BOOKS.

FREDERIRL BREMER'S IMPRESSIONS OF AMERICA.* THE leading characteristic of this book of letters from America is personal. There are elaborate descriptions of scenery, but the scenery itself is subordinate to the personal impression it makea upon the writer. There are many sketchea of inthyiduals and do- mestic life—" the homes of the New World" predominate in the volumes; but the persons exhibited are too frequently unknown or anonymous people, or great men in a small way. Fanny Xemble, Miss Sedgwick, Rmerson, Hawthorne, and some preachers or second- rate writers, are exceptions to the private character of Miss Bremerta friends. Still, whether little or great people are the subjects of her- pen, the smallness of personality—not using tha word in its bad sense—mostly predominates. It is not so much any generic picture of -life that Miss Bremer sets forth, though such undoubtedly may be found; it is a lady's liking for her dear friends, the personal liking colouring the picture sometimes one way sometimes the other. How the writer feels in health, or sentiment, or religion— these personal impressions occupy a large part of every letter. There is this explanation for the writing—the greater part of the letters were addressed to a sister. That, however, is no excuse for their publication, and still less for their translation in extenso. The work contains suggestions of great breadth and distinct- ness as regards the difference between the Northern and Southern. States ; not, indeed, new in fact, but larger in conclusion than that of other writers. There are some striking and startling pictures of slavery ; a just judgment on the institution itself in the main,—for traces of particular inconsistency might be pointed out, which must always be the case in a large subject when small parts are singly exhibited ; a more hopeful view of emancipation by means of the South itself than many may be disposed to agree with. The sue- oessive sketches of home life open up some remarkable views and thoughts as respects women in America ; favourable in a few, rather depreciatory in the mass, and singular in the rising independence of the sex—that is, as regards professional pursuits or public display on the platform or in semi-public meetings. But these materials of Vane are so overwhelmed by the personal slightness we have spoken of, that Miss Bremer's Impressions of America must be ranked among remarkable specimens of bookmaking. The translation is in. this respect more censurable than the original. The historical summaries, suggested by particular provinces and places, may be wanted for Scandinavian readers; the descriptions of well-known natural curiosities or town sights may be new to them ; and the long quotations from printed authors may not be out of place_ Forthe English public none of these were needed ; they already know all that Miss Bremer tells them on such points. The life that the Swedish novelist led in the States was scarcely favourable to observation ; the wonder is that she saw so much as she did, at least so broadly and so clearly. From the time she landed till she left the country, she was a regular lioness. She was beset by introductions, hand-shakings, and questions, "How do you like America ?" &c. &c. When she was alone, people in- tuded and overwhelmed her in the same way. If she fled to soli- tude, she was soon found out : the vicinity poured in upon her 'with their questions, and, in justice to American hospitality be it said, their invitations : from Boston to New Orleans, from Phila- delphia to the prairies of the far West, it was all the same. The persecution which the poet underwent at Twickenham, from "the race that write," the novelist experienced throughout a vast em- pire and from all classes.

"What walls can guard me, or what shades can hide ? They pierce my thicket, through my grot they glide; By land, by water, they renew their charge ; They stop the chariot, and they board the barge ; No place is sacred, not the church is free; Even Sunday shines no Sabbath-day to me."

Miss Bremer's first letter from Astor House, New York, gives an acootuit of her experiences as a lioness, and of the experiences Of natives in the go-ahead line.

"III it is more wearisome here than anybody can believe ; and I am quite tired out after one day of lion life.

