particularly jagged and uninviting. Our four inside passengers had been a good deal mixed up, in the concussion, but soon began to emerge seriatim, from the side door which in the fall came uppermost-only one of them much hurt, and he by a bruise or gash on the head nowise dangerous. Each, as his or her head protruded through the aperture, began to 'let in' on the driver, whose real fault was that of following bad examples. I was a little riled at first myself, but the second and last lady who came out put me in excellent humour. She was not hurt, but had her new silk umbrella broken square in two, and she flashed the pieces before the delinquent's eyes and reeled off the High Dutch to him with vehement volubility. I wished I could have understood her more precisely. Though not more than eighteen, she developed a tongue that would have done credit to forty."

Mr. Greeley had often met Germans, of course, but thought they were seen to the best advantage at home. He heartily acknowledged their uniform courtesy ("save in the detestable habit of smoking"), and was greatly pleased with the deference of members of the same family to each other. "The Swiss," he observed, "are freemen, and wear the fact unconsciously but palpably on their brows and beaming from their eyes. The Germans submit passively to arbitrary power which they see not how successfully to resist, but they render to rank or dig nity no more homage than is necessary-their souls are still free, and their manners evince a simplicity and frankness which might shame or at least instruct America."

Mr. Greeley had but a short stay in Belgium. Writing of it, he speaks of the state of agriculture; women working in the fields; radical railroads, etc.; but not a word of Waterloo, which was then overdone into a very dry crisp. His route from Paris to London was by Rouen and Dieppe, instead of by Calais. But the trip across the Channel was even more disagreeable than the former one, and the wretched boats came in for a heavy discharge of execration. From Paris he wrote of the expected defeat of Louis Napoleon's reëlection, therein misjudging the situation.

When he reached London, the Universal Peace Congress was in session, largely attended by delegates, among them many men of distinguished renown. Mr. Greeley had great respect for the cause, but could not help thinking there would have to be some more hard fighting before it could prevail.

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Before returning to America, he visited Scotland and Ireland, but had not much time to spend in either of those countries. He was especially pleased with Edinburgh. He never saw so many good houses with so few indifferent;" but he spent most time of all in the Palace of Holyrood. "which, though unwisely located, never gorgeously furnished and long since abandoned of Royalty to dilapidation and decay. still wears the stamp of majesty and will be regal even whe. crumbled into ruins." Of course, like all other generous souls, which are inevitably captivated even by the memory of female loveliness, he passed into heroics when speaking of Mary Queen of Scots.

From Edinburgh, he went to Glasgow, which he describes as more American than any other city he had seen in Europe; thence by the Clyde to Greenock, and from there across the North Channel to Belfast, Ireland. He only had a few days in Ireland. He visited Dublin, Galway, and Limerick, but did not have time to see Cork. His observations upon the sad condition of Ireland were intended to be of practical value. He thought the country should have a Parliament of its own; that the customs of land-tenantry were vicious and ruinous; that nowhere on earth could more good be accomplished than by the establishment of manufactures, the building of railways, and advancing the price of Labour. He manifested deep interest in Galway, trusting "that a new Liverpool is soon to arise here; and that, should I ever again visit Europe, I shall first land on the quay of Galway."

Perhaps the candour of Mr. Greeley, though often exhibited in the most admirable manner, was never more finely illustrated than in his expression of opinion of the English people, some of whose representative men and journals had treated him unjustly and discourteously. He says:

"I do not wholly like these cold and stately English, yet I think I am not blind to their many sterling qualities. The greatness of England, it is quite confidently asserted, is based upon her conquests and plunderings-on her immense commerce and unlimited foreign possessions. I think otherwise. The English have qualities which would have rendered them wealthy and powerful though they had been located in the centre of Asia instead of on the western coast of Europe. I do not say that these

qualities could have been developed in Central Asia, but if they had been, they would have insured to their possessors a commanding position. Personally, the English do not attract nor shine; but collectively they are a race to make their mark on the destinies of mankind."

Their distinguishing characteristics, he thought, were industriousness, method, economy, practicality, benevolence, gravity. Of English women, he spoke with discriminate praise. They avoided peculiarity of apparel or speech, but were unsurpassed in physical development, and were about the best mothers on earth. Against the good qualities the English set off some disagreeable ones—awkwardness; too sharp an eye to business, whereby courtesy is destroyed; overweening self-conceit. Yet the better qualities, he thought, decidedly preponderate. They naturally love justice, manly dealing, fair play; and though cold and even repulsive out-of-doors, the Englishman is tender and truthful in his home.

