taken, and to illustrate the great fact, that "UNCLE SAM AND HIS COUNTRY" are not so bad as prejudice would paint them. As an Englishman, who, when a stranger and a traveller on American soil, received many acts of kindness from its people, I would not be so ungrateful but to remember, with very lively feelings of gratitude, their hospitality and friendship to me; and, therefore, cannot return it in a more appropriate manner than in dedicating a Work, treating of them and their country, to the distinguished gentleman who is now dwelling amongst us as the Representative of that Great Nation. THE AUTHOR. THE AUTHOR'S ADDRESS TO HIS READER. PROBABLY, in glancing over these pages, you will be induced to ask who is Uncle Sam? And those readers who are unacquainted with the sobrique, as applied to the American Nation, I would inform, that Uncle Sam is not one person, but the name given when speaking of the American people generally-in the same-wise as John Bull is applied to England, and the Britishers universally. Having, during my residence in the New World, opportunities of gathering varied information relative to the United States and the Canadas, during the years 1854-5-6-in committing them to paper, I have ever had but one object in view, viz. :-that of speaking the truth. And, indeed, in this particular age, when so much is said for and against the Americans, and their Country, it behoves him (let he be whom he may) to deal with the incidents of a Nation's manners, habits, or customs (whether peculiar or not) with an impartial pen; and with such views I have treated of this large Continent, and influential people, as I really found them; and it is with all sincerity when I say,-speed the time when the jealousies of countries shall divide us no more. Having, therefore, come before the world, I submit my work to the reader's notice, and claim his fullest indulgence, hoping that the various descriptive scenes of American life, their institutions, commerce, and progress, interspersed with anecdotes relative to passing adventures, which occur to travellers in their different phases, I shall not be presuming, when I trust that by endeavouring to unite amusement with instruction, to be the means of beguiling the tedium of a passing hour. This being my first essay in the literary world, as such I leave it to a lenient Public, who, I have no doubt, will receive it with its manifold imperfections. III. Railway Travelling in the United States IV. Boston, its Institutions and Baby-Shows V. Dorchester and its Neighbourhood VI. American Country Boarding-Houses Historical Notice of Boston XVI. Faneuil Hall and Bunker's Hill XVII. Excitement-Meetings in America XVIII. Police System of Boston and New York. XX. Literature of the United States XXI. Wealthy Eminence as attained in the United States XXII. New England Glass Works at East Cambridge XXIII. Forest Hill and Mount Auburn Cemeteries XXIV. Lowell, and its Factories XXV. American Religion; its Observances and Abuses |