The Sun.
London, England, 1833-01-28 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

THREE YEARS IN NORTH AMERICA,
2 VOLS. LONDON. 1833 .
We have perused these volumes with consider-
able gratification, for two reasons, first, because
their author (Mr. Stuart) writes in a cheerful,
inquiring spirit ; secondly, because he views men
and things in the trans-atlantic world, through
the safe medium of common sense, not of pre-
judice or imagination. He adopts no opinions
hastily, but gives reasons for the faith that is in
him. In this, as well as in a hundred other
respects, his work forms a capital antidote to the
volumes of Hall and Trollope, who, with much
vivacity, and force of colouring, much power of
caricature, and even caustic ridicule, are—there
is no gainsaying the fact—full of prejudices
against the Americans, for no other reason, that
we can perceive, than because they do not bow,
and smile, and flatter, like our well-dressed,
drawing-room dandies, but prefer sincerity to
smoothness, pride of character to pride of birth,
and a republican to a monarchical form of govern-
ment. As for Mrs. Trollope, she will never
forgive the Yankees, because, if we mistake not,
they called her an old woman ; nor will Captain
Hall be at all less likely to relent towards them,
because they had no taste for his personal and
intellectual gentilities.
It is the besetting sin of the majority of our
tourists, that they travel, not as cosmopolites,
but as John (or, if females, as Jane) Bulls, with
all their English prejudices clinging to them, like
burrs. They go to Constantinople, and are dis-
appointed that the Turks do not live after their
own fashion. They go to St. Petersburgh, and
are wroth with the Russians, because their port
is bad, their beef worse, and their opera worst of
all. They go to America, and damn the Yan-
kees, because they have no pride of birth, no
exclusiveness or distinctions of castes, and not an
aristocrat among them all. How well has Shaks-
peare, who understood most things, read the
character of these men, where he says to one of
them, " Prythee, think there are livers out of
Britain !” Mr. Stuart needs no such hint or
flapper. Luckily, he travels in no spirit of pre-
judice or bigotry. He does not damn America
because she is not England ; nor her President
because he is not a King ; nor her Congress
because it is not St. Stephen's ; but looks
at her as she is, and as wise laws in tended she
should be. Again, he does not travel in the
Mundungus spirit. He is neither dyspeptic nor
a misanthropist—or at least if he be, he has the
good sense to keep his spleen to himself—but
shows himself every where the keen, unpreju-
diced, inquisitive man of the world. Good
sense is the predominant characteristic of his
volumes. He has no eloquence or hu-
mour, not an atom of imagination, and as
for powers of description, or a taste for
the picturesque, he evidently knows not what
they are. But his work is valuable, because it is
stamped with the impress of common sense and
truth. He writes as if he were on oath. Not
a fact is stated that has not been diligently
sifted ; not an hypothesis advanced that is not
the result of long and painful meditation.
In justice, however, to our readers, we must
state, that there are no slight symptoms of book-
making in these volumes. For instance, the
stale old stories of Major Andre's execution,
Arnold's treachery, Burgoyne's defeat, and
Adam's first interview with George the Third at
St. James's, are detailed with amazing minute-
ness, just as if every school-boy bad not read
them a thousand times. These are defects, but
they are the only serious ones to which Mr.
Stuartneed plead guilty. We trust in his future
publications he will avoid them, and not write
by avordupoise weight.
Mr. Stuart spent not less than three years in
North America, during which period his atten-
tion seems to have been constantly on the alert.
As lie was quite a glutton of information, he
mixed familiarly among all classes. He ap-
pears, indeed, to have possessed the rare and
enviable art of making himself every where at
home. With New York, where he landed, he
was, of course, delighted. Its inhabitants were
frank, courteous, and hospitable, and the scenery
about it a perfect paradise. And here we may
observe, by the way, that whenever our author
lights upon a rural or romantic landscape, it is
sure to remind him of Scotland. If it is the
coast about New York, then it is the very double
of the Frith of Forth ; if the Highlands of the
Hudson, then it is the fac-sitnile of the Tros-
sachs. So decided is his nationality, that we are
surprised he did not discover that the Mississippi
was a folio edition of the Tweed, and that the
Falls of Niagara bore a family likeness to the
Falls of the Clyde.
On quitting New York, after a brief stay of a
few days, Mr. Stuart steamed it up the Hudson
—whose river scenery Washington Irving has
immortalized in his " Dolph Heyliger”—to Al-
bany, whence he set out for the Falls of Niagara,
and the lakes, or seas, of Canada. His account
of the Falls we, of course, skipped, for the subject
is as hackneyed as a tour to Paris, but were much
pleased with his brief, graphic sketch of Lake
Erie. If he have not the eye of a poet or a
painter, he has at least the calm, good sense of
an experienced traveller, and has just said enough
on a tempting subject, which all tourists in
America have attempted, but in which few have
succeeded.
From the lakes, Mr. Stuart set out for the
Saratoga springs (the Harrogate of the United
States), which, by all accounts, is a most de-
lightful and improving place. Thence he rambled
on to Philadelphia—where he saw Miss Wright,
heard her lectures, and was an eye-witness of
the tolerant spirit of the Americans—Boston,
Washington, Annapolis, back to New York,
forward again to New Orleans, and so up the

