Haverhill is written by a man of talent, and will
repay the trouble of perusal. It is spirited and enthusiastic in its vein, and abounds in curious views of life, picked up, we should think, in a very rambling course of experience. We know not whether Mr. JONES is a British or an American subject : he is chiefly familiar with the New World ; all he says of Europe seems the observation of but a transitory visitor. His former work on the Indians of North America, which we read with great pleasure and profit, proved that much of the author's time had been spent in the neighbourhood of Hudson's Bay. The present work takes us over New England, Canada, and the West Indies, with the familiarity of a man who had passed his life among these countries. The officer of WoLrE's army begins life as a fisherman's son, who plies his dangerous trade on the very tip of Cape Cod. His lowly state neither precludes him from the possession of superior qualities, nor exempts him from ambition and aspiring love. His affection for a young lady in his neighbourhood leads him to the acquirement of education, and ultimately sends him to seek his fortunes far away from his native cabin. Young Haverhill is about setting out on this expedition, when he is one day, with his three brethren, tempted to seek his fish too far out at sea; a storm comes on, and the boys are driven out of their reckoning. We are treated with scenes similar to those which follow the shipwreck in Don Juan. Madness and imbecility seize the party : Haver- hill, the hero of the novel, is the sole survivor; and he, falling into the track of the British expedition against Canada, is taken aboard, introduced to the principal officers of the expedition, and, after some very absurd dialogues between WoLFE and the admiral of the fleet, on the comparative advantages of the naval and military services, is finally presented with an ensign's commis sion. In an ambush he is taken by the Indians ; escapes from his captivity, and falls into the hands of the French in Quebec, who are on the point of hanging him for a spy. He is however reserved to conduct his General ti;rthe heights of Abraham : in finding his way from Quebec, he hits upon the identical Wolfe's Cove which enables the General to lead his army through the very narrow path which leads the conquerors to the plains above. The ensign—now captain and aid-dc-camp—is, of course, the witness of WOLFE'g death-wound, and, jumping upon a stone, describes the movements of the hostile forces in the field, for the benefit of the dying hero, and also for that of the reader. After WOLFE and the army in Canada are duly despatched, Haverhill is sent off with the news of the fate of Quebec. Circumstances cause his remaining for some time in Jamaica ; where he falls in with a slave rebellion, and runs through a series of the most improbable adventures that were ever put down in print-buke. The best part of the work is undoubtedly the first volume : it contains numerous and interesting scenes of domestic life in New England, which, though dated before the American war, continue, we have no doubt, to this day a close resemblance.
The following extract contains a lively description of some of the rude pleasures of a new country : it reminds us of some of the very clever passages in COBBETT'S book on Indian Corn, a work full of rural delights. "I have mentioned duck-shooting as a favourite sport of the New England people; nearly allied to it is the characteristic 'shooting-match,' where large numbers of keen and practised sportsmen' assemble—often- times from a distance of ten or even fifteen miles, to contest the palm of shooting. Until near mid-winter, the object contended for is a fat turkey or goose,—later, a half crown, or its double, is usually the prize. You shall sometimes see thirty or forty young men assemble : ' Jucket and Sogg, from Assawomsit ; Doty, from Scragg Neck;' ' Phipps, from Beaver Dam,' &c. &c.—the Russian Court Guide shall be nothing to it for hard names. The turkeys, geese, or whatever are the objects contended for, belong to him who makes the match: "Upon a perfectly level field is placed a board, upon which a figure re.. se:nbling, and about the size of, a turkey or goose, is chalked out, and into some part of this figure the shooter must throw a bullet. This, it must be remarked, is for a smooth bore' gun ; for a rifle, he will be re. quired to hit the neck, or it may be a round 0, about the size of a crown, in the centre of the figure. The distance the object is placed from the shooter varies—when a rifle is to be used, thirty rods is the usual distance; when a smooth bore, from sixty to eighty yards. The shooter is gene- rally allowed to 'rest his piece,' that is, to take aim with the muzzle of his gun resting upon another's shoulder, or upon a cross rail fixed up for the purpose. Each pays so much for permission to shoot once. "When the report takes place, the noise and hubbub which ensue baffle description—it is confusion worse confounded. Great numbers of boys are always in attendance ; and, besides, ragamuffins and blackguards congregate there as surely as Shylock's merchants did on the Rialto. If the shooter has deposited his bullet within the ring, or ideal object, he takes his choice of the turkeys, or geese, or whatever else he has been contending for. Another pays his shot,' and succeeds—to lose, or tei win and wear his prize, like his predecessor ; and so on till the whole are disposed of, or the insufficiency of the company to 'kill' them is proved. In the mean time, whistles having been pretty well wet' (an Americap phrase for drinking), 'lots of fun' abound; wrestling-matches take place;
and sometimes, a milling-match or two is got up from the remains of an old and unadjusted quarrel. These sports are by no means honourable to the character of New England, and were always lamented by the wise and prudent, whose influence was, however, not great enough to effect their suppression.