"Through the whole day have I had nothing to do but to receive visits; to sit or to stand in a grand parlour, and merely turn from one to another, receiving the salutations and shaking hands with sometimes half a dozen new acquaintance at once ; gentlemen of all professions and all nations; ladies who inrite me to their house and home, and who wish that I would go im- mediately; besides, a number of letters which I could do no more than Merely break open, requests for autographs, and so on. I have shaken hands with from seventy to eighty persons today, whilst I was unable to receive the vfeits of many others. Of the names I remember scarcely any ; but the greatinumber of the people whom I have seen please me from their cordial frank manners, and I am grateful to them for their extreme friendliness towards me. It feels to me so warm and hospitable. Nevertheless, I was very glad to be relieved for a few hours from my good friends, and to drive out with Mr. Downing to the beautiful park. "On our return to the hotel I dined with Mr. Downing in one of the smaller saloons. I saw some gentlemen sitting at table, whom it was as distressing for me to look at as it is to look at over-driven worn-out horses, for so they looked to me. The restless, deeply-sunk eyes, the excited, wearied features—to what a life they bore witness ! Better lie and sleep on Ocean Fill than live thus on Broadway ! These figures resembled a few of those which I had seen at the Astor House ; but I had already seen on Broadway both human beings and horses which I wished not to have seen on the soil of the New World, and which testify to dark passages of life even there."

The annoyance was modified by population ; and in the country Miss Bremer contrived to keep her bedroom in the morning to her-

• The Horne, of the New World; Impressions of America. By Frederika Bre- mer. Tnuislated by Mary Hewitt. In three volumes. Pub/felled by Hall and Virtue. self, and thus gained something ; but how she found time to write all she did, is among the curiosities of literature. Female beauty was a thing that attracted our traveller's attention, and the result rather disappointed her. She found numbers of what we imagine were " pretty women," but hardly one of a high class either as regards dignity or beauty. The ladies dress too much alike, and aie t90 stereotyped in ideas and conversation. To the general politeness of the American gentlemen she bears ample testimony ; but she thinks it rather the oldfashioned gallantry which coexists with something like contempt for the female understanding. Circumstances and opinion render children too independent of their parents, and, in some places, induce a freedom which seems scarcely compatible with reputable character or conduct. This scene is from the South.

"The Savannah forms the boundary between Carolina and Georgia. I had tenderly-beloved friends both in Carolina and Georgia. I loved Georgia the most, and turned towards its shore, as towards a more free, a more youth- fully fresh land.

" The voyage was an incessant feast for me, and I wished only to be silent and enjoy it. But in order to do that, I had to avoid, in the saloon, a throng of handsome but wild young girls, who made, on their own ac_ count, a pleasure-party, and now ran about here and there, chattering, calling to one another, and laughing ; and on deck, a few gentlemen, planters, who were polite and wished to talk, but talked only of cotton, cotton, cotton,' and how the world was beginning to busy itself about American cotton. I fled away from these worshipers of cotton, and en- deavoured to be alone with the river and the primeval forest, and with the light and shadows within it. There was with the troop of young girls also a youth, a handsome young man, a brother or relative of some of them. Later on in the evening he had to leave the vessel; and then the wild. young girls took hold of him, embraced and kissed him, the one after the other, in. fun and amid laughter, whilst he, half annoyed and half amused, endeavoured to get loose from them. What impression would that young man carry away with him of that night's scene ? Not esteem for woman. One of the elder gentlemen on deck shook, his head at the young girls' behaviour : They make a fool of that young man !' said he to Inc. It was not till late in the night that I could get to sleep for the noise which these girls made."

Such licence can scarcely be favourable to morality • and there are occasional hints that America is not so highly moral a country

as the Model Republicans would have it supposed to be. In pub- lic, however, there seems a sort of protection in public opinion. The following also took place in the South.

"Our state on board the Sarah Spalding was somewhat perturbed this morning. A couple of youeg and very pretty girls who are on board, with-

out their mother or any- older Mend, had by their giddiness and thought-

lessnees caused' two gentlemen to pay them trnbecoming attentions; which led to our dominant lady's very proper interference. The young girls received a very suitable admonition from two of the elder ladies,, whet however, were

strangers to them ; and one of the faulty gentlemen was publicly reprimanded by the captain of the steam-boat. He was an elderly man, and bad such a good expression of countenance, that I could scarcely believe that he de- served the rebuke which he received, and which affected him so much that he became ill."

