in one ship," and how three came from Shropshire, and settled in one state, and three from Warwickshire, and settled in another, &c. &c. That is a relationship whose footprints are presently lost sight of amid the sands of time-but there are holier and nobler points of affinity, which, feel as we may upon it, proclaim us brethren. Are there not the institutions and aspirations of freemen? Are there not the mutual efforts of industrious and ingenious men? Have we not the raw material in the one country, and the manufactures in the other? Are there not the genial and balmy outgoings of hospitable men? Are there not the skilful and untiring exertions of benevolent and philanthropic men? Are there not the contritions, the faith, the hope, and the walk of Christian men, that unite the bravest and the best of both our countries, proclaiming us brethren at present, and preparing the way to unions in the world, that is wide enough, wise enough, and holy enough, to make a final home for us all, and where-if we cannot beforewe shall see and feel distinctly that "all we are brethren?" The heart of America, at this very juncture, beats in unison with the heart of England, in regard to the European struggle for liberty; and the hand of America is stretched across the Atlantic in defiance of the oppressors, and in aid of the oppressed. Have we not been gladdened to see the exile and the refugee find a free home in the United States? and is it not a generous rivalship that has

been practised by both countries, in seeking who first should welcome and sustain Kossuth the hero, who, if he bring with him the heart and hopes of Hungary, meets where he comes the heart and hopes of freemen? Sacred is the deposit of freedom! Great Britain and the United States have that deposit in charge, for the relief of a despotridden world. They must not, they dare not, dissipate their influence in petty rivalries and family quarrels. They are bound to unite to make its weight felt in the kingdoms of oppression and imprisonment.

More than thirty years have elapsed, with their clouds and sunshine, since the first American whose society we had an opportunity of cultivating, strayed in upon us. His fine metaphysical head, his rich conversational powers, the freshness and piquancy of his opinions, the novelty of his information-for wars and stormy seas alike rendered the United States at that period a far country to us-and, above all, his Christian principle, formed a whole which attracted and charmed us. I have not forgotten the tears which flowed, when this unlookedfor stranger poured out at our evening worship confessions, petitions, and gratitudes exactly our own, and how from that hour the wide Atlantic seemed bridged for us by sympathies which the world could not interfere with.

After him came another and another, each new guest in the course of years introducing his friend,

the characters of all in degree fraught with those principles which prepare the mind for exalted intercourse, based on plans and hopes which will live when the world and its life are extinct.

Our earliest specimens of men from the other hemisphere were not merchants, but pastors exhausted by their labours, in pursuit of health and relaxation, and students in pursuit of knowledge. And noble specimens they were of keen investigation, lively perception of novelty, acute dissection of truth, and bold assertion of Christian principle, as the rule and guide of their motives. It is not to be wondered at that such associates should engage and enliven the mind, and that after long years of distant contemplation, an opportunity of seeing them at home should be embraced with willingness. Neither is it surprising, that such being the cha racter of our first transatlantic acquaintances, their successors should have been like-minded, or that when these welcome visits were at last returned, they should have opened for the guest whom they so generously cherished, a vein of ore, precious and rich in its rewards to the feeble and unworthy hand that worked it.

Others have described the festivities, the political institutions, the energetic mercantile pursuits of the Americans. Perhaps a path yet scarcely trodden may furnish some points of interest, from one who numbered amongst her early and valued friends, J. M. Mason, D.D., and his young friend Bruen, who

acted as the keys to open society's gate for herone whose attention has been directed as much to the Christianity and philanthropic exertions of the people as to their noble rivers and rich plains, and as much to the lively and influential Christian sentiments of their women as to their domestic virtues and personal loveliness.

It is to the Christian and social habits of this interesting people, that access has been chiefly afforded, and with them chiefly that sympathies have been exchanged. Abhorring the vulgar soul that uses the hospitalities of a country to go home and criticise domestic habits as much as the treacherous, seeming reserve which points its tale so as to mark infallibly the parties alluded to while it affects to withhold the names, my remarks and details are sincere and affectionate as are my feelings; accompanied by that respectful reserve which becomes a friend, pledged as much by grateful regard as by sympathy to feel and act as becomes brotherly love.

A passage in the conclusion of Dickens's American Notes-one of the best in the book, is quoted verbatim as the best expression of my own sentiments, only adding to "cultivation and refinement" a more essential quality, which he has omitted— I mean Christian principle.

"The Americans are by nature frank, brave, cordial, hospitable, and affectionate — cultivation and refinement seem but to enhance their warmth

of heart and ardent enthusiasm, and it is the possession of these latter qualities in a most remarkable degree, which renders an educated American one of the most endearing and most generous of friends. I never was so won upon as by this class; never yielded up my full confidence and esteem so readily and so pleasurably as to them; never can make again, in half a year, so many friends, for whom I seem to entertain the regard of half a life.”*

* Dickens's American Notes, vol. i. p. 288.