MISS MURRAY'S LETTERS FROM THE UNITED STATES, CANADA, AND .CITBA.. *
THESE volumes by the Honourable Miss Murray evidently are what they profess to be—letters written home on the spur of the moment, during upwards of a twelvemonth's extensive tour in Canada and the United States, with a visit to Cuba: She tra- velled, as may be supposed, with good introductions' which led to other introductions, so that she had every social advantage. Lord Elgin, Governor Seymour of New York, President and Mrs. Pierce, with lesser Governors, Bishops, Professors, and other no- tables, stud her pages. Miss Murray appears to possess several accomplishments of use to $ tonrist,--drawing, botany, geology. She is also a good traveller, bearing well the long journeys that are the custom in America, roughing it in the South and West as far as Texas with less complaint than some lords of creation indulge in over smaller hardships.
The book does not support the expectations that might be raised from the advantages and qualities of the writer. For a short cut to sights, or (Nod society, or with a view to special objects, letters of introduction are of great service they do not contribute much to incidents of travel, or to facilities of observation upon the nines of people ; they are likely to give rise to undue influ- ence, and induce tourists to see things from the point of view whence interested parties desire they should look. Miss Murray's accomplishments are rather those of the amateur than of the profes- sor or student ; so that, as she deals chiefly with names in her bo- tanical and geological excursions, her references to those sciences are bald : the general reader of a book of travels feels no interest in being told that such a plant grows or was gathered in such a place. The larger results of botany and geology as shown in the features of the country are not sufficiently impressed, especially in the dismal swamps of Florida, and indeed throughout all the country between the 'Southern boundary of Carolina and New Orleans or the Red River of Texas. It may be true that the Americans travel a great deal at night to save time ; but this does not alter the effect upon the reader. The printing of the work from the unrevised letters themselves preserves an air of freshness, but it is the means of crowding the pages with many trifling particulars. Manners and slavery are the two best topics of the book. Not that Miss Murray is particularly on the watch for mere behaviour, and she is far too sensible and experienced to attach value to mere convention • but she seems to be more possessed, as it were, by manners and domestic life. Her conclusions are in favour of the South. She found there more nature, simplicity, and real refine- ment, without affectation and finery. In the more Northern States, Massachusetts and New York, especially New York, the ob- jects and happiness of life are too much sacrificed to display. Dress and an appearance of fragility are the great objects of the lady. She takes little or no exercise ; she has none of the domestic em- ployments, or literary, artistic, or scientific pursuits, that more or less furnish some occupation to the educated classes of England.
• Letters from the United States, Cuba. and Canada. By the Hon. Amelia M. Murray. In two volumes. Published by Parker and Son.
Of course there are many exceptions to this, especially in Massa- chusetts ; but too much affectation of delicacy still obtains there. Elderly ladies have assured Miss Murray that the ill-health of American women is less owing to the climate than to their mode of dress and living. As you proceed inland and towards the West, the politeness of the cities degenerates into rudeness. This is from an hotel at Niagara.
" For the first time, I felt rather angry at the impertinent kind of curi- osity evinced by passers-by while I was drawing because they did not seem to care the least about disturbing or annoying strangers busily engaged. A well-dressed woman said, in a rude way, ' Pray,' what are you making there ? You are a Ctmadian, I guess ? ' I replied, I am making nothing ; I am trying to draw." Oh, you are ?—how do you do it ? Where do you come from ? ' I felt provoked, and said, ' I am sure you are an American.' ' Well, how do you know that . " Because you ask so many questions : a Canadian would be more civil.' This answer was effectual, and she turned away.. Since my stay here I have observed more of unpleasant manners, as I have read of them in books, than fell in my way during my tour from supposed Boston in August ; and certainly, among the secondary classes, I see little of the marked attention sup 'to be shown to ladies in the States. Last night, in the ladies' saloon ere, two gentlemen kept possession of the most comfortable arm-chairs all the evening ; and when Miss C— and I entered the room, round which was a circle of strangers from various localities, not one among them rose to offer us seats ; so we walked out again up and down a corridor till some of these people absquattdated. - This might be accidental ; but I do not think it could have occurred in the Old Country. It seems to me that the Americans mistake rudeness for republicanism, and incivility fr. independence ; nationally, I mean, for of course there is polished so- ciety, as I have been perfectly ready to admit. Yesterday, a lady from one of the Southern States remarked, that we 'English still owed America a grudge for what was past.' I could not help assuring her she was mistaken, for that neither man, woman, nor child in the British Isles, now troubled themselves about the war of American Independence, except to think their ancestors unwise for having fought about it. The day before yesterday, I was busy making a little sketch from the verandah, when I felt a hand fa- miliarly laid upon my shoulder. Of course I supposed it was a lady with whom I had some acquaintance ; but when a strange voice asked a question I turned round—it was with no small degree of astonishment that I found the liberty was taken by a perfect stranger, a young lady, apparently about twenty, who had been one of the last arrivals. She did not seem the least daunted by the expression of surprise which must have passed over my face, but went on questioning me with the coolest manner imaginable. The In- dians and their squaws have the manners of gentlemen and lathes; and it does seem curious that even individuals among a people who are so anxious to assume the names of gentility should remain so wholly ignorant of the manners which are supposed to indicate a superior station and a refined edu- cation. I do not the least quarrel with the simplicity of the bush ; ancIthe poor woman who took possession of the pattern of my gown, and the men who claimed a right to my sketch-book, were most welcome ; but the mix- ture of assumption of high breeding with inattention to the common rules of politeness not even that natural feeling of regard Which a common Anglo-Saxon blood originates, can make one excuse."
