SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

_Talavera,

Eacur.inn through the Slave States, from Washington on the Potomac to the Frontier of Mexico; with Sketches or Popular Manners, and Geological Notices. By C. W. Featherstonhough. F.A.S.. F.G.S. In two volumes Merray. ..MISCE1.1.4N1uUS LITERATE RE. Coniributhais. Literary and Philosophical. to the Eclectic Review. By John Foster, Author of" Essays on DeCiAOli of Character," &c. In twovolumes.

Ward and Co.

FICTION.

Cartoucbe, the celebrated French Robber. By R. B. Peake. In three volume,.

thoutinghass.

U. FEATHERSTONHAUGH'S EXCURSION THROUGH THE SLAVE STATES OF AMERICA.

THE travels of which these volumes give an account were per- formed in 1834-35, and were shortly afterwards announced for pub- lication. Mr. FRATHERSTONHAUGH was then residing in Virginia; and some judicious friends advised him to suspend the publication, on account of the it might excite against him in the States. Ile the more willingly assented to this advice as he contemplated returning to England in a few sears; but, soon after reaching this country in 1839, he was appointed a Commissioner on the Cana- dian Boundary question, which would have rendered the publication officially improper. Freed at length from the restraints of resi- dence and of office, Mr. FEATHERSTONHAUGH determined to give his long-matured views to the world.

The country traversed by our author and his son, with the primary object of observing its geology, embraced, in a political division, one half of the United States. If the reader take up a map and look for Chesapeake Bay, he will see the estuary that, with the exception of Maryland, forms the division between the Free and the Slave States ; and it was throughout the Southern or Slave-holding division that Mr. FEATHERSTONHAUGH'S excursion extended. From Baltimore he crossed the Allegheny range ; visited the various springs or spas, the Cheltenhams and Harrow- gates of' Virginia ; and followed the mountains, geologizing and observing, till, at the Cumberland range, he struck off for Nash- ville ; and proceeded thence to Louisville and St. Louis. Thus . far he had travelled by stage ; but at that frontier town and Indian trader's station public conveyances cease. Purchasing a horse and a light waggon, called a " dearborn," the geologists skirted the outside of the boundaries of regular settlement, where a few miserable , houses figure on the map as a town ; a log-hut forms the only resting-place ; and the nearest approach to a route is what we should call a preliminary survey, marked out by " blazing " the trees, though there dignified with the name of a military road. Passing , over some four degrees of latitude, with as many congregations of . cabins, Mr. FEATHERSTONHAUGH arrived at Little Rock, the capital of Arkansas, best known in Europe for the brawl with bowie knives on the floor of the House of Representatives, where one Colonel Wu.soar, the Speaker, murdered a Member called

• Major ANTHONY. From this congregation of ruffians and outlaws, mingled with a few respectable persons, who are likely to improve society as QUIN'S "pot of marmalade" would improve a pan of filth, the travellers proceeded to explore the country between the Arkansas and the Red River, the boundary of Mexico or now of Texas; in which district cabins stand in lieu of towns. After a short ex- cursion into Texas, Mr. FEATHERSTONHAUGH returned to Little Rock, proceeded by steamer to New Orleans, and thence to Mobile, on the Gulf of Mexico; accompanied part of the way by a gang of Mississippi gamblers and Louisiana planters, who for • blasphemy and blackguardism beat all our author ever met. From Mobile Mr. FEATHERSTONHAUGH traversed, and chiefly by land, the States lying on the Atlantic, till he safely reached Richmond in Virginia,—a journey of three thousand miles ; during which he had surveyed a large portion of the Allegheny range, the lower lands of the rivers which drain what is called the valley of the Mississippi, and seen as much of life in the Southern States as ' , can perhaps be seen by a passing traveller ; for though Mr. FEATHERSTONHAUGH lived chiefly in public places, he had friends in the principal towns, or letters of introduction, and often sojourned in them some time.

