Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

the people as they entered. To this stratagem several of them owed their safety. But amongst those who were identified was the unfortunate Englishman. Wounded severely in the head during the scuffle, he was seized upon by the mob; and, a barrel of tar having been emptied over him, he was powdered with feathers from head to foot, and conducted in a cart, to the music of a 'hooting populace, through the streets of the city. To a less robust frame, the torture and exhaustion would have been fatal. At last he was recognised, at one of the halting places, by a friendly American (and we are bound to say that some of them behave nobly on such occasions), who concealed him in a neighbouring ditch, and he ultimately escaped; though, several weeks after, he might have been seen, on his way to England, with the wounds in his head still festering. Now it may be thought unfair to bring forward, as a trait of national character, an incident which occurred upwards of forty years since. We should think so too, did we not remember, in later times, the treatment of the Abolitionists; and that there are places where it would have been dangerous to have pronounced that the Cuban invasion was an act of piracy. We will give another instance. The liberties of America are founded upon the following declaration : "We regard this truth as selfevident, that all mankind are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that amongst these are life, liberty, and the endeavour after happiness." Where we at present write, we cannot refer to the document in extenso; we take it, therefore, as quoted by Miss Bremer; but we believe it is correctly given.

It is quite evident, however, that no animals in existence are created equal. From the first descendants of Adam to the present hour, we see, in every family, original differences both physical and intellectual; and, if they did not exist from the beginning, they would soon be formed by habit and circumstances. With this inequality, the wise and prudent will always govern, and the strong subdue; and no people can ever have political rights till they are so far advanced in civilisation and power as to acquire and maintain them. Nor have we a single liberty or right which is "inalienable." All civilised society is formed by a relinquishment of rights. It is scarcely possible to conceive a clearer right than that of freely going into and out of the place where we reside. But the public safety may require that the gates should be closed at a certain hour, and the right is, without any injustice, alienated. To class "the endeavour after happiness" as a "right," is merely, perhaps, a loose mode of expression. Yet there is not a single city in the Union where all this might be strongly and publicly expressed, or the nonsense of the passage be exposed, without the risk of personal insult, or deadly arbitrement.

When the present Chancellor of the Exchequer was conducting one of his measures through the House of Commons, he was somewhat peremptorily contradicted by a member on the opposite benches. After a short explanation, he inquired if the honourable gentleman still held the same opinion, and was answered, "Yes, I do." "Then," said Mr. Gladstone, "I can only say that I don't agree with you." We hold that no difference upon a public question should ever go beyond this. When it comes to bowie-knives and revolvers-with every wish to be courteous to our Anglo-Saxon brethren--we cannot admit that free discussion any longer exists. There is as little liberty of opinion, under such a system of

terrorism, as under the most absolute despotism in Europe; it is a blot on their national character; and, in dismissing one of the few points upon which we would speak of them unfavourably, while we admit, as regards this heavy sin, that they have "reformed it indifferently," we would add, as Hamlet did, "Reform it altogether." The sketches of Mr. Fowler will, we know, be more agreeable to them than the tone of these remarks. He has done them full justice; and, as a specimen of his manner, we extract a description of the passage from New York to Albany:

The Hudson is a noble stream. One bank, for some miles after leaving New York, is covered with country houses and their pleasure-grounds; the other is bounded by a flat ridge of rocks, rising to a height of about 500 feet, forming a strong contrast to the gently sloping shore of the opposite bank. Above this the river expands into a broad sheet of water called the Tappaan Zee. Next, the boat rapidly glides through a succession of apparently small lakes, twisting and turning through abrupt, precipitous, rocky hills, but covered with small timber to the water's edge. This is the most beautiful part of the stream. Like the Rhine forcing its way through the Tannus range of hills, the Hudson is here compelled to yield to the nature of the ground. Beautiful, indeed, are the little lake-like expansions which here form the river. West Point, situated on the shore of one of them, is a little Eden; and some care has been judiciously exercised in not defacing this retired nook, more than is absolutely necessary, by the buildings of the wellknown Military Academy. West Point has been so often described, that it is unnecessary for me to dwell upon it here. It is the only military training school the United States possess, and is regarded by the mass of the people with great jealousy-some difficulty being generally experienced in passing the annual vote, for its support, through Congress. The discipline maintained is very strict. Very many of the students leave before their course of study expires. Most young men are, in all countries, impatient of restraint, and they are particularly so in America; added to which, the military profession does not hold the same rank in society as in other countries: it is simply tolerated as a necessary nuisance. The army is very small (about 9000 men), and is chiefly employed in small detachments in the thankless, dull, inglorious duty of guarding the extended frontier of the Union against the Indians. The irregular force looks down upon the regular; the colonel of militia is a greater man than the colonel of the regular army. The soldiers are almost all Irish or Dutch, with some few deserters from English regiments quartered in Canada: Few native Americans will eulist-and they are right; no career offers so little inducement. The officers are so scattered that they have no "mess," which, in most services, promotes esprit du corps, and gives a higher tone both of manners and feeling. Above this, the stream flows through a level country, abounding in clean, snug little towns, and here and there a resi dence of the better class perched on some knoll, or on the shore of a green little bay. These houses have invariably some attempt at architectural beauty, and none are without wide sweeping verandahs. At Kingston the Kaatskill mountains, the scene of Rip van Winkle's twenty years' nap, come into sight. This range is thickly timbered throughout, and is some distance from the river; the intervening space being a level plain of about ten or twelve miles broad, only partially cleared, and thinly inhabited. The banks gradually become more tame, the stream narrower, the current more rapid; and the navigation, for vessels of any burden, ceases at Troy; about five miles above Albany. As far as Albany the average width of the almost currentless stream is about a mile; and I myself saw a square-rigged ship of about 400 tons burden lying off a wharf more than 100 miles from New York. Its capa bilities for navigation may therefore be imagined. On my return from Canada I landed at this part of the river to pay a visit of a few days to the

