Reminiscences of America in 1869. By Two Englishmen. (Sampson Low.).—This
book contains the experiences of two observers, favourably disposed to the country and the people which they visited, but not blind to their faults. It is worth reading, and, as far as we can judge, to be trusted. But even two Englishmen, however active and observant, can see but a small section of so vast a region as tho United States, and of that section only one aspect. When these two gentlemen, for instance, tell us that educated Americans do not speak with a nasal twang, what are we to think of the statement? We do not question their veracity, bat, in common doubtless with most of our readers, we feel doubtful. The writer has not seen many of the class, but two out of three of those that he has seen certainly had a perceptible accent of the kind. There are some good stories in the book, that of the schoolboy, for instance, whose companions snow-balled an old gentleman, and who, being caughVby the vibtim, and beaten, burst out laughing. The old gentleman stopped. "Boy, what is it you're laughing at ?" "Well," said the boy, "I am laughing because you are awfully sold ; .1 ain't the boy!"—The Sunset Lend, by the Rev. John Todd, D.D. (Hodder and Stoughton), is a book, written in a somewhat pretentious style, in glorification of the riches, splendour, progress, &o., of the State of California in particular, and of the United States in general. The descriptions are spirited and vigorous ; and the literary merit of the book is considerable. What we object to in it is the tendency to exaggerate the significance of material progress, to talk as if new railways and so forth were short cuts to heaven upon earth. Here is a specimen from a sermon, not Dr. Todd's own, but quoted by him with the highest approval :— " Had a company of angels been sent to fling that great highway across the continent; had they put down the stakes where cities and villages should spring up, and be strung along like pearls on a dark string; had they been the Directors, and laid the plans to make it a highway for our God,—I cannot see that it would have evinced a higher end than that we now see. Did it not seem like God's coming to take possession of it, when He so ordered it that a Minister of the Gospel should be on the ground to consecrate it to His glory, ere the last spike should be driven? that this minister should be in the first car that ever passed the continent, and preach the first sermon in the Golden State, on arriving there, of any one ever thus to arrive ? that he should find at Sacramento nine Christian people, most of them missionaries from the Sandwich Islands, waiting to take the first cars that would come the other way ? When I look at the barrels, the boxes, and the passenger- cars on this road, I look at them with a Christian's faith, and see them as so many instrumentalities to carry out my Father's plans."
One would think that the Millennium had begun; but what if this great railway does nothing but take you so much the quicker from the abominations of New York to the abominations of San Francisco ?
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