Bishop of Alabama, who seems to have been a stout upholder of the institution of slavery, while Lowell was, of course, a thorough abolitionist. Mr. Lowe says' (writes Sir Douglas) 'that the Bishop has a weakness for nigger-drivers, and that he said he was born at Russell in the county Bedford, and that he considered it a most remarkable circumstance that, when he was in the House of Commons a short time ago, he heard Lord John speak.' The Bishop seems to have been very communicative, especially with regard to the constitution of the Episcopal Church in the United States.

Lowe, who was a capital sailor (which Captain Galton was not), was always up on deck prepared to chat with Lowell or the Bishop, or, in fact, with anybody who had anything to communicate with regard to America. He filled in his time by studying De Tocqueville. Sir Douglas Galton found him a most charming fellow-traveller; bright, lively, always uncomplaining, and full of interesting subjects of conversation.

They were at first somewhat puzzled in the matter of making out their itinerary. Sir Douglas wanted to see as much as he could of the working of the American and Canadian railways, while Mr. Lowe was anxious to get a glimpse of the working of the political institutions of these countries and to see some of the more remote Western settlements, as well as the notable features of the scenery, such as Niagara. But they soon settled their plans and contrived to carry them out with remarkable thoroughness, considering the short time at their disposal. Lowell, though in a rather depressed state from the recent death of his first wife, occasionally enlivened the voyage with a characteristic Yankee anecdote. He appears to have given his two English companions a dreadful account of the steamers on the Mississippi. On one occasion, he said, the boiler exploded, and the captain was thrown to a considerable distance and fell through the roof of a house some way off, alighting in a cobbler's workshop. The cobbler immediately said he expected him to pay for the

injured roof, which the captain allowed was reasonable and asked how much. The cobbler replied, Ten dollars for the damage including the fright.' But the captain pulled out a five-dollar note, and handed it to him, declaring that he ‘never paid more on such occasions."

They reached Halifax in the afternoon of August 12th, but only remained a very short time, during which they drove round to see the general lie of the town and citadel. They thought the view from the citadel particularly fine. They were impressed with the harbour, with its splendid interior basin, capable of floating a whole navy; but the town itself struck them as mean and the inhabitants as unenterprising. Some Nova Scotians, hearing of their distinguished visitors, went on board the Canada and began to blow,' as the Australians say, about the rich, fertile land, the valuable coal and iron mines, the superb pastures, and the unapproachable climate. It is to be feared that the only inference which Lord Sherbrooke and Sir Douglas Galton drew was that, if the country were so wonderfully favoured by Nature, then the inhabitants must have been endowed with a very leaden and lymphatic temperament. One cannot help wondering whether the sight of a regiment encamped in tents, and the battery close to the town and the redoubt on an island in the harbour, made Lord Sherbrooke think of his uncle, the stout old Governor of Nova Scotia.

From Halifax they went on to Boston, where they found that everyone to whom they had letters had left for the holidays. The English Consul, however, Mr. Grattan, entertained them at his club and showed them Bunker's Hill. The sight of Boston, which, of course, in 1856, was a much smaller and altogether different city to the Boston of to-day, seems to have revived in Robert Lowe the memories of his Australian life. Sir Douglas says that from the moment they were in the States he was continually comparing the social and

VOL. II.

K

political condition of America with that of Australia. As Boston was so empty, they only remained a couple of days and then went on to Niagara. Lowe, through Lowell's introduction, saw Emerson once at Boston, and he also met a son of Adams, the American Minister. En route to Niagara, the travellers stopped at Trenton Falls, of which they had heard great things. Lowe was much disappointed, and described them as rapids rather than falls; but when he reached Niagara, he appears to have been fully recompensed. 'He could not' (writes his fellow-traveller)' sufficiently satiate himself with looking at it.' In a letter dated from Clifton House, Niagara Falls (Sunday morning, August 17), Sir Douglas writes: We are now in a room opposite the Falls. Last night, when we arrived, it was full moon and a most lovely night. We walked some distance to get a better view; the effect by moonlight is very beautiful and mystical. The adjuncts of the scenery are all so fine, such a grand, deep, broad gorge through which the water flows after leaving the Falls. It is all on so vast a scale, like the continent upon which it is situated. The railway suspension bridge is two miles below the Falls; we passed over it very slowly. Of the two Falls the English fall is the finest. Mr. Lowe says that they are emblematic of the respective nations-the American broad, prominent, glittering, and without much depth of water; the English retiring, massive, and grand.'

