BOOKS.

WHITE BED BLACK.* Mn. in Mits. PULSZKY attended Kossuth through his American progress, and these volumes are the result of their observation ; Mrs. Pulszky presenting a narrative in the form of extracts from a diary, and her husband contributing graver descrip- tion or disquisition. The journey was not made under circum- stances the most favourable for calm or critical investigation. For the greater part of the time the travellers were living in a constant turmoil; passed from one bear-leader to another, and accompanied by troops of shouters and starers, who scarcely left the strangers time to sleep, till even Kossuth himself was worn out by playing the "nation's guest." From the nature of the ease the minds of the travellers were necessarily under a bias. Those parts of the coun- try which gave the warmest welcome to the Hungarian orator and his " cause ' were naturally scrutinized with a kinder gaze than those which exhibited doubts or reserve ; though this welcome was little more than the indulgence of a love of excitement and display, of small reliance in time of need, and, it would seem, not always

to be depended upon even for the payment of a tavern-bill.

"Every coterie claimed a separate speech ; and the result was that Kossuth had to address the big people' of Cincinnati at a banquet, and others again at 'Nixon's Hall,' and then the ladies, and the Northern Germans, and the Southern Germans, and the fashionable public at large' and the lower classes at large, and likewise the inhabitants of Covington, the suburb of Cincin- nati, on the Kentucky side.

"But this was not the only consequence of the want of homogeneity in the population of Cincinnati. Kossuth several times requested the members of the committee to allow that he should himself bear his own expenses, and that the appropriation made for his entertainment by the City Council, which had invited him, should be given to the Hungarian fund. The committee- men declined to comply with his desire; it seemed to them mean to do it. We left Cincinnati, and Mr. Coleman, the lessee of the Burnet House, the splendid hotel in which we had been accommodated, presented his bill to the City Council ; but the Council, divided in the same way as the population, reduced the bill first by one-third, and then—repudiated the claim altogether, though the arrangements were entered into by their own members, who had been authorized to do so. I do not know whether Mr. Coleman recovered Ins claim, but I know that nowhere in the United States did we find an establishment better kept or an attendance better regulated than here."

In addition to the adverse circumstances already alluded to, the whole party generally moved in a hurry ; so that they had little time or opportunity for close or quiet observation. It is not wonderful, therefore' that Mr. Pulszky enters upon historical re- sumes and statistical matters, which those who care for them are already familiar with; or that Mrs. Pulszky occupies herself a good deal with "particulars of American manners and habits, which often strike English travellers," notwithstanding her husband, in a smartly-written preface, expressly repudiates any care for such trivial things as cookery, modes of eating, and so forth. The won- der is, that, hurried, worried, and hampered as they were, they found time to note so much, which if not ementially new can bear repetition ; and that, surrounded by circumstances inducing par- tiality, they are really upon the whole so impartial. The travellers saw the entire Atlantic length of the country from Boston to New Orleans ; and, crossing the .Alleghanies from Harris- burgh to Pittsburgh, they visited the great commercial cities of the West, but did not penetrate beyond the frontier line of settle- ment. Their observations on the West and the South are the full- est and most substantial. In the Northern and Eastern States they had little leisure, and they were fooled to the top of their bent. Observation is limited to the obvious and well-known or to the mere externals of society, or is pretty much overlaid by lus- cious panegyric. The scanty population and the smaller facilities of locomotion in the newer States, left the travellers more to them- selves, or at least gave them more opportunity to look about them and to converse on general topics. In the South, it is said, the "peculiar institution" renders the planters conservative, aristocra- tical, and averse to revolution. Kossuth's journey in the Slave States was not so much of a triumphal progress : the gentry were friendly, the people in towns occasionally enthusiastic, but the State rarely appeared as host; all which things probably sharpened cri- ticism. The West was even more boisterous than the East in welcomes and wordiness ; but these came when the travellers had had enough. The rude independence, with a want of social refine- ment, seems to have made a greater impression on the minds of our travellers than they would admit to themselves. Despite the prefatial disclaimer we have quoted, the necessary roughness of Western life startled them more than it has done many English travellers ; though the excitement attendant upon the presence of the Governor, as Kossuth was always called, might render some of their peculiarities more conspicuous. Continental in opposition to English habits probably made Mr. and Mrs. Pulszky more sen- sitive to a coarseness different from Hungarian coarseness. Of the writers' admiration and regard for America there can be no doubt. We question whether their book will be received very favourably by the Americans. There is plenty of panegyric ; but a good deal of it is individual ; and though on such topics as American material progress, freedom, and power of self-govern- ment, there is no lack of ample praise the praise is tempered-by a good deal of criticism. In a very judicious estimate of Washington, —which, however, might have been written in Europe,—his military character is not only treated lightly, but even his battles are thought little of. With minds teeming with reminiscences of the archi-

