ENGLISH WOMEN IN AMERICA.*

IF our American friends sometimes object to our comments, they cannot complain that we are indifferent to their proceedings. Already, before the first month of the year is out, two of our country women have reported upon their doings in the most attractive forms of paper and type, and with all the pretensions to popular authorship. Two Englishwomen-who, by the way, are Scotchwomen-have been surveying their scenery, their manners, and institutions, and have justly inferred, notwithstanding our absorption in our own affairs, that the English public would be naturally inclined to hear the last impressions of their American brethren in a less fugitive shape than the echoes of their journals. It is worth observation by Brother Jonathan that these ladies have speculated simultaneously and confidently on a sustained interest in his notions on the part of the English public.

* "The Englishwoman in America." London, Murray;

1856.

"Letters from the United States, Cuba, and Canada." By the Hon. AMELIA M. MURRAY. Two vols. London, J. W. Parker and Son; 1856. [From the Times of Jan. 29, 1856.]

One of these ladies, though permitting herself no improper licence, has modestly withheld her name. "The Englishwoman in America," who, by the way, is not the same person as "The Englishwoman in Russia,” relies simply on the attractiveness of the word "America on her title-page. The other lady is "the Hon. Amelia M. Murray," who is illuminated, either on her own account or that of her publishers, with the motto, "Per aspera ad ardua tendo." The performances of the two ladies are very dissimilar in almost every other respect, but as there are just one or two incidents in which they concur, we will first note their agreements before we pass on to their differences.

They have neither of them apparently seen much of the north-western states, and this will account for a difference between them and Mr. Oliphant (whom we had recently occasion to review), on the subject of the present feeling of the people of the United States towards the English. Miss Murray, in no passage which is easily quotable, implies that this feeling is appreciative, and in the main cordial. The anonymous Englishwoman also intimates that she expected to find a strong anti-English feeling, and that in travelling through the States she was agreeably disappointed. She rarely heard "any other than kindly feelings expressed towards our country. A few individuals would prognosticate failure and disaster, and glory in the anticipation of a 'busting up;' but these were generally 'kurnels' of militia, or newly-arrived Irish emigrants." Some of the papers did, indeed, write against England in terms of which we have exposed

the discreditable inconsistency. But she has heard "Success to Old England" proposed at hotel dinners, and a student asking to join in the toast on behalf of two hundred of his fellows who were present. She has observed with pride the reception of the news of Alma, Balaklava, and Inkermann, and hailed the sympathetic echoes of the guns of Boston at the fall of Sebastopol. She warmly acknowledges these evidences of a common origin and of a common interest in the safeguards of progress, yet not more cordially than we ourselves acknowledge them at this moment.

On another subject, on which our American friends are highly sensitive, these ladies tend, though in a different spirit, to a partial concurrence. The Englishwoman condemns slavery in principle, but admits the difficulty of dealing with it as a fact. She has heard even abolitionists condemn the tendency of exciting pleas for its immediate removal, and acknowledge, for example, that "Uncle Tom's Cabin' had thrown the cause back for many years." The slaves are generally unprepared for freedom, so much so, that "whole bodies of emancipated slaves, after a few days' experience of their new condition, have entreated for a return to servitude." The other lady, who saw more of the southern states, has signalized herself by her eulogy of slavery as an institution. Whatever its advocates have proffered she adopts uncompromisingly. She does not appear to have been a reluctant convert, or even a convert at all, as, even at Boston, at the commencement of her book, she sympathizes chiefly with the vilified slaveholders. But she develops her

predilections for a slave population with remarkable celerity and emphasis as she goes south. She remarks the resemblance of the negro to the monkey; maintains that "Uncle Tom is a myth, but Topsy a reality;" that slaves are a privileged class; that they are proud of their privileges, and despise the d-d niggers without a master;" that, on the other hand, the masters who emancipate only escape from the responsibilities of poor-law guardians, parents, and patriarchal governors; and that slavery, in fine, is a productive instrument designed by Providence, without deference to Mr. Clarkson or Lord Carlisle. As our readers will infer, the lady who professes these opinions collects all the truth and falsehood of a most complicated issue, and heaps them into the scale against, the "pumpkineating Cuffy." We are not about to dispute, or even to discuss her conclusions, which are not altogether and utterly unreasonable, but we simply remark her extreme vehemence in stating them.

With this modified concurrence on the subject of slavery, all resemblance between the lady travellers ceases. The "English woman" appears to have been genial and "well-conditioned," and to have made an excellent use of her opportunities. Her introductions evidently carried her into the better class society of the American cities, and she remarked the habits of other ranks and classes wherever she travelled. Either she was well informed on American topics before she went abroad, or she manifested a laudable industry and judgment in collecting materials to illustrate her observations. So far does this characteristic prevail,

that her volume, though light reading, has here and there the aspect of a manual. It abounds with statistics in a condensed form, and is adapted to convey much and useful information.

At the same time its chief value is its testimony of an eyewitness to American peculiarities; as, for instance, to the luxury and splendour of interiors in the "empire city." As the authoress remarks, it is not the custom for Americans to leave large fortunes to their children; and hence a lavishness of expense on their personal meubles and personal adornment which distances Europe. For her own part, the authoress objects to see costly silks and rich brocades sweeping the Broadway; but "it is very certain that more beautiful toilettes are to be seen in this celebrated thoroughfare in one afternoon, than in Hyde Park in a week." She even grows eloquent on their incidents of colour and material, and on the grace and fascination of their wearers, especially the younger ladies of New York. Of jewelry.she finds such an article as a 5,000-guinea diamond bracelet, exposed for sale in a shop, but that is expected to go south. The northern ladies study variety of ornament rather than costliness or profusion. The evening toilettes of the young are richer than those in England, but they adapt style and colour with unquestionable taste.

For their apartments the authoress has seen suites in the Fifth Avenue and some of the squares of New York "surpassing anything she had hitherto witnessed in royal or ducal palaces at home." One or two of these mansions are described, and they appear