the personal narrative of a German lady, who, after many
wanderings, has taken up a permanent abode at New York, and who considers that no eulogy can be too strong or enthusiastic for the land of her adop- tion. With such sentiments we have no fault to find, but we are always sorry to see a woman's name in conjunction with state• ments which are impossible of reception by educated people in Eng- land, with gross and wholesale abuse of persons in authority, with the imputation of the lowest motives to every one with whom the author comes into any kind of collision ; with violent religious preju- dices, combined with ignorance of the tenets of the sects which are un- sparingly reviled, and with such singular examples of indelicacy as those which disfigure these volumes. That women are, as a general rule, more tenderly treated, and their rights more liberally estimated in the United States of America than in the United Kingdom, we believe, but that the American gentlemen who helped Miss Weppner with money, advice, and social support will feel gratified by the adulation which she lavishes upon them, while Europeans throughout her travels are accused either of neglecting, insulting, or trying to seduce her, WO take leave to doubt. "Europeans in Japan "are, according to Miss Wepp- ner," in a state of more than ordinary depravity,"and she," proud,virtuous woman," as, she is careful to inform us a "wretch with black heart and soul," the "keeper of a den in Yokohama, who had come to San Francisco for recruits," called her, had urgent need of the "strength of character and moral courage" for which her American friends seem never to have tired of praising her. The book, which opens with an unpleasant family picture, in which Miss Weppnor paints her own father in the character of a miser, who absorbed her hardly-earned money, until she was threatened with blindness as the result of over-work, is devoid of literary merit. It is ungrammatical, ill-arranged, and quite unconvincing. The meagre details are such as any one who had read tho most ordinary books of travel might have compiled, and unenlivened by any observations or views except such as tend to establish the whipping of creation by the United States and the captivation of the United States by Miss Margaretha Weppner. But the faults of this regrettable production are not only negative. Miss Weppner's modesty is always being outraged, her delicacy is always being shocked, the " natives " scandalise hen and she is perpetually exposed to horrible insults and terrible calumnies by Europeans, who have a habit which she describes variously as "showing the cloven foot," or "assuming the character of an obtrusive, obscene philosopher." While we confess to some curiosity as to what an "obscene philosopher" may be, we are glad she has not been more explicit. There is novelty in her views of Chinese life ; she never heard of a Chinese woman who sacrificed health or comfort to fashion, so that crippled feet must be healthy, and bamboo finger-nail cases comfortable ! Miss Weppner's ignorance is tole-ably impartial; she speaks of the cancan as " Offenbach's music," and of a legend represented in a Chinese temple as "the Buddhist translation of Elijah." As an illustration of the worth and the style of this book, we select for extract one of the least offensive of the anecdotes by which the writer supports her political opinions and flatters her adopted country, to which she urges the slaves or Caste in the German Empire to repair in their thousands:— "On my journey through the East, I spent some time in the how* of a liberal Englishman, who counted among his friends an American sea captain. This captain is a very worthy and highly cultivated snail, and when this story took place he was the guest of his British friend. A. British nobleman, Sir X. [sic], the ex-governor of a remote colony, came to the house of the latter at the same time. The kind-hearted host was anxious that his two guests, his friend the captain and Sir X., should become acquainted. The nobleman was sitting in the drawing-room when the master of the house came in with his American friend. He led him up to his guest, saying, 'Sir X., this is my friend Captain H., from Boston, America.' The captain, in true American fashion, hold out his hand to the nobleman, and said, ,Sir X., I am pleased,' &c., &c. But Sir X., without taking the proffered hand, turned aside with the most scornful and offended air, and drawing back a few stops, he instantly toff the room and the house of his friend, and host, and fellow-countryman. The kind and well-meaning host was so hurt, that the tears started to his eyes, be took the rejected hand of his American friend, and press- ing it warmly, said :=Pray forgive the insult of my high-born country- man ; he is a fool.' The liberal Englishman gave up his friendship with Sir X., who in his stupid and inhuman pride had taken offence that a Republican should be introduced to him, and that this Republi- can, an ordinary man, and nothing more than a sea captain, bad dared to offer his hand to him."
This is indeed a "settler," as Dick Swivellor would say, for British pride, as represented by that uppish "British nobleman, Sir X." L.-t us- hope the anecdote of his unjustifiable conduct at the house of "a liberal Englishman in the East" may meet his aye, and sting his conscience, especially when be shall peruse the pious "rider" with which Miss Weppner, who is lavish of familiarity with sacred names and subjects, sends it forth to seek him. "Christ," she assures the uppish British nobleman, "had he been in the position of Sir X., who calls himself a Christian, would certainly not have declined the hand of the American captain, but would have greeted him in the most humane and fi 'endly manner."
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