BEVTEWS — LETTERS FBOH THE UNITED STATES, ETC. 161 



peculiar institutions through a special pair of his own rose-colored 

 spectacles ; must needs become the rage ; and so here we have it 

 presented to us, as prepared for the American palate, with, it is to 

 be feared, a most ungrateful disrespect for the fair champion's rights 

 of authorship. 



The book is just such a lively, heterogeneous melange of news, and 

 gossip, and hasty illogical deductions, as any intelligent lady-traveller 

 might be expected to communicate to her friends at home ; but it 

 was certainly not worth the sacrifice which its author has incurred 

 by extending its perusal beyond the partial and admiring circle for 

 whom it was originally written. It does not even pretend to any 

 preparation for the press, but abounds with such epistolary addenda as : 

 " Lord Elgin tells me this is the day for letters to go, so I must con- 

 clude hastily;" or again, " I have not any time to read over what I 

 have written, therefore repetitions are probable, &c." We shall not 

 therefore seek to break the flimsy gossamer-wings of this ephemeron 

 on the critical wheel, but content ourselves Avith a chance extract or 

 two to show the character of its mottled plumage. 



Some of our Authoress's themes lie a little beyond our legitimate 

 editorial province ; for she discusses Canadian and American politics 

 with both freedom and picquancy ; depicts our late Governor, Lord 

 Elgin, as the patient, placable and good tempered dry-nurse of that 

 awkward, and alarmingly vivacious baby : Toung Canada ; and draws 

 pen and ink sketches of its public characters in this free fashion, — 

 not omitting names, which we shall take leave to do : " * * is a 

 singularly wild-looking little man, with red hair, waspish and fractious 

 in manner — one of that kind of people who would not sit down con- 

 tent under the Government of an Angel. He has evidently talent 

 and energy, but he seems intent only upon picking holes in other 

 men's coats!" "With like easy nonchalance she nocks off a portrait 

 gallery of the Court and Parliament at Quebec in September, 1854, 

 sufficiently amusing, and not without its value, as showing what her 

 opinions may be worth on other matters requiring a little deeper 

 insight. 



It is obvious that Miss Murray by no means approves of hastily 

 formed opinions — at least in others, — the pleasant way in which she 

 sets the authoress of of " Uncle Tom" right on the "peculiar Insti- 

 tution" is truly edifying. " Had Mrs. Stowe" — says this patient and 

 pains-taking observer, in one of her chance leisure moments, — " lived 

 for some months among the institutions and the people which, in 

 Uncle Tom, she thoughtlessly, perhaps not intentionally vilified, she 

 would have used, not misused her undoubted talents !" and she thus, 