Another amusement of the lower classes is found in what are called I huskings.' The occasion is this. When the maize, or Indian corn, becomes ripe and fit to be gathered, notice is given that, ' on such or such a night, Mr. Johnson or Mr. Smith will have a husking.' Mr. .1. or Mr. S. go to work, and gather in their corn, which is deposited, on a clean piece of sward, unhusked, i. e. unstripped of its leaves, in rows of greater or lesser length, nicely rowed up. Upon the stated night, at about seven or eight o'clock, crowds of young men and boys begin to assemble from far and near, coming sometimes- fifteen miles to take part in the frolic. Tney labour in stripping the husks from the ears of corn till the whole is finished, which may be eleven or twelve o'clock at night. As the labour is not of a nature to compel them to be silent, and as rum is circulated profusely, you may be sure that a noisier crowd is seldom seen out of the halls of Momus. Songs, generally profane and indelicate, shouts, Indian war-whoops, sounds in imitation of the barking of dogs and crowing of cocks, interspersed with the rough ' yo heave ho's ' of the sea—every thing that can make discord, except drums, trumpets, blunderbusses, guns, and thunder '—arc to be heard by a listener upon one of those oc- casions. If there is a poor negro present, he is sure to have the devil and all played upon his black carcass.' Poor old Cesar ! How have I seen thee pelted with ' rotten ears,' which came from so many different places at once, that it was utterly impossible to charge the offence upon any particular person, or to say, as Nathan said to David, ' thou art the man. I can almost fancy, now, when forty years have passed, that I hear the sound, ' Now for the nigger!' Hit the white of his eye, Bill!' ' Aim for his teeth, John Grey I" Fire high, Bluster !' and the poor creature's complaining outcries—.' Dere ! side a head, Massa Lynn!' ' Oh, dear, hit de nigger on he's tummuck !" Blieve dey killa me !' &c. Sec. But Cesar was always paid, and overpaid, before the company separated. He was feasted till he could feast no longer ; his own language was, Swear I nebber eat so much afore.' Money, too, was showered in profusion upon him ; every one who fancied he had hit him gave him a penny; and, as all were anxious to be thought to excel in this kind of shuttlecock, Cesar usually went home the largest proprietor of copper in the parish.
"When the corn was all husked, dancing, drinking, and feasting, the bait which had been held out to collect the company together, began, and continued, without intermission, till daylight. I should have mentioned, that many of the rustic beaux brought their girls upon pillions behind them, so that there was the admixture and proportion of the sexes requi- site to a well-ordered dance. A custom which usually created a little commotion, deserves to he mentioned. Whoever, in husking, found cars of red corn, or who could get others to give them to him, was entitled to claim from the girls a kiss for each and every one he held. The penalty was always demanded, and, as ladies are the last to abrogate good old cus- toms, it was always paid—unwillingly they said, but, nevertheless, they paid it. The ' Nabby, now, shan't I?' and the No, I vow you sha'nt, Phil,' ring in my ears even while I am writing. "There was another festive meeting of the young women of the lower class, which produced a call upon bachelors, and ended in a dance. This was a ' quilting frolic,' the beginning, and ending of which was in this wise. We will suppose a case, in which thc custom shall be exemplified. Prissy Dexter, a very pretty village belle, very naturally wishes to be married; and knowing that nothing is so attractive to a New England bachelor as the prospect of ample protection from cold weather, she re- solves that they shall see a specimen of her industry, and a proof of her preparedness for matrimony, in the shape of a quilt of as many colours as the garment in which Jacob arrayed Joseph. She makes one, and sends for all the prettiest young girls of her acquaintance to come and help her quilt it. They come—soon after dinner, and make their little fingers fly, like the pickers in a cotton-machine, until it is finished. In the mean time, the young men of the set' have been ap- prized of the intended frolic, and come, bringing with them a fiddler and abundance of cheap liquors and wines. They see, they admire the quilt, and a thousand rough jokes, as to who will be the first to sleep under it, piss and are applauded. Dancing then commences, and continues until half-past nine or ten o'clock, when they separate. This practice is only in use in the country, and among the lower classes.
