BOOKS.

THE ENGLISHWOMAN IN AMERICA.*

Tun account of a tour in America during a part of 1854 differs in point of route from other travels chiefly by journeys through our smaller colonies, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. More attention has also been given to Canada, where the fair writer resided some time with a new settler, and wit- nessed the daily life and occupations of the family. " The E lishwoman in America" had relations in the Colonies ;

Miss Murray, she had the advantage of good introductions; so that here opportunities of seeing various kinds of life, from the respectable settler to the " upper ten thousand" of New York and the Governor's parties in Canada, were far beyond those of an ordinary traveller. The Englishwoman is also a lively writer, though somewhat given to over-detall, Fished- so far as to clog her narrative. Niagara, itself is absolutely lost in trifling stories and small personal occurrences, variegated by thrilling anecdotes of people who have gone down the Falls. The writer gives a very favourable picture of Upper Canada, in the advantages it offers to emigrants, and in its actual progress which is now rivallingthat of the United States, while the society is more English. Her estimate of Lower Canada is not so favour- able : but she is a zealous Anti-Romanist, and part of her' censure may spring from religious feeling. The picture of New Brims- wick is not flattering ; that of Nova Scotia is still worse. She de- scribes the " Blue _Noses " pretty much in the style of Sam Slick,— as grumbling, unenterprising, boastful, and self-sufficient, continu- ally talking of effecting 4Teat things, yet never doing anything. Halifax, with one of the finest harbours in the world, is a dirty, do-little, stagnating place. The water-communication in both pro- vinces is neglected ; the roads are bad, the conveyances worse than tho roads, and, she says, a railway unknown even in New Brunswick. The consequence is, that the colony is in a very backward state. Yet she paints ihe people as not only perfectly self-satisfied, but something more. Here is a sample, from St. John's, New Brunswick. " I cannot forbear giving a conversation which took place at a meal at this inn, as it is very i characteristic of the style of persons whom one con-

tinually meets with n travelling in these colonies. guess you're from the Old Country ? ' commenced my vis-i-via: to which recognition of my nationality I humbly bowed. What do you think of us here down East ? ' I have been so short a time in these provinces that I cannot form any just opinion.' Oh, but you must have formed some ; we like to know what Old Country folks think of us.' Thus asked, I could not avoid making some reply, and said, [think there is a great want of systematic enter- prise in these colonies; you do not avail 3-ourselves of the great natural ad-

vantages which you possess.' Well, the fact is, old father Jackey Bull ought to help us, or let us go off on our own hook right entirely." You have responsible government, and, to use your own phrase, you are on ' your own hook' in all but the name.' Well, I guess as we are: we're a long chalk above the Yankees, though them is fellers as thinks nobody's got their eye-teeth cut but themselves.' " The self-complacent ignorance with which this remark was made was ludicrous in the extreme. He began again. What do you think of Nova Scotia and the Blue Noses' ? Iralifax is a grand place, surely !" At Halifax I found the best inn such a one as no respectable .American would condescend to sleep at, and a tosm of shingles, with scarcely any side-walks. . The people were talking largely of railways and steamers, yet I. travelled by the mail to Truro and Pictou in a conveyance that would scarcely have been tolerated in England two centuries ago. The people of Halifax pos- sess the finest harbour in North America, yet they have no docks, and. scarcely any shipping. The Nova-Scotians, it is known, have iron, coal, slate, limestone, and freestone, and their shores swarm with fish ; yet they spend their time in talking about railways, docks, and the House of As- sembly, and end by walking about doing nothing.' " The Englishwoman—who, by the by, is a Scotchwoman- tarried some time at Prince Edward Island ; and she appears to have more liking for that outlying place than her facts altogether justify. The island is indeed fertile and pleasant enough in sum- mer ; but its winters are very severe, and its communication with

i the continent bi-weekly only in summer, is in winter when you

can get it. The' remoter places have a kind of old-world sim- plicity about them, very well to see, but very tedious, we imagine, to live with. The town population exceeds all that fiction de- lights to paint of provincial gossip, scandal, and dissension. The feet that the island has responsible government with a ministry of the majority, and, it may be supposed, some patronage, infuses the element of party discord into the common sources of ill-will that arise from small objects and too close a proximity. The lady's account of the first Government House reception reads like a burlesque on a court and " ego et rex meus." " While I was there, the Governor gave his first party, to which as a ne- cessary matter of etiquette, all who had left cards at Government House were invited. I was told that I should not see such a curious mixture any- where else, either in the States or in the Colonies. There were about a hun- dred andfifty personspfesent, including all the officers of the garrison and customs, and the members of the Government. The prime minister, the • The Englishwoman in America. Published by Murray.

