merely substituting things for words. There are many of our readers who will recognize in this imaginary interview between Mr. Yeadon and Mr. Simms, at least a family likeness to the written Dedication of the latter. This Dedication is, nevertheless, quite as good as one half the antique and lackadaisical courtesies with which we daily see the initial leaves of our best publications disfigured.

"The Partisan," as we are informed by Mr. Simms in his Advertisement, (Preface?) was originally contemplated as one novel of a series to be devoted to our war of Independence. "With this object," says the author, "I laid the foundation more broadly and deeply than I should have done, had I purposed merely the single work. Several of the persons employed were destined to be the property of the series-that part of it at least which belonged to the locality. Three of these works were to have been devoted to South Carolina, and to comprise three distinct periods of the war of the Revolution in that State. One, and the first of these, is the story now submitted to the reader. I know not that I shall complete, or even continue the series." Upon the whole we think that he had better not.

overweening self-conceit to the conquererses in themThese charges are sustained by the best autch chanby Lee, by Johnson, by Otho Williams, and by all we histories of the day. No apology is needed for stating the truth. In regard to the "propriety of insisting upon the faults and foibles of a man conspicuous in our history," Mr. Simms should give himself little uneasiness. It is precisely because the man is conspicuous in our history, that we should have no hesitation in condemning his errors.

With the events which are a portion of our chronicles, the novelist has interwoven such fictitious incidents and characters as might enable him to bind up his book in two volumes duodecimo, and call it "The Partisan.” The Partisan himself, and the hero of the novel, is a Major Robert Singleton. His first introduction to the reader is as follows. "It was on a pleasant afternoon in June, that a tall, well-made youth, probably twentyfour or five years of age, rode up to the door of the George," (in the village of Dorchester,) and throwing his bridle to a servant, entered the hotel. His person had been observed, and his appearance duly remarked upon, by several persons already assembled in the hall There is very little plot or connexion in the book which he now approached. The new comer, indeed, before us; and Mr. Simms has evidently aimed at was not one to pass unnoticed. His person was symneither. Indeed we hardly know what to think of the metry itself, and the ease with which he managed his work at all. Perhaps, with some hesitation, we may steed, and the". but we spare our readers any call it an historical novel. The narrative begins in farther details in relation to either the tall, well-made South Carolina, during the summer of 1780, and com- youth, or his steed, which latter they may take for prises the leading events of the Revolution from the fall granted was quite as tall, and equally well made. We of Charleston, to the close of that year. We have the cut the passage short with the less hesitation, inasmuch author's own words for it that his object has been as a perfect fac-simile of it may be found near the comprincipally to give a fair picture of the province-its mencement of every fashionable novel since the flood. condition, resources, and prospects-during the struggle Singleton is a partisan in the service of Marion, whose between Gates and Cornwallis, and the period immedi- disposition, habits, and character are well painted, and ately subsequent to the close of the campaign in the well preserved, throughout the Tale. A Mr. Walton defeat of the Southern defending army. Mr. S. assures is the uncle of Singleton, and has been induced, after us that the histories of the time have been continually the surrender of Charleston (spelt Charlestown) to before him in the prosecution of this object, and that, accept of a British protection, the price of which is where written records were found wanting, their places neutrality. This course he has been led to adopt, have been supplied by local chronicles and tradition. principally on account of his daughter Katharine, Whether the idea ever entered the mind of Mr. Simms who would lose her all in the confiscation of her that his very laudable design, as here detailed, might father's property-a confiscation to be avoided by no have been better carried into effect by a work of a other means than those of the protection. Singleton's character purely historical, we, of course, have no oppor-sister resides with Col. Walton's family, at “The tunity of deciding. To ourselves, every succeeding | Oaks," near Dorchester, where the British Col. Proctor page of "The Partisan" rendered the supposition more is in command. At the instigation of Singleton, who plausible. The interweaving fact with fiction is at all has an eye to the daughter of Col. Walton, that gentletimes hazardous, and presupposes on the part of general man is induced to tear up the disgraceful protection, readers that degree of intimate acquaintance with fact and levy a troop, with which he finally reaches the which should never be presupposed. In the present army of Gates. Most of the book is occupied with the instance, the author has failed, so we think, in confining ambuscades, bush fighting, and swamp adventures of either his truth or his fable within its legitimate, indi-partisan warfare in South Carolina. These passages vidual domain. Nor do we at all wonder at his failure are all highly interesting-but as they have little conin performing what no novelist whatever has hitherto nexion with one another, we must dismiss them en masse. performed. The history of the march of Gates' army, his foolhardiness, and consequent humiliating discomfiture by Cornwallis, are as well told as any details of a like nature can be told, in language exceedingly confused, ill-arranged, and ungrammatical. This defeat hastens the dénouement, or rather the leading incident, of the novel. Col. Walton is made prisoner, and condemned to be hung, as a rebel taken in arms. He is sent to Dorchester for the fulfilment of the sentence. Singleton, urged by his own affection, as well as by the passionate

