The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1854-08-09
RICHMOHD, Va,
WEDNESDAY MOANING. AUGUST ., 1854.
MRS. STOVES NEW BOOK.

Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, authoress OF
Uncle Toms Cabin, has favored the public
with another book, Sunny Memories OF Fo-
reign Lands, " in which the American Lioness
entertains the world with an account of the
innumerable titled and ecclesiastical lions
with whom she herded for awhile in the Brit
ish Isles. The recollections of the caresses
she received from her "betters'' in England
appear to be very sunny memories" with our
plebeian authoress, and she is not unwilling
that they should be kept fresh in the minds
of the American public. In reading her book
we become quite intimate with earls and Ia
dies, dukes and dutchesses, so much so that
we are in danger of indulging that contempt
which is the offspring of too great familiarity,
Here Lord Shaftesbury leads Aunt Harriet
down to dinner and there the Archbishop of
Canterbury offers his arm and shows her
over Lambeth Palace. The ordinary digni-
taries of the English and Scottish Church
flock about her in crowds, and the untitled
literati rush at her in an admiring mob. There
are only two drawbacks from the felicity of
her entree to aristocratic circles, which, how
ever, do not appear to have suggested them
selves to the mind of Mrs. Stowe. One is,
that negroes were invited to meet her, and in
this rare drama of low life above stairs, were
as much the petted guests of the aristocracy
as herself; and another was, that the consid-
Grafton she received was purchased at the ex-
pense of treason to her native land. 1t was
only because Mrs. Stowe had maligned the
institutions of her country that she received
peculiar marks of British favor. If the re-
collection of aristocratic smiles thus pur-
chased are "sunny memories to this woman
we feel obliged to assign her position in the
moral scale considerably below that of Bene-
dict Arnold. He obtained rank and money
by joining the enemies of America, but he
had the decency to despise himself from the
hour of his treason till the last foul breath he
drew. He never boasted to mortal man of
the reward of his infamy. Mrs. Stowe is not
so sensitive. a-
At Lord Shaftesbury's, the letter of Mrs.
Tyler to the ladies of England was the sub
ject of conversation, and Mrs. Stowe was
asked if she supposed Mrs. Tyler really wrote
it. "I told them," was the reply, "that 1 had
heard it said, that it must have been written
by some of the gentlemen in the family be-
cause it was generally understood that Mrs.
Tyler was very lady-like person" Mrs.
Stowe intended to be vastly severe, but her
satire unfortunately does not rise above ill
nature. ~
1t is all right and lady-like in the opinion
of Mrs. Stowe that the ladies of England
should write an impertinent letter to the la.
dies of America, but the dignifed and just
rebuke of an American lady was very unlady-
like-that is, it was unlike the ladies of Stat
ford House, who are the models of Mrs.
Stowe in good breeding and good taste. A
person who could purchase the favor of En-
glish aristocrats by sneering at the vindica-
ton of her country by true hearted Anne
rican woman, must have nature as servile
as the most degraded negro slave. The cen
sure of such person is a compliment to be
coveted.
Mrs Stowe perhaps does not need to be in.
formed that the question has been often asked
whether she was really the author of " In
Gle Toms Cabin,' but, though anegativere
ply has been often given, we must do her the
justice to say that it has never been denied
on the ground that she was a lady-like per
son.