1827.] 



Domestic and Foreigit. 



189 



were wretched copies of the modern English his- 

 torical school, diversified by a display of various 

 portraits, one worse than the other, chiefly of 

 florid citizens in white neckcloths, and coats with 

 bright metal buttons. We were much surprised 

 that so trumpery an exhibition should be an object 

 of admiration in Philadelphia, which is one of the 

 most polished and enlightened cities in the United 

 States. 



Arrived at New York, he was most hos- 

 pitably received staying 1 there several 

 days. If the men were rough and coarse, 

 he found them also cordial, frank, and 

 open ; no liars, as they are represented ; 

 a little inquisitive perhaps, and some- 

 times impertinent. But the women were 

 charming so easy and natural and their 

 conversation and demeanour marked by 

 the strictest propriety. His friends take 

 him to the episcopal church the fashion- 

 able place of worship to shew him, he 

 says, the principal inhabitants. Upon this 

 he takes occasion to remark, with an " I 

 am sorry to say," that, in America, reli- 

 gion seems, as far as he has observed, to 

 form but a secondary consideration. The 

 reader recollects how much the lieutenant 

 has seen of America. When at New York, 

 he could have been but two Sundays on 

 shore. " The laxity of their notions upon 

 this subject," he proceeds to say, " may 

 perhaps be attributable to the circum- 

 stance, peculiar to the United States that 

 of their not having an established religion. 

 One of the highest offices," he adds, "is 

 filled by an Unitarian ; and so unlimited is 

 religious toleration in this country, that 

 all American citizens are eligible to that 

 exalted station, whether Christian, Jew, or 

 Mahometan :" all which evidently does 

 not square with his prepossessions-, but 

 his extreme youth may very well excuse 

 this flippant and confident prattle. 



Before leaving New York, he surveys 

 the dock-yards, admires the Ohio carrying 

 102 guns, &c., and then discusses the 

 state of the American navy generally. 

 The sum of his doctrines, backed by the 

 arguments of one Mr. Haliburtou, an 

 American, who had just written a pam- 

 phlet on the subject, is, that America can 

 never become a, great naval power the 

 chief reasons of which are, that she already 

 finds a difficulty in manning her navy, 

 and that, while the population increases, 

 the line of coast cannot increase ; and, 

 besides, the new settlements are all re- 

 mote from the coast, and foreign from 

 naval habits. 



From New York he embarks for Boston, 

 furnished to beguile the way with a 

 copy of " Woodstock," which had been 

 printed (he says), and sold, in forty-eight 

 hours after the arrival of the English edi- 

 tion : the price was 3s. 3d. At Albany 

 he got iuto a stage, which was to reach 



Boston, 160 mites, in three days -a 

 wretched vehicle, without springs; the- 

 roads rough the passengers equally so 

 and accommodation, particularly for sleep- 

 ing, abominable. Arrived at last, he was 

 amply compensated for his miserable jour- 

 ney by the hospitality of the place, and 

 the beauty of the ladies the Lancashire 

 witches of America; rosy cheeks now 

 come again and dark eyes, we suppose. 



From Boston he embarks in an English 

 steam-packet for St. John's, New Bruns- 

 wick, and is happy to find himself once 

 more under British colours ; takes a peep 

 at St. John's; misses the packet, which 

 crosses the Bay of Fundy to Windsor, in 

 Nova Scotia ; but gets a passage in a 

 schooner, and narrowly escapes being 

 wrecked. At Windsor he is delighted to 

 meet with British customs again ; and has 

 his eggs and bacon by himself, snug, in a 

 comfortable clean parlour so different 

 from the tables d'hote of America. From 

 Windsor he has but forty-five miles to go 

 to Halifax, and here finishes his journey 

 and leave of absence. 



But now to see the luck of some men 1 

 He had debated between the dock-yards 

 of America, and the Falls of Niagara. Had 

 he chosen the Falls, he had probably never 

 seen New York, Boston, or the ladies; 

 Very soon after his return, in the course 

 of service, he went up the St. Lawrence, in 

 his Majesty's ship Jupiter, as far as Que- 

 bec ; from" which place his " kind friend," 

 the admiral, made a party to the Falls, 

 and in which he was included. Of these 

 now well-known Falls, he has given an 

 animated and distinct description. But we 

 have no space to accompany him farther, 

 and can only quote his account of what is 

 called an ice-boat, which he saw on the 

 shores of one of the Canada lakes : 



It is about twenty-three feet in length, resting on 

 three skates ; one attached to each end of a long 

 cross-bar, fixed under the fore part; and the re- 

 maining one to the bottom of the rudder, which 

 supports the stern of the vessel. Her mast and sail 

 are similar to those of a common boat. Being 

 placed on the ice when the lake is sufficiently 

 frozen over, she is brought into play. Her pro- 

 perties are wonderful, and her motion is fear- 

 fully rapid. She can not only sail before the wind, 

 but is actually capable of beating to windward. It 

 requires an experienced hand to manage her, par- 

 ticularly in backing, as her extreme velocity ren- 

 ders the least motion of the rudder of the utmost 

 consequence. A friend of mine, a lieutenant in the 

 navy, assured me that he himself last year had 

 gone a distance of twenty-three miles in an hour ; 

 and he knew an instance of an ice-boat having 

 crossed from York to Fort Niagara (a distance of 

 forty niiles) in little more than three-quarters of 

 an hour. This will be readily believed, when we 

 reflect on the velocity which such a vessel must 

 acquire when driven on skates before a gale of 

 wind. These boats are necessarily peculiar to the 

 lakes of Canada. 



