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and other American railroads, would step over and take a sumptuary hint.

We rolled from under the Brobdignag roof of the terminus as the church of Mary-le-bone (Cockney for Marie-la-bonne, but so carved on the frieze) struck six. Our speed was increased presently to thirty miles in the hour, and with the exception of the slower rate in passing the tunnels, and the slackening and getting under way at the different stations, this rate was kept up throughout. We arrived at Liverpool (205 miles or upwards) at 3 o'clock, our stoppages having altogether exceeded an hour.

I thought towards the end, that all this might be very pleasant with a consignment of buttons, or an errand to Gretna Green. But for the pleasure of the thing, I would as lief sit in an arm chair and see bales of striped green silk unfolded for eight hours, as travel the same length of time by the railroad. (I have described in this simile, exactly the appearance of the fields as you see them in flying past.) The old women and cabbages gain by it, perhaps, for you cannot tell whether they are not girls and roses. The washerwoman at her tub follows the lady on the lawn so quickly that you confound the two irresistibly the thatched cottages look like browsing donkeys, and the browsing donkeys like thatched cottages-you ask the name of a town, and by the time you get up your finger, you point at a spot three miles off in short, the salmon well packed in straw on the top of the coach, and called fresh fish after a journey of 200 miles, sees quite as much of the country as his most intellectual fellowpassenger. I foresee in all this a new distinction in phraseology. "Have you travelled in England?" will soon be a question having no reference to railroads. The winding turnpike and cross roads, the coaches and post. carriages, will be resumed by all those who consider the sense of sight as useful in travel, and the bagman and letter bags will have almost undisputed possession of the rail-cars.

Mem. for the reader for information-the charge from London to Liverpool is £2 13s. 6d., with no fees to conductors or baggagelifters.

The Adelphi Hotel is the Astor House of Liverpool, a very large and showy hotel near the Terminus of the Railway. We were shewn into rather a magnificent parlour on our arrival, and very hungry with railroading since six in the morning, we ordered dinner at their earliest convenience. It came after a full hour, and we sat down to four superb silver covers, anticipating a meal corresponding to the stout person and pompous manners of the fattest waiter I have seen in my travels. The grand cover was removed with a flourish and disclosed-divers small bits of secondhand beef-steak, toasted brown and warped at the corners by a second fire, and on the

removal of the other three silver pagodas, our eyes were gratified by a dish of peas that had been once used for green soup, three similarly toasted and warped mutton chops, and three potatoes. Quite incredulous of the cook's intentions, I ventured to suggest to the waiter that he had probably mistaken the tray and brought us the dinner of some sportsman's respectable brace of pointers; but on being assured that there were no dogs in the cellar, I sent word to the master of the house that we had rather a preference for a dinner new and hot, and would wait till he could provide it. Half an hour more brought up the landlord's apologies and a fresh and hot beef-steak followed by a tough-crusted apple pie, custard and cheese and with a bottle of Moselle, which was good, we finished our dinner at one of the most expensive and showy Hotels in England. The manners and fare at the American hotels being always described as exponents of civilization by English travellers, I shall be excused for giving a counter-picture of one of the most boasted of their own.

My chamber at this hotel is a large and well furnished room, with windows looking out on the area shut in by the wings of the house, and I must make you still more contented at the Astor, by describing what is going on below at this moment. It is halfpast eight, and a Sunday morning. All the bells of the house, it seems to me, are ringing, most of them very impatiently, and in the area before the kitchen windows are six or eight idle waiters, and four or five female scullions, playing, quarrelling, scolding, and screaming; the language of both men and women more profane and indecent than any thing I have ever before chanced to hear, and every word audible in every room in this quarter of the hotel. This has been going on since six this morning, and I seriously declare I do not think I ever heard as much indecent conversation in my life as for three mortal hours must have "murdered sleep" for every lady and gentleman lodged on the rear side of the "crack hotel" of Liverpool.

Sick of the scene described above, I went out just now to take a turn or two in my slippers in the long entry. Up and down, giving me a most appealing stare whenever we met, dawdled also the fat waiter who served up the cold victuals of yesterday. He evidently had some errand with me, but what, I did not immediately fathom. At last he approached

"You-a-got your things, sir?" "What things?" "The stick and umbrella, I carried to your bed-room, Sir!" Yes, thank you!" and I resumed my

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walk.

The waiter resumed his, and presently approached again.

"You-a-don't intend to use the parlour again, Sir?"

"No! I have explained to the master of the house that I shall breakfast in the coffeeroom." And again I walked on.

My friend began again at the next turn. "You-a-pay for those ladies' dinner yourself, Sir?" "Yes! I expect to." I

walked on once more.

Once more approaches my fat incubus, and with a twirl of the towel in his hand looks as if he would fain be delivered of something.