Mississippi luta the hcart of the Illinois country, o
which we have the following statistic particulars :

" At about fifteen 'miles to the north-west of Lower
Alton is the mouth of the river Illinois, which gives its
name to the state, and which is the most important river,
having its whole course within one state, in North Ame-
rica. It enters the Mississippi through a deep forest by a
mouth 400 yards wide ; and no river in the western
country has so fine a beatable navigation for so great a
distance, its whole length being about 400 miles, most of it
acces-ible for steam-boats. It was on the banks of this river
that the first French emigrants from Canada, more than
a century ago, fixed themselves, and here was the scenery,
of which they gave so highly coloured descriptions. The
intersection of the State of Illinois by waters is such, that
no settlement can la, made in it far from a point of beat-
able communication,—from Lake Michigan, the Missis-
sippi, the Ohio, the Illinois, the Kaskaskia, the Rock
River, the Wabash, or some of the other smaller rivers
of the state. The state is understood at present to have
4,000 miles of beatable waters, and the Government of the
United States have appropriated 110,000 acres of land
-o the improvement of the navigation of the Illinois river.
The waters of Lake Michigan are on the northern boun-
dary of Illinois, and there are many beautiful lakes in o.e
state, one of which, the Illinois lake, twenty mike; long
and three broad, is remarkable for the fineness of the fish
contained in it. The Kaskaskia river has a course of
between 200 and 300 miles in the state. Vandalia is
situated on the Kaskaskia river. The Rock River rises be-
yond the northern limits of the state. The rich lead mines
of Illinois are on its banks. It enters the Mississippi
above the northernmost part of the military bounty lands.
The Little Wabash has a course of about 130 miles, great
part of it navigable. The great military bounty tract,
reserved by Congress for distribution among the soldiers
of the late war, commences in the neighbourhood of
Lower Alton. It comprehends the north• west corner of
the state,—about 170 miles long and 60 miles broad,—
and is situated between tho rilississippi and Illinois rivers.
This district of country has prodigious advantages ; but a
great part of it, especially the delta of the rivers, is under-
stood to be unhealthy. The soil is extremely fertile, of
the finest and deepest black loam, and much of the prairie
ground is eminently beautiful. In this state, as well as in
Missouri, there are prodigious lead mines, as well as caul
and lime. There is also building-stone in the bounty
tract. The heights above the Mississippi are all of lime-
stone. This is certainly a very inviting part of the state ;
and 1 am very much misinformed if there are not to h.
found in it many situations free from the objection, which
I have stated, of unhealthiness; but as it appears, from
the concurring accounts from various quarters that that
objection applies less to the Sangamon district of country
than to any other part of this state, in which a consider.
able number of settlers have already got grants of land of
the highest fertility, I am more anxious to pursue my tow
through that district. lois, at the same time, worthy of
observation, that large portions of the bounty tract may
frequently be had at a comparatively low price, where pur-
chasers are so well advised as to secure the title they
obtain to their purchases. The title, when given by the
state, is never liable to any objection. The general de-
scription of the State of Illinois is, that it contains 58,900
square miles,—is the fourth state in point of extent in
the union, only inferior in this respect to Virginia, Georgia,
and Missouri, with a general level, not varying above 60
feet,—and that it consists, wilt little interruption, of one
vast prairie of admirable soil, extending from the Missis-
sippi to Lake Michigan. It is the richest country in
point of soil in the world. The French called it the
Terrestrial Paradise."