Honourable George Coles, whose name is already well known in the Colo- nies, was there in all the novel glories of office and red-tapeism.' "I cannot say that this gentleman looked at all careworn : indeed, the cares of office, even in England, have ceased to be onerous, if one may judge from the ease with which a Premier of seventy performs upon the Par- liamentary stage ; but Mr. Coles looked particularly the reverse. He is justified in his complacent appearance,. for he has a majority in the House- s requisite scarcely deemed essential in England—and the finances of the colony are flourishing under his administration. He is a self-made and self-educated man, and by his own energy, industry, and perseverance, has raised himself to the position which he now holds ; and if his mannershave not all the finish of polite society, and if he does sometimes say Me and the Governor,' his energy is not less to be admired. " Another member of the Government appeared in a yellow waistcoat and brown frock-coat : but where there were a great many persons of an inferior class it was only surprising that there should be so few inaccuracies either in dress or deportment. There were some very pretty women, and almost all were dressed with simplicity and good taste. The island does not afford a band, but a pianist and violinist played most perseveringly ; and the amusements were kept up with untiring spirit till four in the morning. " The Governor [Mr. Dominick Daly] and his family behaved most af- fably to their guests; and I was glad to observe that in such a very mixed company not the slightest vulgarity of manner was perceptible."

Of the United States our Englishwoman speaks in terms of general praise, which her facts do not appear to establish, and which to some extent are contrary to what others with equal opportunities have reported. She favourably. represents the hotel system both in its style and in its convenience. Fredrika Bremer found fault with the cookery, as a bad attempt at French cuisine. Miss Murray pronounces the whole system pretentious, expensive, and comfortless ; the boasted mode of railway convey- ance irregular, inconvenient, reckless, often extortionate, and sometimes worse. The Englishwoman herself describes very risk- ful railroads ; and as regards manners, she notes what wo do not remember to have seen mentioned before—" spittoons " in the " ladies' " cabins. When after a long tour through the States she reached the Lakes and a Canadian steamer, she as it were lets out the difference in spite of herself. " Captain D-- of the Peerless brought his beautiful little vessel from the Clyde in 6000 pieces, and is justly proud of her. I sat next him at din- ner, and found that we knew some of the same people in Scotland. Gaelic was a further introduction '•home and though so many thousand miles away, for a moment I felt myself at home when we spoke of the majestic Crwhulling and the heather), braes of Balquidder. In the Peerless every one took wine or liqueurs. There was no bill of fare but a long list of wines and spirits placed by each plate. Instead of being disturbed in the middle of din- ner by a poke on the shoulder, and the demand, Dinner-ticket, or fifty cents,' I was allowed to remain as long as I pleased, and at the conclusion of the voyage a gentlemanly Highland purser asked rue for my passage and dinner money together."

Peculiarities of manners, however, are small affairs, and no- thi g when you're used to them. There are stranger thing% in this volume ..connected with New. York, as regards the misery, vice, and reckless opposition to all authority, that were sup- posed only to exist in the great cities of Europe. Dickens and other writers had made the world aware that there was a " back slums " in the Empire city, where poverty and vice were to be found in plenty ; but this writer's picture goes further.

"New York has a district called the live Points, fertile in crime, fever, and misery, which would scarcely yield the palm for vice and squalor to St, Giles's in London, or the Saltmarket in Glasgow. A collection of dwellings called the Mud Huts, where many Coloured people reside, is also an unplea- ging feature connected with the city. But with abundant employment, high wages, and charities on a princely scale for those who from accidental circumstances may occasionally require assistance, there is no excuse for the squalid wretchedness in which a considerable number of persons have chosen to sink themselves.

