MR. FERGUSSON'S NOTES ON THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA, IN
1831.
IN considering the value of travels in North America, too little regard has been had to the quality of the traveller—a circumstance which enters greatly into the nature of his materials. The tra- veller, for instance, perhaps tells us that the people among whom he sojourned are cold and uncivil—perhaps that they are brutal and repulsive : but he says nothing of himself, and if he did, he would not convey the true impression. Perhaps it is he who is offensively forward or ridiculously shy : perhaps he has got a most unpromising countenance, or a most uncouth manner: he may have teeth like the tusks of a boar, and a cheek blasted by the red hand of erysipelas, and yet tell us that the women are disa- greeable, sour-looking, stiff, and reserved : some men are absurdly little or absurdly tall — their noses lie about their faces like squashed figs—they have droll habits, and never sit down or cross a room without raising a titter; yet such persons come home and complain of a tendency to jeer—to mystify—in short, of rudeness and savagery. It is the same with moral qualities. A person who never saw a plough, alights in an agricultural country, where men's minds are running altogether on breeding and rearing, sow- ing and reaping : he has nothing to communicate, and is not in a state to learn, if he had the taste : if he is received, it must ne- cessarily be a task of hospitality, and he can gain but little plea- sure from the intercourse. But he arrives at the scene of city pleasures, of dancing and dressing, of lounging and laughing (at nothing), of talk and music, of plays and balls : he is in an ecstasy, and condemns his agricultural friends, as the most stupid clowns alive ; he enlarges upon their dulness, refers to their marshes, looks for the causes of moral defects in strong ale and thick air, and ends in persuading people he has just emerged from Bocotia, the land of thick-legged women and thick-headed men : at the same time, be has perhaps been living among the shrewdest fellows in the world—keen, quick, ready-witted, full of know- ledge of all kinds connected with the earth and sky, and the creatures that dwell in them, and the plants that grow—hearty persons too, jovial in time of festival, generous when the means permit (and in such a life they generally do permit)—altogether excellent citizens, and among those who understand them and can be understood, -excellent companions. All this is so true, that it cannot be- disputed ; and yet the application of the truth is un- common. In receiving a book of travels, where the subject is chiefly manners and morals—the character of a people, it behoves us to look closely at the medium through which every thing is We observe that every traveller is well pleased with the United States and the Americans, who has an interest in their pursuits— in agriculture and commerce, and the progress of works tending to improve them and spread their blessings. Thus, the traveller in the United States should be either from a manufacturing district, or he should be conversant with the science of agriculture—should have experience in the occupations and employment of the poor: a citizen, a mere trader, or a mere gentleman, is interested in the progress of nothing : he is accustomed to deal with and receive all objects in a finished state, and he is indifferent as to the hopes and fears that have attended their production. This applies to the useful arts only : a picture in progress, or the fashion of a coat, or a cloak, or a sleeve, or the pains of production in a corn- poser, or even an author,—these alone are the =finished subjeets they care for : and yet such persons, driven by. ennui, curiosity, or bankruptcy, persist in visiting the Americans, and insist upon writing about them. If a squatter were transplanted from the back-woods of America into Regent Street, or lodged at a fashion- able hotel, would he not be treated rudely, neglected, wearied, and be disgusted? If his fingers, barked like the pines he fells, could be bent so as to retain any thing less than an axe, and if he could write, would he not pen a philippic against the inso- lence and foppery and idleness of London ? Yet lie is not more out of place than many of the idlers and non-producers who have. thought themselves qualified to write of America. The United States have at least been visited by one man who could understand them, and who could be understood by them; we mean Mr. FERGUSSON of Woodhill, who is writing his journal in numbers, the first of which appears in the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture for March. We have more than once had occasion- to praise this agricultural periodical, for the information it gene- rally contains, and the sound sense which directs its inquiries. In Mr. FERGUSSON'S journal, a very different report will be found of the Americans from that usually given ; and which, comparing it with sources of our own, we are persuaded to be well-founded.
