discriminate in abuse, and superficial in thought, was regarded as an authority, it is easy to perceive how the inimical feeling toward this country was fostered. One fact alone indicates the shallowness of Ashe: he dates none of his complacent epistles from the Northern States, and gives, as a reason therefor, that they are "unworthy of observation." He thinks the social destiny of Pittsburg redeemed by a few Irish families settled there, who "hindered the vicious propensities of the genuine American character from establishing here the horrid dominion which they have assumed over the Atlantic States." He finds the men deteriorated on account of their "political doctrines," which, he considers, tend "to make men turbulent citizens, abandoned Christians, inconstant husbands, and treacherous friends." Here we have the secret of this traveller's sweeping censure. His hatred of republican institutions not only blinded him to all the privileges and merits of American life and character, but even to certain domestic traits and professional talents, recognized by every other foreign observer of the country. Yet, palpable as are his injustice and ignorance, contemporary critics at home failed to recognize them. One says, "his researches cannot fail to interest the politician, the statesman, the philosopher, and the antiquary;" while the Quarterly Review mildly rebukes him for having "spoiled a good book by engrafting in redible stories on authentic facts.” Rev. John Bristed, who succeeded Bishop Griswold in St. Michael's Church, at Bristol, R. I., published, in 1818, a work on "America and her Resources." He was a native of Dorsetshire, England, and, for two years, a pupil of Chitty. Strong in his prejudices of country, yet impressed with the advantages of the New World, his report of American means, methods, and prospects, though containing much useful, and, at the time, some fresh and desirable information, is crude, and tinctured with a personal and national bias, which renders it, superseded as most of its facts have been by the development of the country, of little present significance. It is, however, to the curious, as an illustration of character, a suggestive indication of the state of feeling of an English resident, and of the state of the country forty or fifty years since. The author was a scholar, with strong convictions. He died at Bristol a few years since, at an advanced age. He also published "A Pedestrian Tour in the Highlands," in 1804. His work on America was the result of several years' residence; and its scope, tone, and character are best hinted by the opinion of one of the leading Reviews of England, thus expressed soon after its publication: "We cannot avoid regarding Mr. Bristed with some degree of respect," says the London Quarterly. "In writing his book, his pride in his native country, which all his republicanism has been unable to overcome, has frequently had to contend with the flattering but unsubstantial prospect with which the prophetic folly that ever accompanies democracy has impressed his mind, to a degree almost equalling that of the vain people with whom he is domiciled." As an authentic landmark of economical progress, this work is useful as a reference, whatever may be thought of its social criticism. An entire contrast to the record of Ashe appeared about the same time, in the "Travels through the Northern Parts of the United States," by Edward Augustus Kendall. No previous work on this country so fully explains the State polity and organization of New England, and the social facts connected therewith. "The intention of travel," says the intelligent and candid author, "is the discovery of truth." As unsparing in criticism as Ashe, he analyzes the municipal system and the social development with so much knowledge and fairness, that the political and economical student will find more data and detail in his work than, at that period, were elsewhere obtainable. It still serves as an authentic memorial of the region of country described, at that transition era, when time enough had elapsed, after the Revolutionary War, for life and labor to have assumed their normal * "Travels through the Northern Parts of the United States, in the years 1807-'8," by Edward A. Kendall, 3 vols. 8vo., New York, 1809. development, and before their scope had been enlarged and their activity intensified by the vast mechanical improvements of our own day. The local laws of Connecticut, for instance, are fully discussed; townships, elections, churches, prisons, schools, and the press-all the elements and principles. which then and there manifested national and moulded private character. The famous "Blue Laws" form a curious chapter; and, in his account of the newspaper press, he notes the remarkable union of "license of thought with very favorable specimens of diction," and enlarges upon the prevalent "florid and tumid" language in America, its causes and cure; while his chapter on Hartford Poetry is an interesting illustration of our early local literature. Scarcely any contemporary writer of American travels was more quoted and popular, sixty years ago, than Isaac Weld, whom the troubles of Ireland, in '95, induced to visit this country. That experience, we may readily imagine, caused him thoroughly to appreciate the importance of practical observations in a land destined to afford