"It is a fact that no Golden Age exists on the other aide of the water ; that vice and crime have their penalties in America as well as in Europe ; and that some of the worst features of the Old World are reproduced in the New. With all the desire that we may possess to take a sanguine view of things, there is something peculiarly hopeless about the condition of this class at New York, which m such a favourable state of society, and at such an early period of American history, has sunk so very low. The existence of a dangerous class' at New York is now no longer denied. One person in seven of the whole population came under the notice of the authorities, either in the ranks of criminals or paupers, in 1862; and it is stated that last year the numbers reached an alarming magnitude, threatening danger.

to the peace of society. * * "I was at New York at the time of the elections, and those of 1854 were attended with unusual excitement, owing to the red-hot strife between the Irish Roman Catholics and the Know-nothings.' • •

" Very little notice of the riots on this occasion has been taken by the English journalists, though the local papers varied in their accounts of the numbers of killed and wounded from 46 to 700! It was known that an emeute was expected; therefore I was not surprised, one evening early in November, to hear the alarm-bells ringing in all directions throughout the city. It was stated that a Know-nothing assemblage of about 10,000 per-

sons had been held in the Park, and that, in dis g, they had been fired upon by some Irishmen called the Brigade. was the commencement

of a sanguinary struggle for the preservation of order. For three days a dropping fire of musketry was continually to be heard in New York and Williamsburgh, and reports of great loss of life on both sides were circu- lated. It was stated that the hospital received 170 wounded men, and that many more were carried off by their friends. The military were Called out, and, as it was five days before quiet was restored, it is to be supposed that many lives were lost. I saw two dead bodies myself ; and in one street or alley by the Five Points, both the side-walks and the roadway were slippery with blood. Yet very little sensation was excited in the upper part of the town ; people went out and came in as usual ; busineSs was not interrupted ; and to questions upon the Subject the reply was frequently made, Oh, its only an election riot,' showing how painfully common Such disturbances had become."

The Englishwoman did not reach the Southern States, properly speaking. She is as much opposed to slavery as Miss Murray ap- pears to have been when she first started ; but she saw little of the system, and associated but little with its advocates. One striking fact adduced during her stay at Cincinnati is the dif- ference between Ohio and Kentucky. The economical contrast between Free States and Slave States has often been. remarked, but we never before saw it pictured in such strong and initnediate juxtaposition.

"Kentucky, the land, by reputation, of 'red horses, .bowie-knives, and gouging,' is only separated from Ohio by the river Ohio ; and on a day when. the thermometer stood at 103° in the shade I went to the town of Covington. Marked, wide, and almost ihestimable, is the difference between the free- state of Ohio and the slave-state of Kentucky. They have the same soil, the same climate, and precisely the same natural advantages ; yet the total ab- sence of progress if not the appearance of retrogression and decay, the loungers in the streets, and the peculiar appearance of the slaves, afford a contrast to the bustle on the opposite side of the river, which would strike the most unobservant: I was credibly informed that property of the same real value was worth 300 dollars in Kentucky, and 3000 in Ohio ! Free emi- grants and workmen will not settle in Kentucky, where they would be brought into contact with compulsory slave-labour ; thus the development of industry is retarded, and the difference will become more apparent every year, till possibly some great changes will be forced upon the J-kgislature."

" Extremes meet:" Under the old despotism of Turkey, the Rayahs exposed to the tyranny of the Sultan or the Vizier affected an appearance of poverty in that part of the house where visitors were received and reserved their splendours for_ their private

I apartments. In New York, the opinion of the majority, in con- junction with the state of society, operates in a somewhat similar manner, though the form may be different : the refined exclusive does not popularly exhibit his wealth. A regular establishment of servants cannot practically be had; so that dinner-parties are not the fashion, from the difficulty of giving them properly. Even in largo mansions, " two or three female servants only are re- quired." External pomp in equipage is against the popular grain ; and there is a difficulty in getting a good coachman to contend with the confusion of New York streets without damaging a carriage, and a similar difficulty in meeting well-trained foot- men. Patronage of art is not yet a fashion in the Empire city ; perhaps there is scarcely art to patronize. The men are too busy for field-sports, which are a source of so much expense in this country. The outlay of an exclusive of New York would seem to be directed wholly to house-building and upholstery, for the art mostly falls under the decorative department. These houses are closed to foreigners. " French, Germans, and Italians, with im- posing titles, have proved how unworthily they bear them; and this feeling against strangers—I will not call it prejudice, for there are sufficient grounds for it—is extended to the English, some of whom, I regret to say, have violated the rights of hospi- tality in many different ways. I have heard of such conduct on the part of my countrymen as left me no room for surprise that many families whose acquaintance would be most agreeable strictly guard their drawingroom from English intrusion.' The Englishwoman had access to this exclusive society, and she de- scribes the general character of the houses of " the upper ten thousand "—four or five thousand in number. She then proceeds to the richer few.