Between the date of making this tour and the period of its pub- lication, various works have appeared more or less descriptive of

• .parts of the regions traversed,—as those of ABBY, MARTINEAU, MARRYAT, BUCICINGFIAM, and, last but not least for roughing it on the outskirts, poor Powza. Hence, the real novelty of the matter is not so great as it would have appeared some ten ,years ago. A good deal of freshness, however, is imparted to the work by the character of the author. Mr. FEATHERSTONHAUGH seems to be- long to one of the old school of country gentlemen,—frank, off- hand, courteous when he meets with courtesy, grateful for small kindness, and even for traits of good feeling; but angered with a deeper sense than common people's anger at rudeness, inso- lence, ill-behaviour, imposition or ill-conduct of any kind. Nor does he appear to have been above speaking his mind on such oc- casions, with a plain directness, or a tart apologue, which we won- • .der passed as it seems to have done. Nay, he did not always confine himself to words : having taken lessons of JACKSON in his youth, he practised the art of pugilism in his age, and dealt "one two" to an insolent fellow-passenger with such effect as to floor him in double quick time, and leave a most terrific pair of black eyes behind. Although professing the utmost dislike to slavery, he positively made a "dark ill-looking Mulatto" get out of a stage, under option of summary expulsion, that he himself might get in. It is true, Mr. FEATHERSTONHAUGH had paid for his place ; but

so, we suppose, had the Coloured gentleman, whilst it was clettehe had taken it.

But Mr. Faermnurrormanuu has other and for a tourist better characteristics. A sportsman, and a practical geologist, he was well able to endure the fatigue of journeying in the back-settle- ments; having travelled in several European countries, he carried with him a traveller's experience ; whilst his perfect French, and a little German, won him the hearts of the colonists of those na- tions—who seem to have but slender love for the Yankees. His pursuit taught him to regard Nature with a scientific eye; but he also looked upon her with a deeper feeling, and which but for the unaffected sense of enjoyment that prompted his notices might ex- pose him to the remark of being too minute. In fact, he is a geologist and pastoral poet engrafted upon the squire. Besides, he tells a story well,—we do not mean "good stories" or "Joe Millers," but under his hands every incident or person becomes a sort of story, with all the effects, without the obvious writing- craft, which characterize MARRYAT and Boz. But for the iuter- mixture of geological sketches and disquisitions with an occa- sional fulness of description, we think the whole journey would have read like a story. As it is, many parts stand out with all the strength and spirit of fiction. The scenes at the Virginia Springs, the passengers and incidents in the different coaches and inns— the various accounts of the various settlers—the attempt of the gang of gamblers at lignite's Hut, near Texas, to entrap him into play—and several sketches of and concerning steamers—read nearly as effectively as some analogous pictures in HtunpArey Clinker.

It was not without reason that our author's friends advised him not to publish his book whilst he remained in America. Such an unfavourable impression of the people, with so few redeeming points, has hardly been drawn by any one, even by Mrs. TROLLOPS. Uncouth language and behaviour, even on the part of females, offensive and disgusting conduct by the men, habitual blasphemy, with pure unmitigated blackguardism and ruffianism among the lower classes and planters of the extreme South, and an universal worship of Mammon superseding every other object in life, stand out strikingly in this traveller's pages; whilst his plain-spoken straightforward manner gives an air of truth to his pictures, which does not belong to the more artistica' preparations of Tam.- LOPE and others. That each particular is very near the truth, we make no doubt ; but we question whether it conveys the whole truth, as regards the United States, to an English reader. We do not mean that there are not in the country well-mannered, well- educated, and refined families: for this Mr. FEATHERSTONHAUGH admits, and chronicles his encounter with several, though only in very general terms and by no means so impressively as in the case of the other class. But we mean that he passed through the very worst parts of the country to select specimens of men or manners. The most advanced provinces, the Northern and Eastern States, he did not enter ; his own Virginia, on the seaboard side of the Alleghenies, he merely run through, and with very little comment ; whilst, except the Carolinas, the rest of his tour was either on the outskirts of civilization or beyond it—in the very sink of the needy, the restless, the profligate, the fraudulent, and the criminal, notsof the United States only but of other countries. We think, too, our tough John Bull looks too much at manners and too little at the disposition underneath. We more readily infer this from some of his own descriptions and admissions. Even the poor devil he "punished" so tremendously, turned out a placable enough fellow after the amende. His rudeness seemed rather "his way."

Our text has run to a length which warns us to be rather sparing of extracts, though we might mark enough to fill a whole number of our paper; and those we take are of the briefest.

