The Sun.
London, England, 1853-03-21 00:00:00

LITEBATUBB.

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• White, Red, Black. 3 vols. By Francis and
Teresa Pulszki. Friibner.
Under this fanciful title is presented to the Eng-
lish public a cluster of amusing and brilliant sketches
of society in the United States--sketches, drawn
with infinite vivacity, by two of the most distin-
guished of the refugee Hungarians. Under ordi-
nary circumstances a work of this description from
hands like those of Francis and Teresa Pulszki,
could not possibly have proved otherwise thaa in the
highest degree attractive. Considering, however,
that the occasion 'Which has elicited the present vo-
lumes is-one no less memorable than the visit paid to
the American Republic by Louis Kossuth, the guest
of, that Democracy, the production before us must
necessarily be regarded by the English people as
one fraught with a very peculiar fascination.
Although so brief an interval has elapsed since the
time of the voyage here recounted, it is really
remarkable how effectually the industry of the
companions of the Hungarian chieftain has
overcome all the difficulties of a narrative
necessarily diffuse and comprehensive. Numerous
as have been the works already written upon the
Republic of North America, we know none more
eminently calculated to present a truthful and life-
like picture of the original to the mass of the
British population. Already we have been rendered
familiar with the condition of society in the States
through the descriptions of Harriet Martineau, the
humorous pencillings of Charles Dickens, the ani-
mated rhetoric of Silk Buckingham, and the
shrewd comments of George Combo, through the
satire of Mrs. Trollope, the science of Sir Charles
Lyell, the perspicuity of Alexander Mackay, and
the ever-watchful observation of M. de Tocqueirille.
Added to these, we have now the pleasant pages
furnished to us by our travelling Hungarians. The
merit of these passages can only be the more ap-
preciable on comparison with those of their prede-
cessors. Neither Francis nor Teresa Pulszki appear
to have crossed the Atlantic accompanied by preju-
dices any more than by predilections. Their good
opinion must necessarily, to a considerable extent,
have been propitiated by the fact of their illustrious
compatriot having received the magnificent tribute
of an invitation from Congress—a grand and na-
tional invitation to visit, as the guest of that pepple,
the inhabitants of the North American Republic.
Otherwise, our authors evidently set forth on
their journey with their minds altogether un-
warped, and ready to accord to the novel
and interesting scenes presented to them the
benefit of a calm and altogether dispassiOnate
judgment. Setting aside entirely any reluctfance
that might be excited by the apparent incong,tuity
of a work of this particular character coming. to us
from the hands of a foreigner, Francis Pulszki
observes, at the very outset of his preface, in a
phrase quaintly but ingeniously apologetic, that
various reasons therein specified have induced him,
by publishing these volumes, "to carry an oil to
Athens." The task of compiling the work from
the loose papers brought back with them by our
Magyar, travellers on their return to England,
seems to have been singularly facilitated by the
circumstance of a regular diary having been kept
by Teresa Pulszki throughout the whole of her
transatlantic movements. What tends particu-
larly to enhance the value of the present- narrative
is the fact, that its materials are not, as is usual with
the majority of such productions, composed for the
most part of allusions to the domestic manners and
personal peculiarities of the American poptilation.
As our authors themselves remind us, they were
not shocked by such little incidents as the Ameri-
cans pouring the contents of their egg shells i into
glasses at breakfast ! Neither did they care Much
seemingly about the orthodoxy of eating lamb With
mint sauce, rhubarb pie with Devonshire
cream, and roast beef with Yorkshire pud-
ding ! Their indifference in these particulars
recalls to• our recollection the introductory
remark of Mr. Samuel Weller when " Boots" at the
White Hart in the borough—" We shan't be bank-
rupts and we shan't make our fortunes ; we eats
our biled mutton without capers, and don't care
for horse-radish ven ve can get beef." Similar is
the disregard evinced in reference to these minutiae
in the sublime art of cookery by our light-hearted
Hungarians. As to another peculiarity already
frequently commented upon by previous travellers
in the United States, Francis Pulszki candidli ac-
knowledges that " belonging to an eminently
smoking people, the extensive use of the cigar did
not hurt my feelings, though I thought that clew-
ing and its consequences were no improvements on
the use of the fragrant leaf 1" Everything consi-
' dered, Brother Jonathan could scarcely have been
subjected to a more generous examination than that
of our authors (as we may now regard them),
the Anglicised Hungarians. The charming
sketches before us open with a descrip-
tion of the passage to America across , the
Atlantic. Prior to this description, however,
we have an account of the departure from England
of Kossuth and his companions. This account is
immediately followed by some intelligent remarks
upon the discovery of the New World before the
ago of Columbus—a discovery made, of course, as is
now pretty generally known, by certain Norwegian
adventurers. It may be observed, moreover, that
the tedium of the voyage is lightened very agree-
ably by a narrative of the escape of Madam
Kossuth, as told by herself, in the course of
one or two familiar conversations. Incidentally,
also, a deserved tribute of gratitude is paid by our
writers to the Turkish hospitality displayed at the
close of the Hungarian war of independence,
towards their fugitive fellow-countrymen. Arrived
at Staten Island, we have a brilliant description of
the noble city of New York, of its motly society,
of its enormous meetings, and of its composite
architecture. Opinions are then expressed as to the
position assumed in the United States by.the chiefs
of periodical literature. A chapter upon colonisa-
tion conveys to the mind of the reader, in regard
to the North American Continent, a tolerably clear
idea both of its physical and political configuration.
Especial reference is, of course, made at a fitting
opportunity to the tate of parties in America, and
to the nature of their respective principles. From
New York we advance to Philadelphia, thence to
Baltimore--on to Washington, to Annapolis, to
Harrisburgh, across the Alleghanies to the iron
city of Pitsburgh —on again by Maryland and
Pennsylvania to Ohio, where we are introduced to
Cleveland, to Columbus, and to Cincinnati. Tra-
versing Indiana, Kentucky, and Missouri, we find
ourselves conveyed at last to the lower Mis-
sissippi. Returning northwards by Mobile, the
Alabama River, and Montgomery, we pass Georgia
and the Carolinas, and so come at length to New
Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachussets. Here,
however, the journey by no means terminates—for,
advancing to the city of Boston, we are carried
forward to the wonderful Falls of Niagara, and
leaving these we are carried back to New York,
through Buffalo, Troy, and Albany. Having
thus completed the tour of the United
States, we are invited to the consideration
of an ingenious parallel of the American and
English character. Several appendices to the
three volumes comprise a variety of interesting
documents. Among these, it must be especially
remarked, will be found some valuable statistical

