me. Will this day fortnight suit you?'

"'Thank you,' sais I, 'I shall have great pleasure.'

"He railly was a gentlemany man that. He was so good natured, and took
the joke so well, I was kinder sorry I played it off on him. I hante
see'd no man to England I affection so much as Mr. Tact, I swear! I
begin to think, arter all, it was the right of _sarchin' vessels_ he
wanted to talk to me about, instead of _sarchin' me_, as I suspicioned.
It don't do always _to look for motives, men often act without any_. The
next time, if he axes me, I'll talk plain, and jist tell him what I
_do_ think; but still, if he reads that riddle right, he may larn a good
deal, too, from the story of "the Gander Pulling," mayn't he?"

CHAPTER V. THE BLACK STOLE.

The foregoing sketch exhibits a personal trait in Mr. Slick's character,
the present a national one. In the interview, whether real or fanciful,
that he alleges to have had with one of the Secretaries of State, he was
not disposed to give a direct reply, because his habitual caution led
him to suspect that an attempt was made to draw him out on a particular
topic without his being made aware of the object. On the present
occasion, he exhibits that irritability, which is so common among all
his countrymen, at the absurd accounts that travellers give of the
United States in general, and the gross exaggerations they publish of
the state of slavery in particular.

That there is a party in this country, whose morbid sensibility is
pandered to on the subject of negro emancipation there can be no doubt,
as is proved by the experiment made by Mr. Slick, recorded in this
chapter.

On this subject every man has a right to his own opinions, but any
interference with the municipal regulations of another country, is so
utterly unjustifiable, that it cannot be wondered at that the Americans
resent the conduct of the European abolishionists, in the most
unqualified and violent manner.

The conversation that I am now about to repeat, took place on the
Thames. Our visits, hitherto, had been restricted by the rain to London.
To-day, the weather being fine, we took passage on board of a steamer,
and went to Greenwich.

While we were walking up and down the deck, Mr. Slick again adverted to
the story of the government spies with great warmth. I endeavoured, but
in vain, to persuade him that no regular organized system of espionage
existed in England. He had obtained a garbled account of on