"The birth-day of Liberty-a goddess, born seventyfive years ago for the government of thirteen out of the then fifteen Anglo-American Colonies, the first number of which have flourished under her fostering power, as States never prospered before, and the last two of which yet are as they were, British Colonies still, with all the unimproved, unadvanced sameness, that they would not consent to emerge from, when the rest of the sisterhood set up for Independence. In one of them (Canada) I am this day - and here is no rejoicing, as, indeed, there is nothing to rejoice in. All is dull-cheerless: the weather itself, properly enough, is cold; I have to take my bed this forenoon to get warm; cloudy — the "heavens do lower"; wind ahead we must work against the elements. There are forty ships in our fleet, all bound to Europe-three of them only are Yankees; and if the "stars and stripes" do not stream from the mizen peaks of the patriotic trio, it is because our Captains dare not look John Bull nor Molly Cow in the face! Evidently the British ships do not like the boastful looks of the Republican flags in their midst; for in beating down, some of them have willingly thrown themselves across our track, but as willingly have been glad to "get out of the way" by the time our ships have reached the point of intersection. In conversation with Sir James to-day he remarked, with an air of much confidence, that it would be preposterous to suppose the United States would continue united States very long- the multiplication of new States in the confederacy would cause the Union to break of its own mammoth weight. I differed from him. I believed the larger the co-partnership, the stronger the firm, as it would be less possible for one or a few to break up the Union when so many were against them, and resolved on its inviolability. He thought South Carolina was correct in her doctrine of any State having the right to secede at pleasure. I replied that I was no lawyer; but it seemed to me that as no State could come into the Union without the consent of the family of States in Congress represented, so neither could a State withdraw from the Union, and thereby hazard the prosperity of the copartnership, without consent as legitimately granted. He replied that this might avail as an administrative doctrine, but could not be set up as a constitutional one. He apappeared, however, to respect our institutions and the great and good men of the Republic. He is a literary man, and a “fine old English gentleman." Of course we had no formal celebration of the "Glorious Fourth" on board; but -, moved by a little patriotic fire, hobbled upon the binnacle, in presence of the passengers and officers on the poop deck, and, in a manner not discreditable to him, pronounced from memory the thrilling part of Patrick Henry's speech, made in the Virginia House of Delegates before the Revolution, which concluded in the following emphatic words, emphatically pronounced: "Cæsar had his Brutus-Charles the First his Cromwell, and George the Third"-[here Sir J. began to look grave, his son and daughter frightened, and his liveried servant enraged] -"may profit by his example. There! - make treason of that, here in Canada, if you can." LETTER X. "LIFE ON THE OCEAN WAVE." No longer on the Earth-Old Neptune's Crystal Palace-The Ocean free at Home-Horace Greeley's abhorrence of Sea-Life-Steam-Ship unnatural on the Ocean-Sailing ships preferable-Table Fare-Description of Cabin-Employment of Passengers-Sailor's Life-Ships' Bells and Watches-Parting with the Pilot-Anticosta Island-Snow Southern Highlands-Newfoundland-Grand Banks-Pleasures of a Sailing Excursion in a Gale. "Type of the Infinite! I look away My thought upon a resting place, or make A shore beyond my vision, where they break; But on my spirit stretches, till it 's pain To think; then rests, and then puts forth again." AT SEA, Lat. 47 N., Lon. 37 W., July 18, 1851. on ACCORDING to our ships reckoning, we are this day just "half seas over; " that is, we are half way across the Atlantic;-neither in America nor Europe; -not on earth, but on water only. Whether there is, or is not, at this present writing, any other than the world of waters, does not now appear. The evidence of sense, which is the only evidence that certain commonsense philosophers can defer to, is here against the affirmative proposition. I look around, and the round world I survey, is, on the great scale, just like the infinitessimal globules of which water is composed. The arching heavens, that never yet uttered falsehood to man, by the limits they ་ bring down, like an impenetrable curtain, on every side, declare that there is nothing but air above and water around me. Surely, indeed, there was earth once,-I know it; as surely I am beyond it now; I feel it. My communion here is with nearer and truer heavens than ever encircled me before. Can we go where God is not? and where he is, we may always have a communion that never leaves us alone. This, really, is the first voyage I ever made in which I was out of sight of land. On our own coast, from Maine to Maryland, I never happened to be so far from shore. But here I find Old Ocean in her boundlessness and majesty. Here I explore the central domains of the "Monarch of the watery main "-old Neptune, "Deep in the liquid regions lies his cave." There he has his crystal chambers, as much surpassing in extent and magnificence, the Crystal Palace of St.. Albert in London, as the gods of Ida's misty tops surpass all things human. I thought I saw him the other morning, just after passing the dense and towering foggy mountains of the Grand Banks. I see him now, as plainly as I saw him then, emerging from his glassy cave: -His brass-hoof'd steeds he reins, Fleet as the winds, and deck'd with golden manes, Immortal arms of adamant and gold. He mounts the car, the golden scourge applies, ILIAD, Book, xiii. Amongst the estuaries and bays of our own New England coast, the blue waters that have strayed thither from their parent ocean's home, seem to be checked and humbled and tamed by the promontories and capes and islands that defy them, and hold up everlasting barriers against their proud waves; and so densely has man peopled their heaving bosom with ships and steamers and boats, that, by an obstrusive familiarity, he has bound the beating heart beneath to keep the peace; but here, the mighty ocean is at home, and free in all her unhampered powers. She swells, and heaves her wavy pyramids to the skies, and roars the deep thunders of her praise to Heaven. Who would not feel his littleness? Our noble ship which, seen in port, one might think even the ocean would hardly dare to trifle with, the sea god here takes up "as a very little thing," and tosses it like an empty egg-shell from wave to wave a mere bubble loaded with shadows. I feel, indeed, to be far, far away from earth and home; yet I do not feel solitary or desolate. "I love the sea, - it is so much the emblem of eterni There are a grandeur and soul to Him who is "God the deep blue sea ty to which we are all bound. a sublimity here which lift the of the ocean and the land." The heaving billows, lofty and proud as they are, produce a motion of the ship, which I may literally say, is thrillingly agreeable to me; for both as I sink and as I rise, a thrill passes through my frame, that is almost ecstatic. I am not sea-sick. Neptune, more merciful to me than to most men, never extorted tribute from my humble stomach. And to a person who is free from sea-sickness, who enjoys the graceful motions of a first class ship, who has a state-room with berth and closets a study with writing table and books |