"Miss Cunningham it is My wishes to companion in your Present and I hope you will Be peeze at it and I hope that you will not think Hard of Me I have Ben to the Doctor and he was very well satafide with Me and I hope you is and Miss Mahuw all so

"thats all I has to say now wiheshen you will grant Me that honour I will Be very glad.

"'S. B. SMITH.'

“The nursemaid was granted; and as it was a love-match, and as the girl's mistress is one of the tender, the sore-hearted about having slaves, I hope the poor creatures are as happy as love in debasement can make them."- Vol. I. p. 63.

The descriptions of the four weddings are perfect pictures, and we would gladly quote them all if we could spare the room. But failing that, we can only advise all and sundry not to pass this chapter, if they read no more of Miss Martineau's "Retrospect of Western Travel."

In the next chapter, the title "High-road Travelling" is made to serve for a great variety of subjects, among which are, "the disagreeable practice of rocking in the chair," nullification, Mr. Calhoun, the Patroon of Albany, the propriety of foreign missions, Trenton falls, the slavery question, the New York Indians, and Mr. Van Buren. Of the president an elaborate character is given, in which he is charged with a habit of flattering, "which so cautious a man should have long ago found out to be disagreeable;" with wanting "faith in men," and forgetfulness of self; and with having "the skepticism which marks the lower order of politicians." The following passage is curious, considering that it was probably written before the recent coalition between Mr. Calhoun and his quondam rival. Miss Martineau is speaking of nullification:

Perhaps Mr. Van Buren may entertain the opinion which many hold, that that business is not over yet, and that the slavery question is made a pretext by the nullifiers of the South, for a line of action to which they are impelled by the disappointed personal ambition of one or two, and the wounded pride of the many, who cannot endure the contrast between the increase of the free states of the North, and the deterioration of the slave states of the South. However this may be, to propitiate Mr. Calhoun seems to have been Mr. Van Buren's great object for a long time past; an object probably hopeless in itself, and in the pursuit of which he is likely to lose the confidence of the North far faster than he could, at best, disarm the enmity of the South."— Vol. I. p. 75.

Next follow two chapters upon Buffalo and Niagara; the first including a vivid sketch of the destruction of Buffalo by the British and Indians, in 1812, taken from the lips of a Mrs. W., who had personal knowledge of its horrors. It is worthy of remark, that the narrative is so drawn up as to make it appear that the Indians alone were the actors in the tragedy.

The ninth chapter is devoted to Dr. Priestley, whose memory our author seems to hold in the profoundest reverence.

The prisons at Auburn, Wethersfield, and Philadelphia, are the subject of the next chapter. Notwithstanding the fame of these establishments, or rather of the system on which they are conducted, Miss Martineau is of opinion that the system is radically wrong; and perhaps she is right, if it be conceded that the object of such institutions is to reform the convicts, not to deter others from committing the offences for which they are punished. The following passage explains the foundation of her theory:

"The first principle in the management of the guilty seems to me to be, to treat them as men and women; which they were before they were guilty, and will be when they are no longer so; and which they are in the midst of it all. Their humanity is the principal thing about them; their guilt is a temporary state."-p. 125.

"First sight of Slavery" is the ominous title of the succeeding chapter; and henceforward slavery becomes the staple of the volumes. The subject is unquestionably one of deep and vital interest, involving the very highest moral and political considerations, and perhaps bearing more directly than any other upon the great question of the continuance of this republic under its present organization. We cannot award to Miss Martineau the praise and high praise it would be if deserved—of treating this important subject with the "manysidedness," to use an expressive word from the German, which the vastness and intricacy of its relations so imperatively require, and without which no discussion of it can yield advantage. Being an abolitionist an immediate abolitionist-of the strictest sect, and priding herself upon the uncompromising directness of her principle, she is either unable or unwilling-perhaps both—to entertain in connexion with the abolition of slavery any other than the single proposition, that men ought not to hold men in bondage. The considerations growing out of the long existence and extensive spread of the institution, of its intimate blending with all the great relations of property and employment, and of the peculiar nature of the compact by which the states of our confederation are united, she does not choose to study; nor in the whole range of her

remarks upon the subject, does she anywhere advert to the grounds assumed or the reasons advanced by the advocates of slavery. The whole end and object of her writing seems to be, to show that slavery is an accursed thing, and ought to cease; but she will neither tell us how its discontinuance is to be effected, nor hazard an inquiry into the probable consequences of its abolition in the only mode that can be inferred—and they give us nothing but inference-from the general declarations of her brethren and sisters in the doctrine. She lets us know, indeed, that the colonization scheme is in her opinion an abomination; yet she gives no hint in explanation of the means by which, supposing the blacks to be emancipated and remain, the country is to escape the evils that must inevitably flow from the hatred which she believes and declares to exist between the races. These and many other points involved in the abolition of slavery are the questions on which we need enlightenment, and the solution of which would deserve and gain our eternal gratitude. The evils of slavery, and its sinfulness, are not unknown to or denied by us of the North, at all events; nor by a very large proportion of the South, not even by the most strenuous opposers of the abolitionists. It is not the end which they profess, but the means by which they seek to gain the end, that agitates and disturbs the public mind. All are agreed upon the object-all would rejoice to see the country freed from the curse of slavery; but there are many who think that the measures by which this desirable consummation is sought to be effected-measures of reproach, and insult, and denunciation-are far more likely to beget ruinous hostility between portions of the union, than to bring about the desired change of feeling and opinion in that portion which still adheres to slavery. They honestly apprehend a severance of the confederation, or at all events such a condition of sentiment as would make the severance desirable, if not indispensable, as the more immediate consequence of the course hitherto pursued by the advocates of abolition; with a very great doubt whether the abolition would ultimately be accomplished, even by that deplorable sacrifice. We do not deny -on the contrary we rejoice to admit, that abhorrence of human slavery is becoming more and more a vital principle throughout the world that public opinion is setting more and more strongly against it every day; and in the faith of this admission, we believe that the time of its extinction among civilized nations must arrive, and that at a period not far removed; but we do not believe that the final yielding of those who still cherish the institu