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Why the d-1 am I badgered in this way!" I stormed out at last, losing patience at his stammering hesitation, and making a move to get round the fat obstruction and pursue my walk.

"Will you-a-remember the waiter, if you please, Sir !"

"Oh! I was not aware that I was to pay the waiter at every meal. I generally do it when I leave the house. Perhaps you'll be kind enough to let me finish my walk, and trust me till to-morrow morning?"

The English say they are the only nation who can comprehend the word comfortable!

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They say the best beginning in love is a decided aversion, and badly as I began at Liverpool, I shall always have a tender recollection of it for the admirable and unequalled luxury of its baths. A long and beautiful Grecian building crests the head of George's Pier, built by the Corporation of Liverpool, and devoted exclusively to salt water baths. I walked down in the twilight to enjoy this refreshing luxury, and it being Sunday evening, I was shewn into the ladies' end of the building. The room where I waited till the bath was prepared, was a lofty and finely proportioned apartment, elegantly furnished, and lined with superbly bound books and pictures, the tables covered with engravings, and the whole thing looked like a central apartment in a nobleman's residence. A boy shewed me presently into a small drawing-room, to which was attached a bath closet, the two rooms lined, boudoir fashion, with chintz, a clock over the bath, nice carpet, a stove, in short, every luxury possible to such an establishment. I asked the boy if the gentlemen's baths were as elegant as these. "Oh yes," he said, "there are two splendid pictures there of Niagara Falls and Catskill." "Who painted them?" "Mr. Wall." "And whose are they?" "They belong to our father, Sir!" I made up my mind that "our father was a man of taste and a credit to Liverpool.

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MISCELLANY.

Madame Vestris.-We believe the failure of this lady in America may be attributed to the malignity of rivals; but, going there with every desire to please, it may also be regarded as a glaring proof of the fatuity of one's

best arrangements.-The following (which, being no more than a just tribute, we gladly insert) is an extract from a letter, to the editor of the Miscellany, from one of the best hearted men living. The letter is dated "Burton street, Burton Crescent," and relates to a visit paid last week to Covent Garden Theatre.

"A little one act piece followed the comedy of Rule a Wife and have a Wife, in which Mrs. Charles Mathews, the pride of the profession, took her original character of Lisette Gierstein. Some years have elapsed since I had seen this lady professionally, and though she appears rather thinner, her pristine talent is as powerful as ever. I have witnessed much of the ups and downs of actors; have seen many without the least pretension to support, cherished by interest alone; have witnessed the appearance of others, who have considered themselves the ne plus ultra of the art, strut their hour' for a night or so, and who have afterwards been heard of no more; but the observation is as true as it is creditable to the talent of this lady, that early in her professional career she appeared as a meteor, and has to the present time maintained her station. There is a combination of ease, elegance, and mind, which Mrs. C. Mathews commands, peculiarly her own, and it is earnestly hoped that the public will remember that these valuable possessions have been achieved, alone, by habits of persevering study and incessant industry; that the scheme she has now undertaken, and so liberally prosecutes, may, by their fostering encouragement in a few years render her independent; and that, in addition, they will afford every encouragement to one who so richly deserves it.

In the words of my deceased friend Morton, I say, from the bottom of my heart, when contemplating this lady's fortunes,"Speed the Plough!"

[From the American Papers.]

Extra Sessions of Congress.-Since the adoption of the Constitution, Congress has been convened four times on extraordinary occasions, to wit: in 1797, by John Adams, on matters relating to the war with France; in 1809 and 1813, by James Madison, on matters relating to the war with Great Britain; and in 1837, by Martin Van Buren, on account of the suspension of the banks.

Miss Fanny Kemble was "all the go" in Boston and New York, and every head was turned with her acting and beauty. Every breath breathed by her was balm, every feature she had was a jewel, every smile on her face was a rainbow. She was in town last week, merely as Mrs. Butler, with two fat children, and a nursery maid. She dined at four, supped at ten, and left town without the circumstance being suspected, that it was the once brilliant Fanny Kemble !

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THE old man waved his hand with authority, and led the way without further parlance to the spot he had indicated, followed by the whole of his alarmed companions. An eye less practised than that of the trapper might have failed in discovering the gentle elevation to which he alluded, and which looked on the surface of the meadow like a growth a little taller than common. When they reached the place, however, the stinted grass itself announced the absence of that moisture which had fed the rank weeds of most of the plain, and furnished a clue to the evidence by which he had judged of the formation of the ground hidden beneath. Here a few minutes were lost in obtaining a look-out that might command a view of the surrounding sea of fire.

The frightful prospect added nothing to the hopes of those who had so fearful a stake in the result. Although the day was begining to dawn, the vivid colours of the sky continued to deepen, as if the fierce element were bent on an impious rivalry of the light of the sun. Bright flashes of flame shot up here and there, along the margin of the waste,

VOL. I.

like the nimble coruscations of the North, but far more angry and threatening in their colour and changes. The anxiety on the rigid features of the trapper sensibly deepened, as he leisurely traced these evidences of a conflagration, which spread in a broad belt about their place of refuge, until he had encircled the whole horizon.

