impress of discrimination and moral sen- sibUity, there is evident the individuahty of taste and purpose that belongs to all genuine human work ; and in this point of view these writings boast no common variety : each author looks at his theme through the lens to which his vision is habituated; and hence we have results as diverse as the medium and the motive of the respective writers. It accords with Talleyi-and's poUtical tastes that the sight of Alexander Hamilton — one of the wisest of the republican legislators — should have been the most memorable incident of his exUe tn America : equaUy accordant with T^pere's literary sentiment was it that he should find a Dutch gable as attractive as Broadway, because it revived the genial hiunor of Irving's facetious History : WUson and Charles Bonaparte found the birds, French officers the fair Quakers, EngUsh commercial traveUers the manufactures and tariffs, EngUsh farmers the agriculture. Continental etjonomists the prison and educational systems, LyeU the rocks and mines, Michaux the trees, sports men the Western plains, and clerical visitors the sects and ^5<^issions — the chief -attraction ; and whUe one pilgrim be stows his most heartfelt reflections upon the associations of Mount Vernon, another has no sympathy for any scene or subject but those connected with slavery : this one is amus- mg m humorous exaggeration of the Connecticut Blue Laws, and that one extravagant in his republican zeal ; tobacco and maple sugar, intemperance and prairie huntmg, reptiles and INTEODUCTION. 5 elections, the whale fishery and the Indians, manners and morals, occupy, in most unequal proportions, the attention of different writers ; an engineer praises the ingenuity and hardi hood, while he deprecates the fragiUty of the " remarkable wooden bridges in America ; " an editor discourses of the in fluence and abuse of the Press ; a horticultm-ist speculates on the prospects of the vine culture, and an economist on the destruction of the forests and the desultory -system of farm ing. Chambers, accustomed to cater for useful knowledge for the people, describes public establishments and schools ; while Kossuth's companion Pulskzy looks sharply at the " white, red, and black " races of the land, and speculates therefrom upon democracy and its results ; Lady Stuart/' Wortley enters into the sentiment of the scenery, and Miss Bremer into the details of domestic economy ; the Earl of CarUsle asks first for AUston's studio on landing, and, with the hberahty of a scholar and a gentleman, elucidates the country he has partiaUy but candidly observed, in a popular lecture ; whUe the Honorable Augustus Mm-ray had too much rare sport in the West, and formed too happy a conjugal tie in America, not to have his recollections thereof, bright and kindly in the record. In a word, every degree of sympathy -^ and antipathy, of refinement and vulgarity, of philosophi cal insight and shaUow impertinence is to be traced in these books of American travel — from coarse malice to dull good nature, and from genial sense to repulsive bigotry. And while the field may appear to have been well reaped as re gards the discussion of manners, government, and industrial resources — ^recondite inquirers, especiaUy the ethnologists, regard America as still ripe for the harvest.' Tears ago, Le Comte Carh * wrote to his cousin : " Je me propose -de vous developper mes idees, ou, si vous le voulez, *" Lettres Americaines," 2 vols. 8vo., Paris, 1788. "In the first part, the author describes the manners and customs of the Americans before their country was discovered by Europeans. He also believes that traces of the religious rites of the Church of Rome were found among them, which resem bled baptism and the communion of bread and wine." 6 INTRODUCTION. mes songes, concemant les anciens peuples de I'Amerique que je crois descendus de ces antiques Atlantides si fameux dans I'histoire des premiers temps." And, within a few months, a London critical journal has mercilessly ridiculed the Abbe Em. Domenech, who published his " Seven Years' Residence in the Great American Deserts ; " in the introduction to which he remarks : " America is not solely an El Dorado for free booters and fortune seekers ; though few persons have gone thither to gather the fruits of science." He refers to the origin of the Indian tribes and the various theories on the subject, and aUudes to the undoubted fact that " numerous emigrations took place at very remote periods ; " and adds : " Africa has become known to us, but America has stUl a vast desert to which missionaries, merchants, and some rare scientific expeditions have alone penetrated. Its history, its geography, and its geology are stiU wrapped in swaddUng , clothes. America is now, comparatively speaking, a new country, a virgin land, which contains numerous secrets. The Government of the United States, to its praise be it, have, of late years, sent scientific expeditions into the Amer ican Deserts ; " and he notes the publications of Schoolcraft, Catlin, and the Smithsonian Institute. We have first the old voyageurs in the collection of De Bry and his English prototype OgUby — ^the quaint, often meagre, but original and authentic records of the first explor ers and navigators ; then, the diaries, travels, and memoirs of the early Jesuit missionaries ; next, the colonial pamphlets and reports, official, speculative, and incidental, including the series of controversial tracts and descriptions relating to New England and Virginia and other settlements ; the reports of the Quaker missionaries, the travels of French officers who took part in the Revolutionary War, and the long catalogue of Enghsh books — from the colonial to the cockney era ; whUe the lives of the Spanish explorers, of the pioneers the military adventurers, and the founders of colonies fiU up and ampUfy the versatUe chronicle. From Roger WUliams's Key to the Indian Languages, to Sir Henry Clinton's annotations mTEODUOTION. 7 of Grahame's History of the American War, from De Vries to De Tocqueville, from Cotton Mather * to Mrs. Trollope, from Harmon's "Free Estate of Virginia," pubUshed in 1614, to Dr. RusseU's fresh letters thence to the London Times / from Champlain's voyage to Dickens's Notes, from Zenger's Trial f to the last report of the Patent Office — the catalogue raisonnee of hooks of American travel, history, and criticism would include every phase of life, manners, creed, custom, develop ment, and character, from the imperfect chart of miknown waters to the glowing photograph of manners in the analyt ical nineteenth century. We find, in examining the hbrary of American travels, that toleration is the charm that invests her to the heart yet bleeding from the wounds of relentless persecution ; and, in the elation of freedom, the page glows with eloquent gratitude even amid the plaints of exUe. Mountains, rivers, cataracts, and caves make the chUd of romance pause and plead ; while gigantic fossU or exquisite coral reefs or a superb tree or rare flower win and warm the naturaUst : one lingers in the Baltimore cathedral, another at the Moravian settlement at Bethlehem, and a third in a Uni tarian chapel at Boston, according to their respective views ; whUe " equaUty of condition," smaU taxes, cheap land, or plentifid labor secures the advocacy of the practical ; and solecisms in manners or language provoke the sarcasms of the fastidious. We derive from each and aU of these commentators on our country, information, not otherwise obtainable, of the aspect of nature and the condition of the people, at different eras and in various regions : we thus realize the process of national \/ * Cotton ¦ Mather's " Magnalia Christi Americana ; or, the Ecclesiastical History of New England," 2 vols. 8vo., first American ed., Hartford, 1820. f " A Brief Narrative of the Case and Trial of John P. Zenger, Printer of the New York 'Weekly Journal,' for a Libel," 4to., pp. 63, New York, 1770. Govemeur Morris, instead of dating American hberty from the Stamp Act, traced it to the prosecution of Peter Zenger, a printer in the colony of New York, for an alleged libel : because that event revealed the philosophy of freedom, both of thought and speech, as an inborn human right, so nobly set forth in MUton's treatise on unlicensed printing. 8 riTTEODITCTIOlf. development ; trace to their origin local pecuharities ; behold the present by the Ught of the past ; and, in a manner, iden tify ourselves with those to whom familiarity had not blunted , the impression of scenes native to ourselves, and social traits or poUtical tendencies too near for us to view them in their /true moral perspective. It may therefore prove both useful and interesting,- suggestive and entertaining, to foUow the steps and listen to the comments of these numerous traveUers and critics, and so leam better to understand, more justly to appreciate and wisely love the land of our birth, doubly dear since fratricidal hands have desecrated her fame. After colonial enterprise, repubUcan sympathy, economical zeal, the satirical, the adventurous, and the scientific had thus successively reported to Europe the condition and prospects, the errors and merits of our country, in the height of her material prosperity, broke out the long-matured RebeUion of the Slaveholders ; and whUe a vast and sanguinary civU war tested to the utmost, the moral and physical resources of the nation, it called forth a new, more earnest and significant criticism abroad. To analyze this would be to discuss the entire foreign bibliography of the war for the Union. We can but glance at its most • striking features and important phenomena. The first lesson to be inferred from the most cursory sur vey of what has been published in Europe on what is there caUed " the American Question," is the immense and intricate infiuence and relations which now unite the New to the Old World. Commerce, emigration, political ideas, social inter ests, literature, science, and religion have, one and aU, con tinued to weave strong mutual ties of dependence and re ciprocity between Europe and America, to reaUze the extent and vital importance of which we have only to compare the issues of the European press for a single week with the sparse and obscure pubhcations whereby the foreigner, a century ^ago, learned what was going on or likely to be achieved for humanity on the great western continent. This voluminous and unpressive testimony as to the essential unportance of mTEODUCTION. 9 America to Europe, is quite as manifest in the abuse as in the admiration, ui the repulsion as the sympathy of foreign wri- . ters,lduring the memorable confiict ; for selfish fear, interested motiyes, or base jealousy inspired their bitter comments far morelthan speculative indifference ; whUe those in a disinter ested position, actuated solely by phUosophical and humane impulaBS, elaborately pleaded the cause of our national life and hilegrity as involved in the essential welfare of the civU- ized world. Next to this universal acknowledgment of a mutualstake in the vast conflict, perhaps for us the most sin gular revelation derived from the foreign discussion of our civU ana miUtary affairs has been that of the extraordinary ignorancl of the country existing abroad. Apart from wilful poUtical \nd perverse prejudice, this popular ignorance is doubtless the cause and the excuse for much of the patent injustice aid animosity exhibited by the press toward the United Stalfes. The rebeUious government organized a social mission to Europe, whereby they forestalled public opinion and artfuUy misrepresented facts : so that it has been a slow process to enighten the leaders of opinion, and counteract the work of i^ercenary writers in France and England sub sidized at the ^rliest stage of the war. But with al due allowance for want of knowledge and the assiduity of Vaid advocates of error, through all the pas sion, prejudice, kd mercenary hardihood which have given birth to so mucl falsehood, malice, and inhumanity in the foreign literary tratment of our national cause in this stupen dous crisis and clinax of social and civil Ufe — we can yet dis tinctly trace the hiVience and recognize the work of friend and foe in the redht avalanche of new commentators on America: their moWes become daily more obvious, their legitimate claims morUpparent, and their just influence bet ter appreciated. HisW has in store for the most eminent an estimate which wB counteract any undue importance attached to their dicta a the acute sensibUitiesof the passing time,* so " big with fateP In an inteUectual point of view, the course of EngUsh wriprs is already defined and explained 1* 10 INTEODTJCTION. to popular intelligence : the greater part of their insane ill will and perverse misrepresentation being accredited to poUt ical jealousy and prejudice, and therefore of no moral value ; while the evidence of bribery and corruption robs another large amount of vituperation and false statement cf all rational significance ; while the more prominent and poiverful expositors, as far as position, capacity, and integrity are con cerned, are, to say the least, not so unequaUy divided as to cause any fear that truth and justice lack able and Uhstrious defenders : in the political arena. Roebuck's vulgar amthemas were more than counterbalanced by the sound and. honest reasoning of Cobden and the logical eloquence of Bright ; while we could afford to bear the superficial sneers of Carlyle, more of an artist than a philosopher in letters, aid the un worthy misrepresentations of Lord Brougham, smilely aris tocratic and unsympathetic, while the vigorous hinker and humanely scientific reformer John Stuart MiU so clearly, consistently, and effectively pleaded the claims of our free nationaUty. And in France, how vain in the retrospect seem the venal lucubrations of pamphleteers and lEwspaper con tributors arrayed against the Government anc" people of the United States when fighting for national exist *^® " Essais Histori'ques et Politiques sur les Anglo-Am^ricaines," by M. HUliard d'UbertaU (Brussels, 1781), and the "Re- cherches " on the same subject, by " un citoyen de Vhginie " (Mazzei), as well as the account of the United States fur nished " L'Univers, ou Histoire et Descriptions des Tous les Peuples " — a work of valuable reference, by M. Roux, who was formerly French Minister in this country, of which he gives a copious though condensed account — are among the many works more or less superseded as authorities, yet aU containing some salient jioints of observation or suggestive reasoning. " La Spectateur Americaine," of MandrUlon, Cartier's " NouveUe France," Bonnet's " Etats Unis k la fin du 18"°° Centurie," Beaujour's "Apergu des ]Stats Unis," Gentry's " Influence of the Discovery of America," and Grasset's " Encyclopedie des Voyages," afford many sugges tive and some original facts and speculations. Lavasseur's "Lafayette hi America," * and Count O'Mahony's "Lettres' * " Lafayette in America in 1824-'25 ; or, A Journal of a Voyage to the United States," by A. Lavasseur, Secretary to General Lafayette, 2 vols., 12mo., Philadelphia, 1829 FEENCH TEAVELLEES AND WEIIEES. 147 sur les Ftats Unis," contain some cm-ious details and useful material. To these may be added, as more or less worthy of attention, of the earlier records, the " Memoires de Baron La Honton," * and later, the " Observations upon Florida," by Vignoles,f and the volumes of Clavifere, Soutel, Engle, Fran- chere, Palessier, Bossu, Hariot, Chabert, Bouchet, Hurt- Binet, &c. Besides the more formal records of tours in America, and episodes of military memoirs devoted thereto, the inci dental personal references in the correspondence of the gal lant officers and noblemen of France who mingled ia our best local society, at the Revolutionary era, afford vivid glimpses of manners and character, such as an ingenious modem novehst would find admirable and authentic materiel. It was a period when repubhcan simplicity coalesced vrith the refine ments of education and the prestige of old-school manners, and therefore afforded the most salient traits. Some of fhe most ardent tributes to American women of that date were written from Newport, in Rhode Island, by their GaUic admirers ; and in these spontaneous descriptions, when stripped of rhetorical exaggeration, we discern a state of society and a phase of character endeared to all lovers of humanity, and trace both, in no small degree, to the institu tions and local influences of the country. The Due de Lau zun, when sent into Berkshire County, because his knowledge of English made his services as an envoy more avaUable than those of his brother officers, seems to regard the errand as little better than exUe, and says, " Lebanon can only be com pared to Siberia." Attached to the society of Newport, and domesticated vrith the Hunter family, he is never weary of expatiating upon the sweetness, purity, and grace of the women of " that charming spot regretted by all the army." * La Honton's (Baron) " Memoires de I'Amerique Septentrionale, ou la Suite . des Voyages, avec un petit Dietionnaire de la Langue du Pais," 2 tomes, 12mo., map and plates, Amsterdam, 1706. f Vignoles' (Charles) " Observations upon the Floridas," 8vo., New Tork, 1828. 148 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. And when De Vauban there introduced the Prince de Bro glie to a pretty Quakeress, the former writes that he " sud denly beheld the goddess of grace and beauty — Minerva in person." It is a striking Ulustration of the social instinct of the French, that manners, character, and personal ap pearance occupy so large a space in their commentaries on America. " Other parts of America," says another officer, " were only beautiful by anticipation ; but the prosperity of Rhode Island was already complete. Newport, well and regularly buUt, contained a numerous population. It offered delightful circles, composed of enlightened men and modest and hand some women, whose talents heightened their personal attrac tions." This was in 1782, ere the commercial importance of the port had been superseded, and when the beUes of the town were the toast and the triumph of every circle. La Rochefoucault and other French tourists, at a later period, found the prosperity of the town on the wane, and the social distinction modified ; yet none the less attractive and valuable are the fresh and fanciful but sincere testimonies to genuine and superior human graces and gifts, of the French memohs. But such casual iUustrations of the candid and kindly observation of our gaUant aUies, fade before the consistent and inteUigent tributes of Lafayette, whose relation to America is one of the most beautiful historical episodes of modern times. After his youthful championship in the field, and his mature counsels, intercessions, and triumphant advo cacy of our cause in France (for, " during the period," says Mr. Everett, " which intervened, from the peace of '83 to the organization of the Federal Government, Lafp,yette per formed, in substance, the functions of our Minister "), when forty years had elapsed, he rerisited the land for which he had fought in youth, to witness the physical and social, the moral and inteUectual fruits of " Uberty protected by law." And during this whole period, and to the time of his death, he was in correspondence, first with Washington and the leading men of the Revolution, and later vrith various per- FEENCH TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 149 sonal friends. In his letters from and to America, there is constant indirect testimony to and iUustration of the charac ter of the people, the tendencies of opinion, the means and methods of hfe and government, founded on observation, intercourse, and sympathy, and endeared and made emphatic by his devotion to our spotless chief, his sacrifices for our cause, and his unswerving devotion to our political prin ciples ; in a word, by his vigilant and faithful love of America. In 1824, De Pradt, formerly archbishop of Mahnes, and deputy to the Constituent Assembly from Normandy, a volu minous political writer, published " L'Europe et I'Amerique," in two volumes, the thkd of his works on this subject, " in which he gives an historical riew of the principles of gov ernment in the Old and New Worlds." Judicious critics pro nounce his style verbose and incorrect, and his views partial and shaUow. His motto is, " Le genre humain est en marche et rien ne le fera retrograder." Several of the French Protestant clergy have visited the United States within the last few years, and some of them have put on record theh impressions, chiefly with regard to the actual state of religion. In many instances, however, the important facts on this subject have been drawn from the copious and authentic American work of Dr. Baird.* Among books of this class, are " L' Amerique Protestante," par M. Rey, and the sketches of M. Grandpierre and M. Fisch. The latter's observations on Religion in America, origmally appeared in the "Revue Chretiei^," but were subsequently embodied in a small volume, which includes observations on other themes.f The latter work, though limited in scope, and the fruit of a brief visit, has an interest derived from the circumstance that the worthy pasteur arrived just before the fall of Sum ter, and was an eyewitness and a conscientious though terse reporter of the aspects of that memorable period. He recog- * " Keligion in America," by Robert Baird, D. D. f "Les iltats Unis en 1861," par Georges Fisch, Paris, 1862. 150 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES; m'zes in the Americans " un peuple qui n'avait d'autre force pubUque que ceUe des id6es ; " and deprecates the hasty judg ment and perverse ignorance so prevalent in Europe in regard to " une grande lutte ou se debattant les int6rets les plus eleves de la morale et de la religion ; " and justly affirms that it is, in fact, " le choc de deux cirilizations et de deux re ligions." M. Fisch, however, disclaims all intention of a complete analysis of national character. His book is mamly devoted to an account of the religious organization, condi tion, and prospects of America, especiaUy as seen from his own point of riew. Many of the detaUs on this subject are not only correct, but suggestive. He writes in a liberal and conscientious spirit. His sympathies are Christian, and he descants on education and faith in the United States vrith intelhgent and candid zeal. Indeed, he was long at a loss to understand what provision existed in society to check and cahn the hresponsible and exuberant energy, the heterogene ous elements, and the self-rehance around him, untU con vinced that the latent force of these great conservative prin ciples of human society were the guarantee of order and pledge of self-control. There is no people, he observes; who have been judged in so superficial a manner. America he regards as having all the petulance of youth, aU the naivete of inexperience : all there is incomplete — ^in the process of achievement. This was his earliest impression on landing at New York, the scene whereof was " un bizaiTC melange de sauvagerie et de civiUzation." But, after his patience had been nearly exhausted, he entered the city, emerging with agreeable surprise from muddy and noisome streets info Broadway, to find palaces of six or seven stories devoted to commerce, and to admire "les figures fines et gracieuses, la demarche leg^re et libre des femmes, les allures rives de toute la population." The frank hospitahty with which he was received, and the interesting study of his specialite as a trav eller, soon enlarged and deepened his impressions. He has a chapter on " La lutte pr6sidentieUe " which resulted in Lm- coln's election, the phenomena whereof he briefly describes. FEENCH TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 151 Then we have a sketch entitied " Statistique religieuse des ]Stats Unis ;" foUowed by judicious comments on the " Unit6 de r;^ghse Americaine, son esprit et son influence." He considers Henry Ward Beecher an improrisatore — " mais c'est I'improvisation du g6nie;" and says, " L'on va entendre M. Beecher comme on irait a theatre." He describes succinctly the system of pubhc instruction ; alludes to the progress of art and letters ; expatiates on Venergie and Vaudace of the Americans ; is anecdotical and descriptive ; praises the land scapes of Church and the sculpture of Crawford, Powers, and Palmer ; gives a chapter to the " Caract^re national," and another to " L'esclavage aux ifitats Unis ; " closing with hopeful auguries for ¦ the future of the country under " le reveU de la conscience," wherein he sees the cause and scope of "'la crise actuelle ; " declaring that " la vie puissante de I'Amerique reprendra son paisible, cours. EUe pourra se reprendre avec une puissance incomparable sur une terre renouvelee, et le monde apprendra une fois de plus que I'Evan- gile est la saint des nations, comme il est celui des indiridus." Brochures innumerable, devoted to special phases of American life, facts of individual experience, and themes of social speculation, sweU the catalogue raisonnee of French writings in this department, and, if not of great value, often furnish salient anecdotes or remarks ; as, for instance, M. August Carlier's amusing little treatise on " La Mariage aux llStats Unis," the statement of one voyageur who happened to behold for the first time a dish of currie, that the Americans eat theh rice with mustard, and the disgust natural to one accustomed to the rigorous municipal regime of Paris, ex pressed by Maurice Sand, at the exposure, for three days, of a dead horse in the streets of New York. Xavier Eyma's "Vie dans le Nouveau Monde" (Paris, 1861) is one of the most recent elaborate works, of which a judicious critical authority observes : " He has given two goodly octavos to a solid criticism and descrip tion of American ' men and institutions ; ' two more octavos to a his tory of the States and Territories ; one volume to the ' Black-Skins,' 152 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. in which he sketches with admirable fideUty the pecuharities and the iniquities of slave life in the South ; and one volume to the ' Eed- Skins,' in which he shows the Indian tribes as they are. Besides these, he has told of the islands of the "West Indies, of their corsairs and buccaneers, and of the social life of the various classes in Amer ica, native and immigrant, and has devoted one amusing volume to ' American Eccentricities.' In such a mass of material there must of course be repetition ; nor are any of the riews especially profound. M. Eyma is in no sense a philosopher. He loves story-teUing better than disquisition, and arranges his materials rather for romantic effect than for scientific accuracy." FinaUy, we have the prohfic emanations of the Paris press on the war for the Union ; pamphlets evoked by venal ity, abounding in sophistical arguments, gross misstatements, and prejudice ; editorials written in the interest of partisans, and a mass of crude and unauthentic writing destined to speedy obhrion. A valuable contribution to the national cause was made, of late, by our able and loyaUy assiduous consul at Paris,* in a volume of facts, economical, political, and sci entific, drawn from the latest and best authorities, pubhshed in the French language, and affording candid inqmrers in Europe precisely the kind of information about America they need, to counteract the falsehood and malignity of the advo cates of the slaveholders' rebeUion. Army critics and corre spondents from France, some of them iUustrious and others of ephemeral claims, have visited our shores, and reported the momentous crisis through which the nation is now pass ing. The Prince de JohivUle has given his experience and observation of the battles of the Chickahominy ; and several pleasant but superficial writers have described some of the curious phases of life which here caught their attention, dur ing a hasty visit at this transition epoch. Apart from vhu- lent and mercenary writers, it is remarkable that the tone of French comment and criticism on the present rebeUion in America has been far more inteUigent, candid, and sympa thetic than across the Channel. Eminent pubhcists and pro fessors of France have recognized and vindicated the truth, * John Bigelow, Esq. FEENCH TEAVELLEES AND -WEITEES. 153 and sent words of faith and cheer across the sea. In his lec tures, and extravagant but piquant and suggestive "Paris dans I'Amerique," Laboulaye has signaUy promoted that bet ter understanding and more just appreciation of the struggle, and the motives and end thereof, which now begin to pre- vaU abroad. De Gasparin's " Uprising of a Great People " feU on American hearts, at the darkest hour of the strife, like the clarion note of a reenforcement of the heroes of humanity. Cochin, Henri Martin, and others less eminent but equaUy honest and humane, have echoed the earnest pro test and appeal ; which contrasts singularly -with the indiffer ence, disingenuousness, and perversity of so many distin guished writers and journals in England. Herein we per ceive the same diversity of feeling which marks the earliest commentators of the respective nations on America, and the subsequent feelings manifested toward our prosperous repub lic. Mrs. Kemble, in a recent article on the " Stage," ob serves that the theatrical instinct of the Americans creates with them an affinity for the French, in which- the Enghsh, hating exhibitiohs of emotion and se]:f-display, do not share. With aU due deference to her opinion, it seems to us her rear soning is quite too hmited. The affinity of which she speaks, partial as it is, is based on the more sympathetic temperament of these two races compared with the English. The social character, the more versatUe experience of American Ufe, asshnUate it in a degree, and externally, vrith that of France, and the climate of America develops nervous sensibUity ; while the exigencies of hfe foster an adaptive facility, which brings the Anglo-American into more inteUigent relations with the GaUic nature than is possible for a people so egotis tic and^ stolid as the English to realize. But this partial sym pathy does not altogether account for the French understand ing America better : that is owing to a more liberal, a less prejudiced, a more chivalric spirit ; to quicker sympathies, to more scientific prochvities, to greater candor and humanity among her thinkers. They are far enough removed in life and character to ca,tch the trae inoral perspective ; and they 7* 154 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. have few, if any, wounds of self-love to impede their sense of justice in regard to a country wherevrith their o'wn history is often congeniaUy and honorably associated. Yet .anomalous and sad vrill it seem, in the retrospect, that to a nation ahen in blood and language, we are indebted for the earliest and most kindly greeting in our hour of stem and sacrificial duty and of national sorrow, instead of receiv ing it (with rare exceptions)' from a people from whom we inherit laws, language, and literature, and to whom we are united by so many ties of lineage, culture, and material interests. Humane, just, and authoritative, indeed, is the language of those eminent Frenchmen, Agenor de Gasparin, Augustin Cochin, Edouard Laboulaye, and Henri Martin, addressed to a committee of loyal Americans, in response to their grateful recognition of such distinguished advocacy of our national cause ; and we cannot better close this notice of French writers on America, than vrith their noble words : " Courage! You have before you one of the most noble works, the most sublime which can be accomplished here below — a work in the success of which we are as interested as yourselves — a work the success of which will be the honor and the consolation of our time. " This generation wiU have seen nothing more grand than the abohtion of slavery (in destroying it with you, you destroy it every where), and the energetic uprising of a people which in the midst of its growing prosperity was risibly sinking under the weight of the tyranny ofthe South, the complicity of the North, odious laws and compromises. " Now, at the cost of immense sacrifices, you have stood up against the eril ; you have chosen rather to pour out your blood and your dollars than to descend further the slope of degradation, where rich, united, powerful, you were sure to lose that which is far nobler than wealth, or union, or power. " WeU, Europe begins to understand, wUlingly or unwillingly, what you have done. In France, in England, everywhere your cause gains ground, and be it said for the honor of the nineteenth century, the obstacle which our ill will and our evil passions could not over come, the obstacle which the intrigues of the South could not sur mount, is an idea, a principle. Hatred of slavery has been your cham pion in the Old World. A poor champion seeiningly. Laughed at, FEENCH TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 155 scorned, it seems weak and lonely. But what matters it ; ere the account be closed, principles wiU stand for something, and conscience, in all human affairs, will have the last word. " This, gentlemen, is what we would say to you in the name of all who with us, and better than ourselves, defend your cause in Europe. Your words have cheered us ; may ours in turn cheer you ! You have yet to cross many a dark valley. More than once the impossi bility of success will be demonstrated to you ; more than once, in the face of some miUtary check or political difficulty, the cry will be raised that aU is lost. What matters it to you ? Strengthen your cause daUy by daily making it more just, and fear not ; there is a G-od above. "We love to contemplate in hope the noble fature which seems to stretch itself before you. The day you emerge at last from the anguish of ciril war — and you will surely come out freed from the odious institution which corrupted your public manners and degraded your domestic as well as your foreign policy — that day your whole country. South as weU as North, and the South perhaps more fuUy than the North, will enter upon a wholly new prosperity. European emigration will hasten toward your ports, and wfil learn the road to those whom untU now it has feared to approach. Cultivation, now abandoned, will renew its yield. Liberty— for these are her miracles -^wiU rerivify by her touch the soU which slavery had rendered barren. " Then there wiU be born unto you a greatness nobler and more stable than the old, for in this greatness there wiU be no sacrifice of justice." CHAPTER V. BBITISB TRAVELLERS AND WRITERS. BEBKELET ; MCSPAEKAN ; MKS. GRANT ; BCBNABT ; KOGBES ; BOEKE ; nOUGLABS ; HBinRT ; EDDIS ; ANBURY ; SMYTHE. " Thbee * are more imposing monuments in the venerable precincts of Oxford, recalling the genius which haUows our ancestral literatm-e, but at the tomb- of Berkeley we Unger vrith affectionate reverence, as we associate the gifts of his mind and the graces of his spirit with his disinterested and memorable risit to our country. In 1725, Berkeley pubUshed his proposals in explanation of this long-cherished purpose ; at the same time he offered to resign his hvings, and to consecrate the remainder of his days to this Christian undertaking. So magnetic were his appeal and example, that three of his brother fellows at Oxford decided to unite with him in the expedition. Many eminent and wealthy persons were induced to contribute their influence and money to the cause. But he did not trust whoUy to such means. Haring ascertained the worth of a portion of the St. Christopher's lands, ceded by France to Great Britain by the treaty of Utrecht, and about to be dis posed of for pubhc advantage, he undertook to realize from them larger proceeds than bad been anticipated, and sug- *From the author's " Essays, Biographical and Critical." BEITISH TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 15Y gested that a certain amottnt of these funds should be de voted to his college. AvaUing himself of the friendly inter vention of a Venetian gentleman whom he had known in Italy, he submitted the plan to George I., who dhected Sir Robert Walpole to carry it through Parliament. He ob tained a charter for ' erecting a coUege, by name St. Paul's, in Bermuda, with a president and nine feUows, to maintain and educate Indian scholars, at the rate of ten pounds a year, George Berkeley to be the first president, and his companions from Trinity College the feUows.' His commission was voted May 11th, 1726. To the promised amount of twenty thousand pounds, to be derived from the land sale, many sums were added from indiridual donation. The letters of Berkeley to his friends, at this period, are fiUed with the discussion of his scheme ; it absorbed his time, taxed his ingenuity, filled his heart, and drew forth the warm sympathy and earnest cooperation of his many admirers, though regret at the pros pect Of losing his society constantly finds expression. Swift, in a note to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, says : ' I do hum bly entreat your exceUency either to use such persuasions as vriU keep one of the first men of the kingdom for learning and genius at home, or assist him by your credit to compass his romantic design.' ' I have obtained reports,' says one of his o-wn letters, ' from the Bishop of London, the board of trade and plantations, and the attorney and sohcitor-general ; ' . ' yesterday the charter passed the privy seal ; ' ' the lord chan ceUor is not a busier man than myself ; ' and elsewhere, ' I have had more opposition from the governors and traders to America than from any one else ; but, God be praised, there is an end of all their narrow and mercantUe views and en deavors, as well as of the jealousies and suspicions of others, some of whom were very great men, who apprehended this coUege may produce an independency in America, or at least lessen her dependency on England.' Freneau's ballad of the ' Indian Boy,' who ran back to the woods from the haUs of learning, was written subse quently, or it might have discouraged Berkeley in his idea of 158 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. the capacity of the American savages for education ; but more positive obstacles thwarted his generous aims. The king died before affixing his seal to the charter, which de layed the whole proceedings. Walpole, efficient as be was as a financier and a servant of the house of Brunswick, was a thorough utUitarian, and too practical and worldly wise to share in the disinterested enthusiasm of Berkeley. In his answer to Bishop Gibson, whose diocese included the West Indies, when he applied for the funds so long vrithheld, he says : ' If you put the question to mC as a minister, I must assure you that the money shaU most undoubtedly be paid as soon as suits vrith public convenience ; but if you ask me as a friend whether Dean Berkeley should continue in America, expecting the payment of twenty thousand pounds, I adrise him by all means to return to Europe.' To the project, thus rendered unattainable, Berkeley had devoted seven years of his hfe, and the greater part of his fortune. The amount realized by the sale of confiscated lands was about ninety thousand pounds, of which eighty thousand were devoted to the marriage portion of the princess royal, about to espouse the Prince of Orange ; and the remainder, through the influ ence of Oglethorpe, was secured to pay for the transporta tion of emigrants to his Georgia colony. Berkeley's scheme was more deliberate and weU-considered than is commonly believed. Horace Walpole calls it ' uncertain and amusing ;' but a writer of deeper sympathies declares it ' too grand and . pure for the powers that were.' His nature craved the united opportunities of usefulness and of self-culture. He felt the obhgation to devote himself to benevolent enterprise, and at the same time earnestly desired both the leisure and the re- thement needful for the pursuit of abstract studies. The prospect he contemplated promised to realize all these objects. He possessed a heart to feel the infinite wants, intellectual and rehgious, of the new continent, and had the imagination to conceive the grand destinies awaiting its growth. Those who fancy that his views were limited to the plan of a doubtful missionary experiment, do great injus- BEIIISH TEAVELLEES AND WEIIEES. 159 tice to the broad and elevated hopes he cherished. He knew that a recognized seat of learning open to the poor and un- cirilized, and the varied moral exigencies of a new country, woxdd insure ample scope for the exercise of aU his erudition and his talents. He felt that his mind would be a kingdom wherever his lot was cast ; and he was inspired by a noble interest in the progress of America, and a faith in the new field there open for the advancement of truth, as is evident from the celebrated verses in which these feehngs found ex pression : ' The Muse, disgusted at an age and clime Barren of every glorious theme. In distant lands now waits a better time, Producing subjects worthy fame. ' In happy climes, when from the genial sun And rirgin earth such scenes ensue. The force of art by nature seems outdone. And fancied beauties by the true ; ' In happy climes, the seat of innocence, Where nature guides and virtue rules ; Where men shaU not impose for truth' and sense The pedantry of schools ; ' Then shall we see again the golden age. The rise of empire and of arts, The good and great inspiring epic rage, The wisest heads and noblest hearts ; ' Not such as Europe breeds in her decay ; Such as she bred when fresh and young, When heavenly flame did animate her clay, By future poets shaU be sung. ' Westward the course of empire takes its way ; • The four first acts already past, A fifth shaU end the drama with the day ; Time's noblest ofispring is the last.' In August, 1728, Berkeley married a daughter of the Honorable John Foster, speaker of the Irish House of Com- 160 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. mons, and, soon after, embarked for America. His compan ions were, his wife and her friend. Miss Hancock ; two gen tlemen of fortune, James and Dalton; and Smibert the painter. In a picture by the latter, now in the TrumbuU gallery at New Haven, are preserved the portraits of this group, vrith that of the dean's infant son, Henry, in his mother's arms. It was painted for a gentleman of Boston, of whom it was purchased, in 1808, by Isaac Lothrop, Esq, and presented to Yale CoUege. This visit of Smibert asso ciates Berkeley's name with the dawn of art in America. They had traveUed together in Italy, and the dean induced him to join the expedition partly from friendship, and also to enhst his serrices as instructor in drawing and architecture, in the proposed college. Smibert was born in Edinburgh, about the year 1684, and served an apprenticeship there to , a house painter. He went to London, and, from painting coaches, rose to copying old pictures for the dealers. He then gave three years to the study of his art in Italy. ' Smibert,' says Horace Walpole, ' was a sUent and mod est man, who abhorred the finesse of some of his profession, and was enchanted with a plan that he thought promised tranquilhty and an honest subsistence in a healthy and elysian climate, and, in spite of remonstrances, engaged vrith the dean, whose zeal had ranged the favor of the court on his side. The king's death dispeUed the vision.-' One may con ceive how a man so devoted to his art must have been ani mated, when the dean's enthusiasm and eloquence painted to his imagination a new theatre of prospects, rich, warm, and glowing with scenery which no pencil had yet made com mon.' * Smibert was the first educated artist who risited our shores, and the picture referred to, the first of more than a single figure executed in the^ counti-y. To his pencU New England is indebted for portraits of many of her early states men and clergy. Among others, he painted for a Scotch * "Anecdotes of Pamting," vol. iii. * BEITISH TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 161 gentleman the only authentic likeness of Jonathan Edwards. He married a lady of fortune in Boston, and left her a widow with two children, in 1751. A high eulogium on his abilities and character appeared in the London Gourant. From two letters addressed to him by Berkeley, when residing at Cloyne, pubhshed in the Gentleman^ s Magazine, it would appear that his friendship for the artist continued after their separation, as the bishop urges the painter to recross the sea and estabUsh himself in his neighborhood. A considerable sum of money, and a large and choice coUection of books, designed as a foundation for the hbrary of St. Paul's CoUege, were the most important items of the dean's outfit. In these days of rapid transit across the Atlantic, it is not easy to reahze the discomforts and perils of such a voyage. Brave and phUanthropic, indeed, must have been the heart of an English church dignitary, to whom the road of preferment was open, who was a favorite com panion of the genial Steele, the classic Addison, and the bril hant Pope, who basked in the smile of royalty, was beloved ^of the Chm-ch, revered by the poor, the idol of society, and the peer of scholars ; yet could shake off the allurements of such a position, to endure a tedious voyage, a long exUe, and the deprivations attendant on a crude state of society and a new civilization, in order to achieve an object which, how ever excellent and generous in itself, was of doubtful issue, and beset vrith obstacles. Confiding in the pledges of those &i authority, that the parliamentary grant would be paid when the lands had been selected, and fuU of the most san guine anticipations, the noble pioneer of religion and letters approached the shores of the New World. It seems doubtful to some of his biographers whether Berkeley designed to make a preliminary visit to Rhode Island, in order to purchase lands there, the income of which would sustain his Bermuda .institution. The vicinity of that part of the New England coast to the West Indies may have induced such a course ; but it is declared by more than one, that his arrival at Newport was quite accidental. This con- 162 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. jecture, however, is erroneous, as in one of his letters, dated September 5th, 1728, he says : ' To-morrow, with God's bless ing, I set sail for Rhode Island.' The captain of the ship which conveyed him from England, it is said, was unable to discover the Island of Bermuda, and at length abandoned the attempt, and steered in a northerly direction. They made land which they could not identify, and supposed it inhabited only by Indians. It proved, however, to be Block Island, and t-wo fishermen came off and informed them of the ricin- ity of Newport harbor. Under the pUotage of these men, the vessel, in consequence of an unfavorable wind, entered what is caUed the West Passage, and anchored. The fisher men were sent ashore with a letter from the dean to Rev. James Honyman. They landed at Canonicut Island, and sought the dweUings of two parishioners of that gentleman, who immediately conveyed the letter to their pastor. For nearly half a century this faithful clergyman had labored in that region. He first established himself at Newport, in 1704. Besides the care of his own church, he made frequent visits to the neighboring towns on the mainland. In a letter to the secretary ofthe Episcopal mission in America, in 1709, he says : ' You can neither believe, nor I express, what excel lent services for the cause of religion a bishop would do in these parts ; these infant settlements would become beautiful nurseries, which now seem to languish for want of a father to oversee and bless them ; ' and in a memorial to Governor Nicholson on the religious condition of Rhode Island, m 1714, he observes : ' The people are divided among Quakers, Anabaptists, Independents, Gortonians, and infidels, with a remnant of true Churchmen.' * It is characteristic of the tunes and region, that with a broad circuit and isolated churches as the sphere of his labors, tbe vicinity of Indians, and the variety of sects, he was employed for two months, in 1723, in daily attending a large number of pirates who had * Hawkins's " Historical Notices of the Missions of the Church of England in the North American Colonies," p. 173. BEITISH TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 163 been captured, and were subsequently executed — one of the murderous bands which then infested the coast, whose extra- ordmary career has been Ulustrated by Cooper, in one of his popular nautical romances. When Berkeley's missive reached this worthy pastor, he was in his pulpit, it being a hohday. He immediately read the letter to his congregation, and dismissed them. Nearly aU accompanied him to the ferry wharf, which they reached but a few moments before the arrival of the dean and his fellow voyagers. A letter from Newport, dated January 24th, 1729, that appeared in the New Migland Journal, published at Boston, thus notices the event : ' Yes terday arrived here Dean ¦ Berkeley, of Londonderry, in a pretty large ship. He is a gentleman of middle stature, and of an agreeable, pleasant, and erect aspect. He was ushered into the town by a great number of gentlemen, to whom he behaved himself after a very complaisant manner. 'Tis said he purposes to tarry here about three months.' We can easUy imagine the delightful surprise which Berkeley acknowledges at first riew of that lovely bay and the adjacent country. The water tinted, in the clear autumn air, like the Mediterranean ; the fields adorned with symmet rical haystacks and golden maize, and bounded by a lucid horizon, against which rose picturesque windmiUs and the clustered dwelUngs of the town, and the noble trees which then covered the island ; tbe bracing yet tempered atmos phere, all greeted the senses of those weary voyagers, and kindled the grateful admiration of theh- romantic leader. He soon resolved upon a longer sojourn, and purchased a farm of a hundred acres at the foot of the hiU whereon stood the dweUing of Honyman, and which stUl bears his name.* There he erected a modest homestead, vrith philosophic taste choosing the vaUey, in order to enjoy the fine view from * The conveyance from Joseph Whipple and wife to Berkeley, of the land in Newport, is dated February 18th, 1729. 164 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. the summit occasionally, rather than lose its charm by famUiarity. At a sufficient distance from the town to insure immunity from idle visitors ; within a few minutes' walk of the sea, and girdled by a fertUe vale, the student, dreamer, and missionary pitched his humble tent where nature offered her boundless refreshment, and seclusion her contemplative peace. His first rivid impressions of the situation, and of the difficulties and consolations of his position, are described in the few letters, dated at Newport, which his biographer cites. At this distance of time, and in riew of the subse quent changes of that region, it is both curious and interest ing to revert to these incidental data of Berkeley's visit. * Newpoht, in Ehode Island, April 24, 1729. ' I can by this time say something to you, from my own expe rience, of this place and its people. The inhabitants are of a mixed kind, consisting of many sects and subdivisions of sects. Here are four sorts of Anabaptists, besides Presbyterians, Quakers, Indepen dents, and many of no profession at all. Notwithstanding so many differences, here are fewer quarrels about religion than elsewhere, the people living peacefully with their neighbors of whatever per suasion. They all agree in one point — that the Church of England is the second best. The climate is like that of Italy, and not at all colder in the winter than I have known everywhere north of Rome. The spring is late, but, to make amends, they assure me the au tumns are the finest and the longest in the world ; and the sum mers are mu'ch pleasanter than those ,'of Italy by all accounts, foras much as the grass continues green, which it does not there. This island is pleasantly laid out in hills and vales and rising ground, hath>- plenty of excellent springs and fine rivulets, and many delightful rocks, and promontories, and adjacent lands. The provisions are very good ; so are the. fruits, which are quite neglected, though vines sprout of themselves of an extraordinary size, and seem as natural to this soil as any I ever saw. The town of Newport contains about six thousand souls, and is the most thriring place in aU America for its bigness. I was never more agreeably surprised than at the first sight of the town and its harbor.' ' June 12, 1729. — I find it hath been reported in Ireland that we intend settling here. I must desire you to discountenance any such report. The truth is, if the king's bounty were paid in, and the charter could be removed hither, I should like it better than Ber- BEITISH TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 165 muda. But if this were questioned before" the payment of said money, it might perhaps hinder it and defeat all our designs. I snatch this moment to write, and have time only to add that I have got a son, who, I thank God, is likely to live.' ' May 7. — This week I received a package from you 'oia PhUa delphia, the postage of which amounted to above four pounds ster ling of this country money. I am worried to death by creditors, and am at an end of p.atience, and almost out of iny wits. Our little son is a great joy to us : we are such fools as to think him the most per fect thing of the kind we ever saw.' To the poet, scenery of picturesque beauty and grand eur is desirable, but to the philosopher general effects are more congenial. High mountahis, forests, and waterfaUs appeal more emphaticaUy to the former, and luxuries of ch mate and atmosphere to the latter. Accordingly, the soft marine air and the beautiful skies of summer and autumn, in the region of Berkeley's American home, with the vicinity of the seacoast, became to him a perpetual deUght. He aUudes, with grateful sensibility, to the ' pleasant fields,' and ' walks on the beach,' to ' the expanse of ocean studded with fishing boats and lighters,' and the ' plane trees,' that daUy cheered his sight, as awakening ' that sort of joyful instinct which a rural scene and fine weather insphe.' He calls New port ' the Montpelier of America,' and appears to have com muned with nature and inhaled the salubrious breeze, whUe pursuing his meditations, with all the zest of a healthy organization and a susceptible and observant mind. A few ravines finely wooded, and vrith fresh streams purling over rocky beds, vary the alternate uplands ; from elevated points a charming distribution of water enhvens the prospect ; and the shore is indented vrith high chffs, or rounded into grace ful curves. The sunsets are remarkable for a display of gor geous and radiant clouds ; the wide sweep of pasture is only broken by low ranges of stone waU, clumps of sycamores, orchards, haystacks, and mill towers ; and over luxuriant clo ver beds, tasseUed maize, or fallow acres, plays, for two thirds of the year, a southwestern breeze, chastened and moistened by the Gulf Stream. 166 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. Intercourse with Boston was then tbe chief means on the island of acquiring political and domestic news. A brisk trade was carried on between the town and the West Indies, France, England, and the Low Countries, curious memorials of which are stiU visible, in some of the old mansions, in the shape of china and glass ware, of obsolete patterns, and faded specimens of rich brocade. A sturdy breed of Narraganset ponies carried fair equestrians from one to another of the many hospitable dweUings scattered over the fields, on which browsed sheep and cackled geese, still famous in epicurean reminiscence ; while tropical fruits were constantly imported, and an abundance and variety of fish and fowl rewarded the most careless sportsman. Thus blessed by nature, the acci dental home of the philosophic dean soon won his affection. Intelligent members of all denominations imited in admha- tion of his society and attendance upon his preaching. With one neighbor he dined every Sunday, to the child of another he became godfather, and vrith a third took counsel for the establishment of the literary club which founded the Red wood Library. It was usual then to see tbe broad brim, of the Quakers in the aisles of Trinity Church ; and, as an in stance of his emphatic yet tolerant style, it is related that he once observed, in a sermon, ' Give the devil his due : John Calvin was a great man.' * We find bim, at one time, writing a letter of encouragement to a Huguenot preacher of Provi dence, and, at another, visiting Narraganset with Smibert to examine the aboriginal inhabitants. His own opinion of the race was given in the discourse on ' The Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts,' dehvered in London on his return. To the ethnologist it may be interesting, in reference to this subject, to revert to the anecdote of the portrait painter cited by Dr. Barton. He had been employed by the Grand Duke of Tuscany to paint two or three Siberian Tartars, presented to that prince by the Czar of Russia ; and, on first landing in Narraganset vrith Berkeley, he instantly recognized the In- * Updike's " History of the Narraganset Church." BEITISH TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 167 dians there as the same race as the Siberian Tartars — an opin ion confirmed by Wolff, the celebrated Eastern traveUer. During his residence at Newport, Berkeley became ac quainted with the Rev. Jared Elhot, one of the trustees of Yale CoUege, and with the Rev. Samuel Johnson, an Episco pal minister of Stratford, Conn., who informed him of the condition, prospects, and wants of that institution. He after ward opened a correspondence on the subject with Rector WiUiams, and was thus led, after the failure of his own col lege scheme, to make his generous donations to a seminary aheady established. He had previously presented the col lege vrith a copy of his writings. In 1732, he sent from England a deed of his farm in Rhode Island, and, the con ditions and descriptions not being satisfactory, he sent, the ensuing year, another deed, by which it was provided that the rents of his lands should be devoted to the education of three young men, the best classical scholars ; the candidates to be examined annuaUy, on the 6th of May ; in Case of dis agreement among the examiners, the competitors to decide by lot ; and all surplus funds to be used for the purchase of classical books. Berkeley also gave to the library a thousand volumes, which cost over four hundred pounds — the most valuable collection of books then brought together in Amer ica. They were chiefly his own purchase, but in part con tributed by his friends. One of the graduates of Yale, edu cated under the Berkeley scholarship, was Di*. Buckminster, of Portsmouth, N. H. Unfortunately, the income of the property at Newport is rendered much less than it might be by the terms of a long lease. This liberality of the Bishop of Cloyne was enhanced by the absence of sectarian preju dice in his choice for tbe stewardship of his bounty of a col legiate institution where different tenets are inculcated from those he professed. That be was personally desirous of in creasing his own denomination in America, is sufficiently evinced by the letter in which he directs the secretary of the Episcopal mission there to appropriate a balance originally contributed to the Bermuda scheme. This sum had remained 168 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. at his banker's for many years unclaimed, and he suggests that part of it should be devoted to a gift of books for Har vard University, ' as a proper means to inform their judg ment, and dispose them to think better of our church.' His interest in classical education on this side of the water is also manifested in a letter advocating the preeminence of those studies in Columbia College.* It is a remarkable coincidence that Berkeley should have taken up his abode in Rhode Island, and thus completed the representative character of the most tolerant religious com munity in New England, by the presence of an eminent Epis copal dignitary. A principal reason of the variety, the free dom, and the peace of religious opinion there, to which he alludes, is the fact that, through the liberal wisdom and fore sight of Roger WUliams, that State had become an asylum for the persecuted of all denominations from the neighboring provinces ; but another cause may be found in the prevalence of the Quakers, whose amiable tenets and gentle spirit sub dued the rancor and bigotry of fanaticism. Several hundred Jews, stUl commemorated by their cemetery and synagogue, allured by the prosperous trade and the tolerant genius of the place, added stiU another feature to the varied popula tion. The lenity of Penn toward the aborigines, and the fame of Fox, had given dignity to the denomination of Friends, and their domestic culture was refined as weU as morally sujjerior. Enterprise in the men who, in a neighbor ing State, originated the whale fishery, and beauty among the women of that sect, are traditional in Rhode Island. We were reminded of Berkeley's observations in regard to the natural productions of the country, during a recent visit to the old farmhouse where he resided. An enormous wild grapevine had completely veiled what formed the original * " I am glad to iind a spirit toward learning prevails in these parts, par ticularly in New York, where, you say, a college is projected, which has my best wishes. Let the Greek and Latin classics be weU taught ; be tliis the first care as to leammg." — Beekelet's Letter to Johnson. — Mooke's Skelxh of Columbia CoUege, NewYork, 1846. BEITISH TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 169 entrance to the humble dweUing ; and several ancient apple trees in the orchard, with boughs mossy with time, and gnarled by the ocean gales, showed, in theh- sparse fruit and matted twigs, the utter absence of the pruning knife. The dweUing itself is buUt, after the manner common to farm houses a century ago, entirely of wood, with low ceilings, broad fireplace, and red cornice. The only traces of the old country were a few remaining tUes, with obsolete designs, around the chimney piece. But the deep and crystal azure of the sea gleamed beyond corn field and sloping pasture ; sheep grazed in the meadows, hoary rocks bounded the pros pect, and the meUow crimson of sunset lay warm on grass slope and paddock, as when the kindly phUosopher mused by the shore vrith Plato in hand, or noted a metaphysical diar logue in the quiet and ungarnished room which overlooks the rude garden. Though, as he declares, ' for every private rea son ' he preferred ' Derry to New England,' pleasant was the abode, and grateful is the memory of Berkeley, in this rural seclusion. A succession of green breastworks along the brow of the hUl beneath which his domicile nestles, by reminding the visitor of the retreat of the American forces under Gen eral SuUivan, brings riridly to his mind the Revolution, and its incalculable influence upon the destinies of a land which so early won the inteUigent sympathy of Berkeley ; while the name of Whitehall, which he gave to this peaceful do main, commemorates that other revolution in his own coun try, wherein the loyalty of his grandfather drove his family into exUe. But historical soon yield to personal recollections, when we consider the memorials of his sojourn. We asso ciate this landscape with his studies and his benevolence ; and, when the scene was no longer blessed with his presence, his gifts remained to consecrate his memory. In old Trinity, the organ he bestowed peals over the grave of his firstborn in the adjoining burial ground. A town in Massachusetts bears his name. Not long since, a presentation copy of his ' Minute Philosopher ' was kept on the table of an old lady of Newport, with reverential care. In one famUy, his ^ft 8 170 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. of a richly wrought sUver coffee pot, and, in another, that of a diamond ring, are cherished heirlooms. His rare and costly books were distributed, at his departure, among the resident clergy. His scholarship at New Haven annually furnishes recruits to our church, bar, or medical faculty. In an adja cent parish, the sacramental cup was his donative. His leg acy of ingenious thoughts and benign sentiment is associated vrith hanging rocks that are the seaward boundary of his farm ; his Christian ministry with the ancient church, and his verse with the progress of America." A brave clerical resident of South Kingston, R. I., where he died in 1757, wrote a brief but useful and interesting account of the English settlements in America. He de scribes, in a series of letters, the Bermudas, Georgia, and the northern dominions of the crown as far as Newfoundland. As one of the founders of tbe Episcopal Chm-ch in America, an intimate friend of Berkeley, and a respected and efficient minister of Narraganset, the Rev. James McSparren's " His torical Tract " has a special authority and attraction. One of the most pleasing and naive memorials of social life in the province of New York in her palmy colonial days, is to be found in the reminiscences of Mrs. Grant, a daughter of Duncan McVickar, an officer of the British army, who came to America on duty in 1757. This estimable lady, in the freshness of her youth, resided in Albany, and was intimate vrith Madam Schuyler, widow of Colonel PhiUp Schuyler, and aunt to the general of the same name so prominent in the war of the Revolution. The four years which Mrs. Grant passed in America, made an indelible and charming impres sion on her mind. She married the Rev. James Grant, of Laggan, Invemesshire, and, in 1801, was left a widow with eight children. Nine years after, she removed to Edinburgh, where she became the centre of a literary and friendly circle, often graced by the presence of Sir Walter Scott and other celebrities. He secured ber a pension of a hundred pounds. Mrs. Grant's conversation was of unusual interest, ovring to her long experience, and, for that period, varied reading. EEinSH TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 171 She was ambitious of hterary distinction. Her " Letters froni the Mountains," for their descriptive abihty and inde pendent tone, won no inconsiderable popularity. Jeffrey re marks that her " poetry is not very good ; " whUe Moir pays her the somewhat equivocal compliment of declaring that she " respectably assisted in sustaining the honors of the Scottish Muse." But she is chiefly remembered as a writer by her " Memohs," and they bave served many novehsts, historians, and biographers as a httle treasury of facts wherewith to delineate the hfe and the scenery of those days, not else where obtainable. Notwithstanding his moderate estimate of her other literary efforts, Jefirey gave Mrs. Grant credit, in the Edinburgh .Review, for this autobiography, as " a very animated picture of that sort of simple, tranquil, patriarchal hfe, which was common enough within these hundred years in the central parts of England, but of which we are rather inclined to think there is no specimen left in the world." It was not, however, merely the reproduction of this attractive and pi-imitive kind of life that lent a charm io these Me moirs. Many of the features of that Albany community, its habits, exigencies, and aspects, were novel and curious ; and the hvely record thereof from the vivid impressions of such a woman, at her susceptible age, gives us a remarkably clear though perhaps somewhat romantic idea of what the mano rial and colonial hfe of the State of New York was, and wherein it differed from that of Virginia and New England. In her day, the amiable and intelligent author of the "Memohs of an American Lady" enjoyed no little social consideration from her literary efforts — unusual as such a dis- tmction was vrith her sex at that period — and from her kindly and dignified character. De Quincey, when quite a youth, met her in a stage coach, and cherished very agreeable recol lections of her manners. " I retain the impression," he writes," of the benignity which she, an estabhshed vdt, and just then receiring incense from all quarters, showed, in her manners, to me, a person utterly unknown." 172 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. According to Mrs. Grant, " The summer amusements of the young were simple, healthful, and joyous. Their prijicipal pleasure consisted in what we now call picnics, enjoyed either upon the beautiful Islands in the river near Albany, which were then covered with grass and shrubbery, tall trees and clustering vines, or in the forests on the hills. When the warm days of spring and early summer appeared, a company of young men and maidens would set out at sunrise in a canoe for tbe islands, or in light wagons for ' the bush,' where they would fi-e- quently meet a similar party on the same delightful errand. Each maiden, taught from early childhood to be industrious, would take her work basket with her, and a supply of tea, sugar, coffee, and other materials for a frugal breakfast, while the young men carried some rum and dried fruit to make a light, cool punch for a midday beverage. But no previous preparations were made for dinner, ex cept bread and cold pastry, it being expected that the young men would bring an ample supply of game and fish from the woods and the waters, provision having been made by the girls of apparatus for cooking, the use of which was familiar to them all. After dinner, the company would pair off in couples, according to attachments and affinitie's, sometimes brothers and sisters together, and sometimes warm friends or ardent lovers, and stroll in all directions, gathering wild strawberries or other fruit in summer, and plucking the abun dant flowers, to be arranged into bouquets to adorn their little par lors and give much pleasure to their parents. Sometimes they would remain abroad until sunset, and take tea in the open air ; or they would call upon some friend on their way home, and partake of a light evening meal. In all this there appeared no conventional re straints upon the innocent inclinations of nature. The day was always remembered as one of pure enjoyment, without the passage of a single cloud of regret." In 1759-'60, a kindly and cultivated minister of the Church of England made a tour of intelligent observation m the Middle States ; and fifteen years after, when the ahena- tion of the colonies from Great Britain had passed from a speculative to a practical fact, this amiable divine gave to the pubhc the narrative of his Amerian journey. There is a pleasant tone, a wise and educated spirit in this recordf which make ample amends for the obrious influences of the writer's rehgious and political views upon his impressions of the coim- BEITISH TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 173 try and the people. The Rev. Andrew Burnaby was a native of Lancastershhe, an Sieve of Westminster School, and a graduate of Queen's College, Cambridge. He became vicar of Green wich in 1769, and obtained credit as an author by a volume of sermons, and an account of a visit to Corsica. His book on America was " praised and valued " as a fair and agree able report of " the state of the colonies " then called the "Middle Settlements." The author states, in his preface, that its appearance during " the present difficulties " may ex pose him to misrepresentation ; but he asserts the candor of his motives, and frankly declares that, while his " first attach ment " is for his native country, his second is to America. Burnaby landed from Chesapeake Bay, and his book (a thin quarto) opens with a description of Virginia, where he sojourned with Colonel Washington. He is struck with the efficiency of hghtning rods, and the efficacy of snakeroot, and with the abundance of peaches, which are given as food to the hogs. He describes the variety of squhrels, the indige nous plants and birds, the ores and crops of the Old Domin ion. The women there, he says, " are immoderately fond of dancing, and seldom read or endeavor to improve their minds." He notes the " prodigious tracts of land " belong ing to individuals, and then a wilderness, and, like so many other traveUers there, is impressed with the comparative im provident habits of the people. " The Vh-ginians," he says, " are content to hve from hand to mouth. Tobacco is their chief staple, and they cultivate enough to pay their mer chants in London for supplying those wants which their plan tations do not directly satisfy." On the other hand, he cele brates the virtuous contentment of tbe German settlers on the low grounds of the Shenandoah. Their freedom, tran- quiUity, and " few rices " atone, in his estimation, for the absence of elegance. He attended a theatre in a " tobacco house " at Marlborough, and enjoyed a sixteen hours' sail along the Chesapeake to Frederickstown. " Never," he writes, " in my life, have I spent a day more agreeably or with higher entertainment." Much of this zest is to be 174 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. f ascribed to the good clergyman's enjoyment of scenery, fresh air, and fine weather. The streams, the woods, and the mountains of the New World elicit his constant admiration. A salient trait of his journal is the positive character he con fidently assigns to the inhabitants of the different colonies. Sometimes it is evident that their respective religious and political tendencies enlist or repel his sympathies, and there fore modify his judgment, but, at other times, his opinion seems to be the result of candid observation ; and it is inter esting to compare what he says on this subject, with later estimates and present local reputations. Of PhUadelphia he remarks : " There is a pubhc market held twice a week, almost equal to Leadenhall. The people there are quiet, and intent on money getting, and the women are decidedly handsome." He notes the stocking manufacture of the Ger mans, and the linen made by the Irish in Pennsylvania. He thinks the New Jersey people " of a more hberal turn than these neighbors of theirs," and is enthusiastic about the Falls of the Passaic. He recognizes but two churches in New York — Trinity and St. George's — and declares the women there " more reserved " than those of the colony of Perm. He speaks of a memorable social custom of New York — " turtle feasts," held at houses on the East River, where, also, ladies and gentlemen, to the number of thirty or forty, were in the habit of meeting " to drink tea in the afternoon," and return to town " in Italian chaises," one gentleman and one lady in each. The good doctor eridently is charmed with these snug arrangements for a legitimate tete-d-tete, and men tions, in connection therevrith, a practice not accordant vrith the greater reserve he elsewhere attributes to the New York belles. " In the way " (from these turtie feasts and tea drinkings), " about three miles from New York, there is a bridge, which you pass over as you return, called the Kissing Bridge, where it is part of the etiquette to salute the lady who has put herself under your protection." Like most Englishmen, Burnaby finds a rare combination of scenery, climate, and resources on Long Island, and makes BEITISH TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 175 especial mention of one feature. " About sixteen mUes from the west end of it there opens a large plain, between twenty and thirty mUes long and four or five mUes broad. There is not a tree growing upon it, and it is asserted there never was. Strangers are always carried to see this plain, as a great curi osity, and the only one of the kind in North America." What would he have thought of a Western prairie ? He is reminded in HeUgate of ScyUa and Charybdis ; and the aspect and climate of Newport, R. I., charm him. " There is a pubhc hbrary here," he writes, " built in the form of a Grecian temple, and by no means inelegant." The Quakers, the Jews, and the fortified islands are duly noted ; but the multiplicity of sects in the Proridence Plantations evidently does not concUiate the doctor's favorable opinion. He speaks of the buttonwood trees, then so numerous and flourishing on the island ; " spruce pines," and the beer made from their " tender twigs ; " of the abundant and excellent fish, and hardy sheep, as weU as of the superior butter and cheese. Of Newport commerce then, he says : " They im port from HoUand, money ; from Great Britain, drygoods ; from Africa, slaves ; from the West Indies, sugar, coffee, and molasses ; and from the neighboring colonies, lumber and provisions." Of manufactures he observes, " they distil rum, and make spermaceti candles." The people of Rhode Island, he declares, " are cunning, deceitful, and selfish, and Uve by unfair and iUicit trading. The magistrates are partial and corrupt, and wink at abuses." All this he ascribes to their form of government ; for " men in power entirely de pend on the people, and it has happened more than once that a person has had influence to procure a fresh emission of paper money solely to defraud his creditors." It is obvious that the Churchman leans toward the Proprietary foi-m of rule then existent in Maryland, and the manorial state of society farther south ; but he concludes his severe criticism of the Rhode Islanders with a candid qualification : " I have said so much to the disadvantage of this colony, that I should be guilty of great injustice were I not to declare that there 176 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. are many worthy gentlemen in it." Although forty years had elapsed since the benevolent and ingenious Bishop of Cloyne had left Newport, the beneficent traces of his pres ence and the anecdotical traditions of his character stUl pre vailed among the people. Burnaby thus alludes to the subject : " About tbree mUes from town is an indifferent wooden bouse, built by Dean Berkeley when he was in these parts. The situation is low, but commands a fine view of the ocean, and of some vrild, rugged rocks that are on the left hand of it. They relate here several strange stories of the dean's wUd and chimerical notions, which, as they are characteristic of that extraordinary man, deserve to be taken notice of. One in particular I must beg the reader's indul gence to aUow me to repeat to hun. • The dean had formed the plan of buUding a town upon the rocks which I have just taken note of, and of cutting a road through a sandy beach which lies a httle below it, in order that ships might come up and be sheltered in bad weather. He was so fuU of this project, as one day to say to Smibert, a designer whom he had brought over with him from Europe, on the latter's asking him some ludicrous question concerning the future importance of the place, ' Truly you have httle fore sight ; for, in fifty years, every foot of land in this place will be as valuable as land in Cheapside.' The dean's house," continues Burnaby, " notwithstanding his prediction, is at present 'nothing more than a farmhouse, and his hbrary is converted into a dahy. When he left America, he gave it to the coUege in New Haven, Connecticut, which have let it to a famUy on a long lease. His books he divided between this college and that of Massachusetts. The dean is said to have written the ' Minute PhUosopher ' in this place." Conservative Dr. Burnaby was not so perspicacious as he thought, when he thus reasoned of Berkeley's views of the growth in value of the region he loved. However mistaken as regards the specific locality and period, he was essentiaUy right as to the spirit of his prophecy — as the price of de sirable " lots " and the value of landed property in Newport BEITISH TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 177 now evidence. Herein, as in that more comprehensive predic tion which foretold the westward course of empire, the good and gifted dean exhibited the prescience of a benignant genius. Bumaby, hke countless other visitors, was delighted with the country around Boston. He notes the two " batteries of skteen and twenty guns Tjuilt by Mr. Shirley," and is struck, in 1770 — as was Dickens, eighty years after — with the resem blance between the New England capital and the " best coun try towhs in England." Indeed, natives of the former recog nize in Worcester, Eng., many of the familiar local traits of Boston, U. S. Our clerical traveller has an eye for the pic turesque, and expatiates on the " unsurpassed prospect " from Beacon Hill. He thus enumerates the public edifices then there: "The Governor's palace, fourteen meeting houses, the Court House, FaneuU's HaU, the linen manufactory, the workhouse, the Bridewell, the public granary, and a very fine wharf at least a mile long." In architecture he gives the pahn to King's Chapel, but significantly records the building of an Episcopal church near the neighboring university, that was long a beautiful exception to the " wooden lan terns " which constituted, in colonial times, the shrines of New England faith. " A church has been lately erected at Cambridge, within sight . of the coUege, which has greatly alarmed the Congregationalists, who consider it the most fatal stroke that could possibly be levelled at their religion. The buUding is elegabt, and the minister of it — the Rev. Mr. Apthorp — is a very amiable young gentleman, of shining parts, great learning, and engaging manners." WeU consid ered, the details of this statement singularly illustrate the ecclesiastical prestige and prejudice of the day. Burnaby recognizes quite a different style of manners and mode of action in the Puritan metropohs from those which character ized the Cavaher, the Quaker, or the Dutch colony before visited- " The character of this province is much improved in comparison with what it was ; but Puritanism and a spirit of persecution are not yet totally extinguished. The gentry of both sexes are hospitable and good-natured : there is an 178 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. ah- of civUity in their behavior, but it is constrained by for mality and preciseness. Even the women, though easiness of carriage is peculiarly characteristic of theh- nature, appear here vrith more stiffness and reserve than in the other colo nies. They are formed vrith symmetry, are handsome, and have fair and delicate complexions, but are said universally, and even proverbiaUy, to have very indifferent teeth. The lower orders are impertinently curious and inquisitive." He records some singular, obsolete, and scarcely credible cus toms, which, with other of his observations, are confirmed hy Anbury, and other writers, who risited New England a few years later. The strict if not superstitious observance of the Sabbath in New England has been often made the theme of foreign visitors ; but Burnaby gives us a curious illustration both of the custom and its results. He says that a captain of a merchant vessel, having reached the wharf at Boston on Sunday, was there met and affectionately greeted by his wife ; which human beharior, on Sunday, so oMraged the " moral sense of the community," that the captain was arrested, tried, and pubhcly whipped for the offence. Ap parently acquiescing in the justice of bis punishment, he con tinued on pleasant terms with his numerous acquaintances after its infliction, and, when quite prepared to sail, invited them to a fete on board ; and, when they were cheerfuUy taking leave, had the whole party seized, stripped to the waist, and forty lashes bestowed on each by the boatswam's cat-o'-nine-tails, amid the acclamations of his crew; after which summary act of retaliation he dismissed his smarting guests, and instantly set sail. At the close of his book,* the Rev. Andrew Bumaby, D. D., Vicar of Greenwich, expresses some general opinions in regard to the colonies, which are noteworthy as the honest impressions of a candid scholar and amiable divine, received nearly a century ago, while traversing a region wherein an imparaUeled development, social, political, and economical, * " Travels through the Middle Settlements of North America, l7S9-'60," Ito., London, 1778. BEiriSH TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 179 has since occurred. " America," he declares, " is formed for happiness, but not for empire.'