Some pains have been taken in the preface of "The Partisan," to bespeak the reader's favorable decision in regard to certain historical facts—or rather in regard to the coloring given them by Mr. Simms. We refer particularly to the conduct of General Gates in South Carolina. We would, generally, prefer reading an author's book, to reading his criticism upon it. But letting this matter pass, we do not think Mr. S. has erred in attributing gross negligence, headstrong obstinacy, and

Remi

REMInis cousin Katharine, determines upon never opening his mouth for a single minute at a time, of his uncle at all hazards. A plot is ar- without making us feel miserable all over. The rude for this purpose. On the morning appointed and unqualified oaths with which he seasons his lanfor execution, a troop of horse is concealed in some guage deserve to be seriously reprehended. There is underwood near the scaffold. Bella Humphries, the positively neither wit nor humor in an oath of any daughter of an avowed tory, but a whig at heart, is kind-but the oaths of this Porgy are abominable. stationed in the belfry of the village church, and her Let us see how one or two of them will look in our father himself is occupied in arranging materials for columns. Page 174, vol. ii--“Then there was no tricksetting Dorchester on fire upon a given signal. This ing a fellow-persuading him to put his head into a signal (the violent ringing of the church bell by Bella) rope without showing him first how d- -d strong it is given at the moment when Col. Walton arrives in a was." Page 169, vol. ii-"Tom, old boy, why d-n cart at the foot of the gallows. Great confusion ensuesit, that fellow's bloodied your nose." Page 167, vol. ii among those not in the secret-a confusion heightened "I am a pacific man, and my temper is not ungentle; no little by the sudden conflagration of the village. During the hubbub the troop concealed in the thicket rush upon the British guard in attendance. The latter are beaten down, and Walton is carried off in triumph by Singleton. The hand of Miss Katharine is, as a matter of course, the reward of the Major's gallantry.