Shaking his head, as he again turned his face to the point where the danger seemed nighest and most rapidly approaching, the old man said

"Now have we been cheating ourselves with the belief, that we had thrown these Tetons from our trail, while here is proof enough that they not only know where we lie, but that they intend to smoke us out, like so many skulking beasts of prey. See; they have lighted the fire around the whole bottom at the same moment, and we are as completely hemmed in by the devils as an island by its waters. If I only knew now on which side these miscreants lay!"

"What say you, friend Doctor," cried the bewildered Paul, turning to the naturalist with that sort of helplessness with which the

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strong are often apt to seek aid of the weak, when human power is baffled by the hand of a mightier Being, "what say you; have you no advice to give away, in a case of life and death?"

The naturalist stood, tablets in hand, looking at the awful spectacle with as much composure as if the conflagration had been lighted in order to solve the difficulties of some scientific problem. Aroused by the question of his companion, he turned to his equally calm though differently occupied associate, the trapper, demanding, with the most provoking insensibility to the urgent nature of their situation

"Venerable hunter, you have often witnessed similar prismatic experiments

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He was rudely interrupted by Paul, who struck the tablets from his hands, with a violence that betrayed the utter intellectual confusion which had overset the equanimity of his mind. Before time was allowed for remonstrance, the old man, who had continued during the whole scene like one much at a loss how to proceed, though also like one who was rather perplexed than alarmed, suddenly assumed a decided air, as if he no longer doubted on the course it was most advisable to pursue.

"It is time to be doing," he said interrupting the controversy that was about to ensue between the naturalist and the bee-hunter; "it is time to leave off books and moanings, and to be doing."

"You have come to your recollections too late, miserable old man," cried Middleton; "the flames are within a quarter of a mile of us, and the wind is bringing them down in this quarter with dreadful rapidity.'

"Anan! the flames! I care but little for the flames. If I only knew how to circumvent the cunning of the Tetons, as I know how to cheat the fire of its prey, there would be nothing needed but thanks to the Lord for our deliverance. Do you call this a fire? If you had seen what I have witnessed in the Eastern hills, when mighty mountains were like the furnace of a smith, you would have known what it was to fear the flames, and to be thankful that you were spared! Come, lads, come; 'tis time to be doing now, and to cease talking; for yonder curling flame is truly coming on like a trotting moose. hands upon this short and withered grass where we stand, and lay bare the 'arth."

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"Would you think to deprive the fire of its victims in this childish manner?" exclaimed Middleton.

A faint but solemn smile passed over the features of the old man, as he answered

"Your gran'ther would have said, that when the enemy was nigh, a soldier could do no better than to obey."

The captain felt the reproof, and instantly began to imitate the industry of Paul, who

was tearing the decayed herbage from the ground in a sort of desperate compliance with the trapper's direction. Even Ellen lent her hands to the labour, nor was it long before Inez was seen similarly employed, though none amongst them knew why or wherefore. When life is thought to be the reward of labour, men are wont to be industrious. A very few moments sufficed to lay bare a spot of some twenty feet in diameter. Into one edge of this little area the trapper brought the females, directing Middleton and Paul to cover their light and inflammable dresses with the blankets of the party. So soon as this precaution was observed, the old man approached the opposite margin of the grass, which still environed them in a tall and dangerous circle, and selecting a handful of the driest of the herbage he placed it over the pan of his rifle. The light combustible kindled at the flash. Then he placed the little flame in a bed of the standing fog, and withdrawing from the spot to the centre of the ring, he patiently awaited the result.

The subtle element seized with avidity upon its new fuel, and in a moment forked flames were gliding among the grass, as the tongues of ruminating animals are seen rolling among their food, apparently in quest of its sweetest portions.

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"Now," said the old man, holding up a finger, and laughing in his peculiarly silent manner, 'you shall see fire fight fire! Ah's me! many is the time I have burnt a smooty path, from wanton laziness to pick my way across a tangled bottom."

"But is this not fatal?" eried the amazed Middleton; "are you not bringing the enemy nigher to us instead of avoiding it?"

"Do you scorch so easily? your gran'ther had a tougher skin. But we shall live to see ;' we shall all live to see."

As

The experience of the trapper was in the right. As the fire gained strength and heat, it began to spread on three sides, dying of itself on the fourth, for want of aliment. it increased, and the sullen roaring announced its power, it cleared every thing before it, leaving the black and smoking soil far more naked than if the scythe had swept the place. The situation of the fugitives would have still been hazardous had not the area enlarged as the flame encircled them. But by advancing to the spot where the trapper kindled the grass, they avoided the heat, and in a very few moments the flames began to recede in every quarter, leaving them enveloped in a cloud of smoke, but perfectly safe from the torrent of fire that was still furiously rolling onward.— Cooper's Prairie.

