ART. III. Letters from the West; containing Sketches of Scenery, Manners, and Customs; and Anecdotes connected with the First Settlements of the Western Sections of the United States. By the Hon. Judge Hall. London. 8vo. 1828. WE Western E have often wished for some account of these Sections' of the United States from the pen of a genuine American; and here we have caught one at last, such as he is, in the person of an honourable Judge, and, we believe, a jobber of land into the bargain. We acknowledge that we never had much doubt as to the general accuracy of the statements made by English travellers in those regions—(making due abatements for some little exaggeration, perhaps on the score of prejudice, or, in one or two instances, from motives of interest);-yet, as the Americans have always affected to throw discredit on the reports of such travellers, when they happened to be unfavourable to the state of the country and the people, and have shown their ill-humour with us for believing anything they set down, we were not only willing but very glad to hear what a native Republican, of the highest grade, might have to allege in their favour. The little additional light, however, which his Honour's very limited travels and still more contracted talent for observation have thrown on the state of these countries, really turns out more confirmatory than contradictory of the worst conclusions which could have been drawn from the accounts of any of his English predecessors. The fact of the honourable author uniting with his judicial character that of land-jobber, it is right we should say, is not directly avowed; but enough oozes out, in the course of his Letters, to show that his lot is cast in the Western States,' and that he has a deep interest in their improvement—which, of course, he states to have made a much greater progress than we could have thought the mud-bottoms of the Wabash or the prairies of Illinois were capable of. One of his many reasons for visiting these regions, he tells us, was the uncertainty in which he remained as to their actual state and condition, some having lauded them as the best of all earthly paradises, while others denounced them as a hell; some ascribing to them health, fertility, and innumerable commercial advantages, while others persisted in filling them with swamps, agues, tomahawks, and musquitoes. His Honour, therefore, exclaims, I will see into it, said I;' and off he sets, we know not how, from his native Pennsylvania; but in a moment we find him fairly embarked, and gliding merrily down the Ohio,' on the banks of which is situated Shawnee-town, the ultima Thule' of his travels whether by land or by water. We are justified, therefore, in denying that that his Honour the Judge has fulfilled his promise of seeing into it.' What, in truth, could a man see, even supposing him to have the gift of observation, between Pittsburgh and Shawneetown, whilst gliding merrily down the Ohio in a keel-boat, 'navigated by eight or ten of those half-horse and half-alligator gentry commonly called Ohio boatmen ?' The drolleries' of these nondescript animals indeed, and their River Melodies,' are recorded at great length by our venerable author; but we must cut them short-contenting ourselves with one sweet stanza which lulled his Honour to sweet sleep, as the rowers were tugging at the oar,' timing their strokes to the cadence: 'Some rows up, but we rows down, All the way to Shawnee-town: We readily believe all that he says of the sagacity and acuteness of his countrymen in mercantile and other speculations, and also about their keenness in discerning eligible places to settle in ; and only wonder that we should have been fated to discover so remarkable a specimen of dulness in the shape of a Judge, born and bred in the midst of a society so lynx-eyed, that every old woman, he tells us, knows that Pittsburgh is full of coal and smoke; that in New Orleans the people play cards on Sunday; that living is dear at Washington city, and codfish cheap at Boston; and that Irishmen are plenty in Pennsylvania, and pretty girls in Rhode Island.' It is rather fortunate for our author that he has no taste for antiquities, as a trip down a very small portion of the Ohio would not have gratified such a propensity. I should tread,' says he,' with as much reverence over the mausoleum of a Shawnee chief (that is, provided he could find one), as among the catacombs of Egypt; and would speculate with as much delight on the site of an Indian village (alas! no such thing is now to be found within the limits of his travels) as in the gardens of Tivoli, or the ruins of Herculaneum.' What his other acquirements may be we are left to guess. He has certainly no talent for observation. Of the produce of the country, natural or artificial--of the manners, employments, amusements of these back settlers, of their condition and state of society-he tells us little or nothing. He affects to have some little taste for poetry, though we suspect he mistakes his forte, as music (which he despises) and poetry generally go together: the honourable Judge, indeed, avows that he finds no music so inspiriting as the cracking of a coachman's whip.' He tries his hand, however, to hitch into rhyme some of Brother Jonathan's classical names of rivers and creeks: 'O'er 'O'er Horsetail when the stream was low, False Horsetail! caverns lurk below And 'Possum joined the symphony.' &c. &c. This is Hall versus Wordsworth! Helvellyn far into the clear blue sky Carried the lady's voice-old Skiddaw blew And Kirkstone tossed it from his misty head.' Of his legal talents the honourable Judge Hall gives no proofs; neither do we discover the extent of his knowledge in ancient or modern languages. In one of the latter, however, there is a little monosyllable that has perplexed the intellects of the sage exceedingly. In approaching the rapids of the Ohio, he says, The word Chute may puzzle you as much as it has puzzled me; but it is the very identical word used by most of the writers on this subject. Whether it be a Greek, an Indian, or a Kentucky phrase, I cannot inform you-I have sought its derivation in all the languages with which I am conversant, without effect. In point of fact, it is applied to channels through which a boat may be said to shoot with the swiftness of an arrow.'-p. 185.