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    204 THE X E A BEB. [No. 464, February 12...

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    other countries. In very much that M. Ko...

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    Civilised America. Civilised America. By...

    ultramontane and trans-Mississippi wilds , where the prairies yet witness only their own vast solitude , or the El Dorado where gold resolves civilisation back to the barbarism whence , through the ages , it has emerged , still the amplitude of his then possible theme' might fairly have suggested to him a confinement of his treatment within the-sufficiently broad limits he has chosen . . We have no fault ; therefore , to find with the comparative narrowness of the territory he has occupied . But within his proper held we think there are one or two most cardinal Omissions . Eirst , we might have wished the book a little less urban . He depicts only men aiid manners . A somewhat monotonous one-sidedness would have been avoided and relieved had there

    been a larger canvas allowed for the picture of American mountains , rivers , and plains , and the settled , English-like , rural scenery of the purely Kew England States . Such depictions we know the author might have given well . Such scenes his eye must have with greater frequency and closeness regarded than the common herd of tra-Tellers . Again ?—and this omission we believe unpardonable , especially by ^ one whose public office and duties brought him constantly amidst these very relations—the book gives next to no information on the industrial and commercial aspects , of the American people , the most practical

    and generally interesting division of the subject , and rendered peculiarly valuable to us by recent events . In these , and such senses ^ we mus t declare Mr . Grattan ' s view incomplete . But , within his limits , self-chosen , and as we have further narrowed them , his treatment is full and copious . As a book on the political and social aspects of the States , oh government , " society , " literature , public men , manners , and morals , a very high commendation must be rendered . One more detraction , and we have done with that part of our office . ECe .. looks infinitely too much through " society" spectacles —he goes too much as an English gentleman to see

    of what stuff the American " upper ten thousand , " N . or " upper crust , " is made . It is American higher circles , rather than the American people , he writes about . He is more anxious to investigate in what respects their wealthier and more literate citizens are or are not worthy of being designated gentlemen and ladies , than to discover whether the race fosters and develops the perennial and fruitful see 4 s of national vigour , honesty , self-reliance , and disinterestedness . These last two faults we have ven ; tured to point out we cannot regard as other than cardinal . Perhaps the highest element of worth these

    Britisli Isles . But there is much bustle and business vivacity . The thoroughfares are full of well-clad , plainlooking , serious-visaged men ,. and -women in . all the gaudiness of over dressed pretension . The flaunting air of these ladies , their streaming feathers and flowers , silks and satins of all colours , and a rapi'r t dashing step as they walk along , singly or in couples , give foreigners a widely mistaken notion pf them . They look , in fact , like so many nymphs of the pave ; for no other class of females in Europe are at all like them ; and many awkward mistakes fake place in consequence . But in jproportion as the American ladies lose much of the retiring modesty so common in their sex by this habit of independent promenading , the streets gain largely in the glare and glitter of the fair pietons .

    The present raging of the dining controversy amongst ourselves tempts us to extract the following : — The style of every-day living among even the wealthiest people is very simple and unexpensive . But little wine is drunk in the more domestic circle , and plain English cookery is alone usual . Eating and drinkT ingj en famille , mere operation of appetite , without any social feeling connected with it ; and the more quickly and least expensively it can be performed the better . But the overloaded table , and the interminable

    varieties of wine , at a regular dinner given to company , form a striking contrast to the family meal . At these dinners all the good things of the place abound ; and they are well served , for " the best cook in the town is sure to be hired for the occasion . Poultry , and wild fowl , largely preponderate among the more solid . portions of the repast ; sometimes , indeed , to the entire exclusion of butchers ' meat . A high-flavoured , but half-starved , fatless kind of venison is considered a kind of dainty . It is . always served disgustingly ' underdone—almost raw sometimes—on pewter or tin plates , standing over burners with spirits of wine , to enable each person to cook it in a thick gravy according to his fancy . This is a very disagreeable process to witness . I never was tempted to undertake it .

