Nobody but "a literary character" can estimate the feelings of distrust with which our intimate knowledge of the prevalence of this paragraphspirit makes us turn over the leaves of anything in the shape of a new book of travels. It is in that department, perhaps, that its influence is at this moment the most predominant and the most disgusting. We used to have people that saw things, and described them because they had seen them the modern race go to see things, because they are resolved to describe. Men (o vuv Bport) take the nattiest note-books with them into the densest spray of Niagara-Boxes of Brahmas are worn to the stumps upon the highest ridges of the Blue Mountains Pounce and steel-gratings pollute the breezes of Chimboraco-and" leading articles" are littered by the score upon the very sarcophagus of Cheops. "The wild beasts of the desert," said the Prophet of old, "shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the Satyr shall cry to his fellow. There also shall The Great Owl make her nest, and lay and hatch, and gather under her shadow !"-A most excellent text for "my Pocket-book," Miladi Morgan, and Hadgi Rae Wil

son.

Whether the present "wild beast of the Island" has more of the Satyr or of the Great Owl in his composition, our readers shall by and by be in a condition to form their own opinion. In the mean time, this much is certain, that he has very highly amused us. He is, as we hinted already, a real member of The Fine Body School of Prose Writers. He is a simpleton of the first water. He thinks himself a wonderfully shrewd, noticing, observing, canny fellow, and, in point of fact, he has no more nous than a hedge-sparrow. In spite of himself, however, he is a satyrical writer; because the things he describes are not capable of being described at all, without producing somewhat of the effect of satirical writing: and, Minervâ minime invitâ, he is also a bit of an Owl.

If we do not thoroughly understand him, no wonder: for it is extremely evident, that he is very far from understanding himself, or indeed from understanding what his own mind is as to almost any one subject his book in any way touches upon. He is horribly shocked with the profanity of the oaths he hears on board the good ship Washington, which conveys him part of the way to America: and yet we have since seen him figuring in the character of an "admiring and constant reader," in by far the most impious newspaper now suffered to exist in England. His whole descriptions of the American polity, &c. are tinged with a most republican colouring, and yet, the first thing he does on coming back to England, is to send a present of a fine walking-cane, he had cut in one of the Transatlantic forests, to "our gracious Sovereign King George." Inconsistent Mr Faux! Had you gone out an admirer of republicanism and infidel journals, and come back with a horror for profane swearing, and a walking-cane for the King, we should have understood and applauded you; but you have split the difference, and we fairly give you up as a Great Owl.

From a person of this sort, our readers do not of course expect anything like what is really wanted in England, in the shape of a book of Travels in the United States of America. We have no work which gives us any tolerable notion of the state of manners in that country, as compared with the state of manners with which we are acquainted at home-and we do not, to confess the truth, see any great probability of our being soon in possession of any such work. In point of fact, very few persons who are at all qualified to speak as to the state of manners here, ever dream of going across the Atlantic Ocean; and the few who might be able to do anything worth while in this way, have other matters to think of when engaged in such peregrinations. They are merchants: they transact some business which they did not choose to entrust their agents with, and make the best of their way home again. Or they are persons, who have, by some accident or other, been chucked out of their line of life here: they settle in America; and it is by no means their interest to be too busy in the drawing

of comparisons between what they have been obliged to leave, and what they have had the fortune to find.

By far the greater part of those educated Europeans, who have chanced to make any remarks upon American manners, it is but justice to say, do not appear to have penetrated beyond the region of taverns and lodginghouses, steam-boats and stage-coaches. The little sketches given by our friend John Howison, and others of this class, are too ridiculous. We have all seen in Americans travelling in this country, sufficient evidence, that these are either not faithful portraitures, or the portraitures of what nobody cares much for having painted. No English gentleman thoroughly acquainted with the modes of society here, and in possession of the means of access to the best society of America, has as yet come before the public in the character of an American traveller. Indeed, so very few such persons go to America, that any one individual of the class would be sure to attract to himself, by describing what he saw there, such a degree of scrutiny and animadversion, and probably of ill-will, that it is no wonder there should be so much reluctance. Besides, the chances are, that every gentleman so qualified, who makes such a tour, has personal connections on the other side of the water-friends and relatives, in all likelihood, whose feelings he would be very sorry to run the least risk of wounding, merely for the sake of affording entertainment or even instruction (of this sort) to his friends at home.

Almost our only means of judging, then, consists in our own observation of Americans sojourning occasionally among ourselves: and such (we speak for ourselves) we can never be persuaded to regard otherwise than with exceeding distrust. The Americans whom we see, are for the most part very young; and it would be extreinely unfair to take them in their unfledged condition, for proper specimens of the same animal in maturity of years and experience. No doubt, they inust improve very much after they leave us the cares and occupations, as well as the ties and affections, of manly life, must exert their usual influences in chastising the exuberance of self-love, or at least in softening the glare of its outward manifestaVOL. XIV.

tious. At the same time, it can do no harm to say, that the manners of these young men are for the most part characterized by a measure of free-and-casiness, which would have no chance of being altogether pardoned in Europeans of the same condition, merely on the score of youth. What the cause may be, we know not: but it is impossible to deny the fact, that nineteen out of every twenty young Americans, (even of the best class,) are intolerably cool fellows. It is not boyish coxcombry: they in general dress very ill, and are slovenly in their exterior. It is a sort of precocious garrulity, and worse even than that calin hardened affectation of having outlived the feelings of youth.

