130 REVIEWS THE ENGLISHWOMAN IN AMERICA. 



observed botii in the old and the new States of the Union, And here 

 is a hvely and piquant illustration of the vein of humour with which 

 the graphic pen of our authoress sketches off some of those racy en- 

 counters which every traveller in the New World must occasionally 

 experience. As it is a sketch of British Colonial life and enterprise, it 

 may serve as a taste of that species of traveller's tales, respecting our- 

 selves, which has excited so much ire when applied to our neighbours 

 across the border, 



I cannot forbear giving a conversation m hich took place at a meal at this Inu, 

 [The Waverly House, St. John, New Brunswick,] as it is very characteristic of 

 the style of persons whom one continually meets with in travelling in these 

 Colonies. ' I guess you're from the Old Country V commenced my vis-d-vis ; to 

 which recognition of my nationality I humbly bowed. ' "What do you think of us 

 here down east ?' ' I have been so short a time in these provinces, that I cannot 

 form any just opinion.' ' Oh, but you must have formed some ; we like to know 

 what O.ld Country folks think of us.' Thus asked, I could not avoid making some 

 reply, and said, 'I think there is a great want of systematic enterprise in these 

 colonies ; you do not avail yourselves of the great natural advantages which you 

 possess.' ' Well, the fact is, old father Jackey Bull ought to help us, or let us go 

 off on our own hook right entirely.' ' You have responsible government, and, to 

 use your own phrase, you are on your own hook in all but the name.' ' Well, I 

 guess as we are ; we're a long chalk above the Yankees. Though them is fellers 

 as thinks nobody's got their eye teeth cut but themselves.' 



The self-complacent ignorance with which this remark was made was ludici'ous 

 in the extreme. He began again. " What do you think of Nova Scotia and the 

 ' Blue Noses ?' Halifax is a grand place, savely !" " At Halifax I found the best 

 inn such a one as no respectable American would condescend to sleep at, and a 

 town of shingles, with scarcely any side walks. The people were talking largely 

 of railways and steamers, yet I travelled by the mail to Truro and Pictou in a 

 conveyance that would scarcely have been tolerated in England two centuries ago. 

 The people of Halifax possess the finest harbour in North America, yet they have 

 no docks and scarcely any shipping. The Nova Scotians, it is known, have iron, 

 coal, slate, limestone, and freestone, and their shores swarm with fish, yet they 

 spend their time in talking about railways, docks, and the House of Assembly, and 

 end by walking about doing nothing." 



"Tes," chimed in a Boston sea-captain, who had been our fellow-passenger from 

 Europe, and prided himself for being a "thorough-going dowu-easter." "It 

 takes as long for a Blue Nose to put on his hat as for one of our free and enlight- 

 ened citizens to go from Bosting to New Orleens. If we don't whip all creation 

 it's a pity ! Why, stranger, if you were to go to Connecticut and tell 'em what 

 you've been telling this 'eer child, they'd guess you'd been with Colonel Crockett." 

 " Well," I proceeded, in answer to another question from the New-Brunswicker, 

 " if you wish to go to the north of your province, you require to go round Nova 

 Scotia by sea. I understand that a railway to the Bay of Chaleurhas been talked 

 about, but I suppose it has ended where it began ; and for want of a railway to 

 Halifax, even the Canadian traffic has been diverted to Portlar.d." 