? The average prosperity of the people made a deep impression. " In a course of twelve hundred miles," he writes, " I did not, see a single object that solicited charity." He was convinced that the latent ele ments of discord and division already existed. " Our colo nies," he remarks, " may be distinguished into Southern and Northern, separated by the Susquehanna and that imaginary line which dirides Maryland from Pennsylvania. The South ern colonies have so many inherent causes of weakness, that they never can possess any real strength. The chmate oper ates very powerfuUy upon them, and renders them indolent, inactive, and unenterprising. I myself have been a spectator of a man, in the rigor of life, lying upon a couch, and a female slave standing over him, wafting off the flies, and fan ning him. These Southern colonies vrill never be thickly settled, except Maryland. Industrial occupation militates vrith their position, being considered as the inheritance and badge of slavery." The worthy author also seriously doubts if " it vrill be possible to keep in due order and government so wide and extended an emph-e." He dwells upon the " difficulties of intercourse, communication, and correspond ence." He thinks " a voluntary coahtion almost difficult to he supposed." " Fire and water," he declares, " are not more heterogeneous than the different colonies of America." It is curious to note wherein these diversities were then thought to lie; Dr. Burnaby teUs us that Pennsylvania and New York were mutuaUy jealous of the trade of New Jersey ; that Massachusetts and Rhode Island were equally conten tious for that. of Connecticut; that the commerce- of the West Indies was " a common subject of emulation," and that the " bounds of each colony were a constant source of litiga tion." He expatiates upon the inherent differences of man ners, religion, character, and interests, as an adequate cause of ciril war, if the colonies were left to themselves ; in which case he predicts that both the Indian and the negro race would " watch their chance to exterminate all." Against ex- 180 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. ternal foes he is of opinion that maritime power is the exclusive available defence. " Suppose," he writes, " them (the colonies) capable of maintaining one hundred thousand men constantly in arms (a supposition in the highest degree extravagant), half a dozen frigates could ravage the whole country ; " for it is " so intersected with rivers of such mag nitude as to render it impossible to buUd bridges over them, and all communication is thus cut off." The greater part of America's wealth, when Bm-naby wrote, according to his observations, " depended upon the fisheries, and commerce with the West Indies." He considered England's best poUcy " to enlarge the present^ not to make new colonies ; for, to suppose interior colonies to be of use to the mother country by being a check upon those already settled, is to suppose what is contrary to experience^ — that men removed beyond the reach of power, will be subordinate to it." From speca- lations hke these, founded, as they are, in good sense, and suggested by the facts of the hour, we may infer how great and vital have been the progressive change and the assimUative process whereby enlarged commercial relations have doomed to oblirion petty local rivalries, mutual and comprehensive interests fused widely-separated communities, and the applica tion of steam to locomotion brought together regions which once appeared too widely severed ever to own a common object of pursuit or sentiment of nationahty. The Revolu tionary War, the naval triumphs, the system of internal im provements and communication, the agricultural, commercial, and manufacturing growth of the United States, in eighty years, are best realized when the present is compared with such authentic records of the past as honest Dr. Bumaby has left us. Yet the events of the passing hour not less em phaticaUy suggest how truly he indicated the essential diffi culties of the social and civic problem to be solved on this continent, when^he described the antagonism of the systems of labor prevalent in the North and South. " A Concise View of North America," * by Major Robert * " A Concise Account of North America, and the British Colonies, Indian Iribes, &c.," by Major Robert Rogers, 8vo., 176B. BEinSH TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 181 Rogers, pubhshed in London in 1765, contains some general information ; chiefly, however, but a meagre outline, which subsequent writers have fiUed up. The unhealthiness and mosquitos of the Carolinas seem to have annoyed him physicaUy, and the intolerance of the " New Haven Colony " moraUy. He finds much in the natural resources, but Uttle in the actual hfe of the country to extol ; and gives the foUow ing sombre picture of Rhode Island, which forms an enthe contrast to the more genial impression which Bishop Berke ley recorded of his sojourn there : '¦ There are in this colony men of almost every persuasion in the world. The greater number are Quakers, and many have no reli gion at all, or, at least, profess none ; on which account no questions are asked, each man being left pretty much to think and act for him self—of which neither the laws nor his neighbors take much cogni zance : so greatly is their hberty degenerated into Ucentiousness. Tliis province is infested with a rascally set of Jews, who fail not to take advantage of the great liberty here granted to men of aU pro fessions and refigions, and are a pest not only to this, but to the neighboring provinces. There is not a free school in the whole col ony, and the education of chUdren is generaUy shamefully neg lected." Two works on America appeared in London in 1760-'61, which indicate that special information in regard to this coun try was, then and there, sufficiently a desideratum to afford a deshable theme for a bookseUer's job. The first of these was edited by no less a personage than Edmund Burke ; * and somewhat of the interest he afterward manifested in the rights and prospects of our country, may be traced to the research incident to this pubUcation, which was issued under the title of " European Settlements in America." It was one of those casual tasks xmdertaken by Bm-ke before he had risen to fame : hke aU compilations executed with a riew to emol ument rather than insphed by personal taste, these two respectable but somewhat duU volumes seem to have made httie impression upon the public. They succinctly describe * " Aecoimt of the European Settlements in America," by Edmund Burke, 2 vols., Svo. maps, London, 1757. \ 182 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. the West India Islands, the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, the colonies of Louisiana, and the French, Dutch, and English settlements, the rise and progress of Puritanism, and the persecution and emigration of its votaries. With reference tothe latter, considerable statistical information is given in regard to New England, and the colonial history of Penn sylvania, Virginia, Maryland, and the Carolinas sketched. Trade, laws, natural history, political viCws, productions, &c., are dwelt upon ; and, as a book of reference at the time, the work doubtless proved useful. It appeared anonymously, with the imprint of Dodsley, who issued a fourth edition in 1766. ,/ " The affairs of America," says Burke, in his preface, " have lately engaged a great deal of public attention. Be fore the present hour there were very few who made the his tory of that quarter of the world any part of their study. The history of a country which, though vast in itself, is the property of only four nations, and which, though peopled probably for a series of ages, is only known to the rest of the world for about two centuries, does not naturaUy afford matter for many volumes." He adds, that, to gain the knowledge thus brought together, " a great deal of reading has been found requisite." He remarks, also, that "what ever is written by the English settlers in our colonies is to be read with great caution," because of the " bias of interest for a particular province." He found most of these records "dry and disgusting reading, and loaded with a lumber of matter ; " yet observes that " the matter is very curious in itself, and extremely interesting to us as a trading people." Although irksome, he seems to have fulfilled his task vrith conscientious care, " ccanparing printed accounts with the best private information ; " but calls attention to the fact that " in some places the subject refuses all ornament." He acknowledges his obligation to Harris's "Voyages." It is interesting, after having glanced at this early com pendium of American resources, history, and local traits — the work of a young and obscure but highly gifted Irish letterateur — to turn to tbe same man's plea, in the days of his BEITISH TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 183 oratorical renown and parhamentary eminence, for that dis tant but rapidly growing country. "England, sir," said Burke, in the House of Commons, in 1775, in his speech on concUiation vrith America, " England is a nation which stiU, I hope, respects, and foi-merly adored her freedom. The colonists emigrated from you -^hen this part of your charac ter was most predominant ; and they took this bias and direction the moment they parted from your hands. They are, therefore, not only devoted to liberty, but to liberty aecordmg to Enghsh ideas, and on English principles ; " — and, in aUusion to the whale fishery,. " neither the perseverance of Holland, nor the activity of France, nor the dexterity and firm sagacity of Enghsh enterprise, ever carried this most perUous mode of hardy industry to the extent to which it has been pushed by this recent people — a people who are still in the gristle, not yet hardened into the bone of manhood." ""~The~other current book of reference^ although of some what earher date, was the combined result of personal obser vation and research, and, in the first respect, had the advan tage of Burke's compilation. It is curious to rem^ember, as we examine its now neglected pages, that when " Rasselas " and the " Vicar of Wakefield " were new novels, and the " TraveUer " the fresh poem of the- day, the cotemporaries of Johnson, Goldsmith, and Burke, as they dropped in at Dodsley's, in Pall Mall, found there, as the most fuU and recent account of North America, the " Summary, Historical and Political, of the First Planting, Progressive Improve ments, and Present State of the British Settlements in North America, by WiUiam Douglass, M. D." * There is much infor mation, especiaUy historical, in these two v^olumes, although most of it has long since been elaborated in more finished annals. Here is the story of the Dutch East India trade ; of the Scots' Darien Company, which forms so graphic an epi sode of Macaulay's posthumous volume ; of the Spanish dis- * " Summary, Historical and Political, of the First planting, Progressive Im provement, and Present State of the British Settlements in America," by Dr. WiUiam Douglass 2 vols. 8vo., London, 17S5. -184 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. coveries and settlements, and of the Hudson's Bay Company. The voyages of Cabot, Frobisher, Gilbert, Davis, Hudson, Middleton, Dobbs, Button, James, Baffin, and Fox, are briefly sketched. On the subject of the whale and cod fisheries, numerous details, both historical and statistical, are given. The " Mississippi Bubble" is'described, and the Canadian ex pedition under Sir William Phipps, in 1690, as well as the reduction of Port Royal in 1710. Each State of New Eng land is delineated, as well as New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Virginia J and what is said of the Indians, of sects, of boundaries, polity,, witchcraft, currency, coUeges, scenery, and products, though either without significance oit too familiar to interest the reader of to-day, must have proved seasonable knowledge to Englishmen then meditating emigration to America. The author of this " Summary " was a Scotchman by birth, who long practised his profession in Boston. He seems to have attained no small degree of professional eminence. He published a treatise on small pox in 1722, and one on epidemic fever in 1786. The most original remarks in his work relate to local diseases, and his medical digressions are frequent. He remarks, in stating the diverse condition of the people of old and New England, that the chUdren of the latter " are more forward and preco cious ; their longerity is more rare, and their fecundity iden tical." He enumerates the causes of chronic distempers in America, independent of constitutional defects, as being bad air and soil, indolence, and intemperance. The worthy doc tor, though an industrious seeker after knowledge, appears to have indulged in strong prejudices and partialities according to the tendency of an eager temperament ; so that it is often requisite to make aUowance for his personal inferences. He was warmly attached to his adopted country, and naively admits, in the preface to his work, that, in one instance, his statements must be reconsidered, having been expressed with a " somewhat passionate warmth and indiscretion " merely in affection to Boston and the country of New England, his altera patria. Dr. Douglass died in 1752. BEniSH TEAVELLEES AN]? WEIIEES. 185 His work on the " British Settlements in North America " was originaUy pubhshed in numbers, at Boston, between January and May, 1749, formmg the first volume; the second in 1753 ; and both first appeared in London in 1755. The work was left incomplete at the author's death. An improved edition was issued by Dodsley in 1760. Adam Smith caUs him " the honest and downright Dr. Douglass ; " but adds that, in " his history of the American colonies he is often incorrect ; and it was his foible to measure .the worth of men by his personal friendship for them." Chancellor Kent, in a catalogue raisonni he kindly drew up for the use of a Young Men's Association, commended to their attention the " Travels and Adventures of Alexander Henry," * a fur trader, and a native of New Jersey, who, be tween the years 1760 and 1776, travelled in the northwest part of America, and, in 1809, published an account of this long and remarkable experience. Confessedly " a premature attempt to share in the fur trade of Canada directly on the conquest of the country, led him into situations of some dan ger and singularity " — quite a modest way of stating a series of hazards, artifices, piwations, and successes, enough to fm-- nish material for a more complacent writer to excite the wonder and sympathy of a larger audience than he strove to win. In the year 1760 he accompanied General Amherst's expedition, which, after the conquest of Quebec, descended from Oswego to Fort Leri, on Lake Ontario. They lost three boats and their cargoes, and nearly lost their hves, in the rapids. Much curious information in regard to the In dians, the risks and method of the fur trade, and. the adven turous phases of border life in the northwest, may be found in this ingenious narrative. Henry's " enterprise, intrepidity, and perils," says Kent, " excite the deepest interest." Forty letters,! written between 1769 and 1777, by WilUam * " Travels and Adventures in Canada and the Indian Territory, between the Tears 1760 and 1776," New York, 1809. •)¦ "Letters from America, Historical and Descriptive, comprising Occur rences from 1769 to 1777, inclusive," by William Eddis, 8vo., 1792. 186 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. Eddis, and pubUshed in London in 1792, contain numerous statistical and historical facts not elsewhere obtainable. Tha author's position as surveyor of the customs at AnnapoUs, in Maryland, gave him singular advantages as an obseiver ; and his letters are justly considered as the " best account we have of the rise of Revolutionary principles in Maryland," and have been repeatedly commended to historical students by British and American critics, although theh detaUs are so unfavorable to the former, and so full of pohtical promise to the latter. The writer discusses trade, government, manners, and climate, and traces the progress of the civil dissensions which ended in the separation of the colonies from the mother country. If from an urbane French officer and ally we turn to the record of an Enghsh militaire, whose riews of men and things we naturally expect to be warped by political animos ity and the fact that many of his letters were written while he was a prisoner of war, it is an agreeable surprise to find, with occasional asperity, much candid intelligence and inter esting local information. Thomas Anbury was an officer in Burgoyne's army, and his " Travels in the Interior of Amer ica " was published in London in 1789. He teUs us that the lower classes of the New Englanders are impertinently curi ous and inquisitive ; that a " live lord " excited the wonder ment of the country people, and disappointed their expectar tions then as now, He complains of Congress as " ready to grasp at any pretence, however weak, to evade the terms of the convention ; " but, at the same time, he commends the absence of any unmanly exultation on the part of the Amer icans at Burgoyne's surrender. " After we had pUed our arms," he writes, " and our march was settled, as we passed the American army, I did not obsei-ve the least disrespect, or even a taunting look ; aU was mute astonishment and pity." He sympathizes with the sorrowful gratification of a be reaved mother, to whom one of his brother officers restored her son's watch, which the- British soldiers had purloined from his body on the battle ifield. He writes of the bright BEITISH TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 187 plumage of the hummingbird, and the musical cry of the whippoorwill ; the grandeur of the Hudson, and the grace of the Passaic Falls. He notes some curious and now obsolete New England customs, and describes the process of cider making, and the topogr'aphy of Boston ; in which vicinity he experienced alb the rigor of an old-fashioned winter in that latitude, the dreariness of which, however, seems to have been essentially reheved by the frolicking sleigh rides of the young people. In one of his letters, dated Cambridge, where he was quartered for many weeks, he thus speaks of that academic spot as it appeared during the Revolution : " The town of Cambridge is about six miles from Boston, and was the country residence of the gentry of that city. There are a number of fine houses in it going to decay, belonging to the Loyal ists. The town must have been extremely pleasant ; but its beauty is much defaced, being now only an arsenal for military stores : and you may suppose it is no agreeable circumstance, every time we walk out, to be reminded of our situation, in beholding the artiUery and ammunition wagons that were taken with our army. The character of the inhabitants of this province is improved beyond the descrip tion that onr uncle B gave us of them, when he quitted the coimtry, thirty years ago ; but Puritanism and the spirit of persecu tion are not yet totally extinguished. The gentry of both sexes are hospitable and good-natured, with an air of, civility, but constrained by formality and preciseness. The women are stiff and reserved, symmetrical, and have delicate complexions ; the men are tall, thin, and generally long-visaged. Both sexes have universally bad teeth, which must probably be occasioned by their eating so much mo- Although a more genial social atmosphere now pervades the comparatively populous city, since endeared by so many gifted and gracious names identified with literature and sci ence, the " stiffness " of Cambridge parties was long prover bial ; and an artist who attended one, after years of sojourn in Southern Europe, declared his fair partner in a solemn quadrUle touched his hand, in " crossing over," with a reti cence so instinctively cautious as to remind hhn of " a boy feehng for cucumbers in the dark." The defective teeth then so characteristic of Americans, which Anbury attributes to 188 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. the use of molasses, was noticed by other foreign risitors, and more justly ascribed to the climate, and its effect upon the whole constitution. It is owing, perhaps, to the greater need of superior dental science on this side of the water, that it subsequently attained such perfection, and that the most skilful American practitioners thereof not only abound at home, but are preferred in Europe. A Virginian, to whom this writer complained of the inquisitiveness and exacting local pride of the people, advised hhn to avoid it by an antici patory address to every new set of acquaintance, as foUows : " Ladies and gentlemen, I am_ named Thomas Anbury. It is no little mortification that I cannot visit Boston, for it is the second city of America, and the grand emporium of rebel lion ; but our parole excludes us from it." Despite an occasional sleigh ride along the Mystic and the Charles, some interesting phases of nature that beguiled his observant mind, and the hospitable treatment he frequently received, we cannot wonder that he found renewing his " pass " every month, and the rhonotonous limits of his win ter quarters, irksome ; so that every morning, with his com rades, he eagerly gazed " from their barracks to the mouth of Boston harbor, hoping to catch sight of the fleet of trans ports that was to convey them to England." A striking Ulustration of the influence of Tory prejudice and disappointment, immediately after the successful termiaar tion of the War of Independence, may be found hi the Trav els of J. F. D. Smythe.* The work was pubhshed by sub scription, and among the list of patrons are many names of the nobility and officers of the British army. The writer professes to be actuated by a desire to gratify public curios ity about a country which has just passed through an " ex traordinary revolution." He declares it a painful task "to mention the hardships and severities " he had undergone in the cause of loyalty and the pursuit of knowledge. He dis claims ill wiU, having "no resentments to indulge, no revenge * " A Tour m the United States of America," by J. F. D. Smythe, Esq., Lon don, 1784. BEITIBH TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 189 to pursue ; " and adds, " The few instances I have met with of kind and generous treatment, have afforded me infinite gratification." The occasion and motive of his publication are thus stated : " Having lately arrived from America, where I had made extensive journeys, and fatiguing, perilous expe ditions, prompted by unbounded curiosity and an insatiable enthusiasm for knowledge, during a residence in that country for a considerable length of time, I had become perfectly reconciled and habituated to the manners, customs, disposi tions, and sentiments of the inhabitants." He conceived himself peculiarly fitted to describe and discuss the new republic. Moreover, he was dissatisfied with all that had ¦ been published on the subject. " I eagerly sought out and pursued," he observes, " vrith a degree of avidity rarely felt, every treatise and publication relating to America, from the first discovery by the im mortal Columbus to Carver's late travels therein, and even the ' Pennsylvania Farmer's Letters,' by Mr. Hector St. John, if, indeed, such a person ever exist ed ; but always had the extreme mortification to meet vrith disappointment in my expectations, every one grasping at and enlarging on the greater objects, and not a single author descending to the minutise, which Compose as weU the true perspective as the real intercourse and commerce of Ufe." He bespeaks the kindly judgment of his readers for a work " written without ornament or elegance, and perhaps, in some respects, not perfectly accm-ate, being composed under pecu liarly disadvantageous circumstances." The latter excuse is the best. Baffled and chagrined hi his personal aspirations, and haring suffered capture, imprisonment, and, according to his own account, some wanton cruelty ; remembering the pri vations and dangers of travel in a new, and exposure in an ininucal country, shattered by illness, and, above aU, morti fied at the ignominious faUure of the Royal cause, be writes vrith bitter prejudice and exaggerated antipathy, despite the show of candor exhibited in the preface. Nor can we find in his work, as a Uterary or scientific performance, any just reason for his depreciation of his predecessors. He may 190 * AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. note a few cu-cumstances overlooked by them, but, on the score of accurate and fresh information, there is httle value in the physical detaUs he gives ; while the pohtical and social are so obviously jaundiced by partisan spite as to be of lim ited significance. Indeed, there is cause to suspect that Mr. Smythe was not infrequently quizzed by his informants ; and his best reports are of agricultural and topographical facts. His " Travels in America," therefore, are now more curious than valuable : they give us a vivi^ idea of the perverse and prejudiced commentaries in vogue at the period among the least magnanimous of the Tory faction. He, like others of his class, was struck with the " want of subordination among the people." He descants on the " breed of running horses " in Virginia. The buUfrogs, mosquitos, flying squirrels, fossil remains, and lofty timber ; the wheat, corn, sugar, cotton, and other cropS ; the characteristics of different Indian tribes ; the clearings, the new settlements, the hospitahty, splendid landscapes, and " severe treatment of the negroes ; " the handsome women, the " accommodations not suited to an epicure," the modes of farming, the habits of planters and riflemen, the extent and character of the large rivers, the capacity of soils, and the behavior of different classes, &c., form his favorite topics of description and discussion, varied by inklings of adventure and severe experiences as a fugitive and a prisoner. He teUs us of the " harems of beautiful slaves" belonging to the Jesuit establishment in Maiyland ; of being " attacked by an itinerant preacher ; " of the "painful sensation of restraint" experienced from the " gloom of the woods ; " of his horse " refusing to eat bar con ; " and of the " formal chcumlocution " of a wayside acquaintance, evidently better endowed with humor than himself. In these and shnUar themes his record assimUates vrith many others written at the time ; but what give it pecuhar emphasis, are the political comments and prophecies — very curious to recaU now, in the light of subsequent events and historical verdicts. " I have no wish to widen the breach," he says ; " but the illiberal and vindictive principles BEITISH TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 191 ofthe prevailing party" in America, seem to him fatal to any hearty reconcUiation between the mother country and her wayward and enfranchised offspring. So absolutely is his moral perception obscured, that he deliberately maligns a character whose immaculate purity even enemies then recog nized with dehght. "It was at Alexandria," he writes, " that George Washmgton first stepped forth as the public patron and leader of sedition, haring subscribed fifty pounds where others subscribed only five, and having accepted the command of the first company of armed associates against the British Government." So far we have only the state ment of a political antagonist ; but when, in the retrospect of his career as mUitary chieftain and civic leader, he thus estimates the man whose disinterestedness had already be come proverbial, we recognize the absolute perversity of this professedly candid writer : "Mr. Washington has uniformly cherished and steadfastly pur sued an apparently mild, steady, but aspiring line of conduct, and views of the highest ambition, 'under the most specious of all cloaks — ^that of moderation, which he invariably appeared to possess. His total want of generous sentiments, and even of common humanity, has appeared notoriously in many instances, and in none more than in his sacrifice of the meritorious but unfortunate Major Andr^. Nor during his life has he ever performed a single action that could entitle him to the least show of merit, much less of glory ; but as a pohtician he has certainly distinguished himself, having, by his politi cal manoeuvres, and his cautious, plausible management, raised him self to a degree of eminence iu his own country unrivalled, and of considerable stability. In his private character he has always been respectable." As a specimen of Tory literature, this portrait forms a singular and suggestive contrast with those sketched of the same Ulustrio-as subject by ChasteUux, Guizot, Erskine, Brougham, Everett, and so many other brilliant writers. It is easy to imagine" what discouraging riews of the new republic such a man would take, after this evidence of his moral perspicacity and mental discrimination. Yet Mr. Smythe was of a sentimental turn. There are verses in his 192 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. American Travels, " written in solitude," not, indeed, equal to Shelley's; and, when incarcerated, he inscribed rhymes with charcoal on his prison wall. We must make due aUow ance for the wounded sensibilities of a man who had been the rictim of a " brutal D^utch guard," a " robber of the mountain," and a " barbarous jailer," when he teUs us that the " fatal termination of the war," and the " consequences of separation from Great Britain and alliance with France,". are " inauspicious for both countries." According to Mr. Smythe,' the Americans were " corrupted by French gold,'" and entered into an " affected amity with that artful, perfidi ous, and gaudy people." He prophesies that " when the in toxication of success is over, they vriU repent then- error." Meantime, h€ pleads earnestly for the Loyalists, declares America rapidly becoming depopulated on account of its " imsettled government " and the check of emigration, and, altogether, an " unfit place of residence." CHAPTER VI. BRITISB TRAVELLERS AND WRITERS CONTINUED. WANSET ; COOPEB ; WILSON ; DAVIS ; ASHE ; BBIBTBD ; KEOTDALL ; WELD ; COBBETT ; CAMPBBLI, ; BTKON ; MOOBB ; MKS. WAKE FIELD ; HODGSON ; JANSEN ; CASWELL ; HOLMES, AND OTHERS ; hall; fbAeon; FrDDLEB;-I,IELL; EEATHERSTONAUGH ; COMBE; EgMALB VVBITBKS ; DICKENS; FAUX; HAMILTON; PABKINSON ; MRS. TROLLOPE ; GRATTAN ; LORD CABLISLE ; ANTHONY TROL LOPS ; PRENTICE ; STIRLING. If, in early colonial times. North America was sought as a reftige from persecution and a scene of adventurous explora tion, and, during the French and Revolutionary wars, became an arena for valorous enterprise ; when peace smiled upon the newly organized Government of the United States, they allured quite another class of visitors — those who sought to ascertain, by personal observation, the actual facihties which the New World offered, whereby the unfortunate could re deem and the intrepid and dexterous advance theh position and resources. Hence inteUigent reporters of industrial and social opportunities were welcomed in Europe, and especially among the manufacturers, agriculturists, and traders of Britain ; and these later records differ from the earlier in more specific data and better statistical information. To the American reader of the present day they are chiefly attrac tive as affording facts and figures whereby the development of the country can be distinctly traced from the adoption of 9 194 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. the Federal Constitution to the present time, and a salient contrast afforded between the modes of life and the aspect of places sixty years ago and to-day. The vocation, social ( rank, and personal objects of these writers so modify theh (Observations, that, in ahnost every instance, aUowance must I be made for the partiahties and prejudices, the limited knowl- ledge or the self-love of the journahst and letter writer; yet, ' as theh aim usually is to impart such information as will he ' of practical benefit to those who contemplate emigration, curious and interesting details, economical and social, may often be gleaned from their pages. One of these books, which was quite popular in its day, and is still occasionaUy quoted, is that of Wansey, which was published in 1794, and subsequently reprinted here.* His voyage across the Atlan tic was far from agreeable, and not without serious privar tions. Indeed, nothing more remarkably indicates the prog ress of comfort and luxury within the last half century, than the speed and plentiful resources wherewith the risitor to America now makes the transit. Wansey, as was the custom then, furnished his own napkins, bedding, and extras for the voyage ; his account of which closes with the remark, that "there does not exist a more sordid, penurious race than the captains of passage and merchant vessels." Yet a no bler class of men than the American packet captains of a subsequent era never adorned the merchant service of any nation. Henry Wansey, F. S. A., was an English manufacturer, and his visit to America had special reference to his vocation. He notes our then very limited enterprise in this sphere, and . examined the quahty and cost of wool in several of the States. On the Sth of June, 1794, he breakfasted with Washington at Philadelphia. " I confess," he writes, " I was struck with awe and veneration. The President seemed very thoughtful, and was slow in delivering himself, which in- * " An Excursion to the United States, in the Summer of 1794," by Henry Wansey ; with a curious profile portrait of Washington, and a view of the State House in Philadelphia, 12mo., pp. 280, Salisbury, 1798. BEITISH TEAVELLEES AND WKriEKS. 195 duced some to believe him reserved; but it was rather, I apprehend, the result of much reflection ; for he had, to me, the appearance of affabihty and accommodation. He was, at this time, in his sixty-third year, but had very little the ap pearance of age, having been aU his life exceedingly temper ate. There was a certain anxiety visible in his countenance, vrith marks of extreme sensibUity." Wansey, like most visitors at that period, was struck with, the great average of health, inteUigence, and contentment among the people. " In these States," he writes, " you behold a certain plainness and simplicity of manners, equahty of con dition, and a sober use of the faculties of the mind. It is seldom you hear of a madman or a blind man in any of the States ; seldom of a felo de se, or a man afflicted with the gout or palsy. There is, indeed, at PhUadelphia, a hospital for lunatics. I went over it, but found there very few, if any, that were natives. They were chiefly Irish, and mostly women." What an illustration of our present eagerness for wealth and office — of the encroachments . of prosperity upon simple habits and chastened feelings — is the fact that now insanity is so prevalent as to be characteristic, and that a " sober use of the faculties of the mind " is the exception, not the rule, of American Ufe ! Ta those curious in byway econonjies, it may be pleasant to know, that Wansey, in the year '94, found the " Bunch of Grapes " the best house of entertainment in Boston ; that it was kept by Colonel Cohnan, and that, though "pestered with bugs," his guest paid " five shiUings a day, including a pint of Madeha." He records, as memorable, the circum stance that he " took a walk to Bunker Hill with an officer who had been on the spot in the battle ; " .and that they re turned " over the new bridge from Cambridge," which Wan sey— not haring lived to see the Suspension Bridge at Niag ara, the Victoria at Montreal, nor the Waterloo in London — observes is " a most prodigious work for so infant a country — worthy of the Roman empire." Boston then boasted " forty hackney coaches, which carry one to any part of the 196 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. town for a quarter of a doUar." The pillar on Beacon Hill, and Long Wharf, were to him the chief local objects of interest. He risited the "famous geographer," Jedediah Morse, at Charlestown, read the Columbian Centinel, and attended " the only Unitarian chapel yet opened in America, and heard Mr. Freeman." Springfield, in Massachusetts, put hhn in mind of Winbourn, in Dorsetshire ; the coffee there was " ill made," and tbe " butter rank," whUe the best article of food he found was " fried fish." He was charmed with the abundance of robins and swallows, and saw " a sahnon caught in a seine in the Connecticut River," and " a school- house by the roadside in ahnost every parish." He attended a meeting of the Legislature in Hartford, and heard a debate as to how " to provide for the poor and sick negroes who had been freed from slavery — the question being whether it was incumbent on the former masters, or the State, to subsist them. Like aU strangers then and there, he was hospitably received by Mr. Wadsworth. He mentions, as a noteworthy facility for travellers, that " three or four packets saU every week from New Haven to New York." Of New England commodities which he records for their novelty or preva lence, are sugar from the maple tree, soft soap, and cider. Like aU foreigners, he complains of the bad bread, and enu merates, as a curious phenomenon, that there is " no tax on candles ; " that thunder storms are frequent, and lightning conductors on all the houses ; that woodpeckers, flycatchers, and kingbhds abound ; that the dweUings are buUt exclu sively of timber, and that " women and children, in most of the country places, go without caps, stockings, and shoes." The weU poles of New Jersey, and her domestic flax spin ners, cherry trees, and firefiies impress him as characteristic ; and be is disappointed in the quality of the wool produced there. In New York, Mr. Wansey lodged at the Tontine Coffee House, near the Battery, where he met Citizen Genet and Joseph Priestley, breakfasted with General Gates, and received a call from Chancellor Livingston. He " makes a note " of the then " public buddings " — riz., the Governor's BEniSH TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 197 house, the Exchange, the Society Library, the Literary Coffee House, Columbia CoUege, the hospital, and workhouse. He found some " good paintmgs by Ti-umbuU " at Federal Hall, was interested hi Montgomery's monument, went with a party to see " Dickson Colton's manufactory at HeUgate," and Hodgkinson in " A Bold Stroke for a Husband " at the theatre. He encountered John Adams, then Vice-President, at Burling Shp, " on board tbe packet just sailing for Bos ton," and describes hhn as " a stout, hale, weU-looking man, of grave deportment, and quite plain in dress and person." He dined vrith Comfort Sands ; and Mr. Jay, " brother to the ambassador," took him to "the Belvidere — an elegant tea-drinking house, vrith dehghtful views of the harbor ; " also to " the Indian Queen, on the Boston road, fiUed with Frenchmen and tri-color cockades." In Philadelphia, he saw Washington at tbe play, which was one of Mrs. Inchbald's ; dined vrith Mr. Bingham, and heard ah about the ravages of the yeUow fever of the preceding year. How suggestive are even such meagre notices of personal experience, reviving to our minds the primitive housewifery, the pohtical vicissitudes, and the social tastes which mark the history of the land sixty years ago : when the first President of the republic had been recently inaugurated ; when the mischievous " French alliance " was creating such bitter par tisan feehng ; when a Unitarian phUosopher fled from a Bh- mingham mob to the vrilds of Pennsylvania ; when the abo htion of slavery was a famUiar fact in our social life ; when good Mrs. Inchbald's dramas were favorites, and Brockden Brown was writing his graphic' story of tbe pestilence that laid waste his native city; when Trumbull was the artist, Hodgkinson the actor. Genet the demagogue, Livmgston the lawyer, and Washington the glory of the land ! Among the economical writers on our country, Thomas Cooper was at one time much quoted.* His remarks were, however, the fruits of quite a brief survey, as he left Eng- * " Some Information respectmg America," London, 1794. 198 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. land late in the summer of 1793, and embarked on his return the ensuing winter. He found " land cheap and labor dear ; " praises the fertility of the Genesee Valley, then attracting emigrants from New England, as its subsequent inhabitants were lured by the same causes to the stiU farther western plams of Ohio and Illinois. Cooper indicates, as serious objections to New York State, the intermittent fevers, and the unsatis factory land tenure — ^both of which obstacles have graduaUy disappeared or been auspiciously modified, as the civiUzation of the interior has advanced, and its vast resources been made avaUable by the genius of communication. This writer also declares that the climate of Pennsylvania is more dry. The existence of slavery he considers a rital objection to the Southern sections of the country for the British emigrant. He remarks of Rhode Island, that it is " in point of climate as well as appearance the most similar to Great Britain of any State in the Union " — a remark confirmed often since by foreign visitors and native travellers. It is to be observed, however, that most of those who explored the States, when the facUities for travel were meagre and inadequate, for the purpose of obtaining economical information, usuaUy confined their experience to special regions, where convenience or acci dent induced them to Unger ; and thus they naturally give the preference to different places. Brissot recommends the Shenandoah Valley, and Imlay, Kentucky. Cooper thought " the prospect in the professions unprofitable." He states that literary men, as a class, did not exist, though the names of Franklin, Rittenhouse, Jefferson, Paine, and Barlow were distinguished. The number of articles he mentions as indis pensable " to bring over," in 1793, gives one a startling idea of the deficiencies of the country. He asserts, however, that the " culinary vegetables of America are superior to those of England ; " but, on the other hand, was disappointed in the trees, as, " although the masses of wood are large and grand," yet the arborescent specimens individually "fell much short of his expectations ; " which does not surprise those of his readers who have seen the noble and impressive BEIIISH TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 199 trees which stand forth ih such magnificent relief in some of the parks and manor grounds of England. The details of a new settlement given by this writer, are more or less identi cal vrith those which have since become so familiar to us, from the vivid pictures of life in the West ; but we can easily imagine how interesting they must have been to those contemplating emigration, or with kindred who had lately found a new home on this continent. More, however, of the Puritan element mingled with and marked the hfe of the set tlers in what was then "the West " — and tinctured the then nascent tide of civihzation. Somewhat of the simphcity no ticed by writers during colonial times, yet lingered ; and the social lesson with which Cooper ends his narrative is benign and phUosophical : " By the ahnost general mediocrity of fortune," he writes, " that prevails in America, obliging its people to foUow some business for subsistence, those vices that a,rise usuaUy from idleness are in a great measure pre vented. Atheism is unknown ; and the Divine Being seems to have manifested His approbation of the mutual forbear ance and kindness vrith which the different sects. treat each other, by the remarkable prosperity with which He has been pleased to crown the whole country." Alexander WUson, the ornithologist, the Paisley weaver and poet, after enduring political persecution and great pri vations at home, landed at Newcastle, in Delaware, July 14th, 1794, and, having shot a red-headed woodpecker, was inspired with an ornithological enthusiasm which decided his career. He became a schoolmaster, an ardent politician, and, through intimacy vrith Bartram, a confirmed naturalist. He wrote for Brockden Brown's magarine, made a pedestrian tour to Niagara, was the author of "The Foresters" — an elaborate poem hi the Portfolio, and fixed his home on the banks of the Susquehanna : meanthne, and subsequently, toU ing, in spite of every obstacle and with beautiful zeal, upon his " American Ornithology ; " and irt this and other writings, m verse and prose, giving the most rivid local descriptions of 200 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. life and nature in America as revealed to the eye of science and of song.* Travel here, as elsewhere, brings out the idiosyncrasies, and proves a test of character. A certain earnestness of purpose and definite sympathy lend more or less dignity to the narratives of missionary, soldier, and savant / but these were soon succeeded by a class of men whom accident or necessity brought hither. The welcome accorded some of them, when " stranger was a holy name " among us, and the greater social consideration experienced in a less conventional state of society than that to which they had been accus tomed, sometimes induced an amusing self-complacency and oracular tone. With the less need of the heroic, more super ficial traits of human nature found scope ; and a fastidious taste and- critical standard were too often exhibited by writers, whose previous history formed an incongruous paraUel with the newborn pretensions warmed into life by the repubhcan atmosphere of this young land. A visitor whose narrow means obhged him often to travel on foot and rely on casual hospitahty, and whose acqturements enabled hhn to subsist as a tutor in a Southern famUy, for several months, would chaUenge our respect for his independence and self-reUance, were it not for an egotistical claim to the rank of a practical and philosophical traveller, which obtrudes itself on every page of his journal. Some descriptive sketches, however, atone for the amiable weakness of John Davis,f whose record includes the period between 1798 and 1802, during which he roamed over many sections of the country, and observed various phases of American life. " I have entered," he says, " vrith equal interest, the mud hut of the negro and * " American Omithfltogy ; or, The Natural History of the Birds of the United States," with plates from original drawings taken from nature, 9 vols., folio, Philadelphia, 1808-'14. " The Foresters, a Poem descriptive of a Pedestrian Journey to the FaUs of Niagara," 12mo., Paisley, 1825. •j- "Travels of Pour Years and a Half in the United States, during the years 1798 to 1802," by John Davis, dedicated to President Jefferson, 8vo., London, 1803. BEITISH TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 201 the log house of the planter ; I have hkevrise communed with the slave who wields the hoe and the taskmaster who im poses the labor." Pope, Addison, and Johnson were his oracles, and the style of the latter obviously won his sympa thy. Burr fascinated him; Dennie praised his verses, and he saw Brockden Brown. His volume abounds with byway anecdotes. He records the detaUs of his experience vrith the zest of one whose self-esteem exalts whatever befaUs and surrounds him. To-night he is kept awake by the howls of a mastiff, to-morrow he dines on venison ; now he writes an elegy, and now engages in literary discussion with a planter. His odes to a cricket, a mockhigbhd, to Ashley River, etc., eridence the Shenstone taste and rhyme then so much in vogue. He " contemplated vrith reverence the portrait of James Logan," and draws from an Irish clergyman new anec dotes of Goldsmith. He disputes Franklin's originahty in the form of an amusing dialogue between a Virginian and a New Englander, tracing the phUosopher's famous parable to Bishop Taylor, and his not less famous epitaph to a Latin author. He praises PhiUis Wheatley, and notes, with evident pleas ure, the trees, grains, reptUes, birds, and animals. Great is his dread of the rattlesnake. Anecdotes and verses, phUo sophical reflections and natural history items, with numerous personal confessions and impressions, make up a characteris tic melange, in which the vanity of a bard and the specula tions of a traveUer sometunes grotesquely blend, but with so much good nature and harmless pedantry, that the result is diverting, and sometimes instructive. • " My long residence," he writes, " in a community ' where honor and shame from no condition rise,' has placed me above the ridiculous pride of disowning the situation of a tutor." In this vocation he certainly enjoyed an excellent opportunity to observe that unprecedented blending of the extremes of high cirihzation and rude economies which forms one of the most salient aspects of our early history. The Enghsh tutor, when do mesticated in a Southern famUy, was sheltered by a log house whUe he shared the pleasures of a sumptuous table ; 9* 202 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. and, when surrounded by the crude accommodations of a new plantation, vvitnessed the highest refinement of manners, and hstened to the most inteUectual conversation. If, during his wanderings, he was annoyed, one night, by a short bed, he was amused, the next, by a traveUing menagerie. If, m tutoring, his patience was tried by seeing people " strive to exceed each other in the vanities of life," he was compen sated, in the woods, by shooting wild turkeys with his pupU. He quotes Shakspeare, and observes nature with great relish ; and the cotton plant, the autumn wind, the vrild deer, eagles, hummingbirds, whippoorwiUs, bog plant, and flycatchers, with occasional flirtations with a meUifluous muse, beguile the time ; and he boasts, in the retrospect of his four years' sojourn, and the written digest thereof, that he " scorns com plaints of mosquitos and bugs," that he " eschews magnifi cent epithets," " makes no drawings," and " has not joined the crew of deists " — which negative merits, we infer, were rare in traveUers' tales half a century ago. The repubUcan ideas, inquiring turn of mind, or extreme deference of this writer, seems to bave won hhn the favorable regard of Jef ferson, upon whom and Burr he lavishes ardent praise : and the former seems to recognize not only a pohtical admirer, but a brother author, in Davis ; for, in reply to his request to dedicate his Travels to the apostle of American democ racy, Jefferson, after accepting graciously the compliment, writes : " Should you, in your journeyings, have been led to remark on the same objects on which I gave crude notes some years ago, I shaH -be happy to see them confirmed or corrected by so accurate an observer." His work is entitled, " Travels of Four and a Half Years in the United States, 1799-1802," London, 1817. "With more sincerity," says Rich's Bibliotheca Americana, " than is usual among travel lers, he states that he made the tour on foot, because he could not afford the expense of a horse." In 1806, Thomas Ashe visited North America, with the intention of examining the Western rivers, in order to leam, from personal inspection, the products of their vicmage, and BEITISH TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 203 the actual state of the adjacent country. The Mississippi, Ohio, Monongahela, and AUeghany were the special objects of his exploration. His " Ti-avels in America " * is a curi ous mixture of critical disparagement, quite too general to be accm-ate, and of romantic and extravagant episodes, which diminish the reliance that might otherwise be placed on the more practical statements. The work appeared in London in 1808. The natural appetite for the marveUous, and the desire to obtain a knowledge of facts, at that time, in regard to the particular region risited, being prevalent, this now rarely con sulted volume was much read. From Pittsburg he writes : " The Atlantic States, through which I have passed, are un worthy of your observation. The climate has two extremes." The Middle States " are less contemptible ; the national fea tures not strong;" and, from this circumstance, he thinks it difficult to conjecture what national character wUl arise. At Carlisle, Pa., he " did not meet a man of decent litera ture." He seeks consolation, therefore, in the picturesque scenes around him, which are often described in rhetorical terms, and in a recognition of the fairer portion of the com munity. Thomson's " Seasons " is evidently a favorite book ; and he presents a copy to a " young lady among the emi grants," on the blank leaf of which, he teUs us, he wrote a "romantic but just compliment." Education, sects, manu factures, and prorisions .are commented on ; but the tone of his remarks, except where he praises the face of nature or the manners of a woman, is discouraging to those who con template settling hi the western part of the coimtry — which he continuaUy brings into severe comparison with the more developed communities of the Old World. Indeed, he re pudiates the flattering accounts of prerious travellers ; and it is evident that the reaction from his own extravagant expec- *" Travels in America, performed m 1806," by Captain Thomas Ashe, 3 vols. 12mo., London, 1808. " His account of the Atlantic States forms the most comprehensive piece of national abuse we ever recollect to have read." — Rich. 204: AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. tations leads hhn to picture the dark side with earnestness. Personal disjippointment is expressed in aU his generaliza tions, although certain local beauties and exceptional indi viduals modify the strain of complaint, which, though some times well founded, is often unreasonable. He describes the hardships and privations incident to emigration, and Ulus trates them by melancholy exarnples. . The " vicious taste in building," the formidable catalogue of snakes, the want of literary culture, the discomfort, and the coarse manners quite echpse the charms of landscape and the natural advantages of the vast region which, since his journey, has become so ¦populous, enterprising, and productive. He " reports " a boxing match, horse race, baU and supper in Vhginia ; hears a debate in Congress, and retires " fuU of contempt ; " swin dlers and impostors intrude on his privacy at a tavern. He says, with truth, that " no people live vrith less regard to regimen;" and, as we read, beautiful scenes seem to he counterbalanced by bad food, grand rivers by uncoltured minds, cheap land by narrow social resources ; in a word, the usual conditions of a new country, vyhere nature is exuberant and cirihzation incomplete, are described as such anomahes would be by a man with a fluent and ambitious style, tastes and self-love easUy offended, and to whom the " law of a pro duction," which Goethe deemed so essential to vrise criticism in letters, is scarcely applied, though stUl more requisite to a traveller's estimate. Ashe put on record some reaUy useful information, and stated many disenchanting truths about the New World, and Ufe there ; but the rhetorical extravagance and personal vanity herewith ventUated, detract not a little from his authority as a reference and his tact as a romancer. 'T'he gentler portion of creation alone escape reproach. "I assure you," he writes, " that when I expressed the supreme disgust excited in me by the people of the United States, the ladies were by no means included in the general censure." ^\When we remember that such books, half a century ago, were the current sources of information in Great Britain in regard to America, and that a writer so limited in scope, in- BEITISH TEAVELLEES AND WEIIEES. 205 discriminate in abuse, and superficial in thought, was re garded as an authority, it is easy to perceive how the inimical feeling toward this countiy was fostered. One fact alone indicates the shallowness of Ashe : he dates none of his com placent epistles from the Northem States, and gives', as a rear son therefor, that they are " unworthy of observation." He^ thinks the social destiny of Pittsburg redeemed by a few Irish famUies settled there, who " hhidered the vicious pro pensities of the genuine American character from establish ing here the horrid dominion which they have assunjed over the Atlantic States." He finds the men deteriorated on/ account of their " political doctrines," which, he consider^ tend " to make men turbulent citizens, abandoned Christians, inconstant husbands, and treacherous friends." Here we have the secret of this traveller's sweeping censure. His hatred of republican institutions not only blinded him to all the pririleges and merits of American hfe and character, but even to certain domestic traits and professional talents, recog nized by every other foreign observer of the country. Yet, palpable as are his injustice and ignorance, contemporaiy critics at home faUed to recognize them. One says, " his researches cannot faU to interest the politician, the statesman, the phUosopher, and the antiquary ; " while the Quarterly Review mUdly rebukes him for having " spoiled a good ;book by engrafting incredible stories on authentic facts." Rev. John Bristed, who succeeded Bishop Griswold in St. Michael's Church, at Bristol, R. I., pubhshed, in 1818, a work on " America and her Resources." He was a native of Dor- setshhe, England, and, for two years, a pupil of Chitty. Strong in his prejudices of country,, yet impressed with the advantages of the New World, his report of American means, methods, and prospects, though containing much use ful, and, at the time, some fresh and deshable information, is crude, and tinctured with a personal and national bias, which renders it, superseded as most of its facts have been by tjie development of the country, of little present significance. It is, however, to the curious, as an Ulustration of character, a 206 AMEEICA ANP HEE COMMENTATOES. suggestive indication of the state of feeling of an English resident, and of the 'state of the country forty or fifty years since. The author was a scholar, with strong conrictions. He died at Bristol a few years since, at an advanced age. He also pubhshed " A Pedestrian Tour in the Highlands," in 1804. His work on America was the result of several years' residence ; and its scope, tone, and character are best hinted by the opinion of one of the leading Reriews of England, thus expressed soon after its publication: "We cannot avoid regarding Mr. Bristed vrith some degree of respect," says the London Quarterly. "In writmg his book, his pride in his native country, which all his repub licanism has been unable to overcome, has frequently had to contend vrith the flattering but unsubstantial prospect with which the prophetic folly that ever accompanies democracy has impressed his mind, to a degree almost equaUing that of the vain people with whom he is domicUed." As an au thentic landmark of economical progress, this work is use ful as a reference, whatever may be thought of its social criticism. An enthe contrast to the record of Ashe appeared about the same time, in the " Travels through the Northern Parts of the United States," * by Edward Augustus KendaU. No previous work on this country so fully explains the State poUty and organization of New England, and the social facts connected therevrith. " The intention of travel," says the inteUigent and candid author, " is the discovery of truth." As unsparing in criticism as Ashe, he analyzes the municipal system and the social development with so much knowledge and fairness, that the political and economical student wUl find more data and detail in his work than, at that period, were elsewhere obtainable. It stUl serves as an authentic memorial of tbe region of country described, at that transi tion era, when time enough had elapsed, after the Revolution ary War, for life and labor to have assumed their normal * " Travels through.the Northem Parts of the United States, in the yeai-a 1807-'8," by Edward A. KendaU, 3 vols. 8vo., New York, 1809. BEinSH TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES- 207 development, and before their scope had been enlarged and theh activity intensified by the vast mechanical improve ments of our own day. The local laws of Connecticut, for instance, are fully discussed ; townships, elections, churches, prisons, schools, and the press — all the elements and principles which then and there manifested national and moulded pri vate character. The famous " Blue Laws " form a cm-ious chapter ; and, in his account of the newspaper press, he notes the remarkable union of " license of thought with very favor able specimens of diction," and enlarges upon the prevalent " florid and tumid " language in America, its causes and cure ; whUe his chapter on Hartford Poetry is an interesting Ulus tration of our early local literature. Scarcely any contemporary writer of American travels was more quoted and popular, sixty years ago, than Isaac Weld, whom the troubles of Ireland, in '95, induced to visit this country. That experience, we may readUy imagine, caused hhn thoroughly to appreciate the importance of practical observations in a land destined to afford a prosperous home for such a multitude of his unfortunate countrymen. Ac cordingly we find, in his weU-written work,* abundance of econonucal and statistical facts ; and the interests and pros pects of agriculture and commerce are elaborately considered. WhUe this feature rendered Weld's Travels really useful at the time of their publication, and an authentic reference sub sequently, his ardent love of nature lent an additional interest to his work ; for be expatiates on the beauties of the land scape vrith the perception of an artist, and is one of the few early travellers who enriched his journal with authentic sketches of picturesque and famous localities. The French translation of Weld's Travels in America is thus iUustrated ; and the old-fashioned yet graphic view of an " Auberge et voiture publique dans les !fitats Unis," riridly recaUs the days anterior to locomotives, so suggestive of stage-coach adven- * " Travels through the States of North America and the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, in 179S-'96-'97," by Isaac Weld, illustrated with fine engravings, 4to., 1799. 208 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. tures, dehberate travel, and the unmodified hfe and character of the rural districts. In describing the sanguinary attacks of New Jersey insects, he deals in the marveUous, giving Wash ington as authority that the mosquitos there bite tlirough the thickest boots. No writer on America has more singularly combined the pohtical refugee and adventurer with the assiduous econo mist than WiUiam Cobbett. Bom and bred a farmer, he fled, whUe a youth, from the peaceful vocation of his father, to become a soldier in Nova Scotia ; but soon left the service, visited France, and, iij 1796, settled in Philadelphia, where the fierce tone of his controversial writings involved him in costly libel suits. His interest in the pohtical questions then rife in America is amply evidenced by the twelve volumes of the works of Peter Porcupine, published in London in 1801. Retmuing to England, he became the strenuous advocate of Pitt, and started the Weehly Register, which contained his lucubrations for thirty years ; but, haring once more ren dered himself amenable to law by the combined freedom and force of his pen, he returned to the United States, and en joyed the prestige of a political exUe in the vicinity of Nbw York ; and when the repeal of the Six Acts permitted his return bome, he conveyed to England the bones of Thomas Paine, whose memory he idohzed. Cobbett is recognized under several quite distinct phases, according to the views of bis critics — as a mahgnant radical by some, a philosophical hberal by others. His style is regarded as a model of per spicacity ; and his love of agriculture, and faith in habits of inexpensive comfort and cheerful industry, made him, in the eyes of partial observers, quite the model of repubUcan hardi hood and independence ; whUe the more refined and urbane of his day shrank from his vituperative language and hitter partisanship. He slandered the benign Dr. Rush, and Ben tbam declared "his malevolence and lying beyond every thing;" while Kent remarked that his political writings afforded a valuable source of knowledge to those who would understand the parties and principles which agitated our BEITISH TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 209 counti-y during his sojourn ; and the London Times ap plauded the muscular rigor of his jdiction. But it is as a writer on the economical and social facts of American life, that Cobbett now claims our Uotice ; and in this regard he differs from most authors in the same sphere, in the specific character of the information be imparts, and the dehberate conclusions at which he arrived. Some of our venerable countrymen remember his pleasant abode on Long Island, and the memorable discussions which sometimes took place there between the pohtical exile, reformer, grammarian, and horticultm-ist, and his intelligent visitors from the city. The late Dr. Francis used to quote some of his emphatic sayings, and describe bis frugal arrangements and agricultm-al tro phies. In the preface to his " Year's Residence in America," * Cobbett complains of English travellers as too extreme in theh statements in regard to the country — one set describing it as a paradise, and the other as unfit to live in. He treats the subject in a practical way, and fropa patient experience. Enamored of a farmer's hfe, be boasts that he was " bred up at a ploughtaU and among the hop gardens of Surrey," and that he was never eighteen months " without a garden." He expatiates on the superior condition of the agricultural class in America, where " a farmer is not a dependent wretch," and where presidents, governors, and legislators pride them selves on the vocation. He describes his own little domain, the American trees be has planted around his house, his ex periments in raising com, potatoes, and especiaUy rutabaga. By " daily notes " he carefuUy reports the transitions of tem perature and seasons, and gives definite accounts of modes of cultivation, the price of land, cost of raising kine and poultry ; in a word, aU the economical details which a prac tical man would prize. By the narrative of his own doings in the ricinity of New York, and of his observations during a journey to the West, the foreign reader must have obtained from Cobbett tbe most satisfactory knowledge of the mate- * " A Year's Residence in the United States," 3 vols., 8vo., London, 1818. 210 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. rial resources of a large section of the country as it was forty years since. Thrpugh these agricultural items, how ever, the disappointment of the politician and the sympathies of the republican viridly gleam ; for the truculent author constantly rejoices that no " spies, false witnesses, or blood- money men " beset the path of frugal toil and independent thought in this land of freedom. He justly laments the prevalence of intemperance, and compares the " Hampshire parsons " and their flocks — not at all to the advantage of either — with the " good, kind people here going to church to listen to some decent man of good moral character and of sober, quiet life." Despite the narrowness of the partisan and the egotism of the innovator, Cobbett, in some respects, is one of the more clear and candid reporters who sought to enlighten Europe about America. A critical authority in agriculture, while denying him scientific range, admits that he adorned the subject " by his homely knowledge of the art, and most agreeable delineation ; " while some of tbe most es sential social traits, remarkable pohtical tendencies, and emi nent public characters of the United States, have been most truly and impressively described by WiUiam Cobbett. " I visited Parliament House," writes an American from London in 1833. "The question was the expediency of ab rogating the right, under any circumstances, of impressing seamen for her Majesty's navy. Cobbett said but a few words, but they went directly to the question : ' One fact on this subject claims and deserves tbe attention of the House. The national debt consists of eight hundred mUlions of pounds ; and seven hundred thousand of this debt was incurred in the war with America, in support of this right of impressing seamen.' " However coarse the radicahsm of Cobbett, there was a basis of sense and truth in his intrepid assertion of first. prin ciples — his recognition and advocacy of elementary political justice — that just thinkers respect, however uncongenial may be the manner and method of the man ; no little of the offen sive character thereof being attributable to a baffled and : BEITISH TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 211 position. An acute German writer * apostrophized him, not maptly, thus: "Old Cobbett! dog of England! I do not love you, for every vulgai- nature is fatal to me ; but I pity you from my deepest soul, when I see that you cannot break loose from your chain, nor reach those thieves who, laughing, sUp away their plunder before your eyes, and mock your fruit less leaps and unavaUing howls." WhUe political reformers of the hberal school, drew argu ments from American prosperity, popular bards gave expres sion to the common vexation, by taunting the repubhc with the taint of slavery, though a poisoned graft from the land of our origin — as CampbeU, in his bitter epigram on the American flag — or with sarcasms upon democratic manners, as in Moore's ephemeral sathe. And yet, wben the prospect for men with more vrit than money, and more learning than rank, in Great Britain, was all but hopeless, the Bard of Hope could discover no more auspicious home than the land he thus sneered at for a local and inherited stain. AUuding to a half- formed project of joining his brother in America, and earning his subsistence there by teaching, he observes, in a letter to Washington Lving : " God knows I love my country, and my heart would bleed to leave it ; but if there be a consum mation such as may be feared, I look to takmg up my abode in the only other land of liberty ; and you may behold me, perhaps, flogging your little Spartans in Kentucky into a true sense and feehng of the beauties of Homer." Byron, an impassioned devotee of freedom, and disgusted by tbe social proscription his undisciplined and wilful career had entaUed on him in his native land, turned a gaze of sym pathy toward the West. It is said no tribute to his fame dehghted him so much as the spontaneous admiration of Americans, He was highly gratified when one of our ships of war paid bim the compliment of a salute in the harbor of Leghorn ; and expressed unfeigned satisfaction when told of a well-thumbed copy of his poems at an inn near Niagara * Heine. 212 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. FaUs. Indeed, bis restless mind often found comfort in the idea of making his home in the United States. Every school boy remembers bis apostrophe to this country, in his Ode to Venice : " One great clime, Whose rigorous offspring by dividing ocean Are kept apart, and nursed in the devotion Of freedom, which their fathers fought for and . Bequeathed — a heritage of heart and hand. And proud distinction from each other land — Yet rears her crest, unconquered and sublime, Above the far Atlantic. She has taught Her Esau brethren that the haughty flag, The floating wall of Albion's feebler crag. May strike to those whose red right hands have bought Eights cheaply earned with blood." " One freeman more, America, to thee," Byron would bave indeed added ; and, had he followed the casual impulse and found new inspiration from nature on this continent, and outhved here the fever of passion and the recklessness of error, how easy to imagine his later manhood and his per verted name alike redeemed by faith and humanity into " vic torious clearness." A remarkable evidence of the prevalent fashion and feel ing, on the other h^nd, is to be found in tbe writings of Tom Moore. His Life, so imprudently sent to the press by Lord John Russell, exhibits, in his own letters and diaries, as com plete a fusion of the man of the world and the poet — ^if such a phenomenon is possible — as can be found in the whole range of literary biography. But Moore was a man of fancy and music rather than of deep or wide sympathies — a social favorite and graceful rhymer, who lived for the drawing room and the dinner, and was beguUed by aristocratic hospi- tahties from that great and true world of humanity wherein the true bard finds inspiration. Accordingly, it was to he , expected that his hasty visit to America should be, as it was, made capital for satire and song, in the interest of British prejudice. There is so little originality or completeness in BEITISH TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 213 these desultory notes of his risit, vrith the exception of two finished and melodious lyrics — "The Lake of the Dismal Swamp " and " The Canadian Boat Song "—that only the prestige of his name makes thera of present interest. Moore arrived at Norfolk, Va., in the autunm of 1803, in H. B. M. frigate Phaeton, where he stayed ten days, and then went to Bermuda in the " Driver " sloop-of-war. Thence he proceeded in the " Boston " to New York ; visited Washington and Philadelphia, Canada and Niagara FaUs. At Bermuda he met Basil HaU, then a midshipman. At Washington he had an interriew with Jefferson, " whom," he writes, " I found sitting vrith General Dearborn and one or two other officers, and in the same homely costume, com prising shppers and Connemara stockings." He enjoyed Philadelphia society, and addressed some verses to " Dela ware's green banks " and " Fair SchuylkUl." He describes Buffalo as a viUage of wigwams and huts ; and part of his journey thence to Niagara he was obhged to perform on foot, through a half-cleared forest. On his arrival, he tells us he lay awake aU night listening to the Falls ; and adds, " The day following I consider a sort of era in my life ; and the first glimpse I caught of that wonderful cataract gave me a feeling which nothing in this world will ever awaken again." His rhymes intended as " the song of the spirit of that region " are not, however, suggestive of these emotions. He spent part of his thne with " the gallant Brock," who then commanded at Fort George, and, accompanied 'by him and the officers of the garrison, visited tbe Tuscarora In dians, and witnessed their dances, games, and rites with satis faction. The FaUs of the Mohawk also awoke his muse ; and he was much delighted at tbe refusal of the captain of a steamboat on Lake Ontario to accept passage money from the " poet." Nearly all the period of Moore's sojourn was passed vrith British consuls or army and naval officers. From these and the Federalists of Philadelphia, he teUs us, he " got his prejudices " in regard to America. The " vulgarity of rancor " in pohtics, and the " rude familiarity of the lower 214 AMERICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. orders," were very offensive to bim ; and, although his oppor- tunities for " cursory observation " were quite hmited, he found America " at maturity in most of the vices and aU the pride of cirilization." Slavery, of course, is the chief object of bis satire : of its origin be is silent. The crude state of border hfe, the prevalence of French sympathies, and the recklessness of partisan zeal, are among tbe special defects upon which he ironicaUy descants, as usual ascribing them to the institutions of the country. He sneers at " The embryo capital, where fancy sees Squares in morasses, obelisks in trees ; " and scornfully declares that " Columbia's patriot train Cast off their monarch that their mob might reign ; " and assures his readers " I'd rather hold my beck In climes where liberty has scarce been named, Nor any right but that of ruling claimed. Than thus to live where bastard Freedom waves Her fustian flag in mockery over slaves." He begins one of his tirades vrith " Aready in this free and virtuous state, Which Frenchmen tell us was ordained by Fate ; '' and his anti-GaUicism is as obvious as his hatred of the " equality and fraternity " principles^ which he thinks so de grading. Yet it was here that he saw the picture of domes tic peace and prosperity that prompted tbe fines, " I knew, by the smoke that so gracefully curled ; " and the want of magnanimity in an Irish bard, in overlooking the blessings America has rained upon his countrymen, in flippant com ments on temporary social incongruities, is the more apparent from his acknowledgment in the preface to his "Poems relating to America," subsequently wi-itten : " The good will I have experienced from more than one distinguished Ameri- BEITISH TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 215 can, sufficiently assures me that any injustice I may have done to that land of freemen, if not long since wholly for gotten, is now remembered only to be forgiven." Even a cursory examination of the British Travels in America already noticed, would suggest the facility and de sirableness of a judicious compUation therefrom. It is easy to imagine a volume replete with information and attraction, gleaned by a discriminating hand from such copious but iU- digested materials. Omittmg the mere statistics and the extravagant tales, the egotistical episodes and tbe coarse abuse, there remain passages of admirable description, racy anecdotes, and genial speculations enough to form a choice picture and treatise on nature, character, and life in the New World. It is surprising that such an experiment has not been tried by one of the many tasteful compilers who have sifted the grain from the chaff in so many other departments of popular hterature. The attempt, on a smaU scale, was made, in 1810, by one of those clever female writers for the young, who, about that period, initiated the remarkable and successful department of juvenile hterature, since so memo rably illustrated by Maria Edgeworth, Mrs. Barbauld, Sir Walter Scott, Hans Andersen, and other endeared writers. " Excursions in North America, described in Letters from a Gentleman and his Young Companions in England," by Pris- cUla Wakefield, was a favorite little work among the children on both sides of the Atlantic, half a century ago. It is amusing to revert to these early sketches, which have given to many minds, now mature, their first and therefore theh freshest impressions of this country. Mrs. Wakefield drew her materials from Jefferson, Weld, Rochefoucault, Bartram, Michaux, Carver, and Mackenzie, and, in general, uses them vrith tact and taste. The cities and scenery of the land, its customs and products, are weU described. She notes some of the stereotyped so-called national vulgarities which have, in the more civUized parts of the country, sensibly diminished since tbe indignant protests of traveUers reached their acme in Mrs. TroUope. " We have been," it is said in one of the 216 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. letters, " once or twice to the theatre, but the company in the pit have such a disgusting custom of drinking wine or porter and smoking tobacco, between the acts, that I have no inch- nation to visit it again." But the pleasantest parts of her book, especiaUy consider ing for what class of readers it is intended, are those which dehneate the natural features and productions. Here, for instance, we have a description of an indigenous tree, now exalted by the selfish and narrow passions of a smaU and sen sitive community into an emblem of pohtical hate and ungen erous faction. With this association there seems a latent satire in the detaUs of the arborescent portrait. " The Pal metto Royal, or Adam's Needle, is a singular tree. They grow so thick together, that a bird can scarcely penetrate between them. The stiff leaves of this sword plant, stand ing straight out from the trunk, form a barrier that neither man nor beast can pass. It rises with an erect stem about ten or twelve feet high, crowned with a chaplet of dagger like green leaves, with a stiff, sharp spur at the end. This thorny crown is tipped with a pyramid of white fiowers, shaped hke a tulip or lUy ; to these flowers succeeds a larger fruit, in form like a cucumber, but, when ripe, of a deep purple color." " We scarcely pass ten or twelve miles," says another of these once famUiar letters, " without seeing a tavern, as they caU inns in this country. They are built of wood, and resemble one another, having a porch in front the length of the house, almost covered wdth handbills. They have no sign, but take theh name from the person that keeps the house, who is often a man of consequence ; for the profession of an innkeeper is far more respected in America than in England. Instead of supplying their guests as soon as they arrive, they make everybody conform to one hour for the different meals ; so you must go without your dinner, or delay your journey tUl the innkeeper pleases to lay the cloth." This remark on the country taverns as they were before the " hotel " had become characterized by size, show, BEITISH TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 21Y and costliness, strikes us as most natural, coming from one only acquainted with English inns ; and the independent man ners of the landlords are so obvious now, that a foreign writer declared they and the steamboat captains formed the only aristocracy he had encountered in America; while the cus tom of arbitrarUy regulating the hours for meals, and the gregarious manner of feeding, led a Sicilian to complain that the guests of a pubhc house in this country, were treated like friars in his own. A sensible and pleasant but not very profound or methodi cal gentleman of Liverpool published " Remarks during a Journey through North America in 1819." This book, writ ten by Adam Hodgson, Esq., was published in this country in 1823, and met vrith a kindly reception on account of the weU-meaning aim and disposition of the writer, whose nar tional prejudices were-expressedin a more calm manner than by his more vulgar countrymen ; whUe a tour of seven thousand mUes had fumished him with a good amount of useful knowl edge, not, however, weU digested or arranged ; and mingled therevrith are certain personal tastes and views amusing and harmless, that lend a certain piquancy to the narrative. He exanuned the country with an eye to its facilities and pros pects for the emigrant, and thus put on record important sta tistical facts, which are sometimes ludicrously blended with matters of no consequence. He so admired the chorus of frogs, heard in the stUlness of the night at one place of his sojoum, that he opened his window to listen to their croak ing, mistaking it, at first, for the notes of birds. He ex pressed the most naive surprise at finding a copy of the " Dairyman'^ Daughter " at a shop in MobUe ; and was so nervous in regard to the safety of his baggage, when travel Ung by stage coach, that he used a chain and padlock of his own, and held the cue thereof. He enjoyed Southern hos pitality, which, however, was sadly marred, to his conscious ness, by slaveholding. He dined on turkey every day for weeks, with apparently undiminished relish; and, with amusing pathos, laments that the " absence of the privUeges of 10 218 AMERICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. primogeniture, and the repeated subdivision of property, are gradually effecting a change in tbe structure of society in South Carohna, and wUl shortly efface its most interesting and charac teristic features." " His book," wrote Jared Sparks, " is cred itable to his heart and his principles. We should be glad if as much could be said for his discretion and judgment." C. W. Janson, " late of the State of Rhode Island," re sided in America from 1793 to 1806, and pubUshed in Lon don, tbe year after the latter date, " The Stranger in Amer ica," * which the Fdirdmrgh Review severely criticizes ; while John Foster, in the Fclectic, awarded it much praise. Henry Caswell, in 1849, pubUshed "America and the American Church, vrith some Account of the Mormons, in 1842 ; " and Robert Barclay issued " An Agricultural Tour m the United States ; " a couple of volumes entitled "Travels through Parts of the United States and Canada in 1818-19," and " A Sabbath among the Tuscaroras," are dedicated to Prof SUUman, of Yale CoUege. A small work appeared anony mously in London (1817), entitled "Travels in the Interior of America in 1809, '10, and '11," including a description of Upper Louisiana. Isaac Holmes, of Liverpool, gave to the pubhc, in 1 823, " An Account of the United States of America, derived from Observations during a Residence of Four Years in that RepuBhc ; " of which the Quarterly observes that its author " is rather diffuse and inaccurate," yet gives " a modest and true statement of things as they are." A rather verbose work of E. S. Abdy, previously known for a hygienic essay, was read extensively, at the time of its appearance, though its interest was quite temporary. It de scribed, in detaU, a " Residence and Tour in the United States in 1833-'34." Sir J. Augustus Foster, Envoy to America in 1811-'12, wi-ote " Notes on the United States," which were not pub hshed, but privately circulated ; although the London Qiiar- * " The Stranger in America," by Charles Wilham Janson, engravings, 4to., London, 1807. BEITISH TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 219 terly declared its pubhcation desirable " on both sides of the Atlantic ; " and Godley's " Letters from Canada and the United States," published in London in 1814, contains valu able agricultural data, and is justly characterized by the critical journals of that day as sensible and impartial.* There was, indeed, from the close of the war of 1812, for a series of years, an inundation of English books of travel, wherein the United States, their people and prospects, were discussed vrith a monotonous recapitulation of objections, a superficial knowledge, and a predetermined deprecation, which render the task of analyring theh contents and esti mating theh comparative merit in the highest degree weari some. Redeemed, in some instances, by piquant anecdote, * Among other works of British writers of early date worth consulting are Governor Bernard's Letters ; Burton and Oldmixou on the British Empire iu America ; and of later commentators, as either amusing, intelligent, curious, or sahent, sometunes flippant and sometimes sensible, may be mentioned Birk- beck's"Notes of a Journey in America in 1817;" Kingdom's " Abstract of In formation relative to the United States" (London, 1820); "Tour in North America," by Henry Tudor, Barrister (1834) ; also the Travels of Bradbury, ShirrefF, Byam, Casey, Cunningham, Chambers, Davison, Feroll, Finch, Head, Latrobe, Mackinnon, McNish, Majorbanks, Park, Sturge, Sutcliffe, Thomson, Thornton, TumbuU, Tasistro, Shraff, Warden, Waterton, Warburton, Weston, Eeatiug, and Lamber ; Dixon, Jameson, Wright, Dickinson, and Pursh ; Vigne and Gleig's " Subaltern in America, a Mihtary Journal of the War of 1812," which originally appeared in Blackwood's Magazine, vol. xxi. ; J. M. Dun can's Travels (1818) ; Tremenhere's-work on " The Constitution of the United States compared with that of Great Britain ; " Prof. J. P. W. Johnson's " Notes on North America," chiefly agricultural and economical ; Ousley's " Remarks on the Statistics and Pohtical Institutions of the United States ; " the statisti cal works of Seyber and Tucker; A. J. Mason's Lectures on the United States (London, 1841); and Flint's "Letters from America," chiefly devoted to the Western States (Edinburgh, 1822), of which it has been said that " James Fhnt was one of the most amiable, accomphshed, and truthful foreign tourists who have visited America and left a record of their impressions : he died in his native country (Scotland), a few years after his book was pub Ushed." Two English officers, Colonel Chesney and Lieut.-Colonel Freemantle, published brief accounts of what they saw aud gathered from others, in regard to the war for the Union — too superficial and prejudiced to have any lasting value ; and Mr. Dicey, the young correspondent of a Uberal London journal, coUected and pubUshed a nairative of his experience, candid, but of limited scope and insight. ^J;i( ft. 220 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. interesting adventure, or some grace of style or originality of view, they are, for the most part, shallow, egotistical, and more or less repetitions of each other. So systematic and continuous, however, are the tone of abuse and the purpose of disparagement, that the subject clahns separate considerar tion. \ -Among those works that attracted special attention, om the antecedents of their authors or a characteristic manner of treating their subject, was the once famihar book of Captain BasU Hall, R. N., the Journal of Fanny Kemble, and the " Notes " of Dickens. Of the former, 'Everett justly remarked, in the North American Review, that " this work wUl furnish food to the appetite for detraction which reigns in Great Britain toward this country ; " while even Black wood's Magazine, congenial as was the spirit of the work to its Tory perversities, though characterizing Captain Hall's observations as "just and profound," declared they were " too much tinctured by his ardent fancy to form a safe guide on the many debated subjects of national institutions." A hke protest against the authenticity of Fearon, a London surgeon, who published " A Narrative of a Journey of Five Thousand Miles through the Eastern and Western States of America,* was uttered by Sydney Smith, who wrote, as his critical opinion, that " Mr. Fearon is a much abler writer than either Palmer or Bradbury, but no lover of America, and a littie given to exaggerate his riews of vices and prejudices ; " which estimate was confirmed by the London Review, which declared that the " tone of iU temper which this author usu aUy manifests, in speaking of the American character, has gained for his work the approbation of persons who regard that country with peculiar jealousy." So obvious and prevalent had now become this " peculiar jealousy," that when, in 1833, the flippant " Observations on the Professions, Manners, . and Emigration in the United States and Canada," of tbe Rev. Isaac Fiddler, appeared, the * " Narrative of a Journey of Five Thousand Miles through the Eastern and Western States, with Remarks on Mr. Birkbeck's Notes,", by Henry B. Fearon, 8vo., London, 1818. BEITISH TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 221 North American Review truly said of it : " This is another of those precious specimens of books with which John Bull is now regularly humbugged three or four times a year." It seemed to be deemed essential to every popular author of Great Britain, in whatever department, to write a book on America. In those instances where this task was achieved > by men of science, valuable knowledge gave interest to spd^ rial observation ; as in the case of Lyell, Featherstonaugh, and Combe, three writers whose scientific knowledge and objects give dignity, interest, and permanent value to their works on America : but the novelists signally failed, from inaptitude for political disquisition, or a constant eye to the exactions of prejudice at home. Marryatt and Dickens added nothing to their reputations as writers by their super ficial and sneering disquisitions on America. Yet, however phUosophicaUy superficial and exaggerated in fastidiousness, the great charm of Dickens as an author — his humanity, tbe most real and inspiring element of his nature — was as true, and therefore prophetic, in these " Notes," as in his delinea tions of human life. Of the long bane of our civic integrity and social peace and purity — of slavery, his words were authentic : " AU those owners, breeders, users, buyers, and seUers of slaves, who will, until the bloody chapter has a bloody end, own, breed, use, buy, and sell them at all hazards ; who doggedly deny the horrors of the system, in the teeth of such a mass of evidence as never was brought to bear on any other subject, and to which the experience of every day contributes its immense amount ; who would, at this or any other moment, gladly involve America in a war, civil or foreign, provided thai it had for its sole end and object the assertion of their right to perpetuate sla/very, and to whip, and work, and torture slaves, unquestioned by any human authority, and unassailed by any human power ; who, when they speak of freedom, mean the free dom to oppress their kind, and to be savage, merciless, and cruel; and of whom every man, on his own ground, in republican America, is a more exacting, and a sterner, and a less responsible despot, than the Caliph Haroun Alraschid, in his angry robe of scarlet." Of the female writers, there is more reflection and knowl- 222 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. edge in the remarks of Mrs. Jameson and Miss Martineau ; whUe nothing can exceed the indelicacy and want of insight, not to say absurdities, of the Hon. Amelia Murray — other books, however, by female writers, are, despite their unjusti fiable personahties, grateful records of hospitahties and ex periences, well enough for private letters. The histrionic commentators, like Power and Fanny Kem ble, and the naval annotators, hke HaU and Mackinnon, are re markable for a certain abandon aud superficiahty. Silk Buck ingham* much enlarged the prerious statistical data, and Francis-Wy^e coUected some valuable expositions of America's " Realities and Resources." Abdy and Duncan, Finch and Graham, Lang and Latrobe, Waterton and Thomson, Palmer and Bsadbury, Wright and MeUish, with scores of others, found readers and critics ; and a catalogue raisonne. of the series of books on America between Ashe and Anthony Trol lope, would prove quite as ephemeral in character as volu minous. -It is interesting to turn from the glowing impres sions of American scenery, the ingenuous hatred of the " press gang," and unscrupulous personal revelations of Fanny Kemble's "Journal of Travel in America," written in the buoyant and brUUant youth of the gifted girl, to the detaUs and descriptions of "Life on a Southern Plantation," re corded by the earnest and pitiful woman, and published at so critical a moment of our national struggle, to enhghten and chide her countrymen. One of the most contemptible of the detractors was a vulgar English farmer, named Faux, whose " Memorable Days in America " was thought worthy of critical recogni tion by the once famous reviewer, Gifford. Among the * " America, Historical, Statistic, and Descriptive," 3 vols. ; " Eastern and Western States," 3 vols. ; " Slave States," 2 vols. ; " Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and other British Provinces," 1 vol. ; in all, 9 handsome vols. 8vo., by J. S. Buckingham, London, 1841-'3. One of the most mterestmg series of works descriptive of the New World which has ever emanated from the press. These volumes contain a fund of knowledge on every, subject con nected with America : its rise and progress ; the education, maimers, and merits of its inhabitants : its manufactures, trade; population, etc. BEITISH TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 223 absurd calumnies of this ignorant scribbler, were such grave statements as that poisoned chickens were served to him at Portsmouth ; that the Mississippi boatmen habituaUy rob the sheepfolds ; that Boston people take their free negroes to Carolina, and seU them as slaves ; and that, in America, " the want of an estabhshed reUgion has made the bulk of the people either infidels or fanatics." Among the exceptions to that general rule of ignorance and crudity, which marks the hasty records of American travel by English tourists, when a visit to Americ?^ whUe no longer adventurous, was yet comparatively rare, is the once famous book of Captain Thomas Hamilton. The author of a successful novel of modem life — as far as literary cultivar tion may be considered an element of success — this intelli gent British officer claims the consideration which is due to a scholar and a gentleman, although he was not the highest exemplar of either title. He discussed " Men and Manners m America " neither as a philosopher nor as an artist. There is no great scope or originahty in his speculations, no very profound insight ; and the more refined tone of his work is somewhat marred by the same flippancy and affectation of superior taste, which give such a cockney pertness to so many of his countrymen's written observations when this country is the theme. Two merits, however, distinguished the work and yet make it worthy of attention — a better style, and superior powers of description. Captain Hamil ton's prejudices warped his observation of our political and social hfe, and make his report thereof Umited and imjust ; but there is a vividness and finish about his accounts of natu ral beauty — such as the description of Niagara and the Mis sissippi — which, althoug'n since exceUed by many writers, native and foreign, at the time (1833) was a refreshing con trast to previous attempts of a like nature. Blackwood recognized his political bias in commending the work " as valuable at the present crisis, when all the ancient institu tions of our country are successively melting away under the powerful solvent of democratic institutions." 