* To shoot a fall, we must admit, is an ingenious and happy suggestion, though we believe neither Greek' nor Kentuckian;' nor is it quite new; for we remember hearing the old steward of the household, when showing the portrait of Sir Francis Drake, and carefully pointing out to the pistol which the gallant admiral holds in his hand, gravely assure a group of tourists that that there pistol was the very pistol with which the admiral shot the Gulf of Florida.' The Judge, however, if not much of a scholar, sometimes attempts to be witty and very facetious; and even goes so far as to quiz Brother Jonathan on his blue licks,' lost creeks,' and muddy bottoms.' 'I once travelled through Illinois when the waters were high; and when I was told that Little Mary would stop me, and that to get by Big Mary was impossible, I supposed them to be attractive damsels, who, like beauteous Circe of old, amused themselves with playing tricks upon travellers. But lo! instead of blushing, blooming, and *Had the author consulted the French dictionary, he would have seen that the word chute is, Anglice, fall?'-Quoth the Printer's Devil (in the London edition of the Judge's work.) melodious melodious maids, I found torrents cold as ice, and boisterous as furies. Mary is too sweet a name to be thus profaned.'—pp. 209, 210. His Honour is, no doubt, exceedingly gallant, and his devotion to the lovely ladies' so ardent, as sometimes to interfere with the resolution he made at setting out, of seeing into the state and appearance of the country. of the country. Thus his time at Cincinnati was so much occupied with one of these lovelies,' a companion of his dancing days,' that I had only time,' says he, to discover that I was in a town of ample size and goodly appearance, where of I met genteel forms and busy faces.' This may be one way seeing into it,' but will not go far in letting his readers know what they may expect to 'see' in Cincinnati. Lest, indeed, his correspondent should suppose him capable of such bad taste as to be making remarks on the country, or thinking of statistics, with a fair lady at his side,' he plainly tells him- I would not give one "merry glance of mountain maid" for the plaudits of the literary world. So I shall write when I please, and court the girls when I can'—provided, one might hint, you please when you write, Mr. Judge, and when you kiss, are silent. We are, however, oldfashioned enough to doubt whether it is quite decorous in so grave a personage as this to publish to all the world how he delights in ogling the cherry-cheeked damsels at their chamber windows, as he sits lolling on horseback, in passing through the villages, even though his vanity may have led him to flatter himself that their sparkling eyes were directed towards him from every quarter.' Well may this worthy suspect, as he seems to do, in his first letter, that it might be questioned whether he had reached the years of discretion.' With us, however, it is no question. We repeat that a more silly book,-one more stuffed with boyish levities, unbecoming the author's age and character, we have rarely met with. His impertinence, with regard to England, was to be expected from the general tone assumed by American writers, and we were prepared for it; but his impertinence towards English travellers quite amused us. I will not imitate them,' he says, as, in the character of an American traveller, it will be expected of me that I tell the truth, though the former would not have imposed any such obligation.' (p. 178.) 'A disregard for time or place, when profit allures to distant regions,' his Honour the Judge tells us, is a national trait' in the American character; 6 a Yankee will live where another man would starve,' and will flourish even in the midst of ruin.' This trait of character, he would give us to understand, will account for the vast crowds which pursue their way to that country in which his own lot is cast,' and where science and refinement have made such progress as to have sent already (we suppose to Congress) the เ 'the statesman upon whose accents listening thousands have hung enraptured the gentleman whose politeness pleases-and the maiden whose loveliness delights.' To all this we have no objection if the Americans think so; but when the Honourable Judge proceeds to draw his grand comparison between the irruptions of the barbarians of the north of Europe, and the emigrations that are levelling the forests of the western sections of the United States, he must not expect to deceive either the European or the American reader. ‹ The arm of flesh,' he says, " was visible in all the operations of the northern savages. The country gained by violence was held by force; the blood-stained soil produced nothing but " man and steel, the soldier and his sword." What a contrast,' he exclaims, 'does our happy country present to scenes like these!-people flocking from all nations, sitting down quietly together, and forming constitutions, without bloodshed or dissension.' He very speedily, however, upsets his own statement, by telling us that, instead of sitting down quietly, without bloodshed or dissension,' the settlers were constantly engaged in all the horrors of Indian warfare,' which were encountered to the fullest extent;' that the first settlers waged continual war; they fought pro aris et focis.' We presume the learned Judge means, that the native Indians, and not the American settlers, fought for hearths and altars; at least all the world knows that the former were driven from their homes and massacred in cold blood by the latter. Again, we are told of the crowds sitting down in quiet and peaceful possession of the country-we presume of that part of it named the Bloody Ground, from the exterminating character of its conflicts;' and of the severe engagements, in which the savages were always repulsed:' to be sure they were!-the tomahawk was no match for the axe and the rifle. These scenes of slaughter and extermination, we are coolly told, were accomplished at a time when fanaticism had vanished;' when the principles of the revolution had engendered liberal and original modes of thinking-it was then, he says, that the rifle and the axe of the Kentuckian were necessarily employed'-when the savage was to be expelled!' What a monstrous justification is this from the pen of a judge!— what notions of justice and humanity must that man possess who finds, in the extirpation of a whole race of men, an apology on the plea of necessity, and a happy contrast!' Pro aris et focis, truly! we do not envy their fire-sides-and altars they have none. This happy country, however, per fas et nefas, has been wrested from its rightful owners; and we should now look in vain for a red Indian in Kentucky or Illinois. A more industrious and a more intelligent race, we admit, has succeeded to the property of the soil, and it is very natural for one who is deeply interested in peopling |