"But the prime occasion for mirth and merriment is the session of the county, or court of inferior judicature. This in our county was the months of November and May. The holding of the courts of justice is deemed a very important matter in America, and draws together greater crowds than any other cause. Large as the counties are, sometimes forty or fifty miles square, crowds from every part of it flock to the place where the court is held. It is not alone for the transaction of the legal and or- dinary purposes of judicature that they assemble, it is a kind of burse where bargains of various kinds are entered into, and outstanding ac- counts of a pecunTary and not unfrequently of a personal nature are settled. Here old friendships are renewed, old quarrels amicably or sci- entifically terminated—but the purposes and achievements are innumer- able and indefinite.
"The New England people are not a litigious people, at least they were not forty years since, and seldom go to law ; probably quite as much from a fear of the expense which attends it, as from natural placability, and disposition to avoid wrangling and contention. I must do my coun- trymen the justice to say, that there are fewer lawsuits going on in their civil courts, and fewer returns of ' a true bill' to indictments in those of criminal jurisdiction, than in any country I am acquainted with. Not but that occasionally there is an action for assault and battery, or for a trespass of cattle upon insufficient enclosures. Murders may not happen once in twenty years; highway robberies never ; and theft is so untre- quent, that you shall scarce hear of a docket that supplies a couple of cases in half a dozen years—at least I know such was the state of the country forty years ago. What it is now I cannot say, not having been
in that part of the country since 1784. I had then never heard of an ac. tion for crim. con. in New England. Upon the whole, the docket is usu- ally so lean, that were there a law made to send the lawyers out of the country, it could, I am convinced, be cleared in a day, as well as the three usually devoted to a term.
" Court-time' is a holiday in New England, and is always honoured with a very full attendance of its lieges. It is spent, by those who are not actually engaged in court, in the employments before enumerated, or in wrestling, horse-racing, and the usual extravagances of men who meet for no other purpose but fun and merriment. Usually, more cri- minal offences are enacted during term time than in the three months preceding it, that is, the court makes more mischief than it mends ; I believe, a not unusual circumstance.
"In the November term of the year 1758, several cases came on for trial, which excited a snore than common degree of curiosity, and at-
tracted larger crowds than usual—it was, upon the whole, a 'Black Mon- day' term. The calendar was reckoned a very interesting one. One case which attracted considerable attention, and created a deal of talk, was
this sailor, by name Jack Saunders,-1 like to he particular ; the doing so stamps an air of credibility upon your narrative, for it passes the capability of human impudence to invent such a thing as a name,— Jack hired a horse to go from our village to Pinfold, across Wapping's Creek. Saunders had been drinking a little too much; and, while cross- ing the creek, which had been swollen by recent rains, the horse, which was a very restive one, threw him, and he was drowned. The horse was arrested and tried for murder, but was acquitted, from want of testimony that he did the act from malice prepense ! It was maintained,—out of' doors, however,—I never heard what the judge's opinion was, that an in. dictment for homicide could have been sustained. It was pretended by some, that the whole proceeding was a piece of waggery on the part of the gentlemen of the bar, to expose the ignorance of jurors, and their incompetency to the duty of sitting in judgment on the lives and pro- perty of their fellow-creatures." Our opinion of 1-1«verkill is, on the whole, favourable; mingled, however, with regret that the author did not work upon a better plan. There are some most absurd remarks on criticism and critics at the end of the book, which only display the author's ignorance of the world of literature and criticism.
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