Young Americans Abroad Part 20

Letter 54.

LIVERPOOL.

DEAR CHARLEY:--

Well, this looks like the back track; and here we are at the Adelphi, ready to take our pa.s.sage in the n.o.ble Atlantic, which is as good as new again, and will sail on the twenty-third. We left Bristol with much regret, for we there have formed acquaintances which we shall often remember with affection and grat.i.tude; and I wish we could meet them in America, and have an opportunity to reciprocate some of the many kindnesses we met with at their hands. We took the railroad for Cheltenham, and pa.s.sed through some charming country before we reached the old city of Gloucester. On our left were the flint towers of Berkeley Castle, where the second Edward was so savagely murdered by his wife's command.

Cheltenham is about forty miles from the city of Bristol, and we found it all that Dr. C. had described it--a very nice modern town indeed. It is like our Saratoga, but much more beautiful. The population is about thirty thousand, and the strangers who resort there in the season are probably five thousand more. The waters are in high repute, and are regarded as strongly cathartic. The buildings are very fine, and the entire air of the place is unlike any thing we have seen in England.

Other places seem old. This is new, and looks fresh and American in that respect, but vastly more elegant and permanent than our towns usually are. We had very kind attentions here from the Rev. Mr. Gilby, the rector of the parish church, and who strongly urged us to stay over the day; but we resumed the cars, got to Birmingham at ten o'clock, and went to our old quarters at the Hen and Chickens. The next day we devoted to the survey of this vast toy shop. Our greatest gratification was at the royal _papier mache_ and j.a.pan works of Jennens & Bettridge. To this firm we had introductions, and we went through every department of the establishment. When we came to the show-rooms we were all tempted by the beauty of the finished wares, and made several purchases. Here, too, are other manufactories for pins and pens; but I must pa.s.s them by. We called on the Rev. John Angell James, who has lived here so long, and made a world-wide reputation. He looks very hearty and vigorous, and shows no signs of age. He has lived in his house forty-five years. We obtained his autograph. We also called on Rev. Mr. Swan, an old friend of the doctor in early days, and had a pleasant chat. Mr. Swan was once a professor in the college at Serampore, in India. He is full of life and animation; and it seems to me that people here are more vivacious and sprightly than with us--old folks and middle-aged ones certainly are. We took dinner with Mr. Vanwart, brother-in-law to Was.h.i.+ngton Irving, and shall not soon forget the elegant hospitality of his mansion. He resides about two miles from the town; and his lawn gave us a fine view of the English thrush and blackbird, of which birds there were plenty on the gra.s.s. It was so cold that we had to have fires, although the 19th of July. Mr. Vanwart was one of the saved, when the Atlantic was lost in the Sound, November 26, 1846; and he made the kindest inquiries after you and the family, and said that when he next visited America he should find you out. That evening we reached Liverpool, and had a quiet Sabbath, but a very stormy one. It rained harder than any day since we have been abroad. We attended church in the morning, and heard a very eloquent sermon from Mr. Birrel, and Dr. C.

preached for him at night. The Europa arrived on this day, and we met friends from Boston--among others the Rev. Dr. Peck. On Monday we went to Chester, the finest old city in England, with a population of twenty-four thousand. It claims an antiquity equal to any city in the world; for they say it was founded by the grandson of j.a.phet, two hundred and forty years after the flood! Any how, it was great in Roman days--great in the days of Alfred. No town in the country has a more thorough history; and we have two very interesting octavoes filled with it, and richly ill.u.s.trated with antique engravings. It is a walled city, and has undergone many sieges and blockades. The castle has great celebrity, and is of Norman origin. Its walls are one mile and three fourths in length, and there are four great gates. The bridge over the Dee has seven arches, and is as old as the Norman conquest. The cathedral was built in the days of Henry VII. and Henry VIII. It is composed of red stone, and has a fine front. The chapter-house in the cloisters is universally admired by antiquarians. We went into one very old church, which was undergoing restoration. The town, like Berne, has rows in front of the houses, supported by pillars so that, in shopping, you walk under covered galleries.

We returned to Liverpool, and dined with a gentleman who has been very polite to us--Mr. Thomas Davies, a celebrated maker of gold watches.

From him I obtained one, preferring an English to a Swiss timepiece.

Here we saw the cultivation of plants in the house in greater perfection than I recollect elsewhere.