However numerous Miss Bremer's unfavouaable facts or repre- sentations as regards the intelligence or behaviour of American women, they must still be regarded as exceptional. In the older States there exists much of ancient simplicity with modern know- ledge. Domestic labour, from the scarcity and expensiveness of hired servants, is often undertaken by the mistress, without any forfeit- ure of self-respect, social refinement, or permitting drudgery to produce a drudge. Many of Miss Bremer's friends in the wealthier classes combined much thought and speculation on matters which concern mankind with varied accomplishments. The most curious subject is the claims which some American women are advancing for their sex, as well in vocational pursuits as in still more public

exercises:. Of teaching, designing, or wood-engraving, we say no- thing. The same efforts are beginning to be made in England.

The difference lies in the greater ostensible if not real honour which America pays to industry. In the States the sex lecture in public, addressing meetings similar to our May and philanthropic gather- ings ; besides the claims which certain societies are putting forward to entire equality, some ladies practise physic after being specially educated. There is a medical college for ladies at Philadelphia. One of Miss Bremer's intimate friends was a doctoress. Here is another case.

" Elizabeth Blackwell, after having for several years by hard work helped to educate and maintain several younger sisters, devoted herself to the pro- fession of medicine, firmly resolved to open in this way a career for herself and other women. She was met by a thousand difficulties ; prejudice and threw impediments in every step : but she overcame all, and finally studied and graduated as physician at the city of Geneva, in Western New

York. After this she went abroad, desirous of entering and passing the Medical College of Paris. The head of the college was shocked : You must dress yourself as a man,' said he, otherwise it will be quite impossible.' " I shall not alter even a riband on my bonnet,' said she : do as you will—but your conduct shall be made known. You have seen my certifi- cate; you have no right to refuse me admission.' "Mr. L. was obliged to comply. Elizabeth's womanly dignity and bear- ing, added to her remarkable knowledge, impressed. the professors as well as

students of the college. The young woman pursued hex studies in peace, protected by her earnestness and scientific knowledge. Having greatly dis- tinguished herself and won the highest commendation, she left Pans for London ; where she gathered fresh laurels both in medical and ahirurg,ical science. She is at this moment expected, back in America, where she in- tends to be a practising physician."

Miss Bremer visited most of the institutions for trying social experiments ; as the Shakers and Phalansterists, and many other establishments charitable or belonging to the State. Of the prisons she does not speak altogether well. Sing-Sing has its secret tales; the bad management of New York gaol was patent.

"Before the door of the prison, in the interior court, sat a fine gentleman in a comfortable arm-chair, as keeper or orderly of the prison, with diamond rings on his fingers and a diamond breast-pin in his shirt. Whether they were genuine I cannot say ; they looked, however, as though they were; but that the man himself was not of genuine human worth was not difficult to see, neither that he was out of his place here. He was in a high degree haughty and self-sufficient, and did not even raise his hat to the noble beautiful lady who addressed him, much less raise himself. She showed her card of introduction, and we were allowed to pass in, first into a room in which many of the officials of the prison were assembled. The person who was evidently the principal here, a fat man with a large face, sat with his bat on his head and one of his feet placed high against the wall, and one newspaper hanging over his leg, whilst he was busy reading another which be held in his hands. On Mrs. G. mildly and politely addressing him, he turned his head towards us slightly, but neither raised his hat nor removed his upraised foot from the wall; and then, putting some question with as surly a mien as if he had been addressing some person in custody, let us wait a moment, after which we were allowed to enter; which probably would not have been the case had he dared to have hindered it. We could not avoid remarking, that many of these gaolers looked as if they ought to have been among the prisoners—nay, even looked much worse than many of them.

"I could not but be greatly surprised at the disorder which prevailed in the great prison of the men ; which is built of an elliptical form, with a gal- lery running in front of the cells. The prisoners were walking about, talk- ing, smoking cigars, while dealers in cigars and other wares were strolling about freely among them. Many of the cells were occupied by two prisoners. There were several condemned prisoners ; two condemned to death. I asked one of these, who was a man of some little education, how he felt himself in prison ? Oh,' replied he, with bitter irony, as well as any one can do who has every moment of the twenty-four hours his sentence of death before his eyes ' : and he showed me a paper pasted on the wall, on which might be read, badly written, the day and hour when he was to be hanged. The prisoners were much more polite and agreeable to us than the gentlemen on duty had been. Some of them seemed pleased by our visit, and thanked us, and talked in a cordial manner." •