AN ACCOMPLISHED MAN.

We stopped at Wythe Court House, at the shabby dirty tavern where the stage-coach puts up; and where they pretended to give us dinner; but every thing was so filthy, it was impossible to eat. Tbe landlord, a noisy, ill-dresse4 officious fellow, was eternally coming into the room with his mouth lull of-to- bacco, plaguing us to eat his nasty pickles and trash along with the bread and milk we were contented to dine upon, and for which he charged us half a dollar each.

This worthy was a perfect representative of that class of lazy, frowzy, to- bacco-chewing country landlords, who think nothing is right unless there is a good deal of dirt mixed up with it. Seated upon a chair, with his legs sprawl- ing upon two others, his great delight was to bask in the sun at the door of his tavern, and watch the approach of the stage-coach or any other vehicle or person that was upon the road. It was in this situation we found him, dressed in a pair of preposterously-fitting trousers, covered with grease, a roundabout jacket to correspond, and a conceited, lantern-jawed, snuff-coloured visage, with an old ragged straw-hat stuck at the top of it. But he had one sur- prising talent. From his long practice of chewing large mouthfuls of tobacco, and the consequent necessity of ridding himself of the strong decoctions that like a spring-tide constantly threatened to break their bounds, he had gradually ac- quired the art of expectorating with such force and precision, that he could hit any thing within a reasonable distance, and with a force before unknown to belong that branch of projectiles.

EON-HOT OF GENERAL JACKSON.

As we drove up to the door of the tavern, I saw General Jackson, the vene- rable President of the United States, seated at a window smoking his long pipe, and went to pay my respects to him ; apologizing for my dirty appearance, which I told him I had very honestly come by in hammering the rocks of bia own State. Be laughed and shook hands cordially with me ; and learning that my son was with me, repeated me to bring him in and present him. My son, who bad been scampering about the country all the time we were in Knoxville, was in a worse pickle than myself, and felt quite ashamed to be pre- sented to so eminent a person ; but the old General very kindly took him by the hand, and said, "My young friend, don't be ashamed of this: if you were a politician, you would have arty work upon your hands you cot. Id not .so easily get rid of." PRACTICAL TEST OP SLAVE AND FREE STATES.

The change from a State .where slavery exists, which it does in Kentnelly,

though in somewhat a mitigated form, to a State with a free population, is obvious here. In Indiana you see neat White women and their children, with here and there a free Negro; and everything is cleaner and tidier tban in Ten- nessee and Kentucky. The mistress of the house and ber daughters wait upon you at table, instead of the huge, fat, frowsy Negresses, that, in the Slave States, • poison you with the effluvium from their skins, when they reach over to set anything on the table.

THE PRESIDENT'S SADDLE.

We now drove on to the Hermitage, the plantation of General Jackson, the President. I had seen at a tavern in Virginia a box directed to him, and learnt accidentally that it had been waiting there several weeks; the contractor of the stage having refused to forward it because the carriage was not paid, and because he was opposed to the General in politics. I therefore took it under my care; and, mentioning the circumstance to him when I met him at Camp- bell's Station, the old gentleman told me that the box contained his favourite saddle, and that he had been inconvenienced for the want of it during the short holiday he had been indulging in from the seat of government.

RUNNING NEGROES.

Among other modes of getting a livelihood in the Southern States, that of ." running Negroes" is practised by a class of fellows who are united in a fra- ternity for the purpose of carrying on the business, and for protecting each other in time of danger. Hone of them falls under the notice of the law and is committed to take his trial, some of the fraternity benevolently contrive, "somehow or other," to get upon the jury, or kindly become his bail. To "run a Negro," it is necessary to have a good understanding with an intelli- gent male slave on some plantation ; and if he is a mechanic he is always the more valuable. At a time agreed upon, the slave runs away from his master's premises and joins the man who has instigated him to do it ; they then proceed . to some quarter where they are not known, and the Negro is sold for seven or eight hundred dollars or more to a new master. A few days after the money has been paid, he runs away again, and is sold a second time; and as oft as the trick can be played with any hope of safety. The Negro who does the bark- quinade part of the maccauvre has an agreement with his friend, in virtue of which he supposes he is to receive part of the money : but the poor devil in the end is sure to be cheated ; and when he becomes dangerous to the fraternity, is, as I have been well assured, first cajoled and put off his guard, and then, on crossing some river or reaching some secret place, shot before he suspects their

• intention, or otherwise made away with.

