From the Examiner.

The Homes of the New World; Impressions of
America. By FREDERIKA BREMER. Trans-
lated by Mary Howitt. 3 vols. Hall,
Virtue and Co.

and although Miss Bremer now and then joins in complaint against the notes taken by Mr. Dickens, her own shrewd touches scattered through the book abundantly confirm all that has been said by him.

The work, which is too long, and could well endure the omission of that third part in the form of letters home to a departed which we find ourselves unable to admire, is sister. Although not at first intended for print, they are written quite like book-only too much like book sometimes, as witness:

:

I thanked him in the affirmative, and be

THE worst part of Miss Bremer as an authoress is her sentiment, which is not in the least unwholesome, but which is extremely weak. She has a warm, true heart; has acute perceptions of everything that lies within a certain (not very wide) circle; is quick to observe the pleasant oddities and humors of the things and people that sur- "Here is a spring famous for its excellent round her, and observes all things in a genial, water," said Emerson, as he pulled up near kindly way. She is herself also very individ- some lofty trees by the road-side. "May I ual, very delightful, and, we can hardly give you a glass?" doubt, one of the honestest and best women that ever used a pen. With such merits, what a pity to have to set about finding fault! She might be not only popular, but really great among authors, if it were not for the heavy drawback of her sentiment. She has but one fault-but, as Goldsmith remarked of his friend's single failing, we must allow "it's a thumper," when it does show itself. This is the spirit in which after a two years' very thorough ramble in America Miss Bremer left her friends:

alighted, fastened the reins to a tree, and soon returned with a glass of water clear as crystal from the spring.

A glass of water! How much may be comprised in this gift! Why it should become significant to me on this occasion I cannot say; but so it was. I have silently within myself combated with Emerson from the first time that I became acquainted with him. I have questioned with myself in what consisted this power of the spirit over me, when I so much disapprove of his mode of thinking, when there was so much in him which was unsatisfactory to me; in what consisted his mysterious magical power; that in

Last evening I took a stroll through the park alone, and with an unspeakable melancholy invigorating, refreshing influence, which I always my soul.

experience in his writings, or in intercourse with "It is all past and gone, this beautiful time," him? After this cordial draught of clear water thought I; "these bonds of friendship, these from the spring, given by his hand, I understood beautiful sights of a New World; these beauti-it. It is precisely this crystal, pure, fresh, cold ful, animating circumstances; all past! past water, in his individual character, in his writand gone!" And I wept bitterly. ings, which has refreshed and will again and yet again refresh me.

But when I looked up, the full moon was looking down upon me, large and splendid, and shone into my soul as she seemed to say:

"No, it is not all past and gone! Strengthen thy heart with the light which increases forever! That which the human being has thus found, thus acquired, is his forever, and cannot die. It is an imperishable seed, which will renovate itself in new and abundant harvests in the kingdom of light! These friends, these memories, will not cease to live in thee. To each wane succeeds a new increase and a new

fulness."

This was what the moon, my friend, seemed to say to me, and comforted I returned to the house,

was silent and thankful.

Miss Bremer has " never seen a more beautiful smile than Emerson's; (he has, by the way, an Eagle head) the eyes cast a light upon it. Mr. Downing's is the only smile which resembles it; it is less brilliant, but has a more romantic grace about it." Mr. Downing was the first entertainer and chief friend of Miss Bremer in America-her brother," as somebody else is her father," - she likes him best, and therefore sentimentalizes over him until she makes him more ridiculous than

anybody. His chief characteristic is a Burleigh silence. He commonly sits still while she is conscious of the music of his soul." About one third of the book is written in Miss Bremer would like also to live for a that spirit and since the sentiment is con-year by herself among rocks. She frankly secrate to friendship, it happens that the owns that she does not like Shakspeare's friends she loved, and the small celebrities Midsummer Night's Dream, and she abuses she worshipped they were many -are the Meyerbeer's Prophète, but here was a somepeople who present the most absurd appear- thing to stir up enthusiasm. ance. In the other two-thirds of the book the author of the Neighbors sets aside the day I went out among my acquaintances in As early therefore as possible the following colors with which she painted Bruno, and Boston, inquiring after a homopathic physician. paints as she painted Bear. In spite of all A kind, handsome, elderly lady, Mrs. C. (the the froth, every hard as well as pleasant truth mother of three tall sons), promised to send her that has to be told about America is told; physician to me. Accordingly when, about

then remarked, to my astonishment, that certain food operates upon my condition; that, for instance, I wake in the morning with a sensation of misery if I eat preserves in the evening; and that, on the contrary, I am quite well in the morning when I eat nothing sweet or fat in the evening.

