from American finance or otherwise, but even the popular writer Anthony Trollope, who is still among us, and who some years ago gave us a description of the Americans in his very vivid and popular manner, seems to me to have done them the greatest injustice. He seems to make the worst of everything; most of their ways and institutions he condemns to, I think, an unfair degree; and you may imagine the spirit in which he wrote, when I mention that writing in the latter part of the great civil war he condemns, in language the most scathing, all who would do any thing so mad and foolish as to emancipate the slaves. The only wonder to me is that after all that has passed the feeling of the Americans towards us is so good as it in fact is. They really have a very kindly feeling on their part; and if there is misunderstanding I think it is more due to ignorance and prejudice on the part of many people in England, though I hope not in Kirkcaldy, which has so much and so beneficial business with America. It is certainly the case that the Americans who come to Europe do not feel themselves at their ease in England, and consequently it happens a very lamentable fact, I think-that, almost invariably, after spending a few days in the country and seeing Windsor, Stratford-on-Avon, and Abbotsford, they go abroad to the Continent of Europe and spend their time and money there. I think this should be cured. We should welcome them more than we do; and I would very much urge on all of you who can make it out to go and see for yourselves in America what kind of people they

are. You would very soon find that you are not among foreigners there, but among a people with whom you could very readily make yourselves at home.

The facilities for getting to America are now very great, and the expense not large. The Atlantic no doubt is not the calmest of seas, but stout-hearted people don't mind that. The voyage is now reduced to eight days, and the steamers are admirable and very numerous. For those who are prepared to travel in an independent way, without servants or special luxuries, the cost of travelling in America is not excessive, and the comforts are considerable. Whatever may be said of the hotels in other respects, they are very convenient for the passing trav eller, and the kindness of American friends to whom one is introduced is unbounded.

For people who require private rooms and accommodation for servants, and who cannot rough it so far as to get about by the aid of tramways and public conveyances only, travelling in America is much more difficult and expensive, since the American establishments do not afford the same private accommodation as English hotels, or if they do, charge for it excessively, and the hack carriages are enormously dear. This must be borne in mind if ladies are of the party.

GENERAL FEATURES OF THE COUNTRY.

I will try to give you some little account of the country and the people; and first as regards the

objects immediately apparent to the eye-the common botany and zoology of the country, I was surprised to find not nearly so strange as I expected. One has heard so much of the extremely new character of the trees and animals of Australasia, and other distant countries-of trees without leaves, and animals that walk chiefly by the aid of their tails that I had expected in America also, so long an undiscovered continent, to find numerous strange appearances. It really is not so at all. The vegetation is curiously like our own. Firs and oaks, and other trees, look very much like those in Europe, and the animals too are not violently unlike. There are partridges and birds like grouse, and American rabbits not so unlike ours, and other creatures very familiar to us. But there is this peculiarity, that, although almost all plants and animals are like those with us they are never identical. They are always similar, but never the same species; and perhaps it is due to the peculiarities of climate that European species seem never to have superseded those of America. For instance, while the European rabbit has overrun Australia and New Zealand, it is unknown in America, and the small American rabbit— something between the rabbit and the hare in its habits-still holds its place. I am told that in reality there is a greater difference between the natural productions of the country east and west of the Rocky Mountains than there is between Europe and the Eastern States. I did not myself go so far as Rocky Mountains; but till we reach the western

the

part of the American continent, I may say of the States in general, that they are not so mountainous or so hilly as Great Britain. The most decided hills that one sees are close to the eastern ports, but beyond that there is scarcely anything that can be called a mountain. What is called a mountain in American language is sometimes a very little hill indeed. On the other hand, one is struck by the immense quantity of wood all over the country, not less in the Southern States than. in the North. In fact, the Southern States are especially woody, and it is the quantity of wood that in all the old States makes the extension of cultivation somewhat slow and difficult. The prevailing tree in the south is a pine, which very much resembles our Scotch fir; in the north, hardwood trees are more prevalent. In truth, not a tenth part of the older States is yet really cleared and cultivated. There is yet everywhere room for immense development. The rainfall is generally most beneficently arranged, and the general character of the land is one of much fertility. In this respect, however, I do not think that it has upon the whole, or taken on an average, an advantage over England and the lowlands of Scotland. True, some western lands are of extraordinary fertility, but there is a great deal that is only moderately fertile, and that is the case in regard to most of the Eastern States. When we compare the country on the whole with England, I think it may be said that perhaps it is about on a par-the average of the soil is as good, perhaps a little better.

In some respects the climate is brighter, but the winters are certainly more severe, and the extremes of climate lead to an enormous growth of weeds, which makes agriculture in some respects more difficult than with us. True, in the west there are what are called prairie States, great parts of which are free from natural wood; but it is an entire delusion to suppose that magnificent prairies with magnificent natural grass are easily available to the settler. I travelled considerably west of the Missouri in search of such a prairie, and never found one. The ground is all taken up and enclosed, and the natural prairie grass-never very good-fails as soon as cattle are turned upon it in large numbers. Hence in Illinois and such States the farmers are obliged to resort to artificial grass, just as we do in this part of Scotland.

On the whole, then, taking the country mile for mile and acre for acre, I can say that it is about equal to but not superior to England; but then there is this vast difference, that it is not one England, but forty Englands. Some people seem to have been offended by Mr. Gladstone's recent article, when he said that the United States, if they kept together, must certainly surpass us. It seems to me that Mr. Gladstone only spoke a truth which must be selfevident, without attributing to the American people any great superiority over ourselves, at all events over Scotchmen. We are a people a little over 30,000,000, who have no means of extension in our own country. We are, as it were, like a hive of bees