country, especially if they knew him to be an officer. This latter particular they never failed to inform themselves of, for they are by no means bashful in inquiries: but if the discovery operated in any way upon their behaviour, it was rather to my advantage; nor did I meet with a single instance of incivility betwixt Canada and Charleston, except at the Shenandoah Point, from a drunken English deserter. My testimony, in this particular, will cer

no one here indulge himself in abusing the | been told, as I had, that the Americans waiter or ostler at an inn; that waiter or never failed to cheat and insult every En. ostler is probably a citizen, and does not, nor glishman who travelled through their cannot conceive, that a situation in which he discharges a duty to society, not in itself dishonourable, should subject him to insult: but this feeling, so far as I have experienced, is entirely defensive. I have travelled near 10,000 miles in the United States, and never met with the least incivility or affront. "The Americans, in general, are accused by travellers of being inquisitive. If this be a crime, the western people are guilty; but, for my part, I must say that it is a practice that I never was disposed to com-tainly not invalidate the complaints of many plain of, because I always found them as ready to answer a question as to ask one, and therefore I always came off a gainer by this kind of barter; and if any traveller does not, it is his own fault. As this leads me to notice their general conduct to strangers, I feel myself bound, by gratitude and regard to truth, to speak of their hospitality. In my travels through the inhabited parts of the United States, not less than 2000 miles was through parts where there were no taverns, and where a traveller is under the necessity of appealing to the hospitality of the inhabitants. In no one instance has my appeal been fruitless; although, in many cases, the furnishing of a bed has been evidently attended with inconvenience, and in a great many instances no remuneration would be received. Other European travellers have experienced this liberal spirit of hospitality, and some have repaid it by calumny."-(Bradbury, pp. 304 -306.)

We think it of so much importance to do justice to other nations, and to lessen that hatred and contempt which race feels for race, that we subjoin two short passages from Mr. Hall to the same effect.

other travellers, who, I doubt not, have frequently encountered rude treatment, and quite as frequently deserved it; but it will at least prove the possibility of traversing the United States without insult or interruption, and even of being occasionally surprised by liberality and kindness." (Hall, pp. 255, 256.)

"I fell into very pleasant society at Washington. Strangers who intend staying some days in a town usually take lodgings at a boarding-house, in preference to a tavern: in this way they obtain the best society the place affords; for there are always gentlemen, and frequently ladies, either visitors or temporary residents, who live in this manner to avoid the trouble of housekeeping. At Washington, during the sittings of Congress, the boarding-houses are divided into messes, according to the political principles of the inmates; nor is a stranger admitted without some introduction, and the consent of the whole company. I chanced to join a democratic mess, and name a few of its members with gratitude, for the pleasure their society gave meCommodore Decatur and his lady, the Abbé Correa, the great botanist and plenipotentiary of Portugal, the Secretary of the Navy, the Secretary of the Navy Board, known as the author of a humorous publication entitled, 'John Bull and Brother

"I had bills on Philadelphia, and applied to a respectable store-keeper, that is, trades-Jonathan,' with eight or ten members of man, of the village, to cash me one: the amount, however, was beyond any remittance he had occasion to make, but he immediately offered me whatever sum I might require for my journey, with no better security than my word, for its repayment at Philadelphia: he even insisted on my taking more than I mentioned as sufficient. I do not believe this trait of liberality would surprise an American; for no one in the States, to whom I mentioned it, seemed to consider it as more than any stranger of respectable appearance might have looked for, in similar circumstances; but it might well surprise an English traveller, who had