SCENES ON THE PRAIRIES. ON these level plains some of my dreams of the pleasures of wandering were realized. We were all in the morning of life, full of

health and spirits, on horseback, and breathing a most salubrious air, with a boundless horizon open before us, and shaping our future fortune and success in the elastic mould of youthful hope and imagination, we could hardly be other than happy. Sometimes we saw, scouring away from our path, horses, asses, mules, buffaloes and wolves, in countless multitudes, and we took, almost with too much ease to give pleasure in the chase, whatever we needed for luxurious subsistence. The passage of creeks and brooks across the prairies is marked, to the utmost extent of vision, by a fringe of woods and countless flowering shrubs. Sometimes we ascended an elevation of some height, swelling gently from the plain. Here the eye traces, as on an immense map, the formation and gradual enlargement of these rivulets, and sees them curving their meandering lines to a point of union with another of the same kind. The broadened fringe of wood indicates the enlargement of the stream, and the eye takes in at one glance the gradual formation of rivers. The night brought us up on the edge of one of these streams. Our beasts are turned loose to stretch themselves on the short and tender grass to feed and repose. The riders collect round a fire in the centre. Supper is prepared with bread, coffee, and the tenderest parts of the buffalo, venison and other game. The appetite, sharpened by exercise on horseback and by the salubrious air, is devouring. The story circulates. Past adventures are recounted, and if they receive something of the colouring of romance, it may be traced to feelings that grow out of the occasion. The projects and the mode of journeying on the morrow are discussed and settled. The fire flickers in the midst. The wild horses neigh, and the prairie wolves howl in the distance. Except the weather threatens storm, the tents are not pitched. The temperature of the night air is both salutary and delightful. The blankets are spread upon the tender grass, and under a canopy of the softest blue, decked with all the visible lights of the sky, the party sink to a repose, which the exercise of the preceding day renders as unbroken and dreamless as that of the grave. I awoke more than once unconscious that a moment had elapsed between the time of my lying down and my rising.

The day before we came in view of the Rocky Mountains, I saw, in the greatest perfection, that impressive, and to me almost sublime spectacle, an immense drove of wild horses, for a long time hovering round our path across the prairies. I had often seen great numbers of them before, mixed with other animals, apparently quiet, and grazing like the rest. Here there were thousands, unmixed, unemployed; their motions, if such a comparison might be allowed, as darting and as wild as those of humming-birds on

the flowers. The tremendous snorts, with which the front columns of the phalanx made known their approach to us, seemed to be their wild and energetic way of expressing their pity and disdain for the servile lot of our horses, of which they appeared to be taking a survey. They were of all colours, mixed, spotted and diversified with every hue, from the brightest white to clear and shining black; and of every form and structure, from the long and slender racer to those of firmer limbs and heavier mould; and of all ages, from the curvetting colt to the range of patriarchal steeds, drawn up in a line, and holding their high heads for a survey of us in the rear. Sometimes they curved their necks, and made no more progress than just enough to keep pace with our advance. There was a kind of slow and walking minuet, in which they performed various evolutions with the precision of the figures of a country dance. Then a rapid movement shifted the front to the rear. But still, in all their evolutions and movements, like the flight of sea-fowl, their lines were regular, and free from all indications of confusion. At times a spontaneous and sudden movement towards us almost imspired the apprehension of a united attack upon us. After a moment's advance, a snort and a rapid retrograde movement seemed to testify their proud estimate of their wild independence. The infinite variety of their rapid movements, their caperings and manoeuvres, were of such a wild and almost terrific character, that it required but a moderate stretch of fancy to suppose them the genii of these grassy plains. At one period they were formed to an immense depth in front of us. A wheel, executed almost with the rapidity of thought, presented them hovering on our flanks. Then again, the cloud of dust that enveloped their movements cleared away, and presented them in our rear. They evidently operated as a great annoyance to the horses and mules of our cavalcade. The frighted movements, the increased indications of fatigue, with their frequent neighings, sufficiently evinced what unpleasant neighbours they considered their wild compatriots to be. So much did our horses appear to suffer from fatigue and terror in consequence of their vicinity, that we were thinking of some way in which to drive them off; when on a sudden, a patient and laborious donkey of the establishment, who appeared to have regarded all their movements with philosophic indifference, pricked up his long ears, and gave a loud and most sonorous bray from his vocal shells. Instantly this prodigious multitude-and there were thousands of them-took what the Spanish call the "stompado." With a trampling like the noise of thunder, or still more like that of an earthquake,—a noise that was absolutely appalling,-they took to their heels, and were all in a short time miles away.

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