should it be? What reason is there to think it is a whit better in any of the large manufacturing towns in England, Scotland, and Ireland? On the contrary, Manchester, as a comparatively modern town, the creation of modern wealth, the residence of many distinguished and intelligent persons, stands a very good chance to be rather better built and taken care of, than the older cities, such as the old town of Edinburgh and many parts of London and Dublin.

We are tempted to show by a single specification, how much dependence is to be placed on the information contained in this volume. Under the head of the Cincinnati market we read;

'All the fruit I saw exposed for sale in Cincinnati was most miserable. I passed two summers there, but never tasted a peach worth eating. Of apricots and nectarines I saw none; strawberries very small, raspberries much worse, gooseberries very few, and quite uneatable; currants at about half the size of ours, and double the price; grapes too sour for tarts; apples abundant but very indifferent, none that could be thought good enough for an English table; pears, cherries, and plums most miserably bad.'

Now let us hear what Mr. Flint says, who is so highly and justly commended by Mrs. Trollope, as a man and an author. We quote his History of the Valley of the Mississippi, which Mrs. Trollope calls a work of great interest and information,' and which, she hopes, will in time find its way to England, 'where I think it is much more likely to be appreciated than in America.' Cincinnati, it will be observed, is the residence of Mr. Flint as well as Mrs. Trollope. Speaking of the market of Cincinnati, Mr. Flint observes in general terms, the meats, fowls, vegetables, flour, meal, and fruits are admirable, both for quality and abundance. Series of market wagons, half a mile in length, are seen in the streets. The fruits and vegetables are improving every year.' And under the head of the agricultural productions of Ohio, he gives us the following specifications.

'Fruits of all kinds are raised in this State, in the greatest profusion; and apples are as plenty in the cultivated parts of the State, as in any part of the Atlantic country. Cincinnati market is amply supplied with pears, peaches, plums, cherries, gooseber

ries, strawberries, and cultivated grapes. From the fullness and richness of the clusters of cultivated grapes, it is clear this ought to be a country of vineyards. Apricots, nectarines and quinces succeed, and this State is the appropriate empire of Pomona.'

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Mrs. Trollope's work, as it now stands, contains a highly colored, and, as we believe, a grossly exaggerated account of a camp-meeting. We have never attended an assemblage of that kind, and cannot therefore speak of them from personal observation. We suppose, that like all human things, they are liable to abuses;-abuses perhaps of the nature intimated Mrs. Trollope. But what then? Are there no abuses incident to the mode, in which religious instruction is imparted and received in other communions of Christians? Is the polite and icy indifference of preachers and hearers no evil? Is the polemic warfare waged in our churches no evil? Are theological metaphysics, and ethical common places, inflicted upon minds and hearts that are or that need to be aroused, fortified, alarmed, cheered, and elevated, no evil? Is the notorious divorce between the faith and practice of Christendom no evil? The declamation against camp-meetings is most likely to proceed, not from those who embrace and practise religion in its purity and fervor, and who, without being extravagant, are zealous; but we apprehend it is nine times out of ten, the self-righteous cant of arrogant persons, culpable in the opposite way. We believe the Methodists, by whom almost exclusively camp-meetings are held, to be quite as good men and Christians as their neighbors of other sects. We believe their religious heads to be men of characters as pure, and principles as elevated, as those of the instructers in any other church, and knowing that these camp-meetings continue to be held under their sanction, we are very slow to accredit, by wholesale, the scandals circulated concerning them. He has studied the history of the church, and the history of man to very little effect, who lends a ready car to the tales told of one communion of Christians by the members of another. No sect, that can be named at the present day, more resembles the primitive church, than the Methodists; and the members of the primitive church were, as we know, accused of cementing their unhallowed confederacy, at their love-feasts, by the blood of a murdered infant. Mrs. Trollope has given one picture of a camp-meeting, disgusting and painful to be sure; bad enough

in its details, and more so in its insinuations. But Mr. Flint, whom she regards, and justly, as a very high authority, and whose peculiar religious associations would not predispose him to any partiality on this head, gives a very different and in our belief a much more accurate view of them. We would cheerfully copy the passage, but it is too long for insertion here, and has been extracted by us in a former volume of our Journal.* In the conclusion he remarks;

'Notwithstanding all that has been said in derision of these spectacles, so common in this region, it cannot be denied, that the influence on the whole is salutary, and the general bearing upon the great interests of the community good.'

But what shall we say to our brother of the London Quarterly Review, who quotes with great relish all that is said in Mrs. Trollope's book to the disparagement of the state of religion in America, and who derives therefrom decisive illustration of the benefits of an established church, and a satisfactory explanation of much of our transatlantic barbarism? We do not know that we can answer him better, than by refreshing his recollection of what has, within less than a year, passed beneath his own eye,-in his own metropolis of the most orthodox of all kingdoms, and under the ministration of a pastor, not indeed of the English but of the Scottish church, established by law. The description we quote is by no means of one of the most extravagant of the scenes enacted at Mr. Irving's chapel; and is given by us merely as the only one, of which we happen to have the report at hand. We take it from the London Courier of Oct. 27, 1831.