,
papers on the local railways and telegraphs.
Besides three remarkable letters from the

MSS. of a New England Lady, a detailed
account of the Northmen in North America,
and Chancellor Harper's vindication of slavery.
It must be borne in remembrance that the title of
the work here under review is not simply eccentric,
but in an eminent degree significant and sugges-
tive. It implies that the races herein described are
not simply those of the domineering white men,
but those also of the Red Indian and African
populations. White, and red, and black are,
in fact, the motley colours observable amongst
the inhabitants of the Great North American
Continent. Apart' from every other considera-
tion, these sketches of society in the United States
must be regarded as of singular importance, seeing
that they demonstrate, beyond the possibility of
contradiction, that Louis Kossuth, the glorious
guest of • the American democracy, was re-
ceived by the vast mass of its citizens
not with coolness, but with universal accla-
mations. Consequently, the Times and the
Daily News were in every respect mistaken, in re-
presenting Kossuth's visit to the United States as
a " failure,"—doing so through the medium of
shores of the
anonymous correspondents. True, undoubtedly, that
re3PrinuiszenkissOß
as the public is here reminded by th
comfortable ease, senti-
suth would not avail himself of his popularity t Kos-
suth
a grant of land on the opposite- °
thereanind hisee
Atlantiche
might fo,
,r
lihivenaelf) that'
mentally remembering his country
money and political capital of the di' and making
sasters of gary 1" No—such was not the co
Run-
the glorious hero of Debreezin. Nurse pursued by
o 1 Kossuth to act thus can be o---if the refusal
tuting the failure of his vis't if
as consti-
but not otherwise, did he fail.l to , America, then,
as the failure, thank God it And regarding that
as altogether unmistakeable• A failure forsooth !
a wonderful failure th
g as its proofs : it was surely
vote in the
American Congress,
of that unanimouos_
Senator Foote, during ongress'on thef mloBtsilo,n
to
send a steam-frigat to the sessioninoor for' the
Purpose of -- • e Asia
the United
conveying Kossuth to
States so Boon as his Majesty the Sultan
would consent to his departure ! It was surely a
wonderful
States failure, the President of the United
ue only a "few days before the exile's
arrival at New York, taking the occasion of
his annual Message to commend the approach of
Kossuth to the attention of Congress-.-observing