224 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. Parkinson was an Enghsh farmer, and therefore might be supposed capable of producing at least a valuable agricul tural report; but impartial critics declared hini both impu dent and mendacious. Stuart's book * owed somewhat of its casual notoriety to the circumstance that he fled to America because he had killed Lord Auchinleck, BosweU's son, in a duel at Edinburgh ; and beguiled months of his involuntary exUe at Hoboken, N. Y., hi writing his experience and im pressions. The Fdiniurgh Review says of another of the countless writers on this prohflc theme — Birkbeck : " Detest ing his principles, we praise his entertaining volume." f Harriet Martineau, through her Unitarian associations, became at once, on her arrival in the United States, intimate with the leading members of that highly inteUectual denomi nation, and thus enjoyed the best social opportunities for acquiring a knowledge of the country and a favorable impres sion of its average culture. To this advantage she added hberal sympathies, an earnest spirit of inquiry, and a decided power of descriptive writing. Accordingly we find, in her work, a warm appreciation of what is humane and progres sive in American institutions, right and wise in society, and beautiful or picturesque in nature. She often adopts a view and makes a general statement upon inadequ^e grounds. Her generalizations are not always authentic ; but the spirit and execution of her work are a vast improvement -upon the flippant detraction of less intelhgent and aspiring writers. As in so many instances before and since, her gravest errors, both as to facts and reasoning, may be traced to inferences from partisan testimony, or the statements of uninformed acquaintance — a process which hasty travellers bent on book making are forced to have recourse to; Where she observed, she recorded effectively ; when her informant was duly equipped for bis catechism, sbe " set in a note book " what was worth preserving ; but often, relying on hearsay evi- * " Three Tears in America," by James Stuart, 3 vols., Edinburgh, 1823. f "Notes on a Journey from Virginia to the Territory of Hhnois," by Mor ris Birkbeck, with a map, 8vo., Dublin, 1818. BEITISH TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 225 dence and casual statements, inevitably mistakes occurred ; but these do not invalidate her arguments or diminish her authority, when fairly prorided with the opportunity to ex amine herself, or comectly mformed by others. Blackwood condemned her book with an asperity that is prima facie eridence that it has considerable merit. " Nothing," says that trenchant and Tory oracle, in reference thereto, " noth- iag can rectify a reformer's vision, and no conviction of inadequacy prevent any of the class from lecturmg aU man- kmd." Of this class .of books, however, none made so strong a popular impression as the " Domestic Manners of the Ameri cans," by Mrs. Trollope — a chcumstance that tbe reader of our own day finds it difficult to explain, untU he recaUs and reflects upon the facts of the case ; for the book is superior to the average of a like scope, in narrative interest. It is written in a hvely, confident style, and, before the subjects treated had become so famUiar and hackneyed, must have proved quite entertaining. The name of the writer, bow- ever, was, for a long period, and stUl is, to a certain extent, more identified with the unsparing social critics of the coun try than any other in the long catalogue of modem British traveUers in America. UntU recently, the sight of a human foot protruding over the gallery of a Western theatre was haUed vrith the instant and vociferous challenge, apparently undisputed as authoritative, of " TroUope ! " whereupon the ohnorious member was withdrawn from sight ; and the in ference to a stranger's mind became ineritable, that this best- abused writer on America was a beneficent, practical re former. The truth is, that Mrs. TroUope's powers of observation are remarkable. What she sees, she describes with vivacity, and often vrith accurate skill. No one can read her Travels in Austria without acknowledging the vigor and brightness of her mind. Personal disappointment in a pecuniary enter prise vexed her judgment ; and, like so many of her nation, she thoroughly disliked the pohtical institutions of the United 10* 226 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. States, was on the lookout for social anomalies and personal defects, and persistent, hke her " unreasoning sex," in attrib uting all that was offensive or undesirable in her experience to the prejudice she cherished. Moreover, her experience itself was limited and local. She entered the country more than thhty years ago, at New Orleans, and passed most of the thne, during her sojourn, amid the new and thriring but crude and confident Western communities, where neither manners nor culture, economy nor character had attained any weU-organized or harmonious development. The self- love of these independent but sometimes rough pioneers of cirilization, was wounded by the severe comments of a stran ger who had shared their hospitality, when she expatiated on their reckless use of tobacco, their too free speech and angu lar attitudes ; but, especiaUy, wben all their shortcomings were declared the natural result of republican institutions. Hence the outcry ber book occasioned, and the factitious impor tance attached thereto. Not a single fault is found recorded by her, which our own writers, and every candid citizen, have not often admitted and complained of. The fast eating, boastful talk, transient female beauty, inadequate domestic service, abuse of calomel as a remedy, copious and careless expectoration, free and easy manners, superficial culture, and many other traits, more or less true now as then, here or there, are or have been normal subjects of animadversion. It was not because Mrs. Trollope did not write much truth about the country and the people, that, among classes of the latter, her name was a reproach ; but because she reasoned so perversely, and did not take the pains to ascertain the whole truth, and to recognize the compensatory facts of American life. But this objection should have been reconciled by her candor. She frankly declares that her chief object is "to encourage ber countrymen to hold fast by the Constitution that insures aU the blessings which flow from estabUshed habits and solid principles ; " and elsewhere remarks that the dogma " that all men are born free and equal has done, is doing, and wUl do much harm to this fair country." Her EEinSH TEAVEIJLEE8 AND WEITEES. 227 sympathies overflow toward an Enghsh actor, author, and teacher she encounters, and she feels a pang at Andre's grave ; but she looks vrith the eye of criticism only on the rude masses who are turning the wUderness mto cities, re fusing to see any prosperity or progress in the scope and impulse of democratic principles. " Some of the native political economists," she writes, " assert that this rapid con version of a bearbrake into a prosperous city is the result of free political institutions. Not being very deep in such mat ters, a more obrious cause suggested itself to me, in the unceasing goad which necessity applies to industry in this country, and in the absence of all resources for the idle." Without discussing the abstract merits of her theory, it is obrious that a preconceived antipathy to the institutions of a country unflts even a sensible and frank writer for social criti cism thereon ; and, in this instance, tbe writer seems to have known comparatively few of the more enlightened men, and to have enjoyed the intimacy of a stUl smaller number of the higher class of American women ; so that, vrith the local and social data she chiefly relied on, her conclusions are only unjust inasmuch as they are too general. She describes well what strikes her as new and curious ; but her first impres sions, always so influential, were forlorn. The flat shores at the mouth of the Mississippi in winter, the muddy current, peUcans, snags, and buhushes, were to her a desolate change from the bright blue ocean ; but the flowers and fruits of Louisiana, the woods and the rivers, as they opened to her riew, brought speedy consolation ; which, indeed, was modir fied by i disagreeable cookery, bad roads, Uhiess, thunder storms, and unpleasant manners and customs — the depressing influence of which, however, did not prevent her expatiating vrith zest and skiU upon the camp meetings, snakes, insects, elections, house moving, queer phrases, dress, bugs, lingo, parsons, politicians, figures, faces, and opinions which came within her observation. • With more perspicacity and less prejudice, she would have acknowledged the temporary character of many of the 228 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. facts of the hour, emphasized by her pen as permanent. The superficial reading she notes, for instance, was but the eager thirst for knowledge that has since expanded into so vride a habit of culture that the statistics of the book trade in the United States have become one of the intellectual marvels of tbe age. Her investigation as to the talent, sources of dis cipline, and development, were extremely incurious and shght; hence, what she says of our statesmen and men of letters is too meagre for commept. The only American au thor she appears to have known weU was Flint; and her warm appreciation of his writings and conversation, indicates what a better knowledge of our scholars and eminent profes sional men would have elicited from so shrewd an observer. The redeeming feature of ber book is the love of nature it exhibits. American scenery often reconcUes her to the bad food and worse manners ; the waterfaUs, rivers, and forests are themes of perpetual admiration. " So powerful," she writes of a passage down one of the majestic streams of the West, " was the effect of this sweet scenery, that we ceased to grumble at our dinners and suppers." Strange to say, she was delighted with the city of Washington, extols the Capi tol, and recognizes the peculiar merits of PhUadelphia. In fact, when she writes of what she sees, apart from prejudice, there are true woman's wit and sense in her descriptions ; but she does not discriminate, or patiently inquire. Her book is one of impressions — some very just, and others casual. She was provoked at being often told, in reply to some remark, " That is because you know so little of America ; " and yet the observation is one continuaUy suggested by her too hasty Conclusions. With aU its 'defects, however, few of the class of books to which it belongs are better worth reading now than this once famous record of Mrs. Trollope. It has a cer tain freshness and boldness about it that explain its original popularity. Its tone, also, in no smaU degree explains its un popularity ; for the writer, quoting a remark of Basil HaU's, to the effect that the great difference between Americans and Enghsh is the want of loyalty, declares it, in her opinion, is BEITISH TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 229 the want of refinement. And it is upon this that she harps continuaUy in her strictures, whUe the reader is offended by the identical deficiency in herself; and herein we find the secret of the popular protest tbe book elicited on this side of the water ; for those who felt they needed to be lectured on manners, repudiated such a female writer as authoritative, and regarded her assumption of the office as more than gra tuitous. The interest excited by many of the now forgotten books at which we have, glanced, can only be compared to that which attends a new novel by a popular author. Curiosity, pique, self-love, and indignation were altemately awakened. Hospitable people found themselves outraged, and communica tive tuft hunters betrayed ; prorincial self-complacency was sadly disturbed, and tbe countless readers of the land, for weeks, talked only of the coarse comments of Mrs. TroUope, the descriptive powers of Captain HamUton, the kindly views of the Hon. Augustus Murray, the conceit of Basil HaU, the good sense of Combe, the frankness of Fanny Butler, the •impertinence of Fiddler, the elaborate egotism of Silk Buck- mgham, the scientific knowledge of Featherstonaugh and Lyell, the indeUcate personahties of Fredrika Bremer, the mascuhne assurance of Miss Martineau, and tbe ungrateful caricatures of Dickens, as exhibited in their respective ac counts of American hfe, institutions, resources, and manners. One of the latest of this class of Travels in America, is an elaborate work entitled " Civilized America," by Thomas CoUey Grattan. Although this writer commences his book by defining the Americans " a people easy of access, but diffi cult to understand," and declares that " no one who writes about the United States should be considered an oracle," he is behind 'none of bis predecessors in the complacency and confidence with whicb he handles a confessedly difficult sub ject. He thinks that " it is in masses that the people of this country are to be seen to the greatest advantage ; " not apparently recognizing the fact that this is the distinctive aim of republican institutions — the special compensation for the 230 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. absence of those monopolies and that exclusiveness whereby the indiridual in Europe is gratified at the expense of the multitude. He notes the " sacrifice of indiridual eminence, and consequently of personal enjoyment " — a result of the same sphit of humanity which cherishes manhood and woman hood as such, and, therefore, cheerfuUy loses the chance of indiridual aggrandizement, in so far as it imphes superiority to and immunity from the universal and equal development or opportunity therefor, whether of character, talent, material welfare, or social position. Our educational system, public men, some of the current political problems and parties, the Irish in America, relations between England and the United States, slavery, and other general subjects, are treated of with little originahty, but occasionaUy iUustrated by facts ^hich to a British reader may be new and suggestive. The old sarcasms about the bad architecture in our cities, and the hmited triumphs in art and literature yet achieved ; the usual sentimental protest against the slight local attachments, the hurry, and the unrecreative habits and want of taste that prevaU; the hackneyed complaint of unscientific regimen,* with especial reference to the indigestible nature of dough nuts, salt fish and chowder ; and the baneful variety of alcohohc drinks, and their vulgar names, diversify the grave discussion of questions of polity and character. It is surprising that a native of' Great Britain should find punctuality at meals and the condition of women in Amer ica themes of animadversion ; and that conceit and flippancy should strike him as so common on this side of the water ; and narrowness of mind, as weU as the want of independ ence, be regarded as characteristic. In these and several other instances, the reader famihar vrith hfe and manners in England, and ahve to the indications of character in style and modes of thought, cannot but suspect him of drawing upon bis experience at home and his own consciousness, quite as much as from inteUigent observation here. At all events, it is obrious that he is piqued into indignation by some spe cial experience of his own whUe British Consul in Boston ; BEITISH TEA-VELLEES AND WEITEES. 231 for that "hub of the universe" is not the nucleus about which either his sympathies or his magnanimity revolve. Great ameliorations have occurred in " CivUized America" since Mr. Grattan left her shores. Nothing shows the prog ress of the country more emphaticaUy than, the obsolete sig nificance of many of his remarks. They often do not apply to the United States of to-day ; and both that country and the reading pubhc generaUy have outgrown the need and the taste for this kind of petty fault-finding, which fails to com prehend the spirit of tbe people, the true scope of the insti tutions, the real law of hfe, labor, and love, whereof the communities gathered on this vast and prolific continent are the representatives. Not as a nursery of local manners, a sphere for casual social experiments, an arena for conven tional development ; but as the scene of a free expansion and assertion of the rights of humanity, a refuge for the victims of outgrown systems and over-populated countries, a home for man as such, a land where humanity modifies and moulds nationahty, by rirtue of the unimpeded range and frank recognition thereof, in the laws, the opportunities, the equal rights estabhshed and enjoyed, is America to be discussed and understood ; for her cirihzation, when and jvhere it is truly developed, is cosmopolitan, not sectional — ^human, not formal. In 1850, the Earl of Carlisle delivered before the Me chanics' Institute of Leeds a lecture embodying his observar- tions and comments during a tour in the United States; which was subsequently pubhshed and read vrith much inter est by his lordship's numerous friends on this side of tbe Atlantic. A candid discussion of social defects and political dangers is mingled, in this work, with a just appreciation of the privUeges and prosperity of the country. The American edition was widfely circulated, and justly estimated as one of the most frank, kindly, and intelligent expositions of a famUiar but suggestive theme, which had yet appeared. Though limited in scope, it is unpretending in tone and genial in feeling. 232 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. In 1862, thirty years after Mrs. Trollope gave to the world her opinion of the " Domestic Manners of the Ameri cans," her son Anthony published his book on "North America." * His novels Ulustrative of Irish and ecclesiasti cal hfe, had made his name and abUities as a writer famUiar . on this side of the water. These works of fiction have for their chief merit an adherence to fact. The characters are not modelled on an ideal standard, the incidents are seldom extraordinary, and the style is the reverse of glowing. Care ful observation, good sense, an apparently conscientious re gard to the truth, make them a singular exception to the popular novels of the day. The author is no imaginative enthusiast or psychological artist, but he is an inteUigent and accurate reporter of life as he sees it, of men and things as they are ; and if the .subject interests his reader, he wiU derive very clear and very just ideas of those forms and phases of British experience and economy with which these books so patiently deal. Mr. TroUope's account of his visit to the West Indies is recognized, by competent judges, as one of the most faithful representations of the actual con dition of . those islands, and especially of the normal traits and tendeneies of the negro, which has appeared. Accord ingly, he seems to have been remarkably fitted to record with candid intelligence what he saw and felt while visiting North America ; and this be has done. The speciality of his book is, that it treats of the RebeUion, and is the first elaborate report thereof by a British eyevritness. Its defects are those of limited opportunities, an unfavorable period, and a super ficial experience warped by certain national proclivities, which the feeling at work around him inevitably exasperated ; and further modified by the circumstance that he is a Govern ment employe and an Enghsh author. His spirit and intent, however, are so obviously manful and considerate, that his American readers are disarmed as soon as they are vexed, by whatever strikes them as unfair or indiscrimuiate. Yet, friendly as is the sentiment he chaUenges by his frankness, * "North America," by Anthony Trollope, New York, 1862. BEiriSH TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 233 good sense, and good nature, one cannot avoid feeling some what impatient at the gratuitous tone of criticism, and the wearisome repetition and re-discussion of the most familiar subjects. If, as Mr. TroUope says, it has been " the ambition of his hterary hfe to write a book about the United States," why did he not consult what has already been written, and give an adequate period and study to the subject ? Scarcely a topic upon which he dilates as a grievance, has escaped like treatment from scores of his predecessors in this field, and been humorously exposed or cleverly discussed by our own authors ; and yet he gravely returns to the charge, as if a newly discovered social anomaly claimed his perspicacious analysis. This unconsciousness of the hackneyed nature of the objections to American cirihzation, or want thereof, is the more amusing from a certain tone of didactic responsi bUity, common, indeed, to aU English writers on America, as if that vast and populous country included no citizen or native capable of teaching her the proprieties of life and the principles of taste. We are constantly reminded of the re iterating insect who " says an undisputed thing in such a solenm way." Inasmuch as Mrs. TroUope, who came here thhty years ago to open a bazaar in a newly settled city of the West — which speculation faUed — " with a woman's keen eye," saw, felt, and put " in a note book " tbe grievous sole cisms in manners and deformities of social hfe which struck her in the fresh but crude American communities/her honest and industrious son now feels it incumbent upon him to com plete the work, as " she did not regard it as part of hers to dUate on the nature and operation of those pohtical arrange ments which had produced the social absurdities which she saw; or to explain that, though such absurdities were the natural result of those arrangements in their newness, the defects would certainly pass away, whUe the political arrange ments, if good, would remain." This, he thinks, is better ¦work for a man than a woman, and therefore undertakes to do it — not apparently dreaming that it has been and is con tinuaUy being done by those whose lifelong acquaintance 234 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. vrith the problem, to say nothing of their personal interest in its solution, enables them fully to comprehend and clearly to analyze. This instinctive self-esteem is apparently the normal mood vrith which even the kindhest and the most sensible Enghsh travellers comment on America. They do not conde scend to examine the writings of Americans on their own country, and ignore the fact that the lectures, essays, ser mons, and humorous sketches of our own authors, have, for years, advocated reforms, exposed defects, and suggested amehorations which these self-constituted foreign censors pro claim as original. Mr. TroUope seems extremely afraid of giving offence, continually deprecates the idea, and vrishes it imderstood that it is very painful to him to find fault vrith anybody or anything in the United States, but he must cen sure as weU as blame, and he means no unkindness. AU this, however amiable, is reaUy preposterous. ' It presupposes a degree of importance as belonging to his opinions, or rather a necessity for their expression, which seems to us quite irra tional in a man of such common sense, and who has seen so much of the world. It is amusing, and, as a friend re marked, " comes from his blood, not his brain." It is the old leaven of self-love, self-importance, self-assertion of the /Englishman as such. If he had passed years instead of months in America, and gro^wn famihar with other chcles besides the circle of litterateurs who so won his admu-ation in Boston, he would have found aU he has written of the spoUed children, the hard women, the despotic landlords,' dis gusting railway cars. Western swindlers, bad architecture, official peculations, mud, dust, and desolation of Washington, misery of Cairo, and base, gold-seeking politicians of Amer ica, overheated rooms, incongruous cuisifie, and undisciplined juvenUes, thoroughly appreciated, perfectly understood, and ^ habitually the subject of native protest and foreign report. On many of these points his riews are quite unemphatic, compared to those of educated Americans ; so that his dis cussion of cirihty vs. servihty, of modern chivalry, of the reckless element of frontier life, of the unscrupulous " smart- BEITIBH TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 235 ness" and the want of reverence in the American charac ter, and the want of privacy and comfort in our gregarious hotels, seem to us quite as superfluous a task as to inveigh in England against fees, taxes, fog, game laws, low wages, pauperism, ecclesiastical abuses, aristocratic monopohes, or any other patent and familiar evU. That "necessity of eulogium." which pressed upon Mr. TroUope, as it has upon so many of bis countrymen in Amer ica, is regarded as the evidence of extreme national sensitive ness ; but he himself unvrittingly betrays somewhat of the same weakness — if it be such — by the deep impression made by an indiridual's remark to his wife, which remark, if made seriously to an Englishwoman, must have come from a per son not overburdened with sense ; and if from a man of inteUigence, doubtless was intended as humorous. In either case, it would seem unworthy of notice ; but Mr. TroUope refers to it again and again, as if characteristic : " I never yet met the down-trodden subject of a despot who did not hug his chains." Those Enghsh flags among the trophies at West Point, too, much as he delighted in the picturesque beauty of the place, sorely haunted his mind. The fact is, that this personal sensibUity to national claims and associar tions is tbe instinct of humanity. Its expression here is more prevalent and its exactions more hnperative, from the fact that, of aU civilized countries, our own has been and is the chosen theme of criticism, for the reason that it is more experimental. In his somewhat disparaging estimate of Newport, R. I., Mr. TroUope strangely omits the chief attrac tion, and that is the pecuhar chmate, wherein it So much differs from the rest of the New England coast. He ignores this essential consideration, also, in his remarks upon the dis tinctive physiognomy of Americans. Yet such is its influ ence, combined vrith the active and exciting life of the country, that the " rosy cheeks," fuU habit, and pedestrian habitudes of EngUshmen, often, after a few years' residence, give place to thin jaws and frames, and comparative indiffer ence to exercise : the nervous temperament encroaches upon 236 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. the sanguine ; beef and beer, port and porter, are found too nutritive' a diet ; and a certain quickness of mind and move ment, and sensibility to physical influences, transform John BuU even to his own consciousness. What Mr. TroUope says of the American press, whether just or not, comes vrith an iU grace from an Englishman, at a period wherein have been ¦ so absolutely demonstrated to tbe world tbe wilful perversity and predetermined falsehood of the leading press of Great Britain. As in the case of so many of his countrymen, the scenery of America proved to Mr. Trollope a compensation for ber discomforts. Niagara, the White Mountains, the AUeghanies, and tbe Upper Mississippi, are described vrith more enthusiasm than anything else but Boston hospitahty. Of course, for this feast of beauty, so amply iUustrated hy our writers, he suggests that only Murray can furnish the Guide Book. It is curious that a man with such an eye for natme, and such an inquiring mind, should find the St. Lawrence so httle attractive, fail to see President Lincoln, and feel no emo tion at the scene of Wolfe's heroic death. Few visitors to " the States " have more intelligently appreciated the manli ness of the frontier settlers, the sad patience there bom of independent and lone struggling with nature, the immense cereal resources of the West, and the process of trans portation thereof at Chicago and Buffalo. He foUows his predecessors in attributing the chief glory of America to her provision for universal education, her mechanical contri vances, and the great average comfort and inteUigence. " The one thing," he remarks, " in which,, as far as my judgment goes, the people of the United States have excelled us Enghshmen, so as to justify them in taking to themselves praise which we cannot take to ourselves or refuse to them, is the matter of education; * '" * and unrivalled population, wealth, and intelligence have been the results ; and with these, looking at the whole masses ofthe people, I think I am justified in saying, unrivaUed comfort and hap piness. It is not that you, my reader, to whom, in this matter of education, fortune and your parents have probably been bountiful, would have been more happy in New York than in London. It is BEITISH TEAVELLEES AND WEIIEES. 237 not that I, who, at any rate, can read and write, have cause to wish that I had been an American. But it is this : if you and I can count up in a day aU those on whom our eyes may rest, and learn the circumstances of theh lives, we shall be driven to conclude that nme tenths of that number would have had a better life as Ameri cans than they can have in their spheres as Englishmen. " If a man can forget his own miseries in his journeyings, and think of the people he comes to see rather than of himself, I think he wUl find himself driven to admit that education has made life for the miUion in the Northern States better than life for the million is with us. "I do not know any contrast that would be more surprising to an Englishman, up to that moment ignorant of the matter, than that which he would find by risiting first of all a free school in London, and then a free school in New York. * * * fhe female pupil at a free school in London is, as a rule, either a ragged pauper or a charity ghl, if not degraded, at least stigmatized by the badges and dress of the charity. We Englishmen know well the type of each, and have a fahly correct idea of the amount of education which is imparted to thera. We see the result afterward, when the same girls become our servants, and the wives of our grooms and porters. The female pupil at a free school in New York is neither a pauper nor a charity ghl. She is dressed with the utmost decency. She is per fectly cleanly. In speaking to her, you cannot in any degree guess whether her father has a dollar a day, or three thousand doUars a year. Nor wUl you be enabled to guess by the manner in which her associates treat her. As regards her own manner to you, it is always the same as though her father were in all respects your equal. " That which most surprises an English visitor, on going through the miUs at Lowell, is the personal appearance of the men and women who work at them. As there are twice as many women as there are men, it is to them that the attention is chiefly called. They are not only better dressed, cleaner and better mounted in every respect than the girls employed atdBanufactories in England, but they are so infinitely superior as to make a stranger immediately perceive that some very strong cause must have created the differ ence. * * * One would, of course, be disposed to say that the superior condition of the workers must have been occasioned by superior wages ; and this, to a certain extent, has been the cause. But the higher payments is not the chief cause. Women's wages, including all that they receive at the Lowell factories, average about fourteen shillings a week ; which is, I take it, fully a third more than women can earn in Manchester, or did earn before the loss of 238 AMERICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. the American cotton began to teU upon them. But if wages at Man chester were raised to the Lowell standard, the Manchester woman would not he clothed, fed, cared for, and educated like the Lowell woman." Charles Lamb aptly says, that the finer in kind things are, the more scope there is for individual taste ; and therefore he was " always rather squeamish in his women and children." Mr. Trollope, judging of the latter by the enfants terribles encountered at inns and on steamboats in America, describes the nuisance of over-indulged and peremptory " Young America " with emphasis ; and , also draws the Une, so re markably obrious in this country, between female refinement and vulgarity. He is doubtless right in ascribing the Ama zonian manners and expression of the latter class to that uni versal consideration for tbe sex so pecuhar to our people. It certainly is abused, and offensively so by the selfish and arro gant. The conduct of Southern women, during the present war, to Northem officers, is tbe best proof of' theh con sciousness of safety by virtue of this pubhc sentiment of deference and protection. But has it ever occurred to Mr. TroUope that this sentiment, however abused by those lack ing the chivahy to respond to it, is almost a social necessity in a land where-.people are thrown together so promiscuously, and where no ranks exist to regulate intercourse and define position? Crinoline and bad manners have, indeed, done much to encroach upon romance, and render modern gallantry thoroughly conventional ; but the extravagant estimation in which the rights and privileges of woman are here held, is one of the most useful of our social safeguards and sanc tions. Mr. TroUope pays the usual tribute of strangers to the beauty, inteUigence, and grace of American women who are ladies by nature and not by courtesy ; but he draws the reverse picture, not unfaithfuUy, in this mention of a species of the female sex sometimes encountered, in a public convey ance : mass The woman, as she enters, drags after her a misshapen, dirty of battered wirework, which she calls her crinoline, and which BEITISH TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 239 adds as much to her grace and comfort as a log of wood does to a donkey, when tied to the animal's leg in a paddock. Of this she takes much heed, not managing it so that it may be conveyed up the carriage with some dec^cy, but striking it about against men's legs, and heaving it with riolence over people's knees. The touch of a real woman's dress is in itself delicate ; but these blows from a harpy's fins are loathsome. If there be two of .them, they talk loudly together, haring a theory that modesty has been put out of court by women's rights. " But, though not modest, the woman I describe is ferocious in her propriety. She ignores the whole world around her, as she sits with raised chin, and face flattened by affectation. She pretends to declare aloud that she is positively not aware that any man is even near her. * * * But every twist of her body, and every tone of her voice, is an unsuccessful falsehood. She looks square at you in the face, and you rise to give her your seat. You rise from a defer ence to your own old convictions, and from that courtesy which you have ever paid to a woman's dress, let it be worn with ever such hideous deformities. She takes the place from which you have moved without a word or a bow. She twists herself round, banging yonr shins with her wires ; while her chin is still raised, and her face is still flattened, and she directs her friend's attention to another seated man, as though that place were also vacant, and necessarily at her disposal. Perhaps the man opposite has his own ideas about chivalry. I have seen such a thing, and have rejoiced to see it." And of the spoUed chUdren he thus discourses : "And then the children— babies I should say, if I were speaking of Enghsh bairns of their age ; but, seeing that they are Americans, I hardly dare to call them children. The actual age of these per fectly civilized and highly educated beings may be from three to four. One will often see five or six such seated at the long dinner table of the ho,tel, breakfasting and dining with tljeir elders, and going through the ceremony with aU the gravity and more than aU the decorum of their grandfathers. When I was three years old, I had not yet, as I imagine, been promoted beyond a silver spoon of my own, wherewith to eat my bread and milk in the nursery; and I feel assured that I was under the immediate care of a nursemaid, as I gobbled up my minced mutton mixed with potatoes and gravy. " But at hotel life in the States, the adult infant lisps to the waiter for everything at table, handles his fish with epicurean delicacy, is choice in his selection of pickles, very particular that his beefsteak at breakfast shall be hot, and is instant in his demand for fresh doe 240 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. in his water. But perhaps his — or in this case her— retreat fi-om the room when the meal is over, is the chef d''mw»re of the whole per formance. The fittle precocious, full-blown beauty of four signifies that she has completed her meal — or is ' thrqugh ' her dinner, as she would express it — by carefully extricating herself from the napkin which has been tucked around her. Then the waiter, ever attentive to her movements, draws back the chair on which she is seated, and the young lady glides to the floor. A little girl in old England would scramble down; but little girls in New England never scramble. Her father and mother, who are no more than her chief ministers, walk before her out of the saloon, and then — she swims after them." The frequent change of occupation, and the hardihood vrith whicb misfortunes — especiaUy pecuniary reverses — are met, impress him. " Everybody," he writes, " understands everything, and everybody intends, sooner or later, to do everything ; " and, " whatever turns up, the man is stUl there, stUl unsophisticated, stiU unbroken." He thinks American coachmen the most adroit in the world; the houses more convenient than those of England of the same class ; the green knoUs and open glades of Kentucky more hke what his countrymen love in a manorial estate, than any land or forest elsewhere in the country ; and, of cities, gives the preference to Boston and Baltimore — the former on ac count of its culture, and the latter because of its " hunting- ground " vicinity, pleasant women, and " Enghsh look." It is amusing to find him gravely asserting, that " the mind of an Enghshman has more imagination than that of an Ameri can," and that " squash is the pulp of the pumpkin." He thinks we suffer for " a national rehgion," and have fomid out that " the plan of governing by little men has certainly not answered ; " and justly regards it as our special blessing to " have been able to begin at the beginning," and so, in many things, improve upon the Old World. Of Congress and Cambridge, Mr. TroUope gives detaUs of parUamentary customs and educational habits, indicating wherein they differ from those of England. He repeats the old arguments for an intemational copyright. He discusses Canada in her present BEITISH TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 241 and prospective poUtical relations with singular candor, and frankly adinits tbe inferiority of her material development to that of the United States. " Everybody travels in America," he observes, " and nothing is thought of distance." In this fact he could easily have found the explanation of the dis comforts of American travel, inasmuch as raUroads that are buUt to lure emigrants to build towns ih the wUdemess, and cars that are intended to convey crowds of aU classes, in the nature of the case do not admit of those refined arrange ments which make foreign raUways so agreeable, and the absence of which renders most American journeys a penance. Among the things which Mr. Trollope, however, finds superior, are canvas-back ducks, rural cemeteries, schools, asylums, city libraries, waterfaUs, maize fields, authors, and women. But the special interest of his book is its discussion of the civil war. His own pohtical riews seem to us somewhat inconsist ent. Repudiating the mUitary despotism existing in France as a wrong to manhood and humanity, he yet thinks " those Chinese rascals should be forced into the harness of civUiza tion.". In allusion to our errors of government, he justly remarks, that " the material growth of the States has been so quick, that the pohtical has not been able to keep up vrith it." In some respects be does , justice to the war for the Union, asserting its necessity, and recognizing the disinter ested patriotism of the North, and Ihe wholly inadequate reasons put forth by the South for treachery and revolt. Yet he fails to grasp the whole subject — treating the exigency as political exclusively, and the RebeUion as analogous to that of Naples, Poland, and our own Revolution. This is, to say the least, a most inadequate and perverse view. Not only had the South no wrongs to redress for which tbe United States Government were responsible, but they violated State not less than National rights, in their seizure of property, per secution and murder of loyal citizens, and enforced votes and enlistments at the point of the bayonet. Citizens in their midst claimed and deserved Federal protection not less than those on this side of their lines. Moreover, the " landless 11 242 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. resolutes " of the South proved, in warfare, barbarians in sacrilegious hate ; so that, under any circumstances, it would have become a necessity for the North to fortify and defend her frontier. These circumstances make an essential differ ence between this RebeUion and other civU wars: tiiey aggravate its turpitude, and rindicate the severest measures to repress it, irrespective of any question of political union. In like manner Mr. Trollope gives but a partial view of the feeling of America toward England. It was not sympathy in a mere political quarrel, between two equaUy justified parties, that she expected, and was grieved and incensed at not re ceiving. Such a feehng might be unmanly, as Mr. Trollope thinks, and also unreasonable ; but when, for years, EngUsh statesmen, travellers, and journahsts had taunted us with the slavery entailed upon the Southern States in colonial days, and by British authority ; and when, at last, we had made the first grand step toward limiting, if not undermining the evil, and, by doing so, had incuiTed the hatred, treachery, and violence of the slaveholders, we had every reason to expect that a Christian nation, akin in blood and language, would throw the weight of her influence, social and political, into tbe scale of justice, instead of hastening to recognize the insurgents as standing before the world on an equal moral and civic footing with a Government and a people they had cheated, defied, and were seeking to destroy for no reason save the constitutional election of a President opposed to the extension of slavery. It was this that created the disappoint ment and inspired the bitterness which Mr. Trollope declares so unjust and unreasonable. He compares the struggle to a quarrel between a man and his wife, and with two parties throwing brickbats at each other across tbe street, to the great discomfort of neutral passengers. Mr. Gladstone re cently compared it to a difficulty between two partners m business, the one wishing to retire from the firm, and the other attempting to force bim to remain. Lord Brougham also spoke of a late treaty between England and the United States of America to suppress the slave trade, as " the treaty BEniSH TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 243 of the Northern Government." It requires no special candor and right feehng to perceive the animus of such expressions. They ignore the true state of the case ; they betray a want of respect for historical accuracy, and an indifference, not to say contempt, for the Government and people of America, only to be explained by a brutal want of Christian sympathy, or mean desire to see a great and patriotic nation decimated and humbled. How sadly do such observations contrast with the just and kindly statements of De Gasparin, of John Bright, and of John Stuart MUl ! AU the solicitude which agitated England and America in regard to the capture of the rebel envoys, about which Mr. TroUope has so much to say, would have been avoided had Great Britain acted, thought, spoken, and felt in this matter vrith any magnanim ity. To her the safe transit of those Secession commissioners was of no importance ; to us it was, at the time, a serious misfortune. Theh relinquishment, without war threats and war preparations, would have cost a friendly and noble nation no loss of dignity, no barm to private or public interests. The proceeding was assumed to be a premeditated insult, whereas it was purely an accident. An insult implies inten tion. In this case, the object of Captain Wilkes was mani festly to perform a duty to his own, not to injure or treat with disrespect another country. His act was iUegal, but the exigency was peculiar. A generous man or woman person ally incommoded by the representative of a just cause, and in the hour of misfortune, where there was no mahce, no impertinence, but an important end to be achieved at the ex pense of a temporary discourtesy — not real, but apparent — would cheerfuUy waive conventional rights, and, from nobil ity of feeling, subdue or postpone resentment. In social hfe, examples of such forbearance and humane consideratiop often happen ; and though it may be Utopian to apply the same ethical code to nations and individuals — in the view of a Christian or even a chivalric man, such an apphcation of the high and holy instincts of our nature is far from irrational. In that sacred chart whereon rest tbe hopes and the faith, the 244 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. precedents and the prmciples of Christianity — "the sphit we are of" is constantly referred to as the test of character and the eridence of feehng. Throughout our national sorrows, from the inception of this wicked Rebelhon, through aU its course, the spirit of the press and Parliament, the spirit of England, as far as it has found official expression, vrith a few memorable exceptions, bave been unjust, , disingenuous, and inimical; and when the history of this national crisis is written, tbe evidence of this will be as glaring as it is shameful. Mr. TroUope has lost an opportunity to reahze " the am bition of his literary hfe." His visit was too brief and un seasonable for him to do anything like justice to himself or his subject. He risited the West in winter — a comfortiess period, when nature is denuded of the freshness and beauty which at more genial seasons cheer the natural "melan choly" he felt there. He saw the army of the Union in hs transition state, and beheld the country and the people when under the shadow of war, and that war undertaken against a senseless and savage mutiny. He rapidly scanned places, with no time to ripen superficial acquaintance into intimacy ; and he wrote his impressions of the passing scene in the midst of hurry, discomfort, and the turbulence and gloom of a painfuUy exciting and absorbing era. Moreover, his forte is not political disquisition. StiU, the interests involved, the moral spectacle apparent, the historical and social elements at work, were such as to inspire a humanitarian and enUghten a philosopher ; and if unambitious of either character, there remained a great duty and noble mission for an EngUsh au thor — to correct specifically, to deny emphatically, the cur rent misrepresentations of British statesmen and journals, and to, vindicate a kindred and mahgned people. He has told many wholesome truths ; he has borne witness to many essential facts about which the British pubhc have hitherto, in spite of all evidence, professed utter increduhty. But he might have gone farther and done more, and so niade his work signally useful now, and far more memorable hereafter. BEITISH TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 245 The Scotch are far more discriminating and sympathetic than the English in their comments and comparisons in re gard to America. The affinity between the North Britons and the New Englanders has often been noted. In habits of industry, native shrewdness, religious enthusiasm, frugal in stincts, love of knowledge, and many other traits, a parallel may be easUy traced. We have seen how genial was the appreciation of Mrs. Grant in her girlhood, of the independ ence, harmony, and social charms of colonial life in Albany. Alexander WUson both loved and honored the home he found on our soU; and among the Travels in \ America of recent date, which, in their liberal spirit and their sagacity, form honorable exceptions to British misrepresentation, are two works written by Scotchmen, which our pubUshers, so ready to reproduce books that have tbe piquancy of abuse or the flash of extravagance, with singular want of judgment have ignored. The first of these is ^n unpretending little bro chure, entitled " A Tour in the United States," by Archibald Prentice.* This writer has been a pubhc-spirited citizen and an editor in Manchester, and was thus practically fitted intel hgently to examine the economical features of the country. Of Covenanter stock, his sympathies were drawn to the Con necticut clergy ; and the graves of kindred endeared the land which he risited in order to examine its physical resources with special reference to emigration, manufactures, trade, and labor. He is enthusiastic on entering, on a beautiful day, the harbor of New York, and, with all the zest of a practical economist, dweUs upon the activity and scope of that com mercial metropohs. " Here," he writes, " bright risions arise in the imagination of the utUitarian. He sees the farmer on the Hudson, the Mohawk, the Ohio, the Blinois, the Miami, and the lakes Michigan, Erie, and Ontario, cheerfuUy labor ing in his own fields for the sustenance of the Manchester spinner and weaver ; he sees the potter of Horsley, the cut ler of Sheffield, the cloth manufacturer of Yorkshire, and the sewer and tambourer of Glasgow, in not hopeless or unre- * London; Charles Gilpin, 1848. 246 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. warded toU, preparing additional comforts and enjoyments for tbe inhabitants of the American woods and prairies. He conjures up a great cooperative community, aU working for mutual benefit ; and sees, in the universal competition, the universal good." He finds the usual defects, as he extends his observations — the cheap railroads, the fragile women, the over-eagerness for foreign appreciation, the inadequate agri cultural science, and, above all, the monstrous eril. — ^poUtical, economical, social, moral, and religious — of slavery. But wbile all these and other drawbacks are emphasized, the causes and conditions are frankly stated. This writer ap preciates the favorable relations of labor to capital, and, although an anti-protectionist, recognizes cordiaUy the advan tages here realized by honest industry and inteUigent enter prise in manufactures and trade. " Even the Irishnian," he writes, " becomes commercial." " The Blinois coalfields," he notes, " are reached by drifts instead of shafts — ^horizon- taUy, not perpendicularly." He lauds our comparatively inexpensive Govemmeilt, the " moral machinery " of our manufacturing towns, the harmonious coexistence of so many rehgious sects. He considers the stem rirtues bred by the hard soil and plhnate of New England a providential school, wherein the character of Western emigration was auspiciously predetermined. But Mr. Prentice has as keen an eye for the beauties of nature as for the resources of in dustry. He was constantly impressed, not only with the gen eral but vrith the specific resemblance of American scenery to that of Great Britain ; and compares an " opening " in the landscape between Baltimore and Washington to " the Esk below Langholm ; " the riew up the Shenandoah to the Clyde at Auld-Brig-End, near Lanark ; the bluffs of the Ohio to the " irregular face which Alderley Edge presents WUm- stone ; " and Lake Champlain to Windermere and Ulswater ; whUe he finds the " footway to the Charter Oak, at Hart ford, worn like the path to the martyr's grave in the Old Friar's Churchyard in Edinburgh. Although thus warmly ahve to native associations, he is not less an ardent advocate BEITISH TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 24Y for mutual forbearance and wise feUowship between Great Britain and America. " The citizens of the United States," he remarks, " do not dislike Englishmen individually. On th^ contrary, they are rather predisposed to Uke them, and to pay them most kind and respectful attention when they visit America. Their dislike is to John BuU — tbe traditional, big, bullying, borough-mongering and monopolizing John Bull ; the John BuU as he was at the time of the American and the French Revolutions, before Catholic emancipation, before the repeal of the Orders in CouncU, before the Reform BiU." And, in conclusion, he thus benignly adjures the spirit of a candid mutual appreciation and harmony : " Would that men in both countries would drop all narrow jealousies, and, look ing to the great mission of the Anglo-Saxon family, earnestly resolve that the sole struggle between those of its branches only geographically separated, should be which most jealously and most energeticaUy should labor to Christianize and civil ize the whole human race." The other Scotch writer whose recent observations are worthy of that consideration which an honest purpose, ele vated sympathies, and conscientious inteUigence, should ever secure, is James Stirling,* a member of Parliament, whose " Letters from the Slave States," pubhshed seven years ago, but,, strange to say, not reprinted here, feems to have antici pated many of the subsequent poUtical events and social manifestations. This writer has eridently made a study of economical questions. He bas that mental discipline which experience, legislative and professional, insures. Firm in his opinions, but liberal and humane in spirit, there is a combina tion of sagacity and generous feeling in his tone of mind which commands respect. These letters are candid and thoughtful ; and, while some of the views advanced chal lenge argument, the gener.al scope is just and wise. Mr. Stirhng was chiefly struck with the rapidity of growth in the American settlements, and records many specific and authen- * "Letters from the Slave States," by James Stirling. London: J. W. Parker, 1851 248 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. tic facts iUustrative of this pecuUar feature in Western civih zation, of which he caUs raUways "the soul." The con ditions of success for new communities be regards as, first, an energetic population ; second, fertile soil ; third, favorable climate ; and, fourth, easy means of communication ; and he explains the prosperity and the failure of such experiments by these conditions. He is opposed to protection and to universal suffrage, and finds ample eridence to sustain these opinions in his observations in the United States. The sub ject, however, which mainly occupies his attention, is the actual influence and effects of slavery, the difficulties in the way of its abohtion, and the probable consequence of its existence upon the destiny and development of the nation. His economical argument is strong. He indicates the com parative stagnation and degradation of the Slave States with detaU, describes the status of the poor whites, notes the his torical facts, and seems to anticipate the climax which three years later involved the country in civil war. " The South," be writes, " seems to me in that mood of mind which fore runs destruction ; " and elsewhere observes that " the acci dent of cotton has been the ruin of the negi-o." He recog nizes a "moral disunion" in the opposition of parties and social instincts in regard to slavery. " Like most foreign ers," he observes, " I find it very difficult to appreciate the construction of American : parties. There is a party called the Southem party, which is distinctly in favor of separation. It -will caiTy along with it, notwithstanding its most insane pohcy, a great proportion of tbe low white population. Opposed to it is the conservative inteUigence of the South. Mr. Stirling justly regards the " want of concentration " as the characteristic defect of American civilization; and re gards the " aristocracy of the South " as almost identical vrith " the parvenu society of the mushroom cities " in Britain ; and observes significantly that it is " on the impor tance of cotton to England that the philosophers of the South delight to dweU." Indeed, throughout his observar tions on the Slave States, there is a complete recognition of BEITISH TEA"VELLEES AND -WEITEES. 249 the facts and principles which the North has vainly striven for months past to impress upon Enghsh statesmen ; and this testimony is the more valuable inasmuch as it is disinter ested, and was recorded before any overt act of rebelhon had comphcated our foreign relations. Although this writer's experience in Alabama is more favorable to the social con dition of that State than wbat feU under the observation of Mr. Ohnsted, yet the latter's economical statistics of the Slave States are amply confirmed by Mr. Stirhng. He is equaUy struck vrith the contrast between the two parts of the country in regard to providence and comfort. He agrees vrith other travellers in his estimate of popular defects, and is especially severe upon the evils of hotel life in the United States, and the superficial and showy workmanship which compares so unfavorably with substantial English" manufac tures. Many of these criticisms have only a local applica tion, yet they are none the less true. DueUing, lynching, "hatred of authority," "passion for territory," inadequate poUce, and reckless travelling, are traits which are censured vrith emphasis. But the charm of these letters consists in the broad and benign temper of the writer, when from spe cific he turns to general inferences, and treats of the country as a whole, and of its relations to the Old World and to humanity. It is refreshing to find united in a foreign critic such a clear perception ¦ of the drawbacks to onr national prosperity and incongruous elements in onr national develop ment, vrith an equaUy true insight and recognition of the indiridual and domestic rectitude, and the noble and high. tendencies of hfe and character. A few random extracts will indicate these qualities of the man and merits of the writer : "We have experienced, even from utter strangers, an officious kindness and sympathy that can only arise from hearts nurtured in the daily practice of domestic virtues." " I have no fears but that the follies and crudities of the present effervescent state of American society wfll pass away, and leave he- hind a large residuum of solid worth." 11* 250 AMERICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. " I cannot overlook that latent force of rirtue and wisdom, which makes itself, as yet, too little felt in public affairs, but which assuredly is there, and wUl come forth, I am convinced, when the hour of trial comes to save the country." " The American nation wiU wrestle victoriously with these social and political hydras." Mr. Sthling gives a most true analysis of an American popular speaker in his estimate of Beecher. He discrimi nates well the local traits of the coimtry, calling Florida the "Alsatia of the Union," because it is such a paradise for sportsmen and squatters ; and explaining the , superiority in race of the Kentuckians by theh hunting habits and ;^rogeni- tors. " Tbe httle step," he writes, " from the South to the North, is a stride from barbarism to civUization — a step from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century." Of the physiognomy of the people he says : " You read upon the nation's brow the extent of its enterprise and the intensity of its desires. The deepest-rooted cause of Ameri can disease is the overworking of tbe brain and the over- excitement of the nervous system." EquaUy clear and earnest, humane and noblfe, is his riew of the relation of this country to Great Britain : " Never were two nations," he writes, " so eminently fitted tp aid and comfort each other iu the vast work of cirilization, than Eng land and America." He reproaches Great Britain vrith her indifference, as manifest in sending second-class ambassadors to the United States ; and invokes " the spiritual ruler, the press," to do its part, " by speaking more generously aud vrisely." If tbe prescience of this writer is remarkable in estimating aright the temper and tendencies of Southern trea son whUe yet latent, and of Northern integrity and patriot ism before events had elicited their active development, no less prophetic is his appeal to Enghsh magnanimity : " Why, in God's name, should we not give them every assurance of respect and affection ? Are they not our children, blood of our blood and bone of our Ijone ? Are they not progressive, and fond of power, like ourselves ? Are they not our best customers ? Have BEITISH TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 251 they not the same old English, manly virtues ? What is more befit ting for us Englishmen, than to watch with intense study and deep est sympathy the momentous strivings of this noble people ? It is the same fight we ourselves are fighting — the trne and absolute supremacy of Eight. Surely nothing can more beseem two great and kindred nations, than to aid and comfort one another in that career of self-ennoblement, which is the end of all national as well as uidividual eristence."* * " The stupendous greatness of England is factitious, and will only be come natural when that empire shall have found its real centre : that centre is the United States." — " The New Rome ; or, Tlie United States of the World" {New York, 1843). A remarkably bold and comprehensive theory of American progress, unity, and empire, by Theodore Pocsche and Charles Goepp — one an Ameri canized German, the other a Teutonic philosopher. In this little treatise the geography, politics, races, and social organization of the United States are analyzed, and shown to be " at work upon the fusion of all nations — not of thia continent alone, but of all continents — into one people." CHAPTEE YII. ENGLISB ABUSE OF AMERICA. It has often been remarked, that there is a fashion in bookcraft, as in every other phase and element of human society ; and the caprices thereof are often as inexphcable and fantastic as in manners, costume, and other less inteUect ual phenomena. The history of modem literature indicates extreme fluctuations of popular 'taste. Waller and Cowley introduced the concetti of the Itahans into English verse, which, in Elizabeth's reign, was so preeminent for robust afflu ence ; hi Pope's day we had sathe and sense predominant ; Byron initiated the misanthropic and impassioned style; while Steele and Addison inaugm-ated social criticism, the lake poets a recurrence to/ the simplicity of nature, and the Scotch reviewers bold analysis and hberal reform. But the uniform tone of books and criticism in England for so many years, in relation to America, is one of those literary phe nomena the cause of which must be sought elsewhere than among the whims and oddities of popular taste or the caprice of authors. A French writer, at one period, declared it was the dhect result of official bribery, to stop emigration ; but its motives were various, and its origin far from casual or temporary ; and the attitude and animus of England during the war for the Union, give to these systematic attacks and continuous detraction a formidable significance. The Ameri can abroad may have grown indifferent to the derogatory ENGLISH ABUSE OF AMEEICA. 253 facts or fictions gleaned for Gcdignani's Messenger, and served up with his daily breakfast ; he may treat the prejudice and presumption of Enghsh censors with amusing non chalance, when discussing them vrith an esteemed and kindly friend of that race ; but the subject assumes a more grave aspect, wben he finds his country's deadly struggle for nation ahty against a selfish and profane oligarchy, understood and vindicated by the press of Turin and St. Petersburg, and maUgned or ^ discouraged by tl»t of London. Cockneyism may seem unworthy of analysis, far less of refutation ; but, as Sydney Smith remarked by way of apology for hunting smaU game to the death in his zeal for reform, " in a coimtry surrounded by dikes, a rat may inimdate a province ; " and it is the long-continued gnawing of the tooth of detraction that, at a momentous crisis, let in tbe cold flood at last upon the nation's heart, and quenched its traditional love. We have seen how popular a subject of discussion were American manners, institutions, and character, by British writers ; and it is amusing, in the retrospect, to consider with what aridity were read, and with what self-confidence were written, these monotonous protests against the imperfect ci-vUization prevalent in the United States. That there was a certain foundation for such discussion, and a relation between the institutions of the country and the beharior of its people, cannot be denied ; but both were exaggerated, and made to pander infinitely more to prejudice than to truth. The same investigation apphed to other lands- in tbe same spirit, would have fumished quite as salient material ; and the antecedents as well as the animus of most of these self-appointed cen sors should have absolved theh attacks from any power to irritate. The violations of refinement and propriety thus " set in a note book " were by no means universal. Many of them were temporary, and, taken at their best significance, to a phUosophical mind bore no piroportion to the more impor tant traits and tendencies which invite the attention and enlist the sympathy of lovers of humanity. It is remark able, also, that the most severe comments came from persons 264 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. whose experience of tbe higher usages and refinements of social life was in the inverse ratio of their critical complaints. Lord Carlisle found, in tbe vast social possibUities of this country, an interest which rendered hhn indifferent to the dis comfort and the anomalies to which his own habits and asso ciations might have naturally made him sensitive ; whUe the latter exclusively occupied Dickens, whose early experience had made him familiar vrith the least elegant and luxurious facUities of life. The arrani cockneyism and provincial im pertinence of many of these superficial and sensation writers, on a subject whose true and grand relations they were incapa ble of grasping, and the mercenary or sycophantic motive of many of their thades, were often exposed ; while in cases where incidental popular errors were truly stated, the justice of the criticism was acknowledged, and, in some instances, practically acted upon. The reckless expectoration, angular attitudes, and intrusive curiosity which formed the staple reproach, have always been limited to a class or section, and are now comparatively rare ; and these and similar superficial defects, when gravely treated as national, seem ahnost devoid of significance, when the grand human worth, promise, and beauty of our institutions and opportunities as a people, are considered and compared with the iron caste, the hopeless routine, the cowed and craven status of the masses in older and less homogeneous and unhampered communities. We must look far back to realize the prevalent ignorance in regard to this country wherein prejudice found root and nm-ture. In colonial days, many bitter and perverse records found their way to the press ; and Colonel Barre said to the elder Qumcy, in England, before the Revolutionary war : " When I retumed to this country, I was often speaking of America, and could not help speaking well of its climate, soil, and inhabitants ; but — will you believe it ? — more than two thhds of the people of this island thought the Ameri cans were aU negroes." Goldsmith's muse, in 1765, warned the impoverished peas ants, eager to seek a new bome in the Western hemisphere. ENGLISH ABXrSE OF AMEEICA. 265 against perils in America so imaginary, that they would pro voke Only smiles but for the melodious emphasis whereby ignorance and error vs^ere thus consecrated. And after our independence was acknowledged, Enghsh men regarded it as a strictly political fact. We were inde pendent of their Govei-nment, but not of themselves — the least of them assuming superiority, patronage, and critical functions, as a matter of course ; so that Americans with any inteUigence or manliness came inevitably to sympathize with Heine's estimate : " The Enghsh blockheads — God forgive them ! I often regard them not at aU as my feUow beings, but as miserable automata, — ^machines whose motive power is egotism." That insular and inevitable trait found expression, as regards America, through the Quarterly Reviews, Monthly Magazines, and a rapid succession of " Travels." A pregnant cause of temporary alienation, fifty years ago, may be recognized in the last war with Great Britain. Our naval skiU and prowess were a sore trial to the pride of Enghshmen ; although some of the popular authors of that day, Uke Southey, frankly acknowledged this claim to respect. "Britain had ruled the waves. So her poets sang ; so nations felt — aU but this young nation. Her trident had laid them aU prostrate ; and how fond she was of considering this emblem as identified vrith the sceptre of the world ! Behold, then, the flag which had everywhere reigned in triumph supreme, send ing forth terror from its folds — behold it again and again and again lowered to the Stars and Stripes which had risen in the new hemisphere ! The spectacle was magnificent. The Euro pean expectation that we were to be crushed, was turned into a feeling of admiration unbounded. Our victories had a moral effect far transcending tbe number or size of their ships van quished. For such a blow upon the mighty name of Eng land, after many idle excuses, she had, at last, no balm so effectual as that it was inflicted and could only have been inflicted by a race sprung from herself." * * " Occasional Productions : Political, Diplomatic, and Miscellaneous," by the late Richard Rush, Philadelphia, 1860. 256 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. Coincident with or ere long succeeding this naval pres tige, our commercial marine advanced in character and pros perity. The cotton of the South became an essential com modity to Great Britain. In New England, manufactures were firmly established, vrith important mechanical improve ments and'facUities ; whUe the Western States became more and more the granary of Europe. New territorial acqui sitions, increase of mines, afid a system of public instruction, which seemed to guarantee an improved generation of the middle and lower class — these, and other elements of growth, powei-, and plenty, tended to foster the spirit of rivalry and jealous criticism, and to lessen the complacent gaze where with England beheld her long chain of colonial possessions begird the globe. Thus a variety of circumstances united to aggravate the prejudice and encourage the animadversions of English traveUers in America, and to make them acceptable to theh countrymen. And it is a curious fact for the phUoso pher, an auspicious one for the humanitarian, that the under current of personal and social goodvriU, as regards individu als, of sympathy, respect, and, in many instances, warmer sentiments, flowed on uninterrupted; indiridual friendships of tbe choicest kind, hospitahties of the most frank and gen erous character, mutual interests and feelings in literature, rehgion, philanthropy, and science, consecrated the private intercourse and enriched the correspondence of select intelli gences and noble hearts on opposite sides of the Atlantic. But the record of the hour, the utterances of the press, were as we have seen. •'' The importance attached to the swarm of English Travels abusive of America, upon calm reflection, appears like a monomania; and equaUy preposterous was the sensitiveness of our people to foreign criticism. Their exceptional fast eating, inquisitiveness, tobacco chewhig, ugly public build ings, sprawling attitudes, and local lingo, were engrossed in so huge a biU of indictment, that their political heedom, social equality, educational pririleges, unprecedented material prosperity, benign laws, and glorious country, seemed to ENGLISH ABUSE OF AMEEICA. 257 shrink, for the moment, into insignificance before tbe mo notonous scurriUty and hopeless auguries of their censors. It was not considered that the motive and method of the most of these caustic strictures rendered them innocuous; that, to use the test of an able writer in reference to another class of narrow minds, they " endeavored to atone by misan thropic accuracy for imbecility in fundamental principles ; " that few English men or women can write an authentic report of social and political facts in America, differences of habit and opinion therein being more fierce by approxhnation, thereby destroying the true perspective ; add to which inabil ity, the miserable cockney spirit, the dependent and subser vient habit of mind, the underbred tone, want of respect for and sympathy vrith humanity as such, hmited powers of observa tion, controlling prejudice, unaccustomed consideration, and native brutality, iwbich proclaimed the incompetency and dis/'' ingenuousness of the lowest class of these once formidable scribblers; and we realize why "foUy loves the martyrdom of fame," and recognize an identical perversion of truth and good manners as weU as human instincts as, in the ignorant ar rogance which, in their own vaunted land of high civUization, iacarcerated Montgomery, Hunt, and De Foe, exUed SbeUey, blackguarded Keats, and envenoms and vulgarizes Uterary criticisms to-day in the Saturday Review — ignoring at hohie, as weU as abroad, the comprehensive, the sympathetic, and the Christian estimate both of genius, communities, and character. The prevalent feeling in relation to this injustice and un kindness of Enghsh writers on . America, forty years ago, found graceful expression in a chapter of the Sketch Book, the first literary venture heartily recognized for its merits of style and sentiment, which a native author had given to the "mother country." Irving comments on the singular but incontrovertible fact, that, while the English admirably re port their remote travels, no people convey such prejudiced riews of countries nearer home. He attributes the vulgar abuse lavished on the United States by the swarm of visitors 258 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. from Great Britain, first, to the misfortune that the worst class of English traveUers bave assumed this task ; secondly, to tbe prejudice against democratic institutions ; thirdly, to the lack of comforts in travelling here, whereby the humor is rendered splenetic ; fourthly, to disappointed avarice and en terprise ; and, finally, to jealousy, and a degree of considera tion and hospitality to which men of the class of Birmingham and Manchester agents, being wholly unaccustomed, they were spoiled instead of being concUiated thereby. He descants, vrith a good sense equally apphcable to the present hour, upon the short-sighted pohcy of incurring the resentment of a young and growing nation having a common language and innumerable mutual interests ; and advances the claim which America possesses to every magnanimous people of Europe, as constituting the asylum of the oppressed and unfortunate. Since" this amiable and just protest was written, the inteUect ual progress of the country has been as remarkable as the increase of its territory, population, resom-ces, trade, and manufactures ; while even the diplomatic conservatives across the sea,^recognize in tbe United States a power ritaUy asso ciated with that traditional " balance " whereon the peace and prosperity of the civilized world are thought to depend. But the hriproved and enlarged tone of foreign criticism has not queUed the original antipathy or prejudice, indifference or animosity of England — as the rabid and perverse comments of British journals, at this terrible crisis of our national life, too sadly demonstrate. The same wilful ignorance, the' same disingenuous statements, the same cold sneers and defiant sar casms find expression in the leading organs of English opin ion to-day, as once made popular tbe shaUow journals of the commercial travellers and arrogant cockneys ; so that we and they may revert to Irving's gentle rebuke, now that he is in his grave, and feel, as of old, its strict justice and sad neces sity. Hear him : " Is this golden bond of kindred sympathies, so rare between nations, to be broken forever ? Perhaps it is for the best : it may dispel an illusion which might have kept us in mental vassalage; ENGLISH ABUSE OF AMEEICA. 259 which might have interfered occasionaUy with our true interests and prevented the growth of preper national pride. But it is hard to give up the kindred tie ; and there are feeUngs dearer than inter est, closer to the heart than pride, that wiU stiU make us cast back a look of regret, as we wander farther and farther from the paternal roof, and lament the waywardness of the parent that would repel the affections of the cbud." And Allston echoed Irving's sense and sentiment with genial emphasis : " WhUe the manners, whUe the arts, That mould a nation's soul. Still cling around our hearts, Between let ocean roll. Our joint communion breaking with the sun : Yet stUl from either beach. The voice of blood shaU reach. More audible than speech, ' We are one.' " The reader of tbe present day, who is inchned to doubt the justice of any reference to this contemptible class of writers, as representatives of Enghsh feeling toward Amer ica, has but to consult the best periodical literature, and note the style and imprint of the books themselves, to recognize in the fact of their ehgible publication and reception, an abso lute proof of the consideration they enjoyed; and this, be it remembered, in spite of the known character and objects of the authors, whose position and associations unfitted them for soeialfcritics and economical reporters such as an inteUigent gentleman could endure, far less accord the slightest personal or literary credit. Ashe is openly described as a swindler ; Faux as " low ; " Parkinson was a common gardener ; Fearon a stocking-weaver. Cobbett, who is the last person to be sus pected of aristocratic prejudices, and was the most practical and perverse of democrats, observed, in reading the fasti dious comments of one of these impudent travellers, upon an American meal, that it was " such a breakfast as the fel low had never before tasted ; " and the remark explains the presumption and ignorance of many of this class of writers. 260 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. who, never before haring enjoyed tbe least social considera tion or private luxury, became; like a beggar on horseback, intoxicated therevrith. Even a cursory glance at the catalogue of books thus pro duced vviU indicate how popular was the theme and how audacious the wi-iters. We remember faUing in vrith a clever but impoverished professor, several years ago, in Italy, who bad resided in this country, but found himself in Europe with out means. In obedience to an appeal which reached us, we sought his economical lodging, and found bim pacing up and down a scantUy furnished chamber, every now and then seizing a pen and rapidly noting the result of his cogitations. He had been offered, by a London publisher, a handsome gratuity to furnish, within a specified period, a hvely anti-democratic book on life and manners in America. The contract, he assured us, provided that there should be enough practical details, especially in regard to the physical resources of the coimtry, to give an air of solid information to the work. There were to be a vein of personal anecdote, a few original .adventures, some exaggerated character painting, and a little enthusiasm about scenery : but all this was to be weU spiced with ridicifle ; and the argument of the book -was to demon strate the inevitable depreciation of mind, manners, and en joyment under the influence of democratic institutions. The poor author tasked his memory and his invention to follow this programme, without a particle of conviction in the em phatic declaration of his opinions, or any sympathy vrith the work other than what was derived f;-om its lucrative reward. The incident Ulustrates upon what a conventional basis the rage for piquant Travels in America rested. Contemporary periodical hterature echoed constantly the narrow comments and vapid faultfinding of this class of English travellers, most of whose sneers may be found re peated vrith zest in tbe pages of the Quarterly and Black wood. Somewhat of the personal prejudice of these articles is doubtless to be ascribed to political influences. Then, as now, the encroachment of democratic opinions excited the ENGLISH ABTTSE OF AMEEICA. 261 alarm of, the conservatives. The reform party had made extraordinary advances, and the extension of the right of suffrage became the bugbear of tbe aristocracy. To repre sent the country where that right had such unhmited sway, as demoraUzed thereby, became the policy of aU but the so- called radical writers; and the Reviews, fifty years ago, exhibited the worst side of American life, manners, and gov ernment, for the same reason that, tbe London Times and Blackwood'' s Magazine* to-day persist, in the face of truth and history, in ascribing the Southern RebeUion to repub Ucan institutions, instead of theh- greatest bane and most anomalous obstacle on this continent — slavery. Thus the organs of hterature and opinion encouraged the cockney critics. in theh flippant strictures upon this country, and did much to prolong and disseminate them where the English language is spoken. But the journals of the United States were not less trenchant on the other side. In the North American Review, especiaUy, several of the most presuming and ignorant of the books in question were shown up with keen and wise irony, and an array of argumentative facts that demohshed their pretensions effectually. It should be remembered, in regard to this period, wben expediency, fash ion, and prejudice combined to make our country the favorite target of opprobrious criticism in Great Britain, that Amer ica began to excite fears for that " balance of power " which was the gauge of pohtical security among the statesmen of that day. Moreover, the hterary society then and there had not been propitiated by success on this side of the water, nor its respect excited by the intellectual achievements which have since totaUy reversed the prophecies and the judgments of Enghsh reviewers ; nor had the United States then be come, as now, the nation of readers whose favor it was the interest as weU as tbe pride of popular authors abroad to win * " It would perhaps be too much to say that the tendencies of our Consti tution toward democracy have been checked solely by a view of the tattered and msolent guise in which republicanism appears iu America." — Blackwood's Mag., 1862. / 262 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. and cherish. In reverting to some of the articles which proved most offensive and to the tone of all that more or less sanctioned the spirit, of vituperative traveUers in America, it should also be considered that private feeling, in certain instances, lent rigor to the critical blows. Some of the writers had been annoyed by the intrusion or disgusted with the indehcacy of pertinacious and underbred tourists from ?^this side of the Atlantic. Many were the current anecdotes Ulustrg,tiv"e of Yankee impudence which the friends of Southey, Maria Edgeworth, and Sir Walter Scott used to relate — anecdotes that, unfortunately, have found their paral lels since in the experience of Carlyle, Tennyson, and other admired hving writers. And, although these and their pre decessors have found reason to bless the " nation of bores," as in many instances their most appreciative and remunerative audience, personal pique did and stiU does sharpen the tone and scope of British authorship when America is referred to, as in the case of Sydney Smith,'" whose investments were imfortunate, or Leigh Hunt, whose copyrights were invaded, or Dickens and other British lions, who found adulation and success less a cause for gratitude than for ridicule; while every popular British novelist has a character, an anecdote, or an iUustration drawn from traditional caricatures of ., American manners and speech. A comprehensive mind and a generous heart turns, however, from such ephemeral mis representation and casual reproach as the bookwrights and reriewers in question delighted in, not so much vexed as wearied thereby ; but it is a more grave reflection upon Eng lish probity and good sense, that so many of her standard writers, or those who aspire to be such, are disincluied to ascertain the facts of histoiy and social hfe in America. * Notwithstanding the deserved rebuke he administered to our State delinquency in hia American letters, Sydney Smith vindicates his claim to the title of Philo-Yankeeist. No British writer has better appreciated the insti tutions and destiny of the United States. He recognized cordially the latent force of Webster, the noble eloquence of Channing, and the refined scholar ship of Everett. " I will disinherit you," he playfully writes to his daughter, " If you do not admire everything written by Franklin." ENGLISH ABUSE OF AMEEICA. 263 Such wUful errors as those of Lord Mahon and Ahson, to say nothing of the vast display of ignorance evoked by the recent discussion in British journals of the RebeUion in America, are utterly unworthy of men of professed candor and scholarship in this age. The specific objections to American cirihzation, pohtical and social, emphasized with such zeal and unanimity, by certain English writers, are often just and true ; but tbe statement thereof is none the less disingenu ous because the compensatory facts are withheld, and inci- deptal, particular, and social faults treated as normal and national. This kind of sophistry runs through the Travels, Journals, and conversation of that iUiberal class of British critics who, then as now, from pohcy, prejudice, or personal conceit or disappointment, habitually regard every question, character, and production of American origin with dislike and suspicion. This inveterate tendency to look at' things exclusively from the point of view suggested by national prejudices, is apparent in the most casual notice of American localities. A ¦writer in Blackwood's Magazine^ describing his risit to the " Cave of the Regicides," at New Haven, is disgusted by the difference of aspect and customs there exhibited from those famihar to him at the old seats of learning in England ; and, instead of ascribing them to the simple habits and lim ited resources of the place, with a curious and dogmatic per versity, finds their origin in pohtical and historical opinions, about which the students and professors of Yale care little and know less ; as a few quotations from the article wiU mdicate : "I suspect the person who leaned over the bulwarks of the steamer and gave me the facts, was a dissenting minister going up to be at his college at this important anniversary. There was a tone in his voice which sufficiently indicated his sympathies. The regicides were evidently the calendared saints of his rehgion." * * * * * * ll ijjjg streets were alive with bearded and mustached youth ; but they wore hats, and flaunted not a rag 'of surplice or * Blackwood's Mag., vol. Ixi., p. 333. 264 AMEEICA AND HEK COMMENTATOES. gown. They are devoutly eschewed as savoring too much of popery ; nor master, doctor, or scholar appears with the time-honored de cency which, to my antiquated notion, is quite inseparable from the true regimen of a university." " It was really farcical to see the good old president confer de grees with an attempt at ceremony, which seemed to have no rubric but extemporary convenience and the despatch of business." * » * " In this college one sees the best that Puritanism could produce; and I thought what Oxford and Cambridge might have become, under the invading reforms of the usurpation, had the Protectorate been less impotent to reproduce itself." The memorable papers which first established the reputar tion of Dickens, curiously indicate the prevalence of this deprecatory and venal sphit in Enghsh writers on America, at a later period. The elder Weller, in suggesting to Sami- vel his notable plan for the escape of Pickwick from the Fleet prison, by concealing himself in a " planner forty," sig nificantly adds : " Have a passage ready taken for 'Merriker. Let the gov'ner stop there till Mrs. Bardell 's dead, and then let him come back and write a book about the 'Merrikens as'U pay all his expenses, and mOre, if he blows 'em up enough." , The preeminence of the British colonies in America early proved the Anglo-Saxon destiny of this continent. The long wars with the aborigines, and the memorable struggle be tween thei French and English, resulting in the confirmed possession and sway of the latter rule and colonies, and, finally, the American Revolution and its immediate and later consequences, furnish to a philosophic and benevolent mind so remarkable an historical series of events, combining to results of such infinite significance, not to this country and nation alone, but to the world and humamty, that it is sur prising English speculation and criticism so long continued narrow, egotistic, and unsympathizing. Noble exceptions, indeed, are to be remembered. Chatham, the most heroic, Burke, tbe most phUosophic of British statesmen, early and memorably recognized tbe claims, the character, and the des tiny of our country ; and many of the inteUectual nobihty ENGLISH ABUSE OP AMEEICA. 