The doctrine of absolute political equality, may be at the root of this somewhat unpleasing style of mauners; but that is no excuse. One man is not necessarily entitled to treat another as his equal, merely because he has the same right to vote for a member-but these people appear to act exactly as if this were the case. This sentiment seems to overrun every corner of their minds. They have no respect of persons; they assume a certain loftiness, as if they were giants to us, because their rivers are seas to ours. They have settled the whole matter ere they started. And yet-it is not quite so neither. They feel unhappy in the knowledge that there may be a lord in the room; and one of them actually published a book not long ago, the object of which was to prove that an American gentleman has no reason to walk behind an English baronet! This is the sort of thing that lets the cat out of the poke. They cannot get entirely rid of the old prejudices, and they live in a feverish anxiety to shew themselves in the minutest particular under the influence of the new. They are not at home, and in endeavouring to appear so, they overact their part.

They stare from an excessive dread of being caught in the unfreemanlike sin of blushing-and chatter a'l'outrance, because they would not have anybody to suppose that Shakespeare's rule

-Be checked for silence, But never taxed for speechcould be intended for A President in posse.

Of all this, as we have said, there can be no doubt the experience of after

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years must render the better spirits thoroughly ashamed. Indeed, the few Americans who do visit us at a more mature period of life, are comparatively quite free of such impertinences; and it need scarcely be added, that the most accomplished of them are entirely so. We must not name names -but how can we avoid mentioning the one delightful name of Washington Irving-a man whose genius must have been at all times too fine to live elsewhere than in the companionship of most perfect modesty?

We wish from our hearts he would turn, or rather return, to the portraiture of Transatlantic manners.-His Sketch-book was admirable; but how infinitely superior the American part of it to the English! His Bracebridgehall was admirable too; but what did it contain that could bear a moment's comparison with Rip van Winkle, or the Legend of Sleepy Hollow? But to speak the plain truth, Diedrick Knickerbocker is, after all, our favourite. There is more richness of humour, and there is more strength of language too, in those earlier efforts-and why? -why, simply because the humour is thoroughly Transatlantic, and the language that of a man describing what he knows in all the secure knowledge of native experience. We have plenty of people who can describe English manor-houses more from the life than he, and there is no want of people, who can describe German Schlosses; but who, except Washington Irving, can portray the manners of America, in a style fitted for the thorough comprehension of European readers? If he takes to it now, he will describe them infinitely the better for the experience he has had of other men and modes of life. He may, in neglecting this walk, be a most elegant English author, but, by adhering to it, he must be the first man in a walk of his own.

Never were more abundant materials in the (almost) exclusive of any one man of genius-and we cannot but regret to see him neglecting them so much as he seems to do now-a-days. He can never be a Fielding, a Smollet, or even a Goldsmith here; but there, what might he not be? Even his countrymen will prefer English pictures of English manners, and German descriptions of German manners, to the best he can ever produce -But who is there to fill his place in

the description of American manners, either for our behoof, or for the behoof of the Americans themselves?— Who would not have preferred a Fennsylvanian farm house, to an English hall from him? Who would not give fifty such English generals as he can fashion, for one distinct portrait of a genuine old Washingtonian? Why should he dabble among English poachers, when we have our own Crabbe, and the hunters of a thousand Savannahs carent vate sacro? We don't want him to describe the lapdogs of our maiden aunts—what are the pets of his? As for "Students of Salamanca," "Serenades," and " Donna Isabellas," we had certainly indulged the hope that they were all entombed for ever in the same grave with Hassan the son of Albumazar, the Dervis of Mount Libanus, and the Vision of Osmyn Benomar.

Meantime, such as we can get, we must make the best of-and certainly, in spite of all that was said a page or two ago, this Mr William Faux is not the least amusing of those who have written travels in America. There is no pretension about the man, and, to be candid, though the days are not very memorable, they seem to be, on the whole, very honestly described. We wish very much the good man had had vanity enough to put his face opposite his title-page; but even as it is, we think we have been able to form a tolerably exact notion of him. We guess him nearer fifty than forty -a plain stout-looking yeoman-probably knowing enough about Swedish turnips-a sober man, yet entertaining no mortal antipathy to a can of brown-stout-one that won't take it very sweetly if the rasher be overbroiled. He seems to have been brought up in a christian manner, and to have sound religious feelings, notwithstanding a few little circumstances, one of which has already been alluded to. He has an old father-a wife-and an only child-whether male or female, he does not say, and appears to be an exemplary familyman; politics not well defined-apparently whiggish at the end of the book-republican about the middle of it-and radical at the beginning: but we do not speak confidently as to any of those points. Delicacy he has no more idea of, than Hogg has of a minuet. He accepts, or rather, indeed,