• White Red Black. Sketches of Society in the United States, during the Visit of their Guest. By Francis and Theresa Fulszky. in three volumes. Published by Trabner and Co.

tectural features of the German towns, and that taste for art which slaves.. No social intercourse on the basis of equality is possible with them, distinguishes Continental peoples beyond the British or Americans, the American artistical displays receive hard measure. The Capitol of Washington is found wanting, and the Crescent City fares no better. "The landing-place at New Orleans is magnificent ; a fo- rest of masts and ehimnies towers over the river. But the city it- self does not answer to its reputation of little Paris ; it is more like a provincial town in France, badly paved, badly drained, badly kept." English travellers often complain of the mode of eating and the table behaviour in America : so do our Hungarian tourists. But john Bull is mostly silent about the French dishes--perhaps because he thinks them all right, whatever may be his own esti- mate of their flavour. Mrs. Pulszky was down upon their attempts at French cookery; and both husband and wife occasionally hit the national sensitiveness.

"I cannot accustom myself to the Western fare in the hotels and on the boats. Instead of giving a few cleanly-prepared plain dishes, the table is covered with dainties, with jellies and creams, ices, French sauces and sweets, —a most unfortunate attempt to match English with French cooking, with- out the rude cleanliness of the first or the savoury refinement of the latter. But the passengers obviously do not care how the dishes taste, provided that they sound well on the bill of fare, satisfied to find on it everything they could command at the Cafe de Paris or the Freres Provenceaux. They are fond of the idea that America is the first country of the world, even as respects the culinary art. Even the water looks unpalatable : it is the Mississippi water, with all the mud of its bottoms dissolved by the melt- ing snow.

"'How do you like America, sir ? Is it not a great country ?' said a gen- tleman to Mr. Pulszky. " 'Of course it is,' was the answer.

" Have you found anything here which fell short of your expectation ?' " ' Your political institutions arc admirable,' replied Mr. Pulszky ; your people are enterprising and energetic; but after all, there is nothing per- fect under the sun.'

" 'Well, sir, what can you object to ?' continued the American, a planter, who probably wished to open thus a discussion on slavery. Mr. Pulszky took up his glass, and said : "'For instance, I object to the mud in the Mississippi water which you drink.'

"'Sir,' retorted the American, it has been chemically analyzed and com- pared with the waters of other rivers, and it was ascertained that the Ganges as well as the Nile contain several per cents more of animal matter than the Mississippi.'

" 'I have every regard for the sacred rivers of the Hindoos and the Egyp- tians,' said Mr. Pulszky ; yet I am ready to give the palm to your Father of Rivers. Only I do not see why the mud of the Himalaya and of the Abys- sinian mountains should justify you in drinking the mud of the Western prairie. Don't you know here the use of filters ?' "'Sir,' exclaimed the American, indignantly, how should we not ?'

" Then why do you not filter your water ?' asked Mr. Pulszky. "Without hesitating one moment, the planter replied—' We are such a go-ahead people that we have no time to filter our water.'"

A public levee at Indianapolis ; with an English fish out of water.

"In the afternoon we reached the capital of Indiana ; a very small place, whose resources are not yet sufficient to provide for drainage and pavement. The aboriginal mud of the rich soil reminded me here of the streets of De- breezin.

"We proceeded to the hotel, whilst the gentlemen were paraded through the streets and introduced to the Le„,aislature. The hotel is very far from nice, and the attendants seem to be fully aware that everybody here is to do his own business. For example, when I was in a hurry to dress for the levee of Governor Wright, and asked for a light, the waiter brought two tallow candles, put them in my hands, and, pointing to the mantelpiece, he said, 'There are the candlesticks '—and left the room.

"We went to the house of the Governor; it is small, and I soon perceived why it is not so comfortable as it could be. In thronged the society and people of Indianapolis, ladies and gentlemen of every description ; muddy boots and torn clothes, and again desperate attempts at finery ; glass jewels and French silk dresses, which after having found no purchasers in New York have been sent to the West. Some of the mothers had their babies in their arms; workmen appeared in their blouses, or dusty coats, just as they came from the workshop; farmers stept in in high boots. Once more we saw that the house of the Governor is the property of the people. And yet this incongruous mass did not behave unbecomingly to a drawingroom there was no rude elbowing, no unpleasant noise or disturbing laughter,— had they but shaken hands less violently ! I yet feel Western cordiality in my stiff arm. "Madame Kossuth found the heat so oppressive, that, accompanied by Mr. Pulszky, she went to the adjoining room. A waiter was there arranging the table for supper. He looked so different from the society in the drawing. room, that Mr. Pulszky asked him whether he had not come from the Old Country.

" 'Yes, sir,' said the waiter ; came from Worcestershire.' " 'Do you like this country ?'