265 of Great Britain, in the flush of youthful aspirations, bafBled by pohtical or social exclusiveness, turned their hopes and theh tributes toward the Western continent. But among the numerous English visitors who undertook to describe, to Ulus trate, and to criticize nature, government, and society in the United States for tbe benefit of their countrymen, few have proved adequate or just ; and still less is the number who rose to the phUosophy of the subject. Many of the French writers seize upon practical truths of universal interest, or evolve the sentiment of the theme with zest : either process gives a vital charm to descriptions and speculations, and places the reader in a genuine human rela tion with the writer. The same distinction between the Eng lish and French method of treating our Condition, history, and character, is observable in the current literature of both countries, as vveU as in the works of their respective travel lers. How rarely in an English writer do we encounter epi sodical remarks so generous in tone as this page from Miche- let's httle treatise, " La Mer " : " L' Amerique, est le d6sh. Elle iest jeune, et elle bi-Me d'etre en rapport avec le globe. Sur son superbe continent, et au milieu de tant d'fitats, elle se croit pourtant soUtaire. Si loin de sa mSre I'Europe, elle j*§garde vers ce centre de la cirilization, comme la terre vers le soleU, et tout ce qui la rapproche du grand luminaire la fait palpiter, qu'on en juge par I'ivresse, par les fetes si touchantes auxqneUes donna lieu Id-bas le tel6graphe sous-marin g^ui mariat les deux rivages, promettait le dialogue et la r^pfique par minutes, de sorte que les deux mondes n'auraient plus qu'une pensee ! " The historical character of France and England explains the discrepancy so evident in their recorded estimate of and sentiments in regard to America. The former nation envied the Spaniards tbe renown of their peerless discovery, and blamed theh king for not haring entertained the project of Columbus. As a people, they love power more than gain, and are ever more swayed by ideas than interest ; whereas, in the earliest chronicles of Enghsh pohty, we find a sphit of calculation. On that side of the Channel, we are told, 13 266 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. they " seldom voted a subsidy without bargaining for a right ; " and in a sketch of the wars between the two coun tries, one of theh own writers observes : " Our character at that time (1547) was more economical than heroic ; and we seldom set our foot in France, unless on the careful calcula tion of how much the enemy would give us for going away again." This sharp appreciation of material results has had much to do with the civic prosperity of England, for thereby the popular mind has grown alert and efiicient in seeming those privUeges in whicb consists the superiority of the English Constitution, and the absence of which enabled PhUip Au gustus, RicheUeu, and Louis XIV. to estabUsh in France such absolute despotism. On the other hand, so exclusive and pertinacious a tendency to self-interest is and has proved, in the case of England, a serious obstacle to those generous national sentiments which endear and elevate a people and a Government in the estimation of humanity ; and it is only necessary to recall the caricatures of the French, the Dutch, the German, and Italian character, which pervade EngUsh literature, to realize the force of insular prejudice and self- concentration thus confirmed by national habits and pohty. " Some years ago," says a popular English writer, " it would have been an unexampled stretch of hberality to have confessed that France had any good quaUties at aU. Our country vvas an island — we despised the rest of the world ; our county was an island — -vve despised the other shires ; our parish was an island, with peculiar habits, modes, and insti tutions ; our households were islands ; and, to complete the whole, each stubborn, broad-shouldered, strong-backed Eng hshman was an island by himself, surrounded by a misty and tumultuous sea of prejudices." * A curious iUustration is afforded by the entire series of Enghsh Travels in America, of. this national egotism so characteristic of England, which regards foreign countries and people exclusively through the narrow medium of self- * Eev. James White. ENGLISH ABUSE OF AMEEICA. 267 love. The tone of these records of a sojourn or an explora tion in America is graduated, ahnost invariably, as to the sympathy or the depreciation, by tbe relation of the two countries to each other at different times. For a long period after the early colonization, so remote and unprofitable was the New World, that indifference marks the aUusions to, and superficiaUty or contempt the accounts of, those thinly settled and unprosperous communities. As they grew in population and resources, and glimpses were obtained of a possible future alike promising to the devotees of gam, of ambition, and of political reform and rehgious independence, English ¦writers dweU vrith complacency upon the natural beauties and fertUity of the land, upon the prospect here opened for enterprise ; and as a colonial tributary to their power and wealth, America, or that part of it colonized by the British, is described vrith pride and pleasure; even its social traits occasionally lauded, and tbe details of observation and expe rience given vrith elaborate rehsh. Especially do we find political malcontents at home, and social asphants or benign and inteUigent visitors, dwelling upon the novel features and free scope of the country with satisfaction. Immediately subsequent to the Revolution, a different sphit is manifest. When the choicest jewel of her crown had been wrested from the grasp of Great Britain, numerous flaws therein be came at once erident to the critical eyes of English travel lers ; and, though occasionally a refreshing contrast is afforded by the candid and cordial estimate of a liberal writer, tbe disingenuous and deprecatory temper prevails. It is impos sible not to perceive that the rapid growth and unique pros perity of a country governed by popular institutions, without an established chm-ch, a royal family, an order of nobility, and aU the expensive arrangements incident to monarchical sway, however free and constitutional, has been and is a cause of uneasiness and hatred to a nation of kindred lan guage and character. " Freedom," wrote Heine, " has sprung^ m England from privilegesr— from historical events. All Eng land is congealed in medieeval, never-to-be-rejuvenated institu- 268 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. tions, behind which her aristocracy is intrenched, awaiting the death struggle." Hence the example of America has been to sc large political party, to a proud social organiza tion, inauspicious ; to the popular, the liberal, the democratic masses, encouraging. Hence the base jubilee at our recent internal dissensions, whose root — slavery* — was planted by the Enghsh themselves. Hence their constant assertion that " tbe republic is a failure." One of the chief grounds of complaint stated, when the Declaration of Independence was first written, against the British Government, was that it had, contrary to the vrishes of the colonies, planted African slavery on our soU. Hence the extreme baseness of ignoring this primal and positive cause of our domestic troubles on the part of writers and rulers in England, and striving to make repubhcan institu tions responsible exclusively therefor — a course referable to shameful jealousy, and to the want of cotton and the deshe for free trade. In all British history there is no more re markable illustration of what De Tocqueville, whose English proclirities and phUosophic candor no inteUigent reader can question, remarked, in one of his letters : " In the eyes of an Englishman, a cause is just if it be the inter est of England that it should succeed. A man or a Government that is useful to England, has every kind of merit; and one that does England harm, every possible fault. The criterion of what is honor able, or just, is to be found in the degree of favor or of opposition to English interests. There is much of this everywhere ; but there is so much of it in England that a foreigner is astonished." The mineral wealth and adaptation of mechanical pro cesses to manufacture, which laid the foundation of Eng land's commercial prosperity, are no longer a monopoly. Identical resources bave been elsewhere developed and em ployed, and her productions and enterprise have become, in the same proportion, less essential to the industry of the * It was the monopoly of the infamous traffic in negroes, which, during the ministry of Sir Robert Walpole, so greatly increased the mercantile prosperity of London, and founded that of Bristol and Liverpool. ENGLISH ABUSE OF AMEEICA. 269 world. Her power, therefore, in more than one direction, is on the wane. But to a liberal and philosophic mind, the grand natural provision for the subsistence of her impover ished laborers, and the permanent amelioration of their status, on this continent, should be regarded as a vast bless- ,ing, not a selfish vexation ; as a cause of religious gratitude, and not of jealous detraction. WUl it not prove a sugges tive anomaly to the rational historian of the wonderful age in which we hve, when science, letters, adventure, economy, education, and travel are making human beings every day less local and egotistic, and more cosmopohtan and humane, in theh relations and sentiments — that in such an age, when, for the privilege of holding black people in serritude unchal lenged, a class of American citizens rose in arms against national authority, the nobles of England, and a portion of her traders and manufacturers, became the alhes of the insur gents ; whUe the royal family, the starving thousands of Lan cashire — who are the real sufferers from tbe war — and the bravest and vrisest representatives of the people in Parlia ment, gave to the United States, and to the cause of justice and of freedom, their sympathy, advocacy, and respect ? The real fear of America in Great Britain is of our moral influence, which, of course and inevitably, is democratic ; and if her detractors in England are pensioned, the working class there spbntaneously, through faith and hope, attach themselves to her cause. The superior candor of the French writers on America is obrious to tbe most superficial reader. The urbanity and the phUosophical tendency of the national mind account for this more genial and intelhgent treatment ; but the striking differ ence of temper and of scope between tbe French and English Travels in America, is accounted for mainly by the compara tive freedom from pohtical and social prejudice on the part of the former, and the frequent correspondence of their sen- timents with those of the inhabitants of tbe New World. From the descriptions of primeval nature by the early Jesuit missionaries to the gaUant gossip and speculative enthusiasm 270 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. of the French officers who cooperated in our Revolutionary struggle, a peculiar sympathy vrith the prospects and affinity with the conditions of nature and of hfe, on this continent, inspire the GaUic writers. Nor did this partiahty or sense of justice diminish vrith the growth of the country. From the swarm of dUettante critics and arrogant or shaUow au thors of books on the United States, during the last fifty years, the only phUosophical work wherein the principles of democratic institutions are fahly discussed, and theh peculiar operation in America justly defined, is the standard treatise of Alexis de TocquevUle ; wbUe the first able and eloquent plea for our nationahty, the first clear and honest recognition of tbe causes and significance of our present ciril war from abroad, came from a French pubhcist. What a contrast be tween the considerate argument and noble rindication of De Gasparin, and the perverse dogmatism, disingenuous tone, and mahcious exaggeration of a large part of the Enghsh ¦periodical press ! " We are not just toward the United States," says tbe former. " Their civilization, so different from ours, wounds us in various ways, and we turn from them in the UI humor excited by theh real defects, without taking note enough of their eminent quahties. This country, whicb possesses neither church nor state, nor any government al protection; this country, born yesterday — bom under a Puritan influence ; this country, vrithout past history, vrith out monuments, separated from the middle ages by the double interval of centuries and beliefs ; this rude country of farmers and pioneers, has nothing fitted to please us. It has the exuberant hfe and the eccentricities of youth ; that is, it affords to our mature experience inexhaustible subjects of blame and raiUery." This frank statement explains whUe it does not excuse the long tirades of English writers against the crudities of our national life : not because these were not often truly re ported, but because the other side of the story was omitted. Our sensitive pride of country took offence, and thus gave new provocation to the "blame and raUlery" of which De ENGLISH ABUSE OF AMEEICA. 271 Gasparin speaks. No American famihar with Europe can " wonder that refined visitors from the Old World to the New should find the gregarious habits, the UnventUated and promis cuously crowded raUway cars, the fragUe high-pressure steam boats of the Western rivers, the cuisine, the flashiness, the con ceit, the hardihood, the radicahsm, the costume, the architecture, the social standards, the money worship, and the countless incongruities, especiaUy on the outskirts of the older settle ments, distasteful, and often revolting ; but it requires no,. remarkable powers of reflection to understand, and no extra ordinary candor to admit, that many of these repugnant and discordant facts are incidental to great and benign innovar tions and improvements upon the hopeless social routine and organisation of Europe ; that they coexist vrith vast human .. privUeges ; that they are compensated for by new and grand opportunities for the mass of humanity, however much they may trench upon the comfort and sense of decency of those accustomed to exclusive privileges and luxury. It is pre- ^ cisely because, as a general rule, the French writers recog nize, whUe so many of the Enghsh ignore such palhations and compensations, in judging of and reporting hfe in Amer ica, that the former, as a whole, are so much niore worthy of respect and gratitude. Any shallow vagabond can compare^ disadvantageously the huge and hot caravansaries of West ern travel with the first-class carriages of au English railway ; the bad whiskey and tough steaks of a tavern in America vrith the quiet country inn and the matchless sirloin and ale of old England. The social contrasts are easily made ; the defects of manners patent ; but when it is considered that what is applied by way of privilege or superiority to a class in Europe, is open — in a less perfect way, indeed, but stiU open — ^to all ; that the average comfort and cultm-e here are unequalled in history ; and, above aU, that the prospect and the principle of civil and social .life are established on an equal and prosperous basis — the superficial defects, to the eye of wisdom and the heart of benevolence, sink into comparative insignificance. " America," writes De TdcqueviUe, " is the 272 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. place of all others where the ChriBtian rehgion has preserved the most power over souls." Other reasons for the difference of Enghsh and French interpretation of American questions are weU stated by a recent writer in the Revue des Deux Mondes : " Frenchmen and Englishmen cannot be impressed alike by what is passing in the United States. At the bottom of the quarrel there is, it is trne, the abolition of slavery, to which the English are de voted by a glorious beginning ; but, on the other hand, what relates to the United States, awakens in England memories, interests, an tipathies, which can have no parallel in the politics or feehngs of France. In the first place, the Star-spangled Banner {le drapeau semi d'etoiles) is the only flag that France has never met in the coali tion of her enemies. To the English, the United States are always the rebellious colony of the past ; to us, they are a nation whose independence we contributed to estabUsh by common victories car ried in the teeth of Britisli obstinacy. For British politics, in spite of the accidental importance of cotton, it would be a satisfaction to see the American Union enfeebled by a division. For French poli tics, the breaking up of the American republic, which would destroy the balance of maritime power, would be a serious misfortune. The English cherish the^ disdain of an aristocratic race for the repubhcan Yankee ; democratic France (!) has been enabled to take lessons from American democracy, and has more than once made itself en vied by the latter. The two young volunteers who have just en rolled themselves in the army of the North have thus remained faithful, in their choice of the cause which they would serve, to the traditions of their country." How uncandid English writers are, even when quoting respectable authorities, is evinced in the remark of a late quarterly reviewer, in alluding to De TocqueviUe's hopeful riews of democracy in America in contrast vrith the South- em RebeUion : "If he bad lived a little longer, what an ex ample of the faUacy of man's profoundest -thoughts and acutest inference would he himself have moumfuUy acknowl edged, in the unnatural and incredible convulsion of the United States of America ; " whereas, so far from being un natural and incredible, the whole argument of De Tocqueville is prophetic thereof. He knew the incubus of slavery — the anomaly of local 'despotism in tbe heart of a republic — ^must ENGLISH ABUSE OF AMEEICA. 273 be thrown off, as a loathsome disease in the body politic : how and when, he did not pretend to say; but stUl pro claimed his faith in the strength of the Constitution — the vital power of political justice embodied in a democratic Government, and a vast, industrious, educated, and religious nation — ^to triumph over this accidental poison, which had been aUowed to taint the blood but not blast the heart of the republic. Moreover, this same scientifically humane writer beheld, in the triumph of the democratic principle, the progress of the race and the wUl' of God ; but he inferred not therefrom any roseate dreams of human perfection or individual fehcity. On the contrary, as the responsibUity of governing, and the privUeges of citizenship expanded and be came confinned, he saw new claims upon the serious elements of hfe and character ; the need of greater sacrifices on the part of the indiridual ; a necessity for effort and disciphne calculated to solemnize rather than elate. It is one of the mpst obrious of compensatory facts, that, as we are more free to think and to work, we are less able to enjoy, as that word is commonly understood. Where occupation is essen tial to respectabUity, and pubhc spirit a recognized duty, pleasure has but infrequent carnival, and duty perpetual vigil. With all his elasticity of temperament, the self-dependence and the exciting scope of the life of an American tax the powers of body and mind as much as they inspire. Geographical ignorance, and errors in natural history, in excusable now that so many authentic accounts of the coun try are accessible to aU, continue to be manifest even in the higher departments of Enghsh hterature. Goldsmith's melan choly exaggeration of the unhealthy shores of Georgia, in his apostrophe to the peasantry, finds a parallel in the tropical flowers CampbeU ascribes to the valley of Wyoming ; while the last Cambridge prize poem places Labrador in the United States, and confuses the locaUty of American rivers with more than poetic license. Philosophical keep pace with geo graphical errors. Despite the evidence of common sense and patent facts, the English press insisted that Mississippi repu- 13* 274 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. diation of State debts was a dhect and legitimate result of republican institutions. It now ascribes the slaveholders' rebeUion to the same cause ; and a reUgious reriew of high standing recently attributed the high-flown and exaggerated style of Parke Custis, in his " RecoUections of Washington," to tbe undisciplined American method of expression. Ignorance of the social hfe incident to republican institu tions betrays itself continuaUy in an indhect manner. In a work recently pubhshed in London, called the " Book Hunter," the writer observes of a work on American private libraries : " The statement that there is in Dr. Francis's library a com plete set of the ' ReceuU des Causes Celebres,' &c., would throw any of our book knight-errants in convulsions of laugh ter ; " and elsewhere, speaking of thus publishing the catar logue of private hbraries, he says : " That the privacy of our ordinary wealthy and middle classes should be invaded in a simUar shape, is aq, idea that would not get abroad vrithout creating sensations of the most hvely horror. They manage these things differently across the Atlantic ; and so here we bave over fifty gentlemen's private collections ransacked and anatomized. If they like it, we have no reason to complain, but rather have occasion to rejoice in the valuable and inter esting result." How -httle this writer seems to understand that the facts which' excite his wonder and disgust are legiti mate results of democratic society, wherein we are accus tomed to forego private for pubhc good, and to hberaUy exchange inteUectual pririleges ! Monopohes are forced to yield to the pressure of humane exigencies. It is made known that a benevolent physician has a copy of the " Causes Celebres," not because the work is rare, but that some poor scholar may know where he can refer to it ; for in America we are bred to the recognition of mutual aid in culture as in economy, and, hke Sir Thomas Brown, " study for those who wUl not study for themselves." It may be said of many English critics, as was said of a recent .traveller in America, that, " living as he had so long in an atmosphere of country houses and parsonages, he is constantly exclaiming against ENGLISH ABUSE OP AMEEICA. 275 the absence of those comphcated rules of social intercourse which have so long engaged his attention." "When wUl the Enghsh leam how to write correctly about this country ? " asks a recent writer. " A very friendly press, the Daily News, reviewing Hawthorne's book, says, very compassionately, that our ' national hfe has been too short ' for the formation ' of a homogeneous charac ter' among our people. We should hke to know what homo geneity there is among the British people, though a thousand years old, composed of Welshmen who cannot speak Enghsh, of Irishmen always in revolt and forever at enmity with their rulers, of Scotchmen who are distinct in dialect, manners, and customs, and even now are not too fond of the Sasse- nachs ? How much of this is there in tbe Enghsh counties of Yorkshh-e, Kent, CornwaU ? The truth is, there is far more homogeneity in the United States, notwithstanding its short national hfe, than there ever has been in Great Britain, from the time of the heptarchy down." Much ridicule has been wasted upon our national sensi tiveness to criticism; and the hardihood and self-love of EngUsh writers and talkers often repel, as weak and irra tional, the expectation of sympathy which finds utterance in every unfortunate crisis on this side of the water. Yet even John BuU winced at Hawthorne's choicely worded and thoughtfuUy insinuated, hits at his tendency to obesity and stagnation. Without defending that natural and honorable mstinct that cherishes the tie of a common language and hterature, historical, social, and domestic associations with a distant people, in the present age and among enlightened nations, it is certainly justifiable to demand scientific obser vation in aU those dehberate estimates of a country or a race, a government or a cause, wherein mutual and permanent interests are concemed. One chief cause of protest and com plaint against British commentators on America, is their Ignorance of facts whereof but slight investigation would reqnisitely inform them, and their wUful repudiation of the mferences thence resulting. It is a significant truth, that 276 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. throughout the vast discussion by newspapers, reriews, maga- rines, pamphlets, club and dinner talk, lectures and parlia mentary speeches, which the Southern Rebellion and its con sequences in the United States, have induced in Great Britam, scarcely any evidence appears of cognizance and appreciation as regards the simple geographical facts of the case ; without a knowledge of which it is impossible to perceive the scope or judge the merits of this question. Long ago Humboldt and other naturalists recognized in the fact that this conti nent is placed between two oceans, the provision ahd pledge of a grand destiny ; long ago economists found, in the re markable number, size, and relative situation of its lakes and rivers, the means estabhshed by nature to bring together and render mutuaUy dependent and helpful the most widely sepa rated regions ; long ago philanthropists haUed in the variety of climate and the liberal pohtical institutions, a vast asylum and arena predestined to shelter and succor the independent but proscribed, and tbe impoverished and hopeless ricthns of over-populated and down-trodden Europe. Yet, when these institutions and this prosperous nationahty were threatened by a minority hi the interest of African slavery, and the civil war inevitably consequent thereon, chaUenged the sympathy of the world, in order to give a plausible excuse for their , advocacy of our disunion, the writers and speakers of Eng- i land, with very rare exceptions, assumed that a geographical >'¦ hne isolated the two communities, by kinds of labor, forms of society, political and personal interests so in confiict, that a ' peaceable separation was not Only practicable, but wise, hu- " mane, and requisite. Had these malign and specious advocates ^ merely ignored the fact that our power and prosperity have been the offspring of our union, it might have been tolerated in sUence ; but when they refused to acknowledge that this im mense country * known as the United States of North Amer- * Its greatest length is from Cape Cod to the Pacific, near lat, 42°, 2,600 , miles; in breadth frora Maine to Florida, 1,600 m.; there-are 3,S03 m. of frontier toward British Ameripa, and '1 ,456 of tha,t toward Mexico ; on the ^ ocean the boundary line, hicluding indentations, is 12,609 m. ; the total area ofthe States and Territories m 1853" was 2,963,606 square miles. ENGLISH ABUSE OP AMEEICA. 277 ica is intersected by a mountain range inhabited by a people absolutely one in attachment to their Government and devotion to free labor, and that the slave interest borders upon, inter sects, and isolates rather than divides this homogeneous and patriotic race, so that, to break up the pohtical unity of the country is to expose these citizens to tbe despotic cruelty of rebels — to abandon the highest duty of a state and the noblest prmciple of human government, we cannot but feel that ig norance degrades or sophistry impugns the honest humanity of these ostensible interpreters of pubhc opinion in Britam. To illustrate the practical bearing of geographical facts in tliis instance, note the language of an inteUigent native * of one of the border States, a kinsman of one of the unprin cipled politicians who fomented, wben in oiBce under the Gov ernment he betrayed, this wicked rebelhon : " Whoever wfll look at a map of the United States, will observe that Louisiana lies on both sides of the !^Iis^ssippi Elver, and that the States of Arkansas and Mississippi lie on the right and left banks of this great stream — eight hundred miles of whose lower course are thus controUed by these three States, unitedly inhabited by hardly as many white people as inhabit the city of New York. Observe, then, the country drained by this river, and its affluents, commencing with Missom-i on its west bank, and Kentucky on its east bank. There are nme or ten powerful States, large portions of three or four oth ers, several large Territories — in all a country, as large as all Europe, as fine as .any under the sun, already holdiag many more people than all the revolted States, and destined to be one of the most populous and powerful regions of the earth. Does any one suppose that these powerful States, this great and energetic population, will ever make a peace that shall put the lower course of this single and mighty na tional outlet to the sea in the hands of a foreign Government far weaker than themselves? If there is any such person, he knows little of the past history of mankind ; ,ind wUl, perhaps, excuse us for reminding him that the people of Kentucky, before they were constituted a State, gave formal notice to the Federal Government, when General Washington was President, that if the United States did not acquire Louisiana, tbey would themselves conquer it. The , months of the Mississippi belong, by the gift of God, to the inhab itants of its great vaUey. Nothing but irresistible force can disin herit them. * Dr. Breckinridge, of Kentucky. 278 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. " Try another territorial aspect ofthe case. There is a bed of monn- tains abutting on the left bank of the Ohio, which covers all Western Virginia and all Eastern Kentucky to the width, from east to west, in those two States, of three or four hundred miles. These mountains, stretching southwestwardly, pass entirely through Tennessee, cover the back parts of North Carolina and Georgia, heavUy invade the north ern part of Alabama, and make a figure even in the back parts of South Carolina and the eastern parts of Mississippi ; having a course of perhaps seven or eight hundred mUes, and running far south of the northern limit of profitable cotton culture. It is a region of eighty thousand square miles, trenching upon eight or nine Slave States, though destitute of slaves itself — trenching upon at least five Cotton States, though raising no cotton itself. The western part of Maryland and two thirds of Pennsylvania are embraced in the north eastern continuation of this remarkable region. Can anything that passes under the name of statesmanship be more preposterous, than the notion of permanent peace on this continent, founded on the abnegation of a common and paramount Government, and the idea of the snpercUious domination of the cotton interest and the slave trade, over such a mountain empire, so located, and so peopled ? " When, in the (3alm and kindliness of meditation, we re member the solemn assemblies of wise and intrepid EngUsh men and women who, two centuries and more ago, left their native shore with tears and prayers, only " comforted to Uve " by the thought that they took with them a great prmciple and a cherished faith to transplant and bequeath in another hemisphere ; when we recaU the proud and fond associations vrith whicb their descendants sought and yet seek the ances tral homes and graves of these brave and holy exiles ; and how tenderly the traditions, the literature, the laws, and the hberties of the Old World have been cherished by the en- hghteiied and eamest natives of the New ; how the kings of thought and the heralds of freedom regarded the Anglo- Saxon settlements in America, when persecution and strife made England to many a pei-Uous sojourn ; how eagerly John MUton questioned Roger WUUams ; how ardently Berkeley appealed to Walpole ; what Vane and Penn, Calvert, Wui- throp, Puritan, Churchman, Quaker, CathoUc, Huguenot, thought, felt, wrote, and did to colonize what to aU of them ENGLISH ABUSE OF AMEEICA. 279 was a land of promise ; and how, during the long lapse of time, the civilization that originated when the vvorld had reached a period of glorious development, has ever responded to and often quickened that of older date but identical character, like the " chUd of- Earth's old age " as she is — ^it seems, incredible that disdain and indifference, especially in a crisis of national life, should mark and mar nearly all public expression in England regarding a country thus morally asshnUated and historicaUy identified with her. Not strange, indeed, that traders and shaUow egotists should ignore or sneer at a nation of kindred language and memories ; but strange that legislators and writers, who profess to instruct, should prove theh want of interest by gross ignorance, his torical and geographical. How perversely blind haye they shown themselves to the facts that the experiment of State sovereignty has been fully tried during the perUous interval between the acknowledgment of our independence and the adoption of the Constitution, whereby industry was par alyzed, fiscal and social confidence lost, and advantage taken of the weakness of the isolated fragments of a nation by foreign powers ; that federal union, from aU this chaos and imbeciUty, created and confirmed a nation whose growth, freedom, and self-reliant resources are unparalleled ; that so essential, by the laws of nature, is one section to the pros perity of the other, that tbe chief motive and absolute con dition whereby the new Southwestern States indissolubly linked theh destmy and aUegiance to the old thhteen, were that the free narigation of the Mississippi should be perma nently guaranteed — ^tbat noble stream, hke a main artery, ritaUy connecting tbe heart with tbe extremities of the body poUtic ; that what tbe practical effect is of a faction, how ever large, undertaking Ulegithnate opposition to a Govern ment based upon popular wUl, was memorably Ulustrated by Shay's RebeUion in Massachusetts in 1785-86 ; by the career of Citizen Genet in '93 — ^his wild and anomalous partisan success, and his ignominious practical failure ; by the Vir ginia Resolutions of '85 and '86, by the base and futUe con- 280 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. sphacy of Burr, and the prompt overthrow of Calhoun's sophistical theories. EquaUy blind to the present as the past, the fraud and coercion -whereby the present Rebellion was initiated, the inhuman cause for which it was undertaken, the despotic violence resorted to for its maintenance, the latent barbarism made patent by its career, were all, from base pol icy or selfish mahce, studiously kept out of riew by these ostensible interpreters of public opinion. It is, indeed, one of those singular exhibitions of the blindness induced by self- love, that vituperation should mark the press of England in discussing American institutions, -when often, in the identical sheet, glares the evidence of her own inadequacy in pro viding for the masses. It is a striking coincidence, that, when an American banker* in London deshed to indicate his interest in and gratitude to the country where he had ac quired a colossal fortune, the best method his sagacious obser vation coidd discover, was to provide homes for the working classes, whose physical degeneracy is thus noted in a recent issue of the most widely circulated and imphcitly trusted organ of British opinion : " We have only to take a walk through any of our populous.quar- ters — Shoreditch, Bethnal Green, the Borough, Lambeth, aU the river side, Olerkenwell, Gray's Inn Lane, and those numerous smaller districts of which the working classes, for one reason or another, * " When Mr. Peabody, the celebrated American banker, who is about to quit this country, first heard of the national memorial of the late Prince Con sort, he authorized Sir Emerson Tennent to state that, should that memorial be a charitable institution, he would give £100,000 toward it ; and his dis appointment was great on learning that the money would not be expended in that way. However Mr. Peabody, still resolved on carrying out his charitable scheme — as a token, he says,, of gratitude to the English nation, for the many kind acts he has received from them, and also iu memory of his long and prosperous career in this country — has decided on erecting a number of houses for the working class, who, through the innumerable improvements in the metropolis, have been rendered almost homeless. Por this purpose he gives £100,000, and also undertakes to pay the first year's interest of the money— £5,000. Sir Emerson Tennent is appointed one of three trustees ; Lord Stan ley, M. P., it is hoped, will be the second ; the third has not yet been nomi nated." — London Paper. ENGLISH ABUSE OF AMEEICA. 281 have obtained inalienable possession ; take them at the hours when they show — going to their work or returning from it, or making theh purchases, or cooling themselves in the open air : look at them, and please remember, that when you have deducted half a mUlion people rather better off, there remain two mUlions of the sort you see before you." It would prove, indeed, a more ungracious than difficult^ task to enumerate social anomalies and characteristic defects,' quite adequate to counterbalance, in English civilization, those so constantly proclaimed as American. Deans and poachers, snobs and weavers, sempstresses and governesses, convicts, pretended lunatics, might, figure as unchristian monopohsts or pitiable rictims ; and poor laws, costly and useless govern mental arrangements, the ravages of gin and beer, the press ure of taxation, the inhumanity of rank and fashion, the cold egotism of the social code, the material routine of hfe, the absurd conventionalities, the servUity of one class and the arrogance of another, the law of primogeniture, ecclesi astical abuses, the hopeless degradation of labor, and numer ous kindred facts and figures in the economical and social sta tistics of the British reahn, not only offer ample range for relentless and plausible defamation, akin to that which has been so bitterly indulged by English writers on America ; but the indictment' would be confirmed by the testimony of popular and current English hterature — Crabbe, Hood, Dick-» ens, Mrs. GaskeU, Reade, and Thackeray having elaborated from patent social wrongs theh most rivid pictures of human suffering and degradation. Nor, were the test apphed to specific traits, would the comparison be less disadvantageous. The vulgarity and bru tahty of an Englishman, when he is vulgar and brutal, are unparalleled. The stoUdity of their lower class is more re volting than the inquisitiveness of ours. The history of England's criminal code, of b^r literary criticism, of her artists and authors, of her colonial rule, of her aristocratic privileges, of her ai-my, naval, and merchant service, has fur nished some of the darkest pictures of cruelty, neglect, self- 282 AMEEICA AND HES COMMENTATOES. ishness, and abuse of power to be found in the annals of the world. The favorite subject of Punch — the trials of an "un protected female " — ^betrays a national trait in brutal contrast -with the habits and sentiments of the kindred people whose " domestic maimers " have so long been the subject of theh sneers. "Not a day passes," remarks an English lady of inteUigence and character, but without rank or wealth, ia ¦writing to an American friend, " but I regret that paradise of my sex — your country. There my womanhood alone was my safeguard and distinction." Centuries ago, the very " land question " which led to the recent controversy whereby the Times was unmasked, offered the same ominous problem to humane and liberal EngUsh men, and was, to not a few, the motive of emigration to America. " This land growes weary of her inhabitants," writes Winthrop, '' soe as man, whoe is the most pretious of all crea tures, is here more rile and base than the earth we treade upon. All townes complaine of the burthen of theire poore, and we use the authoritie of the Law to hinder the increase of o'' people by urginge the statute against coUeges and in mates. The fountaines of Learning and Rehgion are soe corrupt as (besides the insupportable charge of theire educa tion) most children are perverted. Why, then, should we stand striving here for places of habit9,tion, many men spend ing as much labour and coste to recover or keepe sometimes an acre or twoe as would procure them many and as good or better in another Countrie." * Compare this aucient statement with one in a journal of this year : " In the main, landed property is stiU in the same condition in England to-daj^ as it was immediately after the Fonnan conquest. The foreign invaders at that time divided the land among a SmaU number of nobles and brigand captains with the point of the sword ; * " Reasons for the Intended Plantation in New England," by John Winthrop, 1629. Life of John Winthrop, by Robert C. Wmthrop. ENGLISH ABUSE OP AMEEICA. 283 and in the Doomsday Book it was then laid down that their right to the possession of these lands was as high as heaven and as deep as heU, and that the hand of him should wither who would dare to touch it. In course of time a number of free proprietors crept in between the landholding aristocracy ; but subsequent parliamentary acts, known as the 'Enclosure Acts,' restricted once more the num ber of free proprietors by forcible expropriation. With the excep tion of a few localities, England possesses no peasantry in the sense of France and of Southern and Western Germany. There is only iie aristocratic proprietor, the steward, or the farming tenant and the laborer. The condition of the laborer is worse than anywherd in Central or Western Europe. The political power British feudal ism wields is immense. ~ A statistical table shows that, with regard to the representation of the people in the so-called House of Com mons, there are about thirty popular constituencies ; one hundred constituencies slightly influenced hy personal or family control, and most of them by money ; two hundred and forty constituencies almost wholly under such family and aristocratic influence; and thirty con stituencies which may be regarded as mere family property." With such social and pohtical evils — a portentous report whereof, in their actual results upon labor and hfe, may be found in the work of Mr. Kay,* lately published — emigration to America has been and is a resource to Great Britain which should have engendered gratitude instead of growls. An acute French writer attributes to it no smaU degree of Eng land's prosperity : " Let others denounce, if they will, as culpable want of foresight, the energetic multiplication of the English people, and felicitate France on being preserved from this misfortune by the demi-sterUity of marriages ; but, for my part, faithful to the ancient niorafity and patriotism which regarded a numerous posterity as a blessing from God, I point out this exhaustion of vital sap as a symptom of malady and decline. I see the people who emigrate redouble efforts to fiU up voids, redouble rirtues, savings, and labor to prepare dep^-tures and new establishments. Among a people who do not emigrate, I see wealth disbursed in the snperfluities of vain luxury ; young men idle, without horizons, and without lofty ambition, consuming them- * " The Social Condition and Education of the People in England," by Joseph Kay, Esq., M. A., of Trinity College, Cambridge, Barriater-at-Law, and late Travelling Bachelor of the University of Cambridge, 12mo., New York, 1863. 284 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. selves in frivolous pleasures and petty calculations; and famihes alarmed at a fecundity which would impose on them modest and la borious habits. Like stagnant waters, stagnant populations become corrupt. Moved by this spectacle, I should dread for the sedentary race an early degradation, if this inequality revealed a decree of Proridence, instead of being a fault of man." * If from the graver interests we tmn to the supei-ficial traits of the English people, it requires little acumen to dis cover materials for ridicule quite as patent and provocative of satire as the " domestic manners of the Americans " yield. Leach and Doyle have long since stereotyped for the pubhc, certain traits of physiognomy, costume, and manners, some what monotonous, certainly, but quite as absurd and vulgar as any so-caUed American, characteristic and popularly recog nized as such. The pronunciation, snobbishness, egotism, bad taste, stoUdity, and arrogance of difierent classes are thus caricatured. Deference to wealth and rank, perverse adherence to obsolete and unjust as weU as irrational systems, habits, and opinions, in England, are the staple themes of sathical novelists, eloquent liberals, and comic draughtsmen ; whUe the " English abroad " furnish a permanent subject of ridicule to their more vivacious neighbors, and figure habitu aUy in French farces and after-dinner anecdotes. But this mode of discussing national character is not less imworthy a phUosopher than a Christian ; it is essentiaUy one-sided, preju diced, and inhuman. Yet it is worth while to suggest the recognized vulnerable points of English life, manners, and institutions, that it may be seen how easily their reproach and ridicule of Americans can be retahated. But we do not cite such national defects and misfortunes in the spirit of retahation, bnt simply to indicate how unjust and uncharitable it is to regard a country Or a people exclu sively in the hght of reproach and animadversion, and how universal is that law of compensation whereby good and evil ./in every land are balanced in the scale of Divine wisdom. | It * " Histoire de rEmigration" au XIX' Si^iele, par M. Jules Duval," Paris, 1863. ENGLISH ABUSE OF AMEEICA. 285 is indeed a remarkable evidence of inconsistent and perverse , feeling, that a course which no man of sense and comraon humanity would think of applying to an individual, is confi dently adopted in the discussion of national character and destiny. That aUowance which the mature in years hi stmct- ively make for the errors of youth — the compassion which tempers judgment in regard to the indigence, the ignorance, or the bhnd passions of the outcast or the criminal, is ignored when the faults or the calamities of a whole people are described. Tet such a, fearful exposition of " London , Labor and London Poor," which Mayhew has made familiar, should excite only emotions of shame and pity ih the Chris tian heart. But the hardihood that so long coldly admitted or wantonly sneered at the wrongs of Ireland and Italy, gives a bitter edge or a narrow comprehension to the class of Eng lish writers on America we bave, perhaps too patiently, dis cussed. The simple truth is, that there is scarcely a vulnerable^ pohit in our system, social, political, or religious, but has its counterpart in the mother country. For every solecism in manners or inhuman inconsistency in practice, growing out of democratic radicalism on this side of the water, a corresponding defect or incongruity is obvious in the eccle siastical or aristocratic monopolies and abuses on tbe other. For our weU-fed African slaves, they have half-Starved white operatives ; for the tyranny of demagogues here, there is the bloated rule of duke and bishop there; for the degraded squatter life in regions of whiskey drinking and ague in America, there is the not less sad fate of the miner and the poacher in the heart of cirilized England ; and there is reason to believe that, if a philosophical collector of tbe data of suicides, railway catastrophes, and financial swindlers, were to be equaUy assiduous in the United States and Great Bri tain, the figures, in the ratio of space, time, and population,^ would be nearly parallel. Even the philological blunders and absurdities over which cockney travellers here have been so merry, may be equaUed in many a district of England ; and 286 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. if the classic names appUed to new towns on this continent savor of tasteless pedantry, a simUar lack of a sense of the appropriate stares us in the face in the names of vUlas in the suburbs of London ; whUe the same repetition and conse quent confusion of names of places occur in Enghsh shires as in our States. Language has been one of the most prohfic sources of ridicule and animadversion ; especially those pecuharities of tone and speech supposed to belong exclusively to the East- em States, and popularly designated as Yankeeisms. Yet it has been made obrious at last, that, instead of being indige nous, these oddities of speech, vrith very few exceptions, were brought from England, and are still current in the locali ties of theh origin. In the preface to bis " Dictionary of Americanisms," Mr. Bartlett teUs us that, after having col lected, he imposed upon himself the task of tracing to theh source these exceptional words, phrases, and accents. " On comparing these familiar words," he writes, " with the pro rincial and colloquial language of the northern counties of England, a most striking resemblance appeared, not only in the words commonly regarded as pecuhar to New England, but in the dialectical pronunciation of certain words, and in the general tone and accent. In fact, it may be said vrithout exaggeration, that nine tenths of the coUoquial pecuharities of New England are derived directly from Great Britain; and they are now provincial in those parts from which the early colonists emigrated, or are to be foimd in the writings of weU-accredited authors of the period, when that emigrar tion took place." Neither has the long-standing reproach of a lack of liter ary cultivation and achievement present significance. Syd ney Smith's famous query in the FJdinburgh Review, " Who reads an American book ? " is as irrelevant and impertinent to-day as the other famous dictum of Jefirey in regard to Wordsworth's poetry — " This will never do." In history, poetry, science, criticism, biography, political and ethical dis cussions, the records of travels, of taste, and of romance, ENGLISH ABUSE OF AMEEICA. 287 universaUy recognized and standard exemplars, of American origin, now illustrate the genius and culture of the nation. In thus referring the liberal and philosophical inquirer, who deshes to comprehend the character, destinies, and his tory of the United States, and thence infer the relation of and duty to them on the part of Europe; to the several de- ptotments of hterature which bear the impress of the national mhid, another form of prejudice and phase of injus tice habitual with British writers inevitably suggest them selves. Fifty years ago, American hterature was declared by them beneath contempt ; but as soon as leisure and encom-age- ment stimulated tbe educated and the gifted natives of the soU. to enter upon the career of authorship ; when the hterary products of the country attained a degree of merit that could not be ignored, these same critics objected that Ameri can literature was unoriginal — oidy a new instalment of Eng hsh ; that Irving reproduced the manner of tbe writers of Queen Anne's day ; that Cooper's hovels were imitated from those of Scott ; that Brockden Brown plagiarized from God win, Hoffinan from Moore, Holmes from Sterne, Sprague from Pope ; and, in short, that, because Americans made use of good English, standard forms of verse, and famUiar con struction in narrative, they had no claim to a national htera ture. It seems a waste of time and words to confute such puerUe reasoning. If the number of English authors who have written popular books in any and aU of the British colonies, should have theh hterary merits questioned on the ground that these works, although composed and pubhshed in the vernacular, were not aetuaUy conceived and written in Lon don, the absurd objection would be deemed too ridiculous to merit notice. Not only the language, but the culture ; not only the pohtical traditions, but the standards of taste, the religious and social education, the literary associations, the whole mental resource and discipline of an educated Ameri can, are analogous to or identical vrith those of England; but, as a people, the statistics of the book trade and the facts of individual culture prove that the master minds of 288 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. British literature more directly and universaUy train and nur ture the American than the English mind. Partly from that distance that lends enchantment, and partly from the vast number of readers produced by our system of popular edu cation, Shakspeare and' MUton, Bacon and Wordsworth, Byron and Scott bave been and are more generaUy known, appre ciated, and loved, and have entered more deeply into the average intellectual life, on this than on the other side of the Atlantic ; and the best thinkers, the most refined poets of Great Britain in our own day, find here a larger and more enthusiastic audience than they do at home. Accordingly, imtU the laws of mind are reversed, there is .no reason to expect any different manifestation of hterature, as far as form, style, and conventional rules are concemed, here than there. The subjects, tbe scenery, the characters, the opinions of our historians, poets, novehsts, and essayists, are as diverse from those of British writers as the respective countries. Cooper's local coloring, his chief personages, the scope arid flavor of his romances, are as unhke those of Scott as are the North American Indians, from Highlanders, and Lake Ohtar rio from Loch Leven. The details of Bryant's forest pic tures are fuU of special traits of which there is not a trace in Thomson or Burns. The author of "Caleb WUUams" ac knowledged his obUgations to the author of " WeUand " and " Arthur Mervyn." There are pages of the " Sketch Book " and " Bracebridge HaU " which Addison might have written, for their subjects are English life and scenes ; but when the same graceful pen expatiates, with rich humor, among the legends of the Hudson or Dutch dynasties in New York, describes the prairies or colonial times in Virginia, except in the words used, there is not the slightest resemblance in sub ject, tone, impression, or feeling to tbe " Spectator." Why should Motley write otherwise than HaUam, Prescott than Macaulay, Emerson than Carlyle, Channing than Arnold, Hawthorne than Kingsley, as regards the technical use of a language common to them all, and a culture identical in its normal elements ? All tbe indiriduality to be looked for is ENGLISH ABUSE OF AMEEICA. 289 in the treatment of their several subjects, in tbe style inci dent to theh respective temperaments and characters, and in the Uterary genius with which they are severaUy endowed. Yet, if it were deshable to rindicate the American quality as a distinction of these and Other approved authors, it would be an easy task to indicate a freedom and freshness, an inde pendence and humanity, so characteristic as to prove singu larly attractive to foreign readers, and to be recognized by high continental criticism as national. The mercenary spirit so continually ascribed to our cirili zation by English writers, long before was the habitual re proach cast on their own by continental critics. Thrift is a Saxon trait, and the " nation of shopkeepers " cannot appro priately thus make the love of or deference to money our exclusive or special weakness ; whereas the extreme and appalhng diversity of condition in England, the juxtaposition of the duke and the drudge, the pampered bishop and the starving curate, the magnificent park and the malarious hovel, the luxurious peer and the squalid operative, bring into such melancholy rehef the sharp and bitter inequalities of human lives and human creatures, that not aU the latent and obvious resources, energy, self-relianoe, and power which so beguiled the wonder and love of Emerson in the aspect of England and EngUshmen in theh prosperous phase, can reconcUe that social atmosphere to the large, warm, sensitive heart of an unselfish, sympathetic. Christian man. Clubs and races, cathedrals and royal drawing rooms, tbe freshness of rural and the luxury of metropolitan life. Parliament and the Times — aU the elements, routine, substantial bases and super ficial aspects of England and the English, however adequate to the insular egotism, and however barricaded by prejudice, pride, and indifference, do not harmonize, to the clear, humane gaze of soulful eyes, with what underlies and overshadows this stereotyped programme and partial significance. We hear the " cry of tbe human " that rang so drearUy in tbe ear of the noblest woman and poet of tbe age : 13 290 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. " I am listening here in Eome ; Over Alps a voice is sweeping : ' England 's cruel ! Save us some Of these victims in her keeping.' " " Let others shout, Other poets praise my land here ; I am sadly setting out. Praying, ' God forgive her grandeur ! ' " Nor less authoritative is the same earnest and truth- inspired voice, in its protest against the inhumanity that ignores or wilfully repudiates the claims of other nations : " I confess that I dream of the day when an English statesman shaU arise with a heart too large for England, having courage, in the face' of his countrymen, to assert of some suggestive policy, 'This is good for your trade ; this is necessary for your domination : but it wUl vex a people hard by ; it wlU hurt a people farther off; it will proflt nothing to the general humanity ; therefore away with it ! It is not for you or me.' When a British minister dares so to speak, and when a British public applauds him speaking, then shall the nation be so glorious, that her praise, instead of exploding from within, from loud civic mouths, shaU come to her from without, as all worthy praise must, from the alliances she has fostered, and fi-om the populations she has saved." * Voltaire compared the Enghsh to beer — "the bottom dregs, the top froth, and the middle excellent." The first and last class, for a considerable period, alone reported us; low abuse and superficial sneers being their legitimate expres sion, and an inability to understand a people, sympathize with an unaccustomed life, or rise above selfish considerations, their normal defects ; w'hereof the last three years have given memorable proof. ' Instead of the vague title of Annus Mirabilis which Dryden bestowed upon a memorable year in Enghsh history, these might more appropriately be caUed, as far as our coun try is concerned, the Test Years. Not only have they proved the patriotism, the resources, and the character of the people * Elizabeth Browning. ENGLISH ABUSE OF AMEEICA. 291 and their institutions, but they have applied specific tests, the result of which has been essentiaUy to modify tbe conrictions and sentiments of indiriduals. Any thinking man who wUl reriew his opinions, cannot fail to be astonished at the changes in his estimate of certain persons and things, which have taken place since the war for the Union began. Thou sands, for instance, who entertained a certain reverence for the leading British journal, simply as such, without any famUiar ity therevrith, having become acquainted with the Times in consequence of its gratuitous discussion of our national affahs, and perceiving its disingenuous, perverse, inimical spirit toward their country in the hour of calamity ; and, of their own personal knowledge, proring its wanton falsehoods, have been enhghteped so fully, that henceforth the mechani cal resources and inteUectual appliances of that famous news paper weigh as nothing against the infamy that attends a dis covered quack.* In countless hearts aud minds on this continent, pleasant and fond illusions in regard to Enghsh character, govern ment, and senthnent are forever dispeUed, first by tbe injus tice of the ofiicial, and then by the uncandid and inimical tpne of the hterary organs of the British people. There lies before us, as we write, a private letter from an American scholar and gentleman, who, on the score of lineage as well as cultm-e and character, claims respect for his deliberate views. What he says in the frank confidence of private correspondence, indicates, without exaggeration, the change which has come over the noblest in the land : ' Let John Bull beware. War or no war, he has made an enduring enemy of us. I am startled to hear myself say this, but England is henceforth to me only historical — the home of oitr Shak- * Cobden thus characterizes the Times with reference to its treatment of a home question aud native statesmen: !"Here we have, in a compendious form, an exhibition of those qualities of mind which characterize the editorial management of the Times — of that arrogant self-complacency, that logical in coherence, and that moral bewilderment which .a too long career of impunity, and irresponsibility could alone engender." 292 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. speare, and Milton, and Wordsworth ; for aU her best writers are ours by necessity and privUege of language : but fareweU the especial sympathy I have felt in her pohtical, social, and total well-being. With her present exhibition and promulga tion of jealousy and selfishness and heartlessness and ungen- tlemanly meanness, she has cut me loose from the sweet and cordial and reverent ties that have kept her so long to me a second fatherland.' ' OHAPTEK VIII. NORTEEBN EUROPEAN WRITERS. KATiM ; MISS BBBMEB ; GUBOWSKI, AND OTHERS ; GERMAN WRITERS : HCMBOnnT; SAXF, WElMAB; VON BAUMEB ; PRrNCB MAXDVEHIAN VON WEU) ; LEEBEB ; SCHTJLTZ ; OTHER GERMAN WRITERS : GBUND ; RUPPIUS ; SEATSEIBLD ; KOHL ; TAIVI ; SCHAFF. In the North of Europe, since the beginning of the pres ent centmy, French hterature has been the chief medium of current information in regard to the rest of the world. Within the last twenty, years the Enghsh language has be come ij fasbionable acconaplishnient ; and, vrith' the wonderful dey^opment of German litera-ture, books' of science and travel, in that language, have furnished the Other northern races vrith no sinall part of their ideas about America. In Russia, Sweden, and Denmark, many of our best authors have been translated ; and the Journal de St. Petersbourg, L Abeille du Nord, Yedemosti {Bedemoctu), &axihg the civil war, have, bythe accuracy of their facts and the justness of their reasoning, evidenced a remarkably clear understanding of the struggle, its origin, aim, and consequences. A pleas ant book of " Impressions " during a tour in the United States, by Lakieren, a Russian, was pubhshed in that lan guage in 1859; and a Swedish writer — Siljestroem* — gave -, . ^^ "The Educational Institutions of the United States, their Character and Organization," translated 'from the Swedish tiy Frederica Eowan, London, 294 AMEEICA AND HEK COMMENTATOES. to his countrymen an able description and exposition of the American system of popular education, which is -justly esteemed for its fulness and accuracy ; while the great work of Rafn on " Northem Antiquities " identifies the profound researches of a Danish scholar with tbe dawn of American history. It is refreshing alike to the senses and the soul, to turn from the painfully exciting story of those early adventurers on this continent, whose object was conquest and personal aggrandizement, whose careers, though signalized often by heroism and sagacity. Were fraught with bloodshed, not only in conflicts with the savages, but in quarrels among theh own foUowers and rivals, to the peaceful journeys and voyages — attended, indeed, vrith exposure and privation — of those who sought the woods and waters of the New World chiefly to discover their marvels and enjoy and record them. We find in aU the desirable reports of explorers, whether men of war, diplomacy, or rehgion, more or less of that observa tion, and sometimes of that love of nature, so instinctively active when a new scene of grandeur or beauty is revealed to human perception. But these casual indications of either a scientific or sympathetic interest in the physical resources of tbe country are but the episodes in expeditions, whose lead ers were too hardy or unenlightened to foUow these attrac tions, for their own sake, vrith zeal and exclusiveness. Other and less innocent objects absorbed their minds ; and it is chiefly among tbe missionaries that we find any glowing recognition of the charms of the untracked wilderness, the mysterious streams, and the brUliant skies, which they strove to consecrate to humanity by erecting, amid and beneath them, , the Cross, which should haUow the flag that proclaimed theh acquisition to a distant but ambitious monarch. To the natu ralist, America has ever abounded in peculiar interest ; and 1853. Other Swedish works on America are C. D. Arfevedson's "Travels," (1838) ; Gustaf Unonceis' " Recollections of a Residence of Seventeen Years in the IJnited States " (1862-'3). Munck Rieder, a Norwegian, wrote a work on his return from the United States in 1849 — chiefly statistical. NOETHEEN EUEOPEAN WEIIEES. 295 all vrith an inkling of that taste have found their loneliest wanderings cheered thereby. Nor has it been the scientiSo love of nature alone to which she has here ever appealed. To the adventurous and poetical, to the brave lover of inde pendence and freedom, like Boone, and the enthusiast, hke Chateaubriand, the forest and the waterfaU have possessed a memorable charm. From Bartram to Wilson, and from Au dubon to Agassiz, the world of animal and vegetable life in America has yielded a long array of naturalists the richest materials for exploration. One of the earliest scientific visitors to our shores was Peter Kahn, who was sent from Sweden, with the approba tion of Linnaeus, in 1745. His salary was inadequate, and he so trenched upon his private resources, in order to carry out the (objects of his journey, as to be compelled, after his re turn home, to practise rigid economy. Kahn was born in Osterbotten, in 1715, and educated at Upsal. On his return from America, he was appointed professor of natural history at Abo, where he died in 1779. A charming memorial of his risit to our country is the botanical name given to the wild laurel of our woods, first made known by him to Europe, and, in honor thereof, called the Kalmia. His work, " En resa til Norra Amerika," appeared in Stockholm in 1753-61, in three volumes, and was translated into Dutch, German, and EngUsh — the latter by John R. Foster, under the title of "Travels in North America" (2 vols., London, 1772).* He passed the winter of 1749 among the Swedes settled at Racoon, New Jersey. He explored the coast of New York, visited the Blue Mountains, the Mohawk, Iroquois, Oneida, Tuscarora, and Onondaga Indian tribes. Lake Ontario, and the FaUs of Niagara. His description of the latter was long popular. In his diary, while at PhUadelphia, he notes the variety of religious sects and their pecuharities, the exports, and the hygiene. Some of the facts recorded by him of the * " Travels in North America, containing its Natural History, and Civil, Ecclesiastical, and Commercial State," &o., by Peter Kahn, 3 vols. 8vo., best edition, map, plates Warrington, 1770. 296 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. City of Brotherly Love a century ago, enable us to realize how rapid has been the advance from suburban vrildness to the highest metropolitan luxury. When Kahn sojourned there, elks, beavers, and stags were hunted where now is "the sweet security of streets." So abundant were the peaches, that they served as the food of swine. The noisy midsummer chorus of frogs, locusts, and grasshoppers vibrar ted through what is now the heart of a great city. Maize was to tbe Swedish botanist the most wonderful staple of the soU. He discovered a species of Rhus indigenous to the region. The mm-mur of the spinning wheel was a famihar sound ; and sassafras was deemed a specific cure for dropsy. Kahn's picture of Albany in 1749 is an interesting, paral lel and contrast to Mrs. Grant's more elaborate description, and to the pleasant social ghmpses of its modern life giVen by the late WUham Kent in a lecture before the young men there of this generation. The Swedish traveller teUs us that aU the people spoke Dutch, that the servants were aU negroes, and. that all the houses had gable ends to the street, vrith such projecting gutters that wayfarers were seriously incommoded in wet weather. He describes the cattle as roaming the dirty streets at wiU ; the interior of the dweU ings as of an exemplary neatness, and the fireplaces and porches thereof of an amplitude commensurate with the wide andigCnial hospitahty and hberal social instincts of the people,; whose prevalent virtues he regarded as frugahty in diet ahd integrity of purpose and characteri In theh houses the vvomeh were extremely neat. " They rise early," says Kalm, " go to sleep late, and aire alihost over nice and deanly in regard to the floor, which is frequently scoured several times a week." Tea had been but recently introduced among them, but was extensively used; coffee seldom. They never put sugar and milk in their tea, but took a small piece of the former in their mouths while sipping the beverage. They usually breakfasted at seven, dined at twelve or one, and supped at six ; and most of them used sweet milk or butter- mUk at every meal. They also used cheese at breakfast and NOETHEEN EUEOPEAN WEIIEES. 297 dmner, grated instead of sheed ; and the usual drink of the majority of the people was small beer and pure water. The wealthier families, although not indulging in the variety then seen upon tables in New York, used much fish, flesh, and fowl, preserves and pastry, nuts and fruits, and various wines, at theh- meals, especially when entertaining their friends or strangers. Their hospitahty toward deserving strangers was free and generous, vrithout formality and rules of etiquette, and they never allowed their visitors to interfere vrith the necessary duties of the household, the counting room, or the farm. In describing bis risit to Niagara FaUs, iu a letter dated Albany, September 2, 1750, Kahn furnishes us with an inter esting contrast between the experience of a traveUer to this long-frequented shrine of nature, a century ago, when such expeditions were few and far between, and the magnificent scene vrith its frontier fort was isolated in the wUderness, and the same visit now, wben caravans rush thither many times a day, vrith celerity, to find all the comforts, society, and amenities of high civilization : " I came, on the 12th of August, to .Niagara Port. The French there seemed much perplexed at my first coming, imagining I was an English oificer, who, under pretext of seeing the Ealls, came with some other riew ; but as soon as I showed them my passport, they changed their behavior, and treated me with the greatest civility. Iq the months of September and October, such immense quantities of dead v^aierfowl are found, every morning, below the faU, on the shore (swept there)^ that the garrison of the fort for a long time live ' chiefly upon them, and obtain such plenty of feathers in autumn as inake several beds." The Swedish colony on the banks of the Delaware early associated that brave nationality with the settlement of America.'H LongfeUow's translation of Tegner's " ChUdren * 1. "Description of New Sweden in America, and the Settlements in Pennsylvania by Companies," Stockholm, 1792, a small quarto, with primitive engravings. 2. " Description of the Province of New Sweden, now called by the English Pennsylvania," translated and edited by Peter S. Duponceau. Phila., 1824. 3. " The- Swedes on the Delaware," by Rev. Jehu Curtis Clay, Phila, 13* 298 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. of the Lord's Supper," with the prefatory sketch of life iu Sweden, gave us a pleasant ghmpse of its primitive and rural traits ; and the vocaUsm and beneficence of Jenny Lind en deared tbe very name of that far-off land to American hearts. But tbe novels of Fredrika Bremer first made known in this country the domestic hfe of Sweden, which, delineated with such naivete and detaU in " The Neighbors," charmed our households, and prepared them to give a cordial welcome to tbe author. The first impression she made, however, was not highly attractive. A journal of the day weU describes it, and tbe natural reaction therefrom : " The slowness with which she spoke, and the pertinacity with which she insisted on understanding the most trifling remark made to her, a little dashed the enthusiasm of those who newly made her acquaintance. Further intercourse, however, brought out a quaint and quiet self-possession, a shrewd vein of playfulness, a quick obser vation, and a trnly charming simplicity, which rewon all the admi ration she had lost, and added, we fancy, even to the ideal of expec tation." There are few situations in modern life more suggestive of the ludicrous, than that of a woman " of a certaia age," professedly visiting a country for tbe purpose of critically examining and reporting it and its people. Every American of lively. imagination who has been thrown into society with one ofl these female phUosophers on such a voyage of discov ery, must have caught ideas for a comedy of real life from the phenomena thus created. "Asking everybody every thing," the self-apijointed inspector is propitiated by one, quizzed by another, feared by this class and contemned by that, aU the time with an unconscious air, looking, listening, noting down, and, from tbe most evanescent and unrehable data, " giving an opinion " or drawing a portrait, not of a weU- known place or familiar person, but of an unknown country and a strange nation ! To see Miss Martineau rigilantly thridding crowds and paying out tbe flexible tube of her eap trumpet, hke a telegraph wire, into tbe social sea ; or Dick ens astride a chair in a hotel, receiving gratuitous and exag- NOETHEEN EUEOPEAN WEITEES. 299 gerated reports of the state of the nation, from a group of lion-struck republicans, are tableaux that wUl recur to many as Ulustrations of this comedy of travel in America. It was our lot to see Miss Bremer at a manorial domicile on the Hudson, in aU the glory of her " mission." It was in / the autumn, and no one could pass along the river without behig struck vrith admkation at tbe splendid colors that kindled the woods : it was the common theme of remark. She, however, resented this assumed superiority of the American autumn, saying, " The Lord also has done some thmg for Sweden. Our foliage is brilhant in the fall." In the same spkit sbe refused to believe a lady fresh from Ken tucky, who, in describing to her the Mammoth Cave, men tioned the famUiar fact that the fish therein have only the rudiment of an optic nerve. At dinner, her inquiries aboutN the material and preparation of the viands would bave led to the supposition that she meditated a manual of cookery ; and, on returning to the drawing room, she whipped out a sketch hook, and cooUy drew a likeness of Irving, the most illustri ous of the guests. The fabrics of the ladies' dresses, the modes of dancing, the style of meals, the trees, furniture, books, schools, and private history of all persons of note,']and/' even of those unknown to fame, were investigated with per fect good humor and nonchalance / but the process and idea of the thing, when considered, are a singular commentary upon modem hfe and social dignity ; and when the long- eipected book appeared, the kind people who had enter tained Miss Bremer, were dismayed to find their sayings and doings recorded, and their very looks and characters analyzed for the public edification. This breach of good faith and good taste, however, did not prevent her Swedish readers from learning, through her very frank and naive but often superficial report, many detaUs of domestic economy, and some novelties of American hfe ; whUe here tbe effect was once more to "give us pause" in our hospitable instincts, and t& feel the necessity of a new sumptuary law, whereby to eat one's salt should be a pledge against the freedom of pen-craft. 300 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. / Adam Gurowski's book on America is noteworthy as ^he observations of a Pole. It appeared in 1857, and has few elements of popularity, being ahke devoid of statistics and gossip — the staple elements of favorite records of travel on this side of tbe water ; but it is honorably distinguished from these by a vein of grave speculation and historical rea soning, of which the author's subsequent hasty, hate, and irrational comments on tbe war for the Union, give no indicar ^'^ion. Being a publicist and a well-read political phUosopher, as well as a political refugee, the Count's experience as a PoUsh revolutionist, an employe of Russia, and a long resi dent in America, fits him eminently to discuss the tendencies and traits of this country by the light of the past. He com pares our civilization with that of Europe. The tone of his work is hberal and rational. He is a sincere and earnest admker of our institutions, a trenchant social critic. The piUpit, press, and "manifest destiny" of the nation are keenly analyzed, and slavery is discussed from an historical stand-point, and thoroughly condemned by practical argu- \ment. As a treatise on government and society, the book contains an imusual amount of thought, and grasps salient questions with a comprehensive scope. It is, indeed, defec tive in style, and contains palpable errors of statement and inference ; but these are more than atoned for by its phUo sophical spirit. A highly educated Swiss, K. Meier, in a pleasant work entitled " To tbe Sacramento," has described his journey from the Northern States to California via Panama, in the German language, with the interest which ever attaches to the tour of an inteUigent votary of the natural sciences ; and an officer of the same nation. Colonel Lecomte, has pubUshed, in the French language, a report of our mUitary operations during the first months of the war for the Union, which has been translated into Enghsh.* * " The War in the United States : a Report to the Swiss Military De partment ; preceded by a Discourse to the Federal Military Society, assembled NOETHEEN EUEOPEAN^ WEITEES. 301 An accomphshed member of the Belgian Representative Chamber wrote an able httle treatise on " La Question Ame ricaine," * in which he arrays facts and arguments in a lucid and forcible manner, and discusses, with rare fulness and per spicacity, the causes and consequences of the civU war. His riews of the mutual interests of his own and our country are worth citing : " It will not seem out of place to show here, briefly, that, as re gards Belgium, the cotton question is not the only one which inter ests her in the affairs of America. We have close constitutional analogies with the United States. If their institutions should fall, ours would suffer by reaction. We have copied the American Con stitution, not only as to municipal and provincial decentralization, as to that of industrial, financial, charitable associations, &c., as to the great liberties of worship, of instruction, and of the press (of which the Enghsh charter offered us equally the model) ; but we have followed America particularly as regards the absence of a state religion, of which Catholic Maryland gave the first example. We have imitated her in the institution of an elective Senate, in that of ¦ a House of Representatives identified with the democratic interest. The national Congress voted the Belgian Constitution with their eyes fixed on the American Union. Were we to consult only the interest of Belgium, we ought to desire that the United States should con tinue to remain what they have been, and to give us the example of union, of the spirit of liberty, and of decentralization — qualities which characterize the Anglo-Saxon race, with which the Belgians have bonds of relationship and close affinities." (P. 63.) No Europeans, in our own day, have had more reason to regard North America with hopeful interest than the Ger mans. To their indigent agricultural population this coimtry has proved a prosperous home ; and the zeal with which our Teutonic fellow citizens, of all classes, volunteered for the war on whose issues hang tbe hberties of this continent, is the best evidence of their appreciation of the privUeges of at Berne, August 18th, 1862," by Ferdinand Lecomte, translated from the French by a Staff Officer, New York, 1863. * " La Question Americaine dans ses Rapports avec les Mosurs, 1' Escla.- Tage, r Industrie et la Politique." Par Le Chanoine de Haeme, Membre de la Chambre des Eepr^sentants, Bruxelles, 1862, Svo., pp. 72. 302 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. " American citizenship. No foreigners seem to organize their national hfe among us with such facUity. The guUds and pastimes of the fatherland are as famUiar in our cities as on the Rhine. German scholars and thinkers are attached to our colleges, contribute to our literature, and enrich our soci ety ; while large sections of the Western States are culti vated by German peasants. Moreover, the literature of Ger many has essentially modified the culture of the present gen eration of American scholars ; and thus, in the sphere of intellectual aud of utUitarian hfe, a mutual understanding and sympathy, and a community of political interests, have tended to bring the two nationaUties into nearer relations. Many statistical works on the United States have been published in Germany as guides to emigrants ; and many sensible treatises explaining and describing our institutions, maimers, resources, and characteristics, like those of Von 'Kaumer, Lieber, and other residents and risitors. A certain philosophical impartiality of tone makes the Gerinan record a kind of middle ground between tbe urbane and enthusiastic French and tbe prejudiced and sneering English writers. Some of the most just views and candid delineations have .emanated from German writers. Their pohtical sympathies, extensive information, and patient tone of mind, alike fit them for the task of investigating and reporting physical and social facts. The record may lack sprightiiness, and he tinged with a curious vein of speculation, but is nevertheless hkely to convey solid and valuable knowledge, and suggest comprehensive inferences. Gerstaecker, who travelled on foot over a large part of the Southwest, and Trochling, have given to many of their countrymen the first vivid impres sions of America. Writing in the novelistic form, they reached the sympathies of many who would neglect a merely statistical work. Private letters, and > the current journals and translations of Gooper and Lving, are, however, the popular sources of specific information and romantic impressions in Germany in regard to the United States. Although Baron Humboldt's American researches were chiefly confined to the NOETHEEN EUEOPEAN WEITEES. 303 Southern continent, he was keenly alive to the human interest and ciric problems of the United States. " We would sim ply draw attention," he writes in " Cosmos," " to the fact that, since this period " (that of tbe discovery and coloniza tion of America), " a new and more vigorous activity of the mind and feelings, animated by bold aspirations and hopes which can scarcely be frustrated, has gradually penetrated through all grades of civU society ; that the scanty .popula tion of one half of the globe, especiaUy in tbe portions oppo site to Europe, has favored the settlement of colonies, which have been converted, by their extent and position, into inde pendent States, enjoying unlimited power in the choice of their mode of free government ; and, finally, that religious reform — ^the precursor of great pohtical revolutions — could not fail to pass through the different phases of its develop ment, in a portion of the earth which bad become the asylum of aU forms of faith, and of tbe most different views regard ing Divine things. The daring enterprise of the Genoese seaman is the first link in the hnmeasurable chain of these momentous events. Accident, and not fraud and dissension, deprived the continent of America of the name of Columbus. The New World, continuously brought nearer to Europe diu-ing the last half century by means of commercial inter course and the improvement of navigation, has exercised an important infiuence on the political institutions, the ideas and feelings of those nations who occupy the eastern shores of the Atlantic, the boundaries of which appear to be constantly brought nearer and nearer to one another." There is a curious illustration of the first impressions of the highly educated Germans in America, in a phrase of Baron Furstenwartber, and its explanation by Mr. Schmidt : "With aU the facility," writes the former, "particularly of the material life, there is no idea, not a distant suspicion, of a high and fine existence." " By material," observes tbe lat ter, " we mean men who take more pleasure in a cattle show or a breed of swine, than a Venus de Medici or a Laocoon." Very patient and informing, but quite tame and didactic, are 304 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. the " Travels in North America " by His Highness, Bemhard, Duke of Sa,£e-»Weimar-Eisenach, repubhshed in PhUadelphia in 1828. The kindliness and intelligence of the Duke are apparent on every page of these two volumes ; but there is little new in tbe subjects or mode of treatment. It is a wo^k which excites respect for the man more than admhation for the writer. His benevolent interest and his detaUed account of what he sees and hears, are tbe most remarkable traits. He gives a favorable report of tbe hospitality of Americans ; describes his risit to the elder Adams, and a Virginia rail fence, a granite machine in New England, and a Hudson River steamboat or horse ferry, the Creek Indians, and Owen's community, vrith the same fulness and apparent inter est. He criticizes West's painting of " Christ Healuig the Sick " judiciously, bestows the epithet " dear " upon PhUadel phia, was astonished " to hear Vkginians praise hereditary nobUity and primogeniture," and greatly enjoyed a visit to tbe Moravian settlement at Bethlehem, the Natural Bridge, and a dinner at Monticello. It is remarkable that the travel lers of rank show so much more human and so much less con ventional interest in American life, manners, and resources than those who belong to a class we shoxdd imagine especially alive to the opportunities and privUeges of a new and free country. Yet the Cavalier CastigUone, the Marquis of Chas teUux, tbe Duke of Saxe-Weimar, and Lord Morpeth are more just and generous in their observation and sympar thies, as traveUers in America, than a Hall, a Trollope, or a Dickens. Friedrich Von Raumer, more of an historian than an observer, a professor in the University of Berlin, and author of several political and historical treatises, after traveUing in England and publishing his observations on that country, which were translated by Mrs. Austin (5 vols., London, 1836), visited this country, and, in 1843, wrote a book there on, entitled "America and the American people," subse quently translated and published in New York.* It contains * " America and the American People," by Frederick Von Raumer, NOETHEEN EUEOPEAN WEITEES. 305 much valuable information, and is written with the love of (knowledge and patient exposition thereof characteristic of a German professor, but eridently drawn much more from books than from life. The 'German edition of the " Travels " * in America of the Prmce MaxhnUian von Wied, is superbly iUustrated, and much used as an authentic reference by his countrymen, for whom the work was expressly written : it is wholly descrip tive, and therefore contains httle that is new to a weU-in- formed native. Tbe work was tjt-anslated into Enghsh, and vrith its superb iUustrations repubhshed in London. One of the best known here of the German writers on this country is Dr. Francis Lieber. He was born at Berlin in 1800, and re ceived a doctor's degree at the University of Jena. Like so many ardent and cultivated young Europeans, he espoused the cause of Greece during her Revolution ; became a pohti cal exUe, received a letter of encouragement from Richter, wrote poems in prison, and, in 1827, came to America. He edited the Cyclopcedia Americana, and vvas professor in Co lumbia CoUege, South Carolina, several years, and now holds a like situation in Columbia CoUege, New York. Dr. Lieber is an eminent publicist. His riews on pohtical economy are original and profound. His expositions of hiternational law, and his occasional political essays, are alike remarkable for extensive knowledge and acute reasoning. His " Letters to a Gentleman in Germany," or " The Stranger in America," f exhibit his ability in his special line of studies, applied to our institutions and resources. They give remarkably fuU state ments of judicial and penitentiary systems, and of social traits. Dr. Lieber's ample opportunities of observation, his translated from the German by W. W. Turner. 8vo., pp. 512, New York, 1846. * " Journey through North America," by Prince Max v. New-wied-Wied, a most valuable work, rich in characteristic sketches of nature and life, as well as in scientific results. f " The Stranger in America ; comprising Sketches of the Manners of Society, &c.," by Francis Lieber, 2 vols. 8vo., London, 1835. 306 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. famUiarity with society and life both North and South, and tbe philosophical tendency of bis mind, make him a remarkably apt expositor of the most important questions relating to our country. His work was translated into English by a son of the celebrated jurist Hugo. Christian Schultz made an inland tour through the United States, in 1807-'8, of six thousand mUes, bis description whereof was published in New York in 1810.* Though not intended for the public, his letters are inteUigent, and, for the most part, accurate. Those referring to the Western Ter ritories must bave afforded seasonable and desirable informa tion at that period ; and his account of the Middle States is in some respects highly satisfactory. A good iUustration of the absence of locomotive facilities at that time on, one of the most frequented lines of travel in our day, occurs in the notes of his journey from Albany to Oswego. The latter place, he tells us, was then " wholly dependent upon the salt trade." He went there by canal and through Wood Creek and the Onondaga River ; in fact, by the route described in Cooper's " Pathfinder," substituting a barge for a canoe. As to the town itsplf, thus slowly approached by water, and long the goal of fur trader, missionary, and mUitary expeditions, this author thought its " appearance very contemptible from tbe irregular and confused manner in which the inhabitants build their houses ; " but his impression of the place changed when he surveyed the lake from the shore, and recognized so many local advantages and so vast and beautiful a prospect. A volume, written also from personal experience, of the same date, by Ludwig Gale, entitled " My Emigration to the United States," is another of the early specimens of German Travels therein, since forgotten in the more complete and careful reports of later writers. Nor should the essay of a political philosopher and naturalist, E. A. W. Zimmerman, be neglected. It is entitled " France and the Free States of * " Travels on an Inland Voyage through the States of New Tork, Penn sylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, &o.," by Christian Schultz, with numerous maps and plates, 2 vols. 8vo., New York, 1810. NOETHEEN EUEOPEAN WEITEES. 