mericans, is very great. The cheerfulness depicted in the countenances
of the people here, and their free and easy appearance, is very striking
to a stranger. He who taught the sun to shine, the flowers to bloom, the
birds to sing, and blesses us with rain, never intended that his
creatures should look sad. There is a wide difference between the
Americans and any other people which I have seen. The Scotch are healthy
and robust, unlike the long-faced, sickly-looking Americans.

While on our journey from London to Paris, to attend the Peace Congress,
I could not but observe the marked difference between the English and
American delegates. The former looked as if their pockets had been
filled with sandwiches, made of good bread and roast beef, while the
latter appeared as if their pockets had been filled with Holloway's
Pills, and Mrs. Kidder's Cordial.

I breakfasted this morning in a room in which the Poet Burns, as I was
informed, had often sat. The conversation here turned upon Burns. The
lady of the house pointed to a scrap of poetry which was in a frame
hanging on the wall, written, as she said, by the Poet, on hearing the
people rejoicing in a church over the intelligence of a victory. I
copied it and will give it to you:--

"Ye hypocrites! are these your pranks,
To murder men and give God thanks?
For shame! give o'er, proceed no further,
God won't accept your thanks for murder."

The fact that I was in the room where Scotland's great national poet had
been a visitor, caused me to feel that I was on classic, if not hallowed
ground. On returning from our morning visit, we met a gentleman with a
coloured lady on each arm. Craft remarked in a very dry manner, "If they
were in Georgia, the slaveholders would make them walk in a more hurried
gait than they do." I said to my friend, that if he meant the
pro-slavery prejudice would not suffer them to walk peaceably through
the streets, they need go no further than the pro-slavery cities of New
York and Philadelphia. When walking through the streets, I amused
myself, by watching Craft's countenance; and in doing so, imagined I saw
the changes experienced by every fugitive slave in his first month's
residence in this country. A sixteen months' residence has not yet
familiarized me with the change.

* * * * *

LAUREL BANK, _Jan. 18, 1851_.

Dear Douglass,--I remained in Edinburgh a day or two after