noon, having returned from a walk, I entered the best part about me. I have, however, since my sitting-room, I beheld there a tall old gentleman, with a pale and strongly-marked countenance, high forehead, bald temples, silver-gray hair, and a pair of deep-set, blue eyes, full of feeling and fervor. He stood there silent and dressed in black, in the middle of the room, with the appearance almost of a clergyman, and with his penetrating, earnest eyes riveted upon me. I do not know how it was, but it was so, that from the first moment I saw him I felt confidence in and affection towards him. I advanced towards him, took his hand between both mine, looked up in his pale, grave countenance and said, " Help me!" Thus helpless, feeble, and poor, had I now for some time felt myself to be, under the power as it were of a strange suffering, which crippled me both in soul and body, and, alone too, in a strange land, without any other support than the powers of my own soul and body to sustain me through the work which I had under

taken!

He replied in a deep bass voice, speaking slowly as if with difficulty-but ah! my child, it seems like vanity in me to say what he replied; but let me seem vain for this once-he said, Miss Bremer, no one can have read your Neighbors, and not wish to help you! And I hope to be able to help you !"

I wept; I kissed the thin, bony hands, which I held, as I would have kissed those of a fatherly benefactor; I felt myself also like a child.

We should have misled our readers if we had not pointed out very distinctly a defect which goes far to render the book before us indigestible; the defect, however, is entirely in the sauce that has been poured over the meat - not in the meat-not in the reality and substance of the book itself. They who in spite of the oil can eat the fish will find it choice and delicate. If this work displays largely Miss Bremer's single fault, it displays yet a great deal more largely all her merits. It raises our admiration of her character, and supports our faith in her substantial good sense and shrewdness. Expunge the sentiment, and here there remain still two thick volumes of impressions of America, which are among the very best that have been published. Miss Bremer visited the north and south, the Negroes, the Indians, and the Cubans. She is amiable to a fault, yet quick-witted - the very woman to make an honest, useful, and He gave me a little white powder, which looked is devoted to the subject of slavery; she effective chronicler. A large part of her book like nothing, and which I was to take before I went to bed. I took it; slept excellently, and attended camp-meetings and slave-auctions, the next day ah! what feelings! all malady and, writing wholly without bitterness, she was gone. I felt myself as if sustained by tells a tale that illustrates and confirms in spirit-wings; a nameless sensation of peace and every respect the impression made by Mrs. health pervaded my whole being. I went out. Stowe. The following, written from CincinI did not feel my body. I rejoiced in the blue-nati before Uncle Tom's Cabin had been pubness of heaven, in the leaping of the billows. Ilished, will be read with considerable interest. could see that the world was beautiful. I had not felt thus for a long time, and the certainty Ohio is, as you know, a free State, and exactly that I had now a remedy which would support on the opposite side of the beautiful river which my still vigorous power and will, made me un- bears its name, lies the slave State of Kentucky, speakably happy. I thank God. And not and slaves flying across the river to reach a free merely for my own sake, but for yours, because shore were heard of formerly as an every-day I am convinced that nothing would suit you and occurrence. Now such a flight avails nothing to your weakness so well as these airy, light, al- the poor slaves. They are pursued and recapmost spiritual, and wonderfully effective medi-tured as well in a free as in a slave State. cines. These little white nothings of powders and globules, which taste like nothing, look like nothing, operate powerfully and quickly, often within half or a quarter of an hour. And, finally, I beg of you to make the trial of them, if, this winter, as is generally the case with you in the winter, you find yourself out of health, both body and mind; make the trial of them, and throw all other medicines out of the window. Pay attention also to diet, and that you do not eat anything which disagrees with you. My doctor maintains that my disorder proceeds from the stomach, and is of the kind very common in this country, and which is called dyspepsia. He has prescribed for me a very exact diet; that I am not to eat fat or greasy meat, or roast meat nor highly seasoned, nor preserves, nor many other things. I was for a long time obstinate, and insisted upon it that my stomach was

I have heard histories of the flight of slaves which are full of the most intense interest, and I cannot conceive why these incidents do not be come the subjects of romances and novels in the literature of this country. I know no subject which could furnish opportunities for more heartrending or more picturesque descriptions and scenes. The slaves, for example, who fly "the way of the North Star," as it is called, who know no other road to liberty than the road towards the north, who wander on by night when it shines, and conceal themselves by day in the deep forests, where sometimes gentle friends (Quakers) carry out food to them, without which they would probably perish; this journey with its dangers and its anticipations, its natural scenery, and its nocturnal guiding star; what subjects are here for the pen of genius! Add to this the converse, the agony or the joy of warm,

Do

O, glory hallelujah!

King Jesus is the Captain, hallelujah,
King Jesus, &c.

you think she will be able to land us on the

shore ?

O, glory hallelujah!