but to disturb my slumbers which are so necessary to the digestive organs-stop, I say-d-n!—dont pull so!" Page 164, vol. ii--“Well, Tom, considering how |d―d bad those perch were fried, I must confess I enjoyed them." Page 164, vol. ii--“Such spice is a d―d bad dish for us when lacking cayenne." Page Of the numerous personages who figure in the book, 163, vol. ii--“Dr. Oakenburg, your d―d hatchet hip some are really excellent-some horrible. The histori-is digging into my side." Page 162, vol. ii—“The cal characters are, without exception, well drawn. The summer duck, with its glorious plumage, skims along portraits of Cornwallis, Gates, and Marion, are vivid the same muddy lake, on the edge of which the d-d realities-those of De Kalb and the Claverhouse-like bodiless crane screams and crouches." In all these Tarleton positively unsurpassed by any similar delinea-handsome passages Porgy loquitur, and it will be pertions within our knowledge. The fictitious existences ceived that they are all to be found within a few pages in “ The Partisan” will not bear examination. Single- of each other--such attempts to render profanity less ton is about as much of a non-entity as most other despicable by rendering it amusing, should be frowned heroes of our acquaintance. His uncle is no better. down indignantly by the public. Of Porgy's philosophy Proctor, the British Colonel, is cut out in buckram. | we subjoin a specimen from page 89, vol. ii. “ A dinner Sergeant Hastings, the tory, is badly drawn from a bad model. Young Humphries is a braggadocio-Lance Frampton is an idiot-and Doctor Oakenburg is an ass. Goggle is another miserable addition to the list of those anomalies so swarming in fiction, who are represented as having vicious principles, for no other reason than because they have ugly faces. Of the females we can hardly speak in a more favorable manner. Bella, the innkeeper's daughter is, we suppose, very much like an innkeeper's daughter. Mrs. Blonay, Goggle's mother, is a hag worth hanging. Emily, Singleton's sister, is not what we would wish her. Too much stress is laid Some two or three paragraphs above we made use of upon the interesting features of the consumption which these expressions. "The history of the march of Gates' destroys her; and the whole chapter of abrupt senti-army, his fool-hardiness, &c. are as well told as any mentality, in which we are introduced to her sepulchre before having notice of her death, is in the very worst style of times un peu passés. Katharine Walton is somewhat better than either of the ladies above mentioned. In the beginning of the book, however, we are disgusted with that excessive prudishness which will not adn.it of a lover's hand resting for a moment upon her own-in the conclusion, we are provoked to a smile when she throws herself into the arms of the same lover, without even waiting for his consent.

once lost is never recovered. The stomach loses a day, and regrets are not only idle to recall it, but subtract largely from the appetite the day ensuing. Tears can only fall from a member that lacks teeth; the mouth now is never seen weeping. It is the eye only; and, as it lacks tongue, teeth, and taste alike, by Jupiter, it seems to me that tears should be its proper business." How Mr. Simms should ever have fallen into the error of imagining such horrible nonsense as that in Italics, to be either witty or wise, is to us a mystery of mysteries. Yet Porgy is evidently a favorite with the author.

details of a like nature can be told in language exceedingly confused, ill-arranged, and ungrammatical.” Mr. Simms' English is bad-shockingly bad. This is no mere assertion on our parts-we proceed to prove it. "Guilt," says our author, (see page 98, vol. i.) “must always despair its charm in the presence of the true avenger"--what is the meaning of this sentence?--after much reflection we are unable to determine. At page 115, vol. i, we have these words. "He was under the guidance of an e'derly, drinking sort of person-one of One personage, a Mr. Porgy, we have not mentioned the fat, beefy class, whose worship of the belly-god has in his proper place among the dramatis persona, because given an unhappy distension to that ambitious, though we think he deserves a separate paragraph of animad-most erring member." By the 'most erring member' version. This man is a most insufferable bore; and | Mr. S. means to say the belly—but the sentence implies had we, by accident, opened the book when about to the belly-god. Again, at page 126, vol. i. "It was for read it for the first time, at any one of his manifold the purpose of imparting to Col. Walton the contents absurdities, we should most probably have thrown of that not yet notorious proclamation of Sir Henry aside "The Partisan" in disgust. Porgy is a backwoods Clinton, with which he demanded the performance of imitation of Sir Somebody Guloseton, the epicure, in military duty from the persons who had been paro!ed; one of the Pelham novels. He is a very silly compound and by means of which, on departing from the province, of gluttony, slang, belly, and balderdash philosophy, he planted the seeds of that revolting patriotism which

infant yet unborn adding its prayer to that of ilsench chanthe vengeance to which he has devoted himself”—a sentɩ.we which we defy his Satanic Majesty to translate.

