540 Monthly Review of Literature. 



the country. How on airth could we, if we were all like old Pugnosc, as 

 lazy, as ugly, make that cold, thin soil of New England produce what it does ? 

 Why, Sir, the land between Boston and Salem would starve a flock of geese ; 

 and yet look at Salem, it has more cash than would buy Nova Scotia from 

 the king. We rise early, live frugally, and work late ; what we get we take 

 care of. To all this we add enterprise and intelligence : a feller who finds 

 work too hard here, had better not go to the States. I met an Irishman, one 

 Pat Lannigan, last week, who had just returned from the States ; why, says 

 I, Pat, what on airth brought you back ? Bad luck to them, says Pat, if I 

 warn't properly bit. What do you get a day in Nova Scotia ? says Judge 

 Beler to me. Four shillings, your lordship, says I. There are no lords here 

 says he, we are all free. Well, says he, I'll give you as much in one day as 

 you can earn in two : I'll give you eight shillings. Long life to your lord- 

 ship, says I. So next day to it I went with a party of men a-digging a piece 

 of canal ; and if it wasn't a hot day, my name is not Pat Lannigan. Pre- 

 sently I looked up and straightened my back : says I to a comrade of mine, 

 Mick, says I, I'm very dry : with that says the overseer, we don't allow gen- 

 tlemen to talk at their work in this country. Faith, I soon found out for my 

 two days' pay in one, I had to do two days' work in one, and pay two weeks 

 board in one; and at the end of a month, I found myself no better off ia 

 pocket than in Nova Scotia ; while the devil a bone in my body that didn't 

 ache with pain ; and as for my nose, it took to bleeding, and bled day and 

 night entirely. Upon my soul, Mr. Slick, said he, the poor labourer does 

 not last long in your country; what with new rum, hard labour, and hot 

 weather, you'll see the graves of the Irish each side of the canals, for all the 

 world like two rows of potatoes in a field that have forgot to come up." 



Samuel Slick's opinions on many other points of Colonial manners and 

 legislation are very shrewd and ingenious ; but the reader must peruse them 

 in the book itself. The following are some of his views about Great Britain : 



THE IRISH AND THE ENGLISH. 



" The Irish never carry a puss, for they never have a cent to put in it. They 

 are always in love or in liquor, or else in a row ; they are the merriest shavers 

 I ever seed. Judge Beler, I dare say you have heerd tell of him he's a 

 funny feller he put a notice over his factory-gate at Lowell, ' No cigars or 

 Irishmen admitted within these walls ;' for, said he, the one will set a flame 

 agoin among my cottons, and t'other among my galls. I wont have no such 

 inflamable and dangerous things about me on no account. When the British 

 wanted our folks to join in the treaty to chock the wheels of the slave-trade, 

 I recollect hearin old John Adams say, we had ought to humour them ; for, 

 says he, they supply us with labour on easier terms, by shippin out the Irish. 

 Says he, they work better and they work cheaper, and they don't live so long. 

 The Blacks, when they are past work, hang on for ever, and a proper bill of 

 expense they be ; but hot weather and new rum rub out the poor-rates for 

 t'other ones. 



" The English are the boys for tradin with : they shell out their cash like 

 a sheaf of wheat in frosty weather ; it flies all over the thrashin-floor ; but 

 they are a cross-grained, ungainly, kicken breed of cattle, as I een a most 

 ever seed. Whoever gave them the name of John Bull, knew what he was 

 about, I tell you ; for they are bull- necked, bull-headed folks, I vow ; sulky, 

 ugly-tempered, vicious critters, a pawin and a roarin the whole time, and 

 plaguy onsafe unless well watched. They are as headstrong as mules, and as 

 conceited as peacocks. 



" The astonishment with which I heard this tirade against my countrymen, 

 absorbed every feeling of resentment. I listened with amazement at the per- 

 fect composure with which he uttered it. He treated it as one of those self- 

 evident truths, that need neither proof nor apology, but as a thing well-known 

 and admitted by all mankind. 