Here is a contrast in the first glimpse of Solithern -manners. "Yesterday, I saw two of the prettiest and best-appointed houses in this place, [Baltimore,] both fitted up in good taste, but without the extreme extravagance and ostentation I remarked in som'e of the residences of the Northern States. Here, for the first time, I see nothing but Black servants —slaves, I believe - but their manner and countenances express content- ment and cheerfulness ; and certainly the relation of mistress and servant in the South has a more agreeable -aspect than that of the same station in the Northern States, which is commonly characterized by complaints of annoyance upon one side and a saucy indifference upon the other. The dinner-party at Mrs. W—'s was agreeable and I mot there several pretty Southern ladies ; their voices and way of speaking struck me as more re- fmed and graceful than those of the other States I have visitefl. Among 'some of them, too, I find more just views of England and English society—at least among those of Baltimore. Further on, I understand, there is uni- versal prejudice and an embittered tone of feeling, arising partly from fa- mily recollections of the severities practised by the English Government and military in the struggle for independence, and partly from the well- intentioned but ill-judged interference of the present English generation about the Slavery question."
We intimated the influence that letters of introduction are likely to have in the manner of regarding certain things. This influence seems to have had an effect on Miss Murray with re- spect to slavery. She left England apparently an Abolitionist. Her opinions so changed during her travels, that a friend who had undertaken to edite her letters declined the task before the whole were completed. It is only natural that a lady who left England with vague, abstract, or Abolitionist notions of slavery, should have her opinions modified when she saw the natural gayety of the Negro race developing itself among household ser- vants or urban slaves, when she witnessed the patience of goodnatured masters or mistresses with the carelessness and childish minds of their people, or saw in the well-conducted plantations of highly respectable friends the bright side of the mstitution. But Miss Murray has turned as Southerly as the South. She justifies everything. The following picture is from Georgia, on the plantation of Mr. Cooper ; but all is painted with the same pencil.
"I cannot find myself dull with this pleasant family : yesterday we did all sorts of things, just as I should have done among my own belongings in England. We cooked, and drew, and studied natural history. It has given me pleasure myself to pick up some interesting fresh-water and land shells in the rice-ground ; then I like to hear all about the Negro weddings—how the young ladies make the cake, Sce. dm ; and I was amused by an account of one little Topsy, who could not resist cents when they fell in her way : her mistress thought that by giving a few to her to take care of she might be brought to some idea of mine and thine ; but when the pence were asked for, they had vanished. With a sad face the child said, 'All gone ; some- body tiefed from me.' Soon afterwards she said to one of the Negro girls, 'Me very sorry, me could not help ; me tiefed from myself.' It is not often the Blacks of this country are dishonest, but they sometimes reason in this way : ' I belong to mosso, all mosso has belongs to me ' ; and there is some clilleulty in preserving onions or fruits, because they are thought to be com- mon property : they fish, and trap, and catch game ; and if guns were al- lowed them, everything would be destroyed. The only security for fish and game is, keeping the ' darkies ' *ell employed;, and such is their feeling to- wards their master, that in some cases where freshets have put his crops in danger, they have worked freely eighteen hours out of the twenty-four for three weeks, to save them—more then they would have done for themselves in such a case. The thanks of Mr. Cooper, and a few little presents, make them quite happy: they are devoted servants, and miserable free people. This fact it is impossible to state toe often or too decidedly. The CSvator of men formed them for labour under guidance, and there is probably a Pro- vidential intention of producing some good Christian men and women out of it in time. We have been blindly endeavouring to counteract this in- tention."
There is much more to the same effect ; but beyond the fa- miliar behaviour of waiters at hotels or domestic servants, and some idle boasting of slaves who depreciated free "Niggers," the facts mostly resolve into stories at second-hand, with some appa- rently Southern Joe Millers : the opinions seem evidently in- stilled by conversation or pro-Slavery writings. That many of the charges against the slaveholders are exaggerated or gene- rally false, we believe ; and that those who rail at them do not point out a practical mode of safely abolishing slavery, is true. The facts that hounds are kept to hunt down Negroes, that women are bred and sold for licentious purposes, that Southern feeling in reference to the "institution" induces the most unjustifiable acts of tyranny and violence against persons who merely differ with them in opinion, and that the existence of slavery creates a feeling of lawlessness and bloodthirstiness in many Southerns, cannot be • shaken by a lady's short and partial survey with other people's glasses. Neither is Miss Murray satisfied with uphold- ing slavery as an established evil difficult to remove ; she defends it as a necessary, beneficial, and indeed Providential institution.
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