The parts relating to the South and its slavery are among the most interesting of the book. The writer does not indeed, tell many stories, or delight in recounting the horrible : with almost over-sensitiveness she refrained from questioning, especially slaves, that she might not appear as a spy. What she tells and what she says confirm the view that has often been held in this journal— that though much physical misery must exist, and many cruelties be exercised, the great evil is more moral than physical, and reacts upon the White society in proportion to their own miscon- duct. Ill treatment, much ill treatment, may be met with ; but the majority of the slaves, Miss Bremer thinks, are well fed, and, if they are only looked upon as animals, have little to complain of. It is the human degradation which is the dark feature of the case ; and all the concomitants of slavery partake of this idea. This, however, is more felt in many cases by the European looker-on than by the slave himself. Of individual slave-owners Miss Bremer speaks well : many are genuine philanthropists, working silently, and against difficulties of which the talking Abolitionists know nothing. Still, the general tone of society is bad and heart- less. Of the slave-owners and slave-dealers, Miss Bremer's pictures present the latter in the best point of view when they are both in their business. This is from a slave "pen" at Washington. "We encountered no one within the enclosure, where little Negro chil- dren were sitting or leaping about on the green sward. At the little grated door, however, we were met by the slave-keeper,—a good-tempered, talka- tive, but evidently a coarse man, who seemed pleased to show us his power and authority. Mrs. J. wished to have a Negro boy as a servant, and in- quired if she could have such an one from this place. No! children were not allowed to go out from here. They were kept here for a short time to fatten, and after-that were sent to the slave-market down South, to be sold : no slave was allowed to be sold here for the present. There were now some very splendid articles for sale, which were to be sent down South. Among these there was a young girl who had been brought up in all respects like a lady ' ; she could embroider, and play on the piano, and dress like a lady, and read, and write, and dance ; and all this she had learned in the family which had brought her up, and who had treated her in her child- hood as if she had been their own. But however her mind had grown too high for her ; she had become proud, and now to humble her they had brought her here to be sold.'

"All this the talkative slave-keeper told us. I inquired something about the temper and the state of mind of those who were confined here. " Oh said the man, Smiling, they wpuld be unruly enough if they were not afraid of a flogging.'

"My honest openhearted hostess could not contain her indignation at this treatment of people who were not guilty of any crime. The man laughed, and maintained that the Negro people, both men and women, must be ruled by the whip ; and took leave of us as much satisfied with himself and his world as we were the contrary."

Another slave pen at Richmond, the capital of the " old do- minion."

"I have today, in company with an estimable German gentleman resi- dent at Richmond, visited some of the Negro gaols,—that is, those places of imprisonment in which Negroes are in part punished and in part confined for sale. I saw in one of these gaols a tall strong-limbed Negro, sitting silent and gloomy, with his right hand wrapped in a cloth : I asked if he were ?

" 'No,' replied his loquacious keeper ; but he is a very bad rascal. His master, who lives higher up the river, has parted him from his wife and children, to sell him down South, as he wanted to punish him ; and now the scoundrel, to be revenged upon his master and to make himself fetch a less sum of money, has cut off the fingers of his right hand. The rascal asked me to lend him an axe to knock the nails into his shoes with; and I lent it him without suspecting any bad intention; *and now has the fellow

gone and maimed himself for life. ' • "We saw in one gaol the room in which the slaves are flogged, both men and women. There were iron rings in the floor to which they are secured when they are laid down. I looked at the strip of cow-hide, 'the paddle,' with which they are flogged, and remarked, 'Blows from this could not, however, do very much harm.'

" Oh, yea, yes, but,' replied the keeper, grinning with a very signifi- cant glance, it can cause as much torture as any other instrument, and even more, because one can give a many blows with this strip of hide, without its leaving any outward sign; it does not cut into the flesh."

The following puts Virginia in a bad light ; for this exclusive- ness against the Negro rather belongs to the North than the South.