He took passage for New-York on the same steamer by which he had crossed the ocean in April, embarking at Liverpool on the 6th of August, having been absent from home not quite four months. On shipboard, in the harbour of the commercial mart, he finished his last letter from Europe, concluding:

"But I must not linger. The order to embark is given; our good ship Baltic is ready; another hour and I shall have left England and this continent, probably forever With a fervent good-bye to the friends I leave on this side of the Atlantic, I turn my steps gladly and proudly toward my own loved Western home-toward the land wherein Man enjoys larger opportunities than elsewhere to develop the better and the worse aspects of his nature, and where evil and good have a freer course, a wider arena for their inevitable struggles, than is allowed them among the heavy fetters and cast-iron forms of this rigid and wrinkled Old World. Doubtless, those struggles will long be arduous and trying; doubtless, the dictates of duty will there often bear sternly away from the halcyon bowers of popularity; doubtless, he who would be singly and wholly right must there encounter ordeals as severe as these which here try the souls of the would-be champions of progress and liberty. But political freedom, such as white men enjoy in the United States, and the mass do not enjoy in Europe, not even in Britain, is a basis for confident and well-grounded hope; the running stream, though turbid, tends ever to self-purification; the obstructed, stagnant pool grows daily more dank and loathsome. Believing most firmly in the ultimate triumph of Good over Evil, I rejoice

in the existence and diffusion of that liberty, which, while it intensifies the contest, accelerates the consummation. Neither blind to her errors, nor a panderer to her vices, I rejoice to feel that every hour henceforth till I see her shores must lessen the distance which divides me from my country, whose advantages and blessings this four months' absence has taught me to appreciate more dearly and to prize more deeply than before. With a glow of unwonted rapture I see our stately vessel's prow turned toward the setting sun, and strive to realize that only some ten days separate me from those I know and love best on earth. Hark! the last gun announces that the mail-boat has left us, and that we are fairly afloat on our ocean journey; the shores of Europe recede from our vision; the watery waste is all around us; and now, with God above and Death below, our gallant bark and her clustered company together brave the dangers of the mighty deep. May Infinite Mercy watch over our onward path and bring us safely to our several homes; for to die away from home and kindred seems one of the saddest calamities that could befall me. This mortal tenement would rest uneasily in an ocean shroud; this spirit reluctantly resign that tenement to the chill and pitiless brine; these eyes close regretfully on the stranger skies and bleak inhospitality of the sullen and stormy main. No! let me see once more the scenes so well remembered and beloved; let me grasp, if but once again, the hand of Friend. ship, and hear the thrilling accents of proud Affection, and when sooner or later the hour of mortal agony shall come, let my last gaze be fixed on eyes that will not forget me when I am gone, and let my ashes repose in that congenial soil which, however I may there be esteemed or hated, is still

'My own green land forever.””

CHAPTER XV.

ON THE PLATFORM-REVISITS EUROPE.

Mr. Greeley On the Platform-His First Lecture: "Human Life"-His Style of Public Speaking-Publishes a Volume of Lectures and Essays, Entitled "Hints Towards Reforms"-Declines to Address a Literary Society - Characteristic Letter-A Letter Misinterpreted— Does Not "Fail to Connect”—Agricultural Addresses-The Indiana Agricultural Fair of 1853-Mr. Greeley's Address-A Night Ride on a Hand-car-Revisits Europe-Several Weeks of Leisure-Two Days in a French Prison-His Amusing Account of His Incarceration - Switzerland and the Glaciers-A Presentiment - Return to America.

HORACE GREELEY early entered the lecture field. The platform became a means of influence and of profit about cotemporaneously with his rising fame. He appears to have taken advantage of it rather to extend his usefulness than to increase his income or his reputation. He chose topics of a practical nature, and discussed them in a practical manner, his chief ambition being to interest the public in behalf of Labour and to devise ways and means for its elevation and honour. His first lecture was delivered on January 3d, 1843. It is thus announced in The Tribune:

Horace Greeley will lecture before the New-York Lyceum at the Taber nacle, this evening. Subject, "Human Life." The lecture will commence at half past 7, precisely. If those who care to hear it will sit near the desk, they will favour the lecturer's weak and husky voice.

The Tabernacle was admirably designed as a place for public speaking. A large, circular building, with slanting floor, and galleries rising, one above another, nearly to the ceiling, it would seat some three thousand persons in plain view and easy hearing distance of the speaker. At the appointed time. Mr. Greeley appeared, and making his way to the platform, looked over the audience, which did not crowd the auditorium, with his benignant expression. There was momentary applause,