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MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE. 



The Rambler in North America. By CHARLES JOSEPH LA- 

 TROBE. 2 vols. R. B. Seeley and W. Burnside, London. 



EVERY reader who remembers Mr. Latrobe's " Alpenstock," " South 

 African Visitant/' and his " Pedestrian Tour/' will open this work with 

 raised expectations. Few books have been written on America, which 

 adequately describe either her people or her scenery ; and still fewer, 

 which speak fairly and discriminately on the perishing ' Red Men/ 

 Mr. Latrobe has supplied us with a desideratum, and two pleasanter 

 volumes, whether as regards matter or manner, have not lately passed 

 under our notice. From this praise, we must indeed except some of the 

 early portion of the first volume. Our author accompanied Washington 

 Irving on his visit to the Prairies, which he has lately so well described; 

 and as long as he remained in Geoffry's company, he appears to have 

 been doubtful of putting forth his own original "Sayings and Doings ;" 

 fortunately for the reading public, Irving left the party, and Mr. Latrobe 

 and Count Pourtales were left to themselves, and here begins the un- 

 flagging interest of the work : why it should have done so we know not, as 

 there is a fund of quiet humour and fine feeling about Mr. Latrobe, 

 which makes him independent of his friend. 



Our author's remarks upon " men and manners" in America, are 

 marked by courtesy and good sense, as rare as it is just. No words of 

 ours can convey the disgust with which we have read more than one 

 book on this subject. " America," says Mr. Latrobe, " feels, and with 

 reason, that justice has not always been done her in essentials, and by 

 Britain in particular. She knows there has been a spirit abroad having 

 a tendency to keep the truth and her real praise away from the eye of 

 the world, shrouded behind a veil of coarse ribaldry and detail of vul- 

 garity, which, if not positively untrue, were at least so invidiously chosen, 

 and so confirmatory of prejudice, and so far caricature as applied to the 

 people as a mass, as almost to bear the stigma of untruth. She has felt 

 that the progress made in a very limited period of time, and amidst many 

 disadvantages, in reclaiming an immense continent from the wilderness, in 

 covering it with innumerable flourishing settlements, her success in the 

 mechanic arts, her noble institutions in aid of charitable purposes, the 

 public spirit of her citizens, their gigantic undertakings to facilitate 

 internal communication, their growing commerce in every quarter of the 

 globe, the indomitable perseverance of her sons, the general attention 

 to education, and the reverence for religion, wherever the population has 

 become permanently fixed, and the generally mild and successful ope- 

 ration of their government, have been overlooked, or only casually men- 

 tioned ; while the failings, rawness of character, and ill-harmonised state 

 of society in many parts, the acts of lawless individuals, and the slang 

 and language of the vulgar, have been held prominently forward, to excite 

 scorn, provoke satire, and strengthen prejudice. * " * 



" Causes of dissatisfaction and disgust will always be discovered by the 

 seeker, whoever and wherever he may be. There is no wit in de- 

 scribing as peculiar to America, that which is common to all the world. 

 As to coarseness and vulgarity of mind and manners, it is not, that 