I think she will be able, hallelujah!
I think, &c.

loving, suffering human hearts-in short, here | What kind of Captain does she have on board?
are subjects of a higher romantic interest than
are found in Chateaubriand's "Attala." I can-
not understand how, in particular, noble-minded
American women, American mothers who have
hearts and genius, do not take up the subject,
and treat it with a power which should pierce
through bone and marrow, should reduce all the
prudential maxims of statesmen to dust and
ashes, and create a revolution even in the old
widely-praised constitution itself. It is the right
of the woman; it is the right of the mother,
which suffers most severely through slavery.
And if the heart of the woman and the mother
would throb warmly and strongly with maternal
life's blood, I am convinced that the earth, the
spiritual earth of the United States, must quake
thereby and overthrow slavery!

Often when I have heard the adventures of fu-
gitive slaves, their successful escape or their de-
struction, and have thought of the scenery of
America, and those occurrences which naturally
suggest themselves on "the way of the North
Star," I have had a wish and a longing desire to
write the history of a fugitive pair, so as it seems
to me it ought to be written, and I have been in-
clined to collect materials for that purpose. And
if I lived by this river, and amid these scenes, I
know for what object I should then live. But as
it is, I am deficient in local knowledge. I am not
sufficiently acquainted with the particular detail
of circumstances which would be indispensable
for such a delineation, which ought to be true,
and take a strong hold upon the reader. That
office belongs to others beside myself. I will hope
for and expect-the American mother.

We must quote one or two passages concerning negro life, illustrative of Mrs. Stowe's depiction of it. First of the Methodism, as Been in an African church at Cincinnati:

She

has landed over thousands, and can land as

many more.

O, glory hallelujah! &c., &c.

After the singing of the hymn, which was not led by any organ or musical instrument whatever, but which arose like burning melodious sighs from the breasts of the congregation, the preacher mounted the pulpit.

Then here again is Methodism, as observed among the negroes of a plantation near Charleston, recalling by many touches the first chapter of Uncle Tom.

66

Yesterday-Sunday- there was, in the forenoon, divine service for the negroes in a wagonshed, which had been emptied for that purpose. It was clean and airy, and the slaves assembled there, well dressed and well behaved. The sermon and the preacher (a white missionary) were unusually wooden. But I was astonished at the people's quick and glad reception of every single expres sion of beauty or of feeling. Thus, when the preacher introduced the words from Job-"The ed be the name of the Lord!" there was a genLord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, blesseral movement among the people; the words were repeated; many exclaimed Amen! amen! and I saw many eyes full of tears.

In the evening I wandered out to enjoy the beautiful evening and to look about me. I have often heard it said by the friends of slavery, even I found in the African church African ardor in the Northern States, as a proof of the happiand African life. The church was full to over-ness of the slaves, that they dance and sing in flowing, and the congregation sang their own hymns. The singing ascended and poured forth like a melodious torrent, and the heads, feet and elbows of the congregation moved all in unison with it, amid evident enchantment and delight in the singing, which was in itself exquisitely pure and full of melodious life.

The hymns and psalms, which the negroes have
themselves composed, have a peculiar, naïve char-
acter, child-like, full of imagery and life. Here
is a specimen of one of their popular church
bymns:-

What ship is this that's landed at the shore ?
O, glory hallelujah!

It's the old ship of Zion, hallelujah,
It's the old ship of Zion, hallelujah.

Is the mast all sure, and the timber all sound?
O, glory hallelujah!

She's built of gospel timber, hallelujah,
She's built, &c.

What kind of men does she have on board?
O, glory, hallelujah!

They're all true-hearted soldiers, hallelujah,
They're all, &c.

the evening on the plantations. And now I thought perhaps I may chance to see a dance. I reached the slave village. The little white houses, overshadowed by the pink blossoming trees, with their little plot of garden-ground, looked charmingly; the little fat black children leapt about eating a large yellow root, the sweet potato, laughing if one only looked at them, and especially inclined to shake hands. But in the village itself everything was very still and quiet. A few negro men and women were standing about, and they looked kind and well to do. I heard in one house a sound as of prayer and zealous exhortation. I entered and saw an assemblage of negroes, principally women, who were much edified and affected in listening to a negro who was preaching to them with great fervor and great gesticulation, thumping on the table with his clenched fists. The sum and substance of his sermon was this-"Let us do as Christ has commanded us; let us do as he wishes; let us love one another. Then he will come to us on our sick-beds, on our death-beds, and he will make us free, and we shall come to him and sit with him in glory!"

The discourse, spite of its exaggerated pathos | to be actively employed in swallowing his last and its circumlocution, could not have been bet- mouthful. He took the auctioneer's hammer in ter in its aim and in its application. And it de- his hand, and addressed the assembly much as lighted me to hear the doctrine of spiritual free-follows: :dom promulgated by a slave among slaves. I have since heard that the Methodist missionaries, who are the most influential and effective teachers and preachers among the negroes, are very angry with them for their love of dancing and music, and declare them to be sinful. And when-sponsibilities by parting with his faithful servants. ever the negroes become Christians they give up dancing, have preaching meetings instead, and employ their musical talents merely on psalms and hymns.

