never a period, perhaps, that the heart of man responds more warmly to the touching chorus of that beautiful Psalm, than when he has left the wide ocean, with its tempests and dangers far behind him, and sees again the glad shores of his native country.

I had so long witnessed the sufferings of the English people, that I longed to step once more upon the free soil of my childhood, and thank the God of my fathers with heartfelt gratitude that I had a free home to go to.

I hoped I should have had room for some things which do not appear in this work. I wished to speak of the Established Church ;* of the political state of Ireland; of the last days of L. E. L. as I received the account from one of her most intimate female friends; of some conversations with other distinguished authors, and few original poems from their pens descriptive of the lake scenery in

a

the north of England; of night rambles in London with a celebrated author; and something of more consequence than all, original communications from some of the most distinguished statesmen in Europe. But this must all be deferred, at least for the present. A few observations shall bring these volumes to a close. Around English history there is to us a charm found in no other. The recent and the remote; the plain and the obscure; novelty springing up by the gray remains of antiquity; and all the elements of the touching, the beautiful, the gloomy, and the grand, mingle with the chronicles of the Father-land. With us all is familiar and modern. It is true, we read with pride and emotion of our father's struggles, when the story leads us through the toils of the Revolution back to the gloom of the green old forests, and the desolation of Plymouth landing; but there the story ceases in America, and we must cross the water for an account of our antecedent national existence. We personally, then, have an interest in the history of Britain, and can betimes forget America as it slumbered on, unwaked by the sea-gun of Columbus, while we retrace the glory of our ancestors through successive ages, to the time when the Roman conqueror first planted the eagle of Italy on the rocks of Britain, and returned to tell of a stormy island in the ocean, and of the rugged barbarians who dwelt in its glens and hunted on its cliffs.

It is natural that the American should read with the deepest interest of the defeats, the struggles, and the triumphs of Britons in those remote times; and look with the indignation of a freeman and the love of a brother upon the sufferings of his kinsmen who dwell there now. The starving peasant and the pale operative are the sons of those, who not long ago dwelt with his own father on the banks of the Tweed or the Severn: why should he not feel for them as for a brother?

England owes much of her progress to the spirit of liberty, caught at first from her own wild hills; a spirit which was kept alive and invigorated by the fierce struggles through which she had to pass. More favourable circumstances than those in her history could not have combined for the formation of a free,

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brave, and generous people. In the freedom of her political institutions, she was for ages in advance of the rest of the world; for the democratic principle had crept into her Constitution long before mankind had elsewhere begun to question the divine right of kings. Many a time were English tyrants made to bow before their indignant subjects. Thus was the pride of the Norman princes humbled, when upon King John the assembled barons imposed the Magna Charta. Thus, too, did the nation avenge the insolence and tyranny of the Tudors on their weakened and helpless successors, when a haughty line of monarchs went down in misfortune and blood, and succumbed to the power of Cromwell.

Much has been said against Cromwell, but none deny that it was under his splendid administration English liberty assumed its broadest character. Scenes of riot and anarchy existed, it is true; but they were accompanied with blessings, for the absence of which nothing could atone. They waked in the bosom of the people those fires of liberty which have been the hope of England to this hour; fires, too, from which our own altars were kindled. For it was during that great struggle, with the sound of contention still in their ears, and the shout of liberty, mingled with prayers to God, still on their lips, that the Puritans bore away with them all England had ever known of political or religious freedom. England was unconscious at the time that the greatest of her offspring were taking with them the fruits of that Revolution to a forest home, where they would rear an empire that could not be conquered.

History tell us, that after a great effort the human mind settles into repose, and rests satisfied with past achievements. After the restoration of Charles II., who never should have been permitted to wear a crown, the flames of liberty seemed to go out, and the reign of tyranny again commenced. From that time the mass of the people have sunk down in uncomplaining silence. "Now and then, indeed, they have bustled about and shook their chains;" but to little purpose.

The nation has increased in power, wealth, arts, and learning; but the progress has been