To-morrow we are to take our departure; and, though very glad to return home, yet I feel sorry at leaving a country where there is so much that is excellent and n.o.ble and beautiful. I have learnt, certainly, that England and America have too much in common to justify the indulgence of hatred and prejudice; and I find the tone of feeling here, among wise and-good people, very kind towards America. I have rarely heard a reflection upon our country, excepting upon our slavery. That they _must talk_ about; and they are a little like the man who, having just got rid of the irritable affection supposed to trouble the North Britons, could not for his life help speaking of sulphur. An Englishman is sure to tell you that he is free from this sin--yes, washed, but scarcely dry.

Our hotel is filling up with Americans, and, we expect to meet many friends on board the Atlantic. I am much pleased with the appearance of Captain West; he looks every inch an admiral. And now, my dear fellow, I shall see you, perhaps, before you read my letter; but I have kept my promise to tell you what we saw and did. Of course many things will occur to our memories when we get home, and will furnish matter for chitchat which I hope soon to have with you, as in days of old. Well, you are now at the business of life, and I am yet a little longer to spend my time in preparation for it. I wonder how we shall come out, Charley? But time will tell, and let us do our best.

Yours affectionately,

WELD.

P.S. I must not forget to tell you that, while at Bristol, the doctor and I ran up to Windsor to see the royal agricultural exhibition, held this year in the Home Park. James stopped with our friends, and we were anxious to see the great show of England in her farming interest. The display was very great, and the cattle were wonderfully fine in all the departments--Durham, Hereford, Devons, and Channel Island. The last are very nice animals for a paddock, and give good milk. The horses were good; and I longed to bring home one or two that I saw, and felt strongly tempted. But the sheep and swine were the most remarkable things there. Really, we know little about sheep. They are monstrous, and yet very symmetrical and beautiful; whilst there are pigs, strange as you may think it, that have established high claims to beauty and perfection. I greatly preferred the Suss.e.x breed to any other. Never was a town so crowded as this same Windsor. Thousands upon thousands were flocking into it; and how and where they fed I cannot divine. Money seemed useless, and waiters hardly looked at half crowns for retaining fees.

Letter 55.

NEW YORK, August 3,1851.

DEAR CHARLEY:--

We are, through the goodness of Providence, safely returned. We had a good voyage, in a capital s.h.i.+p, and under the charge of as good a captain as ever sailed the ocean. Our pa.s.sengers were about one hundred and thirty in number, and very agreeable--some few were our old voyagers in the Arctic. With an exception or two, our way was as pleasant as it could have been; and there were some cheerful spirits that knew how to create suns.h.i.+ne at all hours. I cannot tell what travellers can desire in a steamer which they will not find in the Collins line. It seems to us that we have had the full worth of the money paid for pa.s.sage. How different it is to come to New York in ten days, instead of being on the ocean for sixty-four days, as I have in a sailing packet! Well, this saving of time and feelings is worth the difference of the pa.s.sage price. I am at a loss to understand how Americans who have to cross the ocean should think of supporting the English steamers in preference to our own superior s.h.i.+ps. The influence of every English agent, of course, goes out in behalf of the old line; and all sorts of stories are told about winter pa.s.sages, the importance of boats especially built for strength, and the advantages of experience. Now, the history of the American line is a perfect refutation of all this twaddle. The truth is, that all voyaging is connected with exposedness to some danger; and up to this moment the Americans have had, in all their ocean steam voyages, the full measure of success. They have lost no boat, they have sacrificed no lives, and they present a fleet of steams.h.i.+ps the like of which the world cannot equal. Whenever an American citizen takes his pa.s.sage in a foreign steamer, and an American one is at hand, he tacitly confesses the superiority of other lands, in ocean navigation, to his own country, and he contributes his full share to depress American enterprise, and aids so far as he can to insure its failure. The eyes of the English nation are upon our s.h.i.+ps; and if we desire the spread of our national fame, we should, every man of us, labor to sustain our own steamers and propellers. And the government of our country should strenuously guard the interests of this available arm of national defence; and the country at large, would certainly sustain Congress in liberal support of this truly American enterprise.

Perhaps, Charley, you are ready to say to us, "Well, what do you think, after all you have been seeing in other lands?". I reply: We think that we return home with all our hearts more warmly attached to our beloved land than when we left her sh.o.r.es. We have seen lands, as fair, and fields as fertile, as our own. We have seen monarchies and republics; but nowhere have we seen man as erect and self-respecting as at home.