a prosperous home for such a multitude of his unfortunate countrymen. Accordingly we find, in his well-written work,* abundance of economical and statistical facts; and the interests and prospects of agriculture and commerce are elaborately considered. While this feature rendered Weld's Travels really useful at the time of their publication, and an authentic reference subsequently, his ardent love of nature lent an additional interest to his work; for he expatiates on the beauties of the landscape with the perception of an artist, and is one of the few early travellers who enriched his journal with authentic sketches of picturesque and famous localities. The French translation of Weld's Travels in America is thus illustrated; and the old-fashioned yet graphic view of an “Auberge et voiture publique dans les États Unis," vividly recalls the days anterior to locomotives, so suggestive of stage-coach adven *"Travels through the States of North America and the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, in 1795-'96-'97," by Isaac Weld, illustrated with fine engravings, 4to., 1799. · 44 tures, deliberate travel, and the unmodified life and character of the rural districts. In describing the sanguinary attacks of New Jersey insects, he deals in the marvellous, giving Washington as authority that the mosquitos there bite through the thickest boots. No writer on America has more singularly combined the political refugee and adventurer with the assiduous economist than William Cobbett. Born and bred a farmer, he fled, while a youth, from the peaceful vocation of his father, to become a soldier in Nova Scotia; but soon left the service, visited France, and, in 1796, settled in Philadelphia, where the fierce tone of his controversial writings involved him in costly libel suits. His interest in the political questions then rife in America is amply evidenced by the twelve volumes of the works of Peter Rorcupine, published in London in 1801. Returning to England, he became the strenuous advocate of Pitt, and started the Weekly Register, which contained his lucubrations for thirty years; but, having once more rendered himself amenable to law by the combined freedom and force of his pen, he returned to the United States, and enjoyed the prestige of a political exile in the vicinity of New York; and when the repeal of the Six Acts permitted his return home, he conveyed to England the bones of Thomas Paine, whose memory he idolized. Cobbett is recognized under several quite distinct phases, according to the views of his critic as a malignant radical by some, a philosophical liberal by others. His style is regarded as a model of perspicacity; and his love of agriculture, and faith in habits of inexpensive comfort and cheerful industry, made him, in the eyes of partial observers, quite the model of republican hardihood and independence; while the more refined and urbane of his day shrank from his vituperative language and bitter partisanship. He slandered the benign Dr. Rush, and Bentham declared "his malevolence and lying beyond everything;" while Kent remarked that his political writings afforded a valuable source of knowledge to those who would understand the parties and principles which agitated our country during his sojourn; and the London Times applauded the muscular vigor of his diction. But it is as a writer on the economical and social facts of American life, that Cobbett now claims our notice; and in this regard he differs from most authors in the same sphere, in the specific character of the information he imparts, and the deliberate conclusions at which he arrived. Some of our venerable countrymen remember his pleasant abode on Long Island, and the memorable discussions which sometimes took place there between the political exile, reformer, grammarian, and horticulturist, and his intelligent visitors from the city. The late Dr. Francis used to quote some of his emphatic sayings, and describe his frugal arrangements and agricultural trophies. In the preface to his "Year's Residence in America,"* Cobbett complains of English travellers as too extreme in their statements in regard to the country-one set describing it as a paradise, and the other as unfit to live in. He treats the subject in a practical way, and from patient experience. Enamored of a farmer's life, he boasts that he was "bred up at a ploughtail and among the hop gardens of Surrey," and that he was never eighteen months "without a garden." He expatiates on the superior condition of the agricultural class in America, where "a farmer is not a dependent wretch," and where presidents, governors, and legislators pride themselves on the vocation. He describes his own little domain, the American trees he has planted around his house, his experiments in raising corn, potatoes, and especially rutabaga. By "daily notes" he carefully reports the transitions of temperature and seasons, and gives definite accounts of modes of cultivation, the price of land, cost of raising kine and poultry; in a word, all the economical details which a practical man would prize. By the narrative of his own doings in the vicinity of New York, and of his observations during a journey to the West, the foreign reader must have obtained from Cobbett the most satisfactory knowledge of the mate *"A Year's Residence in the United States," 3 vols., 8vo., London, |