307 North America," and appeared in 1795. Its author, a native of Hanover, and educated at Leyden and Gottingen, died in 1815, and, " during the whole period of the French ascen dency in Europe, was distinguished for his bold denunciation of the usurpations and oppressions of that Government." In 1839, a view of " Social and Public Life in the United States," by Nicholas H. Juhus, appeared at Leipsic. It is written in a very inteUigent and humane spirit, and with practical judgment. Paul Wilham Duke of Wurtemberg's " Journey in North America in the Years 1825-'26," is finely descriptive, with rivid sketches of social life. It contains a detaUed account of some of the German settiements. William Grisson characterizes ably the juridical, religious, and mihtary relations of America, and comments on hfe there from careful observation. F. W. von Wrede drew some authentic " Pictures of Life in the United States and Texas." In Count Gorsz's " Journey Ro\md the World," the first volume is devoted to America ; and, the author having remained there longest, it is the best of the series. M. Busch's " Wanderings, in the United States " is written with candor, and presents the extremes of light and shade, with no small humor ; while Francis Loher bas some exceUent national portraits in his " Lands and People in the Old and New World," and describes at length the " Germans in America," vrith whom he long resided. Frederick Kapp pubUshed, at Gottingen, in 1854, a treatise on the slavery question, in its historical development, fuU of facts and just reasoning, although recent events have negatived its pro phetic inductions. Louis von Baumbach's "New Letters from the United States" (Cassel, 1856), is a useful guide to the candid study of American life and institutions ; and Julius Frobel's " From America " (Leipsic, 1857) treats vrith esprit and geniahty social and political questions. In a work entitled " Tbe Americans in their Moral, Social, and PoUtical Relations," a German writer, Francis J. Grund (subsequently a naturalized citizen and active politician), ex posed some of the supei-ficial and false reasoning of Enghsh 308 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. traveUers in America. Published in Boston * and London in 1837, and claiming to be the residt of fourteen years' resi dence in the country, it discussed, with muah acuteness and candor, several unhackneyed topics Of this prohfic theme: among them, the aversion to amusements, the reception of foreigners, the relation of American hterature to the English periodical press, and the influence of the Western settlements on the pohtical prospects of America ; whUe the more famU iar topics of education, universal suffrage, slavery, and indus trial enterprises, are treated with much discrimination. The political sympathies of the author give i an emphasis to his arguments ; but he is by no means blind to the national defi ciencies ; and in a subsequent work, eridently more especiaUy devoted thereto — which, although ostensibly edited, only, was written by hhn, and entitled " Aristocracy in America " — ^he exhibits them with sarcastic vigor. His first book, however, /-^as timely, true, and remarkably well written. He professes to bave arrived at strict impartiality, and was chiefly Inspired by an "honest desire to correct prejudices, American and English, and not to furnish tbem with fresh aliment." He declares that the "Americans have been greatly misrepre sented ; " and this not so much by ascribing to them spurious quahties, as by omitting to mention those which entitle them to honor and respect, and representing the foiblcs of certain classes as weaknesses belonging to the nation. In the opin ion of this writer, "a remarkable trait of Enghsh traveUers in the United States consists in their proneness to find the same faults with Americans which the people of the conti nent of Europe are apt to find with themselves." He recog nizes an " air of busy inquietude " as characteristic of the people, and " business " as the " soul " of American life ; yet he considers the tendency of their democracy " not to debase the wealthy in mind or fortune, but to raise the inferior classes to a moral elevation where they no longer need he / * "The Americans in their Moral, Social, and Political Eelations," by Francis J. Grund, 2 vols, in 1, 12mo., Boston, 1837. NOETHEEN EUEOPEAN WEITEES. 309 I degraded and despised." I As to the "unhallowed custom of taUring about trade and .business, I must confess," he says, " not to have remarked it half as often as Hamilton. I rather think an honorable exception was made in bis favor, in order to acquaint bim the better with American affairs, on which they knew he was about to write a book." To this natural explanation of a circumstance w-hich the Enghsh traveller magnifies into a national defect, the more kindly continental observer adds another which accounts for many false infer ences : " From the writings of BasU Hall and Hamilton, it is evident that neither of the gentlemen became acquainted vrith any but the fashionable coteries of the large cities, and that the maimers of the people, aud especiaUy of the respectable Tuddle class, escaped altogether thek immediate attention." He observes that "the most remarkable characteristic of Americans is the uncommon degree of inteUigence that per vades aU classes ; " and thinks that " their proneness to argue lends a zest to conversation." To popular education he attributes the mental activity and enlightenment so striking to a European as general traits. " The German system," he remarks, " favors the development of the mind to the exclu sion of aU practical purposes. The American aims always at some application, and creates dexterity and readiness for action." In the Western communities, he finds an attractive " naivete of manners and grotesqueness of humor." No one, he says, can travel in the United States without making a business of it. " He must not expect to stop except at the place fixed upon by the proprietors of the road or the steam boat." The position of a raan of leisure in this coimtry, unless be is interested in literary or scientific pursuits, he deems forlorn, because it is companionless. " There is- no^ people on earth," he observes, " with whom business consti tutes pleasure and industry amusement, to an equal degree as with the inhabitants of the United States." HamUton attrib utes the " total absence of the higher elegancies .of life " in this country to the " abolition of primogeniture ;" while this Geiman commentator cheerfuUy accepts the condition that he 310 AMEEICA And hee commentatoes. " must resign his individual tastes to the vrishes of the major ity" in view of the compensatory benefits. "'Every new State," he writes, " is a fresh guarantee for the continuance of the American Constitution, and directs the attention of the people to new sources of happiness and wealth. It m- creases tbe interest of aU in the General Government, and makes individual success dependent on national prosperity." With such broad sympathies and liberal views, he protests against tbe narrowness and the injustice of British writers, who have so pertinaciously misrepresented the country, its institutions and prospects, declaring that "the progress of America refiects but the glory of England. All the power she acquires extends the moral empire of England. Every page of American history is a valuable supplement to thg,t of England. It is the duty of true patriots of both countries to support and uphold each other to the utmost extent compati ble with national justice ; and it is a humihating task either for private individuals or public men to make the foibles of either the subject of ridicule to the other." In his novels. Otto Ruppius, who resided for a consider able period in the United States, undertook, in this form, to make his comitrymen familiar with the various aspects of Ufe in America. They are interesting and suggestive, and in many respects authentic, tbough not always free from those partial or overdrawn pictures which are inseparable from this form of writing. Another German author, for some years a resident in the United States, has made hfe and natm-e there the subject of several interesting and effective novels — after haviiig, on his return home in 1826, pubhshed the general result of his ob servation and experience on this side of the wat6r. He came back the following year, and his first American romance ap peared in Philadelphia soon after, under the title of " To- keah ; or. The White Rose." Charles Seatsfield thus became known as an author. In 1829 and '30 he was one ofthe editors of the Courier des Fkats Unis, and, soon after, went to Paris as correspondent of the New York Courier and NOETHEEN EUEOPEAN WEITEES. 311 Enquirer. In 1832 he visited Switzerland, and there pub lished a translation of " Tokeah." So popular was this work abroad, that he resolved to compose a series of romances illustrative of American life. His keen observation, strong sympathies, and imaginative zest enabled him to mould into virid pictures the scenes and characters with which be had become famUiar in America, where the six novels devoted to that subject soon became known through partial translations which appeared in Blackwood's Magazine. The intensity and freshness of these delineations excited much interest. They seemed to open a new and genuine vein of romance in American hfe, or, rather, to make the infinite possibUities thereof charmingly apparent. This was an experiment sin gularly adapted to a German, who, with every advantage of European education, in the freshness of life had emigrated to this country, and there worked and travelled, observed and refiected, and then, looking back from the ancient quietude of his ancestipl land, could dehneate, under the inspiration of contrast, aU the wild and wonderful, the characteristic and original phases and facts of his existence in Texas, Pennsyl vania, or New York. " Life in the New World " was soon translated and pubhshed in the latter city. It was foUowed by " The Cabin Book ; or, Sketches of Life in Texas," and others of the series which abroad have given to thousands the most vivid impressions of the adventure, the scenery, and the characters of our frontier, and of many of the peculiar traits of our more confirmed civilization. Seatsfield resides altemately in Switzerland and the United States. Few modern travellers have won a more deskable reputa tion for intelligent assiduity and an honest spirit than John G. Kohl, who, bom at Breme in 1808, was educated at Got tingen, Heidelberg, and Munich, and, after filling the office of private tutor in two noble famihes, estabhshed himself at Dresden, and thence made numerous excursions through vari ous parts of Europe and America ; describing, with care and often with a singular thoroughness, tbe countries thus visited. Few records of travel convey so much interesting information. 312 AMEEICA AND hIeE COMMENTATOES. The attainments and the temper of Kohl alike fit him for his chosen department of literature ; for, to much historical and scientific information, an enhghtened and ardent curiosity, and a habit of patient investigation, he unites a liberal, urbane disposition, and a rare facihty of adaptation. He deals chiefly with facts that come under his own observation, and views them in the hght of history. Imagination is quite secondaiy to rational inquiry in the scope of bis studies from hfe ; but he is not destitute of sensibihty to nature, nor wanting in that philosophic interest in man, whereby the records of travel become so suggestive and valuable. Still, to most of his readers tbe charm of his books is mainly their candid and complete report of local features, social circum stances, and economical traits ; so that one is often surprised to find a hackneyed subject arrayed in fresh interest, through the new facts noted or the special vein of inquiry pursued by this genial and inteUigent cicerone. Kohl has written thus of Russia, Poland, Hungary, Styria, Bavaria, JIngland, Scot land, Ireland, Denmark, Switzerland, HoUand, Istria, Dahnar tia, and other countries, explored by hhn with obvious zeal and rigilant observation. The tone of his mind may be in ferred, not only from the extent of his books of travels and their fulness and authenticity, but also from the casual sub jects which have occupied his indefatigable pen ; such as the " Influence of Climate on the Character and Destiny of the People ; " and " Esquisses de la Vie, de la Nature et des Peuples." The inquiries and impressions of so experienced a traveller and comprehensive a student cannot be destitute of interest and value. During his sojourn among us, Kohl culti vated the acquaintance of men of letters. He was eager in searching for the earliest maps and charts of the country and the coast. He domesticated himself where there was most to be leai-ned, and won the esteem of aU who knew him, by his naive, candid, and intelligent companionship. Thus far his published writings on America consist of an account of his visit to Canada, an expedition to Lake Superior, an elabo rate sketch of the History of Discovery on this Continent, NOETHEEN EUEOPEAN -WKITEES. 313 and various local delineations, which have appeared in the London periodicals. He differs from other writers by his geographical knowledge and the comparisons founded on ex tensive observations in other parts of the world. Although not blind to the incongruities aud inequahties of our civiliza tion, he is keenly alive to the progressive tendencies and actual pririleges here realized. His eye for nature is scien tific, his interpretation of national character acute, his judg ments often historical in their basis ; and it is in tbe spkit of a kindly man of the world, and a scholar and thinker, that he looks on the spectacle of American hfe. With a true Ger man patience and zest, he seeks the men and the things, the facts of the past and the traits of the present that interest him, and have, in his estimation, true significance as Ulustrar tive of national character or local traits. How be thus re garded some of om- literary and pohtical celebrities and social aspects and traits, appears from his account of Boston. . It is curious to compare his impressions of the metropohs of New England, riewed in such a spirit and for such an end, at this period, vrith the primitive picture of the Abbe Robin and tbe imbittered reminiscences of Consul Grattan : " Of aU the cities of the American Union, Boston is the one that has most fully retained the character of an English locality. This is visible upon the first glance at its physiognomy and the style of building. The city is spread out over several islands and peninsulas, in the innermost nook of Massachusetts Bay. The heart of Boston is concentrated on a single small peninsula, at which all the advan tages of position, such as depth of water, accessibility from the sea and other port conveniences, are so combined, that this^ spot neces- sarfiy became the centre of life, the Exchange, landing place, and market. " The ground in this central spot rises toward the middle, and formerly terminated in a triple-peaked elevation (the Three Moun tains), which induced the earliest immigrants to settle here. At the present time these three points have disappeared, to a great extent, through the spread of buUding ; but for all that, the elevation is per ceptible for some distance, and the centre of Boston seems to tower over the rest of the city like an acropolis. From this centre numer ous streets run to the chcumference of the island, whUe others have 14 31-4 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. been drawn parallel with it, just as Moscow is huilt round the Kremlin. All this is in itself somewhat European, and hence there are in Boston streets running up and down hiU ; at some spots even a drag is used for the wheels of carts. The streets, too, are crooked and angular — a perfect blessing in America, where they generaUy run with a despairing straightness, like our German everlasting pop lar aUeys. At some corners of Boston — which is not like other American cities, divided ehess-board-wise into blocks — you actuafiy find ' surprises : there are real groups of houses. The city has a character of its own, and in some parts offers a study for the archi tect — things usually unknown in America. " The limitation of the city to a confined spot, and the irregular ity of the buUding style, may partly be the cause that the city reminds us of Europe. But that the city assumed so thorough an English type, may be explained by the circumstance that Boston re ceived an entirely English population. In 1640, or ten years after its formation, it had five thousand English denizens, at a period when New Tork was still a small Dutch country town, under the name of New Amsterdam. Possibly, too, the circumstance that it was the nearest seaport to England, may have contributed to keep up old English traditions here. The country round Boston bears a remark able likeness to an.English landscape, and hence, no doubt, the State obtained the name of New England ; but as in various parts of Ifew England you may fancy yourself in Kent, so, when strolling about the streets of Boston, you may imagine yourself in the middle of London. In both cities the houses are built with equal simphcity, and do not assume that pomp of marble pilasters and decoration noticeable at New York and elsewhere. The doors and windows, the color and shape, are precisely such as you find in London. In Boston, too, there is a number of small green squares; and, amid the turmoil of business, many a quiet cul de sac, cut off from the rest of the street system. " Externals of this nature generaUy find their counterpart in the manners and spirit of the inhabitants, and hence I believe that Bos ton is still more English and European than any other city of the Union. This is risible in many things ; for mstance, in the fact that the police system and public surveiUance are more after the European style than anywhere else in America. Even though it may not be ' quite so bad ' as in London, it strikes risitors from the West and South, and hence they are apt to abuse Massachusetts as a police- ridden State. Even iu the fact that the flag of the Revolution was first raised in Boston— and hence the city is generaUy called ' The Cradle of American Freedom ' — we may find a further proof that NORTHERN EUEOPEAN -WEITEES. 315 the population was penetrated with the true Anglo-Saxon tempera ment. " This is specially perceptible in the scientiflc and social life of Boston, which suits Europeans better than the behavior in other American towns. Boston, in proportion to the number of its popu lation, has more public and private libraries and scientiflc societies than any other metropolis of the Union ; and, at the same time, a great number of well-organized establishments for the sick, the poor, the blind, and the insane, which are regarded as inodels in the Uni ted States. Boston has, consequently, a fair claim to the title of the 'American Athens.' There are upward of one hundred printing offices, from which a vast number of periodicals issue. The best and oldest of these is the North American Seview, supplied with articles by such men as Prescott, Everett, Channing, Bancroft, &c. Among the Boston periodicals there has existed for some time past one de voted to heraldry, the only one of the sort in the Union, which, per haps, as a sign of the aristocratic temper of the Bostonians, evidences a deeply rooted Anglicanism. " The Historical Society of Boston is the oldest of that nature in the country. Since the commencement of the present century, it has published a number of interesting memoirs ; and the history of no portion of the Union has been so zealously and thoroughly investi gated as that of New England. The ' Lowell Institute,' established and endowed by a rich townsman, is an institution which works more efficaciously for the extension of knowledge and education than any other of the same character in America. It offers such hand some rewards for industry and talent, that even the greatest scien tific authorities of England — for instance, Lyell — have at times found it worth whUe to visit Boston, and lecture in the hall of the Lowell Institution. In one of its suburbs — Cambridge — Boston possesses Harvard College, the best and oldest university in America ; and it has also in the heart of the city a medjcal school. The^city library, in its present reformed condition, surpasses in -size and utility most of such establishments to be found in Germany. " At Boston, too, private persons possess collections most inter esting for science and art, which prove the existence of a higher feeling among the inhabitants of the city. During my short stay there I discovered and visited a considerable number. For instance, I met with a linen draper, who first showed me his stores near the waterside, then took me in his carriage to his suburbanum, where I found, in a wing expressly buUt for its reception, a library contain ing aU the first editions of the rarest works about the discovery and ¦ settlement of America, which are now worth their weight in gold. 316 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMEnAtOES. This worthy Boston tradesman was a very zealous member of the Historical Society, and has already published several memoirs upon his speciality (the earliest history of the American settlements). I was also taken to the vUla of another tradesman, who made it the business, of his life to make the most perfect collection of editions of the Bible. His collection is the only one of the sort in America, and, at the time I saw it, consisted of no less than twelve hundred Bibles, in every sort of edition and shape, published in all the lan guages and countries of the world, among them being tti^ greatest typographical rarities. I was also enabled to in'spect a splendid col lection of copperplate engrarings, equaUy belonging to a tradesman : it consisted of many thousand plates, belonging to all schools, coun tries, and epochs. The owner has recently presented it to Cambridge University, where it is now being arranged by a German connoisseur. " One evening I was inrited to the house .of a Boston tradesman, where I found, to my surprise, another variety of artistic collections. It was a partly historical, partly ethnographical museum, which the owner has arranged in a suite of most elegant rooms, and which he allowed us to inspect after tea. His speciality lay in weapons and coats of mail, and the walls were covered with magniflcent speci mens bought up in all parts of Europe, regardless of cost. He pos sesses aU the -weapons employed before the invention of gunpowder; while in an adjoining. room were aU the blood-letting tools of Japan. In another was a similar collection from China, and several other countries. Never in my life have I seen so many different forms of knives, hatchets, battle axes, and lances collected together as at this house. " At the same time, the company assembled on that evening was of great interest. Among others, we were honored by the presence of Fanny Kemble, who, as is well known, belongs to the United States since her marriage with an American. The fact that this most intellectual of artistes has selected Boston as her abode, wiU also bear good testimony to the, character of the city. During my stay in Boston she was giring readings from Shakspeare, and I heard her in the ' Merchant of Venice.' The readings took place in a magnifi cent hall capable of containing two thousand persons, and it was quite full. I have frequently heard Tieck, Devrient, and many oth ers of our best dramatic readers ; but I am bound to say that Fanny Kemble is the best of all I ever heard. She is graceful in her move ments, and possesses a well-forraed chest, and an energetic, almost masculine organ. On the evening I heard her she was hoarse, in consequence of a cold, and, by her own statement, weak and lan guid; but, for aU that, managed so admirably that nothing of the NOETHEEN EUEOPEAN WEITEES. 317 sort was perceptible. She developed all the male and female parts in the play— especially the Jew's — so characteristically and clearly, that I could not help fancying I had the whole thing before me, bril liantly designed on Gobelin tapestry. She accompanied her reading with lively gesticulations, but did not lay more stress on them than is usual in an ordinary reading. The Boston public were silent and delighted ; and it is on account of this public that I insert my re marks about Fanny Kemble. I was charmed with the praise which this excellent English lady bestowed on our German actors during a conversation I had with her. She told me that she preferred to see Shakspeare acted on a German stage, especially by' Devrient. And this, she added, was the opinion of her father, Charles Kemble. The circumstance that his wife was a native of Vienna may have contrib- uted,'-however, to make Charles Kemble better acquainted with the character of the German stage. " Of coarse it was not jn my power to inspect all the collections of Boston, and 1 need scarcely add that I found magniflcent libraries in the houses of a Prescott, a'Ticknor, an Everett, &c. In Boston, a good deal of the good old English maxim has been kept up, that every one buys a book he requhes. A great quantity' of rare and handsome books wander from all parts of Europe annually to these libraries. In the same way as the Emperor Nicholas had his mUi tary agents in every state, the Americans have their literary agents, who eagerly buy up our books. In London I was acquainted with a gentleman permanently residing there, who was a formidable rival to the British Museum, and found his chief customers among the Bos ton amateurs, though he had others in New York and elsewhere. ""When they desire to satisfy any special craving, the Americans are not a whit behind the English in not shunning expense or outlay. Thus I was introduced, at PhUadelphia, to a book collector, whose speciality was Shakspeare. He had specimens of every valuableedi- tion of the poet's works. Only one of the oldest and rarest editions, of which but three copies exist, was missing from his shelves ; and when he heard that one of these would shortly be put up for sale in London, he sent, a special agent over with secret instructions and coHe blanche. He succeeded, though I am afraid to say at what an outlay of dollars, and- the expensive book was shipped across the water. When it arrived at Philadelphia, the overjoyed owner in vited all the friends of Shakspeare in the city, and gave them a bril hant party, at which the jewel — an old, rusty folio— was displayed under a brilliant light upon a gold-embroidered velvet cushion. In- tei-minable toasts and speeches were given, and flnally the volume was incorporated in the' library, where it occupied but a very smaU space. 318 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. " In other American cities I saw various remarkable collections of rarities — as, for instance, Mr. Lenox's, at New Tork, who has a mania for bringing together all the books, documents, and pamphlets referring to the history of America, ^r. Peter Force, of Washmg ton, has a simUar one ; but I wUl not stop to describe it, but return to Boston, which is to some extent the metropolis of such collec tions. " Alexander von Humboldt's library has been made known to the world in a copperplate, but I must confess that I could draw a much more attractive picture of some of the studies of the Boston savans. In their arrangement, in the picturesque setting out of the books and curiosities, in the writing tables, and chairs, as ingenious as they are comfortable, in the wealth of pictures and busts found in these rooms, generally lighted from -above, you flnd a combination of the English desire for comfort and the American yearning after external splendor. The Americans are tbe only people in the world who pos sess not merely merchant princes, but also author princes. " I visited several of these distinguished men in their spacious and elegant studies. One morning I was taken to the house of the celebrated Edward Everett, one of -the great men of Boston, who, first as preacher, then as professor of Greek, and lastly as author and speaker, has attained so prominent a position in the Union, and is still an active and busied man in spite of sixty odd years havmg passed over his head. Any remarkable book a man may have writ ten, or any sort of notorietji that brings him before the public, can be employed in America as political capital, and lead to position and influence in the state. The preacher and professor, Everett, who for a season edited the North American Review, and very cleverly praised and defended in its pages the manners and Constitution of his conn- try, soon after became, in consequence of his writings, member of Congress, a leader of the old Whig party. Governor of Massachu setts, and lastly a diplomatist and American ambassador to England. Like many American politicians who have held the latter office, he was frequently proposed as candidate for the Presidency, but did not reach the chair, because the old Whigs had lost much of their former influence. On the flnal dissolution of his party, Everett devoted himself to the sciences and belles lettres. At the time when I formed his acquaintance, he was engaged in delivering a public lecture in all the cities of the Union on the character of Washington. The great man's qualities naturaUy had a brilliant light thrown on them, and, in comparison with our renowned monarchs, such as Frederick the Great, Joseph H., and Napoleon I., the latter came oflT second best. Everett had learned his lecture by heart, and delivered it with great NOETHEEN EUEOPEAN WEITEES. 319 emphasis and considerable success, though I confess that when I heard it I could not conscientiously bestow such praise on it as did the patriotic Americans. In order that the lecture might not lose the charm of novelty, all the American papers were requested to give no short-hand report of it : hence it remained unknown in each city until the lecturer had publicly delivered it. Everett saved up his earnings for a patriotic object — namely, the purchase of Wash ington's estate of Mount Vernon, for which purpose a ladies' com mittee had been formed. In 1857, Everett had collected more than forty th^Jusand doUars toward this object. There is hardly another country besides America in which such a sum could be collected by readmg a lecture of a few pages, however effective it might be. Moreover, the whole affair is characteristic of the land and that is why I have related it. " Boston has ever been not only the birthplace, but tbe gathering ground of celebrated men. In politics it frequently rivalled Vir ginia, whUe in the production of poets and literary men it stands far above all other cities of the Union. Starting from Benjamin Frank lin, who was born on one of the smaU islands in Boston harbor, down to Everett and his contemporaries, there has never been a, de ficiency of great and remarkable men in the city. Hancock, who drew np with Jefferson the Constitution of the United States, lived in Boston ; and the' most distinguished of the few -Presidents the Forth has produced — the two Adamses — belonged to Boston, where they began and closed their career. Daniel Webster, the greatest American orator of recent times, received his education in Boston, and spent all that portion of his life there when he was not engaged at Washington. There are, in fact, entire families in Boston — as, for instance, the Winthrops, Bigelows, &c. — whicb have been rich in talented persons ever since the foundation of the city. "When I risited Boston in 1857, the circle of celebrated, influen tial, and respected men was not small, and I had opportunity to form the acquaintance of several of them. Unfortunately, I knocked to no purpose at the door of the liberal and gifted Theodore Parker, whose house is ever open to Germans. The noble, equally liberal, and high-hearted Channing, whose pious, philanthropic, and philo sophic writings I had admired from my earliest youth, and who had labored, here as the apostle of the Unitarians, I only found repre sented by a son, who does honor to his great father's memory. The Websters and Adamses had also been dead for some years, though I formed the acquaintance of several of their personal friends, who told me niimerous anecdotes about them. "I am sorry to say, too, I missed seeing George Ticknor, the 320 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. great historian of Spanish literature, a true child of Boston, where he was born and educated, and where he spends his time in study when he is not travelling in Europe, which was unfortunately the case at the period of my risit. I saw nothing of him but his splen did Spanish library, which he exclusively collected for the purpose of his classical work, which has been translated into almost every language. "As a compensation, Prescott, who was summoned away some time ago, to the regret of all his friends, was at home to receive me, and he was one of the most amiable men I ever met. I saw him both at his own house and in society, and greedily took advantage of every opportunity that offered for approaching him. As he was de scended from an old New England family, and was educated, and lived, and worked almost entirely in Boston — he had only visited Europe once, and had travelled but little in the United States— I could consider hhn as a true child of Boston, and as an example of the best style of education that city is enabled to offer. He was a man of extremely dignified and agreeable manners, and a thorough gentleman in his behavior. I met but few Americans so distin guished by elegance and politeness ; and when I first met him, and before knowing his name, I took him for a diplomatist. He had not the slightest trace of the dust of books and learning, and, although he had been hard at work all day, when he emerged into daylight he was a perfect man of the world. I found in him a great resem blance, both in manner and features, with that amiable Frenchman Mignet. He was at that time long past his sixtieth birthday, and yet his delicate, nobly-chiselled face possessed such a youthful charm that he could fascinate young ladies. In society his much-regretted weak ness of sight was hardly perceptible ; and at dinner he 'made sucli good use of his limited vision, that he could help himself without attracting the slightest attention. He frequently remarked that this weakness of sight, which others lamented so greatly, was the chief cause of his devoting himself to historical studies. StUl it impeded his studies greatly ; for he was obliged to send persons, at a terrible expense, to copy the documents he required in the archives of Spain. He could only employ these documents and other references^par- tially, at any rate — through readers. He was obliged to prepare much in his mind and then dictate it, without the help of his hand and fingers, which, as every author knows, offer such aid to the head, and, as it were, assist in thinking. At times he could only write by the help of a machine that guided his hand. I say purposely 'at times,' for every now and then the sight of his own eyes became so excellent and strong, that he could undertake ¦ personally the me- NOETHEEN EUEOPEAN WEITEES. 321 chanical part of his labor. StUl, literature is indebted to Prescott's semi-blindness for his elaborate historical works on Peru, Mexico, IsabeUa, and PhUip II. ; for, had he kept the sight of both eyes, he would have continued the career he had already begun as barrister, and in aU probability have ended as a politician and a statesman. "Another somewhat younger literary talent Boston was proud of at that period, was Motley, the historian, who in many respects may be placed side by side wiOi Prescott. Like him, he also belongs to a wealthy fnd respected Boston family ; and like him, too, he has de voted himself to history, through pure love. His union with the Muse is no marriage de convenance, but he entered into it through a hearty affection. The subject that Motley selected, ' The History of the Netherlands in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,' had a special interest for his countrymen. At that period Holland was remarkably influential all over the New World, and, inter alia, laid the foundations of New York State. This State and its still some what Dutch inhabitants consequently regard the Netherlands to some extent as the mother country, and their history as a portion of their own. They feel as much interested in it as the French do in the his tory of the Franks in Germany. Moreover, they like to compare an event fike the insurrection of the Netherlands against Spain with their own revolt against England. Motley, therefore, selected a very popular theme. After learning something of the world as attachl to the American embassy at Petersburg, he travelled in Germany, and stayed for several years at Dresden, the Hague, and other Euro pean cities, in order to employ the libraries for his purpose. Nine years ago, he read to a small circle of friends in Dresden, myself among the number, extracts from his historical work — for instance, his description of the execution of Counts Egmont and Horn — and then retumed to America, where he published it. This work was a great success ; and when I met Motley again at Boston, he had just been crowned with laureL He was a handsome man, in the prime of life, withl dark curly hair. UnluckUy, he did not like his country sufficiently weU to remain in ij, and returned quickly to Europe, dur ing my visit to Boston. Perhaps he had lived too long upon our con tinent, and had not the patience to go through the process of re- Americaniring, to which an American who has long been absent is bound to subject himself. He proceeded to London, where he re sided several years, continuing his studies, and always a welcome guest in fashionable society, until the recent troubles forced him to return home. " We might fairly speak of a thorough historical school of Bos ton, for nearly all the recent remarkable historians of America have 14* 322 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. issued from this school. Among these I may speciaUy mention George Bancroft, who has selected the history of his native land as his special study. His career has a great likeness to that of Everett : like him, he went to Gottingen when a young man, and acquired his tendency for historic research from Heeren, Eichhorn, and Schlosser. Like Everett, he began his career as a professor at Cambridge Uni versity, and like him, also, his talent and the growing popularity of his books led him up to important offices and posts under Govern ment. He was for a time secretary to the navy at Washington, then American ambassador in England, and at last, as he was not success ful in politics, like Everett, he retired from public life into the calmer atmosphere of his study, where he has remained for several years, diriding his time between literary work and pleasant society. Dur ing the winter he now resides at New York, and during the summer at a charming villa near that pretty little watering place, Newport, on Narraganset Bay, whence he pays a visit now and then, though, to his old Boston. I had the good fortune to visit this active and energetic historian at both his winter and summer abode. At New York, he passes the whole winter shut up in his splendid library, like a bee in his honey cell. In the midst of the turmoil of business, his lamp may be seen glimmering at an early hour ; and he lights it himself, as he does his flre, in order not to spoil the temper of his lazy American helps for the day. " I am forced to remark that the result of my observations is, that this zeal and this ' help yourself are no rarity among American men of letters. Thus I always remember with pleasure old Senator Benton, whose ' History of the American Congress,' although an ex cellently written work, and a thorough mine in which to study the politics, parties, and prominent men of America, is, unfortunately, but little known on this side the water. This brave old Roman Ben ton, of Missouri, a man otherwise greatly attacked for his vanity and eccentricities, I remember seeing, one morning at six, lighting his flre, boiling his coffee, and then devoting the morning hours to his History. " This Benton was, at that period, above seventy years of age, and long a grandfather. He wrote his ' History ' with so firm and current a hand, that the copy went almost uncorrected from his table to the printing office, and within a few months entire volumes could be worked off. And yet he could only devote his morning and late evening hours to the task ; for, so long as the sun was lip, he thought it his duty to take part in the debates of Congress and quarrel in the committee rooms. At times, he broke his labors entirely off, because he considered it necessary to take a trip to Missouri, and agitate for NOETHEEN EUEOPEAN WEITEES. 323 some political purpose or other. One evening, it happened that his entire Ubrary, with ail the manuscripts it contained, fell a prey to the flames. He had temporarily taken up his quarters in a small wooden house in the vicinity of the Capitol, which caught fire. " These fires axe an almost regular and' constantly menacing ca lamity to American authors, theh libraries, and manuscripts. During ¦ my short stay in the United States, I heard of a whole series of cases in which valuable literary undertakings were completely interrupted by fire. Senator Benton, on the occasion to which I refer, lost his entire hbrary, a large portion of manuscript ready for the press, and a heap of materials, extracts, and references, which he had collected for a new volume of his ' History.' As I was on rather intimate terms with him and his family, and, as au author myself, felt a spe cial compassion for him, I risited him a few days after to offer him my sympathy. As it happened. President Pierce came up at the same ipoment, and for the same object. We found the aged man, to our surprise and admiration, not in the slightest degree affected or excited. He had removed from the ruins to the house of his son-in- law, the celebrated traveller Fremont, had had a new table put to gether, and was busy rewriting his manuscript. With Anglo-Saxon coolness and a pleasant face, which reminded me of the stoic referred to hy Montaigne, who did not allow himself to be disturbed in his speech when a dog tore a piece out of the calf of his leg, he told us the story of the burning of his books. Mr. Benton allowed that a quarto volume of his work, with all the materials belonging to it, was entirely destroyed ; but he said, with a smile, whUe tossing a little grandchild on his knee, ' It is no use crying oVer spUled milk.' He had begun his work afresh on the next day, and retained in his head most of what he had written down. He hoped that he should be able to coUect once more the necessary materials — partly, at any rate— and he expected that the printing would not be delayed for many days. " This man, in his present position — and there could not be a more lamentable one for an author — appeared to me like an old Ro man. And, in truth, old Senator Benton had something thoroughly Roman in his features, just as you might expect to find on an ancient coin. And all this was the more remarkable to me, because I dis covered such an internal value in a man who in the external world afforded such scope for jibes. In Congress I saw him twice play the part of a quarrelsome and impotent old man. At times — especiaUy when he marched into the field to support the claims o| his son-in- law Fremont, or any other distinguished members of his family of whom he was proud, and whom he thought he must take under his 324 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. whig, like a patriarch of old — he grew so excited, that the President several times^tried in vain to stop him. Once I saw him leave Con gress cursing and gesticulating, and loudly declaring that he would never again appear in that assembly. When, too, he rode np and down the main street of Washington, with his grandson on a little pony by his side, and keeping as close as possible to the pavement, that he might be bowed to by the ladies and gentlemen, they cer tainly saluted, but afterward ridiculed the ' great man.' Hence it caused me special pleasure, I repeat, to recognize in so peculiar a man an inner worth, and flnd the opportunity to say something in his praise. After all, there were heroes among the wearers of fuU-bot- tomed wigs and pigtaUs. " Since then, the inexorable subduer of all heroes has removed old Senator Benton forever from his terrestrial actirity. He was enabled stoically to withstand the fire ; but death, which caught him up four years ago, did not allow him to complete his work. Still, the frag ments of it that lie before us contain extraordinarUy useful matter for the history of the Union fi-om the beginning of this century, and I therefore recommend them strongly to public writers at the pres ent moment, when everybody wishes to know everything about America. But I wiU now return to Boston. "In the hot summer, when Longfellow, Agassiz, and other dis tinguished men of Boston fly to the rook of Nahant, Bancroft, as I said, seeks shelter on the airy beach of Newport ; and I remember, with great pleasure, the interesting trip I took thither for the pur pose of spending a couple of days with the historian. The pleasant little town of Newport,, which a hundred years back was a promis ing rival of New York, is now only known as the most fashionable watering place in the Union. Most of the upper ten, as weU as the politicians and diplomatists of Washington, congregate here in July and August. Splendid steamers, some coming from New Tork through Long Island Sound, others from Boston through the archi pelago of Narraganset Bay, bring up hundreds of people daily. On one of these green islands in the bay, Newport is built, surrounded by a number of villas and gardens, which stretch out along the beach. And one of these hospitable viUas belongs to the celebrated historian, who in that character, and as ex-minister and statesman, is reverently regarded as one of the ' lions ' of Newport. " When I entered his house, at a late hour, I found him sur rounded by the .ladies of his family, to whom he was reading a newly finished chapter of his ' History ' from the manuscript. ' He inrited me to listen, and told me that it was his constant practice to read his works in this fashion in the domestic circle, and take the NOETHEEN EUEOPEAN VeITEES. 325 opmion of his hearers, but, above aU, of his amiable and highly edu cated -wife. This, he said to me, was the best way of discovering any lack of clearness or roughness of style, and after this trial he made his final corrections. " Nevrport is also known, to those versed in American antiqui ties, as the spot where an old octagonal building stiU stands, which the Danish savans believe to have been erected long prior to Colum bus, and which they consider was built by the old Norman seafarers and heroes who visited America about the year 1000. This monu ment was very interesting to me to visit in the company of the his torian of the United States, even though the townspeople regard it as the foundation of an old windmill, that belonged to a former in habitant of Newport. Bancroft was of opinion that the good people of Newport were more likely to hit the truth than the scientific men of Copenhagen. I, too, after an inspection, in situ, consider the opinion of the latter so little founded, that it is hardly worth contra dicting. As is weU known, to fhe south of New England, in the middle of a. swamp on Taunton River, there is a huge rock covered with all sorts of grooves and marks, which the Danish savans regard as a Runic inscription, also emanating from the Normans. The Danes have even gone so far as to decipher the word ' Thorfiun,' as the name of one of the Norman heroes, while others believe that they are marks and memoranda made by an Indian hand; while others, again, are of -opinion that the grooves and scratches are produced by natural causes. "Bancroft described to me the difficulties he experienced in reaching this rock — at one moment wading through the water, at another forcing his way through scrub. He was, however, unable to convince himself of the truth of any one of the above three hypotheses ; and hence, in his ' History of the United States,' he could only say that the much-discussed Taunton River inscription did not afford, a certainty of the presence of the Normans in these parts. But I must hasten back to Boston, where I have many au exceUent friend awaiting me. " First of all rises before my mental eye the image of that noble senator, Charles Sumner, one of the most honored men of Boston, whom I visited not only here in his birthplace, where he spends his leisure hours with his mother and relatives, but also at Washington, where he was delivering his bold and fiery speeches against slavery. While at the capital, I heai-d him deliver that magnificent speech which, although it lasted for several hours, was listened to in speech less sUence. by the whole Senate, even bythe Southern members who Were bofiing over with fury, and entaUed on this noble man the bru- 326 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. tal attack from one of the chivalry of the South, which laid him on a bed of sickness for weeks, where he hovered between life and death. " How painful and sad it was to see this taU and stately man felled like a pine tree, and writhing in agony on his couch I His noble face, in which his lofty intellect and towering mind spoke out, was swoUen and' lacerated, as if he had been under the claws of a bear. English, Germans, French, Spaniards, and Italians were the first to hurry to him on the day of the outrage, to display their sym pathy and respect, and lay a crown of honor on his bleeding temples. With this great man, after his return from Europe, and several kin dred spirits, I used to spend pleasant evenings en petit comite in Bos ton, and felt delighted at the opportunity of discussing with them the great questions of the day. Not so pleasant, though equally remark able, were my feelings when I returned home at night from such an intellectual and sympathizing circle, and was compeUed to listen to the expectorations of a Colonel B , of Carolina, who lodged in the same hotel. He made it a point to lie in ambush for me every night, to smoke a cigar, drink a glass of grog, and take the opportu nity of explaining to me his views about the North. Although he had travelled in France and Germany, associated with the nobihty, and belonged to the Southern aristocracy, the Colonel was so fuU of prejudices against the North, that he walked about among the New Englanders of Boston like a snarling sheep dog among a flock of lambs. He ' pished ' and ' pshawed,' even abused loudly and bitterly aU he saw, both the men — the accursed Tankees, their narrow- hearted riews, theh stiff regulations, their unpolished manners— as weU as things, such as the Northern sky, the scenery, the towns, vil lages, and country houses. All that Boston or a Bostonian had or possessed seemed to him infected with abolitionism. He would even look on, with a sarcastic smile, when, during our conversation, I stroked a pretty little spaniel belonging to a Boston lady. He could not endure this Boston animal, and if ever it came within his reach he was sure to give it a harmless kick. Nothing was right with him, of course — ^least o:^all the Boston newspapel-s, in which he pointed out to me articles every evening, which, according to his opinion, were horrible, perfidious, atheistical, full of gall and poison, although I could not discover anything of the sort in them when he read them aloud to me with many gesticulations. To the people who sur rounded us he generally behaved politely, because, as I said, he was a Southern gentleman, and did not let it be seen how his heart heaved and boiled. But if any one took up the cudgels with him, merely expressed an opinion that had ithe remotest connection with the sla- NOETHEEN EUEOPEAN -WEITEES. 327 very question, or smelled of abolitionism, he would break out into the most enthusiastic diatribes in defence of the peculiar institution. His glances would become passionate, and his tone insulting. He appeared evidently bent on war, and 1 was often surprised that the Tankees put np with so much from him, and let him escape with a whole skin. In the South, had a Northerner gone to one tenth of the same excess, it would have been enough to hand him over to the tender mercies of Judge Lynch. " If I asked him why he had come to this North, which he so heartily despised, he would reply that, unhappily, his physicians had found it necessary to send him into this exile for the sake of his health ; and he had long had an intention of visiting, on the North ern lakes, the poor Indians who were so shamefuUy maltreated by tbe Tankees. The sufferings of these unhappy tribes, who perished beneath the heel of the oppressor, and pined away in their shameful fetters, had long touched his heart. He could never think of them without emotion, and he now intended to go as far as the cataracts of St. Anthony to give the Sioux a feast, and .offer them some relief frpm their shameful martyrdom. I remembered that I had once before noticed the same compassion for the Indians in a Southern slaveowner, and consequently that it is, in all probability, traditional among these people, to answer the reproaches cast on them for slave- holding, by accusing their hostfie brethren of ill-treating the Indians. Although I in no way shared my Southern friend's views of sla very and abolition, but was generally in the opposition, as a foreigner I did not seem to him so utterly repulsive as these God-forgotten Yankees. At flrst, at any rate, he believed that he should not be washing a blackamoor white with me. If I only would visit the South, he expressed his opinion I should be speedily converted, and grow enthusiastic for his side. Hence he condescended to argue with and instruct me, whUe he gnashed his teeth at his Northern country men when they dared to address him on the vexed question. Toward the end, however, I began to perceive that he was giving me up as incorrigible, and extended his enmity to me as weU. We at length parted, not exactly as sympathetic souls ; and when I now think of my Southerner stalking about Boston like a tornado in a human shape, I do not understand how it was that I did not then se© ciril war ante fores in that country. " It may be imagined what a relief, joy, and comfort it was for me, after the stormy evenings I spent with the Southerner, to be in vited the following day to a dinner table, where I found all the men with whom I sympathized, and whom I respected, assembled. The old Flemish painters, in their fruit and flower pieces, and in what is 328 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. called 'still life,' have striven to represent the roast meats, wine flasks, crystal glasses, grapes, and oranges which decorated the tables of their rich contemporaries. But how can I depict such a dinner at Boston, where a LongfeHow took the chair, an Agassiz acted as croupier, a Prescott was my left, a Motley my right hand neighbor, and where my vis-d-vis was a tall, thin, dry-looking man,, who, I was told, was Ralph Waldo Emerson 8 Between the epergnes and flower vases I could see also the characteristic features of noble and distin guished men ; the gray head of a Winthrop, or the animated face of such a benefactor to humanity as Dr. Howe, whom the blind and the deaf and dumb combine to bless. When I reflect how rare such highly gifted men are in the world, and how much more rare it is to be enabled to see a dozen of them sitting together cheerfully and socially over their wine, I flnd that we cannot sufficiently value such moments which accidents produce, and which, perhaps, never again occur in the traveller's life. -When we read such books as those of Mrs. Trollope, Captain BasU Hall, or Dickens, we might suppose that there is nothing in America that can be caUed ' good society.' But when a man flnds himself in such company as fell to my lot in Bos ton, he begins to think differently, and is at length disposed to allow that in America a good tone peculiar to the country, and possessing highly characteristic qualities, exists. I concede that it is rare, and I believe that the American, in order to appropriate this tone, must have passed the ocean several times between America and Europe ; in this, imitating his twice-across-the-line Madeira (which, by the by, is magniflcent in some Boston houses). The American, as a rule, becomes really fuU flavored in and through Europe. What I would assert, though, is, thalnfhe American has a peculiar material to take the polish which Europe can impart, and that, when he has rubbed off his American horns — for it is quite certain that the American is as much of a greenhorn in Europe as the European seems to be in the United States — a species of polish is visible, which possesses its peculiar merit, and nothing like it is to 'be found in Europe. There is no trace of mannerism or affectation ; none of that insipid polite ness, prudery, and superfinedom into which Europeans are so apt to fall. In the well-educated American we meet with a great simplicity of manner, and a most refreshing masculine dignity. Both in Bos ton and New York I visited private clubs, and met gentlemen belong ing to the bar, the church, the mercantile classes, &c., who possessed all these qualities in an eminent degree: ¦ In these small retired clubs — they may have been select, and I am unable to decide how many of the sort may exist — humor and merriment were so weU controUed, wit and jesting were so pleasantly commingled with what was seri- S.OUS and instructive, that I never knew pleasanter places for men." NOETHEEN EUEOPEAN WEITEES. 329 In our inadequate because ineritably brief summary of German writers on America, should not be forgotten the learned vridow of the lamented Professor Edward Robinson, who, among other notable writings published under the name of "Talri," gave to her countrymen (Leipsic, 1847) "The Colonization of New England " — an able historical digest of the early history of that region and people, subsequently translated by a son of WiUiam HazUtt, and pubhshed in Lon don (1851) in two handsome duodecimo volumes. In this woi-k the detaUs of each original State organization are given, and much incidental light thrown on the character of the people and the tendencies and traits of local society at this primitive era. Relying upon the Dia,ry of Bradford, first Governor of Plymouth, the New England Memorial, Governor Dudley's Report, Johnson's, and " America Painted to the Life, a True History" (London, 1658), the Relations of Hig- ginson. Wood, Lechford, Joscelyn, the Reports of Munson, UnderhUl, Gardiner, &c., with the writings of " founders " such as Clark, Gorges, Roger WiUiams, &c., and foi' later facts referring to Hubbard, Mather, Church, MUes, Neale, and others, Mrs. Robinson eliminated from these and other authentic sources the essential facts, and moulded them into a most significant and lucid narrative — the more so from being the work of a mind trained in the older civUization of Europe. " I look upon tbe early days of New England," she naively remarks, "vrith love certainly — but as a German." Comparatively impartial as she is, even in this primitive record we find indications of the prejudice which subsequent events fostered into a habit, and almost a mania, in " the mother country." "In the Revolutionary period," she writes, " S. A. Peters, a degener'ate son of Connecticut, published a ' General History ' of that State (London, 1781)— a mesh of lies, and deformed with enormous slander. Nothing could be more characteristic of the feeling at that time prevalent in England toward America, than the fact that this contempti ble and slanderous work survived, the foUo-vring year, in a second edition." 330 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. We cannot, perhaps, more appropriately close this cursory notice of German writers on America, than by referring to two lectures by Dr. PhUip Schaff, whose fame as a Church historian, and labors as a theological professor at Mercers- burgj Pennsylvania, -^ve special interest and authority to his views. When Dr. SchafiT revisited bis native country, in 1854, he gave, at Berlin, two discourses, part of a series by eminent scholars. Carl Ritter, and other illustrious friends, advised their publication ; and this is the origin of his unpre tending but comprehensive " Sketch of the Political, Social, and Rehgious Character of the IJnited States of North America." It was translated from the German, and pub hshed in New York in 1855. The latter branch of the sub ject naturally occupies the largest space ; and it is in relation to German emigration and tbe Evangelical Church that he chiefiy discusses the condition and prospects of his adopted country. In Yiew of the fact that, the very year of his visit to his fatherland, the emigration of his countrymen to the port of New York alone, amounted to more than one hundred and seventy-nine thousand, he descants upon tbe privUeges, needs, dangers, and destinies involved in this vast experiment, vrith the knowledge of a good observer and the conscience of a Christian scholar. He laments the evil attending so large a proportion of ignorant and irreUgious emigres, and the low condition of the German press in America ; but, on the other hand, anticipates the happiest results from the coah tion of the American and Teutonic mind. "With the one," he observes, " everything runs into theory, and, indeed, so radicaUy, that they are oftentimes in danger of losing aU they aim at ; with the other, everything runs into practice, and it is quite possible that many of the best and worst German ideas wiU yet attain, in practical America, a much greater importance than in tbe land of their birth, and first become flesh and blood on the other side of the ocean, like certam plants, which need transplanting to a foreign soil in order to bear fruit and flowers." He describes with candor the promi nent traits of our country and people. The latter, he says, NOETHEEN EUEOPEAN WETIEES. 331 " are restlessness and agitation personified : even when seat ed, they push themselves to and fro in their rocking chairs, and live in a state of perpetual excitement in their business, theh pohtics, and theh rehgion. They are exceUently char acterized by the expressions 'help yourself and 'go ahead,' whicb are never out of theh- mouths." " The grandest des tiny is evidently reserved for such a people. We can and must, it is true, find fault vrith many things in them ano^ theh institutions — slavery, tbe lust of conquest, the worship of mammon, the rage for speculation, pohtical and religious fanaticism and party spirit, boundless temerity, boasting, and quackery ; but we must not overlook the healthy vital ener gies that continually react against these diseases — ^the rnoral, yea. Puritanical earnestness of the American character, its patriotism and noble love of hberty in connection with deep- rooted reverence for the law of God and authority, its clear, practical understanding, its inclination for improvement hi every sphere, its fresh enthusiasm for great plans and schemes of moral reform, and its wiUingness to make sacrifices for the promotion of God's kingdom and every good work. They wrestle vrith the most colossal projects. The deepest mean ing and aim of their pohtical institutions are to actualize the idea of universal sovereignty, the education of every individ ual. They vrish to make culture, which in, Europe is every where aristocratic and confined to a comparatively smaU por tion of society, the common property of the people, and train up, if possible, every youth as a gentleman, and every girl as a lady ; and in the six States of New England, at least, they have attained this object in a higher degree than any country in the Old World, England and Scotland not excepted. There are respectable men, professedly of the highest cid- ture, especiaUy in despotic Austria, who have a real antipar thy to America, speak of it with the greatest contempt or indignation, and see in it nothing but a grand bedlam, a ren dezvous of European scamps and vagabonds. Such notions it is unnecessary to refute. Materiahsm, the race for earthly gain, and pleasm-e, find unquestionably rare encouragement in 332 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. the inexhaustible physical resources of tbe country ; but it has a strong and wholesome countei-poise in the zeal for lib eral education, the enthusiastic spirit of philanthropy, the munificent liberality of the people, and, above all, in Chris tianity. Radicahsm finds in republican America free play for its vrild, wanton Tevellings, and its reckless efibrts to uproot aU that is established. But there is unquestionably in the Anglo-Saxon race a strong conservatism and deeply-rooted reverence for the Divine law and order ; and, even in the midst of the storms of pohtical agitation, it listens ever and anon to the voice of reason and sober reflection. Despotism and abuse of the power of government make revolution; while moderate constitutional hberahsm forms the safest bar rier against it : radicalism, therefore, can never have such a meaning and do so much harm in England and America, as in countries where it is wantonly provoked to revolutionary re action," Dr. Schaff" sketches the size, growth, polity, social Ufe, and religious tendencies and traits of America, in a few au thentic statements, and expresses the highest hope and faith in the true progress and prosperity of the nation. " To those," he remarks, " who see in America only the land of unbridled radicalism and of the wUdest fanaticism for free dom, I take the liberty to put the modest question : In what European state would the Government have the courage to enact such a prohibition of the traffic in all intoxicating drinks, and the people to submit to it, as the Maine hquor law? I am sure that in Bavaria the prohibition of beer would produce a bloody revolution." Education in America, and the state of literature and sci ence, are ably discussed and delineated. The press there is fairly estimated ; and the Church, as an organization and a social element, analyzed with remarkable correctness as to facts and hberality as to feeling. The influence of German literature in America is duly estimated, and the character and tendencies of foreign' immigration and native traits justly considered. Without being in the least bhnd to our national NOETHEEN EUEQPEAN WEIIEES. 333 faults, Dr. Schaff has a comprehensive insight as to our na tional destiny, and a Christian scholar's appreciation of our national duties. "The general tendency in America," he observes, " is to tbe widest possible diffusion of education ; but depth and thoroughness by no means go hand in hand vrith extension. A peculiar phenomenon is the great number of female teachersi Among these are particularly distin guished the ' Yankee girls,' who know how to make theh way successfully everywhere as teachers — as in Europe the governesses from French Svritzerland. l)omestic life in the IJnited States may be described as, on an average, weU regu lated and happy. The number of illegitimate births is per haps proportionaUy less than in any other country. The American family is not characterized by so much deep good nature, and warm, overflowing heartiness, as the German; but the element of mutual respect predominates." No foreign writer has more clearly perceived or em phatically stated the moral and economical relatioh of Amer ica to Europe than Professor Schaff. His long residence in this coimtry, and his educational and reUgious labors therein, gave him ample opportunity to know the facts as regards enugration, popular hterature, social life, and enterprise; whUe his European birth and associations made him equaUy famiUar vrith the wants of the laboring, tbe theories of the thinking, and the exigencies of the political classes. " Amer ica," he writes, " begins vrith the results of Europe's two thousand years' course of civUization, and has vigor, enter prise, and ambition enough to put out this enormous capital at the most profitable interest for the general good of man kind. America is the grave of all European nationalities ; but it is a Phoenix grave, from which they shaU rise to new Ufe. Either humanity has no earthly future, and everything is tending to destruction, or this future lies, I say not exclu sively, but mainly in America, according to tbe victorious march of history, with the sun, from east to west." * y^^ * "America, Political, Social, and Religious," by Dr. Philip Schaff, New York, C. Seribner, 1855. • c^ CHAPTER IX. . ITALIAN TRAVELLERS. NATIONAL BELATIONS : VEBKAZZAlirO ; CASTIGLIONE ; ADEIANt ; GKASsr ; bblthami ; d'allessandbo ; capobianco ; SALVATOEE ABBATE B MIGLIOBI ; PISANI. Feom the antiquated French of the missionary Travels, and the inelegant English of the uneducated and flippant writers in our vernacular, it is a rivid and pleasant change to read the same prolific . theme discussed in the "soft bastard Latin" that Byron loved. Although no Italian author has discoursed of our country in a maimer to add a standard work on the subject to his native literature, America is asso ciated with the historical memorials of that nation, inasmuch as Columbus discovered the continent to which Vespucci gave a name, and Carlo Botta wrote the earliest European history * of our Revolution ; whUe tbe great tragic poet of Italy dedicated his "Bruto Prhno," in terms of eloquent appreciation, to Washington ; and the leading journal of Turin to-day has a regular and assiduous correspondent in New York, who thus made clear to his countrymen the cause, animus, and history of the war for the Union, and whose able articles on the educational system and political condition * Botta's " History of the War of the Independence of the United States of America," translated by Otis, 2 vols. Svo. in 1. ITALLAN TEAVELLEES. 335 of the United States, which have appeared in the Rivista Gontemp&renea— rthe ablest literary periodical in Italy — are a promising foretaste of the complete and weU-considered work on our country that he Ls pi-eparing for his own : a task for which long residence and faithful study, as well as liberal sympathies and culture, eminently fit him.* At the banquet given in New York to the ofiScers of tbe Itahan frigate Re Galantuomo, on the occasion of her risit to bring the equip ment for the Re d'ltaha, a magnificent ship of war built in this country for the navy of Italy, the same writer, in re sponse to a sentiment in honor of the king, aptly observed : " Con qual animo non pronurieremo il nome de Vittorio Em- manuele, in questo solenne occasione, quando per la prima volta neUa storia d'ltalia i rappresentati deUa marina nazion- ale, toccano a questi hdi e mettono piede su questo continente che da quasi quattro secoh un marinaio italiano scopriva e dava aUa civUta del mondo ! " f Within a recent period, the despotism of Austria, and the reactionary and cruel rigilance of the local rulers in the penin sula, which succeeded the fall of Napoleon and the consphar cies and emeutes thence resulting among the Itahan people, brought many interesting exUes of that nation to our shores. The estabhshment of the Itahan opera created a new interest in the language of Italy — which, vrith her literature, were auspiciously initiated in New York by Lorenzo Daponte. forty years ago ; and the popular fictions of Manzoni, Rufini, Mari- otti, d'Azeglio, and Guerazri, have made the story of theh country's wrongs and aspirations familiar to our people ; whUe such political victims as MaroncelU, Garibaldi, and ForCsti chaUenged the respect and won the love of those among whom they found a secure and congemal asylum ; and thus, * Professor Vincenzo Botta. t " With what emotions shall we not pronounce the name of Victor Emman uel, on this occasion, when, for the first time in the history of Italy, the rep resentatives of her national navy touch the shores and tread the continent which, nearly four centuries ago, an Italian mariner discovered and gave to the civilized world ! " 336 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. although the least numerous class of emigres,* the Italian risitors became among the most prominent from their merits and misfortunes. To the vagabond image venders and organ grinders, musicians and confectioners, were thus added emi nent scholars and patriots, and endeared members of society. Nowhere in the civUized world was the national development of Italy more fondly watched than here. The lecture room, the popular assembly, and the press in the United States, re sponded to and celebrated the reforms in Sardinia, the union of that state with Lombardy, Tuscany, and Naples, the hb eral polity of Victor Emmanuel, and the heroic statesman ship of Cavour. Garibaldi has received substantial tokens of American sympathy ; and current literature, love of art, and facilities of travel, have made the land of Columbus and the Repubhc of the West inthnately and mutuaUy known and loved. The caf6, the studio, the lyric drama, letters, art, and society in our cities attest this ; f and should steam com munication be estabhshed, as proposed, between Genoa and * Between 1820 and 1860, about 13,000 Italian emigrants reached this country. At present, in New York, the Italian population is estimated "at 2,000 — most of them peasants and peddlers, who earn a precarious subsist ence as organ players, venders of plaster casts, &c. Colonies of them Uve in limited quarters iu the most squalid part of the city — monkeys, organs, images, and families grotesquely huddled in the same apartment. An evening school for these emigres has been iu successful operation for some years, and with good results. f Scanty as is the record of Italian travel in the United States, the emi gration of that people being chiefly directed to South American cities, where, as at Montevideo, they have large commuhitiea, the Spanish is still more meagre, and contrasts in this respect with the prominence of that race in the chronicle of maritime enterprise and exploration centuries since. Among the few books of Spanish travel of recent origin, are. the following: 1. "Viage a los Estados-Unidos del Norte de America," por Don Lorenzo de Zavala, Paris, 1834, 1 vol. 8vo., pp. 374. The author was, at one time. Minister from Mexico to France. His book is a slight affair. — 2. " Cinco Meses en los Es tados-Unidos de la America del Norte desde el 20 de Abril el 23 Setiembre, 1835, Diario de Viage de D. Ramon de la Sagra, Director del Jardin Botanico de la Habana, ec," Paris, 1836, 1 vol. 8vo., pp. 437. Le Sagra has published an important book about Cuba, been concerned in Spanish politics, and is well considered as a man of science ; but his book, says an able critic, is not much better than Zavala's. ITALIAN TEAVELLEES. 337 New York, tbe emigration wiU improve. When the war for the Union commenced, many Italian citizens volunteered, and some bave acquired honor in the field ; whUe not a few can find in the foUowing anecdote, which recently appeared in a popular daUy journal, a parallel to their o^vn recent experi ence: " Ten or twelve years ago an Italian emigrated from Northern Italy, and, after various wanderings, pitched his tent at Jackson, Mississippi. He prospered in business, increased and multiplied. He also managed to buUd two comfortable little houses, and altogether was getting on quite weU in the world. At the time the war broke out he was ITorth on business ; and finding, from his well-known Union sentiments, that it would be dangerous to return, he took what money he had with him, and, accompanied by his wife, sailed for Europe, while his sons entered the Union army. " In the beautiful Val d'Ossola, not far from the town of Domo d'Ossola, on the great thoroughfare where the Simplon road, issu ing from the Alps, and but just escaped from the rocky frowns of the gorge of Gondo, passes amid fringes of olive groves to the great white ' Arch of Peace ' and the brilliant city of Milan, is located one of those unpretending inns or locandas which abound in Italy — a low, rambling house, half hid in trellised vines, and prefaced as to doorway by several rude stone tables, at which transient guests may sit and sip the country wine. " Afew months ago, two American pedestrians stopped at this place and ordered wine, and, whUe sipping it, were accosted in tolerable EngUsh by the landlord, who wanted to know their views about the war, and particularly when the State of Mississippi would be re gained for the Union. The question, coming from such a source, led to a conversation, during which it was revealed that the worthy inn keeper was none other than the Italian emigrant and the house- owner in the town of Jackson. " At that time there was no early prospect of the taking of the capital of Mississippi ; but, now that General Sherman is in that very vicinity, if not in tho city itself, there wiU probably be good news for the innkeeper of the Simplon road. And this is but one instance out of many, in which each of even the minor phases of the war strikes directly at some personal interest or some chord of afiection in indi viduals in the most remote corners of the continent of Europe." A curious waif that gives us tokens of early exploration, is what remains of the journal of the old Italian navigator 15 338 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. Verrazzano — a relic still preserved among the treasures of the public library at Florence. In a summer saU down the bay of New York, or an excursion in and around the harbor of Newport, R. I., we easUy recognize the local features thus noted by Verrazzano ; but to which scene they apply, seems to have been doubtful to nearly aU the commentators upon this ancient mariner ; although to us the former place seems obviously intended. " The mouth of the haven," he writes, " heth open to the south, half a league broad, and being entered within it, it stretcheth twelve leagues, and waxeth broader and broader, and maketh a gulf about twenty leagues in compass, wherein are five smaU islands very fruit ful and pleasant, and fuU of hie and broad trees, among the which islands any great navie may ride itself." So New York Bay struck the eyes of Verrazzano in 1524, and so he described it in a letter to the king of France, wherein he also speaks of the " great store of slate for houses," the abundant wUd graperines, tbe miiUets in the waters, and the " okes, cipresses, and chestnuts " of the islands. There is something that excites the imagination into a more objective view of familiar things, when they are de scribed and commented on in a foreign tongue ; and certain peculiarities of American life and scenery thus derive a fresh aspect from the vivacious pictures and observation of French writers. We seem to catch gUmpses of our country from their point of view, and to reahze the salient diversities of race and customs, as we never do when discussed in' our ver nacular. A simUar though equally characteristic effect is pro duced by reading even hackneyed accounts of men and things in America when couched in Italian. Accordingly, though we find little original information in the " Viaggio negli Stati Uniti deU' America Settentrionale, fatto negU anni 1785, '6, e '7, da Luigi Castiglione," to one who has visited Italy there is a charm in the record of a " Patrizio Milanese." His book was printed in MUan, 1790. He paid especial attention to those vegetable products of tbe New World which are valuable as commodities and useful in domestic economy. ITALIAN TEAVELLEES. 339 He observed with the eye of a naturalist. Chmate, sects, food, edifices, and local history occupied his mind ; and when we remember the almost incredible ignorance prevalent even among educated Itahans, vrithin a few years, in regard to the United States, we cannot but think that Castiglione's copious and generaUy accurate narrative must have been valuable and interesting to such of his countrymen as desired information, seventy years ago, about America. To a reader here and now, however, the work has but a limited significance, the writer's experience being so identical with that of many bet ter-known authors. It is curious, however, in this, as in other instances, to note the national tendency in the line of observation adopted. Castiglione says more about architec ture than manners, meagre as that branch of tbe fine arts was in our land at the time of his risit. He is much struck with Long Wharf oh arriving at Boston : " B Gran Molo per cui si discenda a terra, e uno da pin magnifici degh Stati Uniti ; e si dice avere un mezzo miglia di lunghezza." He specifies " 1' isola di Noddle " in describing the harbor. The shingles which then covered most of the roofs proved a nov elty to hhn ; and a salt-fish dinner, with sheUbarks and cider, he found so indigestible, that it made quite an impression both upon his stomach and brain. Alive to the charm of great memories, as lending dignity to cities, he recalls with delight the fact that Franklin, Hancock, Adams, and other patriots, were bom in Boston ; the republican equality of which community is to him a memorable fact, as is the sight of the statue of Pitt in New York, and the simultaneous advertisement of a negro and a horse to be sold at auction there* As tbe Signer e frequently travelled on horseback, he was exposed to the caprices of our temperature, and vividly realized the extremes of the chmate. He aUudes to bis risit at Mount Vernon in the same terms with which aU intelligent foreigners dweU upon the pririlege of a personal acquaint ance vrith the spotless patriot, whose recent career was then the morab marvel of the age. There is so much in this con temporary testimony that agrees with and anticipates tbe ver-^ 34:0 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. diet of history, that we never can read tbe spontaneous expression thereof, from so many and such various sources, without a fresh emotion of love and honor, insphed not less by the blessing such a character and career have proved to humanity, than by om- own national preeminence. Never was there such identity of sentiment in so niany different Ian- guges, in regard to the same human being. "Ivi," writes Castiglione of his visit to Mount Vernon, "passai quattro giomi favorite del Generale Washington colla maggiore ospi- talita, B Generale ha cefca cinquante setti anni, e grande di statura, di robusta complessione, di aspetto maestoso e piacevole, e benche incallito nel serrizio militare, sembra ancora di 6ta non avanzata. Voglia il Cielo, che, vivendo molti anni, serva, per lungo tempo, d'esempio neUa rirtii e neUa industria a suoi concittadini, come serri d'esempio aU' Eu- ropa, nolle vittorio che consacrarono il sou nome ad un' etema fame." In 1790, Count Adriani, of MUan, brought an ode from Alfieri to Washington, and afterward wrote an abusive book about America, of which tbe General wrote to Humphrey, it is " an insult to the inhabitants of a country where he re ceived more attention and civUity than he seemed to merit." Whoever visited the Roman Catholic convent at George town, twenty years ago, chatted' with the priests, and per haps tasted the old Malaga with which they used to begmle their guests, must, especiaUy if fresh from Washington soci ety, have experienced a curious kind of old-world sensation, inspired by the contrast between this glimpse of the monas tic hfe of Europe and the vivacious, hopeful, experimental tone of American society. It is easy, with these impressions, to imagine what kind of a report of our country, its pros pects, manners, and tendencies, an isolated priest of such an estabhshment would be likely to prepare. Its main character would, of course, be deprecatory of the rehgious freedom of the land ; its social comments would naturally be founded on convent gossip and hear-say evidence ; and it would be natural to expect traces of that waggery with which our ITALIAN TEAVELLEES. 341 quick-vritted people, when provoked by the perversity or amused by the creduhty of their foreign risitors, are apt to quiz these seekers " of knowledge under diflBculties ; " as when a complacently cm-ious lady scribe was made to believe the water carts used to lay tbe summer dust in our Northern cities, sprinkled the streets thrice daUy vrith vinegar, to obri- ate mfection ; or when the cockney accepted the statement that a rose bug was a flea, everything, from hotels to moun tains and insects, being on a large scale iu America. Accordingly, tbe reader of a now rare pamphlet, written by a former inmate of the Georgeto-wn convent, wiU not be disappointed in any of these anticipations. OriginaUy pub hshed in Rome, it was reprinted at Milan in 1819, and is en titled "Notizie Varie suUo state presente della Republica degh Stati Uniti deU' America Settentrionale da Padre Gio vanni Grassi deUa compagnia de Gesu." This Jesuit writer is of the urbane class. Take away the priestly animus, and there is nothing consciously uncandid in his account, narrow and superficial as it is. The marveUous growth of the couiu try in population and resources is fairly indicated, and some agricultural information given. He declares " the mass' of the people are better provided vrith food " than elsewhere in the world, but are not as weU olf as regards drink, wine bemg very dear and beer quite rare. Tbe seventh part of the population, be says, are negroes, and are kindly treated. He is severe on " the passion for elegant preaching," on the extravagance in dress, on the prevalence of duels and dan cing, on the superficial education, and the practice of gam bling. The two last defects come with an ill grace from an ItaUan, the bane of whose nation they have been for ages. Padre Grassi must have been hoaxed by some report of the Connecticut Blue Laws, for he speaks of the superstitious observance of the Sabbath as constituting religion in the view of American Protestants, who " saddle a horse the day be fore Sunday to go to church on, and have no beer made on Saturday, lest it should work the next day." He gravely declares that cider is substituted for wine at the communion 342 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES service, from motives of economy. He is not at aU compU- mentary to the people of the Eastern States, of wbom he probably heard a Southem report. " Among the inhabitants of tbe United States," he writes, " those of New England are regarded as thorough knaves, and are caUed Yankis." He mentions, as ordinary infractions of good breeding, that people in America " pare the nails and comb the head in com pany" (in Italy the latter is a street occupation), and "sit with their feet braced on a .waU or a chair." He inveighs against the " display of piety," and indulges in some rather coarse jokes and some very free caricatures, that suggest rather the hcentious than the disciplined side of monastic hfe ; yet, withal, there is something kindly in the spirit as there is absurd in tbe prejudices of Father Grassi, whose summing up, however, is rather discouraging : " The unre strained freedom which obtains, the drunkenness which abounds, tbe rabble of adventurers, the great number of negro slaves, tbe almost infinite variety of sects, and the little real rehgion that is met with, the incredible number of novels that are read, and the insatiable eagerness for gain, are, indeed, circumstances that would hardly give reason to expect much in point of manners. At first view, however, one is not aware of the deprarity of this country, because it is hidden, for a time, under the veil of an engaging ex terior." J. C. Beltrami, previously a judge of a royal court in the kingdom of Italy, in his " Pilgrimage in Europe and Amer ica," published in London in 1828, gives his impressions of the West with much vividness. He had much to say of the aborigines, and expatiates upon the natural history and scenery of the region he visited with inteUigence and enthu siasm. Of the latter he wi-ites, " one wants the pencU of Claude and tbe pen of DelUle to describe it." Twenty years ago, there resided in Boston a SicUian refu gee, still afiectionately remembered. He celebrated in grace ful verse the solemn beauty of Mount Auburn,* and was * " Monte Auburno : Poemetto da Pietro d'Alessandro." ITALLAN TEAVELLEES. 343 esteemed by many of our scholars and citizens for his genial disposition and refined mind. His first impressions of New England maimers were essentially modified wben time and opportunity had secured him friends ; but his early letters are interesting because so natural ; and they express, not inadequately, the feelings of a sensitive and honest Italian, while yet a stranger in the " land of liberty." They indi rectly, also, bring tbe sentiment of the t-wo countries, before the days of Italian unity, into suggestive contrast. Not intended for publication, they are all the more candid on that account. I obtained permission to translate them, and they are now quoted as a faithful local sketch of personal experi ence of an educated Sicihan patriot in the American Athens : I " Boston, 183-. " ' I was reading Torick and Didimo * on the 26th of December, the very day preceding your departure ; and I wept for you, for Didimo, and myself, earnestly vrishing, at the moment, that our coun trymen would yield at least the tribute of a tear to the memory of Foscolo, recaUing his sublime mind and the history of those lofty bnt hopeless feelings which drove him a wanderer, out of Italy, to find repose only in the grave.' " I often ponder upon these few words written by you on the blank leaf of my Didimo. I can never read them upinoved, for they awaken a sad emotion in my heart, as if they were the last accents I am destined to hear from your lips. Never have I so vividly felt the absence of your voice, your presence, and your counsel, as now that, driven by my hapless fortune to a distant land, I have no one either to compassionate or cheer me, nor any with whom to share my joy or sorrows. Believe me, Eugenio, the love of country and friends was never so ardent in my bosom as now that I am deprived of them ; and time, instead of healing, seems rather to irritate the wound which preys so deeply upon my heart. I often wrote you while on the Atlantic, describing the various incidents of our voyage, the dangers we encountered, and the fearful and sweet sensations I alternately experienced, as the sea lashed itself into a tempest, or reposed beneath the mild efi'ulgence of a tranquU night. But, upon reriewiog those letters, I find they breathe too melancholy a strain, and are quite too redolent of my wayward humor, even for a dear * The name assumed by Foscolo as translator of Sterne's " Sentimental Journey." 