Congress, principally from the Western States, which are generally considered as most decidedly hostile to England, but whom I did not on this account find less good-humoured and courteous. It is from thus living in daily intercourse with the leading characters of the country that one is enabled to judge with some degree of certainty of the practices of its government; for to know the paper theory is nothing, unless it be compared with the instruments employed to carry it into effect. A political constitution may be nothing but a cabalistic form, to extract money and power from the people; but then the jugglers must be in

the dark, and 'no admittance behind the
curtain.' This way of living affords, too,
the best insight into the best part of society;
for if in a free nation the depositaries of
the public confidence be ignorant, or vulgar,
it is a very fruitless search to look for the
opposite qualities in those they represent;
whereas, if these be well informed in mind
and manners, it proves at the least an in-
clination towards knowledge and refine-
ment in the general mass of citizens by
whom they are selected. My own expe-1;
rience obliges me to a favourable verdict in
this particular. I found the little circle
into which I had happily fallen full of
good sense and good humour, and never
quitted it without feeling myself a gainer,
on the score either of useful information
or of social enjoyment."-(Hall, pp. 329-
331.)

In page 252. Mr. Hall pays some very handsome compliments to the gal-repeat, what indeed you are already aclantry, high feeling, and humanity of the American troops. Such passages reflect the highest honour upon Mr. Hall. They are full of courage as well as kindness; and will never be forgiven

The following picture of a slave song is quoted by Mr. Hall from the "Letters on Virginia."

"I took the boat this morning, and crossed

Fearon seems to imagine, has produced must be a prodigy who can retain his indifference; and he heaves a sigh to morals and manners undepraved by such the memory of departed oppression. circumstances.""-Notes, p. 241.— (Hall, "Can it be possible (he asks) that the p. 459.) non-existence of religious oppression has lessened religious knowledge and made men superstitiously dependent upon outward form, instead of internal purity?" To which question (a singular one from an enlightened man like Mr. Fearon) we answer, that the absence of religious oppression has not lessened religious knowledge, but theological animosity; and made men more dependent upon pious actions, and less upon useless and unintelligible wrangling.*

the ferry over to Portsmouth, the small town which I told you is opposite to this place. It was court day, and a large crowd of people was gathered about the door of the court-house. I had hardly got upon the steps to look in, when my ears were assailed by the voice of singing; and turning round to discover from what quarter it came, I saw a group of about thirty

negroes, of different sizes and ages, follow

The great curse of America is the institution of Slavery of itself far more than the foulest blot upon their national character, and an evil which counterbalances all the excisemen, licensers, and tax-gatherers, of Eng-town. As they came nearer, I saw some of land. No virtuous man ought to trust his own character, or the character of his children, to the demoralising effects produced by commanding slaves. Justice, gentleness, pity, and humility, soon give way before them. Conscience suspends its functions. The love of command-the impatience of restraint, get the better of every other feeling; and cruelty has no other limit than fear.

"There must doubtless,' says Mr. Jefferson, 'be an unhappy influence on the manners of the people produced by the existence of slavery among us. The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions; the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. Our children see this and

learn to imitate it; for man is an imitative animal. The parent storms, the child looks on, catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on the same airs in the circle of smaller

slaves, gives loose to the worst of passions; and thus nursed, educated, and daily exercised in tyranny, cannot but be stamped by it with odious peculiarities. The man

* Mr. Fearon mentions a religious lottery for building a Presbyterian church. What will Mr. Littleton say to this? he is hardly prepared, we suspect, for this union of Calvin and the Little Go. Every advantage will be made of it by the wit and eloquence of his fiscal opponent;-nor will it pass unheeded by Mr. Bish.

ing a rough-looking white man, who sat
carelessly lolling in his sulky. They had
just turned round the corner, and were
coming up the main street to pass by the
spot where I stood, on their way out of
them loaded with chains to prevent their
escape; while others had hold of each
other's hands, strongly grasped, as if to
support themselves in their affliction. I
particularly noticed a poor mother, with
an infant sucking at her breast as she
walked along, while two small children had
hold of her apron on either side, almost
came along singing a little wild hymn, of
running to keep up with the rest. They
sweet and mournful melody, flying, by a
divine instinct of the heart, to the con-
solation of religion, the last refuge of the
unhappy, to support them in their distress.
The sulky now stopped before the tavern,
at a little distance beyond the court-house,
and the driver got out. "My dear Sir,"
said I to a person who stood near me, “can
you tell me what these poor people have
been doing? What is their crime? And
said he, "it's nothing at all, but a parcel of
what is to be their punishment?" "O,"
negroes sold to Carolina; and that man is
what have they done, that they should be
their driver, who has bought them." "But
sold into banishment?" "Done," said he,
"nothing at all, that I know of; their
these drivers give good prices." Here the
money, I
driver, having supplied himself with brandy,
and his horse with water (the poor negroes
of course wanted nothing), stepped into his
chair again, cracked his whip, and drove
on, while the miserable exiles followed in
funeral procession behind him.'”—(Hall,
pp. 358-360.)