finally overthrew his authority." It is unnecessary to | 95, vol. ii, we have the singular phenerses in themcomment on the unauthorized use here, of the word 'revolting.' In the very next sentence we see the following. "Colonel Walton received his guests with his accustomed urbanity: he received them alone." This Mr. Simms has one or two pet words which he never language implies that Colonel Walton received those fails introducing every now and then, with or without particular guests and no others, and should be read with an opportunity. One of these is "coil"-another, an emphasis on the word 'them'-but Mr. Simms' "hug"-another, and a still greater favorite, is the commeaning is very different. He wishes to say that Col. pound “old-time." Let us see how many instances of Walton was alone when his guests were ushered into the latter we can discover in looking over the volumes his presence. At page 136, vol. i, the hero, Singleton, at random. Page 7, vol. i-" And with the revival of concludes a soliloquy with the ungrammatical phrase, many old-time feelings, I strolled through the solemn "And yet none love her like me!" At page 143, vol. i, ruins." Page 18, vol. i-"The cattle graze along the we read "That need not surprise you, Miss Walton; clustering bricks that distinguish the old-time chimney you remember that ours are British soldiers'-smiling, places." Page 20, vol. i-"He simply cocked his hat and with a bow was the response of the Colonel." We at the old-time customer." Page 121, vol. i—“The have no great difficulty here in guessing what Mr. Simms Oaks was one of those old-time residences." Page 148, wishes to say-his actual words convey no meaning || vol. i—“I only wish for mommer as we wish for an whatever. The present participle 'smiling' has no old-time prospect." Page 3, vol. ii—

"Unfold-unfold-the day is going fast,

And I would know this old-time history."

Page 5, vol. ii-"The Carolinian well knows these oldtime places." Page 98, vol. ii—“Look, before we shall have gone too far to return to them, upon these old-time tombs of Dorchester." Here are eight old-times discovered in a cursory glance over "The Partisan”—we believe there are ten times as many interspersed throughout the work. The coils are equally abundant, and the hugs innumerable.

One or two other faults we are forced to find. The old affectation of beginning a chapter abruptly has been held worthy of adoption by our novelist. He has even thought himself justifiable in imitating this silly practice in its most reprehensible form-we mean the form habitual with Bulwer and D'Israeli, and which not even their undoubted and indubitable genius could render any thing but despicable-that of commencing with an "And," a "But," or some other conjunction-thus rendering the initial sentence of the chapter in question, a continuation of the final sentence of the chapter preceding. We have an instance of this folly at page 102, vol. ii, where Chapter XII commences as follows:

substantive to keep it company; and the ‘bow,' as far as regards its syntatical disposition, may be referred with equal plausibility to the Colonel, to Miss Walton, to the British soldiers, or to the author of “The Partisan." At page 147, vol. i, we are told—“She breathed more freely released from his embrace, and he then gazed upon her with a painful sort of pleasure, her look was so clear, so dazzling, so spiritual, so unnaturally life-like." The attempt at paradox has here led Mr. Simms into error. The painful sort of pleasure we may suffer to pass; but life is the most natural thing in the world, and to call any object unnaturally life-like is as much a bull proper as to style it artificially natural. At page 148, we hear "that the disease had not yet shown upon her system." Shown is here used as a neuter verb-shown itself Mr. S. meant to say. We are at a loss, too, to understand what is intended, at page 149, vol. i, by "a look so pure, so bright, so fond, | so becoming of heaven, yet so hopeless of earth." Becoming heaven, not of heaven, we presume should be the phrase but even thus the sentence is unintelligible. At page 156, vol. i, a countryman “loves war to the knife better than degradation to the chain." This is a pitiable antithesis. In the first clause, the expression 'to the knife' is idiomatic; in the second, the words "to" But, though we turn aside from the highway to plant the chain' have a literal meaning. At page 83, vol. i, we read—“The half-military eye would have studiously avoided the ridge," &c. The epithet “half-military" does not convey the author's meaning. At page 204, vol. i. Mrs. Blonay is represented as striding across the floor "with a rapid movement hostile to the en-pised. feebled appearance of her frame." Here the forcing Instances of bad taste-villainously bad taste-occur "hostile" to mean not in accordance with, is unjustifiable. frequently in the book. Of these the most reprchensiAt page 14, vol. ii, these words occur. "Cheerless ble are to be found in a love for that mere physique of quite, bald of home and habitation, they saw nothing throughout the melancholy waste more imposing than the plodding negro." The "cheerless quite" and the "bald of home and habitation" would refer in strict grammatical construction to the pronoun "they"-but the writer means them to agree with "melancholy waste." At page 224, vol. i, we find the following. "The moon, obscured during the early part of the night, had now sunk westering so far," &c. At page 194, vol. ii, we are informed that "General Gates deigned no general consultation." At page 13, vol. ii. "Major Singleton bids the boy Lance Frampton in attendance”—and at page

