like dwellers among persons of refined taste in a civilised state? The same "lady," if it suited her to enter into minutiæ about home, could probably tell you similar tales; or if a gentleman takes it into his head to imagine that his readers will be interested in his descriptions of the use of tobacco, and its disgusting consequences in such rough conveyances as canal boats, or amid such unpolished members as are some of the congressional representatives from the newly-settled and "far, far west," why, let him do it, if it be true. Perhaps were he himself engaged in clearing an untrodden forest, or draining an impracticable swamp, or dwelling on a misty stream, where fever and ague prevail, he also might find a use in departing from his tobacco hor. rors, and, instead of exciting displeasure, his hints might be improved into a more cleanly use of the preventative. He might set up for a pattern tobacco-eater, and teach the world. It is not for me to question the reality of such descriptions. The things happen as all admit they do, but, as. they did not happen in my circle, I never saw them.

A captain bold being carried to a missionary meeting, came away laughing to see the Yorkshire folks so "humbugged," for he had been eighteen years in India, and had never heard of, much less seen, a missionary. The man was honest in his statement. There are missionaries in India, nevertheless.

Looking back on the ancestry of the United States, and considering brother Jonathan as a wellgrown and thriving youth, who knows his own affairs, and does not feel any want of paternal government, one understands that a degree of jealousy and displeasure may arise against criticisms, which prevents their being profited by, even where they are known to be just. Yet many a brother has been cured of biting his nails, and many sister has been broken off some awkward trick, by a little good-natured bantering at the family fireside; and if Jonathan could cure John of his selfsufficient pride, and John could subdue in Jonathan his love of boasting, each would have done the other good service. We are all of one blood, Saxon to the core, and perhaps it is because we resemble each other so nearly, that we stand each other's criticisms so ill. What a much better game have we discovered to play at, when Jonathan is exerting all his ingenuity to pick John's cunning lock, while the Bank of England is ordering transatlantic locks for his strong box; or when the English Yacht and the American Clipper are speeding together through the waves, and the one learning from the other how to form his keel, so as to cut them more deftly.

It is in our power to help and to teach each other in a thousand ways, were we but in the vein for it -and why should we not be? I lay no great emphasis on the limited cousinship arising from the old story of "the three brothers that came all over

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