NOTIONS OF THE AMERICANS: PICKED UP BY A TRAVELLING BACHELOR. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: HENRY COLBURN, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 1828. DEDICATION. ΤΟ JOHN CADWALLADER, OF CADWALLADER, IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. WITHOUT your aid and kindness these pages could never have been written. Whatever others may think of their merit, it is certain that you and I believe they contain some truths. We must therefore endeavour to keep each other in good humour, provided they shall happen to be neglected rather more than our joint lead us to think they deserve. Shortly after my return to the queen of cities, there was a happy reunion of all the remaining members of the club. I know you will be glad to hear, that, with a solitary exception, this embraced opinions may almost every man whose name has stood on the roll since its formation. But, alas! there is one exception. The poor Dane has fallen. The worthy professor was too long engaged in sedentary employments in a warm climate. I write it with grief, but he was married at Verona, about eleven o'clock on the morning of the 16th August last, to the daughter of an Italian physician. Jules Béthizy and Waller were both at Florence when he was first taken, and they flew to his assistance with the earnestness of a long-tried friendship. But remedies were too late. From the first moment the symptoms seemed threatening; and as the best advice was fortunately so close at hand, there is reason to think the malady was perfectly incurable. Béthizy has some suspicions of foul play, and makes dark allusions to philtres and amulets; but the father of the fair infection solemnly protests that the whole is the effect of sun and solitude. We have done all that remained to sorrowing friends. An epithalamium has been written by the Russian, and it was set to solemn music by the Abate. A brass plate has been let into the back of the fauteuil of the derelict, containing an appropriate inscription, and two me mento mori are cut in its sides. A wedding ring has also been attached to the nose of the portrait, which, as I have often told you, is always suspended over the chair of a member. The question of a successor has been deeply agitated among us. Nothing but the exceeding liberality which pervades and colours our meetings could have ensured the result which has grown out of the election. Yes, my friend, the empty fauteuil is yours; and, as I know you have destroyed the coat of arms of your European ancestors, I have caused a design of my own to be emblazoned in the proper place. It is a constellation of twenty-four stars, surrounded by a cloud of nebula, with a liberty cap for a crest, and two young negroes as supporters. I was obliged to adopt this equivocal blazonry, in order to quiet all parties, for the election was not without a struggle. A great deal was said about liberality, but I believe you know that liberality always supposes certain reservations. The Abate objected a good deal to the preponderance of the Protestant interest, and I thought Waller was a little jealous of having a member who might introduce a dialect of his mother tongue. But Jules Béthizy stood |