"Good morning, my beloved child, on this beautiful morning in the chief city of Virginia. I have just returned from a ramble in the park round the capital; from which I have seen the beautiful river St. James, in the Indian tongue Powkaton, with its foaming fall, and its calm water, bright as silver, winding on their way through verdant plains, and hills far, far away, into the country. A glorious view from this magnificent capital. I wished that the intellectual and moral view from the State's seat of government corre- sponded with it. But Virginia is a Slave State, and its views open, and its river of life flows, as in all other Slave States, for one half of its population

only. We are reminded of this the moment we reach the gate of the park of the capital ; for on the pillars of the gate is placed the announcement in

large letters, declaring that any slave who ventures within these gates shall be liable to a punishment of thirty-nine lashes ! One cannot enjoy or ad- mire anything in the Slave States, without haying one's pleasure disturbed by these lashes!"

Now for the picture of a slave-owner worthy to take a place in a novel. The scene is New Orleans.

"In another of these slave-houses I saw a gentleman whose exterior and expression I shall never forget. He seemed to be the owner of the slaves there, and my companion requested permission for himself and me to see

them. He consented, but wig. an air, and a glans* at me as if he would annihilate me. He was a man of unusual size, and singularly handsome.

His .0gure was herculean, and the head had the features of a Jupiter ; but majesty and gentleness were there converted into a hardness which was really horrible. One might just as well have talked about the and humanity to a block of stone as to that man. One could see by the cold expression of that dark blue eye, by those firmly-closed lips, that he had set his foot upon his own conscience, made an end of all hesitation and doubt, and bade defiance both to heaven and hell. He would have money. If he could, by crushing the whole human race in his hand have converted them into money, he would have done it with pleasure. The whole world was to him nothing excepting as a means of making money. The whole world might go to rack and ruin so that he could but rise above it, a rich man,—as the only rich and power- ful man in the world. If I wanted to portray the imago of perfected, hardened selfishness, I would paint that beautiful head. That perfectly dark expression of countenance, the absence of light, life, joy, was only the more striking, because the complexion was fair ; and the cheeks, although somewhat sunken, had a beautiful bloom. Ile seemed to be about fifty."

From the States Miss Bremer made an excursion to Cuba; of which she gives a flowery account. The climate suited her; the dolce far niente suited her; her celebrity had not reached the Spa- nish creoles, and that suited her. But slavery was there, which did not suit her. Notwithstanding all that is said about Cuba, she thinks the slave, as an animal, is better off there than in the States ; and the Spanish laws, if they were or could be enforced, are decidedly favourable to him : but he has no hope, no future. In America he has a prospect, slight though it be. He has a chance of being taught to read and write by his owner, or with his permission; he has a good chance of being taught Christianity ; and he lives in a more advancing community. We doubt whether these things, however, benefit the slave so much as the greater mildness of Spanish manners, and the greater absence of prejudice in respect to colour. The su- periority of the American slave's condition consists in the aboli- tion of the foreign slave-trade ; which, besides many other consi- derations, renders him too valuable for cupidity to use up in a few years, as our authoress admits is done on some plantations in Cuba.

Miss Bremer's hopes for the slave and the South do not go much farther, in fact, than that the slave will advance with the advance of society. Already, she says, his condition is much better than it was some years since. Whatever the law of particular States may be, he is not unfrequently taught to read and write ; the same may be said of religion. Public opinion is more pronounced against cruelty, and the separation of families, especially of mothers and young children ; though, from what we have quoted, and from more that may be found in the book, there seems room for much advance in these directions. Individual philanthropists are at work, some in only establishing a regular discipline on their plantations ; others train and educate their slaves, or give wages in return for work, so as to prepare for freedom ; a few are said to give it ; while tenderhearted persons, shocked at the enormity of the sys- tem, get out of it by selling the concern,—just as business people from the Free States, when insolvency brings slaves into their hands, sell them at once even at a loss, as it goes against their conscience to hold men in bondage. Of Miss Bremer's hopeful conclusion we entertain doubts. It is this—that if the South be let alone by the extreme Anti-Slavery party, it will gradually prepare the slaves for freedom, raising up a Coloured labouring population to do the work for which the climate unfits the Whites, while the latter shall set the Coloured people an intellectual, mo- ral, and religious example ; serving in fact as a model race,— though in the small matters of religion and morality they will have as much to learn as the Blacks.