34:4 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. friend's perusal ; and, hiesides reaching you too late, they could only serve to grieve both yourself and my poor mother. But at length I have arrived at a place whence I can give you some definite account of my welfare. " On the night of the 15th of March, notwithstanding the con trary wind which had heat us about here and there for several suc cessive days, we cast anchor in Boston harbor. That night was long and wearisome to me. Obliged to remain on board until dawn, I passed it like many others during the passage, unable to sleep. The weariness and anxipty consequent upon a long sea voyage, w-ere at length over. Indeed, the moment I caught the first glimpse of land, they were forgotten. Tet I could scarcely persuade myself that I had reached America. The remembrance of the last few months of excitement and grief, passed in that dear and distant country which, perhaps, I am never destined again to behold, came over me anew, and, contrasting with my present situation, aWoke in my mind the most painful sense of. uncertainty. I felt doubtful of everything, even of my own existence. I experienced, at that moment, an utter want of courage. The flattering hopes which had brightened the gloomiest hours of my voyage, all at once abandoned me. My ima gination no longer pictured scenes of promise. I looked within and around, and beheld only the naked reality of things. I reahzed only the sad certainty, that a new life was before me. I revolved the various necessities of my situation : the unportance of immediately formuig new acquaintances — the uncertainty how I should be re ceived hy the few tp whom I had brought introductions— my own natural aversion to strangers — and a thousand other anxious thoughts, which made me long for day as the signal of relief from their vexa tion. At length the morning dawned ; but it was obscured by a damp fog and heavy fall of snow. AU around wore a gloomy and cheerless . aspect. In a few moments, the captain came tp greet me as usual, but with more than wouted urbanity. He informed me I was now at liberty, aud, whenever I pleased, the boat should con vey me to the nearest wharf. I did not wait for him to repeat the summons, but, throwing off my sea dress, assumed another ; and, descending the ship's side, soon touched the shore so long and ardently desired. It is true, I then felt intensely what it is to be alone. Yet not less sincere was my gratitude to that invisible and benignant Being, who had guided and preserved me through so many dangers. I landed with tearful eyes ; and, although no friend, with beating heart, was there to welcome me, I stooped reverently to kiss the land sacred to liberty, and felt then for the first time that I, too, was a man. , ITALIAN TEAVELLEES. 34:5 I " nih April. " I have now passed several days in stroUing through the streets of this city, amusing myself with the sight of so many objects of novelty and interest. I find the place rather pretty than otherwise ; much more so, indeed, than I had imagined. The buildings, how ever, are in a style so peculiar, as to suggest the idea that the principles of architecture are here enthely unknown, or purposely disregarded. And then, the people all seem in such a hurry ! — ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, white and black, horses, hacks, wagons, and omnibuses hastening so furiously along the streets, that, unless you are on your guard, there is no little danger of awkward rencontres. How de lightful to my sea-worn sight, this spectacle of animated life ! How gladly would I, too, have assumed a part in the busy scenes in which the multitude about me were engaged ! "With what delight should I have rejoiced with them, in anticipating the comforts and the greet ings of a home ! But, situated as I was during these first days suc ceeding my arrival, the scenes around me served but to make me realize anew my loneliness ; and, hut for the gratification afforded my curiosity, I would have willingly remained immured in the little chamber of my hotel. I am, however, anxiously seeking employ ment; but, as yet, my efibrts have been unsuccessful. My letters of introduction I do not think wUl be of much serrice to me, except the one proposing a credit in my favor, from our mutual friend, which has been duly honored by his correspondents. These gentlemen, like many others here, have expressed great pleasure in seeing me. They have introduced me to such indiriduals as I have chanced to meet in their company, either at the counting house, or in the streets. They have also made innumerable profiers of assistance. In short, they have received me kindly, and yet with a curious species of kindness, certainly not Italian; and, as yet, I know not if I can properly characterize it as American. Polite or not, however, they certainly seem to aim first to satisfy their curiosity ; for, after having beset one with a thousand questions — many more, indeed, than it is agree able to answer — they make no scruple of waiving all ceremony, and leaving you very abmptly, without even a hasty addio. This has occurred to me very often, though I cannot say invariably. The figure which I have presented more than once, on such occasions, I am snre must have been ridiculous. Taken by surprise at the abrupt termination of the interview, I have stood immovable and half mor tified, following with my eyes the receding form of my friend, walk ing so cooUy 0% intent upon his own affairs. " Another kind of courtesy, which some, perhaps, might ascribe to frankness, hut which certainly wears the appearance of perfect 15* 346 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. indifference, is their habit of inriting one to their houses and tables, in terms so very vague and general, that I assure ' you, during the month I have been here, it has been frequently impossible for me td make up my mind to accept many of the civilities offered me. I question, however, whether there wUl be frequent occasion for scru ples of this kind, as I apprehend there is little danger of such courte sies being repeated : yet the good people seem in earnest, and to tender their hospitalities with all their hearts. I am inclined to think they do. But, to tell the truth, I feel no smaU degree of delicacy in accepting such courtesies, because the experience I daily acquire of their customs and manner of thinking, forces upon my mind the con- riction, that the reputation they have for, egotism, especiaUy as re gards foreigners, is not without foundation. " Boston people may be ranked among that large class who con tent themselves with respecting all who respect them, and refrain scrupulously from doing the slightest injury to 'all who are equally harmless. They are, however, exceedingly wary of foreigners, and not, perhaps, without much reason ; since many who have sojourned among them have shown themselves both ignorant and unprincipled, and, besides leaving a bad impression of their individual characters, have also induced the most unfavorable opinions of the countries /whence they came. In Italy, the very name of stranger is a pass port to cirility and kindness. Here,' while you require no sealed and signed document from any of their European majesties to insure free communication and travel, you can scarcely ask the slightest civility, or approach one of your kind, without exciting a certain degree of suspicion ; and your disadvantage is stiU enhanced, if, in addition to the name of foreigner — which, like original sin, is deemed a common taint — you also bring the stUl less pardonable sin of poverty. The necessity of earning a livelihood, however honestly, is certainly the worst recommendation with which to enter a foreign country ; nor is it less so iu the New World, since here, as well as elsewhere, a well-filled purse, and the disposition liberally to dispense its con tents, will insure the heartiest welcome. The Americans, too, being universally intent upon gain, are naturally indisposed to encourage new competitors, and their time is too completely absorbed in busi ness to allow of their devoting many moments to the interests of for eigners. Their lives are entirely spent in striving after new accumu lations ; and the whole glory of their existence is reduced to the miserable vanity of having it said, after their death, that they have left a considerable estate; and this short-lived. renown is awarded v^icording to the greater or less heritage bequeathed. This is not only the course of the father, but of the children ; for they, being ITALIAN TEAVELLEES. 347 bylaw entitled to an equal portion of their father's property, are obliged to foUow in his footsteps, in order to obtain their shares of this same glory : that the question, ' How much has he left ? ' may be answered as much to their credit as it was to that of their sire. Thus the young and the old, those barely possessing a competence and those rolling in wealth, with equal zeal bend aU their energies to the common end. Intent upon gain and traffic, they are too absorb^ to think of any but themselves. They calculate, with -watch in hand)\ the minutes and seconds as they pass, and seem naturally averse to any conversation of which trade and speculation are not the subject. Hence results, as a natural consequence, the prevailing mediocrity of ideas and feelings, derived from the uniform system of education and manner of thinking, as well as the great similarity of interestsyf Hence, too, the equal tenor of life,' and the absence of great rices, m well as of great vhtues ; hence the social calmness and universal prosperity, and hence the apparent insensibUity to the appeal of mis fortune, resulting from the want of exercise of feelings of ready sym pathy and compassion incident to such a social condition. " You may infer, from what I have said, the condition of the stranger in the midst of such a community — of him of whom it may be said with truth, that he interests no one. For my part, I cannot be too grateful for the generosity of my relatives : without it, God knows what, by this time, would have become of your wretched friend. Still, I am anxious about the future — ^the more so since I have discovered that political misfortunes, which have driven into exUe so many of our countrymen, furnish no claim to the sympathies of these republicans. Many of those with whom I am already ac- •quainted are so foolishly proud of their political privUeges, that, instead of pitring, you would fancy they intended to ridicule the less favored condition of other lands. I beg you, however, to consider what I have said on this subject as hastily inferred, and not dog- maticaUyafiirmed. I may be quite mistaken ; and, indeed, to pretend to give a correct idea of a country entirely new to me, after only a month's residence, especiaUy where the aspect of things differs so essentiaUy from what I have been accustomed to, would, I am well aware, appear very absurd. Yet there is a very just proverb which says, that from the dawn we may augur the day ; and if it be true, I regret to say that the dawn before me seems most unpromising. Would that a bright and cheerful sun would arise to dispel the mists of doubt, and throw gladness upon the heart of your devoted friend ! 348 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. ^ " 28(A April " Often, during my voyage, I promised myself great deUght, upon my arrival, in risiting the plains of Cambridge, and the heights of Dorchester and Bunker HUl, renowned as the early scenes of the American war. As I read Botta's ' History,' my imagination often transported me to those spots which he so vividly pictured. I longed to find myself upon the haUowed ground, to render my tribute of grateful admhation to the memory of those noble men who there perished fighting for the liberty of their country. The inclement season, however, has not yet aUowed me to realize my anticipations. "We are at the end of AprU, and yet the spring seems scarcely to have commenced. " The aspect of the enrirons of Boston is most desolate. The earth is-stUl buried under the snow; the streets are covered with ice, here and there broken hy the constant travelling, which renders them almost impassable. In addition, there prevails here, at this season, a most disagreeable wind. It blows from the east, and is so exceedingly chUly and penetrating, that it not only destroys one's com fort, but undermines the health. It seems to freeze my very soul, and effectually drives away aU disposition for romance. I have been, therefore, constrained to remain in town, and rest satisfied with a distant riew of the envhons, untU the coming of a more geniaj season. " Although the city is scarcely less gloomy than the country, it is stiU some amusement for the stranger to note the pedestrians. On both sides of the principal street you may behold men of aU sorts and sizes, muflled up to theh eyes in cloaks, high-collared surtouts, or quUted wrappers, fur caps and gloves, woollen capes, heavy boots- and heavier overshoes ; and, although thus burdened with gai-ments — weightier far than the leaden cloaks of Dante's hypocrites — they con trive to shtifide along at the usual rapid rate, for they are business men. Now and then the light figure of a dandy flits by, arrayed in raiment quite too Ught for the weather, and looking as blue as win ter and misery can make him. And then the women — ladies, I mean, God bless them 1 women, there are none here — all in their gala dresses, all satin and muslin, light feathered bonnets, silk stock ings and dancing shoes, with a bit of fur round their necks, or the skirt of their pelisses, to whhper of comfort. Thus attired, they glide over the ice with a calm indifference worthy of heroines, stopping occasionally to purchase blonde lace or cough candy, and then mov- mg on in the very face of the AprU breeze I have described to you. ¦^ " To speak seriously, I had thought to find in this country, if not the original, at least the remains of ancient simplicity. I flattered ITALIAN TEAVELLEES. 349 myself that I should see, among the descendants of those Puritan colonists, who were ' wise and modest in all their wishes,' a com- plet« absence of pretension. But it is not so. The habits which prevail, and especiaUy those relating to dress, are most extravagant. In the houses, in the streets, at every hour of the day, you see dis played — I say not with how much taste— 'the same dresses which our female nobUity, who are as extravagant as any countesses in the United Kingdom, are accustomed to wear only at soiries, weddings, or the opera. It is much the same with our sex. I will not now pretend to account for these extravagant habits, although I fancy I have divined the reason. Yet I must befieve that, in this republic, female dress is the great item of domestic expense. The materiel, being imported from abroad, is very dear. Indeed, the price of everything is exorbitant. As the saying is with us, those who have not a house pay for every sigh ; and here they cost not less than half a doUar or seventy-five cents each. And this adds another to the disadvantages of the stranger, especially if, like myself, he has indulged the idea that, in this young country, dress was not thought to make the man in the same degree as elsewhere, and finds that, with all their vaunted progress, the Americans have not gone an iota beyond theh predecessors in establishing a just standard of esti mating mankind ; and are quite as prone' to base theh judgments upon appearance rather than character. Nor can you practi caUy oppose such customs either with your philosophy or indiffer ence, since the individual who avails himself of the privileges of social life is bound, as far as he can without self-debasement, to con form to popular prejudices ; and, indeed, it seems to me that here appearances are peculiarly imposing. Wherever you turn, you be hold the names of every description of dealer, from the poor huck ster to the rich merchant, blazoned upon signs in gilt letters, as if to impress the stranger with the idea that he had entered the most prosperous country of the earth. " But I will speak to you of the more noteworthy objects around me, which, however, are not numerous. Notwithstanding the un pleasant season, I have risited Cambridge, with the situation of which I have been much pleased. The vUlage is about three miles and a half from Boston ; and, in its centre, you find the most ancient and best-endowed seat of learning existing in the United States. It is called Harvard University, and the establishment consists of sev eral buildings, containing lodging and recitation rooms, built of brick, with one exception, all in a simple style, which struck me as happily accordant with the character of the institution. The law and theo logical schools constitute a part of the University. But what par- 350 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. ticularly pleased me was the library, which, from what I hear, is the best in the country, and, in truth, is excellent. Among other works, there is quite a collection of Italian books ; and many of the edi tions are beautiful, and very neatly bound. You cannot imagine how much I enjoyed the sight of so many of our beloved authors. Amid the legacies of these illustrious dead, I, for the moment, forgot all my private griefs and anxiety. I seemed no longer to be among stran gers, for in every one of those books I recognized an honored and dear friend of my youth : so long unseen, and so unexpectedly en countered, they seemed to transport me to a new world. In truth, this was the first moment that I felt reaUy encouraged. Who knows, I asked .myself, but these ancient aUies of mine will introduce me to their friends of the New World? — and then Yorick's unfortunate adventure with the police of Paris occurred to me. " Of the University, the method of instruction pursued, and the progress it has made, I will tell you when I am better informed. It grieves me, at present, that I cannot go every day to Cambridge. The season being so bad, it is necessary to ride thither. Then, there is my dinner. So that, by a broad calculation (you see how I have already begun to calculate), the pleasure of six hours' reading would daUy make me minus a doUar. ' But,' you ask, ' cannot you dine upon your return in the evening ? ' Yes, if they would let me I But here, even at the hotels, it is not the custom to order your dinner when you please. They treat us quite like friars ; and it is neces sary, if you would not lose your dinner, to be at the table punctually at the stroke of two ; otherwise — but, Holy Virgin ! it is the dinner beU. Wait only a moment, for I must make haste to be in time for the roast beef. In three minutes (all that is required here) I will return, and continue my letter. " I went, the other day, with one of our countrymen, to risit the Athenaeum, which is the only literary establishment in the city. It is supported by the savans and aristocracy of Boston. It has a library composed chiefly of donations of books, among which are many of the principal works published in Europe and America, sev eral literary and scientific journals, and numerous gazettes. There are also rooms containing casts and a few marble statues, a smaU col lection of medallions, and two apartments for the study of architec ture and drawing, but destitute both of masters and pupils, and one large haU, on the lower floor, used as a reading room. The share holders and their friends are only admitted to the Athenaeum. These are, for the most part, gentlemen of leisure or idle people, according to the complimentary title bestowed on them by their fellow citizens ; and they go, as their taste may be, to occupy theh time in the read- ITALIAN TEAVELLEES. 351 ing room, which is open from eai-ly morning tUl nine at night. In this room, there is a rule inscribed expressly prohibiting conversa tion ; and you see, to far more advantage than in oUr libraries, so many living statues in every variety of attitude, often not the most graceful, all with a book in hand, or intent upon a newspaper. The librarian, a very good sort of man, has shown himself, like many others, very glad to see me. He told me that, as a stranger, the Athenaeum would be open to me for the period of one month ; but that after that time, if I remained, and wished to continue my visits, it would be necessary for me to become a subscriber, like the other frequenters of the institution. I thanked him for his politeness, and have shown how sincerely I valued it, by going almost every day to the AthenEeum ; and as to the end of the month, I do not trouble my head about it, because, by that time, I hope the weather wUl allow me to walk frequently to Cambridge. What and how great are the advantages which result from this institution, I leave you to esti mate. The Athenaeum, however, now in its infancy, seems destined to advance greatly ; and if, one day, it should become a public estab lishment, it cannot but be of lasting benefit to Boston. And truly, in a city Uke this, which I hear caUed the Athens of America, there should be, if nothing else, a rich library freely open to the people. Thus you see that, both in and out of town, I have not faUed to find the means of becoming learned and illustrious. AU these literary advantages, however, are reduced to nothing to a poor devU who is in the situation of being obliged to derive profit from the little he knows, rather than from what still remains to him to be, acquhed. And this necessity has urged me to seek an occupation at every sac rifice ; and, having gone the rounds with the diploma of a young letterato, the ofiice which, for the moment, I can most certainly obtain, is that of a teacher of our language. And I have, indeed, one scholar, a lean doctor of medicine, to whom, as he has the merit of being connected with a relative who is intimate with one of the family of , who pays me my remittances, I give my lessons gratis. This has been, thus far, my greatest resource. But this gen tle minister of death gives me promise of an introduction among his patients — of whom, as yet, I have not caught even a glimpse. How ever, I am obliged to trot every day, at the expense of my poor legs, to the doctor's door, which is no little distance from mine. I go very punctually, but often only to find him asleep in his chair, and dozing 'whUe I read the lesson — which, moreover, I am obhged to explain through the medium of a French grammar. This avaricious San- grado piques himself not a little upon his egregious lisping of the French; and to this day I have been unable to induce him to buy 352 AiJEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. another grammar. But, somehow or other, I hope soon to send him on a journey to Elysium, to carry my compliments to his master Hippocrates. "Maym. " I am angry with you. Five packets have arrived since I landed ; and every day I hurry anxiously to the post office, only to hear the same chilling negative to my ardent inquiry for letters. I have even conceived quite an antipathy to the stiff, laconic postman, who some times deigns no other reply than a cold shake of the head. Yet you promised to write me at the end of the first month after my em barkation. How can I forgive such neglect ? And what reasonable excuse can you offer?' Perhaps you allege the uncertainty of my fate. Yet, had I gone to my last sleep in the bosom of old Neptune, think you a friendly letter would not have been a pleasant offering to my manes ? Nay, Eugenio, you know not the comfort a few lines from you would bring to the heart of a poor friend. I am homesick. My feelings seem dead to all that surrounds me. I seem condemned to the constant disappointment of every cherished hope ; and, were I able to express aU I feel, I could unfold a most pitiable story of mental suffering. Do you realize, Eugenio, how far I am from home, and all that is dear to me ? — that I am living in a weary solitude which I sometimes fear wUl drive me mad ? With affections most tenderly alive, aud a nature that would fein attach itself to all around, I find not here a single congenial being or idea upon which my heart can repose. A stranger to everything, I am by all regarded as a stranger, and read that forbidding name in the expression of all whom I approach. Did I carry the remorse of a criminal in my bosom, I could not meet the gaze of my fellow beings with less con fidence. The few whom I have known thus far, are, forthe most part, merchants or commonplace people, too much occupied in their own affairs to relish interruption during their leisure hours. But when I fall in with them, they instantly tender the old salutation, ' Glad to see you,' coupled with an invitation to their counting houses, where they are too busy to talk, and content themselves with proffering a chair and the newspaper. These manners result from a mode of life very different from that which prevails in Europe: still they are painfuUy striking to the novice, especially if he be one of those who know not how to support the toU and vexation of exist ence, unsoothed by those cheering palliatives vrith which we are wont to sweeten the bitter cup of life. You well know that I was never over fond of general society, nor took much delight in the heartless glitter of fashionable Ufe. But what I voluntarily avoided at home. ITALIAN TEAVELLEES. 353 is not a little desirable here, as a relief from the loneliness of my position. Yet the only house at which I can spend an evening with any pleasure, is that of our countryman B , who, with the true feefing of Itahan hospitality, at once made me at home under his roof. I meet him, too, occasionally in my walks, and we converse of our country, our literature, and, most frequently, of our misfor tunes. God knows how grateful I am for his sympathy, without which it seems as if I should have died of weariness and grief Yet our conversations sometimes serve to renew most keenly the mem ory of my sorrows — which I fain would bury in the bottom of my heart— and send me back to my little chamber to find more sadness than before, in the companionship of my own thoughts. That which renders me most anxious, is the harassing doubt which seems to attend my steps. I feel already that I am a burden to my relatives. Every day, which passes -without advancing me in an occupation from which I can derive support, seems lost. Although I have not neg lected, nor shall neglect, seeking for every honest mode of relieving them from this care, yet I feel a species of remorse, as if I were abusing their generosity ; and the bread I eat tastes bitter, when I reflect that the expense of my bare subsistence, even with all the economy I can practise, in these times, and under existing circum stances, would half support the family of my afflicted mother.- Thus my days pass, sustained only by hope and the promises of my new friends. Now and then, as at this moment, I write to those dear to me by way of solacing my bleeding heart ; but even this occupation is painful to me, since I can only write of my afflictions. '•Ah, Eugenio, how aggravating is now the remembrance of all your kind advice ! It is true, in an important sense, that man is the creator of his own destinies. With how much care and ingenuity do we raise the funeral pUe, which is to consume our hopes and burn our very hearts ! It is true, indeed, that if I had reconciled myself to existing circumstances, and allowed to subside the first force of those feelings which even you, with all your natural wisdom, could not but confess were generous and noble ; and especiaUy had I opened my eyes, and calmly looked those illusions in the face, in which so many of our young men, and I among the rest, so inconsiderately confided, it is true I should not have experienced th.e bitterness of the present. But how could I contemplate the miseries of our coun try, and not glow with indignation at beholding all the rare gifts which Heaven and nature had so benignantly bestowed, rendered unavailing — made but the occasion of tears to us all — every fountain of good dried up, or poisoned by the envy and iniquity of man ? How conld I admit the idea that I ought to sacrifice my thoughts and 354: AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. dearest sentiments, merely for the sake of pursuing, at home, one of our genteel professions, which, after aU, could not preserve me from the general degradation, nor, perhaps, from infamy? And should I have done so 1 And why ? From the cowardly fear, perhaps, of being exiled from the land of my fathers, when, in the buoyancy of youth, I could turn to another country — far distant, it is true, but free ; to a country in which I could obtain a subsistence without sac rificing one of my opinions ; where, even now, notwithstanding I may be made deeply to realize the axiom that mankind are the same everywhere, I do not see all around me the aspect of misery and un happiness, nor daily instances of the petty vengeance and cold-hearted injustice of our tyrants ; where the cheerful prospect of peace and universal prosperity almost reconciles one to the inevitable evUs inci dent to human society ; where,' at least, thought and speech are not crimes, and you can cherish the hope of a better future without see ing beside you the prison or the gallows ; where the mind can ex pand unfettered by any servile chain — yes, the mind, which I now. feel as free within me as when it was first bestowed by God. " And yet I complain ! It is true ; and I weU know what you will reply to these letters, which I write only for the pleasure of being with you, even while we are separated. But if you have the heart to charge all the blame to me, I would beg you, Eugenio, to remember that every tear teaches a truth to mortals, and that I,'too, am one of those numerous creatures, made up of weaknesses and Ulusions, who drag themselves blindly, and without knowing where or why, in the path of inexorable fate. Now that I feel that there never existed so great a necessity for bringing about an aUiance be tween my reason and my heart, I cannot discover the method by which to accomplish it, and the task never seemed more impractica ble. Reason, which levels everything with her balance to a just equUibrium, and reduces, by calculation, all things to a frigid system, you have adopted as your goddess ; and truly she is a most potent divinity, and often have I invoked her aid, and supplicatingly adored her power. Yet this heart of mine is such a petty and obstinate tyrant, that it will never yield the palm even when fairly conquered ; and, in its waywardness, takes a wicked pleasure in pointing out the naked coldness of your divinity, and setting her before me in a most uninviting light. Hence it is that I am devoured with the desire of home ; nor wUl all the charms of glory, or the smUes of fortnue, lure me from the dearer hope of reunion with the land and the loved of my heart. Yet who knows where I shall leave my bones? Who knows if these eyes shall close eternally to the light amid the tears of my kindred, or whether friendship and love will linger sorrowfiilly near to receive my last eigh ? ITALIAN TEAVELLEES. 355 "Addio. I commend to you my mother. This phrase would he meaningless to any but you. I have used it to express all I feel for that tenderest of beings — for her whom I continually behold in ima gination, weeping and desolate. If the voice of pity and friendship are powerful in your heart, I pray you, Eugenio, leave her not un- consoled. Thou must be as another chUd to her, and ever remember that she is the mother of thy friend. " May IMh. " This morning I rose full of anxiety. The moment I awoke, my first thought was of you, of my family, and of the delay of your letters ; and the sound of the breakfast bell first aroused me from my painful reverie. I descended, swallowed a single cup of coffee, and, quick as thought, hastened to the office. I did not expect to find let ters, but having given my name, and perceiving that the postman did not return the customary nod of refusal, my heart began to palpitate strongly. I did not deceive myself. I have my mother's letter to which you have made so large an addition, and I have been tUl this moment shut up in my room, reading it over and over again, and bathing every Une with my tears. God reward you for all your care and your love for me I I trust that, ere this, you have received my first letters, and thus been relieved of all anxiety on my account. I thank you for all the news you give me, and especially for wh^t you tell me respecting our young companions, who, I rejoice to know, are now quite free from the lU-founded suspicions of Government. The condition of Italy, however, seems to grow more sad every day ; and yon 'write me that many are rejoicing at the rumor of imminent war, and in the hope that our old liberators wiU again reappear among us. For my part, however, I cannot but tremble with you, since now there is less certainty than ever that aught wUl remain to us but injuries and derision. The present and past misfortunes of our country should have taught us that, if there is anything to hope, it is from ourselves alone ; and it is certain, that if the new subjects of the new citizen-king descend again from the mountains, there is reason to believe that the disgraces of bygone times wUl he renewed in Italy, and' it wiU be our lot to transmit another record of shame. and cowardly execrations. " From your Uterary news, I learn that the Anthology of Flor ence has been abolished, and, as usual, by command of Austria. I had made no little search for the last number. Be it so. The sup pression of that work is only one other insult to our condition, but not a serious loss to the nation, since the writers, who perhaps set ont with the idea of undeceiring the Italians, are themselves the 356 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. very ones who propagate their unfortunate iUnsions; and in that journal, which was doubtless the best we had, they also said too much, and without profit. In these times, there exist no Alfleris or Foscolos ; and the new school, which promised so much by its his torical romances, has thus far accomplished little enough, if we ex cept one or two sermons on passive obedience. Botta remains, but he is alone ; and the soul of Tacitug, which should be devoted to so exalted a work, is 'wanting to him. Moreover, his thoughts, although grand and sacred, are rather understood readUy by those who think, than felt deeply hy the mass, with that profound sense of despera tion, from which alone a real change an^ constancy of opinion are to be hoped for among the Italians. " To tell you the truth, I believe we are so susceptible of illu sions, that the intellectual energy of no writer whatever can avail anything in eradicating from the hearts of our countrymen the weak nesses which are as old as oiir servitude, and' which are strongly maintained by the consciousness of general debasement and actual incapacity, as well as hy the small degree of virtue and the total absence of ambition on the part of our princes. I .deshed to allude to these circumstances, in reply to that part of your letter wherein you recommend me not to forget Italy and our studies. But, as yet, you seem unaware, that in this land I have conceived a love of coun try not only more powerful than ever, but instinct with a desperate earnestness which consumes my heart. Wherever I turn, the aspect of all the civil and social benefits enjoyed by this fortunate people, fills me, at the same time, with wonder, admiration, and immense grief. Not that I envy the Americans their good fortune, which, on the contrary, I ardently rejoice in, and desire, as much as any one of themselves, may be forever continued to the land. But I think of Italy, and know not how to persuade myself why her condition should be so different and so sad. I do not aUude to the general policy of the country, but I speak of what I see every day while walking the streets — a quiet population, incessantly intent upon in dustry and commerce, without being retarded by civil restrictions or tyrannical extortions, by the subterfuges of offlcial harpies, or by the machinery of so many hungry and shameless financiers, nor yet oonthiually irritated by the insufferable and cowardly insolence of the ministers of the law, who, either in the military garb, or as civil officers, or in the form of police, are the vilest instruments of Euro pean tyranny — the pests of the state, consuming its substance and resources, and corrupting the manners and morals of the people. Here, I have not yet seen in the streets a single soldier, nor one patrol of police, nor, in fact, any guard of the public safety ; and, ITALIAN TEAVELLEES. 357 having occasion to go to the Custom House, I was quite astonished to see the simphcity of the forms, the expedition with which affairs were conducted, and the ^mall number of officers employed. In deed, this people seem like .a large and united family, if not bound together by affection and reciprocal love, at least allied by a common and oertam. interest, and the experience that the good of all is the good of the individual. Every one who has the wiH to labor wfil easily find occasion for its free practice and most adequate recom pense. Not bemg incited by opportunity and the keen necessities of life, crimes are rare, violences almost unheard of, and poverty and extreme want unknown. In the streets and markets, and in every place of public resort, you behold an activity, a movement, an energy of life, and a continual progress of affairs ; and in the move ments and countenances of the people, you can discern a certain air of security, confidence, and dignity, which asks only for free scope. I know not how it is, but often I pause thoughtfully in the midst of the thoroughfare, to contemplate the scene around me. I sometimes flnd myself standing hy some habitation, and my fancy begins to pic ture it as the sanctuary of every domestic and social virtue — as the cradle of justice and piety — •as the favorite sojourn of love, peace, and every human excellence. And my heart is cheered, and bleeds at the same time, as I then revert, to Italy, and imagine what might be her prosperity, and how she might gloriously rerive, and become again mistress of every virtue and every noble custom, among the nations of the world. " Judge, then, if I have forgotten, or if it will be possible for me to forget Italy, as long as I remain in this country. For the rest, as I have before said, I am only made the more constantly to remember my native land. I am told, and begin to realize, that here, as well as there, Utopian riews of politics, morals, religion, and philosophy, have long prevailed, and promise to grow more luxuriously than ever, and become, perhaps, fatal to the prosperity and liberty of this land. It is, however, no small consolation for the moment, to reflect, that the doctrines of this nation do not depend upon the letterati, or rather, that the country does not look to that class for its salvation ; which, as such, has no voice in the capital. There are here no mere questions of language ; no romanticists or classicists who cannot understand each other ; no imperial nor royal academicians of gram mar; no furious pedants who are continually disputing how we should write, nor any that pretend to dictate how we should think. Eloquence is here the true patrimony, and, in fact, the most formi dable weapon for good or for evil, in the hands of the people, who estimate it more or less by the standard of their wants or individual 358 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. partialities. I wiU tell you, however, from time to time, in future letters, as I become better informed on these subjects. Yet expect not, I pray you, from me, either statistics, disquisitions, or a travel ler's journal, since you know I came hither in quite another capacity. There goes, with this, another letter to our young friend B , who' writes me that he desires to come and seek his fortune in the United States. You will see my reply ; and, to dissuade him stUl more from the project, let him see what I have written you. Addio. Live ever in the love of your friends, of letters, of your country, and of yours. An errant countryman of ours, with the ready wit of an educated New Englander, when sojourning in London, after a long visit to tbe Continent, being disappointed in his remit tances, conceived the idea of replenishing his purse by a sph- ited article for one of the popular magazines, wherein he imagined the sayings and doings of a Yankee ruler suddenly placed at the head of affairs in the kingdom of Naples. The picture was salient and unique, and amused the pubhc. "We were irresistibly reminded thereof by a httle brochure wherein the process here described is exactly reversed, and, instead of a Yankee letterato in Naples, we have a NeapoUtan priest in America. So grotesquely ignorant and absurdly superstitious and conservative is tbe spirit of this brief and hasty record,* that we cannot but regret the naive writer had not extended his tour and his chronicle ; for, in that case, we should have had the most amusing specimen extant of mod ern Travels in America. The author was a chaplain in the navy of his Majesty of Naples. He describes the voyage of the frigate Urania during a nearly two years' cruise from CasteUamare to Gibraltar, thence via Teneriffe to Pernam buco, Rio Janeiro, and St. Helena, to New York and Boston, and back to Naples by way of England and France. In his dedication of the " Breve Racconto " to the very reverend chaplam of Ferdinand H, he declares he finds " non pochi * " Breve Eacconto delle cose Chiesastiche piu Important! occorse nel viaggio fatto sulla Real Pregata Urania, dal 15 Agosto, 1844, al 4 Marzo, 1846, per Raffaele Capobianco, Cavaliere del Real Ordine del Merito di Fran ceses I. e Capelland della Real Marina," Napoli, 1846. ITALLAN TEAVELLEES. '¦ 359 consolarioni " in having gathered " some fruits in the vine yard of the Lord " during bis perilous voyage ; but he adds, " the rivers are but httle grateful for the return of the water .they yielded in vapor;" and so this dedication and descrip tion are but a poor return to " our fountain of wisdom and rirtue." The style, spirit, ideas in this little journal are quite mediaeval. The simplicity and ignorance and bigotry of the roving ecclesiastic are the more striking from their contrast with the times and places of vvbich he writes. Imagine a priest or friar suddenly transported from the Toledo to Broadway, and it is easy to solve what would othervrise be enigmatical in this childish naiTative. He mentions, with pious reflections, the death of a mariner at sea from " nos talgia;" lauds, at the South American ports, tbe Roman Catholic religion, remarking its aptitude to " generalmente insinuarsi nel cuore del popolo docile." At Rio Janeiro be celebrates the feast of the Virgin ; and to the devout manner m which the ship's company commended themselves to her, he attributes theh subsequent miraculous escape from ship wreck. Thus, he writes, " God showed himself content with our homage to tbe Virgin." They keep Pahn Sunday on board, with pahns brought from St. Helena. He describes summarily tbe aspect of tbe cities they visit, gives the alti tude of the peak of Teneriffe, notes the zones ahd tropics, the rites, and rate of their progress. " La navigazione felice," he observes, " arrise aUe pie devozioni." On entering New York harbor, the chaplain says we passed '" U grande forte Hamilton, e finalmente la Fregata," after six thousand mUes of navigation, " dropt her anchor opposite the Battery gar den, buUt in the sea, and joined to the continent by a wooden bridge about two hundred feet long." He remarks upon the pubhc buUdings, observing that tbe Exchange was " rebuilt in 1838, and is destined for a hospital;" that the Croton water " serves for conflagrations, which are very frequent," and that "U commercio 6 attivissimo." He descants upon "la hnmensita de vapori," declaring that the ferry boats carry " not only loaded carts, ten or fifteen at a time, but also 360 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. bath-houses, vrith every convenience." His most elaborate descriptions, however, are reserved for the Cathohc churches — St. Patrick's, St. Peter's, St. Giuseppe, and tbe Church of the Transfiguration, where he celebrated mass. He admires . the " Campanile" of "il Tempio colossale degli Episcopah" (Trinity Church), and is charmed with the " Seminario Cat- tohco," through which be was conducted by " quel gentUe e virtuoso vescovo Monsignore Hus " — doubtless the late Bishop Hughes. The Italian priests, the juvenUe choristers, and the church music excite his enthusiasm. Crowds of Catholics, he tells Us, came on board the frigate to hear the sailors sing " Salva Regina." Romanism, be declares, has " profound root " in the United States, and " daily grows," though the Episcopalians stUl strive " to infuse into the human heart the poison that, in 1603, came from Elizabeth's successor." He caUs the Protestant sects " tristi piante," and gives a list thereof, adding, " and to finish the noisome catalogue, to con fusion add confusion, vrith the Quakers and Hebrew synar gogues." " II nemico infernale," he says, tried to insinuate his " veleno dell' errore " mto the ship. Protestant emissa ries from the Bible Society came on board to distribute the Scriptures " senza spirito santo ! " His indignation at this proceeding is boundless. " Era mai possibUe," he exclaims, " che i cieohi Uluminasscro gli illuminati e che intiepidessoro nel el cuore de NapoUtani queUa ReUgione che il Principe stesso degli Apostoli venue a predicare neUa loro citta ! " * Leaving New York, the pious chaplain was " swept from the shores of the Hudson to Cape Cod," and, on the 3d of Juno, entered "tbe wonderful and picturesque bay" of Bos ton, to the sound of greeting cannon, and surrounded "by gondolas, whence arose cordial hurrahs" ("ben venga"). Boston, says the erudite chaplain, " was founded by English colonists from Boston in England. Bunker HiU monument was commenced in 182'r by the celebrated engineer, O'Don- * " As if it were possible for the blind to enlighten the enlightened, and weaken in the hearts of Neapolitans that religion which the Prince of the Apostles himself came to preach in their own city." ITALIAN TEAVELLEES, 361 neU Webster, under the presidency of the celebrated La fayette ! " He describes the pubhc edifices, and, among them, the " Casa di Citta," " which rises from a height near the pubhc garden, and presents a majestic appearance, with col; umns of white marble." Among the memorable names of Streets, he observes, is "that of Franklm, who drew the Ughtning from heaven." Of the churches, he only remem bers the Cathedral, the care and prosperity of which he ascribes " to that exceUent prelate, Fitzpatrick." Again he congratulates himself upon the progress of his Church — thanks to tbe labors " deUa propagarione deUe fede " — and declares that " the net of St. Peter does not fail to fish up many new souls from the turbid sea of eiTor." Although made up of aU nations, " the Americans," says tbe Neapoli tan padre, " foUow the habits and customs of the Enghsh." From Boston the frigate went to HoUand and to England, from Plymouth to Brest, thence to Carthagena and Toulon, the island of Zante and Navarino, aU of which places are briefly noted ; and from the latter they proceed to Naples, which harbor and city the delighted chaplain haUs as the cradle of Tasso and the tomb of Virgil ; saluting, in the / facUe rhetoric of his native tongue, MergeUina, " where rest the aAes of Sannazaro," Herculaneum, Pompeh, and the Ught " del nostro sole, un perpetuo e vivisshno verde, I'ombrifero pino, U pomposo cipresso, I'odorato arancio, una sopredente moltitudine di eleganti casine sparse per tutta quanto la costa, stanze di un popolo rivaoisshno ed amorevole ! " At length, two steamers sent by " la benignita de Ro " approach the Urania, and the loyal and loving Padre Capobianco in vokes Heaven's blessing on his head and reign, and, " in the midst of the joy and affection of kindred and friends," kisses his native earth. Every American who has travelled in Europe has some extraordinary anecdote to relate of the ignorance there exist ing in regard to the geography, history, and condition of his country ; but, perhaps, the questions asked him are nowhere so absurd as in SicUy. Her isolated position before tbe ad- 16 362 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. vent of Garibaldi, and the prevalent want of education, explain the phenomenon. Two things chiefly tbe SicUians know about America — that she imports fruit, sulphur, and rags from the island, and affords a safe asylum for pohtical refugees. At the seaports, especiaUy in Syracuse, our naval officers are remembered as tbe most liberal of gentlemen. A deputation, not many years since, wben the American squad ron in the Mediterranean vrintered there, waited on the com modore, and offered to cooperate vrith him in annexing SicUy to the United States. A spacious hotel was buUt at Syracuse, imder the expectation that the fitne harbor of that ancient city Would become the permanent rendezvous of our fleet; but the jealousy of Bomba interposed, and Mahon continued to be the depot of our national ships, untU Spezzia was substi tuted. Within a short period it was impossible to find in SicUy a book that could enlighten a native, in the Itahan lan guage, as to the actual resources and institutions of America. In 1853, however, one of tbe Palermo editors pubhshed a volume giving an account of his experience in the United States, with statistics and political facts, interspersed with no smaU amount of complacent gossip. The novelty of the subject then and there seemed to atone for the superficial and egotistic tone. Very amusing it was to an American so journer in the beautiful SicUian capital, to glance at the " Viaggio nella America Settentrionale di Salvatore Abbate e Migliori." We have seen what kind of gossip the French and Enghsh indulge in while recording their experience in America ; let us compare with it a SicUian's. He avows his object in visiting the New World — to ascertain for himself how far the unfavorable representations of a weU-known class of British traveUers are correct. He gravely assures his countrymen that, although foreigners are kindly received there, the Government does not pay for the transit of emi gres. The great characteristic which n.aturally impressed a subject of Ferdinand of Naples, was the non-interference of Government with private persons and affahs, except when the former have rendered themselves dhectly amenable to the ITALLAN TEAVELLEES. 363 law, by some invasion of the rights of others — an inestimable privUege in the riewt)f one who has hved under espionage, sUrri, and the inquisition. All things are gauged by the law of contrast in this world ; and it is curious, vrith the bitter and often just complaints of Englishmen of the discomforts of travel in America fresh in mind, to note the delight vrith which a Sicihan, accustomed to the rude lettiga, hard mule, precarious fare, and risk of encountering bandits, expatiates upon the safety, the society, and abundant rations accorded the traveller in the Western world. " Ecco," exclaims Salva tore, after describing a dehghtful tete-A-tete vrith a fah com panion in the oars, and a hearty supper on board the steamer en route from Boston to New York, " Ecco il felice modo di riaggiare negh Stati Uniti sia per terra che per acqua ; divertimenti sociaU e senza prejudirii, e celerita di riaggio hbero dai furtori e dagh assassini." Thefesta bells of some saint are forever i;inging in SicUy; and, although our traveUer found holidays few and far be tween in this busy land, he describes, vrith much zest, the first of May, New Year's, and St. Valentine's Day in New York. His journal, whUe there, is quite an epitome of what is so familiar to us as to be scarcely reahzed, until thus " set in a note book," as the strange experience of a Southem Euro pean. To him, intelhgence offices for domestics, mock auc tions, the Emphe Club, anniversaries of national societies, the frequency of conflagrations, matrimonial advertisements, the extent of insurance, the variety and modes of worship of Protestant sects, the number and freedom of public jour nals, the unimpeded association of the sexes, and the size and splendor of the fashionable stores and hotels, are features and facts of metropolitan hfe so novel as to claim elaborate description. Amusement is an essentia] element of life to an ItaUan, fostered by his sensibility to pleasant excitement, and his long pohtical vassalage. Accordingly, Salvatore devotes no inconsiderable portion of his book to the public entertain ments available in our cities. Few Americans imagine bow much an enthusiastic foreigner can find to gratify his taste 364 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. and divert his mind in New York. The careers of the cele brated English actors, Itahan opera 'singers, and German pianists, the concerts of Ole BuU and De Meyer, the nuhtary baUs, traveUing circuses, pubhc dinners, private soirSes, and theatres, afford Salvatore a theme upon which he dUates as only one of his sensitive and mercurial race can ; and the American reader is astonished to discover what abundant provision for tbe pleasure seeker may be found in our utUitar rian land. More grave interests, however, are not forgotten. A suc cinct but authentic account is given of some of the aborigi nal tribes ; our constitutional system is clearly stated ; the detaUs of government in tbe Eastern and Middle States are defined ; the means and methods of education ; the cereals, trees, rivers, charitable institutions, agricultural and mechani cal industry of the coimtry, are inteUigently explained and iUustrated; and thus a considerable amount of important information afforded, altogether new to the mass of his countrymen. This is evidently coUected from books of refer ence ; and its tone and material form an absolute contrast to the hght-hearted and chUdish egotism of the writer's own diary, wherein the vanity of a versifier and senthnentahsm of a beau continuaUy remind us of the amiable gaUants and dUettante litterateurs we have met among Salvatore's country men. His generalizations are usuaUy correct, but tinctured vrith his national temperament. He describes the Americans as " a little cold, thoughtful, sustained, grave, positive in speech and argument, brave, active, inteUigent, and true in friendship." Tbe Northerners, he says, " are born with the instinct of work, and in physiognomy are hke Europeans." Though there are " not many rich, most are comfortable ; and, though few are learned, the great majority are inteUi gent. Labor is a social requisition ; moderate fortunes and large families abound ; and the test question in regard to a stranger is, ' What can he do ? ' " He sums up tbe pecuUar advantages of the country as consisting of " a good climate, a fertUe soil, salubrious ah and water, abundance of provis- ITALIAN TEAVELLEES. 365 ions, adequate pay for labor, good laws, affable women, en couragements to matrimony, freedom, and pubhc education " — each and ajl of which he seems to appreciate from the con trast they afford to the ciril wrongs and social limitations of his own beautiful land, not then emancipated from the most degrading of modem despotisms. He notes the temperaturie with care, and has occasion to realize its extreme alternations. To a Sicihan, a snowstorm and sleighing must prove a vrinter carnival ; and Salvatore gives a chapter to what he caUs " La citti nel giubello deUa neve." He finds tbe American women charming, and marvels at the extent and variety of their edu cational discipline, giving' the programme of studies in a fashionable female seminary as one of tbe wonders of tbe land; and also a catalogue of popular and gifted female ¦writers, as an unprecedented social fact in his experience. Salvatore was a great reader of newspapers while in this country, and was in the habit of transcribing, from those "charts of busy hfe," characteristic incidents and articles wherevrith to illustrate his record of hfe in America- He was puffed by editorial friends, and mentions such comph- ments, as weU as the publication of some of his own verses, ¦with no httle complacency ; as, for instance, " Quest' oggi, contra ogui mia aspettazione, si e pubbhcato nel giomale — Miening Post, un elogio dando a conoscere agli Americani lo scopo del mio riaggio," &c. ; and elsewhere, " il mio addio aU' America e state messo in musica." One of the latest publications of Italian origin, although ¦written in the French language and by a French citizen, is that of a Corsican officer, one of Prince Napoleon's suite, on his brief risit to tbe United States, in the summer of ISei."" Eighteen hundred leagues traversed in two months, " more with eyes than ears or mind," would seem to afford a most inadequate basis for discussion where grave facts of national poUty and character are its subjects ; but when the author of such a record begins by confessing himself mistaken as a * "Lettres sur les ^tats-Unis d'Amerique," par le Lieutenant-Colonel Ferri Pisani, Aide-de-camp de S. A. I. le Prince Napoleon, Paris, 1862. 366 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. prophet, and disclaims aU pretensions to other accuracy and interest than can be found in a " point de vue general," and " portraits saisis au vol," and " resumes de conversations fugi tives," we accept his report and speculations with zest, if not with entire satisfaction-, and accompany his rapid expedition, animated descriptions, and thoughtful though hasty com mentary, vrith tbe more pleasure inasmuch as the temper and tone of both indicate an experienced traveller, a shrewd observer, and a cultivated thinker. The thne of this visit and date of its record give thereto an interest apart from any intrinsic claim. America had just been converted from a world of peaceful industry to- a scene of ciril war. The Gallic risitors compared the crisis to that which had once hurled France into anarchy and military despotism ; and be held here a mighty army improvised in the Free States, vrith no apparent check to their industrial prosperity ; and govern mental powers assumed to meet the exigency vrithout pro voking any popular distrust in the rectitude of the authori ties or the safety of theh rights ; arrests, proscription, and enlistments were sanctioned by pubhc confidence ; in a word, the patriotism of an instructed people was the safeguard of the republic. It is remarkable that a writer whose mind was so pre occupied vrith the exciting mUitary scenes and imminent political problems of the day, should have become so thor oughly and justly impressed with the religious phenomena of the Eastern States, tracing their development from the Pilgrims to Edwards, and thence to Whitfield and Channing ; and the conflicts of faith thus foreshadowed. " Les ifitats- Unis," he writes, " pr6sentent en ce moment des spectacles bien 6mouvants. Les armees s'entrechoquent sur tous les points de leur immense territoire. Une race qui semblait devoir realiser I'ideal pacifique de I'humanite moderne se transforme tout a coup en un peuple belliqueux et se dechire de ses propres mains. D'autre part l'esclavage se dresse, au mUieu des horreurs de la guerre, come une question de vie ou de mort, devant laqueUe reculent et le philosophe, et I'homme 18* ITALIAN TEAVELLEES. 367 d'etat et I'^conomiste. Eh bien ! faut-il vous I'avouer, mon colonel, tous ces faits extraordinahes, dont nous sommes temoins, et qui remplirout un jour I'histoire de ce siecle, ont a mes yeux une portee moins redoutable que celui que nous venous de trouver a Boston, un de ces faits qui bouleversent la condition de I'homme, sans s'iascrhe, comme les grands evenements politiques, en traits de feu et du sang, dans sa mSmohe. Je veux parler de I'etabhssement du Deisme dans le nouveau monde sous la forme d'une rehgion, d'une Eglise, du Deisme, non plus enseigne par une philosophic speculative, mais pratique comme un culte, comme un principe moral et social, par I'ehte de la soci6t6 Americaine, et faisant, au de- pens du Protestantisme, les progr<^s les plus efil-ayants." Thereupon we have a treatise on "Protestantism," from Edwards and Whitfield to Channing; the Puritans, the voluntary church system, rationaUsm, &c., " face k face avec le Cathohcisme ; " and he concludes with the prophecy that " ce sera entre ces deux champions que se livrera le combat supreme qui d6cidera des destinees futures de I'humanite." Colonel Pisani's letters are a striking illustration of the facUities of modern travel. He describes the complete and elegant appointments of the svrift and safe steam yacht in vrhich Prince Napoleon, his -wife, and suite, after visiting various points of the Old World, crossed the ocean, and, in a very few weeks, saw half a continent. They entered the harbor of New York, after days of cautious navigation owing to the dense fog, which, fortunately, and almost drar maticaUy, lifted just as they sailed up the beautiful bay, re vealing, under the limpid effulgence of a summer day, a spec tacle which enchanted the Colonel, famUiar as be wds vrith the harbors of Naples and Constantinople. The reader can scarcely help finding a parallel in this sud den and delightful change in the natural landscape, vrith that ¦which exists between tbe preface and the text of this work, m regard to the national cause. Arriving at the moment when the defeat of the Federal army at BuU Run had spread dismay among the conservative traders, and warmed to im- 368 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. prudent exultation the traitors of the North, aU the travel lers heard from the official representatives of theh country who greeted theh arrival, was discouraging — almost hopeless for the republic. His Highness thought othervrise, and riewed the national cause vrith unshaken confidence; but Colonel Pisani, in giring his letters to the pubhc, a year afterward, found himself obliged to retract premature fore bodings, and admit a reaction and reversal, not only of the fortunes of war, but of tbe vital prospects of the nation. Midsummer is the worst period of the year for a foreigner to arrive in New York — a fact this writer scarcely appreciated, as he regards the deserted aispect of the palatial residences as their normal condition, and speaks of the then appearance of tbe population as if it were characteristic. Surprised by the courteous urbanity of those with whom he came in contact in shops, streets, and pubhc conveyances, he contrasts this superiority of manners vrith his anticipations of ruflianism, and with the utter neglect of municipal method and decency. The American steamboats and raUways are fuUy discussed and described. Broadway seems to Pisani a bazaar a league and a half in length. He misses the taste in dress famUiar to a Parisian's eye, thinks the horses and harnesses fine, but the horsemen and equipages inferior. Despite "les indus tries de luxe," men of leisure, varied cidture, and special tastes seemed quite rare, and the average physiognomy un attractive. The architecture and aspect of the hotels strike him as sombre compared with those of Paris ; and he de clares every gamin of that metropolis would ridicule our popular and patriotic fetes as childish attempts thereat, which he attributes to the basis of Anglo-Saxon reserve in the na tional character, wherein " I'expression de la "pensee est rare- ment dans un rapport exact avec la pensee elle-meme." De- centraUzation, and all its phenomena, naturaUy impress his mind, accustomed to routine and method ; and the manner of recruiting and organizing — in fact, the whole mihtary regime of the country — offers salient points of comment and criticism to one who has long vritnessed the results of professional Ufe ITALIAN TEAVELLEES. 369 in this sphere. Visiting PhUadelphia, Washington, and the great lakes, adapting themselves to the customs and the peo ple, examining aU thmgs vrith good-natured mtelligence, this record contains many acute remarks and suggestive generali zations. We have numerous portraits of indiriduals, sketches of scenery, reflections on the past, and speculations as regards the future. The absence of a concierge at the White House, the naivete of the new President, tbe character and principles of statesmen and of parties, are subjects of candid discus sion. The mines of Lake Superior, the community of Rapp- istS, McCormick's manufactory of " engins agricoles," the local trophies and the economical resources of tbe country, find judicious mention. While the Colonel is indignant at the "curiosite brutale" encountered hi the West, be pays a grateful tribute to the hospitahty of the people. At Pitts burg, tbe site of Fort Duquesne, he reverts vrith pride and pathos, to the French domination on this continent, recalls its mUitary successes, and laments its final overthrow. At Mount Vernon he thinks of Lafayette's last risit, and sadly contrasts that period of republican enthusiasm and prosperity with the sanguinary conflict of tbe passing hour. Indeed, the value and interest of these letters consist in the vivid glimpses they afford of the darkest hour in our history as a free peo ple, and tbe indirect but authentic testimony thus afforded to the recuperative and conservative power of our institutions and national character. Colonel Pisani accompanied Prince Napoleon in his riSits to the camps of both armies, and heard theh respective officers express thek sentiments freely. Rare m the history of war is such an instance of dual observation apparently candid ; seldom has tbe same pen recorded, within a few hours, impressions of two hostile forces, their aspect, condition, aims, animus, and leaders. Rapid as was the jour ney and hasty the inspection, we have many true and rivid pictures and portraits ; and it is interesting to note how graduaUy but surely the latent resources of the country, the absolute instincts of the popular wUI, and the improved be cause sustained force of the Government, are revealed to tbe 16* 370 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. mind of this pleasant raconteur, who brings home to the American reader the moral crisis, so memorable in the retro spect, which succeeded our premature battle for national honor and hfe — whose rital current, thus baffied, shrank back to the heai-t of the repubhc, only to return vrith fresh and permanent strength to every vein in the body pohtic, and ritalize the popular brain aud heart vrith concentrated patri otic scope, insight, and action. Absorbing, however, as was the question of tbe hour even to a casual sojomner, the physical, social, . and economical traits of the country were only more sympatheticaUy examined by the inteUigent party of the Prince because of tbe war cloud that overhung them ; and we are transported from inland sea and lonely prairie to the capital of New England, where, says the Colonel, " for the first thne I beheved myself in Europe," and to quite other society than the governmental chcles at Washington or the financial cliques of New York. At Cambridge and Bos ton, vrith Agassiz, Felton, Everett, and others, he found con genial minds. The speech of the latter at a parting banquet given the Prince, is noted as a model of tact and rhetoric ; whUe " Vive la France," the refrain of Holmes' song, -with happy augury cheered their departure. CHAPTEE X. AMERICAN TRAVELLERS AND WRITERS. JOHN AKD WILLIAM: BAKTRAM ; MADAME KNIGHT ; LEDYAED ; CAB- VEE ; JBFFBESON ; TMI.AY ; DWIGHT ; COXE ; IHGBESOLL ; WALSH ; PAxmnrNO ; ixDrr ; clinton ; hall ; tudor ; webt ; coopbe ; HOFI^AN ; OLMSTED ; BKTANT ; GOVERNMENT EXPL0EATI0N8 ; WASHIHGTON ; mes. KZEKIAND ; IRVING ; AMERICAN miXTSTEA- TIVE LITERATTTEE ; BIOGRAPHY ; HISTORY ; MAN'OAIS ; OEATOEY ; ROMANCE ; POETRY ; LOCAL PICTURES ; EVERETT, HAWTHORNE, CHANUING, ETC. There is one class of traveUers in America that have pecuhar claims upon native sympathy and consideration ; for neither foreign adventure nor royal patronage, nor even pri vate emolument, prompted their journeyings. Natives of the soU, and insphed either by scientific or patriotic enthusi asm — not seldom by both — they strove to make one part of our vast country known to the other ; to reveal the natural beauties and resources thereof to their neighbors, and to Europeans ; and to promote national development by careful exploration and faithful reports. All the inteUigent pioneers of our border civilization more or less enacted the part of beneficent travellers. Pubhc spirit, in colonial and later timds, found scope in expeditions which opened paths through the ¦wildemess, tested soU, climate, and natural productions, and estimated the facUities hitherto locked up in primeval soli- 372 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. tudes. Washington's early surveys, Boone's first sojoum in the woods of Kentucky, Clinton's visit to Western New York to trace tbe course of the Erie Canal, are examples of this incidental kind of home travel, so useful to tbe early statesmen and the pohtical economists. At subsequent periods, the natural features of the Great West were revealed to us by Flint and Hall ; New England local and social traits were agreeably reported by Tudor and Dwight ; Lewis and Clarke gave the first authentic glimpses of the Rocky Moun tains and the adjacent plains, afterward so bravely traversed by Fremont and others ; and Schoolcraft gathered up the traditions and the characteristics of those regions stUl occu pied by tbe aborigines ; and whUe Audubon tracked the feathered creation along the whole Atlantic coast, Percival examined every rood of the soU of Connecticut. Among the most interesting of tbe early native traveUers in America, are tbe two Bartrams. Theh instinctive fond ness for nature, a simplicity and veneration born of the best original Quaker influence, and habits of rural work and medi tation, throw a peculiar charm around tbe memohs of these kindly and assiduous naturalists, and make the account they have left of their wanderings ffesh and genial, notwithstand ing the vast progress since made in the natural sciences. John Bartram's name is held in grateful honor by botanists, as " the first Anglo-American who conceived the idea of estabhshing a botanic garden, native and exotic." He was lured to this enterprise, and its kindred studies, by the habit of collecting American plants and seeds for his friend, Peter CoUinson, of London. Encouraged by him, Bartram began to investigate and experiment in this pleasant field of inquiry. He was enabled to confii-m Logan's theory in regard to maize, and to illustrate the sexes of plants. From such a humble and isolated beginning, botany expanded in this country into its present elaborate expositions. . The first systematic enu meration of American plants was commenced in HoUand, by Gronorius, from descriptions furnished by John Clayton, of Vhginia. As early as 1732, Mark Catesby, of Vhginia, had AMEEIOAN TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 373 pubhshed a volume on the " Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahamas." Colden, of New York, corre sponded vrith European botanists, from his sylvan retreat near Newburg. We have already noticed the risit to America of a pupU of Linnseus — ^Peter Kalm. The labors of Logan, Dr. Mitchell, Dr. Adam Kuhn of PhUadelphia, the first professor of botany there, the establishment of Ho- sack's garden in New York, Dr. Schoeffs, Humphrey Mar shaU, Dr. CuUen of Berlin, the two Michauxs, Clinton, and the Abbe Correa, promoted the investigation and elucidation of this science in America, until it became associated with the more recent accomplished expositors. But with the earliest impulse and record thereof, the name of John Bartram is deUghtfuUy associated ; and it is as a naturalist that he made those excursions, the narrative of which retains the charm of ingenuous zeal, integrity, and kindliness. John Bartram was born hi Delaware, then Chester County, Penn., in 1&99. His great-grandfather had lived and died in Derbyshire, England ; his grandfather foUowed WiUiam Penn to tbe New World, and settled in the State which bears the famous Quaker's name ; his father married, " at Darby meeting, Ehzabeth Hunt," and had three sons, of whom John, the eldest, in herited from an uncle the farm. His early education was meagre, as far as fonnal teaching is concemed. He studied the grammar of tbe ancient languages, and had a taste for the medical art, in which he acquired skill enough to make him a raost welcome and efficient physician to the poor. It is probable that, as a simpler, seeking herbs of alleviating rirtues, he was won to that love of nature, especially fruits, flowers, and plants, which became almost a ruhng passion. But, according to the exigencies of the thne and country, Bartram was an agriculturist by vocation, and assiduous therein ; yet this did not prevent bis indulging his scientific love of nature and his philosophic instinct : he observed and he reflected while occupied about his farm. The laws of vegetation, the loveliness of flowers, the mysteries of growth, were to him a perpetual miracle. To the thrift and sim- 374 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. plicity of hfe common among the original farmers of Amer ica, he united an ardent love of knowledge and an admha tion of the processes and tbe products of nature — ^partly a senthnent and partly a scientific impulse. Purchasing a tract on the banks of tbe SchuylkUl, three miles from Philadelphia, he built, with bis own hands, a commodious dwelhng, culti vated five acres as a garden, and made continual journeys in search of plants. . The place became so attractive, that visit ors flocked thither. By degrees he gained acquaintances abroad, established correspondence and a system of ex changes with botanists, and so laid tbe foundation of botani cal enterprise and taste in America. This hale, benign,, and wise man, rarely combining iu his nature the zeal and ob servant habitude of the naturalist with the serene self-posses sion of tbe Friend, traveUed over a large part of the country, explored Ontario, tbe domain of the Iroquois, the shores and sources of tbe Hudson, Delaware, SchuylkUl, Susquehanna, AUeghany, and San Juan. At the age of seventy he visited Carolina and Florida. Peter CoUinson wrote of him to Colden as a " wonderful natural genius, considering bis education, and that he was never out of America, but is a husbandman." " His obser vations," he adds, " and accounts of all natural productions, are much esteemed here for their accuracy. It is really astonishing what a knowledge the man has attained merely by the force of industry and his own genius." The journal* of his tour was sent to England, and was pubhshed " at the instance of several gentlemen." The pre face shows how comparatively rare were authentic books of Travel from natives of America, and bow indiridual were Bartram's zeal and enterprise in this respect. " The inhab itants of all the colonies," says the writer, " have eminently * " Observations on the Climate, Soil, Rivers, Productions, &c., made by John Bartram in his Travels from Pensilvania to Onondaga, Oswego, and the Lake Ontario in Canada ; to which is annexed a Curious Account of tho Cataracts of Niagara, by Mr. Peter Kalm, a Swedish Gentleman who travelled there," London, 1751. AMERICAN TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 375 deserved the character of industrious in agriculture and commerce. I could vrish they had as weU deserved that of adventurous inland discoverers / in this they have been much outdone by another nation, whose poverty of country and unsettled temper have prompted them to such views of ex tending their possessions, as our agriculture and commerce make necessary for us to imitate." The region traversed by Bartram a httle more than a cen tury ago, and described in this httle volume, printed in tbe old-fashioned type, and bearing the old imprimatur of Fleet street, is one across and around which many of us have flown in the raU car, conscious of httle but alternate meadows, woodland, streams, and towns, all denoting a thrifty and populous district, vrith here and there a less cultivated tract. Over this domain Bertram moved slowly, with his senses quickened to take in whatsoever of wonder or beauty nature exhibited. He experienced much of the exposure, privation, and precarious resources which befaU the traveller to-day on our Western frontier ; and it is difficult to imagine that tbe calm and patient naturahst, as he notes tbe aspects of nature and the incidents of a long pUgrimage, is only passing over the identical ground which the busy and self-absorbed vota ries of traffic and pleasure now daily pass, with scarcely a consciousness of what is around and beside them of natural beauty or productiveness. It is worth while to retrace the steps of Bartram, were it only to realize anew the eternal truth of our poet's declaration, that " To him who in the love of nature holds Communion with her visible forms, she speaks A varied language." It was on the 3d of July, 1743, that John Bartram set out, with a companion, from his home on the Schuylkill. His narrative of that summer journey from the vicinity of PhUa delphia to Lake Ontario, reads like tbe journal of some intel ligent wayfarer in the far West ; for the plants and the ani- 376 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. mais, the face of the country, the traveUer's expedients, the Indian camps, and the isolated plantations, bring before us a thinly scattered people and wild region, whereof the present features are associated with aU the objects and influences of civihzation. Flocks of wUd turkeys and leagues of wUd grass are early noted ; the variety and character of the trees afford a constant and congenial theme ; swamps, ridges, hol lows alternate ; chestnuts, oaks, pines, and poplats are sUent but not unwelcome comrades ; snakes, as usual, furnish curi ous episodes : Bartram observed of one, that he " contracted the muscles of his scales when provoked, and that, after the mortal stroke, bis splendor diminished." He remarks, at one place, "the impression of sheUs upon loose stones;" he is annoyed by gnats ; and, in an Indian lodge, '.' bung up his blanket like a hammock, that he may lie out of fleas." He Ungers in an old aboriginal orchard well stocked vrith fruit trees ; svrims creeks, coasts rivers, lives on duck, deer, and " boUed squashes cold ; " smokes a pipe^-" a customary civil ity," he says, " when parties meet." Here he finds " exceUent flat whetstones," there "an old beaver dam;" now "roots of ginseng," and again "sulphurous mud;" one hour he is drenched with rain, and another enraptured by the sight of a magnolia ; here refreshed by the perfume of a honeysuckle, and there troubled by a yellow wasp. No feature or phase of nature seems to escape bim. He notes tbe earth beneath, the vegetation around, and the sky above ; fossUs, insects, Indian ceremonies, flowers ; the expanse of the " dismal vril- derness," the eels roasted for supper, and the moss and fun gus as well as locusts and caterpiUars. He travelled on foot to the Onondaga, and paddled down in a bark canoe to the Oneida, " down which the Albany traders come to Oswego." He stops at a httle town thereabout " of four or five cabins," where the people live " by catching fish and assisting the Albany people to haul their bateaux." In this region of raUways and steamboats, such were then tbe locomotive facihties. Nor less significant of its frontier wildemess is 'Bartram's description of tbe spot which has long flourished AMEEIOAN TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 377 as the grain depot and forwarding mart of Western New York, where immense warehouses line the river, and fleets of barges, steamers, and schooners cluster along the lake shore. Oswego is identified with his picture mainly by the topogra phy. " On the point formed by the entrance of tbe river stands the fort, or Trading Castle. It is a strong stone house, encompassed by a stone wall twenty feet high and one hun dred and twenty paces round, built of large square stones very curious for theh softness. I cut my name in it with my knife. The town consists of about seventy log houses, of which half are in a row near tbe river ; the other half oppo site to them, on the other side of a fair, where two streets are dirided by a row of posts in the midst, where each Indian has his house to lay bis goods, and where any of the traders may traffic with him. This is surely an excellent regulation for preventing the traders from imposing on the Indians. The chief officer in command at the castle keeps a good look out to see when the Indians come down the lake with theh poultry and furs, and sends a canoe to meet thera, which con ducts them to the castle, to prevent any person enticing them to put ashore privately, treating tbem vrith spirituous hquors, and then taking that opportunity of cheating them. Oswego is an infant settlement made by tbe province of New York, with the noble riew of gaining to the crown of Great Britain the command of the five lakes ; and the dependence of the Indians in their neighborhood to its subjects, for the benefit of the trade upon tbem, and of the rivers that empty tbem- 'selves into them. At present the whole narigation is carried on by Indian bark canoes ; but a good Enghshman cannot be -rithout hopes of seeing these great lakes one day accustomed to Enghsh navigation. It is true, the famous Fall of Niagara is an insurmountable barrier to all passage by water from the Lake Ontario into the Lake Erie. The honor of first discov- ermg these extensive fresh-water seas is certainly due to the French. The traders from New York come hither up the Mohawk River, but generally go by land from Albany to Schenectady ; about twenty miles from tbe Mohawk the car- 378 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. riage is but three miles to tbe river, that falls into the Oneida Lake, which discbarges itself into the Onondaga River. It is erident, from the face of the earth, that the water of Lake Ontario bas considerably diminished." It is interesting to contrast the vague and timid conjec tures of Bartram with the subsequent facts in the develop ment of that intercourse between the lakes, tbe far interior, and tbe seacoast, whence dates so much of the commercial and agricultural prosperity not only of tbe State of New York, but of the metropolis, and the vast regions of the West. Bartram observed, at Oswego, " a kitchen garden and a graveyard to the southwest of the castle," which reminds bim that " the neighborhood of this lake is esteemed un- healthful." This opinion, however, refers only to a large swampy district, and not to the elevated site of the present town. Draining and population have long since redeemed even the low lands from this insalubrity ; and now, in conse quence of the constant winds from that immense body of pure water, Oswego enjoys a better degree of health than any place in Western New York. Jts summer climate is preferable to that of any inland city of the State. Bartram notes many traits of Indian hfe there — the ghls playing with beans, and the squaws addicted to rum, and " drying huckle berries." As usual, he expatiates on the trees, and especially admires specimens of the arbor vitse and white lychinus. The last entry in this quaintly pleasing journal is characteris tic of the writer's domestic and rehgious faith, and of the adventurous nature of a tour which then occupied seven or eight weeks, and is now practicable in a few hours. Under date of August 19th, he writes : " Before sunset I had the pleasure of seeing my own home and family, and found them in good health ; and with a sincere mind I retumed thanks to the Almighty Power that had preserved us all." At an advanced age Bartram embarked at PhUadelphia for Charleston, S. C, and went thence, by land, through a portion of Carolina and Georgia, to St. Augustine, in Florida. While there, he received the appointment of botanist and AMEEIOAN TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 879 naturahst to the king of England, with dhections to trace the San Juan River to its som-ce. Leaving St. Augustine he embarked in a boat at Picolata, ascended and descended that beautiful river nearly fom- hundred mUes, making careful observations not only as to distances, width, depth, currents,* shores, &c., but recording aU the physical facts, vegetable and animal. The fuU and accurate report thereof he sent to the Board of Trade and Plantations, in England. The labor of love this exploration proved to him, may be imagmed from the enthusiastic terms in which Florida, its coast, its flowers, and its chmate, are described by subsequent naturahsts, especially Audubon and Agassiz. Tbe latter thinks the com bination of tropical and western products and aspects there unrivaUed in the world. It is, indeed, a paradise for the naturalist, from its wonderful coral reefs to its obese tm-tles, and from its orange groves, reminding the traveller of Sicily, to its palms, breathing of the East. When old John Bar tram, in bis lonely boat, glided amid its fertUe solitudes, it was a virgin soU, not only to the step of civihzation, but the eye of science ; and later and far more erudite students of nature have recognized the honest zeal and inteUigent obser vation wherevrith the venerable and assiduous botanist of the SchuylkUl recorded the wonders and the beauty of the scene. But it was amid his farm and flowers th^t Bartram appeared to memorable advantage. His manners, habits, and appear ance, his character and conversation, seem to have em bodied, in a remarkable manner, the idea of a rural citizen of America as cherished by the republican enthusiasts of Eu rope. The comfort, simplicity, self-respect, native resources, and benign faith and feeling incident to a free country life, religious education, and a new land, were signaUy manifest iu the home of the Quaker botanist. A Russian gentleman, who visited him in 1769, describes these impressions in a let ter. He was attracted to Bartram's house from knowing him as a correspondent of French and Swiss botanists, and even of Queen Uhica, of Sweden. Approaching his home, the neatness of the buildings, tbe disposition of fields, fences, 380 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. and trees, tbe perfect order and tbe prosperous industry ap parent, won the stranger's heart at a glance. Nor was he less charmed with the greeting he received from " a woman at the door, in a simple but neat dress," in answer to his in- • quhy for the master. " If thee wiU step in and take a chair, I wUl send for hhn." He preferred walking over the farm. FoUowhig the SchuyUdU, as it wound among the meadows, he reached a place where ten men were at work, and asked for Mr. Bartram ; whereupon one of the group, " an elderly man, with wide trousers and a large leather apron on, said, " My name is Bartram ; dost thee want me ? " " Sir," repUed the visitor, " I came on purpose to converse, if you can be spared from your labor." " Very, easily," he replied.; and, returning to the house, the host changed his clothes, re appeared, conducted bis guest to the garden, and they passed many hom-s in a conversation so delectable, that the foreign visitor grows enthusiastic in his delight at this unique combi nation of labor and knowledge, simplicity of life and study of natm-e. One remark of Bartram's recalls a simUar one of Sir Walter Scott's, as to the best results of hterary fame ; and it is a striking coincidence in the experience of two of nature's noblemen, so widely separated in their pursuits and endowments : " The greatest advantage," observed the rural philosopher to his Russian risitor, " which I receive from what thee callest my botanical fame, is the pleasure which it often procures me in receiving the visits of friends and for eigners." Summoned to dinner by a bell, they entered a large hall where was spread a long table, occupied, at the lower end, by negroes and hired men, and, at the other, by tbe family and their guest. The venerable father and his vrife " declined their beads in prayer" — which " grace before meat," says the visitor, was " divested of the tedious cant of some, and ostentatious style of others." Nor was he less charmed with the plain but substantial fare, the cordial man ners, the amenities of the household, and the dignity of its head. Madeira was produced ; an JEohan harp vibrated me lodiously to tbe summer breeze ; and they talked botany and AMEElCAN TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 381 agriculture to their heart's content. The knowledge of Bar tram surprised his auditor. He found a coat of arms amid aU this primitive hfe, and learned that it was possible to unite the simphcity of American with the associations of European domiciles. To him, the scene and the character whence emar nated its best charm, were a refreshhig novelty; and he endeavors to solve the mystery by frankly questioning his urbane host, whose story was clear en6ugh. " ' What a shame,' said jny mind, or something, that insphed my mhid,"^ observed the latter, in explaining the first impulse to his career, " ' that thou shouldst have employed so niany years in tilling the earth, and destroying so many flowers and plants, ¦without being acquainted with theh structure and theh , uses.' By steady apphcation," he added, " for several years, I have acquired a pretty general knowledge of every plant and tree to be found on this continent." But it was the social phenomena of Bartram's house that impressed " the stranger within his gates," not less than the "pursuit of knowledge under difficulties ; " the skilful method of the farming opera tion ; the deference, without servUity, of the workmen ; the gentle bearing of the negroes, and the serene order and dig nity, yet cheerfulness of the household, struck the hdbitu& of com-ts as a new phase of cirihzation. He became enam ored of the Friends, attributing much of what he admired in Bartram and , his surroundings to theh influence. He so journed among them in the vicinity, attended their meetings, and, after two months thus passed, declared " tbey were the golden days of my riper years." Few and far between are such instances of primitive character and association now exhibited to the stranger's view in our over-busy and ex travagant land. It is pleasant to look back upon those days, and that venerable, industrious, benign philosopher ; to re member his pleasant letters to and from Franklin, Bard, Logan, Catesby, and Colden at home, and Gronovius, Sir Hans Sloane, CoUinson, and FothergUl abroad ; the medal he received from "a society of gentlemen in Edinburgh;" the seeds he sent Michaux and Jefferson ; the books sent him 382 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. by Linnseus. It is pleasant to retrace that peaceful and wise career to its painless and cheerful close — tbe career of one whose great ambition was the hope, as he said, " of discover ing and introducing into my native country some original productions of nature which might be useful to society;" and who could honestly declare, " My chief happiness con sisted in tracing and admhing tbe infinite power, majesty, and perfection of tbe great Almighty Creator." PhUosopher as he was, be never coveted old age ; dreaded to become a burden ; hoped " there would be little delay when death comes ;" and deemed tbe great rule of hfe " to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly before God." Cheerful and active to the age of seventy-eight, he died content, Septem ber 22, 1777. His name stands next to Franklin's in the record of the American PhUosophical Society. The war of the Revolution shortened his days ; as the approach of the royal army, after tbe battle of Brandywine, agitated him with fear that his " darling garden," the " nursling of half a century," might be laid waste. Bartram was a genuine Christian philosopher. His health ful longevity was mainly ovring to his temperance and out-of- door life, the tranquil pleasures he cultivated, and the even temper he' maintained. Hospitable, industrious, and active, both in body and mind, be never found any time he could not profitably employ. Upright in form, animation and sensibil ity marked his features. He was " incapable of dissimula tion," and deemed " improving conversation and bodUy exer cise" the best pastimes. Meditative, a reader of Scripture, he was born a Quaker, but his creed was engraved by his own band over the window of his study — a simple but fer vent recognition of God. It is as dehgbtfol as it is rare to behold the best tastes and influence of a man reproduced and prolonged in bis de scendants ; and this exceptional trait of American life we find hi the career and character of John Bartram's son Wilham, who was bom at the Botanic Garden, Kingsessing, Pennsylvania, in 1739, and died in 1823. One of his early AMEElCAN TEAVELLEES AND WEirEES. 