308 LIFE AT DOWN. ^ETAT. 33-45. [1845. 



would be with most (though I have literally seen not one 

 soul since reading it) regret at there not being more of the 

 non-scientific [parts]. I am not a good judge, for I have 

 read nothing, /. e. non-scientific about North America, but the 

 whole struck me as very new, fresh, and interesting. Your 

 discussions bore to my mind the evident stamp of matured 

 thought, and of conclusions drawn from facts observed by 

 yourself, and not from the opinions of the people whom you 

 met ; and this I suspect is comparatively rare. 



Your slave discussion disturbed me much ; but as you 

 would care no more for my opinion on this head than for the 

 ashes of this letter, I will say nothing except that it gave me 

 some sleepless, most uncomfortable hours. Your account of 

 the religious state of the States particularly interested me ; I 

 am surprised throughout at your very proper boldness against 

 the Clergy. In your University chapter the Clergy, and not 

 the State of Education, are most severely and justly handled, 

 and this I think is very bold, for I conceive you might crush 

 a leaden-headed old Don, as a Don, with more safety, than 

 touch the finger of that Corporate Animal, the Clergy. What 

 a contrast in Education does England shew itself! Your 

 apology (using the term, like the old religionists who meant 

 anything but an apology) for lectures, struck me as very 

 clever ; but all the arguments in the world on your side, are 

 not equal to one course of Jamieson's Lectures on the other 

 side, which I formerly for my sins experienced. Although 

 I had read about the ' Coalfields in North America,' I never 

 in the smallest degree really comprehended their area, their 

 thickness and favourable position ; nothing hardly astounded 

 me more in your book. 



Some few parts struck me as rather heterogeneous, but I do 

 not know whether to an extent that at all signified. I missed 

 however, a good deal, some general heading to the chapters, 

 such as the two or three principal places visited. One has 

 no right to expect an author to write down to the zero of geo- 

 graphical ignorance of the reader ; but I not knowing a single 

 place, was occasionally rather plagued in tracing your course. 