" Having given a brief description of the style of the ordinary dwellings of the affluent, I will just glance at those of the very wealthy, of which. there are several in Fifth Avenue, and some of the squares, surpassing any- thing I had hitherto witnessed in royal or ducal palaces aehome. The ex- ternals of some of these mansions in Fifth Avenue are like Apslev House, and Stafford Douse, St. James's ; being substantially built of brown stone. At one house which I visited hi ---- street, about the largest private resi- dence in the city, and one which is considered to combine the greatest splendour with the greatest taste, we entered a spacious marble hall, leading to a circular stone staircase of great width, the balustrades being figures elaborately cast in bronze: Above this staircase was a lofty dome, decorated with paintings in fresco of Eastern scenes. There were niches in the walls, some containing Italian statuary, and others small jets of water pouring over artificial moss.

" There were six or eight magnificent reception-rooms, furnished in various styles—the Mediaeval, the Elizabethan, the Italiah, the Persian, the modern English, &c. There were fountains of fairy workmanship, pictures from the old masters, statues from Italy, chefs-d'muvre' of art; porcelain from China and Sevres ; damask cloth of gold, and bijoux from the East ; Gobelin tapestry, tables of malachite and agate, and buck-knacks' of every description. the Medieval and Elizabethan apartments, it did not appear to me that any anachronisms had been committed with respect to the furniture and decorations. The light was subdued by passing through 'win- dows of rich stained glass. I saw one table the value of which might be about 2000 guineas, The ground was black marble, with a wreath of flowers inlaid with very costly gems upon it: There were flowers or bunches of fruit, of turquoise, carbuncles, rubies, topazes, and emeralds, while the leaves were of malachite, cornehan, or agate. The effect produced by this lavish employment of wealth was net very good. The bedrooms were scarcely less magnificently furnished than the the reception-rooms ; with chairs formed of stag-horns, tables inlaid with agates, and hangings, Damascus cashmere, richly embossed with gold. There was nothing gaudy, profuse, or prominent in the decorations or fur- niture; everything had evidently been selected and arranged by a person of very refined taste. Among the very beautiful works of art was a collection of cameos, including some of Cellini's from the antique, which were really

entrancing to look upon. • 1 • "Such mansions as these were rather at 'variance with nig idea of Re- . can simplicity ; they contained apartments which would have thrown.

Into shade the finest rooms in Windsor Castle or Buckingham Palace. It is not custom for Americans to leave large fortunes to their children ; their wealth • spent in great measure in surrounding themselves with the beautiful and the elegant in their splendid mansions ; and it is probable that the adornments which have been collected with so much expense and trouble will be dispersed at the death of their present possessors." There are some favourable sketches of New York society in the volume, as well as it variety of other topics treated in a fresh and unhacknied style, though the topics themselves may not always be new, and there is a tendency in the author to make the most of them. We have no doubt that the particular facts which peaked -Wider our fair -writer's notice may be depended upon. Her conclusions on larger questions of opinions, &c. may be more open to doubt. She is an autograph-fancier, and has a valuable collection, from Cromwell to Victoria. It was a subject of interest to a party at New York ; but she remarks, that so great is the estimation of Washington, that " I believe I could not have pur- chased a few lines in his handwriting with my whole collection." Unluckily for this belief, a late number of the Ameriean Literary Gazette reports a sale of two of Washington's autographs, one of which fetched six dollars, the other eleven dollars twenty- five cents. So difficult is it to form right conclusions on large sub- jects, especially when a compliment is infused into the judgment.