"'Sir,' was the answer, 'how could I like it ? I lived in the old country, and have there served lords. As soon as I have made here so much money that I can live quietly in Worcestershire, I shall return.'" The following specimens of the aristocracy of colour are not from the South, but from the Empire City of New York. "Is it true that the Governor has received a deputation of Coloured per- sons ? ' I was asked by a gentleman. I answered that I had heard of such a delegation having called on him.

"'But you do not mean to say that he saw them ? ' continued Mr.

"I expressed my astonishment at the doubt, as I could not understand how Kossuth, whose door was open to any one interested in the cause he pleaded, should shut out people because they were Coloured. But my re- mark seemed to be quite as strange to the gentleman as his opinion appeared to me. To see Coloured persons in a dmwingroom, was obviously an offence against a prejudice of the aristocracy of Colour, as deeply-rooted as the horror of high-born Continental ladies for those whose pedigree cannot prove a range of sixteen noble ancestors. I could not refrain to tell Mr. —, as a pa- rallel case, that one of those exclusive ladies in Vienna, who often was m want of money, and found herself obliged occasionally to receive a banker who transacted her business, had her drawingroom fumigated as often as that gentleman left it. She found the aristocratic air of her drawingroom was polluted by the breath of low-born persons who were mere bankers. "But the American could not find out the parallelism of the case, and thought it monstrous that the relation of Whites to Whites should be coin- - to the relation of White men, free and equal, to Coloured persons of an inferior race, slaves themselves, or at least the sons and descendants of

even in the Free States.

"But it is not only the White man who looks down upon the Black : from the dark Mulatto to the hardly tinged Quadroon, every lighter shade claims a grade of preeminence, acknowledged by the full Black and the White. A Mulatto girl sewed for me in the hotel, and I soon remarked that one of the Black waiters attended on her with uncommon courtesy, and brought her for her dinner every dainty the kitchen and the cellar afforded, as if ordered by us. I thought this extravagant, and told it to the housekeeper ; who ex- claimed, The bad girl, to degrade herself so far as to accept attention from a Black fellow !' This, then, was the great error ; not that she had accepted a bottle of champagne, to which she had no right, but that she had accepted it 'from the Black fellow.'"

There are many judicious remarks on political and social questions, especially on slavery. In Mr. Pulszky's opinion, the Fugitive Slave Law will be found a mischievous compromise, be- cause its tendency is to force the evils of slavery upon the atten- tion of the masses in the Free States in a personal and embodied shape.

Mr. Pulszky's estimate of the American feelings towards Eng- land is not flattering.

" A certain section of the English people is very much mistaken in their estimate of the feelings of good-will towards them across the Atlantic. They are a cool and calculating people, and seeing their commercial interests inter- woven with those of the States so tightly that they cannot be severed without a fatal injury to the financial prosperity of both countries, they listen with pleasure to their occasional guests from the American commercial States, who, in their after-dinner speeches, so emphatically announce the good news of an everlasting friendship between the great Republic and the mighty Con- stitutional Monarchy. The English of the Manchester school too easily for- get that nations are ruled not only by the gospel of Bentham and the reve- lations of Adam Smith, but also by other passions, by sympathies and anti- pathies not less powerful in their results than the love of lucre. Antipathy against England is deeply rooted in the heart of the Americans. Planted by religious communities-,--Puritans, Roman Catholics, Quakers—who had to leave their home in order to escape the oppression of an intolerant Church, the Colonies were forced into a long-protracted war by the encroachments of the Central Government. The barbarous Indians on the frontiers were in- cited against the peaceful settlers of the West; the expansion of the States West of the Southern Alleghenies was interfered with by diplomatic in- trigues; a new war proved necessary against England for the protection of American commerce and of American sailors ; and wherever there rose an enemy of the States, it was always a friend of England. The Americans have not forgotten that their Capitol, the sanctuary of the nation, the sym- bol of the Union, was burnt down by English troops wantonly, as if it were the Bala Hisser at Kabul ; and the exodus' which has relieved Ireland and the poor-houses of England of hundreds of thousands,—a matter of con- gratulation on this side of the Atlantic,—has fanned the embers of animosity not yet extinguished in the United States. Englishmen rarely notice what an amount of hatred against their country is exported by the emigrant-ships, to be sown into a fertile soil, where it easily ripens. ¶1 he e Irish emigrants, aroused from the torpor of their bogs, exert their physical and intellectual power successfully on the virgin settlements of the West, and when five years have made them citizens of the United States, their hearts are still filled with enmity against a country whose institutions have driven them from their old home. The German emigrants, too, who flee from the name- less oppression of their petty tyrants, feel no sympathy for England. They say, that England has always sided with their aespotic princes, and spent for their restoration hundreds of millions sterling, whilst struggling liberty on the Continent has never received anything from the English but some fine Parliamentary speeches of compassion."