383 tutors was Charles Thomson, so prominent in the Continental Congress. He began life as a merchant, but was formed, by nature, for the naturalist and traveUer he became. A letter from John Bartram to his brother, dated in 1761, alludes to this son as if his success in business was doubtful : " I and most of my son BiUy's relations are concerned that he never writes how his trade affahs succeed. We are afraid he doth not make out as well as he expected." Haring accompanied his father in the expedition to East Florida, he settled on the banks of the St. John River, after assisting in the explora tion of that region. In 1774 he returned to his home in Pennsylvania ; and soon after, at the instance of Dr. Fother- gUl, of London, made a second scientific tour through Flor ida. His observations on the Creek and Cherokee Indians there made were written out in 1789, and have been recently reprinted from the original manuscript, by the American Eth nological Society. He aided WUson in his ornithological investigations, and Barton in his " Elements of Botany," of which science he was elected professor by the university of his native State. Dunlap the painter, and Brockden Brown the novehst, refer to him vrith interest ; and the former has left a personal description of hhn, as he appeared when ris ited by the writer, whereby we recognize the identical shn- pHcity of life, brightness of mind, industry, kindhness, and love of nature which distinguished bis father. " His counte nance," says Dunlap, " was expressive of benignity and hap piness. With a rake in his hand, he was breaking the clods of earth in a tulip bed. His hat was old, and flapped over his face. His coarse shirt was seen near his neck, as he wore no cravat. His waistcoat and breeches were both of leather^ and his shoes were tied with leather strings. We approached and accosted him. He ceased bis work, and entered into con versation with tbe ease and politeness of nature's nobleman." A similar impression was made upon another visitor in 1819, who informs us that the white hair of WUliam Bartram, as he stood in his garden and talked of Rittenhouse and Frank lin, of botany and of nature, gave bim a venerable look. 384 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. which was in keeping with bis old-fasbioned dress, bis genial manners, and his candid and wise talk. He was elected pro fessor of botany in the University of Pennsylvania in 1782, and " made known and iUustrated many of tbe most curious and beautiful plants of North America," as weU as published the most complete Ust of its birds, before Wilson. " The latest book I know," wrote Coleridge, " written in the spirit of tbe old traveUers, is Bartram's account of his tour in the Floridas." It was pubhshed in Philadelphia in 1791, and in London the following year.* The style is more finished than bis father could command, more fluent and glowing, but equaUy informed with that genuineness of feeling and direct ness of purpose which give the most crude writing an inde finable but actual moral charm. The American edition was " embelUshed with copperplates," the accuracy and beauty of which, however inferior to more recent iUustrations of natural history among us, form a remarkable contrast to the coarse paper and inelegant type. These incongruities, how ever, add to the quaint charm of tbe work, by reminding us of the time when it appeared, and of the hmited means and encouragement then available to tbe naturalist, compared to the sumptuous expositions which the splendid volumes of Audubon and Agassiz have since made familiar. In the de taUs as well as in the philosophy of his subject, Bartram is eloquent. He describes the " hollow leaves that bold water," and how " seeds are carried and softened in birds' stomachs." He bas . a sympathy for the " cub bereaved of its bear mother ; " patiently watches an enormous yellow spider cap ture a bumblebee, and describes the process minutely. The moonlight on the palms ; the notes of the mockingbird in the luxuriant but lonely woods ; the flitting oriole and the * " Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee Couiitry, the extensive Territories of the Muscogulges, or Creek Confederacy, and the Country of the Choctaws ; containing an Ac count of the Soil and Natural Productions of those Regions, together with Observations on the Manners of the Indians," embellished with copperplates (turtle, leaf, &c.)., by William Bartram, Philadelphia, 1791, London, 1792. AMEElCAN TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 385 coomg doves ; the muUet in the crystal brine, and tbe moan of the surf at night ; the laurel's glossy leaves, the canes of the brake, the sand of the beach, goldfish, sharks, lagoons, parroquets, the cypress, ash, and hickory, Indian mounds, buffalo hcks, trading houses, alligators, mosquitos, squirrels, huUfrogs, trout, mineral watei-s, turties, birds of passage, pelicans, and aquatic plants, are tbe themes of his narrative ; and become, in bis fresh and sympathetic description, vivid and interesting even to readers who bave no special knowl edge of, and only a vague curiosity about nature. The affiu ence and variety in the region described, are at once apparent. Now and then, something hke an adventure, or a pleasant talk with one of his hospitable or phUosophical hosts, varies the botanical nomenclature ; or a ferrid outbreak of feeling, devotional or enjoyable, gives a human zest to the pictures of wUd fertUity. Cm-iously do touches of pedantry alternate with those of simphcity ; the matter-of-fact tone of Robin son Crusoe, and the grave didactics of Rasselas ; a scientific statement after the manner of Humboldt, and an anecdote or interview in the style of BosweU. It. is this very absence of sustained and prevalence of desultory narrative, that make the whole so real and pleasant. Tbe Florida of that day had its trading posts, surveyors, hunters, Indian emigrants, and isolated plantations, such as stUl mark our border settlements ; but nowhere on tbe continent did nature offer a more " infi nite variety ; " and the mere catalogue of her products, espe ciaUy when written with zest and knowledge, formed an interesting work, such as inteUigent readers at home and abroad reUsbed with the same avidity with which we greet the record of travel given to the world by a Layard or a Kane, only that the restricted intercourse and limited educa tion of that day circumscribed the readers as tbey did the authors. In 1825 was published, from the original manuscript, " The Private Journal kept by Madame Knight ; or, A Jour ney from Boston to New York in tbe year 1704." This lady Was regarded as a superior person in character and culture. 17 386 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. She indulged in rhyme, and had a vein of romance, as is eri dent from her descriptions of nature, especiaUy of the effect of moonlight, and 'the aspect of the forest at night. This curious specimen of a private diary gives us a vivid and au thentic description of the state of the country, and the risks and obstacles of travel in a region now as populous, secure, and easy of access and transit as any part of tbe world, A fortnight was then occupied in a journey which is now per formed several times a day in seven or eight hours. It seems that the fair Bostonian, even at that remote period, tinctured vrith the literary proclivities that signalize the ladies of her native city to this day, had certain business requiring atten tion at New Haven and New York, and, after much hesita tion, formed the heroic resolution of visiting those places in person. The journey was made on horseback. She took a guide frOm one baiting place to another, and was indebted to the " minister of tbe town," to tbe " post," and relatives along the route, for hospitahty and escort. She often passed the night in miserable inns — ^if such they can be called. — and was the constant victim of hard beds, indigestible or unsa vory food, danger from fording streams, isolated and rough tracks, and all the alarms and embarrassments of an " unpro tected female " crossing a partially settled country. Narra ganset was a pathless wUd. At New Haven she notes the number and mischievousness of the Indians, and that the young men wore ribbons, as a badge of dexterity m shooting. She satirizes the phraseology of the people there, such as " Dreadful pretty ! " " Law, you ! " and " I vow ! " and criti cizes the social manners as faulty in two respects — too great famUiarity with the slaves, and a dangerous facUity of di vorce ; yet, sbe remarks, though often ridiculous, the people " bave a large portion of mother wit, and sometimes larger than those brought up in cities." Pumpkin and Indian bread, pork and cabbage, are the staple articles of food, varied, at " Northwalk," by fried venison. Of Fairfield she says : " They have abundance of sheep, whose very dung brings tbem great gain, with part of which they pay their parson's AMEElCAN TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 387 saUei-y ; and they grudge that, preferring their dung before theh mmister." She is charmed with the " vendues" at New York, where they "give drinks;" and mentions that the " fireplaces have no jambs ; " and " the bricks in some of tbe houses are of divers colors, and laid in checkers, and, being glazed, look very agreeable." " Their diversions," she says of the inhabitants, " is riding in sleys about tbree or four miles out of town, where they bave houses of entertainment at a place caUed the Bowery." Nor, among the early explorers of New England, can we faU to remember the intrepid John Ledyard, Captain Cook's companion and historiographer, and one of the bravest pio neers of African travel. Born in 1751, he ran away from the frontier coUege of Hanover, and fraternized with the abo riginal Six Nations in Canada. Returning to his native region, he cut down a tree, and made a canoe three feet vride and fifty long, wherein, with bear skins and prorisions, he floated down the Connecticut River, stopping at night, and reading, at interv-als, Orid and the Greek Testament. Inter rupted in his lonely voyage by Bellows' FaUs, he effected a portage through tbe aid of farmers and oxen, and, continuing his course, reached Hartford. This exploration of a river then winding through the wUderness, was insphed by the identical love of adventure and thirst for discovery which afterward lured hhn to the North of Europe, around the worid ¦\rith Cook, and into tbe deserts of Africa. Captain John Carver traversed an extent of country of at least seven thousand miles, in two years and a half, at a period when such a pilgrimage required no little courage and par tience. He was induced to undertake this long tour partly from a love of adventure, and, in no small degree, from pub lic spirit and the desire to gain and impart useful informa tion. Carver was to be seen at the reunions of Sir Joseph Banks, where his acquaintance with the natural productions of this continent made him a welcome guest ; and his strait ened circumstances won. the sympathy of that benign savant, who promoted the sale of his " Travels," which were pub- 388 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. lished in London,* and passed through tbree editions. This work contains many facts of interest to economists and sci entific men not then generaUy known. The narrative refers to the years 1766, '67, and '68. Carver also pubhshed a " Treatise on the Culture of Tobacco." The region of coun try described by this writer was then attracting great inquiry on account of the prevalent theories regarding a Northwest Passage. Carver went from Boston to Green Bay via Albany, and explored tbe Indian country as far as the FaUs of St. Anthony ; foUowing, in a great degree, the course of Father Hennepin in 1680. He has much to say of the aborigines, theh ceremonies, character and vocabulary, of the phe nomena of the great lakes, and of the bhds, fishes, trees, and reptUes ; although, as a reporter of natural history, some of his snake stories excited distrust. Carver's enterprise, intel ligence, and misfortunes, however, commend him to favor able remembrance. He was born at StiUwater, Connecticut, and was a captain in tbe French war. Dr. Lettsom wrote an interesting memoh of him, which was appended to the posthumous edition of his writings ; and it is a memorable fact, that the penury in which this brave seeker after knowl edge died, as described by his biographer, in connection with his unrecognized claims as an employe of the English Gov ernment, induced the estabhshment of that noble charity, the Literary Fund. One of the French legation in the United States, in 1781, requested Jefferson to afford him specific information in re gard to the physical resources and character of the country. This course is habitual with the representatives of European Governments, and has proved of great advantage in a com mercial point of view ; while political economists and histori cal writers bave found in the archives of diplomacy invalu able materials thus secured. M. Marbois could not have apphed to a better man for certain local facts interesting and * " Travels through the Interior Parts of North America, in 1766-'68," by John Carver, Captain of a Company of Provincial Troops in the late French War, 8vo., third edition, portrait, maps, and plates, London, 1781. AMEElCAN TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 389 useful in themselves, and as yet but partiaUy recorded, than Thomas Jefferson, who was a good observer of nature, as far as detaUs are concemed, and accurate in matters where taste and opinion were not essential. His love of such inqui ries had led him to record whatever statistical knowledge or curious phenomena came under his observation. As a planter, he had ample opportunity to observe the laws of nature, the methods of culture, and tbe means of progress open to a ch- cumspeet agriculturist. He had read much in natural history, and was fond of scientific conversation ; so that, with the books then at command, aud the truths then recognized in these spheres, he was in advance of most of his countrymen. The inquiries of Marbois induced him to elaborate and arrange tbe data he had coUected, and two hundred copies of the work were privately printed, under the title of " Notes on Vhginia," * a bad translation of which was soon after pubhshed in Paris. The reader of Jefferson's collected ¦writings, whose taste has been formed by the later models of his vernacular authors, wiU not be much impressed vrith his hterary talents or culture. In eloquence and argumentar tive power he was far inferior to Hamilton. His memoir of himself has little of the frank simphcity and naive attraction that have made Franklin's Life a household book ; while the fame of the Declaration of Independence wholly eclipses any i-enown derived from the wisdom and occasional vivacity of his correspondence, or the curious knowledge displayed in his " Notes " on his native State. The eminence of the writer in poUtical history and official distinction, the extraordinary cir cumstances amid which he hved and acted, the part he took in a great social and civic experiment, bis representative character in the world of opinion, the coincidence of his death with the anniversary of the most iUustrious deed of his life, and with the demise of his predecessor in the Presidential office and political opponent, aU throw a peculiar interest and impart a personal significance to what his pen recorded ; so * " Notes on the State of Virginia," 8vo., map, London, 1787. 390 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. that, although there is comparatively little of original scien tific value in his " Notes on Virginia," they are a pleasing memorial of his assiduous observation, and are characteristic of his turn of mind and habits of thought. It has been justly said of tbe work, tbat " politics, commerce, and manu factures are here treated of in a satisfactory and instructive manner, but with rather too much the air of philosophy." The description of the Natural Bridge, and of the scenery of Harper's Ferry and tbe Shenandoah Valley, as weU as of other remarkable natural facts, drew many strangers to Vir ginia ; and the " Notes " are often quoted by travellers, agri culturists, and phUosophers. Captain Imlay, of the American army, is considered the best of the early authorities in regard to tbe topography of the Western country. The original London edition of his " Topographical Description of the Western Territory of North America,"* is the result of observations made be tween 1792 and 1797. The third edition is much enhanced in -Kalue as a reference, by including the works of Filson, Hutchins, and other kindred material. In 1793, this author embodied another and most interesting phase of his experi ence in tbat then but partiaUy known region, in a novel called " The Emigrants," which contains genuine pictures of life. The " Travels in New England and New York " f of Timothy Dvright are probably as little read by the present generation as his poetry ; and yet both, fifty or sixty years ago, exerted a salutary infiuence, and are stUl indicative of the benign inteUectual activity of a studious, religious, and patriotic man, whose name is honorably associated with early American hterature, as well as with the educational progress * " Topographical Description of the Western Territory of North Amer ica," by Gilbert Imlay, second edition, with large additions, 8vo., with correct maps of the Western Territories, 1793. Comprises a valuable mass of mate rials for the early history of the Western country, embodying the entire works of Filson, Hutchins, and various other tracts and original narratives. f " Travels in New England and New Tork," by Timothy Dwight, illus trated with maps and plates, 4 thick vols., 8vo., 1828. AMEElCAN TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 391 and theological history of New England. A descendant of Jonathan Edwards, a chaplain in the army of the Revolution, a member of tbe Connecticut Legislatm-e, farmer, clergy man, scholar, patriot, and bard, whether giving religious sanction to his brave countrymen in their struggle for free dom, toiling for the support of his famUy, teaching, rhyming, talking, or fiUing, with assiduous fidelity, the office of Presi dent of Yale College, Dwight was one of the most useful, consistent, and respected men of letters of his day in Amer ica. Idohzed by his pupils, admired by his feUow citizens, and the favorite companion of TrumbuU, Barlow, and the elder Buckminster, his simple style of hfe harmonized nobly with his urbane self-respect, intellectual tastes, and public sphit. His revision of the Psalms of Watts was a service practicaUy recognized by all sects. The conscientiousness which formed the basis of bis character, not less than the erigencies of his life, promoted habits of versatUe and in domitable industry. In youth, his ardent nature found vent in verse, much of which, especially some heroic couplets, have the ring and emphasis of a muse enamored of nature and fired with patriotism. His vacations,' whUe President of Yale, were devoted to travel, not in the casual manner so usual at the period, but with a riew to explore carefully and record faithfully. It is true that, compared to the scientific tourists of our day, Dwight was but imperfectly equipped for a complete and minute investigation of nature ; but, keenly observant, inteUigent, and honest, loving- knowledge for its own sake, and eager to diffuse as well as to acquhe practical information, we find in this voluntary choice of recreation, at that period, a signal evidence of bis superior mind. Many comparatively unknown regions of New England and New York Dwight traversed on horseback, communica ting the results of his journeys in letters, which were not given to the public until several years after his death. We know of no better reference for accounts of the prominent men and the economical and social traits of the Eastern 392 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. States, at the period, than may be gleaned from Dwight's Travels. They preserve some original features and facts which a locomotive age bas since swept away. They furnish an interesting picture of life in New England and New York, when the towns therein were scattered and lonely, the agricultural resources but partially developed, and the primi tive tastes and customs yet dominant. Although seldom read, this early record of travel over scenes so famUiar and unsuggestive to us, vrill be precious to tbe future delineator of manners, and even to the speculative economist and phi losopher. A future Macaulay would find in them many ele ments for a picturesque or statistical description ; for in such detaUs, wben authentic and wisely chosen, exist the materials of history. Among the earliest modern accounts, at aU elab orate, of the White Mountains, Lake George, Niagara, and tbe CatskUls, are those gleaned by Timothy Dwight, in his lonely wanderings at a time when, to travel at aU, was to isolate oneself, and be inspired with an individual aim, and the " sohtary horseman " was a significant fact, instead of a resource of fiction. It was Dwight's habit to take copious notes and accumulate local facts, which he afterward -wrote out and illustrated at his leisure. His " Travels " were first published in 1821. Their range would now be thought quite limited ; but, in view of the meagre facilities for moving about then enjoyed, and the comparative absence of enter prise in tbe way of journeys of observation, these intelU gent comments and descriptions must have been very useful and entertaining, as tbey are now valuable and agreeable. Robert Southey, whose hterary taste was singularly catholic, and who had labored enough in the field of authorship to duly estimate everything tbat contributes to the use or beauty of tbe vocation, wrote of Dwight's " Travels," in the Quar terly Review : "The work before us, though the humblest in its pretences, is the most important of his writings, and will derive additional value from time, whatever may become of his poems and sermons. A wish to gratify those who, a hundred years hence, might feel curios- AMEElCAN TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 893 ity concerning his native country, made him resolve to preserve a faithful description of its existing state. He made notes, therefore, hi the summer vacation tours, and coUected facts on the spot. The remarks upon natural history are those of an observant and sagacious man, who makes no pretensions to science ; they are more interest- mg, therefore, than those of a merely scientific traveUer." Here we bave another striking iUustration of the conser vative worth of facts in literature over the fruits of specula tion or of fancy, unless tbe latter are redeemed by rare originality. Only the most gifted poets and philosophers continue to be read and admhed ; whUe tbe humblest gleaner among the facts of life and nature, if honest and assiduous, is remembered and referred to with gratitude and respect. As Commissioner ofthe Revenue, Tench Coxe, of PhUadel phia, investigated and wrote upon several economical interests of the country, and, in 1794, pubhshed his " View of the United States of America," in a series of papers written in 1787-'94.* There is much statistical information in regard to trade and manufactures during the period indicated. The progress of the country at that time is authenticaUy described, and the resources of Pennsylvania exhibited. Two chapters of the work are curious — one on the " distUleries of tbe United States," and the other giring " information relative to maple sugar, and its possible value in some parts of the United States." The facts communicated must have been useful to emigrants at that period ; and, in summing up the condition and prospects of the country, a remarkable increase of for eign commerce, shipbuilding, and manufactures, in the ten years succeeding the War of Independence, is shown. The author congratulates his fellow citizens that " the importation of slaves has ceased ; " that " no evils have resulted from an enthe separation of church and state, and of ecclesiastical from tbe civil power ; " that Europeans " have rather accom modated themselves to the American modes of life, than pur sued or mtroduced those of Europe ; " that no monarchy over * "View of the United States of America," in a series of papers written between 1787 aud 17,94, by Tench Coxe, 8vo., Philadelphia and London, 1795. 17* 394 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. " an equally numerous people has been so well able to main tain internal tranquilhty ; " and tbat the " terrifying reports of danger from Indians" are unfounded. The work is a valuable statistical landmark of national development. In the year 1810, a book on America* by a native author excited much attention, partly from tbe special facts it re counted, and partly because of a humorous vein, wherein European criticisms and travellers' complaints were met and refuted. The volume was timely, in some respects quite able, and often piquant. Tbe literary artifice adopted served also to win the curious. It was pretended that Inciquin, a Jesuit, during a residence in tbe United States, had written numer ous letters descriptive of the country, and in reply to current aspersions by prejudiced visitors — a portion of this corre- spopdence having been discovered on a bookseller's stall, at Antwerp, and the "packet of letters" being published on this side of the water as the work of some unknown for eigner. A distinct ' account of political parties, about which great misapprehensions then prevaUed in Great Britain, is given ; numerous falsehoods then prevalent regarding the social condition and habits of tbe people are exposed ; and the hypercritical and fastidious objections propagated by shallow writers are cleverly ridiculed ; while a more kindly and just estimate of American manners and culture is affirmed. The idea of the book was exceUent ; but its exe cution is not commensurate therewith, being comparatively destitute of that literary tact and graceful vivacity essential to the complete success of such an experiment. It, however, served a good though temporary purpose, more adequately fulfiUed by Walsh's " Appeal." In bis account of American literature, the author, at that date, had but a meagre cata logue to Ulustrate bis position, MarshaU's " Life of Washing ton " and Barlow's " Columbiad " being most prominent. Perhaps the political information was tbe most important element of the work ; and the intimate acquaintance with our * " Inciquin the Jesuit's 'Letters, during a late Residence in the United States of America," New Tork, 1810, Svo. AMEElCAN TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 395 system of govemment, and the appreciation of the social condition of the repubhc manifest throughout, suggest that, vrith the attraction of a more pleasing style, " Inciquin's Let ters " might have clahned and won a more permanent inter est. It soon became known that they were written by Chai-les J. IngersoU, of PhUadelphia, a pohtical litterateur and weU-known citizen, who has since figured in pubhc hfe, and died withm a few years. The London Quarterly, with characteristic unfairness, assaUed the work, which malicious criticism was promptly answered by Paulding. The calumnies of the EngUsh bookwrights and reviewers were ably confuted also by Irving, Dwight, and Everett ; but the most efficient and elaborate reply, at this thne, emanated from Robert Walsh, whose mdustry in the collection of facts, practice as a writer, and famiharity with history and Uterature, made bim an able champion. He had long enter tained the idea of a carefuUy prepared work — historical, eco nomical, and critical— on the United States, and had arranged part of the materials therefor. A pecuharly bitter and un just article, ostensibly a review of " Inciqum's Letters," mduced Mr. Walsh to abandon, for the time, his intended work, in favor of a less elaborate but most seasonable one. He did not attach undue importance to these attacks, but, like aU educated and experienced men, perceived that the wilful misrepresentations and vulgar prejudice with which they abounded, insured their ephemeral reputation, and proved them the work of venal bands ; yet, in common with the best of his countrymen, he recognized, in the popularity of such shaUow and often absurd tirades, in the demand as a literary ware of such aspersions upon the name, fame, and character of the repubhc, a degree of ignorance and preju dice in England, which it became a duty to leave without excuse, by a clear and authentic statement of facts. Accord ingly, his " Appeal from tbe Judgments of Great Britain " * * " An Appeal from the Judgments of Great Britain respecting the Unit ed States, &c., with Strictures on the Calumnies of British 'Writers," by Robert Walsh, 8vo., Philadelphia, 1819. 396 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. appeared in 1819. Its political bias made it somewhat unac ceptable to a portion of his countpymen ; and, with the more fuU exposition of our inteUectual resources which the growth of American literature has subsequently induced, it is obri ous that he might have made the argument in this regard more copious. But, as a whole, it was admirably done. Much of the testimony adduced is EngUsh ; and the chapters on the British maladministration of the colonies, on the hos- tUity of the British Reriews, and on slavery, are of present significance and permanent interest. It was a timely rindicar tion of our country, and so absolutely fixed the lie of malice upon many of the flippant writers in question, and the bigotry of prejudice upon their acquiescent readers, tbat an obrious improvement was soon apparent, especiaUy in the Reviews — more care as to correctness in data, and less arrogance in tone. The work is a landmark to which we can now refer with advantage, to estimate the degree and kind of progress attained by the United States at the period ; and it serves no less effectually as a memorial of the literary, political, and social injustice of England. In addition to Irving, IngersoU, Walsh, Everett, and Cooper, many of our citizens bave " come to the rescue " abroad, in less memorable but not less seasonable and efficient ways. Through the journals of Europe, many a mistake has been corrected, many a prejudice dispeUed, and many a right vindicated by pubUc-spirited and intelligent citizens of the republic. In Blackwood's Magazine, 1823-'6, for instance, are several articles on American writers and subjects, wherein, with much critical nonchalance and broad assertion, there are many facts and statements fitted to enlighten and interest in regard to this country. They were written by John Neal, of Portland, whose dramatic but extravagant and rapidly con cocted novels and poems, by their spirit and native fiavor, had won their author fame, and gained him literary employment abroad; where he became a disciple of Bentbam, and aspired, despite strong personal likes and disUkes, to be an impartial AMEElCAN TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 397 raconteur and reporter of his country, in a British periodical of vride chculation and infiuence. No Southern State has been so fully described by early and later writers, as Virginia. As tbe bome of Washing ton and Jefferson, it attracted risitors when the journey thither from tbe East was far from easy or convenient. The partially aristocratic origin of the first settlers gave a distinctive and superior social tone to the region. Hunt mg, pohtical speculation, convivial courtesies, and the Epis copal Church, were local features whereby tbe life of the Virginia planter assimilated with that of English manorial habits and prestige. Moreover, a certain hue of romance invests the early history of the State, associated as it is with the gaUantry and culture of Sh Walter Raleigh and the self- devotion of Pocahontas. The very name of "Old Domin ion " endeared Vhginia to many more than her own children ; and that other title of " Mother of Presidents " indicates her prominence in our republican annals. Novelists have de lighted to lay theh scenes within ber borders — ^to describe the shores of the Rappahannock, the ancient precincts of Jamestown, the beautiful vaUey of the Shenandoah, and the picturesque attractions of tbe Blue Ridge ; as well as to elaborate tbe traits of character and the phases of social life fondly and proudly ascribed to the comitry. Lovers of humor find an unique comic side to the nature of the Vir ginia negro — one of whose popular melodies plaintively evinces the pecuhar attachment which bound the domestic slave to the soU and family; whUe the countless anecdotes of John Randolph, and other eccentric country gentlemen, indicate that the independent and provincial life of the planter there was remarkably productive of original and quaint characteristics. Naturahsts expatiated on the wonders of the Natural Bridge ; valetudinarians flocked to the Sulphur Springs ; and lovers of humanity made pilgrimages to Momit Vemon. 'There Washington, a young surveyor, became famihar with toU, exposure, and responsibUity, and passed the crowning years of his spotless career ; there he was born. 398 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. died, and is buried ; there Patrick Henry roamed and mused, until the hour struck for him to rouse, with invincible elo quence, the instinct of free citizenship ; there MarshaU drUled his yeomen for battle, and disciplined his judicial mind by study ; there Jefferson wrote his " Pohtical Philosophy" and "Notes of a Naturalist;" there Burr was tried. Clay was born, Wirt pleaded, Nat Turner instigated tbe Southampton massacre. Lord Fahfax hunted, and John Brown was hung, Randolph bitterly jested, and Pocahontas won a holy fame ; and there treason reared its hydra head, and profaned the consecrated soil with vulgar insults and savage cruelty ; there was the last battle scene of the Revolution, and the first of tbe Civil War ; there is Mount Vernon, Monticello, and Yorktown ; and there, also, are Manassas, Bull Run, and Fredericksburg ; there is the old graveyard of Jamestown, and the modem Golgotha of Fair Oaks ; there is the noblest tribute art bas reared to Washington, and the most loath some prisons wherein despotism wreaked vengeance on patriotism ; and ou that soil countless martyrs have offered up their hves to conserve the national eristence. What Wirt, Kennedy, Irving, the author of " Cousin Veronica," and others, have written of rural and social life in Virginia, from tbe genial sports of " SwaUow Barn " to the hunting frolics at Greenway Court — what Virginia was in the days of Henry and MarshaU, she essentiaUy appeared to ChasteUux and to Paulding. It is nearly fifty years since the latter's " Letters from tbe South " * were written ; and, glancing over them to-day, what confirmation do recent events yield to many of his observations ! This is one of the unconscious advantages derived from faithful personal insight and records. However famihar the scene and obso lete the book, as such, therein may be found the material for political inference or authentic speculation. " It seems the destiny of this country," writes Paulding from Virginia, in 1816, "that power should travel to tbe West;" and again, "the blacks diminish in number as you travel toward the * " Letters from the South," by a Northern Man. AMEElCAN TEAVELLEES AND WEIIEES. 399 mountains ; " and elsewhere, " I know not whether you have observed it, but all the considerable States south of New York have their little distrusts aud separate local interests, or rather local feelings, operating, most vehemently. The east and west section of the State are continually at sixes and sevens. The mountains caUed the Blue Ridge not only, form the natural, but the pohtical division of Virginia." Recent events have confirmed emphatically tbe truth of this observa tion; and what Paulding says of the people, agrees with previous and subsequent testimony — "gaUant, high-spirited, lofty, lazy sort of beings, much more likely to spend money than to earn it." We have noted the evidence of earher traveUers as to the decadence of slavery in Virginia, before the invention of the cotton-gin made the institution profit able; and our own countryman, writing nearly fifty years ago, quotes the remark of a farmer's daughter : " I want father to buy a black woman ; but he says they are more trouble than they are worth." Even at that period, the primitive methods of travel continued through the Southern country much as tbey are described by the French officers who made visits to the South immediately after or during the Revolutionary war. " TraveUers' Rests," says Paulding, " are common in this part of the world, where they receive pay for a sort of famUy fare prorided for strangers. The house, in frequent instances, is buUt of square pine logs lap ping at the four corners, and the interstices filled up with little blocks of wood plastered over and cemented." The ridges of mountain ribbed with pine trees, the veins of cop per and hon revealed by the oxydated soil, the nutritious "hoecake," the marvellous caves and Natural Bridge, the comical negroes, the salubrious mineral springs, the occa sional hunts such as cheered the hospitable manor of Fahfax, the conclaves of village politicians, the horse racing, cock fighting, tbe bard drinking, the famous " reel " of the dan cers and turkey shooting of the riflemen, were then as charac teristic of the Old Dominion as when the judicial mind of her Marshall, the eloquence of her Hem-y, the eccentricities 400 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. of her Randolph, or the matchless patriotism of her Wash ington made her actual social life Ulustrious. The field of Yorktown, the memorable " Raleigh tavern," and the ubiqui tous " first family'" had not ceased to be favorite landmarks and jokes, any more than tobacco the staple or slavery the problem of this fertUe but half-developed region and incon gruous community. Paulding gave vent to his indignant patriotism, when the second war with England broke out, in " The Diverting His tory of John Bull and Brother Jonathan," * in the- manner of Arbuthnot. In this work, the two countries are made to figure as individuals, and tbe difficulties between the two nations are exhibited as a family quarrel. England's course is the subject of a severe but not acrimonious satire. It was republished abroad and Ulustrated at home, and the idea stiU further developed in a subsequent story entitled " Uncle Sam and his Boys." A risit to Ohio from New England was formidable as late as 1796, when Morris Cleveland, whose name is now borne by the city where then spread a wUdemess, accompa nied the survey as agent of those citizens of Connecticut to whom she gave an enormous land grant in Ohio, to indemnify them for the loss of their property destroyed by the ,British during tbe Revolution. The party ascended the Mohawk in bateaux, which they carried over the " portage " of Little FaUs to Port Stanwix, now Rome, where there was another portage to Wood Creek, which empties into Oneida Lake ; thence tbey passed through its outlet and the Oswego River into Lake Ontario, following tbe south shore thereof to the mouth of the! Niagara River ; crossing seven miles of port age to Buffalo, and thence to the region of which Cleveland now forms the prosperous centre. The descendants of these landowners — some of whom yet may be found in the towns that suffered from the enemy's incursions eighty years ago, such as New London, Groton, and Fairfield — if they possess * " John Bull in America ; or. New Munchausen," second edition, ISmo,, pp. 228. The original and genuine edition, New Tork, 1825. AMEEIOAN TEAVELLEES AND WEITEEB. 401 any record of tbe hardships thus endured and the time con-. sumed, might find a wonderful evidence of progress and growth, in the facUity with which they can now reach the same spot by a few hours of railway travel along the pic turesque track of the Erie road. We must revert to such memorials to appreciate what " going West " implied forty or fifty years ago, and to under stand the interest which the narratives of travellers there then excited. Before this experience became famihar, therC were two writers who enjoyed much popularity in the North and East, and were extensively read abroad, as pioneer de- hneators of hfe and nature in the Western States, when that region fahly began its marvellous growth : these were Timo thy Flint and James HaU. There are writers whose works lack the high finish and the exhaustive scope which insures them permanent cur rency ; and yet who were actuated by so genial a spirit and endowed vrith so many exceUent qualities, that the impres sion they leave is sweet and enduring, lUte the brief but pleasing companionship of a kindly and inteUigent acquaint ance met in travelling, and parted with as soon as known. Those who, in youth, read of the West as pictured by Timo thy Flint, though for years they may not have referred to his books, will readily accord hhn such a gracious remembrance. He wrote before American literature had enrolled the classic names it now boasts, and when it was so little cultivated as scarcely to be recognized as a profession. And yet a candid and sympathetic reader cannot but feel that, however defec tive the products of Flint's pen may be justly deemed when critically estimated, they not only fulfiUed a most useful and humane purpose at the time they were given to the public, but abound in the best evidences of a capacity for author ship; which, under circumstances more favorable to disci pline, deliberate construction, and gradual development, would have secured him a high and ^permanent niche in the temple of fame. Flint bad aU the requisite elements for ht erary success — uncommon powers of observation, a generous 402 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. tone of mind, habits of industry, a command of language, imagination, scientific tastes, and a vein of originahty com bined with a kindliness of heart that would honor and ele vate any vocation. On the other hand, it was not until the mature age of forty-five tbat he fairly embarked in author ship. That business was far from profitable, and, to make it remunerative, be was obliged to write fast, and pubhsh vrith out revision. His health was always precarious. He had few of those associations whereby an author is encouraged in the refinements and indiriduality of his work by the exam ple and critical sympathy of bis peers. It is not, therefore, surprising that his success varied in the different spheres of literary experiment ; that the marks of haste, sometimes a desultory and at others a crude style, mar the nicety and grace of' his productions ; and that many of these are more remarkable for the material than the art they exhibit. Yet such was the manly force, such the kindly spirit and fresh tone of this estimable man and attractive writer, that he not only gave to tbe public a large amount of new and useful information, and charmed lovers of nature with a picturesque and faithful picture of her aspects in the West, then rarely traversed by the people of the older States, »but it is conceded that his writings were singularly effective in producing a bet ter inutual understanding between the two extremes of the country. For several years Timothy Fhnt was almost the only representative of the American authorship west of the AUeghanies. TraveUers speak of an interview with him as an exceptional and charming social incident. When that long range of mountains was tediously crossed in stages ; when a visit to the West was more formidable than a passage across the Atlantic now ; and wben material weU-being was the inevitable and absorbing occupation of the newly settled towns along the great rivers, it may easUy be imagined how benign an influence an urbane and liberal writer and scholar would exert at home, and how welcome his report of per sonal experience would prove lo older communities. Accord ingly, Timothy Flint was extensively read and widely be- AMEElCAN TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 403 loved. A native of Massachusetts, and by profession a clergyman, he entered on a missionary life in the VaUey of the Mississippi in 1816 ; sojourning in Ohio, Indiana, Ken tucky, Missouri, Ai-kansas, and Louisiana, now as a teacher and now as a preacher ; a,t home in the wildemess, a favorite in society, winning chUdren and hunters by his wisdom and eloquence, and endearing himself to the educated residents of St. Louis, New Orleans, or Cincinnati, by his hberal and cultivated influence. It is, perhaps, impossible to imagine how different these cities and settlements were before facility of communication had enlarged and multiphed theh social resources ; but we have many striking eridences of the characteristics of each in Flint's writings. ''"He wrote several novels, which are now httle considered, and, compared with the present standard in that popular department of letters, would be found indifferent; yet, wherever the author has drawn from observation, be leaves a vital trace.;^ In " Fran cis Berrian," which is a kind of memoir of a New Englander who became a Mexican patriot, and in " Shoshonoe VaUey," there are fine local pictures and touches of character obri ously caught from his ten years' experience of missionary life. Flint wrote also lectures, tales, and sketches. He edited magazines both hi the North and West, and contrib uted to a London journal. '"But the writings which are chiefly stamped vrith the flavor of his life and the results of his observations — those which, at the time, were regarded as original and authentic, and now may be said to contain among the best, because the most true, deUneations of the West — are his " Condensed Geography and History of tbe Missis sippi VaUey," * and his " Recollections of Ten Years " (1826) residence therein^ These works were cordiaUy wel comed at home and abroad. They proved valuable and inter esting to savant, naturaUst, emigrant, and general readers ; and, whUe more complete works on the subject have since * " History and Geography of the Mississippi Valley, with the Physical Geography of the whole American Continent," by Timothy Flint, 2 vols, in 1, 8vo., Cmcinnati, 1832. 404 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. appeared, the period which gave birth to them, and the character and capacity of their author, stiU endear and ren der tbem useful. The London Quarterly was singularly frank and free in its commendation of Flint, whom it pro nounced " sincere, humane, and liberal " on tbe internal eri dence of these writings; declaring, also, that the author indulged " hardly a prejudice that is not amiable." In 1840, on his way to his native town — Reading, in Mas- sachusettsr— Fhnt and his son were at Natchez, when the memorable tornado occurred which nearly destroyed the place, and were several hours buried under tbe ruins. The father's health continued to decline, and, although he reached his early home and survived a few weeks, the summons that called his wife reached her too late. , The peculiar value of Timothy Flint's account of the remarkable region of whose history and aspect he wrote, consists in the fact that it is not tbe result of a cursory sur vey or rapid tour, but of years of residence, intimate contact with nature and man, ¦ and patient observation. The record thus prepared is one which vrill often be consulted by, subse quent writers. The circumstances, political and social, have greatly changed since our author's advent, nearly half a cen tury ago ; but tbe features of nature are identical, and it is pleasant to compare tbem with his delineation before modi fied by the adorning and enriching tide of civUization. There is one portion of these writings tbat has a perma nent charm, and that is tbe purely descriptive. Fhnt knew how to depict landscapes in words ; and no one bas more graphically revealed to distant readers tbe shores of the Ohio, or made so real in our language the physical aspects of the Great Valley. Of native traveUers, the unpretending and brief record called " The Letters • of Hibernicus " * possesses a singular charm, from being associated vrith the recreative work of an eminent statesman, and with one of the most auspicious eco- » " Letters on the Natural History and Internal Resources of the Stata of New York," by Hibernicus, New Tork, 1822, 18mo. AMEElCAN TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 405 nonucal achievements which ever founded and fostered the prosperity of a State and city. When De Witt Clinton ex plored the route , of the Erie Canal, be communicated his wayside observations in a series of famihar epistles, wherein the zest of a naturalist, the ardor of a patriot, and the humor of a genial observer are instinctively blended. "This account of his exploration of Western New York,* which originaUy appeared in one of the journals of the day, offers a wonderful contrast to our famUiar experi ence. Then, to use his own language, ' the stage driver was a leadmg beau, and the keeper of a turnpike gate a man of consequence.' Our three hours' trip from New York to Albany was a voyage occupying ten times that period. At Albany stores were laid in, and each member of the commis sion prorided himself vrith a blanket, as caravans, in our time, are equipped at St. Louis for an expedition to the Eooky Mountains. Here they breakfast at a toUkeeper's, there they dine on cold ham at an isolated farmhouse ; now they mount a baggage wagon, and now take to a boat too small to admit of sleeping accommodations, which leads' them constantly to regret their 'unfortunate neglect to proride marquees and camp stools ; ' and more than six weeks are occupied in a journey which now (^oes not consume as many daj-s. Yet the charm of patient observation, the enjoyment of nature, and the gleanings of knowledge, caused what, in our locomotive era, would seem a tedious pilgrimage, to be fraught with a pleasure and advantage of which our fiying tourists over modern railways never dream. We perceive, by the comparison, tbat what has been gained in speed is often lost in rational entertainment. The traveUer who leaves New York in the morning, to sleep at night under the roar of Niagara, has gathered nothing in the magical transit hut dust, fatigue, and the risk of destruction ; wbile, in that deliberate progress of tbe canal enthusiast, not a phase of the landscape, not an historical association, not a fruit, min eral, or flower was lost to his view. He recognizes tbe be- * 'From the author's " Biographical and Critical Essays." 406 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. nign prorision of nature for sugar, so far from tbe tropics, by the sap of the inaple ; and for salt, at such a distance from the ocean, by the lakes that hold it in solution near Syracuse. At Geddesburg he recaUs the valor of the Iro quois, and the pious zeal of the Jesuits ; at Seneca Lake he watches a bald eagle chasing an osprey, who lets his captive drop to be grasped hi the talons of the king of birds ; the fields near Aurora cheer him with the harvests of the ' finest wheat country in the world.' At one place he is regaled vrith salmon, at another with fruit, peculiar in fiavor to each locality ; at one moment he pauses to shoot a bittern, and at another to examine an old fortiBcation. The capers and pop pies in a garden, the mandrakes aud thistles in a brake, the bluejays and woodpeckers of the grove, the buUet marks in tbe rafters of Fort Niagara, tokens of the siege under Sir WUham JohnSon, the boneset of tbe swamp, a certain remedy for the local fever, a Yankee exploring the country for lands, the croaking of the bullfrog and the gleam of the firefly, Indian men spearing for fish, and girls making wampum — these and innumerable other scenes and objects lure him into the romantic ristas of tradition,, or the beautiful domain of natural science ; and everywhere be is inspired by the patri otic survey to announce the as yet xmrecorded promise of the soU, and to exult in the limitless destiny of its people. If there is a striking diversity between the population and facUi ties of travel in this region as known to us and as described by hhn, there is in other points a not less remarkable identity. Rochester is now famed as the source of one of the' most prohfic superstitions of the age ; and forty years ago there resided at Crooked Lane, Jemima Wilkinson, whose foUow ers beheved ber tbe Saviour incarnate. Clinton describes her equipage — ' a plain coach vrith leather curtains, the back in scribed with her initials and a star.' The orchards, poultry, cornfields, gristmiUs noted by him, stiU characterize the region, and are indefinitely multiplied. The ornithologist, however, would miss whole species of birds, and the richly- veined woods must be sought in less civUized districts. The AMEElCAN TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 407 prosperous future which the varied products of this district foretold, has been more than realized ; with each successive improvement in the means of communication, villages have sweUed to cities ; barges and freight cars with lumber and flour have crowded the streams and raUs leading to the me tropolis ; and, in the midst of its rural beauty, and gemmed with peerless lakes, the whole region has, according to his prescient conviction, annuaUy increased in commerce, popula tion, and refinement. A more noble domain, indeed, wherein to exercise such administrative genius, aan scarcely.be imagined than the State of New York. In its diversities of surface, water, scenery, and climate, it may be regarded, more than any other member of tbe confederacy, as typical of the Union. The artist, the topographer, tbe man of science, and the agri culturist, can find within its limits aU that is most character istic of the entire country. In historical incident, variety of immigrant races, and rapid development, it is equally a rep resentative State. There spreads tbe luxuriant Mohavvk Val ley, whose verdant slopes, even when covered with frost, the experienced eye of Washington selected for purchase as the best of agricultural tracts. There were the famed hunting grounds of the Six Nations, the colonial outposts of the fur trade, the ricinity of Frontenac's sway, and the Canada wars, the scenes of Andr6's capture, and Burgoyne's surrender. There the very names of forts embalm the fame of heroes. There hved tbe largest manorial proprietors, an^ not a few of the most eminent Revolutionary statesmen. There Ful ton's great invention was realized ; there fiows tbe most beautiful of our rivers, towers tbe grandest mountain range, and expand the most picturesque lakes ; there thunders tbe Bublhnest cataract on earth, and gush the most salubrious spas ; while on the seaboard is tbe emporium of the Western world. A poet has apostrophized North America, with no less truth than beauty, as ' the land of many waters ; ' and a glance at the map of New York wUl mdicate the'ir fehchous 408 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. distribution within her hmits. This element is the natural and primitive means of inter communication. For centuries it bad borne the aborigines in their fraU canoeSj and after ward the trader, the soldier, the missionary, and the emi grant, in their bateaux ; and, wben arrived at a terminus, they carried these hght transports over leagues of portage, again to launch them on lake and river. Fourteen years of Clinton's life were assiduously devoted to his favorite project of uniting these bodies of water. He was the advocate, the memorialist, the topographer, and financier of the vast enter, prise, and acbomplisbed it, by his" wisdom and intrepidity, without the slightest pecuniary advantage, and in the face of innumerable obstacles. Its consummation was one of the greatest festivals sacred to , a triumph of the arts of peace ever celebrated on this continent. The impulse it gave to commercial and agricultural prosperity continues to this hour. It was the foundation of aU that makes the city and State of New York preeminent ; and when, a few years since, a thou sand American citizens sailed up the Mississippi to commem orate its alliance vrith tbe Atlantic, the ease and rapidity of the transit, and the spectacle of rirgin civilization thus created, were but a new act in the grand drama of national develop ment, whose opening scene occurred twenty-seven years be fore, when the waters of Lake Erie blended with those of tbe Hudson. The immense bodies of inland water, and the remarkable fact that the Hudson River, unlike other Atlantic streams south of it, flows unimpeded, early impressed Clinton with the natural means of intercourse destined to connect the sear board of New York vrith the vast agricultm-al districts of the interior. He saw her peerless river enter tbe Highlands only to meet, a hundred and sixty mUes beyond, another stream, which flowed within a comparatively short distance from the great chain of lakes. The very existence of these inland seas, and tbe obrious possibUity of imiting them with the ocean, suggested to his comprehensive mind a new idea of the destiny of the whole country. Within a few years an AMEElCAN TEAVELLEES AND 'WEIIEES. 409 ingenious geographer has pomted out, with smgular acumen, the relation of his science to history, and has demonstrated, by a theory not less philosophical than poetic, that the dispo sition of land and water in various parts of the globe prede termines tbe human development of each region. The copi ous civihzation of Europe is thus traceable to the numerous facUities of approach that distmguish it from Africa, which BtUl remains but partiaUy explored. Tbe lakes in America prophesied to the far-reaching rision of Clinton her future progress. He perceived, more clearly than any of his con temporaries, that her development depended upon facUities of intercourse and communication. He beheld, with intui tive wisdom, the extraordinary prorision for this end, in the succession of lake and river, extending, hke a broad silver tissue, from the ocean far through the land, thus bringing the products of foreign climes within reach of the lone emigrant in the heart of the continent, and the staples of those mid land vaUeys to freight the ships of her seaports. He felt that the State of all others to practically demonstrate this great fact, was that vrith whose interests he was intrusted. It was not as a theorist, but as a utihtarian, in the best sense, that he advocated, the union by canal of the waters of Lake Erie ¦vrith those of the Hudson. The patriotic scheme was fraught -(rith issues of which even he never dreamed. It was apply ing, on a limited scale, in the sight of a people whose enter prise is boundless in every direction clearly proved to be avaUable, a principle which may be truly declared the vital element of our civic growth. It was giring tangible evidence of the creative power incident to locomotion. It was yield ing the absolute evidence then required to convince the less far-sighted multitude that access was the grand secret of in creased value ; that exchange of products was tbe touchstone of wealth ; and that the iron, wood, grain, fruit, and other abundant resources of tbe interior could acquire their real value only through facilities of transportation. Simple as these truths appear now, they were widely ignored then ; and not a few opponents of Clinton predicted that, even if he did 18 410 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMJJNTATOES. succeed in baring flour conveyed from what was then caUed the ' Far West ' to tbe metropolis, at a smaU expense of time and money, the grass would grow in the streets of New York. The pohtical economists of his d^y were thus con verted into enemies of a system which, from that hour, has continued to guide to prosperous issues every latent source of wealth throughout tbe country. The battle with igno rance and prejudice, which Clinton and his friends waged, resulted in more than a local triumph and individual renown. It estabhshed a great precedent, offered a prolific example, and gave permanent impulse and dhection to the public spirit of the community. Tbe canal is now, in a great measure, superseded by the raUway; the traveUer sometimes finds them side by side, and, as he glances from the sluggish stream and creeping barge to the whirling cars, and thence to the telegraph whe, he vritnesses only tbe more perfect de velopment of that great scheme by which Clinton, according to the limited means and against the inveterate prejudices of his day, sought to bring the distant near, and to render homogeneous and mutually helpful the activity of a single State, and, by tbat successful experiment, indicated the pro cess whereby the whole confederacy shoidd be rendered one in interest) in enterprise, and in sentiment. Before the canal pohcy was reaUzed, we are told by its great advocate that 'the expense of conveying a barrel of flour by land to Albany, from the country above ^Dayuga Lake, was more than twice as much as the cost of transporta tion from New York to Liverpool ; ' and the correctness of his financial anticipations was verified by the first year's ex periment, even before tbe completion of the enterprise, when, in his message to tbe legislature, he announced that 'the income of the canal fund, when added to the tolls, exceeded the interest on the cost of the canal by nearly four himdred thousand doUars.' Few, however, of the restless excursion ists that now crowd our cars and steamboats, would respond to his praise of this means of transportation when used for travel. His notion of a journey, we have seen, differed essen- AMEEIOAN TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 411 tiaUy from that now in vogue, which seems to aim chiefly at the annihUation of space. To a phUosophic mind, notwith standing, his views vriU not appear hrational, when he de clares that fifty miles a day, ' vrithout a jolt,' is bis ideal of a tour — ^the time to be divided between observing, and, when there is no interest in the scenery, reading and conversation. ' I beheve,' he adds, ' that cheaper or more commodious traveUing cannot be foimd.' " James HaU wrote a series of graphic letters in tbe Port folio — one of the earliest hterary magazines, published in PhUadelphia — whicb were subsequently coUected in a volume, and were among tbe first descriptive sketches of merit that made the West famUiar and attractive to the mass of read ers. Bom in PhUadelphia in 1793, the author entered the army, and was engaged in tbe battle of Lundy's Lane, at the siege of Fort Erie, an^ on other occasions during the war of 1812. Six years later he resigned his commission, and, in 1820, removed to Bhnois, where he studied and practised law, became a member of the legislature and judge of the chciut court. In 1833 he again changed his residence to Cincinnati, where he was long occupied as cashier of a bank, and in the pursuits of hterature. From his intimate ac quaintance vrith the Western country, his experience as a soldier and a legislator, habits of inteUigent observation, and an animated and agreeable style, he was enabled to write attractively of a region comparatively new to the hterary public, and for many years his books were a popular source of information and entertainment for those eager to know the characteristics and enjoy the adventurous or historical ro mances of the Westem States first settled. He successively pubhshed letters from and legends of the West, tales of tbe border, and statistics of and notes on that new and growing region.* * "Legends of tbe 'West," 12mo., Philadelphia, 1833. " Sketches Of History, Life, and Manners in the West," 2 vols. 12mo., Philadelphia, 1835. " Notes on the 'Westem States," 12mo., Philadelphia, 1838. , " The Wildemess and the War Path," 12mo.., New York, 1846. " The West, its Soil, Surface, and Productions," Cincinnati, 1848. 412 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. With the progress of the country, and the leisure and its consequent hterary taste which peace and prosperity induce, more dehberate works began to appear from native authors, which, vrithout behig hteraUy Travels, contain theh best fruits, and possess a more mature attraction. The same causes led to critical observation and pleas for reform. Two books especially won not only attention, but fame : they were the productions of men of classical education, genial tastes, and public spirit, but diverse in subject as their au thors were in vocation — one an eloquent lawyer, and the other an enterprising merchant. " Letters from the Eastern States," by. WUham Tudor, appeared in 1819. Theh origi nahty and acuteness were at once acknowledged ; ¦ and, although the discussion of some questions now seems' too elaborate, they are an exceUent memorial of tbe times and the region they describe. Tudor was an efficient friend of tbe first purely hterary periodical established in New Eng land, one of the founders of the first pubhc library, and the originator of the BmUcer HUl Monument. WiUiam Wirt, in Vhginia, at an early date exhibited the same love of elegant letters, initiated a work simUar in scope and aim to Addi son's Spectator, and was not only an eloquent speaker and favorite companion, but a scholar of classic taste and hterary asphations. In the winter of 1803 he pubhshed, in the Argus — a daUy journal of Richmond, Va., — "Letters of a British Spy," which were coUected and issued in a book form.* Like Irving in tbe case of " EJnickerbocker," he re sorted to tbe ruse of a pretended discovery of papers left in an inn chamber. The success of these " Letters " surprised * "The British Spy; or. Letters to a Member of the British Parliament," written during a tour through the United States, by a Young Englishman of Bank, 18mo., pp. 103, Newburyport, 1804. — " The above is the original edi tion of the now celebrated letters of the British Spy, written by the American Plato, William Wirt. For the amount of what he has written, no American author has won so permanent and widespread a reputation. His story of the blind preacher is one of the most beautiful and affecting in the language. This book has gone through fifteen editions, and is destined to go through as many more." — Gowan's Catalogue. AMEElCAN TEAVELLEES AND -WETTEES. 413 the author, as it would tbe reader of the present day unac quainted vrith tbe circumstances. Superior in style to any beUes-lettres work of the kind, of native origin, that had yet appeared, and analyzing tbe merits of several popular orators of the time, the book had a charm and interest for its first readers greatly owing to the rarity of an intellectual feast of domestic production. Besides his remarks on the eloquence of the forum and bar, Wirt discussed certain physical traits and phenomena vrith zest and some scientific insight, and gave incidental but graphic sketches of local society and manners. His reflections on the character of Pocahontas, and his portrait of the " Blind Preacher," are famihar as favorite specimens of descriptive writing. Although now Uttle read, the "Letters of a British Spy" are a pleasing land mark in the brief record of American hterature, and give us a not inadequate idea of the life and region delineated. In 1812, an edition was published in London, with an apologetic preface indicative of the feeling then prevalent across the water in regard to aU mental products imported from the United States, aggravated, perhaps, by the nom de plume "Wht had adopted. The pubhsher declares his " conviction of its merit " induces him to offer the Work to the public, though " it is feared tbe present demand on the Enghsh reader may be considered more as a call on British courtesy and benevolence than one of right and equity." When our national novehst retumed to America, after a residence of many years in Europe, he undertook to give his countrymen the benefit of his experience and reflections in the shape of direct censure and counsel. " The Monnikins" —a political sathe — " The American Democrat," " Homeward Bound," " Home as Found," " A Letter to his Countrymen," and other productions in tbe shape of essays, fiction, and satire, gave expression to convictions and arguments born of sincere and patriotic motives and earnest thought. In his general views. Cooper bad right and reason on his side. What be wrote of political abuses and social anomalies, every candid and cultivated American has known and felt to be 414 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. true, especiaUy after a risit to Em-ope. But tbe manner of conveying his sentiments was injudicious. Description, not satire, was his forte ; action, and not didactics, had given eclat to his pen ; hence his admirers believed he had mistaken his vocation in becoming a social and political critic ; whUe many were revolted by wbat they conceived to be a sweep ing and unauthorized condemnation. Moreovei;, in offending the' editorial fraternity, by a caricature of their worst quaU ties, he drew around himself a swarm of vhulent protests, and thus was misjudged; the consequence was a series of hbel suits and a wearisome controversy. Now that the ex aggerated mood and the gross misapprehensions therein in volved, have passed away, we can appreciate the abstract jus- 'tice of Cooper's position, tbe manly sphit and 'the intelligent patriotism of his unfortunate experiments as a -reformer, and revert to this class of bis writings with profit, especiaUy shice the crisis he anticipated has been reached, and the logic of events is enforcing vrith solemn emphasis the lessons he un graciously perhaps, but honestly and bravely, strove to im press Upon Ms wayward countrymen. If ever an American had a right to assume the office of censor, it was' Cooper. He had, soon after bis arrival in Europe, taken up his pen in behalf of his country, and thenceforth advocated her rights, defended her fame, and brought to reckoning her ignorant maligners. His " Notions of the' Americans " did much to correct false impressions abroad ; and its author was involved in a long controversy, and became an American champion and oracle, whose services have never yet been fuUy appreciated, enhanced as they were by his European popularity as an original American novehst. Well wrote HaUeck : " Cooper, whose name is with his country's woven. Erst in her files, her pioneer of mind, A wanderer now in other climes, has proven His love for the young land he left 'behind." It reqidres a love of nature, an adventurous spirit, and an inteUigent patriotism, such as, hi these days of complex asso- AMEElCAN TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 415 ciations and fragmentary interests, are rarely found in the game indiridual, to observe and to write vrith effect upon the scenes and the character of this repubUc — especiaUy those parts thereof that are removed from the great centres of trade and society. Political economists there are who vrill patiently nomenclate the physical resources ; sportsmen who can discourse with relish of the bivouac and the hunt, and their environment and incidents ; poetical minds alert and earnest in celebrating particular local charms : but the Amer ican of education who dehghts in exploring, the country and invoking its brifef past in a historical- point of riew, whUe dweUing con amore upon its patural features, so as to pro duce an anhnated narrative — who delights iu' the life and takes pride in the aspect, even when least cultivated, of his native land, is the exception, not tbe rule, among our authors. The reasons are obrious : for the scholar there is too little of that mysterious backgroimd to the picture which enriches it with vast human interest ; to the imaginative there is too much monotony in the landscape and tbe experience ; to the sympathetic, too little variety and grace of character in the people; and the man who can be eloquent in describing Italy, and rivacious in his traveller's journal in France, and speculative in discussing English manners, vriU prove co±- paratively tame and vague when a traveller at home — always excepting certahi shrines of pUgrimage long consecrated to enthusiasm. He may have profound emotions at Niagara, confess the inspiration of a favorite seacoast, and expatiate upon the White Mountahis vrith rapture ; but find a tour in any one section of the land more or less tedious and barren of mterest, or, at best, yielding but vague materials for pen or talk. Exceptions to this average class, many and mem orable, our survey of Travels in America amply indicates; but tbe fact remains, that the feeling that mvests Scott's novels, Wilson's sketches, tbe French memoirs, the German poets, tbe mtense partiality, msight, and sentiment bom of local attachment and national pride, has seldom impregnated Our hterature, especiaUy that of travel ; for the novels of 416 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. Cooper, the poems of Bryant, and other standard produc tions in more elaborate and permanent spheres, do not invaU- date the general truth. Among the native writers who, from the qualities aheady mentioned, have known how to make the narrative of an American tour pleasant and profitable, is Charles Fenno Hoflftnan, whose " Winter in the West " is quite a model of its kind. It consists of a series of letters addressed to a New York journal, describing a journey on horseback in 1835.* There was the right admixture of poet ical and patriotic instinct, of knowledge of books and of the world, and of the love both of nature and adventm-e, to make him an agreeable and instructive delineator of an experience which, to many equaUy inteUigent traveUers, would have been devoid of consecutive interest. In his novels, tales, and verses, there is a positive American flavor, which shows how readUy he saw the characteristic and felt the beautiful in his own country. To him the Hudson was an object of love, and the history of his native State a strong personal interest. UnSpoUed by European travel, and fond of sport, of the freshness and freedom of tbe woods, and the independence incident to our institutions, he, although infirm, bore discom forts with cheerfulness, easily won companionship, and de- Ifghted in exercise and observation. Accordingly, he notes the weather, describes the face of the country, recaUs the Indian legends, speculates on the characters and modes of hfe, and discusses the historical antecedents, as be slowly roams over Eastern Pennsylvania, Michigan, Kentucky, Vh ginia, and IlUnois, with a hvely tone and yet not without grave sympathy. Scenery is described with a robust and graphic rather than with a dainty and rhetorical pen, obri ously guided by an excellent eye for local distinctions and charms ; men and manners are treated with an acute, gen eralized, and manly criticism ; the animals, the river craft, the flowers, the game, the origin and growth of towns, the aspect and resomces of the country, are each and all conge nial themes. He so enjoys the observation thereof, as to put * '¦ A Winter in the West," by a New Yorker, 2 volsi. New York, 1835. AMEElCAN TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 417 his reader in relation with himself, as he did the diverse characters he encountered in tavern, log house, mUitary out post, and drawing room. He is neither revolted by coarse ness nor discouraged by inconveniences. He takes us socia bly along a route now familiar to thousands who trav erse it on raUways with scarce a thought of the latent inter est more tranquU observation and patient inquiry would eUcit. At Detroit we are entertained by an historical epi sode, and at Prairie du Chien with a veritable picture of mihtary hfe, character, and routine in Ajnerica. A conver sation here, an anecdote there, a page of speculation now, and again one of description, something like an adventure to-day, and of curious observation to-morrow, beguUe us with so cheerful and inteUigent a guide, that, at the end of the journey, we are surprised it yielded so many topics of reflection and scenes of pictm-esque or human interest. The statistics whereby the practical inquirer, and the agencies and examples whereby the- social phUosopher, may ,. decide whether Cotton is king, may be found in tbe books of Southem Travel in America wi-itten by Frederick Law Ohnsted. The actual economical results of slave labor upon the value of property, the comfort and the dignity of life and manners, mind, domestic economy, education, religion, social welfare, tone and tendency, may\tbere be found, co pious, specific, and authentic. What nature is in the Cot ton States, and hfe also, are therem emphasized discreetly. Bow tbe solemn pine woods balmUy shade the traveUer ; how gracefuUy dangle the tylandria festoons in hoary grace ; how cheerUy gleam the holly berries, and glow the negroes' fires ; how sturdUy are gnarled the cypress knees ; how mag nificent are the hveoaks, and luxuriant the magnohas, and desolate the swamps, and comfortless the dweUings, and reck less the travel, and shiftless the ways, and rare the vaunted hospitahty, and obsolete the " fine old country gentleman ; " and how proud and poor, precarious and unprogessive is the civihzation inwoven with slave and adjacent to free labor, is narrated without dogmatism and in matter-of-fact terms, 18* 418 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. whence the economist, the humanitarian, tbe phUosopher, the Christian, tbe reasonable man may infer and elaborate the truth, and the duty that truth involves and demands.* More desultory in scope, but not less interesting as the genuine report of calm observation, are Bryant's " Letters of a Traveller," which are fresh, agreeable, and authentic local descriptions and comments, superior in literary execu tion, and therefore valuable as permanent records in the Uterature of home travebf An important department of American Travels, and for scientific and historical objects invaluable, is the record of Government expeditions for miUtary or exploring purposes, from tbe famous enterprises of Lewis and Clark to those of Simeoe, Stansbury, KendaU, Emory, Long, Marcy, Pike, Fre mont, Bartlett, and others. Every new State and Territory has found its intelligent explorer. The vast deserts and the Rocky Mountains, the Great Salt Lake, Oregon, the Ca- mancbe hunting grounds, Texas, the far Westem aboriginal tribes, the climate, soil, topography, &c., of the most remote and uncivilized regions of the continent, have been thus ex amined and reported, and the narratives are often animated by graphic and picturesque scenes, or made impressive by adventure, hardship, and intrepidity. Another remarkable class of books is tb&*long list of those devoted to Cahfomia, written and published within the last ten years, whereby the life, aspect, condition, scenery, resources, and prospects of that region are as familiar to readers in the old States as if they had explored the new El Dorado. * " The Cotton Kingdom, a Traveller's Observations on Cotton and Sla very in the American Slave States," based upon three former volumes of Jour neys and Investigations by the same author, by Frederic Law Olmsted, 2 vols. 12mo., with a colored statistical map of the Cotton Kingdom and its Depend encies. ^ f " Letters of a Traveller in Europe and America," New York, 12mo. — A discriminating critic observes of this work : " Mr. Bryant's style in these Letters is an admirable model of descriptive prose. Without any appearance of labor, it is finished with an exquisite grace. The genial love of nature and the lurking tendency to humor which it everywhere betrays, prevent its severe simplicity from running into hardness, and give it freshness and occa sional glow in spite of its prevailing propriety and reserve." AMEElCAN TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 419 The incidental records of American travel, such as may be found in the letters, diaries, and memoirs of our own civic leaders and mUitary or political heroes, are not the least characteristic or suggestive As a specimen, let us refer to the notes of our peerless Chief in New England, when on his Presidential torn-. Here is a ghmpse of Connecticut as it appeared to the practical eye of Washington in 1789. In his Diary, he says, under date of October 16th of that year: "About seven o'clock we left the widow HavUand's, and, after passing Horse Neck, six mUes distant from Rye, the road through which is hiUy and immensely stony, and trying to wheels and carriages, we breakfasted at Stamford, which is six miles farther, at one Webb's — a tolerable good house. In this tovm are an Episcopal church and a meeting house. At Nor- ' walk, which is ten nules farther, we made a halt to feed our horses. To the lower end of this town sea vessels come, and at the other end are mUls, stores, and an Episcopal and Pres byterian chm-ch. From hence to Fairfield, where we dined and lodged, is twelve miles, and part of it very rough road, but not equal to Horse Neck. The superb landscape, how ever, which is to be seen from the meeting house of the lat ter, is a rich regalia. We found all the farmers busUy em ployed in gathering, grinding, and expressing tbe juice of their apples. The average crop of wheat, they say, is about fifteen bushels to the acre, often twenty, and from that to twenty-five. The destructive eridences of British cruelty axe yet visible both at Norwalk and Fairfield, as there are the chimneys of many burnt houses standing yet. The principal export from Norwalk and Fahfield is horses and cattle, salted beef and pork, lumber and Indian com for the West Indies, and, in a smaU degree, wheat and flour." "Commenced my journey," be writes* on the 15th of October, 1789, " about nine o'clock, for Boston and the East- em States." He did not reach that city until noon of the * " Diary from the 1st of October, 1Y89, until the 10th of March, 1790," printed by the Bradford Club from the original manuscripts, New York, 1858. 420 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. 23d ; and it is curious to read of the frequent halts for meals, to feed the horses, or to pass the night, on a route we are accustomed to pass over in as many hours as days were then employed. Washington makes agrioidtural and topographi cal notes, and in many respects we recognize tbe same traits of industry, and identify the face of the country ; whUe in others the contrast is remarkable. He notes a hnen manufacture at New Haven, white mul berry " to feed sUkworms " at Wallingford, and remarks that tbe silk culture, " except tbe weaving, is tbe work of private famUies, without interference with other business, and is likely to turn out a beneficial amusement." At Hartford, Colonel Wadsworth showed him the wool len factory, and specimens of broadcloth. "I ordered a suit," be writes, " and of the serges a whole piece, to make breeches for my servants." Continuing bis journey, he ob- sei-ves " tbe whole road from Hartford to Springfield is level and good, except being too sandy in places, and the fields enclosed vrith posts and rails, there not being much stone." He is met often by mounted escorts of gentlemen, is enter tained by tbe local officials, and receives addresses from the towns. Of his impressions of the State, we may form an idea by the casual entries in his brief diary : " There is great equahty in the people of this State — few or no opulent men, and no poor ; great similitude in their buildings, the general fashion of which is a chimney always of stone or brick, and door in the middle, with a staircase fronting the latter, and running up the side of the former — two flush stones vrith a very good show of sash and glass windows ; the size gen erally is from thirty to forty feet in length, and from twenty to thirty in width, exclusiye of a back shed, which seems to be added as tbe famUy increases. The farms, by the contigu ity of the houses, are smaU, not averaging more than a hun dred acres. Tbey are worked chiefly by oxen, which have no other food than hay." At Portsmouth he " went in a boat to view the harbor. Having lines. We proceeded to the fishing banks and fished AMEElCAN TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 421 for cod, and only caught two. Dmed at Mr. Langdon's, and drank tea there with a large party of ladies. There are some good bouses here, but, in general, they are indifferent, and ahnost enthely of wood. On wondering at this, as the coun try is fuU of stone and good clay for bricks, I was told tbat, on account of the fogs and damps, they deem'ed them whole- somer." At Exeter, he writes, " a jealousy subsists between this town, where the legislature alternately sits, and Portsmouth ; which, had I known it in thne, would have made it necessary to have accepted an invitation to a pubhc dinner." " In HaverhUl is a duck manufactory upon a small but ingenious scale." At Boston he went to an oratorio, and was entertained at FaneuU HaU, " dined in a large company at Mr. Bowdohi's, and went to an assembly in tbe evening, where " there Were upward of a hundred ladies. Theh appearance was elegant, and many of them very handsome." Another attractive branch of this subject may be found in commemorative addresses— ^a peculiar and prolific occasion of local reminiscences and comparisons in America. Com pare, for iistance, the descriptions of New York by Mrs. Enight, Brissot, or Wansey, vrith those of Dr. Francis * or General Dix f in their historical discourses ; or the pictures of Albany by Mrs. Grant and Kalm, with the recoUections thereof in bis boyhood so geniaUy imparted by the late Judge Kent ; J or Irving's epistolary account of his first voyage up the Hudson with his laSt trip to tbe Lakes, and we have the most complete historical contrasts and local transi tions, and realize by what means and methods the vast social and economical changes have taken place. * " Old New York," a Discourse delivered before the New York Historical Society, by John W. Francis, M. D., LL. D., in commemoration of the Fifty- third Anniversary, New York, 1857. f " The City of New York, its Growth, Destiny, and Duties," a Lecture by John A Dix, before the New York Historical Society, New York, 1853. I " An Address Delivered before the Young Men's Association of Albany, February 7, 1854," by William Kent, New York, 1854. 422 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. Of the countless books of Westem travel and adventure, one of the most spirited and authentic is Mrs. Kirkland's "New Home: Who'U FoUow?" to which were subse quently added her " Forest Life " and " Westem Clearings." The " dehghtful humor and keen observation " of the former work made it an established favorite as a true refiection of life in tbe West at its initiatory stage. As a picture o.f travel in the same region, Washington Irving's "Tour on the Prairies " is the most finished and suggestive. ' It is an unpretending account, comprehending a period of about four weeks, of travelling and hunting excursions upon the vast Westem plains. The local features of this interest ing region have been displayed to us in several works of fiction, of which it has formed the scene ; and more for mal illustrations of the extensive domain denominated The West, and its denizens, have been repeatedly presented to the pubhc. But in this volume one of the most extraordinary and attractive portions of the great subject is discussed, not as the subsidiary part of a romantic story, nor yet in the des ultory style of epistolary composition, but hi the dehberate, connected form of a retrospective narration. When we say that the " Tour on tbe Prairies " is rife with the characteristics of its author, no ordinary eulogium is bestowed. His graphic power is manifest throughout. The boundless prahies stretch out inimitably to the fancy, as the eye scans bis descriptions. The athletic figures of the riflemen, the gayly arrayed Indians, the heavy buffalo and the graceful deer, pass in strong relief and startling contrast before us. We are stirred by the bus tle of the camp at dawn, and soothed by its quiet, or delighted with its picturesque aspect under the shadow of night. The imagination revels amid the green oak clumps and verdant pea vines, the expanded plains and the glancing river, the forest aisles and the silent stars. Nor is this aU. Our hearts thrill at the vivid representations of a primitive and excur sive existence ; vve involuntarUy yearn, as we read, for the genial actirity and tbe perfect exposure to tbe infiuences of nature in aU her free magnificence, of a woodland and ad- AMEElCAN TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 423 venturous hfe ; the morning strain of the bugle, the exche- ment 6f the chase, the dehcious repast, the forest gossiping, the sweet repose beneath the canopy of heaven — how in riting, as depicted by such a pencU ! Nor has the author faUed to inrigorate and render doubly attractive these descriptive drawings, with the pecuhar hght and shade of his own rich humor, and the meUow softness of his ready sympathy. A less skUful draughtsman would, perhaps, in the account of the preparations for departure (Chapter HI.), have spoken of the hunters, the fires, and the steeds ; but who, except Geoffi-ey Crayon, would have been so quamtly mindful of the httle dog, and the manner in whicb he regarded the operations of the farrier ? How inimitably the Bee Hunt is portrayed ! — and what have we of the kind so racy as the account of the Republic of Prairie Dogs, unless it be that of the Rookery in Bracebridge Hall? What expressive portraits are the dehneations of our rover's companions ! How consistently drawn throughout, and in what fine contrast, are the reserved and saturnine Beatte, and the vain-glorious, sprightly, and versatile Tonivsh ! A golden vein of vivacious yet chaste comparison — that beautiful yet rarely well-managed species of wit — and a wholesome and pleasing sprinkling of moral comment — that delicate and often most efficacious medium of useful impressions — ^inter twine and rirify the main narrative. Something, too, of that fine pathos which enriches his earher productions, en hances the value of this. He tells us, indeed, with com mendable honesty, of his new appetite for destruction, which the game of the prahie excited ; but we cannot fear for the tendemess of a heart tbat sympathizes so readily with suffer ing, and yields so gracefully to kindly impulses. He gazes upon tbe noble courser of the wilds, and wishes that his free dom may be perpetuated ; he recognizes the touching instinct which leads tbe wounded elk to turn aside and die in retiracy ; he reciprocates the attachment of the beast which sustains him, and, more than all, can minister even to the foibles of a feUow being, rather than mar tbe transient reign of human pleasure.' 