In the chapters upon the slave and free negro codes of the northern and southern states, much interesting information will be found. They contain developments that may prove to be "two-edged swords" to our sectional partisans. Although we have endeavoured to be impartial in the presentation of facts, yet we are sure neither the "fanatics" of the north, nor the "fire-eaters" of the south, will be pleased with the expositions we have made. He who does not sustain their respective destructive policies is censured; and such, no doubt, will be our inevitable fate. We are a native of Virginia. In youth our play-grounds were upon the banks of Bull-Run: and as we loved our country then, so we do now; and we shall continue to cherish the hope for its common weal. We trust that a new government will be framed-one that will prevent the success of sectionalism, whether in the north or in the south. The civil war commenced by the secession of South Carolina; and in the south it is maintained, by an almost unanimous resolve of the people to defend the lives of those who encircle their firesides. In the North it commenced by a patriotic desire of the people to sustain the Federal Union. The south ought not to, and cannot, be subjugated by the cannon. A twig from the olive-branch, ever full of eloquence, is the only thing that can conquer it. 49, Weymouth Street, Portland Place, (W.) London, February 22nd, 1862. AMERICA AND THE SECESSION WAR. CHAPTER I. Discovery and Settlement of America; the United States, their Organisations, Topography, Products, and Governments. THE history of North America, from the period of its discovery to the present time, is replete with interest and instruction. Emerging, as it were, from the chaos of unrecorded ages, that vast continent, destined to become the birthplace of a mighty nation, had no sooner offered its shores as an asylum for the persecuted and oppressed of the Old World, than grateful and energetic bands of nobleminded men hastened to avail themselves of the new sphere of action so providentially opened before them, and at once established a basis upon which to erect a commonwealth that should thereafter rival, in magnitude and importance, the greatest of the monarchies of Europe. Springing, therefore, from such an origin, the people of North America have not affected to trace their early history through the mists of romance, nor to surround the founders of their states with the surreptitious halo of mythological tradition. It has sufficed for them, that, B descending from those representatives of a brave and prudent race, who sought and found, amidst the prairies and forests of the far west, the civil and religious liberty they were denied the enjoyment of in the land of their birth, they have imbibed the perseverance, the fortitude, and the prudence of their ancestors; and now deservedly enjoy the triumphs won by sacrifices and self-denial, in the worldwide recognition of their independence and their might. DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. The Scandinavians discovered America, A.D. 1000. This remarkable race of people extended their explorations to the most remote regions of the northern hemisphere. Scotiand, the Orkneys, Shetlands, and Faroe Isles, were, at an early date, familiar to their navigators. Iceland was discovered by them in the year 863. The Norwegian INGOLF began to colonise the island in the year 874; and, from his efforts, sprang the ultimately organised Iceland Republic, with its representative assembly at Thingvalla. The carefully preserved history of Iceland abounds with incidents most interesting. In the year 983, ERIK THE RED sailed from Iceland, to explore the land previously seen, in 877, by GUNNBIORN; and he succeeded in finding a country, which he called Greenland. In the year 986, he made another voyage, carrying with him emigrants, and settled upon the south-west coast. On a voyage from Iceland to Greenland, in this year (986), BIARNE was driven out to sea, towards the south-west, and, for the first time, beheld the American coast. This discovery was made known in Greenland on the arrival of |