We are aware that we have left much un-
said, that vie meant to have said, on the sub-
ject of these interesting travels, but our limits
warn us to a close. Suffice then to say, that
Mr. Stuart's impressions are every where, under
every varying circumstance, strongly in favour
of the Americans. He found them frank,
shrewd, hospitable, honest in their dealings as
respects society ; tolerant, but by no means lax,
in all religious matters. One merit they pos-
sessed in perfection, a lofty, sovereign con-
tempt for all aristocratic assumption. There
is no West-end in New York, and as for an
Alm ack's, the honest-hearted Yankees would not
tolerate for an instant such a rank absurdity.

We recommend these volumes to the notice
of all who wish to gain a correct insight into
American manners and character. Perhaps a
little of the couleur du rose is visible here and
there in Mr. Stuart's portraiturea, but this was
absolutely requisite to counteract the flippant
sneers of Captain Hall, and the gross carica-
tures of Mrs. Trollope, which latter traveller
seems to have bees a sort of female " Ccelebs in
search of a" husband, and to have returned home
vexed and disappointed because she could not
find one to her liking. A word more and we
have done. The present volumes are not only
beautifully printed, but are embellished also
with a correct, extensive, and elaborate map.
The very motto (from Johnson) deserves notice:
—" The true state of every nation is the state
of common life." In this spirit Mr. Stuart
writes; and this is the best criticism we know
of on his travels.

THE MINSTREL, AND OTHER POEMS.

LONDON, 1833.

Mr. James Vansotnmer, the author of this
little volume, is evidently a very young man, or
at any rate, a very young author, or he would
scarcely talk as he does, in his preface, about
" influenced by the judgment of private friends,"
&c. &c. Such apologies are too stale and hack-
neyed to bear revival. They went out with the
bag-wigs and the Della-crusca school. Besides,
feels
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which scarcely rise above the safe level of com•
mon-place. But while we pronounce this young
gentleman to be no poet, it would be uncandid
not to give him the praise of being a sweet and
easy versifier. He has great mechanical excel-
lencies, and may pass muster in a drawing-room.
We wish, however, he would not talk so much
about " Diana" and " Zephyr." Why cannot
he write plain, honest, sensible English, like
the author of the " Corn Law Rhymes,"
and say at once, and without any fuss,
" moon," and " wind ?" We hate these stiff,
hackneyed, mythological conceits. They are as
intolerable as an epic in twelve books, with
" Strike up, my muse," or, " Descend ye
Nine," by way of exordium. Among Mr.l
Vansommer's songs we find some sapphics
cleped " Adelaide," which, in order to perfect
the scansion (the dactyl and spondee) of the
fourth line, he is compelled to mangle and
dislocate and dismember in a most cruel and
unwarrantable fashion. We suppose he had
the " Weary Knife-Grinder" in his eye, when he
resolved on this syllabic enormity. His sonnets
are the best portions of his volume.

HUDDERSFIELD MARKET.—There was a
fair stroke of business done on Tuesday last. The stock
now in the Cloth Hall is comparatively small. The new
goods are dearer than the old, owing to the advanced price
of wool : and as wool is still on the rise, prices must be
higher, or sales effected to a los*, profits being r.•duced
already to the lowest scale.—Leeds Mercury.