A SETTLER IN ARKANSAS.

Continuing on for eight miles, we came to the cabin of a settler collet Morse; where we found his family, eight or ten in number, in a very deplorable Situation: they had emigrated from Tennessee in the month of May last, and had been ever since so completely prostrated by the malaria, that at one time there was not, during two whole days, a single individual of them able even to draw wa:er for the family. A more sickly, unhappy set of creatures, I never beheld ; livid, emaciated, helpless, and all of them suffering extreme pains and nausea from an excessive use of calomel: on the floor were laid the father and five of the -children, still confined to their beds; but the mother, a kind, good-hearted wo - man, finding that we were travellers, and were without any thing to cat, ordered one of the boys, who was still excessively weak, to show us where we could get some Indian corn, and how we could pound it so as to make a hoe- ' cake. He accordingly took us to a patch of maize, which was yet standing ; and having provided ourselves with a sufficient number of ears, we began the operation of pounding it. They had no mill of any sort to go to, lint had scooped out a cavity in the stump of a large tree, over which mass wooden pestle, eight feet long, suspended from a curved pole sixteen feet in length, with a 'heavy weight at the end of it. A cross stick was fixed in the pestle, about two • feet from its base : so, putting the grains of maize into the cavity, and laying hold of the cross stick, we pounded away with this primitive contrivance until we thought our grist was fine enough ; when, taking it to kind Mrs. Morse, she made it into a hoe-cake, and baked it before the fire. This, with the im- portant aid of a pitcher of good milk, and our own tea and sugar—for we had nothing else left—enabled us to make an excellent breakfast. These good people, who were half broken-hearted, and who sighed after their dear native Tennessee as the Jews are said to have done after Jerusalem, would not receive any compensation until I forced it upon them : but when 1 further di- vided my remaining tea and sugar with her, believing that it would refresh their prostrated stomachs, she said, with tears in her eyes, " that if any thing would set her old man up again, it would he that nice tea"; and that she was at one time going to ask me if they might take the leaves that we had left, "but that -she did not like to do it." So strange are the vicissitudes of life! We had passed the night with a family in whose favour I could willingly have invoked all the blessings that the stoutest hemp that was growing could confer ; and here, when we little dreamt of it, we bad become most feelingly interested for the welfare of their nearest neighbours : such an impression does suffering goodness make upon the heart.

POLITICAL OPINIONS IN CAROLINA.

Our party consisted of some gentlemen of the place, Dr. Cooper, and a few professors belonging to the College. Some of them were very intelligent men, and hearty in their manners. What particularly struck me at this dinner, was the total want of caution and reserve in the ultra opinions they expressed about religion and politics : on these topics their conversation was not at all addressed to me, but seemed to he a resumption of the opinions they were accustomed to express whenever they met, and upon all occasions. A stranger dropped in among them from the clouds would hardly have supposed himself among Ame- ricans, the language they used and the opinions they expressed were so dia- metrically opposed to the self-laudatory strain they too generally ii.dulge in when speaking of their country or themselves. It was quite new to me to hear men of the better clam express themselves openly against a Republican go- vernment, and to listen to discussions of great ability, the object of which was to show that there never can be a good government if it is not administered by gentlemen. Not having shared in the conversation, I ventured at one time to name Mr. Madison, at whose house I was in the habit of making autumnal visits, as a person that %maid have ranked as a gentleman in any country ; hut I was immediately stopped by a declaration that he was a false hypocritical dissembler—that he was one of the favourites of the sovereign people, and one of the worst men the country had produced. At a period of less excitement such a sentiment would not have been tolerated ; and I could not but attribute their present pique against this eminent statesman to the inflexible opposition he had givcn to Nullification, which went to destroy the efficacy of the consti- tution he had been one of the principal framers of. A short time after, some- thing very extravagant having been s iid, I could not help asking, in a good - natured way, if they called themselves Americans yet ? The gentleman who had interrupted me before said, " If you ask me if l am an American, my answer is, No, Sir, I am a South Carolinian."