Here we have equal laws, civil and religious liberty, no bishop to intimidate a day laborer who prefers to pa.s.s by his cathedral gates and wors.h.i.+p his Maker in a humbler temple. Here our streets are not labelled with "_Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite_," but the things signified are _known_ and _felt_ by every man that traverses these avenues of business. Here we have not thousands of armed men in this great city to preserve liberty; but every man enjoys it, and sees nothing of the government, which, though unseen, is all-powerful in the affections of the country.

We come home grateful that we have such a country; and though we love and admire much, very much, in England, yet we rejoice that we can call the United States our land. We hope we are better prepared than before we started to do her service. I am quite satisfied, Charley, that G.o.d has not done for any other people what he has for us. We know nothing of the restless anxiety which depresses men in England as to the means of procuring the necessaries of life. We have our chief anxieties called out in reference to the obtaining the _luxuries_ and _embellishments_ of life; the _necessaries_ are almost certain to every man who has health and character. But in England, toil is poorly requited; and a father and husband may, after unremitting labor, have to find his refuge, and his only one, in that pet.i.tion of the Lord's Prayer, which you and I never employed _in pure faith_, "Give me this day my daily bread." We _say so_; but _we know whence it is coming to us. He_ knows not; and what he knows not, he asks G.o.d after.

A thoughtful and humane American cannot travel in Europe without having his sympathies daily called out in behalf of the sufferings of man. I am no apologist for slavery; I deeply lament its existence; but I believe that there is as much suffering in coal pits and manufacturing districts of England as in our southern slave states. In regard to England, I feel encouraged. In an absence of fifteen years I see marked improvement. Man is more respected, as man, than he once was; the ma.s.ses are coming up; and the wealthy and the n.o.ble are more considerate. It is a great folly and a wickedness to think that the n.o.bility of England are weak, vicious, unfeeling, proud, and self-indulgent. Some of the n.o.blest characters of England are to be found in the peerage--men who "fear G.o.d and work righteousness." Their homes are often centres of diffusive blessedness; and were the n.o.bility of England what too many here suppose them, the state could not last a twelvemonth. The queen is popular, and is clearly a woman of great tact. She would do at a crisis. Prince Albert is everything to her. He is a profoundly wise and prudent man, highly educated, and has very superior powers of mind. He is continually making speeches, but they are all marked by _adaptation_. I have never heard one disrespectful word uttered in England in regard to him. His labors for the exhibition, have been remarkable, and but for the prince the palace never would have been reared. England is happy indeed in having such a man to counsel and support the sovereign.

Europe looks as though a storm were once more about to gather over her old battle fields. France is not in her true position. She would like to see her armies employed; and I shall not be surprised to hear of his holiness clearing out from Rome and seeking protection from Austria. If that happens, France will sustain liberal views in the Eternal City, and the contest will be severe.

Popery has lost its hold upon the continent, and is seeking to regain its influence in England, and plant it in America. The people of England are Protestant to the heart's core. The folly of a few scholastics at Oxford has created all the hue and cry of Puseyism, and invigorated the hopes of Rome. These men at Oxford have poisoned the minds of a few of their pupils, and in the upper walks of life some sympathy is seen with views that seem at least semi-Papistical. But the great body of the people is sound. More than half the population is made up of dissenters and they, to a man, hate "the beast;" and there is about as much danger of Popery being established in England as there is of absolute monarchy being embraced as our form of government.

Popery in America must spread by immigration. We have Ireland virtually in America; but here the Irish will gradually merge into Americans, and the power of the priesthood will be less and less regarded by their children. I have no apprehensions from the coming of Catholics to our country. Let them come, and we must get Bibles ready for them, and Bible readers to visit them, and schools to teach their children; and if cardinal, or archbishop, or priest tell us that Popery is the friend of science, and that it never persecuted genius, imprisoned learning, nor burnt G.o.d's saints, we will tell the deceiver that he lies in the face of G.o.d and man and the world's history.

I am not, my dear fellow, uncharitable; a man may be better than his creed; and I believe that some priests who have sung the song of the ma.s.s will hereafter sing the song of Moses and the Lamb. But of Popery, _as it is seen in Italy, and Austria, and other parts of the old world,_ I cannot but p.r.o.nounce it a curse to the human family, a system all unworthy of G.o.d, and blasting to the happiness of man.

The boys are in the enjoyment of health, and will soon see you. They have been constant sources of pleasure to me, by their thoughtful kindness and consideration; and nothing has transpired, to cause us to look back with pain on any part of our wanderings from home.

Yours, very truly,

JNO. O. CHOULES.

To Mr. CHARLES W. DUSTAN,

Stapleton; Staten Island, New York.