424 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. A candid and earnest inquirer, one who seeks to under. stand the facts and phases of nature, society, and hfe, past and present, in North America, will find tbat native' talent, observation, and industry have done more to unfold and Ulus trate them than is generaUy known even by educated men. Our literature includes not only ample historical materials and contributions to natural history, but sestbetic and artistic writings, elucidating local scenery and character; not only economical and topographical books, but standard poems on national themes, and many other generic iUustrations of the country and the people. No phUosophical traveUer, who aims at a true knowledge of the country he explores, is satisfied vrith a casual observation of its external features, but seeks to realize its life and character, in history, biography, ro mance, art, and poetry. The lives and writings of tbe remarkable men who origi nated and estabhshed the principles, while tbey Ulustrated the spirit of America and her political aspirations, form the most authentic and interesting sources of knowledge. Through these the historical and social development of the country may be not only understood, but felt as a conscious experi ence and vital power. The best modern statesmen bave sought and found therein auspicious inspiration — from Brougham in the days of his liberal prochvities, to Cavour at the summit of national success. The lives and writings of Washington, Franklin, Otis, MarshaU, Jay, . Hamilton, Adams, Jefferson, Morris, Quincy, Sulhvan, and others of tbe Revolutionary era ; and, of a later, Livingston, Clinton, Clay, Webster, Calhoun, Jackson,* and other ciric leaders, * " The Writings of George Washington," being his correspondence, addresses, messages, and other papers, official and private, selected and pub lished from the original manuscripts, with a Life of the Author, notes and illustrations, by Jared Sparks, 12 vols. 8vo., Boston, 1855. — " 'Far across the ocean, if we may credit the Sibylline books, and after many ages, an exten sive and rich continent will be discovered, and in it will arise a hero, wise and brave, who, by his counsel and arms, will deliver his country from the slavery by which she was oppressed. This shall he do under favorable auspices. And oh ! how much more adorable will he be than our Brutus and Camillus.' This AMEElCAN TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 425 reveal the principles of our institutions in theh noi-mal, an tagonistic, and practical relations. These men incarnate them, and theh words iUustrate and enforce what theh ex ample embodied. Representative men, their country's best ahns and elemental force and instincts find adequate and mfemorable expression in their speeches, correspondence, con troversies, policy, and character ; and whosoever grasps and analyzes these, is alone equipped and authorized to comment inteUigently on America as a pohtical entity and a social ex-> periment. "Let tbe people of the United States," writes Guizot, " ever hold in grateful remembrance the leading men of that generation which achieved their independence and founded their Government ; influential by theh property, talent, or character ; faithful to ancient vhtues, yet friendly to modem improvement ; sensible to tbe splendid advantages prediction was kno-wn to Accius the poet, who, in his ' Nyctegresia,' embel lished it with the ornaments of poetry."— Cicero, Frag. XV., Maii ed., p. 52. " The Life of George Washington," by Washington Irving, New York, 1860. " The Works of Benjamin Franklin," 'with notes, and a Life of the Au thor, by Jared Sparks, in 10 vols. Svo., Boston, 1856. " Life and Works of John Adams," by his grandson, Charles Francis Adams, 9 vols.'8vo., Boston, 1851-'60. " Works of Alexander Hamilton," comprising his correspondence and his official and political writmgs, 7 vols. 8vo., New York, 1851. " The Life of Gouvemeur Morris," with selections from his correspond ence, &c., edited by Jared Sparks, 3 vols. 8vo., Boston, 1852. " The Public Men of the Revolution," including events from the Peace of 1783 to the Peace of 1815, by William Sullivan, Philadelphia, 1847. " Memoir of the Life of Josiah Quincy, Jr.," Boston, 1825. " Life of John Jay, with Selections from his Correspondence," by William Jay, NewYork, 1833. Tudor's " Life of Otis ; " Amory's " Life of Sullivan ; " Hunt's "Life of Livmgston;" Wirt's "Life of Patrick Henry;" Austin's "Life of Gerry;" Wheaton's " Life of Pinckney ; " Parton's " Life of Jackson ; " Kennedy's "Life of Wirt;" The Naval Biographies of Cooper and Mackenzie; "Lives of American Merchants," edited by Freeman Hunt ; " Life of Chief Justice Story," by his son ; Sparks's series of American Biographies ; the Lives of Schuyler. Eittenhouse, Fulton, Madison, Reed, Clay, Calhoun, &c. ; and the historigal and biographical contributions of William L. Stone, Branta Mayer, George W. Greene, Frothingham, Headley, Moore, and others. 426 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. of cirilization, and yet attached to simplicity of maimers; high toned in tUeir feelings, but of modest minds, at the same time ambitious and prudent in their impulses ; men of rare endowments, who expected much from humanity, vrithout presuming too much. upon themselves." The later generation of statesmen elaborated the system and iUustrated the prin ciples of these peerless men ; and the combined writings and memoirs of both constitute an essential and complete expres sion and indication, of all the rital ideas and political sympa thies of which America has been the free arena. To these personal data, so emphatic and illustrious, tbe philosophic in quirer wiU add the history of the country, whether unfolded vrith bold generalizations and effective rhetoric, and through extensive and minute research, as by Bancroft, tersely chroni cled by HUdreth, drawn from personal observation by Ram say, or treated in special phases by Cmtis, Cooper, Dunlap, Lossing, Sparks, and others.* The local histories, also, are in many instances full of im portant details and Ulustrative principles : such are Theodore Irring's " Conquest of Florida," Palfrey's "New England," Belknap's "New Hampshire," WiUiams's "Vermont," Ar nold's " Rhode Island," Dwight's " Connecticut," Dr. Hawks's " North Carohna," Butter's " Kentucky," Drake's " Boston," Bolton's " Westchester County," and the contributions of the rehgious annals of the country in the history of Methodism * Cooper's " Naval History of the United States ; " Curtis's " History of the Constitution ; " Parkman's " Conspiracy of Pontiac." " Dunlap's " His tory of the American Theatre, and of the Arts of Design in the United States." Lossing's " Field Book of the Revolution." " Thirty Years' View ; or, A History of the Workings of the American Government for Thirty Years, from 1820 to 1850," by Thomas H. Benton. " The Writings of Thomas Jefferson," published from original manu scripts, by order of Congress, Washington, 1853, 9 vols. 8vo. "The Works of Daniel Webster," Boston, 1857, 6 vols. Svo. " Correspondence of the American Revolution," edited by Sparks. " Diplomacy of the Revolution," by W. H. Trescott. " Correspondence and Speeches of Henry Clay," edited by C. Colton, New York, 3 vols. 8vo., 1851. Upham's " Salem Witchcraft." Thatcher's " Military Journal during the Revolution." AMEEIOAN TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 427 by Abel Stevens, of the Presbyterian Church by Hodge, of Universahsm by Whittemore, of Episcopacy by Meade, Hawks, and Jarris ; and the history of manufactures, inven tions, and educational institutions and public charities. It is instructive to consult the county and town histories of the Eastern and Middle States, because they unfold in detaU tbe process and method of municipal organization, the means of popular education, the initiation of manufacturing and commercial enterprise, and the rehgious and social arrangements, which have built up smaU and isolated com munities into flourishing cities ; and, if we compare the French and Spanish accounts of Florida *nd Louisiana with the American, a stUl more striking illustration is afforded of the practical superiority, of free institutions. One of the latest historians of the latter State (where secession was so lately rampant) closes his narrative, in aUusion to the foreign colonial rule, thus : " There were none of those associations — ^not a link of that mys tic chain connecting the present with the past^which produce an attachment to locality. It was not when a poor colony, and when given away like a farm, that she prospered. This miracle was to he the consequence of the apparition of a banner which was not in existence at the time, which was to be the labarum of the advent of hberty, the harbinger of the regeneration of nations, and which was to form so important an era in the history of mankind." * Specific information is now attainable through a series of standard works of reference. Authentic statistical and offi cial information in regard to North America may be gleaned from the American Almanac, Hunt's Merchant's Magazine, and Colton's " Atias." The natural resources, geographical and political history, and remarkable pubhc characters of each State and section are thoroughly chronicled in the " New American Cyclopaedia," a work specially valuable for its scientific and biographical data. Putnam's "American Facts " is a copious and authentic work. The literary and * Gayarr^'s " History of Louisiana." 428 AMERICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. educational history of the country is elaborately unfolded in Duyekinck's " Cyclopaedia of American Literature." * General hterature offers a various and creditable cata logue of American works, wherein independence of investiga tion or originahty of thought attests the impulse which free institutions give to private culture. In the department of pure hterary labor, where faithful mastery of subjects for iUustration must be sought afar, and vrith constant labor and care, the histories of Prescott, Ticknor, and Motley may be cited as of standard European interest ahd value. In juridi cal hterature, Marshall, Kent, Story, Wheaton, Livingston, Webster, and other names are of estabhshed authority ; and whUe, in the philosophy of our vemacular. Marsh, and, in its lexicography, Webster and Worcester, have achieved signal triumphs, the number and excellence of American educa tional manuals are proverbial. Of tbe political treatises, the * Niles's " Weekly Register " commenced being published September 7, 1811, and ended June 27, 1849; making, in all, 76 volumes. The first 50 volumes were edited by Hezekiah Niles; vols. 51 to 57 were edited by William Ogden Niles. Jeremiah Hough bought out, and was editor to the end of vol. 73. The publication was then suspended for one year, and re commenced, and ended with the editorship of George Beattie, in 1849, This information I have from the celebrated bibliopolist of periodical litera ture, S. G. Deeth, late of Georgetown, D. C, who was the highest authority on subjects of this kind. — Cowans' Catalogue. " American Facts, Notes, and Statistics relative to the Government, Re sources, &o., of the United States," by George P. Putnam, 8vo., portrait of Washington, and map, London, 1845. "American Almanac and Repository of Useful Knowledge," from 1830 to 1860, both inclusive, forming a complete set, paper covers, Boston, 1880-'60. — " The abovenamed series of volumes forms the only consecutive annals of the United States for the last thirty-one years. They possess intrinsic value to all who would desire accurate information concerning the country during that period." " National Almanac," Philadelphia, 1863-'4. "The Census of the United States;'" Reports of the Patent Office and Agricultural Bureau. " New American Oyclopsedia : A Popular Dictionary of General Knowl edge," edited by George Ripley and Charles A. Dana, in 16 vols.. New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1862. " Cyclopaedia of American Literature," by E. A. and G. L. Duyckmck, 2 vols., New York, Charles Seribner, 1855. AMEElCAN TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 429 Federalist.* has become a classic memorial of tbe foundation of the American Govemment. Tlie prescience and per spicacity as weU as comprehensiveness of the wi-iters thereof have been signaUy demonstrated by the whole history of the Slaveholders' RebeUion ; and the political discussion inci dent to its suppression. The archives of American oratory contain, for the saga cious explorer, clear reflections of and genuine emanations from the life, the discipline, and the physical and moral con ditions pecuhar to the country. Indeed, to understand how democratic institutions act on indiridual minds, and in what hght the duties of the citizen are viewed by select intelli gences, tbe foreign inquirer should become famUiar vrith the eloquence of Otis, Henry, Rutledge, MarshaU, Adams, Clay, Ames, HamUton, Webster, and Everett. It requhes no great effort of the imagination to behold in the distant future a literary apotheosis for the orations of Daniel Webster, at Bunker Hill, Plymouth, and in the Sen ate, akin to that which has rendered those of Cicero patriotic classics for aU time. Even we of the present generation seem to hear the oracle of histoiy as weU as of eloquence, whenwe revert, in the midst of the base mutiny that rends the Repubhc, to the pregnant and prescient defence of the Union which identifles Webster's name and fame vrith the glory and love of his country. Everett's Addresses, which form three substantial octavo volumes,! and will doubtless extend to four, constitute tbe most eomplete and eloquent record of the social and pohtical development of our country. Their scope and value, in this regard, would have been more emphaticaUy acknowledged but for the desultory association which identifies all spoken history and criticism with tAiporary occasions. Yet, wben we consider that these discourses were studiously prepared to * " The Federalist : A Collection of Essays written in favor of the New Constitution, as agreed upon by the Federal Convention, September 17, 1787." f " Orations and Speeches ou Various Occasions," 3 vols. 8vo., Boston, 1850. 430 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. celebrate anniversaries of settlements and battles, to do honor to national benefactors, to inaugurate great movements in education and charity, being thus equally commemorative of the past and indicative of tbe future, it is obvious tbat theh subjects include the most salient facts and inferences of our origin, growth, and tendencies as a people, and bring attrac tively into view many local and personal incidents that other vrise would have been overlooked. Accordingly, apart from any rhetorical merit, we know of no single work which wUl convey to an intelligent foreigner, a better general idea of the memorable phases of our national development, and the prin ciples whereby it has been insphed, sustained, modified, and characterized, than the orations and speeches of Edward Everett.* Indeed, to specify the kind and degree of information and Ulustration which native writers have contributed, would re quire an elaborate critical essay. They form a mine of sug gestive knowledge or subtile revelation to those who have the insight and sympathy to seek from original sources, the truth of history, nature, and character as regards this country. They are, to the mass of American Travels, what the finished picture is to the desultory series of offhand sketches from nature ; or what the musical composition is to the casual airs or keynote of tbe maestro. However the authenticity of Cooper's aboriginal ideals may be questioned, or with what ever justice his nautical descriptions may be criticized, no true observer of nature, famiUar vrith the scenes of his sto ries, can fail to recognize a minute and conscientious .limner of local and natural features and facts in his pictures of the woods and waters of his native land. No American reader of sensibihty and perception can ponder the poems of Bryant, in a foreign land, without a new, rivid, and grateful consciousness of the pure and truthful mirror his verse affords, not only to the forms, hues, and phenomena, but to the very spirit of * A glance at the titles of these Addresses will indicate how completely they cover the entire range of American subjects — historical, educational, economical, and social. _^ AMEElCAN TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 431 American seasons and scenery. There is an undercurrent of pathos and psychology in tbe New England romances of Hawthorne, which seizes on the inmost soul of ber primitive Ufe, and phUosophicaUy explams the normal traits of her actual character. It has been objected to his writings, that, with all their artistic truth and delicacy, they are morbid in tone. This is the natm-al consequence of the element to which we refer. Analysis like his, implies going beneath the vital superficies to the inward function ; and what such an experiment loses in art, it gains in metaphysical power. The ¦" Blithedale Romance " iUustrates the enthusiasm for reform and of transcendentahsm in New England. " The House of tbe Seven Gables " and " Twice-Told Tales " contahi the psychological essence of primitive New England life. In the " Scarlet Letter " there is a profound though indirect protest against the inhumanity of Puritanism, as it was developed in the old Bay State — a demonstration of the unchristian system and sentiment that fail to temper justice with mercy, and to recognize the blessed efficiency of forgiveness. No native writer has gone so near the latent significance of New Eng land hfe, in its moral interest and historical relations. Numerous, also, are the less finished and more casual but often striking and true glimpses of the primitive character or normal traits of hfe, manners, and natural influences in dif ferent sections and at various periods, which the published cor respondence, tbe memohs and reminiscences, and the literary efforts of our pubhc men, scholars, and patriotic citizens, yield. The unartistic but deeply wrought romance of " Mar garet," by Judd, is a kind of Balzac anatomy and analysis of a once singular human experience in tbe Eastern States. The exquisite and original iUustrations with which this remark able story insphed the pencU of Darley, are its best praise. Many of the historical episodes, the transition eras, and much of the local character and scenery and life of the coun try, have been pictured with memorable truth and vividness by our romance writers. Irving and Paulding have thus Ulustrated New York colonial times, the legends and the pic- 432 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. turesque scenes as weU as social traits of the State ; Simms those of tbe South ; Kennedy bas thus iUustrated Vhginia ; Dr. Bird, Kentucky ; HofSnan, tbe VaUey of tbe Mohawk ; Miss Sedgwick, primitive New England; Mrs. Stowe, Sar gent, Trowbridge, and others, slavery ; FUnt, the VaUey of the Mississippi ; McConneU, Texas ; Mayne Reid, frontier Ufe ; Major Winthrop, the Rocky Mountahis ; Miss Warner, Miss Chesebro', and others of their sex, the rural and charac teristic life of the Eastern States ; and we might indefinitely extend the catalogue. Nor should the peculiar veins of humor indigenous to tbe country be forgotten as character istic of the people — ^its Western, Yankee, negro, and Dutch phases ; nor the fact be ignored that, coincident vrith this and simUar rude and extravagant development, we have the fin ished romances of Ware and Poe, and the refined critical and aesthetic writings of Dana, HUlhouse, AUston, Greenough, and Madame d'Ossoh, and the bold humanitarian speculations of Emerson, Dewey, James, Calvert, and others. Personal memohs and reminiscences are a rich mine of facts and infiu ences, whereby tbe true life and significance of America may be realized. Of the former, such biographies as those of the heroes of our history conserved in the series of Sparks ; * such hves as those of Buckminster and Chief- Justice Parsons, of Irving and Prescott, indirectly exhibit the spirit of our institutions and society ; whUe curious details thereof abound in such memoirs as Graydon's, and such recollections as Watson of Philadelphia, ManUus Sargent and Buckingham of Boston, and Dr. Francis of New York, and Thomas, Alden, Goodrich, Valentine, and tbe " Croakers," have re- corded.f * Sparks's " American Biography,'' containing the Lives of Alexander ¦Wilson, Captain John Smith, John Stark, Brockden Brown, General Mont gomery, and Ethan.AlIen, 2 vols. 12mb., Boston, 1834. Sparks's "American Biography," first series, 10 vols., second series, 16 vols., in all, 25 vols. 12mo., Boston, 1834-'50. f Watson's " Annals ; " " Dealings with the Dead," by an Old Sexton ; Buckingham's " Recollections of Editorial Life ; " " Old New York," by J. W. AMEElCAN TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 433 Such works preserve social incidents and vigorous chap ters of indiridual experience, wherein the phUosopher wiU discover salient evidences of what is peculiar to this land and Ufe ; and the poet may sometimes learn what were the con servative elements tbat moulded the mental and kept aUve the emotional character, the traits of natural scenery, chmate, and domestic love and duty, as weU as the struggles, guides, and glamours through and by which here grew or were grafted whatsoever of originahty redeem the social and civic history of the New World. Pamphlets, newspapers, and sermons, baUads, playbUls, diaries and letters, schoolbooks, hohdays, old houses, gardens, portraits, and costumes, to the eye of science and the heart of wisdom, each and all convey theh- lesson of character, history, and life. We have spoken of Cooper in prose, and Bryant in verse, as standard authorities in the description and Ulustration of American scenery ; but, throughout our native literature, the most graphic pictures of individual landscapes, of tbe sea sons in the Westem world, and the most glowing exhibition of the traits and triumphs of life, character, and history, may be found by the discerning and sympathetic reader. The spirit of reform, of labor, of freedom, and of faith, as well as the characteristics of nature as here developed, have been truly and melodiously recorded by Whittier and Hohnes, hy Dana and Pierpont, by Sprague and Street, by Longfel low and LoweU, by Drake, Percival, Halleck, and a score of other bards. Theology, as intensified or chastened by the social hfe and pohtical institutions of the country, is elabo rated in the writings of Jonathan Edwards, Cotton, Mayhew, StUes, Dwight, Witherspoon, Emmons, White, Mason, Hop kins, MiUer, Woods, Alexander, Breckenridge, Wayland, Francis, M. D. ; Thatcher's " Military Journal ; " Thomas's " History of Print ing in America ; " Alden's " Collection of American Epitaphs ; " " Recollec tions of a Lifetime," by S. G. Goodrich ; " Manuals of the Common CouncU of New York," by D. T. Valentine ; " The Croakers," by J. R. Drake and Fitz Greene Halleck (annotated), first complete edition, printed by the Brad ford Club, New York, 1860. ^ 19 434 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. Murray, Parks, Walker, Betbune, Cbapin, Hodge, BushneU, Bush, Channing, Dewey, Parker, and many other representa tive men ; and its every dogma and modification through free dom, conservatism, and speculation, exhibited in tbe published discourses of these and other of the leading clergy of aU de nominations, whose biographies,* also, written by Dr. Sprague and others, incidentaUy reveal the most interesting and charac teristic details of clerical and parish life as well as domestip traits. To appreciate intimately the picturesque, social, or tra ditional local features of the country, we have a group of authen tic and graceful or rigorous and sympathetic writers, who have sketched the scenery and hfe of the land with memorable emphasis : Brown, Dennie, Tudor, Wht, Irving, and WUson have been succeeded by Audubon, Kennedy, Fay, Longfel low, Hofiinan, Sands, WiUis, Curtis, Mitchell, Street, Prime, EUet, Poe, Neal, EUiot, Hammond, LoweU, Shelton, MU- bum, Thorpe, Baldwin, Cozzens, Kettell, Bard, Mackie, Headley, Parkman, Mrs. Gihnan, Starr King, Strothers, Tay lor, Webber, tbe Countess d'Ossoh, Whitehead, Kimball, Holland, Lanman, Mrs. Childs, Thoreau, Higginson, Miss Cooper, Dr. Hohnes, and many others.f Perhaps there is no class of books more characteristic of the American mind than the numerous records of modem exploration and travel. Herein even British critics acknowl edge a peculiar freshness and vigor ; and this is chiefiy owing to tbe independent point of view, the natural spirit of ad venture, and facihty of adaptation incident to the freedom, self-reliance, and elasticity of temper fostered by our institu- * " Annals of the American Pulpit," by William B: Sprague, D. D., 9 vols. 8vo., New York, 1857. f Among the graphic landscapes, portraits, and incidents thus eliminated from life and observation by these writers, we may mention, as significant and iUustrative, the American papers in " The Sketch Book " and " Idle Man," "Kavanagh," "Letters from Under a Bridge," "Up the River,'' "Woods and Waters," "The Adirondack," "Rural Letters," "The Bee Hunter," "The Axe, Rifle, and Saddle Bags," "My Farm of Edgewood," "Wild Scenes of the Forest and Prairie," " Lotus Eating," " A Summer Tour to the Lakes," " The Wljfte Mountains," " At Home aud Abroad," " Fireside Trav- AMEElCAN TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 435 tions and social discipline. Europe kindles the enthusiasm, Central America excites the speculative hardihood, and the Arctic regions inspire the adventurous heroism of our coun trymen. What they see they know how to describe,, and what they feel they can express with corn-age and animation ; so that, in the memorials of other lands, the native mind often refiects itself with smgular force and fervor.* He would miss a great source of knowledge, who, intent upon seizmg the true significance of American life and character, or even the influences of nature and government, of trade and travel, should ignore the journahsm of the country, wherein the immediate currents of opinion, tendencies of society, and tone of feehng, both radical and conservative, reckless and disciplined, find crude and casual yet authentic utterance. Freneau's ballads should not be thought beneath the no tice of the candid investigator, nor even Barlow's "Hasty Pudding;" nor can the historical student safely neglect tbe aboriginal eloquence of Red Jacket and Tecumseh, nor tbe early periodical literature initiated by Dennie. He may con sult with benefit the first scientific essays of Catesby, Ram say, WUUamson, Colden, and MitcheU ; Espy and Redfield on els," " Walden, or Life in the Woods," " A Week on the Concord and Mer rimac Rivers," "The Moravian Settlement at Bethlehem, Pa.," "Carolina Sports," " Hunting Adventures in the Northem 'Wilds," " Excursions in Field and Forest," "Life in the Open Air," "At Home and Abroad," " Blackwater Chronicle," " Out-of-Door Papers," " Letters from New York," "Wild Sports of the South," "Rural Hours," "Letters fromthe Alleghany Mountains," "The Oregon Trail," "Poetry of Travel in New England," " Autocrat of the Breakfast Table," "From Cape Cod to the Tropics, " &c. * Indirectly, the literature of America illustrates the original enterprise that, with free and bold aspiration, seeks new and laborious fields of research or creation : as instances of which, in the most diverse spheres, may be noted the translation of the great work of Laplace, by Bowditch, Dr. Robinson's " Biblical Researches in Palestine," Kane's "Arctic Expedition," Allibone's "Dictionary of Authors," that picturesque memorial of the Fur Trade, Irving's "Astoria," and Dr. Rush on the " Human Voice ; " while the literar ture of Travel in our vemacular has been enriched by the contributions of Stephens, Brace, Fletcher, Wise, Melville, Mackenzie, Dana, Mayo, and Taylor. 436 A5ra:EicA and hee commentatoes. Climatology ; Hitchcock and Rogers on Geology ; Barton, NuttaU, and Grey and Tori-ey on Botany ; Daris, Squier, and others on the Mounds ; Schoolcraft on the aborigines; Carey on economical subjects ; tbe newspaper and diary hterature, famUiar letters, and controversial pamphlets, which more than highly finished productions bear the fresh stamp of civU and social life, and have been wisely coUected by local and State associations, to facUitate inquhies into the past of America.* Nor have our ihstitutions and social tendencies lacked the bigliest native criticism. One of tbe most .consistent, hicid, and able ethical authors in the language — WiUiam EUery Channing — has left, in his writings,f the most eloquent pro tests and appeals, based on the apphcation of rehgion and philosophy to American life, character, and politics. No writer has more perfectly demonstrated the absolute wrong and the inevitable consequences of slavery ; and, at the same time, no social reformer has more justly appreciated the clahns, difficulties, and duties of the slaveholder. We seek in vain among the most renowned foreign critics of our national character for a more unsparing, earnest, yet humane analyst. Channing rebuked emphaticaUy "the bigotry of republicanism ; " continuaUy pointed out tbe inadequacy of government, in itself, to elevate and mould society; he warned his countrymen, in memorable terms, against the tyranny of public opinion, and advocated the rights, respon sibihties, and mission of the individual. When slavery ex tension was sought through the annexation of Texas ; when the repudiation of State debts drew obloquy upon the nar tional honor; when popular vengeance burned a Roman * Among the early pamphleteers were James Otis (1725-83), Josiah Quincy, Jr. (1744-'75), John Dickinson (1732-1808); Joseph Gallowiiy (1730-1803), a Tory writer; Richard Henry Lee (1782-'94), Arthur Lee (1740-'92), William Livingston (1723-90), William Henry Drayton (1742- '99), John Adams (1735-1826), Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), and Timothy Pickering (1748-1829). f "Complete Works," with an Introduction, 6 vols. 12mo., Boston, 1849. "Memoirs of, by W. H. Channing," 3 vols. 12mo., Boston, 1843, London, 1848. AMEElCAN TEAVELLEES AND WEITEES. 43Y Cathohc convent, and sought to suppress journals that pro mulgated obnorious views in religion and pohtics — this elo quent friend of humanity seized the opportunity to show how essential is the dependence of government, order, social progress, and peace upon Christianity ; and how, in tbe last analysis, the indiridual citizen alone could sustain and con serve the freedom and the faith upon which human society rests. He referred great pubhc questions to first principles ; solved political problems by sphitual truths ; recognized human rights as tbe foundation of civic rule ; justice as the one rital element of government ; and made his hearers and readers feel tbat the " forms of liberty do not constitute its essence." Were we to select a single illustration of the divine possibUities incident to free institutions, — hberty of conscience and of the press, the presence of nature in her most grand aspects of ocean, forest, and heavens, and an equal scope for social and personal development, — considering these national privUeges in their influence upon inteUectual development and reUgious asphations, — we should point to the example, the influence, and the written thought of Chan- nhig ; for therein we find the most unfettered expression of private conviction united to the deepest sense of God and humanity ; the freshest expansion of freedom combined with tbe most profound consciousness of indiridual responsibility. CHAPTER XI. CONCLUSION. Foe many years after the earher records of travel in America, tbe local and social traits therein described lin gered; so that those who look back half a century, find many familiar and endeared associations revived by these casual memorials of an antecedent period. Two principal agencies have caused the rapid transition in outward aspect and social conditions which make the present and the past offer so great a contrast even within the- space of an average American life — immigration, and locomotive facilities. The first has, in a brief space, quadrupled the population of cities, and modified its character by a foreign element; and the second, by bringing the suburban and interior residents con stantly to the seaboard, has gradually won them to traffic and city hfe. What was indiridual aud characteristic, exclusive and local therein, becomes thus either changed or superseded. There is no longer the reign of coteries ; indiridualities are lost in tbe crowd ; natives of old descent are jostled aside In the thoroughfare; the few no longer form public opinion; distinctions are generahzed ; the days of the one great states man, preacher, actor, doctor, merchant, sopial oracle, and paramount belle, wben opinion, intercourse, and character were concentrated, localized, and absolute, have passed away ; and the repose, the moderation, the economy, the geniahty and dignity of the past are often lost in gregarious progress CONCLUSION. 439 and prosperity. A venerable reminiscent may lead the curious stranger to some obscure gable-roofed house, a sohtary and decayed tree, or border rehc strangely conserved in the heart of a thriving metropohs, and descant on the thne when these represented isolated centres of civilization. Standing in a busy mart, he may recaU there the wUdemess of his youth, and, before an old, dignified portrait by Copley, lament the fusion of social Ufe and the bustle of modern pretension ; or, dweUing on tbe detaUs of an ancestral letter, argue tbat, if our fathers moved slower, they felt and thought more and realized life better than their descendants, however superior in general knowledge. Except for the purpose of literary art and historical study, however, the past is rarely appreciated and httle known ; hence tbe curious interest and value, as loc^l Ulustrations, of some of these forgotten memorials of how places looked and people lived before the days of steam, telegraphs, and penny papers. Sh Henry Holland, writes Lockhart to Prescott, " on his retm-n from bis rapid expedition, declares, except friends, be found everything so changed, that your country seemed to caU for a visit once in five years." The truth is, that, owing to the transition process which has been going on here from the day tbat the first conflict occurred between European colonists and the savage inhabitants, to the departure of the last emigrant train from the civUized border to tbe passes of the Rocky Mountains ; and owing, also, to the incessant infiux of a foreign element in tbe older communities, to tbe results of popular education and of political excitements and ricissitudes, there is no country in the world in regard to which it is so difficult to generalize. Exceptions to every rule, modifications of every special feature and fact, oblige the candid philosopher to reconsider and qualify at every step. One vast change alone in tbe conditions and prospects — poUtical, social, and economical— of this continent, since the records of the early traveUers, would require a volume to describe and discuss— the increase of territory and of immi- 440 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. gration, with the hberal character of our natmalization laws. Whole communities now are nationaUy representative ; each people finds its church, its fetes, its newspaper, costume, and habits organized in America. Every convulsion or disaster abroad brings its community of exiles to our shores. After the French Revolution, nobles and people flocked hither; after tbe massacre at St. Domingo, the Creoles who escaped found refuge here ; famine sends thousands of Irish annuaUy, and in the West is a vast and thrifty German population ; Hungarians make wine in Ohio ; Jenny Lind found her coun trymen on the banks of the Delaware ; an Italian regiment was organized in a few days, when New York summoned her citizens to the defence of the Union ; and in tbat city, the tokens of every nationahty are apparent — the French table d!h6te, the Italian caffe, the German beer garden, image venders from Genoa and organ grinders from Lucca, theatres, journals, churches, music, and manners peculiar to every peo ple, from the Jewish synagogue to the Roman convent, from the prohibited cavatina to the local dish, from the foreign post-office clerk to the peculiar festival of saint or municipal ity, betoken the versatile and protected emigration. It is when, with the horrors of Spielberg vivid to his fancy, such an observer beholds the industrious and cheerful Itahan exile in America ; when he notes the Teutonic crowd grouped round the German post-office window at Chicago, and thinks of the privations of the German peasant at home ; wben he watches tbe long ranks of well-fed and hUarious Celts, in procession on St. Patrick's Day in New York, and compares them with tbe squahd tenants of mud cabins in Ire land ; when he listens to the unchecked eloquence of the Hungarian refugee, and thinks of the Austrian censors and sbirri ; wben he beholds Sisters of Charity thridding the crowd on some errand of love ; placidly clad Friends flock ing to yearly meeting ; Fourier communities on the Westem plains ; here a cathedral, there a synagogue ; in one spot a camp meeting, in another a Unitarian chapel ; to-night a pohtical caucus, to-morrow a lyceum lecture ; here ro-ws of coNCLtrsiON. 441 carmen devourmg tbe daUy journal, there a German picnic ; now a celebration of the birthday of Burns, wherein the songs and sympathies of Scotiand are renewed, and now a GaUic baU, the anniversary y«te of St. .George, the complacent retrospections of PUgrims' Day, or the rhetoric and roar of the Fourth of July ; — it is when the free scope and the mu tual respect, the perfect self-reliance and the undisturbed indiriduahty of aU these opposite demonstrations, indicative of an eclectic, tolerant, self-subsistent social order, combina tion, and utterance, pass before the senses and impress the thought, tbat we reahze what has been done and is doing on this continent for man as such ; and the unhaUowed devotion to the immediate, the constant superficial excitements, the inharmonious code of manners, the lawlessness of border and the extravagance of metropolitan life, the feverish ambition, the hcense of the press — aU the blots on the escutcheon of the Republic, grow insignificant before the sublime possibili ties whereof probity and beneficence, tact and talent, high impulse and adventurous zeal may here take advantage. An Enghsh statesman, on a visit to New York, expressed his surprise at the spirit of accommodation and the absence of riolent language during a deadlock of vehicles in Broad way, whence his conveyance was only ^extricated after long delay. The fact made a strong impression, from its con trast to the brutal language and manners he had often wit nessed, under like circumstances, hi London. After reflect ing on the subject, he attributed the self-control of the baffled carmen to self-respect. " Tbey hope to rise in life," he said, " and, therefore, have a motive to restrain their temper' and improve theh character." There was much truth and sagacity in this reasoning. An artist fresh from Em-ope and the East observed that the expression of self-relianCe was astonishing in the American physiognomy. These spontaneous remarks of two strangers, equally inteUigent but of diverse experi ence — the one a social and the other an artistic philosopher — include the rationale of American civUization. The prospect of ameUorat^ing his condition elevates man in bis own esteem, 19* 442 A.MEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. whUe self-dependence gives him confidence ; but tbe latter feehng is apt to make hhn indifferent to pubhc duty : hence the gross municipal corruption and legislative abuses which are directly owing to neglect of the duties of tbe citizen. Not until there is a " rising of the people " in tbe cause of national reform, as eamest and unanimous as that whicb ral lied to tbe national defence, may we hope to see those ame liorations, the need of which all acknowledge, to purify the elective franchise and the judicial corps, make the centripe tal force in pohtical affairs dominate the centrifugal, and bring the best men in capacity and honor to the highest positions. To tbe eye and mind of an American, when disciplined by study and foreign observation, while the incongruities of our social and physical condition, as a nation, are often start ling, tbe elastic temper, tbe unsubdued confidence of the national character, reconcile discrepancies and console for deficiencies, by the firm conviction that these are destined to yield to a ci-vUization whose tendency is so dififusive. There are, indeed, enough signs of amelioration to encourage the least sanguine. Within a few years, the clahns of genius and character, of taste and culture, have been more and more practically recognized. , The refinements in domestic econo my, tbe popularity of art, tbe prevalent love and cultivation of music, the free institutions for self-culture, the new appre ciation of rural hfe, tbe tempered tone of religious contro versy, tbe higher standard of taste and literature, and the more frequent study of tbe natural sciences, are obvious indi cations of progress in the right direction, since the severe comments upon American life and manners were partially justified by facts. Even the specific defects noted by travel lers half a century ago, are essentially lessened or bave quite disappeared. A living and candid French wi-iter aUudes to the United States as " une terre plus separee de nous par les nuages de nos prejuges que par les brouiUards de I'Atlantique." Not a few of these prejudices bad their origin iu facts that no CONCLUSION. 443 longer exist. It is almost impossible for a European to make due aUowances for the changes tbat occur on this side of the water. But while some of the minor faults and dangers re corded by tourists are obsolete, the chief obstacles recognized by aU thoughtful observers to our national welfare, are only so far diminished that they are more clearly apprehended and more candidly acknowledged. The crisis foretold as regards slavery, has arrived, and taken tbe form of an unprovoked rebeUion against the Federal Government, whereby the na tional power and vh-tue have been confirmed and eheited. The double term of the Presidential office, the almost indis criminate right of electoral sui&age, in connection with the vast ehiigration of ignorant and degraded natives of Europe, the facihty in making and consequent recklessness in spend ing money, the extension of territory, the decadence in pubhc spirit, the increase of unprincipled pohtical adventurers, and the license of the press, have,' each and all, as prophesied and anticipated, worked out an immeasurable amount of poUtical and social evU. Irreverence and materialism have kept pace ¦with success ; abuses in official rule, neglect in civic duty, convulsions in finance, crises of political opinion and parties — a kind of mechanical, imasphing, self-absorbed prosperity, have resulted from so many avenues to wealth thrown open to private enterprise, and such a passion for gain and office as the nnparaUeled opportunity inevitably breeds. Yet, withal, there have been and are redeeming elements, auspicious signs, hopeful auguries ; and those who are least cognizant of these, should never forget that our social life and pohtical system bring everything to the surface ; and it is the average character of a vast nation, and not the acts of a few exclu sive rulers, that the daily journals of the United States re veal. The Govemment is always behind and below what it represents ; the facts of the hour that are patent, and taken as significant of the national life, are but partial exponents of private use, beauty, faith, freedom, progress, and peace, which eternal blessings tbe individual is more free to seek 444 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. here and now, than under any institutions the record whereof is concealed in royal cabinets. It has long been an accepted proposition, that the pecuhar interest, importance, and moral significance of the United States in the family of nations, rests exclusively on a practical reaUzation of the " greatest good of the greatest number ; " in other words, Europe has represented the idea of culture and of society — America of material prosperity, the paradise of the masses, tbe one place on earth where nourishment and shelter can be had most certainly in exchange for labor: hence the manners of the country have been invariably criti cized, and physical resources magnified ; and hence, too, the cant whereby a few general facts are made to overshadow countless special details of life, of character, and of civiliza tion. Never was there a populous land whose inhabitants were so uniformly judged en masse, or one about which the truth has been more generalized and less discriminated. We find it quite easy to imagine the far different conclusions to which an observant and perspicacious student of life in Amer ica might arrive, with ample opportunities and sympathetic insight. To such a mind, tbe individual of adequate endow ments, born and bred or long resident here, would offer traits and triumphs of character or experience, directly resulting from the political, social, and natural circumstances of the country, which, to say the least, would impress him vrith the originahty and possible superiority thereof in a psychological or ethnological view. To group, define, or analyze these peculiarities, would require not only an artist's insight and skill, but a much broader range than a traveller's hasty jour nal or a reviewer's flippant commentary. There is one branch of tbe subject, however, to which every thinking observer is irresistibly led — the remarkable diversities of tone and tact, of vigor and adaptation, of personal conriction and indiridual careers, which tbe life of the prairies and tbe mart, and the plantation, tbe seaboard, and tbe interior, the scholar of the East, the hunter of the West, the agriculturist of the South, and the manufacturer of tbe North, mould, foster, and train ; CONCLUSION. 445 the rare and rich social combination thence eliminated ; the occasional force and beauty, bravery and influence thus de veloped in a way and on a scale unknown to Europe : such possibUities and local tendencies being furthermore infinitely modified and tempered, intensified or diflTused, by the extra- ordmary degree of personal freedom and range of specula tion and behef, experiment and inquiry — religious, scientific, poUtical, and economical ; — perhaps not the least striking evi dence whereof is to be found in the modification of national traits observed in foreigners who become Americanized — the sensitive and capricious native of Southem Europe, often attaining self-rehance and progressive energy ; the English sohdity of character becoming " touched ^o finer issues " by attrition with a more Uberal social hfe and a less humid cli mate ; and even GaUic vivacity reaching an unwonted practi cal and judicious equiUbrium : for it is a curious fact, that the student of character can nowhere detect in solution so many of the influences of aU climes and the idiosyncrasies of all nations, as in this grand rendezvous and arena — obnoxious, indeed, to the erils that attend extravagance, superfluity, in congruity, the vrilfulness and the wantonness of gregarious prosperity ; but none the less radiant and real with the hope and the health of abundant human elements, and the abey ance of caste, despotism, and conformity ; so that, more and more, the great lesson of moral independence comes home to personal conriction. From early learning to work and think for themselves, and to feel for others, our people grow in the intimate conriction that here and now, if nowhere else in God's universe, men and women can, by the just exercise of their wiU and the wise use of theh opportunities, live accord ing to theh individual wants, capacities, and behef; rise above circumstances ; assert their individuality ; cultivate theh powers in faith and freedom ; enjoy their gifts ; and become, however situated, true and benign exemplars of manhood and womanhood. And in all these natural and civic agencies that excite and eliminate and intensify, ay, and often prematurely wear out and unwisely concentrate the 446 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. energies and the life of humanity here, we behold an arena, a series of influences, a means and medium of experience and experiment, designed by Infinite Wisdom for a special pur pose in the vast economy of the world ; and before this con riction the pigmies of political prejudice and the venal critics of the hour sink into contempt. In a broad yiew and with reference to humanity, as such, it is Opportunity that distinguishes and consecrates American institutions, nationality, nature, and hfe. No microscopic or egotistical interpretation can do justice to the coimtry. A narrow heart, a conventional standard, are alike inapphcable to test communities, customs, resources, as here distributed and organized. Berkeley as a Christian, Washington as a patriotic and De TocqueviUe as a political philosopher, recog nized Opportunity as the great and benign distinction of America. The very word imphes the possible and probable abuses, the periods of social transition, the incongruities, hazards, and defects ineritable to such a condition. Com merce, science, and freedom are the elements of om- prosper ity and character ; and it is no Utopian creed, that, by the_ laws of modern civUization, they work together for good; but the dUettante and the epicurean, the rigid conservative, the exacting man of society, and the selfish man of the world, find their cherished instincts often offended, where the generous and wise, the noble and earnest soul is lost in " an idea dearer than self," when, with disinterested acumen and sympathy, regarding the spectacle of national development and personal success. To tbe eye of a historical and ethical phUosopher, no pos sible argument in favor of liberal institutions can be more impressive than the insane presumption which bas led men of education and knowledge of the world to stir up and lead an insurrection to secure, in this age and on this continent, the perpetuity and pohtical sanctity. of human slavery. So des perate a moral experiment argues tbe irrationality as well as the inhumanity of " property in man " with trumpet-tongued emphasis. And this solemn lesson is enforced by the new CONCLUSION. 447 revelation, brought about by civil war, of the actual infiuence of slavery upon character. The ignorance and recklessness of the " poor whites" became fanatical under the excitement to passion and greed, which the leaders fostered to betray and brutalize the " landless resolutes." Under no other cir cumstances, by no conceivable means, except through the unnatural and inhuman conditions of such a social disorgani zation, could a white population, in the nineteenth century, on a flourishing continent and under an actually free Gov emment, be cajoled and maddened into hate, unprovoked by the slightest personal wrong, and exhibiting itself in blas phemy, theft, drunkenness, poisoning, base and cruel tricks, barbarities whoUy unknown to modern cirilized warfare ; such as bayoneting the wounded, wantonly shooting prison ers, desecrating the dead to convert their bones into ghastly trophies, and leaving behind them, in every abandoned camp, letters mahgn in senthnent, vulgar in tone, and monstrous in orthography — patent evidences of the possible coexistence of the lowest barbarism and ostensible civilization, and the moral necessity of anticipating by war the suicidal crisis of a fatally diseased local society. When the English rephed to John Adams's defence of the American Constitution, their chief argument against it was, that, in war, the Executive had not adequate power. This supreme test has now been applied in a desperate civil conflict. An educated people have sustained the Govei-nment in extending its constitutional authority to meet the national exigency, without tbe least disturbance of that sense of pub Uc security and private rights essential to the integrity of our institutions. Nor is this aU. The war for the Union has, in a few months, done more to solve the problem of free and slave labor, to do away vrith the superstitious dread of servUe in surrection in case of partial freedom, to expose the fallacies of, pro-slavery economists, to demonstrate the identity of prosperous industry with freedom, to mutually enlighten dif ferent populations, to make clear the line of demarcation between the patriot and the politician, to nationalize local 448 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. sentiment, to make apparent the absolute resources of the country and the normal character of the people, and thus to vindicate free institutions, than all the partisan dissensions and peaceful speculation since tbe Declaration of Indepen dence. Moreover, the war has developed original inventive talent in ordnance and camp equipage, afforded precisely the discipline our people so " disinclined to subordination " need ed, won our self-indulgent young men from luxury to self- denial, evoked the generous instincts of the mercantile classes, caUed out the benign efficiency of woman, confirmed the popular faith, fused classes, made heroes, unmasked the selfish and treacherous, purified tbe social atmosphere, and, through disaster and hope deferred, conducted the nation to the high est and most Christian self-assertion and victory. The his tory of tbe Sanitary Commission, the improvements in mili tary science, tbe letters of the rank and file of the Union army preserved in the local journals, the topographical reve lations, personal prowess, vast extent of operations, new means and appliances, and momentous results, vviU afford the future historian not only unique materials, but fresh and sur prising evidence of tbe elements of American ciriUzation as exhibited through the fiery ordeal of civil war. The Procla mation * of the President of the United States at the close * " Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. " We, of this Congress, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. " No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. " The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation. " We say that we are for the Union. The world will not forget that while we say this, we do know how to save the 'Cuion. The world knows we do know how to save it. We, even we here, hold the power and bear the responsibility. " In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free, honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve. " We shall nobly save or meanly lose the last best hope of the earth. " Other means may succeed. This could not fail. " The way is plain — ^peaceful, generous, just ; a way which, if followed, the world will ever applaud, and God must forever bless. " Abraham Lincoln." CONCLUSION. 449 of tbe year 1862, betokens a new and advanced charter of American progress. "WUl anybody deny," asks John Bright, in a recent speech to bis constituents, " that the Govemment at Wash ington, as regards its own people, is the strongest Govern ment in the world at this hour ? And for this simple reason, because it is based on the vrill of an instructed people. Look at its power. I am not now discussing why it is, or the cause ¦which is developing this power ; but power is the thing which men regard in these old countries, and which they ascribe mainly to European institutions. But look at the power which the United States have developed ! They have brought more men into the field, they have built more ships for their navy, they have shown greater resources- than any other na tion in Europe at this moinent is capable of Look at the order which has prevaUed at their elections, at which, as 'you see by tbe papers, 50,000, or 100,000, or 250,000 persons voted in a given State, vrith less disorder than you have seen lately in three of the smallest boroughs in England — Bai-n- stable, Windsor, and Andover. Look at theh industry. Not withstanding this terrific struggle, their agriculture, theh- manufactures and commerce proceed with an uninterrupted success. They are ruled by a President chosen, it is true, not from some worn-out royal or noble blood, but from the people, and one whose truthfulness and spotless honor have gained him universal praise. And now the country that has been vUified through half the organs of the press in England during the last three years, and was pointed out, too, as an example to be shunned by many of your statesmen, — that coimtry, now in mortal strife, affords a haven and a home for multitudes flying from the burdens and the neglect of the old Governments of Europe. And, when this mortal strife is over, when peace is restored, when slavery is destroyed, when the Union is cemented afresh — for I would say, in the lan guage of one of our poets addi-essing his country, ' The grave 's not dug where traitor hands shall lay. In fearful haste, thy murdered corse away' — 450 AMEEICA AND HEE COMMENTATOES. then Europe and England may learn that an instructed de mocracy is tbe surest foundation of govemment, and that education and freedom are the only sources of true greatness and true happiness among any people." When the new scientific methods of historical writing are applied to the annals of our own country, some remarkable coincidences and a dramatic unity in the sequence of memo rable events wiU iUustrate the chronicle. To subdue tbe wU derness; to colonize vrith various nationalities a vast conti nent ; to vindicate, by the ordeal of battle, tbe supremacy among them of tbe Anglo-Saxon element ; to raise and purify this into pohtical self-assertion, by establishing free institu tions ; under their auspicious influence to attain tbe great est industrial development and territorial expansion; and,. finaUy, in these latter days, to solve, by the terrible altema- tive of civU war, the vast ahd dark problem of slavery — this is the momentous series of chcumstances whereby it bas pleased God to educate this nation, and induce moral results fraught with the highest duties and hopes of humanity ; and, deeply conscious thereof, we cannot but exclaim, with our national poet : " 0 country, marvel of the earth ! O realm to sudden greatness grown ! The age that gloried in thy hhth. Shall it hehold thee overthrown ? Shall traitQrs lay thy greatness low ? No ! land of hope and Messing, no ! " I IsT D E X. I IT D E X ABUSE of America, English, 252. Addison, writings of, compared with those of WasHington Irving, 288. Address of eminent Frenchmen to loyal AmericaDS, 154. Addresses, commemorative, 421, Adriani, Connt, 340 ; "Washington's opin ion of his hook, 340. Adventure, spirit of Americans for, 434. Agassiz, on the priority of tbu formation of the American continent, 14. Albany, sketch of society at, by Mrs. Grant, 172 : Peter Kalm's picture of, in 1749, 296. Alessandro, Pietro d', 342 ; his letters from Boston, 343 ; visits Cambridge, 349 ; the Boston AthensBUm, 351. Allouez, Father Claude, narrative of, 44. Allston, Washington, on the affinity which shonld. exist between the United States and England, 259. Alyaco, Petrus de, *' Imago Mundi," Washington Irving's remarks on, 23. America, similarity of, to Italy in furnish ing subjects of interest to authors, .2 ; general sameness of writings of travels in, 4 ; European writers of travels in, each interested in a different theme, 4 ; toleration in, the source of its attraction to foreign exiles, 7; natural features also interest, 7 ; early discoverers and explorers of, 13 ; its natural features conduce to tlie spread of civilization, 15 ; its antiquities compared with those of the Old World, 16 ; conjectures in regard to the primitive inhabitants of America, 17 ; claimed by the Welsh to have been discovered hy Madoc in 1170,' 18 ; early pictorial representations of manners and customs of its inhabitants, 2S ; the fifteenth and sixteenth centu ries prolific in works on, 24 ; curious re lics of annals of discovery in, 26 ; mis cellaneous publications relating to, 33 ; English abuse of, 252 ; book collectors in, 317 ; deceptions practised upon trav ellers in, 341 ; self-respect of its people, 441. American travellers and writers, 371. Ampere, J. J.," Promenade enAmSrique," 142 ; notes carelessness of Americans, 143 ; versatility of his descriptions, 144 . Anbury, Thomas, "Travels in tbe Inte rior of America," 186 ; description of Cambridge, Mass., 187 ; notices the de fective teeth of Americans, 188 ; regrets that he cannot visit Boston, 188 ; anx iety to return to England, 188. Antiquities, American, compared with those of the OM Worid, 16. Ashe, Thonjas, 202 ; his travels in Amer ica, 203 ; his peculiar opinions of Amer icans, 204. ¦ Athenaaum, the Boston, described by Pie tro d'Alessandro, 350. BACKWOODSMEN", American, Tal leyrand's opinion of, 114. Bancroft, George, visit of John G. Kohl to, at Newport, 324. Barre, Col., on English of America before the Revolutionary war, 254. Bartlett, John R., '* Dictionary of Amer icanisms," 2S6 ; similarity between the provincialisms of Kew England and those of Great Britain, 286. Bartram, John, 372; his botanical labors, 372 ', his travels, 374 ; Peter Collinson's opinion of him, 374; his close observ ance of nature, 376 ; description of Os wego, 377; appointed botanist and nat- urg.list to the king of England, 378 * ex plores Florida, 379 ; his home life, 380. Bartram, William, 382; his study of na ture, 384. Beaumont, Gustave de, his " Marie," 139 ; women of America and France com pared, 141. Belknap, Dr., the foremost primitive lo cal historian of America, 3 ; founder of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 3 ; his description of the White Moun tains, 3. Beltrami, J. C, " Pilgrimage in Europe and America," 342. Benton, Thomas H., sketch of, 322. Berkeley, Bishop G., 15'6 ; obtains a char ter for erecting a college in Bermuda, 4:54: INDEX. 157 ; his letters, 157 ; Walpole and, 158 ; lines of, 159 ; marries and embarks for America, 159 ; his friendship for Smi bert the painter, 161 : his sacrifices, 161 ; arrives at Newport, R. I., 162 ; rehgious condition of Rhode Island in 1714, 162 ; his reception at Newport, 163 ; letter describing the town, 164 ; is delighted with. American scenery, 165 ; his muni ficence to Tale College, 167 ; mfemorials of his residence in America, 169. Biography, American, 424, 432. Blackwood's Magazine^ remarks of, on Harriet Martineau's book, 225 : its ridi cule of Yale College and New England ers, 263. Bonaparte, Joseph, resides in seclusion in New Jersey, 122, Book collectors, American, 317. Books of travel, diversity of treatment of, 4. Boston, notes of Marquis de ChasteUux on, 74 ; described by L'Abb6 Robin in 1781, 76 ; its people, 77 ; commerce, 78 ; visit of Brissot de Warville to, 83 ; com mercial intercourse of, in 1729, 166 ; John G;, Kohl's impressions of, 313'; book col lectors of, 317 ; Luigi Castiglione's im pressions of, 339 ; Pietro d'Alessandro's description of its people, 345. Botany, promoters of the science of, in America, 372. Botta, Carlo. 334. Bradford, Governor, poetical description of New England, 33. Breckinridge, Dr., on the necessity of the maintenance of tne American Union, 277. Bremer, Fredrika, her novels, 298 ; her reception in America, 298 ; her compari sons of Swedish and American scene ry, 299 ; her curiosity, 299, Bright, John, on the strength of the United States Government, 449. Brillat-Savarin, " Physiologic du Gout," 125 ; wild-turkey shooting, 126 ; visit to the family of M. Bulow, 127, Brissot de Warville, 82 ; visits Boston, 83; journeys to New York, 84; Phila delphia, 84 ; visits Washington at Mount Vernon, 85 ; Whittier's lines on, 86 ; his anti-slavery sympathies, 86 ; admiration of Americans, 87 ; sketch of New York city in 1788, 87 ; smoking in New York, 88. Bristed, Rev, John, 205; his "America and her Resources,'' 205 ; opinion ot Lon don Quarterly Review on his work, 206. British authors, writings of, compared with those of America, 288. British colonists in-America described by Charlevoix, 49. If British travellers andwriters on* America, 156; desirableness and feasibility of a compilation of their works, 215 ; miscel laneous works of, on America, 218, 219, 220, 222, 224, 229. Brown, Charles Brockden, translates Vol ney's work on America, 97. Browning, Elizabeth, on British illiber- ality, 290. Bryant, William Cullen, his " Letters of a Traveller," 418 ; his poems, 430. Bulow, M., visit of Brillat-Savarin tothe family of, 127. Burke, Edmund, "Account of the Euro pean Settlements in America," 181. Bumaby, Rev. Andrew, 173 ; his descrip. tion of Vlr^nians, 173 ; visits Phllad^- phia, 174 ; New York, 174 ; opinion of Long Island, 175 ; visits Rhode Island, 175 ; opinion of its people, 176 ; his de scription of Bishop Berkeley's residence , at Newport, 176 ; visits Boston and Oambridge, 177 ; strict observance of the Sabhatn \j\ New England, 178 ; Ms opinions in regard to the American colonies, 179. Byrd,- William, expeditions of, described in the Westover Manuscripts, 32, Byron, 211 ; his apostrophe to America, 212. CAMBRIDGE, Mass., described by Tho mas Anbury, 187 ; Pietro d'Alessan dro's visit to, 349, Canonicut Island, Bishop Berkeley lands at, 162. Capobianco, Raflfaelle, 358 ; ridiculous statements of his book, 359, Carli, Le Comte, " Lettres Americaines," 6. Carlisle, Earl of, his lecture at Leeds on the United States, 231. Carver, Capt. John, 887 ; his " Travels," 388. Castiglione, Luigi, 338 ; his impressions of Boston, 339 ; visit to Mount vemon, 339. Catholic missionaries the pioneer writers of American travels, 37. Channing, William EUery, 436 ; his influ ence on free institutions In America, 437. Charlevoix, P. F. X., travels in Canada and th© Northwest, 47 ; his letters, 49; account of New England and other British provinces, 49 j description ofthe Missouri and Mississippi, 50 ; review of the scene of his labors, 51; his " His toire de la NouveUe France," 57. ChasteUux, Marquis de, 58: a friend of Washington, 59; his "Voyages dans I'Amerique Septentrionale, 60 ;" romance of hifl style and comparisons, 60 ; opin ions of his writings, 61 ; his " Travels " translated into English, 61 ; justness of his criticisms, 62'; visits Providence, R. L,63; Hartford, 64; sketch of Gov, Trumbull, 64 ; visits the Hudson High lands, 65 ; interview with Washington and his officers, 65 ; visits-Philadelphia, 66 ; Mrs. Bache, 66; Robert Morris, 66 ; social customs of Frenchmen and Qua kers compared, 66 ; his description of Northern New York, 67 ; journey into Virginia, 68 • describes Jeffterson, 69 ; minuteness of his observation, 71 ; traits of different sections, 72 ; visits Ports mouth, N. H., 73 ; attends a ball at Boston, and describes the " prettiest of the women dancers," 74 ; other Boston celebrities, 74 ; takes leave of Washing ton at Newburgh, 74 ; his description of Washington, 75 ; translates CoL Hum- INDEX. 455 phrey'a " Address to the American Ar mies," 76. Chateanhriand TifeltB the United States, 118 ; visita Washington, 119 ; impressed ¦with American scenery, 120. Children, American, Anthony Trollope on the precocity of, 239. GiYlIization, natural features of Ameiica conduce to the spread of, 15. Cleveland, Morris, his visit to Ohio from New England in 1796, 400. Clinton, De "Witt, his " Letters of Hiher- nicuSj" 404 ; his exploration of Western New York, 405 | impressed with the ne cessity and feasihility of a great canal, 408 ; realization of his project, 410. Cobbett, William, 208 : praises farm life in America, 209 ; his hluntness, egotism, and radicalism, 210 ; Heine's apostrophe to, 211. Cobden, Richard, his opinion of the Lon don Times, 291. CoUinson, Peter, his opinion of John Bar tram, 374. Columbus, Christopher, familiar with the writings of Petrus de Alyaco, 23. Commemorative Addresses, 421. Congress, Continental, Jacob Dnch6, chaplain of, 81. Connecticut, a glimpse of, in Washing ton's Diary, in 1789, 419. Cooper, J. Fenimore, his romances com pared with those of Scott, 288 ; endea- - vors to censure and counsel, 413 ; Hal- leck's lines on, 414 ; accuracy of his descriptions, 430, Cooper, Thomas, 197; Ms opinions of America, 198. Coxe, Tench, his " View of the United States of America," 393. Crevecffiur H. St. John, settles in New Torkin 1764, 89 ; Hazlltt's opinion ofhis work, 89 ; his misfortunes, 90 ; his " Let ters of an American Farmer," 90 ; taste for rural life, 92 ; birds, 92 ; his human ity rewarded, 93. DABLON, Father, superior of the Otta wa Mission, 44. Davis, John, 200 ; his " Travels in the United States," 201. De Bry, " Voyages and Travels to Amer ica," 23. Deceptions practised upon travellers m America, 341. De Pradt, "L'Europe et l'Am6rique,"149. Dickens, Charles, 221; his remarks on American slavery, 221; ridicules Eng lish writers on America in " Pickwick," 264. ^ Domenech, Abbfi Em., his " Seven Tears' Eesidence In the Great American Des erts " ridiculed by a London journal, 6. Douglass, Dr. William, his work on the " British Settlements in North America, 183 ; Adam Smith's opinion of him, 185. Duch«, Jacob, remarks of, on America before the Revolution, 81 ; treachery of, 81 Duval, Jules, hia opinion of the advan tages of emigration, 283. Dwight, Timothy, " Travels in New Eng land aud New York," 390 ; Robert SoUthey's opinion of his " Travels" in the QuaTterly Review, 392. EARLY discoverers and explorers of America, 13. Early travellers, accounts of, most to be preferred, 1. Eddis, William, " Letters from America," 186. Education, Anthony TroUope's opinion of the American system of, 236. Elliot, Rev. Jared, becomes acquainted with Bishop Berkeley, 167. Emigrants, European, freedom of action enjoyed by, in America, 440. English abuse of America, 252 ; their ig norance of America before the Revolu tion, 254. English and French writers on the War for the Union contrasted, 153. English, brutality of the, 281; their want of consideration for woman, 282; the debasement of their poor, 282 ; furnish frequent subjects for caricature, 284 ; their ridicule of Yankeeisms, 2S6 ;^ Mrs. Browning on the illiberality of the', 290 ; Voltaire's comparison of the, 290; - change of feeling of Americans toward the, 291. English periodicals, misrepresentations of, 260. English publisher, venality of an, 260. European Governments, facilities offered by, for the diffusion of knowledge re lating to early explorations, 26 ; writers, northern, 293 ; French literature in, 293. Everett, Edward, hia opinion of Cap tain Baail Hall's book, 200; visit of John G. Kohl to, 318 ; his Addresses, 429. Expeditions, U. S. Government, 418. Eyma, Xavier, "Vie dans le Noveau Monde," 151. FAUX, an English farmer, 222 ; his ab surd caliimnies, 223. Fearon, Henry B., Sydney Smith's opinion of, 200. Female writers, British, on America, 222. Fiddler, Rev. Isaac, remarks of North American Review on his " Observa tions," 201. . Fisch, Georges, "Les Etats Unis en 1861," 149 ; first impressions of New Tork, 150 ; opinion of H. W. Beecher, 151; religion, a#, etc., 151. Flint, Timothy, POl ; bis pictures of the West, 402 ; his " History and Geography of tlie Mississitipi Valley," 403 ; opinion of the London Quarterly upon, 404. Florida, a paradise for the naturalist, 379 ; exnlored by John Bartram, 379. Force, Peter, writings and compilations of, 86 ; a collector of works relating to America, 318. Foster, John R., translates Peter Kauu'o " Travels in North America," 295. French and Americans, cause of their af- iinity, 163. 466 INDEX. French and English writers on the War for the Union contrasted, 153. French economical works on America, 146. French missionaries the Initiators of travel literature in the New World, 24 ; ex- , plorations of, 37. French Protestant clergy, books of, on United States, 149. French travellers and writers, 58. French writers on America, their supe rior candor, 269, Frenchmen, American opinions of, de scribed by L' Abbe Eobin, 79 ; eminent, address of, to loyal Americai^s, 154. Furs ten wSther. Baron, first impressions on America, 303. GALE, Ludwig, "My Emigration tothe United States," 306. ¦ Gasparin, Count de, his " Uprising of a Great People," 153. Germans, interest of the, in the United States, 301 ; their literature on the United States," 302. Goldsmith, Oliver, his ignorance of Amer ica, 254. Gorges, Fernando, " America Painted to the Life," 28 ; his American enterprises, 29. Gorges, Sir Ferdinand, remarks of Win throp and Bancroft on, 29. Government expeditions, U. S., 418. Grant, Mrs., 170 ; her " Memoirs of an American Lady," 171 ; sketch of society at Albany, 172, Grassi, Padre Giovanni, 341 ; his " Notes," 341 ; extravagant statements of, 341. Grattan, Thos. CoUey, " Civilized Amer ica," 229 ; his animadversions, 230. Grund, Francis J,, his bookS' on America, 30S 3 his opinion of the writings of Basil Hall and Hamilton, 309 ; business habits of Americans, 309; interests of the peo ple connected* with the Government, 310 ¦ necessity of concord between Eng land and America, 310. Gurowski, Adam, 300 ; his book on Amer ica, 300. HAERNE, Le Chanoine de, " La Ques- tione Ami^ricaine," 301. Hakluyt, Richard, 24 ; his works, 25. Hall, Capt. Basil, remarks of Edward Everett on his book, 200 ; criticized by Blackwood's Magazine^ 200, Hall, James, 411. HaUeck, Fitz-Greone, lines of, on Cooper, 414. Hamilton, Capt, Thomas, " Men and Man ners in America," 223 ; his prejudices, 223 ; appreciates natural beauty, 223. Hawthorne, Nathaniel, his book reviewed by tbe London Daily Jlfews^ 275 j his hits at British tendency to stagnation, 275 ; his romances, 431. Hazlitt, Wm,, his opinion of Crevecceur's " Letters or an American Farmer," 89, Heine apostrophizes Wm. Cobbett, 211 ; his estimateof English blockheads, 255 ; on the exultation of the English at dis sensions in America, 267, Hennepin, Louis, 39 ; ex^ores the Mis sissippi, 40 ; returns to France, and in 1683 publishes his "Descriptions," 41. Henry, Alexander, his " Travels and Ad ventures," commended by Chancellor Kent, 186. Historical romances, American writers of, 431. Histories, local, 426 ; general, 4§8. Hodgson: Adam, 217 ; Jared Sparks's opin ion of his book, 218. Hoffman, Charles Fenno, his " Winter in the West," 416 ; his geniality and versa tility, 416. Holland, Sir Henry, on the mutability of everything in Ainerica, 439. Honyman, Rev. James, receives a letter fron^Berkeley, 162, Humboldt, Alexander Von, remarks of Prescott on, 19 ; remarks of, on Amer ica, 303. ILLINOIS, eariy history of, 52; natural features of, 53 ; commercial facilities of, 54 ; rapid increase of population in, 54 ; Jesuit missionaries in, 55 ; Father Marest' s account of, 56. Imlay, Gilbert, 390. Immigration, 440, " Inciquin the Jesuit's Letters," 394. Ingersoll, Charles J,, 395. Inns, number of, in America, 216 ; Priscil- la Wakefield's description of, 216, Irving, Wnshington, remarks on the " Imago Mundi'' of Petrus de Alyaco, 23 ; extract from a lei-ter from Moore to, 211 ; accounts for the abuse of English writers of travel in the United States, 258 ; his writings compared with those of Addison, 288. Italian travellers in America, 334. Italy a])d America alike interesting to authors, 2. ^^ JANSON, C. W., " The Stranger in America," 218. Jefferson, Thomas, visit of Marquis de ChasteUux to, 69. Jenks, Rev. Wm., D. D., account of Ma- doc's "Voyage to Ainerica in 1170, 18. Jesuits, the, in Illinois, 55. Jews, a number of, in Rhode Island, 168. Johnson, Eev. Samuel, becomes acquaint ed with Bishop Berkeley, 167. Josselyn, John, " New England's Rarities Discovered," 32, Judd, Sylvester, his *' Margaret," 431. Juridical literature, 428. KALM, Peter, 295 ; his works on Amer ica, 295 ; notes of his diary on Phila delphia, 295; his picture of Albany in 1749, 296 ; visit to Niagara Falls, 297. Kay, Josenh, " Social Condition and Edu cation ofthe People in England," 283. Kemble, Mrs., on the af&nity between the Americans and the French, 153 ; John G. Kohl's opinion of, 316. Kendall, E, A:, " Travels through the Northern Parts of the United States," 206. INDEX. 457 Kent, Chancellor, commends " Travels and Adventures of Alexander Henry," 185 Kirkland, Mrs. C. M., her books on the West, 422. ^Knight, Madame, her " Private Journal," 385 ; her journey from Boston to New York, 386. Kohl, J. G., " History of Discovery in America from Columbus to Franklin," 36 ; sketch of his writings, 311 ; his impressions of Boston^ 313 ; sketch of Mrs. Kemble, 316 ; Edward Everett, 318 ; Prescott, 320 ;John Lothrop Mot ley, 321 ; Thomas H. Benton, 322; visit to Newport, 324 ; Bancroft, 324; Sumner, 325 ; Southern hate of New England, 326. LABOULAYE, Edouard, " Paris dans I'Amerique, 153. Lafayette, on the necessity of the perpetu ation of the Axaerican Union, 11 ; his love of the people and institutions of America, 148, La Salle embarks for Canada in 1675, with Father Hennepin, 39 ; explores the great "lakes, 39 ; gives the name to Louisiana, 40. Lauzun, Duke de, charmed with the so ciety at Newport, 147. , Law, writers on American, 428. Lecomte, Col. Ferdinand, " The War in the United States," 300. Lederer, John, the first explorer of the AUeghanies, 32. Ledyard, John, 387. Lenox, James, a collector of books and documents relating to America, 318. Libraries,. American private, ignorance of British writers concerning, 274. Lieber, Dr, Francis, 305 ; his " The Stran ger in America," 305. Lincoln, Abraham, Proclamation of, 448. Literature, American, considered beneath contempt by British writers fifty years ago, 287 ; claimed to be made up of imi tations of British authors, 287. Literature, juridical, 428. LIans an expedition in search of, the Mississippi in 1660, 44. 20 Michaux, Dr. F. A., visits the country west of the AUeghanies in 1802, 121 : his descriptions of natural productions, 121 ; passion of Western people for spir ituous liquors, 122. Michelet, his opinion Of America, 265. Montalembert, discourse in the French Academy on America, 10. Moore, Thomas, projects emigrating to America, 211 ; extract of letter from, to Washington Irving, 211 -.arrives at Nor folk, Ya., 213; meets, Jeiferson at Wash- ington, 213 : his remarks on New York scenery, 213; his prejudices regarding America, 214. Morris, Robert, description of, hy Marquis de ChasteUux, 66. j ^ -^ , Motley, John Lothrop, John G. Kohl's sketch of, 321. Mount Vernon, visit of Luici Castielioue to, 339. ^ ^ Murat, AchUle, settles in Tallahassee, Fla., 122 ; his work on the United States, 123 ; his pro-slavery ideas, 124. "VTATURAL features of America con- ll duce to the spread of clvilizatiQ|i, 15. Naturalists, interest of America to^95. Neal, John, writes articles on America for Blackwood's Magazine, 396. New Enjgland, religious character of her primitive annals, 24 ; strict observance of the Sabbath iu, 178 ; Southern hate of, 326, NewfoundlandLfisheries of, long the only attraction to European adventure, 21, New Netherlands, van der Dock's ac count of, in 1659, 27. Newport, R. I., its society attractive to French officers, 148 ; Bishop Berkeley arrives at, 163 ; Berkeley's discription of, 164 ; Dr Burnaby's remarks on the com merce of, 175 ; sketch of, by John G. Kohl, 324. New World, the effects of its discovery and settlement upon maritime progress and, interests, 22. New York Bay, Verrazzano's description . of, 338. New York, Northern, described by Mar quis de ChasteUux, 67; sketch of, by Brissot in 1788, 87 ; varied nationalities represented in, 44(^, Niagara Falls, visit of Peter Kalm to, 297. North America, continent of, its extent and area, 15 ; its climate, soil, and pro ductions adapted to the tastes and wants of European emigrants, 15; its produc tions confounded with those of South America by ignorant Europeans, 22 ; a refuge from persecution in early colonial times, 193. North American Review, remarks of the, on Rev. Isaac Fiddler's "Observations," 201 ; exposes the ignorance of British writers on America, 262. OLMSTED, Frederick Law, his travels in the South, 417. Opportunity the characteristic distinction of America, 446. 458 INDEX. Orators, American, 429. Oswego, John Bartram's description of, 377. PALMETTO tree, description of, by Priscilla Wakefield, 216. Paulding, James K., "Letters from the South," 398 ; description of Virginia and its people, 399 ; his "John BuU in Amer ica," 400. Peabody, George, his gift to the London working class, 280, Pinchin, Mr,, one of the first settlers of Springfield, Mass., 29, Pisani, Lieut.-Col, Ferri, 365 ; his impres sions on the patriotism of the American people, 366 ; visits the Union and Rebel armies, 369 ; pleased with Boston and its society, 370. Poets, American, 433. Political treatises, American, 428. Portsmouth, N. H,, visit of Marquis de ChasteUux to, 73. Prentice, Archibald, " A Tour in the Uni ted States," 245 ; his appreciation of American . character, 246 ; compares Anjpricanto Scotch scenery, 246 ; Amer ican dislike to " John BuU," 247. Prescott, WUliam H.,8ketch of, by John G. Kohl, 320. Press, the Paris, on the War for the Union, 152; the British, its general un-, fairness on the American question. 244 ; tho British, blinded bjr self-love in dis cussing American institutions, 280, Primitive inhabitants of America, conjec tures in regard to the, 17. Providence, R. I., sketch of, by Marquis de ChasteUux, 62. Purchas, Rev. Samuel, 25. QUAKERS, prevalence of in Rhode Island, 168. RAFN, Carl Christain, claims the dis covery of America hy tbe Scandi navians in the tenth century, 18 ; his " Northern Antiquities," 294, Raumer, Freidrich von, "America and the American People," 304. Raynal, the Abbe, writings of, on Ameri ca, 107. RebeUion, the Slaveholders', literature arising from, S ; Anthony TroUope's view of, 242. Reference, American works of, 427. Religious Annals of America, 426. ReUgious sects in America, writers on, 426. Revue des Denx Mondes, the, on French disinterestedness, 272. Rhode Island, Bishop Berkeley settles in, 168 ; religious toleration in, 168 ; preva lence of Quakers in, 168 ; Jews m, 168 ; Dr. Burnaby's opinion of the people of, 175; Major Robert Rogers's opinon of,181. Bitter, Pro£ Cari, "Geographical Stud ies," 15. Eobin, L'Abbe, describes Boston in 1781, 76 ; customs pf its people, 77 ; its com merce, 78 ; A!merican ideas of French men, 79. Robinson, Mrs, (Talvi), 329. opinionscription of a settlement, 112 ; church and state in America, 113 ; popular re spect for law, 113 ; is impressed with the patriotism of the people, 114. Rochefoucault, Duke de La, visits America,.94; his minuteness of detaU, 95 ; traits of American character, 96. Rogers, Major Robert, 181 ; his opinion of people of Rhode Island, 181. Romances, American historical, 431. Ruppiu8,Otto, the novels of, on the United States, 310. Rush, Richard, on the fall ofthe naval su premacy of Great Britain, 255, SABBATH, strict observance of the, in New England, 178. Salvatore Abbate e Migliori, 362. San Domingo, connection of Columbus with, 20. Baxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Bernhard, Duke of, his "Travels in North America," 304. Scenery and local features of America, writers on the, 434. Schaff, Dr. Philip, ,330 ; his " Sketch ofthe PoUtical, Social, and Religious Character of the United States," 330; respect for law in America, 332 ; relation of Ameri ca to Europe, 333, Schultz, Christian, " Travels," 306 ; his de scription of locomotive faciUties in the United States in 1807-'8, 300, Science, American writers on the various branches of, 435. Scotch writers on America, 245, Seatsfield, Charles, novels of, on the Unit ed States, 310. Sects, religious, writers on, in America, 426. Segur, Count, arrives in America inl783, 115 ; becomes attached to the Quakers of Philadelphia, 116 ; is favorably im pressed with the American people, 116 ; dines with Washington, 116 : prophetic significance of his observations on the future of America, 117 : his remarks on embarking for the West Indies, 117. SicUy, ignorance of its people concerning America, 361. Slavery, American, Dickens's remarks on, 201 ; its debasing and brutalizing influ ence, 447. Smibert, the painter, embarks for Amer ica with Bishop Berkeley, 160 ; paints portraits of Berkeley and his family, 160 ; Horace Walpole's opinion of, 160 ; his contributions to art in New England, 160 ; Berkeley's lasting regard for, 161 ; notices identity of race between Narra ganset Indians and Siberian Tartars, 167. Smith, Captain John, his explorations in America, 27 ; his writings on America, 28. Smith, Sydney, his opinion of Henry B. Fearon, 200, Smythe, J. F. D., his " Tourin the United INDEX. 459 states of America, 188 ; hia opinion of Washington, 191 ; views of Americans, 192. ' Smythe, Prof., remarks on the collections of Hakluyt and Purchas, 26. Society, Northern European writers on, in the United States, 307. Southern hate of New England, 326. Southey, Robert, his opinion of Timothy Dwight's " Travels," 392. Spanish, and Portuguese tho pioneers in voyaging westward, 21. Springheld, Mass., account of the first set- tlementof, 29 ; its appearance in 1645, 30. Statistical works, American, 427. Stirhng, James, " Letters from the Slave States," 247 ; respect and affection due from England to America, 250. Sumner, Charles, visited by John G. Kohl, 325. Sweden, writers of, on America, 293 ; colo ny of, on the Delaware, 297. TALLEYRAND, his opinion of Amer ican backwoodsmen, 114. Theology, writers on, in America, 433. T^mes, the London, its inimical spirit to ward America, 291; Cobden'a opinion of, 29L TocqueviUe, Alexis De, sent to Amer ica in 1830, 129; his "Democracy in America," 130 ; his phUosophical view of American institutions, 132 ; his death, 134 ; notices a simUarity of Ajnerican tastes and habits, whether in the city or the wUdemess, 136 ; his idea of State sovereignty, 138 ; considers the probable future supremacy of America and Rus sia over each half of the globe, 139 ; on English selUshness, 268 'remarks on re Ugion in America, 270 ; EngUsh opinion of his writings on America, 272. Toleration in America the source of its attraction to foreign exiles. 7. Travel, books of, enduring in interest, 1 ; general sameness of writings of,in Amer ica, 4 ; miscellaneous French works of, on America, 146, 147. Trollope, Anthony, 232 ; his "North America," 232 ; his candor as a writer, 232 ; his ignorance of previous writings on America, 234 ; his egotism, 234 ; im pressed with the beauty of American scenery, 236 ; education and labor in the United States and England contrasted, 236 ; disUkes " Young America," 238 ; American women met in public convey ances, 239 : spoUed chUdren, 239 ; versa- tUity of tne Americans, 240 ; mania of Americans for travel, 241 ; opinion of the robellion, 241, TroUope, Mrs,, 225 ; her " Domestic Man ners of tho Americans," 225 ; her pow ers of observation, 225 ; superficiaUty of her judgment, 226 ; is pleased with American scenery, 228 ; het want of discrimination, 228. Tudor, WilUam, "Letters from the East ern States," 412. Turrel, Jane, "An Invitation to the Coun try," 33. ' UNION, the war for the, changes of opinion wrought by, 447 ; its influ ence on society, 448. United States, the earliest descriptions and associations connected with its territory tinctured with tradition, 19 : extent of the, 276 ; John Bright on the strength ofthe Government ofthe, 449. "YTAN DER DOCK'S account of New V Netherlands in 1659, 27. Verrazzano, 338 ; his description of New York Bay in 1524, 338. Virginia, the name given to the Jamestown colony, 21; provincial egotism of, 30; journey of Marquis de ChasteUux into, 68; the people of, described by Rev. An drew Burnaby, 173.; number of early descriptions of, 397 ; its associations, 397. Volney, C. F.,work of, on America, 97; his early passion for travel, 98 ; a victim of the French Revolution, 99 ; his phi losophy, 100; difficulties as an emi grant, 101; his death, 101; review of his life and writings, 102 ; recollections of by Dr. Francis of New York, 105 ; his visit to Warrentown, 105 ; scientific vein of his writings, 106. Voltaire,his comparison ofthe Engllsh,290. WAKEFIELD, PrisciUa, her com pilation from the works of early writers on America, 215 ; de scription of the Palmetto Royal, 216; nuraber of inns met with in America, and independence of inn keepers, 216, Walpole, Horace, his opinion of Bishop Berkeley's scheme, 158 ; his sketch or Smibert, the painter, 160. Walsh, Robert, 395 ; his " Appeal," 395. Wansey, Henry, 194; his " Excursion to the United States," 194; breakfasts with Washington at Philadelphia, 194 ; his impressions of Washington, 194 ; re marks the general contentment of the people, 195 ; journeys through New En gland, 195 ; meets distinguished persons at New York, 196. Washington, George, first interview of Marquis de ChasteUux with, 65 ; takes leave of De ChasteUux at Newburgh, 74; described by De ChasteUux, 75 ; visited by Brissot do Warville at Mount Ver non, 85 ; J. F. D. Smythe's opinion of, 191 ; breakfasts with Henry Wansey, 194; his opinion of Count Adriani's book, 340 ; a glitnpse of Connecticut, 419 ; visits Boston, 421. Webster, Daniel, imperishability of the record ofhis eloquence, 429. Weld, Isafec, "Travels in America," 207. Welsnfthe, claim to be early explorers ot America, 17. Western travel and adventure, books of, 422. Wheaton, Henry, " History ofthe North men," 19. "White, Rev. James, on British prejudices, 266. 460 INDEX. Wied, Prince Maximilian von, " Journey through America" 305. WiUiams, Roger, liberal spirit of, 168, Wilson, Alexander, 199; his "American Ornithology," 199. Winterbotham, his authorities in compi ling his " View of the United States," 3. Winthrop, John, journal of, 31 ; on the de basement ofthe poor in England, 282. Wirt,Wm.. "Letters of a British Spy," 412. Women, American, Anthony TroUope's remarks on, 239. Wood, WilUam, pect," 32. "New England Pros- YALE CoUege, gifts of Bishop Berke ley to, 167. ZENGER, John P., printer of the New York Weekly Journal^ narrative of his trial for libel, 7, Zimmerman, E. A. W., "France and the Free States of Noi^h America," 306. 3 9002 00491 0890