or to pluck the flower, we may not linger there idly or long." Again, at page 50 of the same volume, Chapter VII begins-"And two opposing and mighty principles were at fearful strife in that chamber." This piece of frippery need only be pointed out to be des

the horrible which has obtained for some Parisian novelists the title of the "French convulsives." At page 97, vol. ii, we are entertained with the minutest details of a murder committed by a maniac, Frampton, on the person of Sergeant Hastings. The madman suffocates the soldier by thrusting his head in the mud of a morass-and the yells of the murderer, and the kicks of the sufferer, are dwelt upon by Mr. Simms with that species of delight with which we have seen many a ragged urchin spin a cockchafer upon a needle. At page 120, vol. i, another murder is perpetrated by the same maniac in a manner too shockingly horrible to

REM

ictim in this case is a poor tory, one | eye, but with the comprehensive glance of a citizen of page 217, vol. i, the booby Goggle receives the world. Remg for desertion, and Mr. S. endeavors to interest us in the screeches of the wretch—in the cries of his mother-in the cracking of the whip-in the number of the lashes-in the depth, and length, and color of the wounds. At page 105, vol. ii, our friend Porgy has caught a terrapin, and the author of "The Yemassee" luxuriates in the manner of torturing the poor reptile to death, and more particularly in the writhings and spasms of the head, which he assures us with a smile "will gasp and jerk long after we have done eating the body."

To speak in detail of a work so subdivided as "The Rambler in North America,” would occupy too much of our time. We can, of course, only touch, in general terms, upon its merits and demerits. The latter, we can assure our readers, are few indeed. One instance, nevertheless, of what must be considered false inference from data undeniably correct, is brought to bear so pointedly against our social and political principles, and is, at the same time, so plausible in itself, and so convincingly worded, as to demand a sentence or two of comment. We quote the passage in full, the more willingly, as we perceive it dwelt upon with much emphasis, by the London Quarterly Review.

"There are certain signs, perhaps it might be said of the times, rather than of their peculiar political arrangements, which should make men pause in their are emancipated from the thraldom of mind and body which they consider consequent upon upholding the divine right of kings. They are all politically equal. All claim to place, patronage, or respect, for the bearer of a great rame is disowned. Every man must stand or fall by himself alone, and must make or mar his fortune. Each is gratified in believing that he has his

One or two words more. Each chapter in "The Partisan" is introduced (we suppose in accordance with the good old fashion) by a brief poetical passage. Our author, however, has been wiser than his neighbors in the art of the initial motto. While others have been at the trouble of extracting, from popular works, quo-judgment of the social state in America. The people tations adapted to the subject-matter of their chapters, he has manufactured his own headings. We find no fault with him for so doing. The manufactured inottos of Mr. Simms are, perhaps, quite as convenient as the extracted mottos of his cotemporaries. All, we think, are abominable. As regards the fact of the manufac-share in the government of the Union. You speak ture there can be no doubt. None of the verses have we ever met with before-and they are altogether too full of coils, hugs, and old-times, to have any other parent

than the author of "The Yemassee."

In spite, however, of its manifest and manifold blunders and impertinences, "The Partisan" is no ordinary work. Its historical details are replete with interest. The concluding scenes are well drawn. Some passages descriptive of swamp scenery are exquisite. Mr. Simms has evidently the eye of a painter. Perhaps, in sober truth, he would succeed better in sketching a landscape than he has done in writing a novel.

LATROBE'S RAMBLER.