    Mr . Grattaii shrugs his shoulders with sybarite disgust at the cookery of the . States , which , as an art , lie proclaims in its infancy among them , and warningly reminds them of the aphorism , " Jja destine ' e des nations depend de la maniere dont ellesse nourissent , " - A chapter devoted to the consideration of the important question , " Are the Americans a happy people ? " carries the reader to the negative conclusion that they are not unhappyT—that they are strangers alike to the excesses of joy or of grief . But , as Mr . Grattan correctly puts it : " Whether the flutter of heart and the throbbing of brain , under deeper and fiercer excitements , arc more noble and more desirable , is a question of tempera ^ meut not of philosophy , and every individual must answer it from and for himself . "

    We would we had been able to add further quotations we had selected from the chapters on " The Irish in America , " Fine Arts , Religious Sects , American , Women , Slavery , Speculative Philosophy , & o . But what our space has permitted us to give must serve as sample of a book with faults of no mean importance , but with solid excellences almost solely its own , and peculiarly readable and entertaining .

    volumes possess is their historical value . Mr . Grattan ' s residence in America , and the nature of Jois position , not merely official , but semi-diplomatic , Jhave combined to give him this ^ vantage-ground . 3 T . e was much within the inner circle of politics , and saw much of the machinery of government , hoth at Washington , arid in local capitals . He speaks with authority on the characters and pretensions of such men as Everett , Calhoun , Webster , and Clay ; because he saw and knew them , and regarded all their public life from the same point of view and with the same advantages as their

    partisans and fellow-citizens . On such matters , again , as the annexation of Texas , the North-Eastern Boundary question , Mormonism , and the like , his statements and opinions have the same peculiar value . Let us add , as two more excellences from many we might still cite , the book is not "hastily gpt up ; the opinions have not only been necessarily constructed and reconstructed slowly , but the structure and workmanship in which they form and express themselves bear the samo marks of care and preparation . And there is a

    most healthy and rare abjuration of fine or fast writing . He successfully steers through the narrow channel between the two rooks pn one or other of which most writers of this class founder . He is never dull . He is animated , light , and lively , without over degenerating into the forced flippancy and theatrical scene-painting , which , at the present ilay so overload desoriptivo literature . His stylo is of the now almost defunct , oasy , gentlemanly , classic English charactor ,

    What apace remains to us wo can host occupy by one or two extracts from the most interesting parts of the volumes before us . -The following streetpicture fairly * dondenscs " first impressions ?' ' — The streets of tho 'Atlantic cities , " as the seaport towns are called , aro altogether deficient in the air of lounging and lazy life which well-dressed men of leisure and the many varieties of vagabondage give to the towns of tho Continent , and . in a minor degree , to those of tho

    204 The X E A Beb. [No. 464, February 12...

    204 THE X E A BEB . [ No . 464 , February 12 , 1859 .

    Other Countries. In Very Much That M. Ko...

    other countries . In very much that M . Kokoreff says , we heartily concur , but it seems to us that he is anxious to put his country prematurely into the manufacturing stage of development . It is possible that some' articles now exported in a raw state might be advantageously prepared on the spot , either wholly" or par . tiaflly , but the primary and chief object of a patriotic Russian should be the cultivation of the soil and the provision of adequate means of transport and communication . M . Kokoreff sees this necessity , and has honourably distinguished himself by the establishment of a large model farm , and by sending persons at his own expense to England and Scotland to study scientific methods of agriculture , and the application of drainage and machinery ; but lie talks of setting up manufactures at a rate that is quite inconsistent with the very

    limited capital that Russia possesses , and wit h the possibilities of a very thinly-scattered population . In this country we have a prodigious amount of capital , abundant communication , and an average of 233 persons to a square mile . Russia has very little capital proportioned to her size , scarcely anv means of communication , and , except in Poland , no density of population . Great Russia , with Moscow for its centre , has sixty-two inhabitants per square mile ; Little Russia ( south of the latter ) 78 . 4 ; while New Russia , bordering on the Black Sea , has only 33 . 7 ; and the northern provinces so few as 2 . 6 inhabitants per squarenule . Sueh a country has plenty to do to be agricultural , and a premature effort to be manufacturing-would be a fatal step . .