The readers of Lawrie Todd will be amused at finding that his prototype exists at New York, and that he takes a pride in pro- claiming his identicalness. They who read the following extract,, and have read Lawrie Todd, will not hesitate to admit that Mr.. THORBURN is the Lawrie Todd of the first part : but after leaving New York and the settlement on the Oswego, we are to look to Mr. GALT'S imagination for the source of all that so much interests the reader in the development of Lawrie's views and prospects., Probably the letters in the appendix of Mr. GALT'S book are from Mr. THORBURN, and contain part of the information Mr. FERGUS.. SON speaks of.
I frequently visited the seed-store of Mr. Thorburn ; a character of some cele- brity, and of great originality, being, as he informed me at our first interview, the " very identical Lawrie Todd," and that, so far as the first volume of that entertaining work goes, Mr. Galt had exactly recorded his life and adventures. Besides other sources of enjoyment, Mr. Thorburn is distinguished for a lively, and unfailing reliance upon a special over-ruling Providence ; not a blind fatalism, but a conviction, that in all the crosses of life, a blessing will be found for those- who faithfully seek it. He detailed many singular illustrations of this doctrine in his own history, and altogether gratified me much by his acquaintance. His original profession was that of a nail-maker, at Dalkeith, and by that alone he looked for a livelihood in the New World. Soon after his arrival, however, this handicraft was annihilated by the introduction of machinery ; and poor - Thorburu was driven to open a small grocery store for subsistence to •Pheinie. and timself. It was his practice to visit the butcher-market at a late hour, that he might pick IT a cheap morsel; and observing a man offering plants for sale in pots, and seemingly, like himself, rather low in the world, Thorburn ac- costed him. He proved to be a countryman, an industrious, but rather unsuc- cessful market-gardener, of the name of Inglis, from Kirkaldy ; and from a sort of commiseration, Thorburn bought a rose geranium, intending it to ornament his shop. At this time he scarce knew a geranium from a cabbage. Pleased with his purchase, when he got home he painted his pot a gay green, said placed it in his window. "And now," says he when he told me this story, with his eyes twinkling, "mark the kindness of Providence. The day after my geranium. appeared in its new pot, a lady happening to be driving past remarked its beauty., and not only bought it at a handgun price, but gave me such orders as enabled me to open a busy trade with poor Inglis. My shop soon became more celebrated for plants than for tea and tobacco ; and many inquiries having been made for garden seeds, I procured an assortment, and gradually extended my concern until I reached the possession of the handsome premises and flourishing trade Which I now enjoy.' Some of his details, regarding the devastations occasioned by the yellml fever, were extremely interesting ; and to them I may probably afterwards advert. He has a very beautiful seed-shop, aviary, and green-house, &c. in the centre of the city, formerly a Quaker's meeting-house and school, where he seems to drive a thriving trade. The ladies of New York are fond of flowers, and use therm.. much in dress. Camellias are in great request, and sometimes sell so high as three dollars a head, the ordinary price being one ; and large orders are given for every party. I learned also, from a Scotchman in Mr. Thorburn's employment, whose family had suffered heavily from sickness last winter, that camellias and parties by no means engross the sole attention of the ladies of New York. He assured me, that within his own observation, it was quite wonderful what they contrived to do in visiting, clothing, and attending to the poor. This man left Glasgow in great destitution about a year ago. He is now in comfortable cir- cumstances, and his family provided for • but the first fortnight which honest Saunders Lee spent in New York, a total stranger, without money or engage- ment, he described with a shudder like a fit of the ague, as "perfectly awful." .
The following anecdotes of American inquisitiveness may be quoted as an example of our remarks above : had a person of less' avod nature or good sense been in the place of the traveller, he would probably have acted differently, and assuredly given a very different report.