far-famed Pine Orchard Hotel, situated

above the level of the sea. The ascent of the

moun

oh most hotel

feet

lovely

views over an immense extent of country; and, stands is one of the most striking in the world. A small space, at the very brink of a precipice 1500 feet deep, has been cleared; on this, within a few yards of the edge, stands the hotel. The view is magnificent. An immense tract of country lies below you, through which the white stream of the Hudson flows like a silken thread. The dark foliage of the trees, and the little towns on the margin of the stream, enable the eye to trace its course mile after mile -until to the south it is lost among the high lands about West Point, and to the north among the hills of Connecticut. The view extends at least 100 miles in every direction, presenting a most exquisite panorama of a large part of the states of New York, Massachusets, Connecticut, and Vermont. One cannot help being struck with the immense quantity of forest still standing, the small part of the country which is under arable cultivation, and the apparent spareness of the population in so old settled a district, and so near a city which may be said to be not only the capital of the state of New York but of the whole Union.

יד ,'

We have given so long an extract, because with this description, and the frontispiece to Miss Bremer's second volume before us, the appearance of the Hudson may be as distinctly conceived as if we were actually upon its banks. Mr. Fowler also confirms what we have said as to the little change which has taken place in the character of the older cities. "In New York," he observes, "there are so many persons who have been accustomed to the gaiety and light-heartedness of a continental life, that this city is, undoubtedly, the most agreeable in America, with the exception, perhaps, of St. Louis or New Orleans during the proper season. At Boston one acquires a decided dislike to Puritanism, and learns to consider a 'blue' lady a bore; at Philadelphia, the primness and propriety of the Quakers, and the rectangular construction of their city [and of themselves] are almost painful. Baltimore is a little more south, and therefore less straitlaced; and Washington is, of course, interesting to a traveller, from being the seat of government; though in itself a melancholy skeleton." All this would have been equally correct if written immediately before the last war. To the character of American society he does more justice than the generality of English travellers. He reminds them that " to seize upon any peculiarity, and exaggerate it, is easy. To represent, as characteristic of a whole people, manners which are to be found in a mere section of it-to dress them up and present them to the reader in amusing language-may flatter national vanity; but it is highly unfair. . . . I mixed during several months (he says) in every class of American society. The highly-bred English or French gentleman, accustomed to the best and most refined, is not to be found.... But you will find, with this exception, most native Americans (I use this term advisedly, because the states are deluged with people from other countries, who are the loudest talkers and most obtrusively ill-mannered) superior in intelligence and manners to persons filling the same position elsewhere." This is not Mr. Fowler's bestconstructed sentence; but he continues to remark, with great truth, that "really good society is not easy of access to a traveller in the United States; he must not only come well recommended, but must linger long upon his road." The writer of these pages is gratefully sensible that

1

had he not taken letters from one who was honoured as much in America as at home, as a philanthropist and man of genius, he should not have been able to appreciate as he does the best of American society. "All society in a city like New York cannot be good; neither have I found it so elsewhere. Take class for class, and it need not blush by the side of its European competitors." "To know the Americans," he adds, "you must visit them. No written description will be just. Like a rule relating to the gender of French nouns, the exceptions will be so numerous, that in the end the rule itself will be forgotten. Every climate, from tropical heat to Siberian cold; pursuits the most various; the wealthy luxurious city, and the newly-planted log-hut, whose inhabitants see but the beasts of the field and the birds of the air, must and do present striking contrasts."