    The purely artificial character of Russian civilisation has long been a matter of comment , and its result is a thorough demoralisation , of the upperclasses , who are the most frivolous and licentious in Europe , and form a worthy apex to the official corruption which every where prevails . Fortunately , the present Emperor sets an example of economy , and is determined to carry out his grand project of emancipating the serfs and encouraging industrial pursuits ; and all hopes of Russia ' s becoming a worthy member of the European family will depend

    upon the success of these plans . M . Kokoreff gives us some startling facts ,. which , although not new , come with remarkable justness from a Russian pen . He tells us that his journey to Europe , and especially to England , filled him with astonishment at the amount of produce consumed at home ; and lie was much struck with the conduct of English squires , who , in taking him over their estates , always knocked at the cottage door instead of entering abruptly , as they would do in a cowhouse or dog kennel , lew extracts will show that

    A notwithstanding a little French polish on the surface of the nobles and merchants , the general condition of Russia is not unlike that of England in the days of King John , except in being much worse . The following passage , in which agriculture is contrasted with industry , as if it were a non-industry , sounds funny to English ears , but its meaning is apparent : •—At every step one makes in Russia , one is struck with the wide distance that separates agriculture from industry . Suppose , for example , that you spend an evening in a Moscow or St . Petersburg saloon : you find here lamps , carpets , gastronomical rarities ; a . host of servants docked out with gold-lace embroidery ; tho musters of tho house and their guests' richly and elegantly dressed ; it is to industry that all tins spldndour , all this comfort is owing , and everything seems to prove to you that all that appertains to tho external life of the upper classes is as fully developed in Russia as in any part of Europe . Lenvo , however , this brilliant saloon , and proceed to the street to look for a cabman ( istvostofiifi ) : this istvostohile is a peasant , that is to say , a representative of tho forces and of tho stato of agriculture What a wretched object presents ltselt to your notice ! You havo before you a loan jade , harnessed with ropps , and a poor man clothed -with rags . This harness and costume , almost always manufactured by the man himself , evidence tho backwardness of «>•

    THE TRADE OF RUSSIA , The Trade of Russia , considered from a European Point of View . By B . A . Kokoreff . Wertheimor and Co . This is a remarkable utterance of " Young Russia ;" not the " Young Russia" of conspiracies and revolutions dreaming of republics to be made without republicans , and of impossible leaps from . barbarism to a civilisation and liberty that can only Tesult from centuries of slow and toilsome progress , but of tho Young Russia of trade , agriculture , and commerce , making up to a full consciousness ofthobaokward state or his country , and having the good sense to prefer industrial development to tho brutal pomp-of soldiery and conquest that constituted tho main life of Russian sovereigns from Peter to

    Nicholas , and whoso failure appropriately consigned the latter potentate to a dishonoured grave . M , Kokoreff is ono of the most remarkable men of tho day . Raised b y his o ^ yn industry and talent from tho serf to tho miUionnaire , ho is tho constant advisor of tho Emperor and the head of innumerable schemes and enterprises of an industrial kind . Tho . prosent little work , which in the timp of tho late Q ' tw would havo consigned its author to Siboria , wns first published in Russia , and is now offered in an English dress in tho hope of interesting our merchants aad statesmen in a series of measures calculated to increase tho productiveness of Russia and multiply her commercial relations with this and

    agricultural class . We can easily sympathise with M . Kolvorcff in condemning tho wasteful expenditure of tho nooios while oapital is so desporatoly noeded for the cultivation of tho soil } but his ooivdomnation ot nrtioios of luxury goes too far , and tho oxoossos no « eprocates will ouro thomsolVos , by romlornig banfci'upc those who practise thorn , wJiou their estates ww pass into bettor lmnds . Trade with Russia is thus oxplairie ' a : — Fwurppo is mistalcon in imagining that to exporting Ita waros to ue , It la trading with Russia . Not so , iiuwo «' All our shops , dealing in foroign goods , in Moscow , oh Petersburg , and the capital towns of tho Governments ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 12, 1859, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_12021859/page/12/