Litchfield enquirer., 1864-07-14
Robert Dale Owen.

I a This person, a son of the notorious infdel, 8 Robert Owen, has recently addressed Circu. t lar letter to newspaper Editors generally-som of whom have published it-which letter is in ) fact. a new form of advertisement for book
 entitled The Wrong of Slavery, the Right oi
 Emancipation, and the Future of the African Race in the United States" The book seems to have been compiled by Owen in his capaci' r ty of Govetnment Commissioner appointed for i the purpose of investigating and reporting or :, the subject indicated by the above title, more : or less: and if his facts are true, his opinions sound. and his prophetic visions rational, the } book may be valuable addition to the mass that has already been published on the Slave
 topic.
 , The letter referred to, is prompted nominal ly by the action of MT. Salisbury of the U. S Senate, who, on a question of printing the re- port of Owen, objected to the printing on ac. , count of what he considered the worthless. , ness of Owens religious opinions" Owen
 thinks the Senator's |" reason insufficient" He says that in days gone by, when document r came before legislative body containing facts,
 law, opinions, etc., it was lot customary to ac ccpt or reject it according to the orthodoxy of
 its author Y statement that might, perhaps pass unchalenged if the word opinions had
 b.cn omitted
 The ground of the Senator's objection to
 Owens religious opinions seems to be his, the
 Senator's, estimate of a previous work by Ow-
 cn, entitled "Footfalls on the Boundary ol Another World'--on which title, enc may re.
 mark in passing, that it is painful, and
 therefore not happy, imitation of Hugh Mil Ter.
 How far the book justified the action of the Senator, any reader of the book can judge for , himself; but probably everybody has not had the opportunity or the patience 80 to read, notwiths landing the Circular Letter herein Clted-whlch IS " a first rate notice" both of
 the book '' which now is and of that which IS
 to come"
 The book that now is-Footfalls, etc. to wit
 -elaborates the matter of " ultra mundane
 phenomena :'' in more popular language, It
 'cuts fat into spirtuaIism and if its "facts' may be accepted as literally true, Mir. Senator
 Saulsbury had better withdraw his objections aforesaid.
 But are the facts true.
 l Here is one of lhem which occupies some twelve pages of the book, and which is per- fectly fair sample sample of what the author believes, and what the Senator is inclined to doubt
 Robert Bruce, in the year 1928, was first
 pfn nf hpr1 LaA,,,
 New Brunswick. One day, Robert was ab. sorbed in working up day reckoning in the F cabin; and on looking at the captain tor .for
 the captai.,,) who, few minutes previously,
 had been similarly employed, he saw an utter stranger writing something on slate, and then staring at Robert Such thing hap pening on board small vessel six weeks at
 sea, was well calculated to startle Robert, and
 Robert accordingly made straight wake for the deck in double-quick." In reply to the Captains question about the matter" Rob- F ert told his experience. The two descended to
 the cabin and found nobody there but what
 was, perhaps, more to the purpose, they found } on the slate, in hand writing unknown to t any one on board, these words: "Steer to Me
 Noraoest' After overhauling every nook and
 corner of the bark, and ascertaining that no ] stranger was on board, the Captain ordered a r Northwest course to be made, and in few hours the bark came in sight of vessel en.
 tangled in an iceberg, the crew of which yes. se were in distress. The sufferers were taken , on board of the bark, and among them, lof course,l Robert plainly identified his man
 the stranger to wit, who had been writing on the slate. And not only soj the stranger, on being asked to write on the other side of the same slate the words Steer to the Nor west, i" ! did nd inn, obx q
 the writing on both sides of the slate was iden- ticaly the same. Further investigation prov ed the counterpart of the story. The Captain
 of the distressed vessel certified that at the
 very hour when Robert said he saw the stran.
 ger in the cabin of the bark, the stranger was dreaming of being in that very cabin of that very bark, as the dreamer on awaking had
 stated"-and 50 forth.
 !, On all of which, Owen remarks: "The
 above narrative was communicated to me by
 J. $. Clarke of the schooner Julia Hallock, in July, l859," [only thirty one years after the occurrence,"1 who had it directly from Mr.
 Bruce himself. about eight years after the oc-
 currence." II asked Captain Clarke" con
 tinues Owen, "what sort of man Bruce
 was?" And Captain Clarke replied, "As
 truthful man as l ever met. He always
 spoke of this circumstance in terms of revsr ence, as Of all incident that seemed to ping
 him nearer to God and to another world. I'd
 stake my life upon it, that he told me no lie"
 Tastes will differ. So. also, opinions. Some
 people may think that MT. Salisbury, in the
 matter at issue, has the best of it. Others
 may think that Owen has the worst of it. For our own part, we reserve our opinion. P. S.-We forgot to state that Owen states that the Captain Clarke aforesaid allowed
 him. Owen, to use his, Clarkes, name in the
 manner he did use it," and to refer to him
 Clarke, as evidence of the truth of Bunce's
 statement" That settles the point.
 WHERE THE LAUGH COMES IN.-Some years
 ago. countryman came into lawyers office
 in Court Square, and said to the lawyer:
 Squire Nat Streeter shaved me dreadfully yesterday, and want to come up with him.
 'Waal, asked him how much he would