424 



EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



REVIE-W. 



EUROPEAV AGRICULTURK AND RURAL ECONOMY. 



From Personal Observation. By Henry 

 CoLMAN. Boston, A. D. Phelps & Co. Parts 

 I to VII. (To be completed in ten numbers. 

 $5.) 

 We look upon Mr. Colman's mission, as 

 one of the strongest evidences of the zeal and 

 intellijrence now enlisted in behalf of as^ri- 

 culture, in the United States. That the mere 

 announcement, that a gentleman devoted to 

 its interest, proposed to make a personal in- 

 spection of European Agriculture, and give 

 the results, should so readily have brought 

 forward a list of twenty-Jive hic7idred snhscri- 

 bers to a work of the kind before us — a 

 work that, in this country of cheap literature, 

 is a somewhat dear work — we consider a 

 substantial evidence of a spirit of inquiry 

 existing among us, that will by-and-by pro- 

 duce its proper results. 



There are two points of view, from which 

 we are inclined to consider Mr. Colman's 

 mission — the first, as it affects us on the 

 other side of the Atlantic, and the second, 

 as it affects us at home. 



Any one who has a glimmering of politi- 

 cal sagacity, may see, at a glance, how, in 

 spite of that unfortunate stigma of repudia- 

 tion, (which, like a youthful folly, we trust 

 we shall yet soon recover from,) the impor- 

 tance of our union, in a political, commer- 

 cial, and agricultural sense has very lately 

 forced itself more profoundly upon the un- 

 derstanding of all clear thinking men abroad. 

 From considering us as a mere liberated 

 colony, a fourth rate nation, mostly living 

 in log houses, and semi-civilized in cus- 

 toms, a few years have obliged Europeans 

 to observe that there is a moral, intelligent, 

 and physical weight in America, which 

 bears hard upon that " balance of power" 

 that has so long kept the old world at the 



bottom of every thing wise, and great, and 

 powerful. 



This is a desirable state of inter-national 

 opinion for us, and we cannot but think that 

 the presence abroad, of such men as Ed- 

 ward Everett, Louis M'Lane, and Henry 

 CoLMAN, has contributed in no small de- 

 gree, towards bringing it about. How 

 well and fitly the national character has 

 been represented in England, by our two 

 late ministers at the Court of St. James, is 

 a matter of world-wide notoriety. Now 

 the events of the last two years have drawn 

 the attention of our fellow men on the other 

 side of the Atlantic, to our condition and 

 resources, as an agricultural people, no less 

 strongly than in purely political aspects. A 

 countr}^ whose vast and productive grain fields 

 hold " the balance of food,^^ when famine 

 stares a fourth of the human family in the 

 face, is, in the estimation of sensible men 

 in the nineteenth century, at least as im- 

 portant in its influence on the destinies of 

 the race, as one which, a century ago, could 

 overspread the face of Europe, with the 

 mightiest army, and bring into the world 

 the most overwhelming death and destruc- 

 tion. There is just now, more disposition 

 in Europe to make acquaintance with the 

 merits of Indian corn, than cold steel or lea- 

 den bullets ; and for the sake of humanity, 

 and the good cause of American Agricul- 

 ture, we heartily rejoice at it. 



Mr. Colman, we cannot but think, is, 

 on the whole, a worthy representative of 

 our most intelligent agricultural class. He 

 went abroad under the most favorable aus- 

 pices, his heart full of his subject, and his 

 trunks crammed with the best letters of in- 

 troduction. He has accordingly enjoyed 

 the best opportunities in Great Britain. He 



