The Press.
London, England, 1855-08-04 00:00:00

and, though extremely able pens have re-
corded the results of the campaigns, we are
convinced that the talents of Mr. Duncan,
judging by these volumes, would have ap-
peared to much advantage as one of the
Crimean historians. But, fatigued with his
exertions, he felt it right to return to England.
Incidentally he gives us his opinion on some
vexed subjects. Amongst other• observations,
Mr. Duncan pays the following tribute to the
memory of Admiral Boxer :
Much has been written and spoken of the roughness of
manner and language of the gallant old sailor who now re-
poses under the sod of Balaklava, and many are the capital
stories related of his conversations with the amiable ama-
teurs who at times interfered with his business arrange
ments. For my own part I met with the greatest civility
from Admiral Boxer, notwithstanding the unsuitable hour at
which I called upon him in order to ascertain the name of the
steamer that was to leave for the Crimea. On arriving at
the residence of the admiral, he was at dinner, and I fully
expected to be stormed at for interrupting him at so unses-
sonable a moment; but, with a politeness that I for one
could not have imitated, he rose from the table without a
frown, gave me a letter for the captain of the Banshee, and
wished me a pleasant voyage.
And elsewhere Mr. Duncan corroborates all
our previous knowledge of the extreme vacil-
lation which marked the conduct of our Cabi
not in devising the expedition against Sebas-
topol:—
The Turkish pashas had not despaired of peace being
concluded; and in this infatuation they resembled the
allied commanders; for up to the very last moment the
British generals and admirals commanding the expedition
to the Crimea appear to have considered the reestablish-
ment of peace as inevitable. On the night that the allied
expedition had commenced landing in Kalamita Bay, the
despatch-steamer Banshee arrived from Constantinople
with despatches. The first words of Admiral Dundaii to
to the commander of the Banshee, were, "You have
brought us peace : " and great was the surprise of the
British admiral on learning, on the contrary, that the war
was to be pushed with vigour.

Our extracts sufficiently attest the varied
qualities of Mr. Duncan's well-timed volumes.
Their matter is highly useful, and deserves
careful attention ; while his popular manner
and lively anecdotes will be certain to secure
for him a wide circle of readers.

Lands of the Slave and the Free; or, Cuba,
the United States, and Canada. By the
Hon. H. A. Murray. London: J. W.
Parker and Son.

Jr is only a week or two ago that we noticed
no less than four books of travels in America.
The fifth, to which we then briefly alluded,
now comes before us for consideration. We
took up these volumes with some misgiving.
How frequently, as we closed the many books
we have read about America, have we been
compelled to say—Captain Blank, or Mr.
Dash, or Mrs. Asterisk, as the case may be,
has written what our Republican friends would
call a very smart book, but the authors' own
peculiar crotchets and prejudices have given
such a colour to all they saw and heard in
that strange country that we no more recog-
nise the portraits or landscapes which they
have drawn for our amusement than we can
identify a friend's face in the hideous phen-
tasmagolia of a daguerreotype. Captain
Murray has adopted none of the convention-
alisms of former writers of American travels.
None of the stereotyped Yankees whom
nearly every tourist since Marryatt and Trol
loppe has depicted with a gradually decreasing
resemblance are here presented to us. The
great charm of our present author's book (as
of Sullivan's excellent " Rambles and Scram-
bles in America") lies in the reality and truth
of his descriptions, which all brother travellers
to the country ho describes will so readily
recognise. His views, too, on the terrible
question of slavery, on the state of things in
Canada, and on some other important sub-
jects, are so manly and honest, so free from
what the Americans humorously call isms, so
untiuged with dogmatism, and expressed with
so much modesty, that the most sensitive of
our transatlantic friends can hardly feel angry
at the good-natured criticisms which he
passes upon them.
Captain Murray chose New York for his
port of disembarkation, and gives a capital
description of a New York hotel. One of the
latest novelties in these curious establishments
is the bridal chamber :

The worming peculiarity of the new hotels is " The
Baia ()limber;" the want of delicacy that suggested the