PREFACE. FEELING dissatisfied with the various statements which have issued from the press in such rapid succession within the last two or three years, respecting the United States, and being convinced that much yet remained to be learned relative to that part of the vast Western Continent, I came to the determination of availing myself of a short leave of absence from my military duties to cross the Atlantic, and inform myself more fully upon the subject. After travelling over 2000 miles of the most interesting districts, and visiting the principal Atlantic cities in the United States, I extended my tour through an equal distance in the British provinces. As my only object in publishing the following narrative is to contribute, in however small a degree, to the knowledge already possessed of those countries which are so fast rising into importance, I hope that I shall not lay myself open to a charge of presumption. In the following unpretending pages, I profess only to give an unbiassed and impartial statement of what came under my own observation. My remarks are confined to those things which require but a short re PREFACE. FEELING dissatisfied with the various statements which have issued from the press in such rapid succession within the last two or three years, respecting the United States, and being convinced that much yet remained to be learned relative to that part of the vast Western Continent, I came to the determination of availing myself of a short leave of absence from my military duties to cross the Atlantic, and inform myself more fully upon the subject. After travelling over 2000 miles of the most interesting districts, and visiting the principal Atlantic cities in the United States, I extended my tour through an equal distance in the British provinces. As my only object in publishing the following narrative is to contribute, in however small a degree, to the knowledge already possessed of those countries which are so fast rising into importance, I hope that I shall not lay myself open to a charge of presumption. In the following unpretending pages, I profess only to give an unbiassed and impartial statement of what came under my own observation. My remarks are confined to those things which require but a short re |