Or take this little scene:

"Are you a Christian?" inquired I of a young, handsome mulatto woman who waited on me here.

"No, Missis, I am not."

"Have you not been baptized? Have you not been taught about Christ ?"

"The slaves which I have now to sell, for what price I can get, are a few house-slaves, all the property of one master. This gentleman, having given his bond for a friend who afterwards became bankrupt, has been obliged to meet his reThese slaves are thus sold, not in consequence of any faults which they possess, or for any deficiencies. They are all faithful and excellent servants, and nothing but hard necessity would have compelled their master to part with them. They are worth the highest price, and he who purchases them may be sure that he increases the prosperity of his family."

After this he beckoned to a woman among the blacks to come forward, and he gave her his hand to mount upon the platform, where she remained standing beside him. She was a tall, well-grown "Yes, Missis, I have a godmother, a negro- mulatto, with a handsome but sorrowful counte woman, who was very religious, and who in-nance, and a remarkably modest, noble demeanstructed me.”

"Do you not believe what she told you about Christ?"

"Yes, Missis; but I don't feel it here, Missis,"

and she laid her hand on her breast.

"Where were you brought up?"

"A long way from here, up the Missouri, Missis; a long way off!"

"Were your owners good to you?"

or.

She bore on her arm a young, sleeping child, upon which, during the whole auction cere monial, she kept her eyes immovably riveted, with her head cast down. She wore a gray dress made to the throat, and a pale yellow handkerchief, checked with brown, was tied round her head.

The auctioneer now began to laud this woman's good qualities, her skill, and her abilities, to the "Yes, Missis; they never gave me a bad assembly. He praised her character, her good word."

"Are you married?"

disposition, order, fidelity; her uncommon qualifications for taking care of a house; her piety,

Yes, Missis, but my husband is a long way her talents; and remarked that the child which off with his master."

she bore at her breast, and which was to be sold with her, also increased her value. After this he shouted with a loud voice-"Now, gentlemen, how much for this very superior woman, this remarkable, &c., &c., and her child?"

He pointed with his out-stretched arm and the fore-finger from one to another of the gentlemen who stood around, and first one and then another replied to his appeal, with a short silent nod, and all the while he continued in this style

Gen

Dr. D. and I entered a large and somewhat "Do you offer me five hundred dollars? cold and dirty hall, on the basement story of a tlemen, I am offered five hundred dollars for this house, and where a great number of people were superior woman and her child. It is a sum not assembled. About twenty gentlemenlike men to be thought of! She, with her child, is worth stood in a half-circle round a dirty wooden plat-double that money. Five hundred and fifty, six form, which, for the moment, was unoccupied. hundred, six hundred and fifty, six hundred and On each side, by the wall, stood a number of black men and women silent and serious The whole assembly was silent, and it seemed to me as if a heavy gray cloud rested upon it. One heard through the open door the rain falling heavily in the street. The gentlemen looked askance at me, with a gloomy expression, and probably wished that they could send me to the North Pole.

sixty, six hundred and seventy. My good gentleman, why do you not at once say seven hundred dollars, for this uncommonly superior woman and her child? Seven hundred dollars, it is downright robbery She would never have been sold at that price if her master had not been so unfortunate, &c. &c."

The hammer fell heavily; the woman and her child were sold for seven hundred dollars, to one Two gentlemen hastily entered; one of them a of those dark, silent figures before her. Who he tall, stout man, with a gay and good-tempered was; whether he was good or bad, whether he aspect, evidently a bon vivant, ascended the auc- would lead her into tolerable or intolerable slavtion platform. I was told that he was an Eng-ery of all this, the bought and sold woman and lishman, and I can believe it from his blooming mother knew as little as I did, neither to what complexion, which was not American. He came part of the world he would take her. And the apparently from a good breakfast, and he seemed father of her child-where was he?

1

1

No sermon, no anti-slavery oration, could speak so powerfully against the institution of slavery as this slave auction itself!

The master had been good, the servants good also, attached and faithful, and yet they were sold to whoever would buy them-sold like brute beasts!

There is enough in what we have quoted to show that Miss Bremer is an honest, earnest, and true-hearted chronicler. That we may close this notice pleasantly, and show that the pen which sketched for us and for our children Ma chere Mére, and Bear, and many other quaint and pleasant beings, has lost none of its genial spirit, we append three or four little anecdotes and sketches selected without trouble from the mass of agreeable matter that awaits the readers of Miss Bremer's book.