masters wanted

suppose,

and

The law by which slaves are governed

England is, to be sure, a very expensive country; but a million of millions has been expended in making it habitable and comfortable; and this is a constant source of revenue, or, what is the same thing, a constant diminution of expense to every man living in it. The price an Englishman pays for a turnpike road is not equal to a tenth part of what the delay would cost him without a turnpike. The New River Company brings water to every inhabitant of London, at an infinitely less price than he could dip for it out of the Thames. No country, in fact, is so expensive as one which human beings are just beginning to inhabit;- - where there are no roads, no bridges, no skill, no help, no combination of powers, and no force of capital.

course, must determine for himself. A on the Columbia should have common carpenter, under 30 years of age, who interest with the navigators of the finds himself at Cincinnati with an axe Hudson and the Delaware. over his shoulder, and ten pounds in his pocket, will get rich in America if the change of climate does not kill him. So will a farmer who emigrates early with some capital. But any person with tolerable prosperity here had better remain where he is. There are considerable evils, no doubt, in England: but it would be madness not to admit, that it is, upon the whole, a very happy country, and we are much mistaken if the next 20 years will not bring with | it a great deal of internal improvement. The country has long been groaning under the evils of the greatest foreign war we were ever engaged in; and we are just beginning to look again into our home affairs. Political economy has made an astonishing progress since they were last investigated; and every session of Parliament brushes off some of the How, too, can any man take upon cobwebs and dust of our ancestors.* himself to say, that he is so indifferent The Apprentice Laws have been swept to his country that he will not begin to away; the absurd nonsense of the love it intensely, when he is 5000 or Usury Laws will probably soon follow; 6000 miles from it? And what a Public Education and Saving Banks dreadful disease Nostalgia must be on have been the invention of these last the banks of the Missouri ! Severe ten years; and the strong fortress of and painful poverty will drive us all Bigotry has been rudely assailed. Then, anywhere: but a wise man should be with all its defects, we have a Parlia- quite sure he has so irresistible a plea ment of inestimable value. If there be before he ventures on the Great or the a place in any country where 500 well Little Wabash. He should be quite educated men can meet together, and sure that he does not go there from ill talk with impunity of public affairs, temper-or to be pitied- or to be and if what they say is published, that regretted- or from ignorance of what country must improve. It is not plea-is to happen to him-or because he is sant to emigrate into a country of a poet- but because he has not enough changes and revolution, the size and to eat here, and is sure of abundance integrity of whose empire no man can where he is going. predict. The Americans are a very sensible, reflecting people, and have conducted their affairs extremely well; but it is scarcely possible to conceive that such an empire should very long remain undivided, or that the dwellers

GAME LAWS. (E. REVIEW, 1819.) Three Letters on the Game Laws. Rest Fenner, Black & Co. London. 1818. *In a scarcity which occurred little more than 20 years ago, every judge, (except the THE evil of the Game Laws, in their Lord Chancellor, then Justice of the Common Pleas, and Serjeant Remington,) when present state, has long been felt, and they charged the Grand Jury, attributed of late years has certainly rather inthe scarcity to the combinations of the far-creased than diminished. We believe mers; and complained of it as a very serious evil. Such doctrines would not now be that they cannot long remain in their tolerated in the mouth of a school-boy. present state; and we are anxious to