After a very pleasant drive, about six miles up the river side, upon a real Macadamized road, which has been completed for that distance, we returned to Albany; and, to while away an hour, before going to my friends to dinner, I paid a visit to the Albany Museum. This collection occupies a suite of rooms, in a very handsome building of white marble, from a quarry in the neighbour- hood, and contains a good assortment of specimens in natural history. Here it - was my lot, for the first time, to come under the full fire of Yankee curiosity, although I had been already engaged in some small affairs of outposts. The only other visitor whom I saw in the museum was a tall thin lad, who, the mo- ment I entered, pounced upon me, and, though with perfect civility and good breeding, according to his knowledge, opened a volley, with" How d'ye do, Sir (very nasal); I guess you're from the old country." Quite aware that no impertinence was intended, I readily answered every question ; which now poured in nearly as follows—" May I ask, Sir, from what part of the old country? May I ask what port you sailed from? What ship did you sail in ? What might you pay for your passage? Are you going to settle in the States? What - may your profession be? What is your name?" et multa alia, to the like effect. This inquisitive disposition has been a frequent theme of abuse against the Americans ; and that it exists as a national trait, I think no man can honestly deny. I have met with it everywhere, and have endeavoured to analyze it fairly and with candour. The conclusion to which I very soon came, and to whicU. I still adhere, acquits the Americans of the most remote intention to be at all uncivil to the stranger. They must be viewed nationally, in some degree, as children; it must be remembered that they live much in retired rural circles ; that they are intelligent, well educated, and ever anxious to acquire information— all of which render them, when a foreigner falls into their hands, rather apt to overstep the European bounds of propriety; and many of their questions, which to us appear trifling, bear probably upon points sufficiently important to them. Whatever umbrage too sensitive strangers may take at the freedom of Americans, it is but fair to notice the voluntary restraints which, in some respects, the latter impose upon themselves. An American, who will not feel that he is guilty of any impertinence in taking a peep at a book you may have in your hand, will as once recoil when you open a letter, or are engaged in writing, although it it sufficiently evident that a mere selfish and vulgar curiosity would derive infi- nitely more gratification from a peep at the latter than at the former. I enjoyed also many a laugh, in the crowded steam-boats, at the overwhelming confusion which I occasioned, by suddenly turning round, when I knew that half-a-dozen poor fellows were straining their orbs to decipher the emblems of agriculture figuring upon the buttons of an old Farming Society coat, which I wore in travelling. They evidently felt that without a little more intimacy the buttons were to be held sacred. In my adventure at the museum, dignity perhaps sug- gested the necessity of immediately turning upon my heel, from such an imper- tinent Paul Pry; but, what I trust may be called good nature or good sense, urged the expediency of meeting the poor fellow in his own spirit, and by an- swering his queries, I scarce gratified bins more than by extracting, in like manner from him, a stock of useful information regarding the agriculture of New England, where my friend, a shrewd, sensible sample of a Massachusetts farmer, owned a farm of two hundred acres. He had come up with me the pre- ceding day, from New York, in the North America, where he had formed one of the party who had been selling their flit stock at New Yorks I might have cut the matter short at once, and enjoyed the triumph of sending off Jonathan (to use a homely phrase) with a flea in his ear; but undoubtedly I would my- self have bees the only sufferer, and he would very soon have forgot the rebuff which the saucy fellow from the old country had given him. Upon returning to the hotel, and mentioning my chat with the farmer, my friend Mr. C—, who, from a residence of forty years in Canada, understands the American cha- racter better than most people, commended me for the line I had followed, and amused me with an anecdote on the subject of curiosity, which has, I believe, travelled across the Atlantic, regarding a gentleman of the name of West. This traveller, besides the common ordeal, had to encounter an extra batch of inquiries, from the speculation occasioned by a wooden leg. Wearied one day with a most pertinacious host, who had extracted from him his name, his country, profes- sion, route, &c., the traveller positively protested against another question being put. " Oh! Sir," says mine host, " I would just like to ask one more." " Well, well," says Mr. West, "one more I will answer, and remember that clears all." "Certainly, Sir, many thanks: Pray, how did you lose your ley?" " Oh! my leg—why, it was bit ! " " Bit ! is it possible? Well, what could have bit it?" " Nay, friend, a bargain's a bargain, you know : one question and no more was our agreement ;"—thus leaving Boniface in greater perplexity than ever.
We strongly recommend Mr. FERGUSSON'S Journal to all persons whowish to form a candid opinion of the United States and Canada in 1831.
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