'Mr. Irving's church, in Regent-square, was attended on Monday morning by great numbers of persons, who flocked thither from all parts of the metropolis, for the purpose of hearing those "manifestations of the Spirit," which formed the chief topic of the Rev. Gentleman's discourse on Sunday. The interest excited by these "manifestations" may be judged of by the fact, that although the service commenced as early as half-past six, and the morning was bleak and cold, the body of the church was filled with respectable people of both sexes, even before the appointed hour. Whilst Mr. Irving was engaged in reading a

* North American Review, Vol. XXVIII. p. 97-99. VOL. XXXVI.-NO. 78. 4

chapter from the Acts of the Apostles, the voice of a man was suddenly heard, who harangued the congregation in the unknown tongue, and concluded by interpreting the words he had uttered. Shortly afterwards a woman raised her voice, and gave another specimen of the "operation of the Spirit," which was also followed by an interpretation. The next part of the service was a very long prayer from a gentleman, who beseeched the Almighty to restrain the scoffers, whom he warned that whilst they imagined themselves mocking human creatures, they might, in fact, be mocking the Holy Spirit! At the conclusion of the prayer, a lady, whom we understand to be a Miss Carsden, or Carsdell, commenced an address or oration, and we were enabled to catch a few of the words:-" O netention a honos kolo O do nomas kahelion Omano terdeos kalion." After a short pause we were favored with the interpretation, part of which was as follows:"O resist not the love of Jesus,—O you doubt it!—O you doubt it! O it is grievous that you should doubt his love! He is love! He is love! O draw nigh to him,-draw nigh to him! Your Father's arms are open,-your Father's arms are open! He will receive you. He remembers the weakness of his creatures: he knows that they are but dust," &c. There was nothing unearthly in the tones in which this was spoken or sung, but the voice was powerful and sonorous, and, resounding through the church, was well calculated to inspire the hearers with a feeling of awe. The female part of the congregation were evidently much affected, every sound of the speaker's voice seeming to produce a thrill of horror among them. At one period an elderly woman cried out, "O save us!" and it was supposed by those who occupied seats in a remote part of the church that she had been suddenly endowed with the gift of speaking in the tongues, and had committed the mistake of beginning with the known before the unknown language; but it soon became evident, that the poor woman cried out from a feeling of sheer terror. The whole service was conducted with a solemnity well calculated to make a deep impression.

Yesterday morning, the church was again well filled at the same hour,-half-past six o'clock. In the course of the morning, Miss Carsden, or Carsdell, raised her voice,- "Coartoma ruramur pooah chambele mentara tsaw." We add part of the interpretation:-"You need it,-you need it ;—you need the word of the Lord to comfort you; for it is a time of perplexity. He is about to rise, and He shall speak terribly to the nations;He shall arise,-He shall arise;-He shall do his strange work. The wicked shall not always prosper. Rejoice! rejoice! for he

cometh,―your King cometh. Fear, ye that cannot bear the eye of your God! Be not deceived,-be not deceived. It is the Holy One that is coming! He cannot abide iniquity;-He stretches out his hand," &c. The whole of this was forcibly delivered, particularly the words which we have marked by Italics, which were given with great power, vehemence, and even dignity, and with electrical effect upon the auditors. Miss Hall then addressed the congregation, with an effect little inferior to that which was produced by Miss Carsdell. In her interpretation this lady exclaimed, "Oh, refuse not,-refuse not to listen to his voice! O beware, ye mockers! beware of despising the work of the Lord! O return unto the Lord! He will have mercy upon you!"'

Mrs. Trollope in the course of her work has occasion to speak of the total absence of amusements in America; and we perceive our respected colleague of the American Quarterly is inclined, in some degree, to admit the justice of her remarks on this head. She makes the following remark:

'The theatre was closed when we arrived at Baltimore, but we were told it was very far from being a popular or fashionable amusement. We were indeed told this every where throughout the country, and the information was generally accompanied by the observation, that the opposition of the clergy was the cause of it. But I suspect that this is not the principal cause, especially among the men, who, if they were so implicit in their obedience to the clergy, would certainly be more constant in their attendance at the churches; nor would they, moreover, deem the theatre more righteous, because an English actor or a French dancer performed there; yet on such occasions the theatres overflow. The cause I think is in the character of the people. I never saw a population so totally divested of gayety; there is no trace of this feeling from one end of the Union to the other. They have no fêtes, no fairs, no merry-makings, no music in the streets, no punch, no puppet-shows. If they see a comedy or a farce, they may laugh at it; but they can do very well without it; and the consciousness of the number of cents that must be paid to enter a theatre, I am very sure, turns more steps from its door than any religious feeling. A distinguished publisher of Philadelphia told me that no comic publication had ever yet been found to answer in America.'

The American Quarterly Reviewer gives his sanction in some degree to these doctrines in the following passage.