note a few circumstances overlooked by them, but, on the score of accurate and fresh information, there is little value in the physical details he gives; while the political and social are so obviously jaundiced by partisan spite as to be of limited significance. Indeed, there is cause to suspect that Mr. Smythe was not infrequently quizzed by his informants; and his best reports are of agricultural and topographical facts. His "Travels in America," therefore, are now more curious than valuable: they give us a vivid idea of the perverse and prejudiced commentaries in vogue at the period among the least magnanimous of the Tory faction. He, like others of his class, was struck with the "want of subordination among the people." He descants on the "breed of running horses " in Virginia. The bullfrogs, mosquitos, flying squirrels, fossil remains, and lofty timber; the wheat, corn, sugar, cotton, and other crops; the characteristics of different Indian tribes; the clearings, the new settlements, the hospitality, splendid landscapes, and "severe treatment of the negroes;" the handsome women, the "accommodations not suited to an epicure," the modes of farming, the habits of planters and riflemen, the extent and character of the large rivers, the capacity of soils, and the behavior of different classes, &c., form his favorite topics of description and discussion, varied by inklings of adventure and severe experiences as a fugitive and a prisoner. He tells us of the "harems of beautiful slaves" belonging to the Jesuit establishment in Maryland; of being "attacked by an itinerant preacher; of the "painful sensation of restraint" experienced from the "gloom of the woods;" of his horse "refusing to eat bacon; " and of the "formal circumlocution" of a wayside acquaintance, evidently better endowed with humor than himself. In these and similar themes his record assimilates with many others written at the time; but what give it peculiar emphasis, are the political comments and prophecies -very curious to recall now, in the light of subsequent events and historical verdicts. "I have no wish to widen the breach," he says; "but the illiberal and vindictive principles

of the prevailing party" in America, seem to him fatal to any hearty reconciliation between the mother country and her wayward and enfranchised offspring. So absolutely is his moral perception obscured, that he deliberately maligns a character whose immaculate purity even enemies then recognized with delight. "It was at Alexandria," he writes, "that George Washington first stepped forth as the public patron and leader of sedition, having subscribed fifty pounds where others subscribed only five, and having accepted the command of the first company of armed associates against the British Government." So far we have only the statement of a political antagonist; but when, in the retrospect of his career as military chieftain and civic leader, he thus estimates the man whose disinterestedness had already become proverbial, we recognize the absolute perversity of this professedly candid writer:

"Mr. Washington has uniformly cherished and steadfastly pursued an apparently mild, steady, but aspiring line of conduct, and views of the highest ambition, under the most specious of all cloaks -that of moderation, which he invariably appeared to possess. His total want of generous sentiments, and even of common humanity, has appeared notoriously in many instances, and in none more than in his sacrifice of the meritorious but unfortunate Major André. Nor during his life has he ever performed a single action that could entitle him to the least show of merit, much less of glory; but as a politician he has certainly distinguished himself, having, by his political manœuvres, and his cautious, plausible management, raised himself to a degree of eminence in his own country unrivalled, and of considerable stability. In his private character he has always been respectable."

As a specimen of Tory literature, this portrait forms a singular and suggestive contrast with those sketched of the same illustrious subject by Chastellux, Guizot, Erskine, Brougham, Everett, and so many other brilliant writers. It is easy to imagine what discouraging views of the new republic such a man would take, after this evidence of his moral perspicacity and mental discrimination. Yet Mr. Smythe was of a sentimental turn. There are verses in his

American Travels, "written in solitude," not, indeed, equal to Shelley's; and, when incarcerated, he inscribed rhymes with charcoal on his prison wall. We must make due allowance for the wounded sensibilities of a man who had been the victim of a "brutal Dutch guard," a "robber of the mountain," and a "barbarous jailer," when he tells us that the "fatal termination of the war," and the "consequences of separation from Great Britain and alliance with France," are "inauspicious for both countries." According to Mr. Smythe, the Americans were "corrupted by French gold," and entered into an "affected amity with that artful, perfidious, and gaudy people." He prophesies that "when the intoxication of success is over, they will repent their error. Meantime, he pleads earnestly for the Loyalists, declares America rapidly becoming depopulated on account of its "unsettled government" and the check of emigration, and, altogether, an "unfit place of residence."

CHAPTER VI.

BRITISH TRAVELLERS AND WRITERS CONTINUED.

WANSEY; COOPER; WILSON; DAVIS; ASHE; BRISTED; KENDALL ; WELD; COBBETT; CAMPBELL; BYRON; MOORE; MRS. WAKEFIELD; HODGSON; JANSEN; CASWELL; HOLMES, AND OTHERS; HALL; FEARON; FIDDLER; LYELL; FEATHERSTONAUGH; COMBE; FEMALE WRITERS; DICKENS; FAUX; HAMILTON; PARKINSON; MRS. TROLLOPE; GRATTAN; LORD CARLISLE; ANTHONY TROLLOPE; PRENTICE; STIRLING.

If, in early colonial times, North America was sought as a refuge from persecution and a scene of adventurous exploration, and, during the French and Revolutionary wars, became an arena for valorous enterprise; when peace smiled upon the newly organized Government of the United States, they allured quite another class of visitors-those who sought to ascertain, by personal observation, the actual facilities which the New World offered, whereby the unfortunate could redeem and the intrepid and dexterous advance their position and resources. Hence intelligent reporters of industrial and social opportunities were welcomed in Europe, and especially among the manufacturers, agriculturists, and traders of Britain; and these later records differ from the earlier in more specific data and better statistical information. To the American reader of the present day they are chiefly attractive as affording facts and figures whereby the development of the country can be distinctly traced from the adoption of

the Federal Constitution to the present time, and a salient contrast afforded between the modes of life and the aspect of places sixty years ago and to-day. The vocation, social rank, and personal objects of these writers so modify their observations, that, in almost every instance, allowance must be made for the partialities and prejudices, the limited knowledge or the self-love of the journalist and letter writer; yet, as their aim usually is to impart such information as will be of practical benefit to those who contemplate emigration, curious and interesting details, economical and social, may often be gleaned from their pages. One of these books, which was quite popular in its day, and is still occasionally quoted, is that of Wansey, which was published in 1794, and subsequently reprinted here.* His voyage across the Atlantic was far from agreeable, and not without serious privations. Indeed, nothing more remarkably indicates the progress of comfort and luxury within the last half century, than the speed and plentiful resources wherewith the visitor to America now makes the transit. Wansey, as was the custom then, furnished his own napkins, bedding, and extras for the voyage; his account of which closes with the remark, that "there does not exist a more sordid, penurious race than the captains of passage and merchant vessels.” Yet a nobler class of men than the American packet captains of a subsequent era never adorned the merchant service of any nation.

Henry Wansey, F. S. A., was an English manufacturer, and his visit to America had special reference to his vocation. He notes our then very limited enterprise in this sphere, and examined the quality and cost of wool in several of the States. On the 8th of June, 1794, he breakfasted with Washington at Philadelphia. "I confess," he writes, "I was struck with awe and veneration. The President seemed very thoughtful, and was slow in delivering himself, which in

*"An Excursion to the United States, in the Summer of 1794," by Henry Wansey; with a curious profile portrait of Washington, and a view of the State House in Philadelphia, 12mo., pp. 280, Salisbury, 1798.