The Rambler in North America, 1832-33. By Charles Joseph Latrobe, Author of "The Alpenstock," &c. New York: Harper and Brothers.

against the insane anxiety of the people to govern-of authority being detrimental to the minds of men raised which can attend to nothing but matter of fact and from insignificance of the essential vulgarity of minds pecuniary interest-of the possibility of the existence of civilization without cultivation, and you are not understood! I have said it may be the spirit of the times, for we see signs of it, alas, in Old England; but there must be something in the political atmosphere of America, which is more than ordinarily congenial to that decline of just and necessary subordination, which God has both permitted by the natural impulses of the human mind, and ordered in His word; and to me the looseness of the tie generally observable in many parts of the United States between the master and servant-the child and the parent-the scholar and the master-the governor and the governed-in brief, the decay of loyal feeling in all the relations of life, was the worst sign of the times. Who shall say but that if these bonds are distorted and set aside, the first and the greatest-which

dicting the future grandeur of America under its present system of government and structure of society."

Mr. Latrobe is connected with a lineage of mission-binds us in subjection to the law of God-will not also be weakened, if not broken? This, and this alone, aries. He belongs to an English family long and hono-short-sighted as I am, would cause me to pause in prerably distinguished by their exertions in the cause of Christianity. His former work, "The Alpenstock," we have not seen-but the London Quarterly Review calls it "a pleasing and useful manual for travellers in Switzerland." The present volumes (dedicated to Washington Irving, whom Mr. L. accompanied in a late tour through the Prairies,) consist of thirty-seven letters addressed to F. B. Latrobe, a younger brother of the author. They form, upon the whole, one of the most instructive and amusing books we have perused for years.

By no means blind to our faults, to our foibles, or to our political difficulties, Mr. Latrobe has travelled from Dan to Beersheba without finding all barren. His observations are not confined to some one or two subjects, engrossing his attention to the exclusion, or to the imperfect examination, of all others. His wanderings among us have been apparently guided by a spirit of frank and liberal curiosity; and he deserves the good will of all Americans, (as he has most assuredly secured their esteem) by viewing us, not with a merely English

In the sentence beginning, "I have said it may be the spirit of the times, for we see signs of it, alas, in Old England, but there must be something," &c. Mr. Latrobe has involved himself in a contradiction. By the words, "but there must be something in the political atmosphere of America which is more than ordinarily congenial to" insubordination, he implies (although unintentionally) that our natural impulses lead us in this direction-and that these natural impulses are permitted by God, we, at all events, are not permitted to doubt. In the words immediately succeeding those just quoted, he maintains (what is very true) that "subordination was both permitted by God in the natural impulses of the human mind, and ordered in His word." The question thus resolves itself into a matter of then and now-of times past and times present—of the days of the patriarchs and of the days of widely disseminated knowledge. The infallibility of the instinct of those natural impulses which led men to obey in the infancy

of all things, we have no intention of denying-we must future productions of the same author verses in themdemand the same grace for those natural impulses which with anxiety. ench chanprompt men to govern themselves in the senectitude of The " Yankee," in travelling Southward, has we the world. In the sentence, "Who shall say but that dently laid aside the general prejudices of a Yankeeif these bonds are distorted and set aside, the first and and, viewing the book of Professor Ingraham, as reprethe greatest-which binds us in subjection to the law senting, in its very liberal opinions, those of a great of God-will not also be weakened, if not broken?" majority of well educated Northern gentlemen, we are the sophistry is evident; and we have only a few inclined to believe it will render essential services in the words to say in reply. In the first place, the writer has way of smoothing down a vast deal of jealousy and assumed that those bonds are "distorted” and “set aside" misconception. The traveller from the North has evinced which are merely slackened to an endurable degree. no disposition to look with a jaundiced eye upon the In the second place, the "setting aside" these bonds, South-to pervert its misfortunes into crimes-or distort (granting them to be set aside) so far from tending to its necessities into sins of volition. He has spoken of sła• weaken our subjection to the law of God, will the more very as he found it—and it is almost needless to say that readily confirm that subjection, inasmuch as our res- he found it a very different thing from the paintings he ponsibilities to man have been denied, through the had seen of it in red ochre. He has discovered, in a word, conviction of our responsibilities to God, and-to God that while the physical condition of the slave is not what alone. it has been represented, the slave himself is utterly incompetent to feel the moral galling of his chain. Indeed, we cordially agree with a distinguished Northern contemporary and friend, that the Professor's strict honesty, impartiality, and unprejudiced common sense, on the trying subject which has so long agitated our community, is the distinguishing and the most praiseworthy

We recommend "The Rambler" to the earnest attention of our readers. It is the best work on America yet published. Mr. Latrobe is a scholar, a man of intellect and a gentleman.