[ocr errors]

From the United States, Mr. Fowler proceeded into Canada. He describes its scenery, especially his voyages on its lakes and rivers, with his usual clearness; and he gives a striking instance of the folly of retaining in emigration a taste for the luxuries and amusements which the settler has formerly enjoyed. To disappointed expectations he attributes the general disposition of the emigrants to sell their farms. "Nearly every farmer appeared to be not only willing but desirous of parting with his land-if a purchaser could be found-denoting either that farming is unremunerative, or the farmer extravagant, and, therefore, involved. The truth is, that people come to the colony with small resources and old-country habits, and soon dissipate whatever capital they bring with them. Discontent, neglect of their business, and reckless improvidence follow. Too much is expected from a small capital; and it is only when too late, that emigrants find out the real truth, that none but hardworking, careful people, can succeed here-unless backed by an income drawn from other sources than their farms."

Mr. Fowler shrinks from a description of Niagara. He says that language cannot be made to rise to such majesty; that it is without a parallel in nature. "The mind can only grasp it through the external senses; it must be seen and heard-not frittered away and toned down through the cold medium of a string of expletives and superlatives. There is, besides, something almost sacred in the thoughts and feelings to which the scene gives rise: he who feels it most will say the least. You cannot prattle in the face of such sublimity." This seems a repetition, in word-painting, of the artist who concealed one of the principal faces in a group because he was unable to give it adequate expression. Yet we do not remember to have had the scene more satisfactorily brought before us than in the pages which it prefaces. If satisfied with the society of New York, with that of Montreal he was delighted. He describes it as "most excellent, and the hospitality and kindness of the resident French Canadians unbounded. All (we are told) who have visited the city will bear willing testimony to this, and to the mild, ladylike, winning manners of its fair inhabitants. The change from the abrupt rusticity of the greater part of the upper province strikes a traveller forcibly. He passes at a bound, as it were, into an entirely new social atmosphere, which recals to his mind the never-to-be-forgotten charms of a French drawing-room. The French Canadian has retained

the suavity, and, in a great measure, the ideas, both social and political, of the ancestors from whom he sprung; and who quitted their native land about the time of Louis Quatorze.'

"I think not.

Our notice of the European portion of the volume must be brief. There are some very sensible remarks upon the religious dissensions amongst the English at Madeira; and the account of Gibraltar takes us to the place itself. We wander about its rock; shudder as we contemplate the slow torture of its military prison; and make excursions to Campo and S. Roque; and, through the cork wood to Almoraima; with something like a vague belief that we once were there. We will spare the ladies of Portugal his description of their personal attractions; though it only confirms what we have formerly heard from their countrymen-by way of contrast-when descanting with rapture upon the beauty of Englishwomen. It might reconcile them to our author's opinion to know that even the fair dames of Cadiz fail to satisfy his fastidious taste. 66 Do they deserve the praise so lavishly bestowed upon them ?" he asks. "I think not. Dark and carefully-arranged hair, and bright piercing eyes, are their chief beauty. The features are not very regular, nor is their complexion good. Their walk is unrivalled." Yet if we strike a balance upon such items as these, the result will still be in favour of beauty: and the possessors of such attractions would not, we should think, lessen the pleasures of a Spanish supper. "About eight or nine in the evening comes the really social meal. Then the family meet, friends drop in, the girls bring out the guitars, and music and dancing are kept up till midnight. This is the time to see a Spanish family in good humour, and to the greatest advantage; for these four or five hours are the enjoyment of the day. When once admitted on terms of intimacy, you may run about their houses at all hours like a pet dog. Even the women will not run away from you, although they be in morning deshabille; and no servant (when your face is known) will ever trouble himself to announce you; he simply admits you, and leaves you to wander over the house when, where, and how you like."

Agreeable as this mode of visiting seems to be, it may be doubted whether it would be much relished in England. Mr. Fowler's next chap ter is of Malta, which offers little that is new. The quality that gives life to his sketches is less a graphic power than an evident sincerity. A total absence of exaggeration :-in a word, Reliability. We abstain from further extracts. It is unnecessary to cut into fragments what is already so brief. We may do so to exempt from the necessity of reading more ponderous works; but, in Mr. Fowler's case, the volume itself will amply repay the time which it may occupy. He never tires; and has given us a pleasant and readable book.

t

« AnteriorContinuar »