tion, to the overwhelming power of public opinion, will be at all accelerated by the interposition of distrust and mutual hatred. On the contrary, we are sure that it will be retarded; and therefore we can perceive neither the propriety nor the expediency of such language as is habitually employed by the violent advocates of abolition, such as Mr. O'Connell and Miss Martineau in England, and most of the anti-slavery leaders in this country.

As we have already said, there is little or nothing of argument or expostulation in Miss Martineau's treatment of the subject. Her only study seems to have been to gather together the greatest possible number of frightful narratives, illustrating the cruelty and wickedness of slaveholders, and the wrongs of slaves; and that without much regard to authenticity of source, or perfect accuracy of detail. The publications of the AntiSlavery Society, and the statements of her anti-slavery friends, appear to have been generally her fountains of intelligence; and it is a little remarkable, that scarcely an instance of oppression, even of the mildest type, is recorded as from her own knowledge. In the results of her own observation, we find nothing of cruelty or suffering, but much of kindness to slaves, repaid by affection for the masters; of negro health and apparent happiness; of their exuberant gayety, their songs and dances. Now, we do not infer from this that there is no cruelty

that the suffering is all imaginary—but simply that the horrors of slavery are not quite as universal as they are represented; and that the condition of the Southern negro is not absolutely the most hopeless and miserable throughout the whole range of human existence.

Two other points are established by Miss Martineau's testimony, at which we should imagine that her countrymen must be somewhat surprised, considering the accounts they have had from other quarters. One is, that the institution of slavery is not a tabooed subject of discussion south of Mason and Dixon's line; the other, that the name of abolitionist does not of necessity bring upon its wearer in the south the vengeance of the inhabitants. At all places of her sojourning, and she went as far as New Orleans, Miss Martineau records her free and ample conversations with slaveholders; taking pains to assure her readers that in no instance did she ever disguise or conceal her opinions, or omit any opportunity of expressing them with all openness. So, too, she seems to take pleasure in repeating, that, in all her travels through the South, she met with nothing but kindness and hospitality, although warned by some of her

for authorship, having herself written some verses for a periodical, an elderly lady who was afflicted because Miss Martineau did not sufficiently admire the height of the Alleganies, a Western judge who always did all the talking, some three or four others even less remarkable, and the hero of the following anecdote :

"Country doctors are not unlike wild country judges. Being obliged to call in the aid of a village doctor to a companion, I found we had fallen in with a fine specimen of the class. I was glad of this afterward, but much annoyed at the time by the impossibility of extracting from him the slightest information as to my friend's state and prospects in regard to her health. I detained him in conversation day after day to no purpose, and varied my questions with as much American ingenuity as I could command; but all in vain. He would neither tell me what was the matter with her, nor whether her illness was serious or trifling, or whether it was likely to be long or short. He would give me no hint which could enable me to form my plans, or to give my distant friends an idea whether or when they might expect to see us. All that he would say was, Hope your friend will be better;' hope she will enjoy better health;' will make her better if we can;' 'must try to improve her health;' and so on. I was informed that this was all I should extract if the illness were to last a twelvemonth. He took a blue paper with some white powder in it out of one pocket, and a white paper with some other powder out of another pocket; spilled some at random into smaller papers, and gave directions when they should be taken, and my friend speedily and entirely recovered. I never was so completely in the dark about the nature of any illness I saw, and I am completely in the dark still. I fancy I hear now the short, sharp, conceited tones of the doctor, doggedly using his power of exasperating my anxiety."- Vol. II. p. 196.

It is a pity to spoil a good story, but it becomes necessary to do so in the present instance, because the explanation throws some light upon the peculiarities of our author. The "village doctor" referred to, we understand, is a highly respectable physician of Brattleborough, in Vermont; and we are told that he gives this version of the story, which we take in his own words from a newspaper:

"I am not tamely to be held up to the derision of England and America. It's true, I didn't tell her, although she almost pestered my life out to be informed. I bore it all, and equivocated and evaded, and all from motives of delicacy, to spare the woman's feelings. If she has been so very much concerned to know, and is yet in the dark, I will enlighten her darkness ·Her friend was in the first stages of delirium tremens !”