THE SOUTH-WEST.

The South-West. By a Yankee. New York: Published feature of his book. Yet it has other excellences, and by Harper and Brothers.

This work, from the pen of Professor Ingraham, rivals the book of which we have just been speaking, in degree-although not in quality--of interest. Mr. Latrobe has proved himself a man of the world, an able teacher, and a philosopher. Professor Ingraham is an amusing traveller, full of fun, gossip, and shrewd remark. In all that relates to the "Mechanics of book-writing," the Englishman is immeasurably the superior.

excellences of a high character. As a specimen of the picturesque, we extract a passage beginning at page 27, vol. i.

'Keep away a little, or you'll run that fellow down,' suddenly shouted the captain to the helmsman; and the next moment the little fishing vessel shot swiftly under our stern, just barely clearing the spanker boom, whirling and bouncing about in the wild swirl of the ship's wake like a "Masallah boat" in the surf of Madras.

There were on board of her four persons, including the steersman-a tall, gaunt old man, whose uncovered gray locks streamed in the wind as he stooped to his little rudder to luff up across our wake. The lower extremities of a loose pair of tar-coated duck trowsers, which he wore, were incased, including the best part of his legs, in a pair of fisherman's boots, made of leather which would flatten a rifle ball. His red flannel shirt left his hairy breast exposed to the icy winds, and a huge pea-jacket, thrown, Spanish fashion, over his shoulders, was fastened at the throat by a single button. His tarpaulin-a little narrow-brimmed hat of the pot-lid tribe, secured by a ropeyarn-had probably been thrown off in the moment of danger, and now hung swinging by a lanyard from the lower button-hole of his jacket.

Mr. I. in his "Introduction," informs us that his work grew out of a private correspondence, which the author, at the solicitation of his friends, has been led to throw into the present form, modifying in a great measure the epistolary vein, and excluding, so far as possible, such portions of the original papers as were of too personal a nature to be intruded upon the majesty of the publicwhile he has embodied, so far as was compatible with the new arrangement, every thing likely to interest the general reader." The aim of the writer, we are also told, has been to present the result of his experience and observations during a residence of several years in that district of our country which gives the title to the As his little vessel struggled like a drowning man in work. It is, indeed, a matter for wonder that a similar the yawning concave made by the ship, he stood with object has never been carried into execution before. one hand firmly grasping his low, crooked rudder, and The South-West, embracing an extensive and highly with the other held the main sheet, which alone be interesting portion of the United States, is completely which he puffed away incessantly; one eye was tightly tended. A short pipe protruded from his mouth, at caviare to the multitude. Very little information, upon closed, and the other was so contracted in a network of whose accuracy reliance may be placed, has been hith-wrinkles, that I could just discern the twinkle of a gray erto made public concerning these regions of Eldorado-pupil, as he cocked it up at our quarter-deck, and took and were the volumes of Professor Ingraham absolutely in with it the noble size, bearing, and apparel of our fine ship. worthless in every other respect, we should still be inclined to do them all possible honor for their originality in subject matter. But the "South-West" is very far from worthless. In spite of a multitude of faults which the eye of rigid criticism might easily detect-in spite of some inaccuracies in point of fact, many premature opinions, and an inveterate habit of writing what neither is, nor should be English, the Professor has succeeded in making a book, whose abiding interest, coming home to the bosoms and occupations of men, will cause any

66

A duplicate of the old helmsman, though less battered by storms and time, wearing upon his chalky locks a red, woollen, conical cap, was easing off" the foresheet as the little boat passed; and a third was stretching his neck up the companion ladder, to stare at the big ship," while the little carroty-headed imp, who was just the old skipper razeed, was performing the culinary operations of his little kitchen under cover of the heavens."

46

The portions of the book immediately relating to New Orleans-its odd buildings-its motley assemblage