n as lecturers, Unitarian ministers, or poets; that
Maryland and Virginia are one commonwealth; that eighteen months before
every Presidential election, a cause of quarrel is made with England by
both the principal political parties, for the purpose of securing the
Irish rote; that measly pork is caused by too hasty insertion in brine
after killing, and consequent rapid fermentation; that the people of
the United States, unless they have travelled in Europe, are quite
unable to appreciate wit. [Mr. Mackay's wit? If so, certainly.] These
are but random pluckings from a rich blossoming.

The subject upon which the author has labored most earnestly is that of
Slavery. If the views he sets forth are the result of his own
investigation, he is entitled to credit for unusual exactness. There is
nothing new about them, to be sure; but there is also nothing absurd,
which is a great point. He maintains the argument against Slavery, that
it is to be practically considered in its injurious influences on the
white people of the Slave States, and, through them, on the nation at
large. When he undertakes an emotional view of the "institution," he
becomes feeble again. He thus describes his sensations while visiting a
slave-market in New Orleans:--"I entertained at that moment such a
hatred of slavery, that, had it been in my power to abolish it in an
instant off the face of the earth by the mere expression of my will,
slavery at that moment would have ceased to exist,"--an avowal which
will hardly be likely to confound the American people by its boldness.

The statistical information in these volumes is as accurate as that of
ordinary gazetteers. In most cases, the author appears to have drawn his
information from proper sources. The principal exceptions to this are
shown in one or two statements which he makes on the authority of his
Pylades, Colonel Fuller, and in his remarks upon Canada, which are
colored with excessive warmth. Mr. Mackay rests greater hopes upon the
future of Canada than upon that of the United States. He considers the
Canadians as the rivals in energy, enterprise, and industry of the
people of the United States. His testimony differs from that of Lord
Durham, who had good opportunities for knowing something about the
matter when he had charge of Canadian affairs, and who declared, that
"on the American side of the frontier all is activity and bustle," etc.,
"on the British side all seems waste and desolate."

M