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his friend Wardour of Philadelphia, had called, and was at the stage-house. On his return home to dinner he soon came down to me and said I should accompany him to pot-luck. I did so. The sight of an English face was mutually refreshing, and a sufficient introduction to each other. Mr Lidiard scarcely knows what induced him to emigrate, having a fortune enabling himself and family to live in ease anywhere. 'One thing, however, which weighed with me, was the probability of seeing my children well married in America. I must, however, complain much of American roguery. Hardly anybody cares about poor honesty and punctuality. If a man can, or is disposed to pay, he pays; if not so disposed, or not able, he smiles, tells you to your face, he shall not pay. I saw an execution defeated lately by that boasted spirit, which they call liberty, or independence. The property, under execution, was put up to the sale, when the eldest son appeared with a huge Herculean club, and said, Gentlemen, you may bid for and buy these bricks and things, which were my father's, but, by God, no man living shall come on to this ground with horse and cart to fetch them away. The land is mine, and if the buyer takes anything away, it shall be on his back.' The father had transferred the land, and all on it, to the son, in order to cheat the law. Nobody was, therefore, found to bid or buy. I, therefore,' continues Mr L., decline all transactions with Americans, it being impossible with safety to buy or sell anything of importance under their present paper system. I keep my money in the funds. Housekeeping is very cheap; 100lbs. of fine flour costs only two dollars; a fine fat sheep, two dollars; beef equally cheap, three or four cents, twopence per pound, the hide and tallow being thought the most valuable; one dozen of fat fowls from three quarters to one dollar. Land here gives a man no importance; store-keepers and clerks rank much above farmers, who are never seen in genteel parties and circles. Yet, here is the finest arable and pasture land in the known world, on which grass, the most luxuriant, is seen rotting for want of cattle. Just kill a few of the large trees where there is no underwood, and you have a beautiful clover-field and other grass intermixed, as ever art elsewhere produced. There is no laying down here; it is all done by nature as if by magic. The land is full of all useful grass seeds, which only want sun and air to call them into a smothering superabundance. But what is land, however rich, without population to cultivate it, or a market to consume its produce, which is here bought much under what either I or you could raise it for. Farmers are consequently men of no importance. They live, it is true, and will always live, but I much

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doubt if ever the important English farmer could be satisfied with such living and farming. I feel great difficulty in advising any friends on the subject of emigration. I mean to wait two years longer before I do it. Liberty and independence, of which you and I thought so much and so highly, while on the other side of the Atlantic, sink and fade in value on a nearer view. Nobody here properly appreciates, but almost all abuse, this boasted liberty. Liberty here means, to do each as he pleases; to care for nothing and nobody, and cheat everybody. If I buy an estate, and advance money before I get a title, it is ten to one but I lose it, and never get a title that is worth having. My garden cost me, this summer only, 50 dollars, and all the produce was stolen by boys and young men, who professed to think they had the libertyto do so. If you complain to their friends and superiors, the answer is, Oh, it is only a boyish trick, not worth notice.' And again, I tell the gentlemen, that if I wished to be social and get drunk with them, I dare not; for they would take the liberty to scratch me like a tiger, and gouge, and dirk me. I cannot part with my nose and eyes. The friendly equality and intercourse, however, which can be had with all ranks and grades, and the impossibility of coming to absolute poverty, are the finest features of this country. You are going to Birkbeck's settlement ?'-' I am, sir.' I visited both Birkbeck and Flower in June last. Birkbeck is a fine man, in a bad cause. He was worth about 10,000% sterling, but has deceived himself and others. Both his and Flower's settlement (which are all one), is all a humbug. They are all in the mire, and cannot get out; and they, therefore, by all manner of means and arts, endeavour to make the best of it. Birkbeck tells me, the reason why he does not cultivate his land is, because he can buy produce cheaper at Harmony, much cheaper than he can raise it, although its price is double what I am giving at Lexington market. The Harmonites all work, and pay nothing for labour. Mr Birkbeck, in June last, was the proprietor of 10,000 acres, and forfeited his first deposit, ten cents an acre, on 30,000 acres, which prove to be, as is his settlement generally, the worst land in Illinois. Nobody now cares to buy of, or settle down, with either him or Flower. I like Flower the least; I would prefer Birkbeck for a neighbour, dressed up, as he is, in a little mean chip hat, and coarse domestic clothes from Harmony, living in a little log-house, smoking segars, and drinking bad whisky, just as I found him, rough as he was. Mr G. Flower is inducing mechanics to come from all parts to settle, although there is no employment for them, nor any market now, nor in future, at New Orleans, or