to a style of extemporaneous speaking, and not being called upon to encounter the after-toil of writing out his discourses, not a few of his highest strains of eloquence perished with the breath, in which they were uttered. To the publication of occasional performances he was more than commonly averse, and held the maxim, that a man can seldom do himself justice, or safely trust his reputation, in productions of that class. In reviewing the incidents of Dr Holley's life, it is not easy to suppress the feeling, that he did not at any period of it find his way to the career best adapted to the character of his mind, and affording the fullest scope for the exercise of his talents. It was impossible, that he should not have been distinguished in any walk of life, and most distinguished he was unquestionably, in that which he pursued. But it may be doubted, whether his first choice of a profession, that of the law, might not have led him, on the whole, to a more uniformly successful and happy career. We deem it not improper to add, that the work is published for the benefit of the orphan son of president Holley. This consideration, we trust, will secure it that circulation, to which its substantial merit entitles it. With whatever motive it is purchased, we feel confident, that it will be generally and permanently regarded as an interesting and valuable work, and a well deserved tribute to the memory of one of the most distinguished sons of America. ART. VIII.-1. The United States of North America as they London. 1828. are. 2. The Americans as they are; described in a Tour through the Valley of the Mississippi. By the Author of Austria as it is.' London. 1828. THE two works named at the head of this article are of very different character. We shall presently address our American readers; meantime, we would advise the English reader, after he has run over (literally run over) the first of them, to put it on the grate. If he trust either to the opinions or the facts of the writer, he will be as likely to be misled as not. There is some truth in the book, but so strangely mixed up with untruth, or so disguised and misrepresented, as to be known only by those, who know a great deal more of the country, than this writer will ever know of any country. When the reader has gone diligently through the second work, we advise him to read it again, still more attentively. It is not without defects, even as far as it professes to go, but these are generally accidental, some of them errors of the printer, perhaps; those of this sort are rather more numerous than they ought to have been. The title of the book might lead to some mistake, yet, as the route the author took is marked out, no intelligent Englishman will infer, that this is a complete account of the Americans as they are.' But we have not seen a more correct view of the western people,' and also of Mississippi and Louisiana, than is here presented. The Austrian has represented what he saw, without disfiguring or disguising it. He disclaims all pretensions to literary merit, like Cæsar when he simply related what he saw and what he did. He writes correctly and with perfect ease. We must allow, that we have read this last volume of a British traveller, with very different feelings from those, with which we struggled through the clumsy works of hirelings or speculators, that preceded it. It is not an enlarged, philosophical view of the country, its inhabitants, and its resources; but it is much better calculated for general readers, 'book-societies,' and circulating libraries; and well informed minds will find in it aliment not unsuited to their appetite. We commence with our author where he commences his book, at Cincinnati. He says nothing of the states north or east of Ohio. Of course his description of Americans, though accurate, will be as novel to most of the citizens of the United States, as to his English readers. John Bull can with difficulty understand or believe this. With him an American is an American, whether he live in Maine or Missouri, whether he fish on the Grand Bank, or trap on the Big Horn. The yellow fever is the great pest of the States, equally at Castine and Mobile, if, perchance, his geography has as yet admitted these outlandish words. The soil of the country is all one, from the iron-bound shores of the Kennebec, to the crumbling banks of the Ouachitta. Our author will rectify some of these mistakes. His views of Cincinnati are impartial and correct. One fact is worthy of notice. He visited that town in the autumn of 1826. The population he states at twelve thousand, perhaps rather below the actual number. In March 1828, his tour is published in London. The population of Cincinnati had by this time risen to eighteen thousand. The following extract is a fair specimen of his book. The prevailing manners of society at Cincinnati, are those peculiar to larger cities, without the formalities and mannerism of the eastern sea-ports. Freedom of thought prevails in a high degree, and toleration is exercised without limitation. The women are considered very handsome; their deportment is free from pride; but simple and unassuming as they appear, they evince a high taste for literary and mental accomplishments. The Literary Gazette owes its origin (?) to their united efforts. There is no doubt that the commanding situation of this beautiful town, its majestic river, its mild climate, which may be compared to the south of France, and the liberal spirit of its inhabitants, contribute to render this place, both in a physical and moral point of view, one of the most eligible residences in the Union. 