The two travellers seem very carefully to have noted the ways and customs of the people among whom they were thrown. Many traits struck them, and there is doubtless foundation in fact for Mr. Goldwin Smith's notion that it was this American tour which deepened Lord Sherbrooke's dislike and distrust of democratic institutions. He was particularly struck with the great anxiety displayed by the Americans whom he met, in the railroad cars or in the hotel parlours, to obtain the opinion of the majority. Thus, one day in a train by which the two Englishmen were travelling, a man actually

went round asking who each passenger desired should be President. It must be remembered that at this time there was very strong feeling on the subject, both in the Northern and Southern States-the country was, indeed, on the eve of civil war. The Northern States were for Fremont, and the Southern for Buchanan or Filmore. Feeling ran very high, and it struck Lowe as an extraordinary thing that the Southern States, who were in a minority, should assume a dominant tone which the Northerners at that time did not appear to resent.

At dinner at the Fremont House, Boston, they noticed a man with his little boy not more than seven years old; the child wanted something, and begged his father to ask for it for him; but the father said, 'Ask yourself; you must learn to take care of yourself.' The little fellow could only attract the attention of a waiter by watching till one went past, and then he seized him by the coat tail. This kind of training naturally leads to self-reliance, perhaps to self-assertion. 'We are all up and dressed in this country, sir,' was the explanation of such incidents. Lord Sherbrooke seemed to think that the Americans whom he came across were very much like provincial English. There were certain superficial differences; they were more free and easy in manner, though with every intention to be civil and obliging. But he thought there was an utter absence of distinction, and what an Englishman would call breeding, and he attributed this provincial tone to the want of a capital, and of a leisured and cultured class.

After spending the whole of another morning gazing at the Falls, they went by railway to Niagara Town, where they embarked on board a steamer for Toronto. It was Lowe's intention to stay with his old Oxford friend, Sir Edmund Head, but as the Governor-General was not there at the time, they proceeded by another steamer to Montreal, passing the Lake of a Thousand Islands and the rapids of St. Lawrence.

At Montreal he stayed with a legal friend, Mr. (afterwards Sir) John Rose, who was Minister of Public Works in Canada before he settled in London, where he became a prominent social and political figure. While Sir Douglas examined the Grand Trunk Railway, Lowe and his host went to Lake George and Lake Champlain. Considering his defective eyesight, it is remarkable how keenly alive Lord Sherbrooke was to the beauties of natural scenery; he also exercised an independent judgment on the subject, and by no means always agreed with the verdict of guide-books and professional tourists. Sir Douglas declares that he at once pronounced the Lake of a Thousand Islands a do and the rapids ditto. By the time they reached Montreal they found, by a copy of the New York Daily Times lying on the hotel table, that the Yankee journalist had awoke and was on the track of the distinguished traveller. An article appeared in that paper from which it was quite clear that the editor thought much more of Mr. Lowe, the Times leader-writer, than of the Right Honourable Robert Lowe, Vice-President of the Board of Trade. The Montreal papers, taking their news as usual from New York, immediately inserted paragraphs in which he figured as one of the proprietors of the Times. As Delane was then on his way to America, these things afforded Lowe and his companion some little amusement. Neither of them appears to have relished the hotel life either of Canada or the States. Since that time English people have learned to live in public, and the sight of husbands and wives walking up and down in the most affectionate manner before dozens of strange people, 'playing on the piano, &c., just as if they were in a private house,' is no longer matter for comment. Sir Douglas records a couple of amusing hotel reminiscences: 'We were standing (he says) under the verandah, and two waiters were conversing. One of them asked the other why he was hanging about. He said, "I am waiting for the trays out of the rooms; but I don't like it-it ain't democratic."

This