'As much, indeed, may be said of the state of Ohio in general. It combines in itself all the elements, that tend to make its inhabitants the happiest people on the face of the earth. Nature has done everything in favor of this country. In point of fertility, it excels every one of the thirteen old states, and owing to its political institutions and the abolition of slavery, it has taken the lead among those newly created.' There is, nevertheless, not any city in the state of Ohio, to be compared with New York, Philaadelphia, or Boston, nor is it probable there will be. [Twenty years will not pass, before Cincinnati probably will number as many inhabitants as Boston now does.] At the same time this want is largely compensated by the absence of immorality and luxury,evils necessarily attached to large and opulent cities, which may be said to attract the heart's blood of the country, and send forth the very dregs of it in return. In Ohio, wealth is not accumulated in one place or in a few hands; it is visibly diffused over the whole community. The county towns and villages are invariably constructed in a more elegant and tasteful manner than those of Pennsylvania, and the Northern States. [Strange opinion this! One would think that the writer had never seen the interior of New York or New England.] There is something grand in their plan and execution, though the prevailing want or insufficiency of means to carry them through, is still an obstacle in the way. The farms and country-houses are elegant; I saw hundreds of them, which no English nobleman would be ashamed of. They are generally of brick, sometimes of wood, [we should reverse this, they are generally of wood, sometimes of brick, or rather, frequent ly of brick] and built in a tasteful style. The turnpike roads are in excellent order. [This traveller visited Ohio in Autumn. He would have told another story the next spring.] It is astonishing to see what has been done in a few years, and under an increasing scarcity of money, by the mere dint of industry. The traveller will seldom have occasion to rail at bad roads or bad taverns; I could only complain of one of the latter, which stands upon a road that is seldom travelled. In every county town, there are at least two elegant inns [not always the most elegant], and the tables are loaded with such a variety of venison and dishes of every kind, that even a gourmand could not justly complain. The whole state bespeaks a wealthy condition, which, far removed from riches, rests on the surest foundation, the fertility of the soil, and the persevering industry of its cultivators. Although behindhand, perhaps, with the Yankees in literary accomplishments, they are far more liberal and intelligent, being endued with a strong and enterprising mind. [Their character is in truth, as a whole, Yankee character, under varied circumstances, modified indeed, by extraneous admixtures.]' 'The resolutions of their Assembly are quite free from that narrow-minded prejudice found in Pennsylvania and the Southern states, which sees in the laws of Moses the only rule for direction, and loses sight of that liberal spirit, which pervades the law of Christ. [This may be just so, for we do not know what the writer would be at.] The inhabitants of Ohio are not, however, so religious as their neighbors, the Pennsylvanians. Their ministers exercise little influence; and numerous sects contribute greatly to lessen their authority, which is certainly not the case in the North. The people of Ohio are equally free from the uncultivated and rude character of the Western American, and from the innate wiliness of the Yankees. This state is not unlike a vigorous and blooming youth, who is approaching to manhood, and whose natural form and manners excite our just admiration.' The concluding sentence of this paragraph is not more beautiful than true. This writer's views of the Yankees, we suspect, were picked up at the South and West, and not the result of careful observation among the New-Englanders at their own firesides. Pedlars and run-aways, or walk-aways, have not been the most winning avant-coureurs, for either the honor or the honesty of those that followed after; neither were they a very fair representation of those that stayed behind. Yet our untravelled southern and western fellow-citizens have sometimes fallen into an error scarcely less palpable than this; and foreigners, passing only among them, almost of necessity imbibe the same prejudices. But we return to our author, or at least to Cincinnati. A year since when in that town, looking over an old Directory (we forget for what year), we were struck with the various origin of its settlers, and tore out the leaf containing an 'Explanation of the Abbreviations of the Places of Nativity,' which now lies before us, and which we transcribe as exhibiting a fair sample of western population. ، Austria, Canada, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Delaware, Denmark, England, France, Georgia, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan Territory, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Prussia, Poland, Portugal, Rhode Island, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland, South Carolina, St. Domingo, Tennessee, Virginia, Vermont, and Wales.' The population of Cincinnati, at the time this Directory was composed, we judge could not have exceeded six thousand. It may fairly be presumed, that, at the present moment, every kingdom of Europe, and every state of the Union, is represented in this republican congress. It may interest some of our readers to see the comparative strength of the respective delegations. New England 441 (of which Massachusetts sent 184, Connecticut 143), Pennsylvania 394, New Jersey 337, New York 233, England 192, Ireland 173, Virginia 113, Germany 62, Ohio 52 !!, Scotland 39, Wales 21, France 19, Switzerland 17, unknown 42. The British and Irish combined number 425, nearly equalling the Yankees. At this we were somewhat surprised, especially at the large proportion of Englishmen. We suspect in regard to that class of immigrants (the English have adopted this word after due deliberation), that this proportion would by no means hold either in Ohio or any of the Western states. Probably many of those who accompanied Flower and Birkbeck to this country, quitting their leaders, took lodgings' in Cincinnati, and at length made it their home. This mixed and multifarious origin of Cincinnati could only be equalled by its Frenchified, Latinized, Aboriginal name, Losantroville, which if the reader be skilled in decyphering, he will find to mean Village opposite the mouth of the Licking, a river which empties into the Ohio on the Kentucky side. Who had the honor of inventing this comprehensively descriptive epithet, we are not able to inform the reader. The present name was probably suggested by the almost noble society, which, at one time, was thought of ominous import |