Britons and Muscovites, or Traits of two empires

Front matter

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7 ^ •# oo x

Preface

In presenting a third volume of experiences abroad, or the sights and scenes of 'foreign 'travel as seen by an American tourist, the author begins with that ever prolific field, England. •• ■ ' ..''•"

The reader is taken to the picturesque old ruins of Fountains and Furness Abbeys, to old Boston in Lincolnshire, and other historic points neglected by most travellers in that " tight little island." Some space is given to the consideration of English hotel management, from the fact that it seemed to be a leading topic with all American tourists. The abortive efforts to carry on large hotels in London on the American plan, and the annoyances experienced by Americans, who expect the same conveniences and accommodation obtainable at home, offer a tempting theme for general discussion.

A descriptive sketch is given of the author's journey to Russia, and the result of his observation of cities visited in that country, in the style which characterizes the description in his former volumes — of "Over the Ocean," and " Abroad Again."

This is done with a desire to be of service to those who may come after the author, to whom much of the minutiae of description and many of the hints to tour-

Vi PREFACE.

ists may be of service. In fact, the author, while seekino- to avoid anything of the set guide-book character in his volume, has endeavored to render it of service to travellers, by presenting facts respecting the localities visited, such as cannot be found in any guide-book.

If in any degree he shall have succeeded in accomplishing this object, and, possibly, in entertaining with pen-pictures those unable to visit the scenes described, he will be more than gratified.

Chapter I

Ubiquitous Americans — Methods of Travel — A Huge Steamship — Power and Dimensions — Life at Sea— Homage to Title — A Useful Institution — American Improvements — Liverpool and American Ideas

Chapter II

A London Newspaper — Free Trade and Fair Trade — English Hotels — Cast-Iron Eules — Poor Clerks and Slow Servants

— The Metropole and the Grand Hotels — Cold Reception

— English Delay vs. American Impatience — How Not to Do It — Useless Officials — Clumsiness Personified — Cold Comfort and a Lean Larder 13

Chapter III

The English Bill of Fare — American and British Menus Compared — Grand Hotel, London, and Fifth Avenue, New York — French Flummery — English Hotel Book-Keeping — A Most " Ex-twardinawy " Affair — Tyranny of Dress — Blunders of Travellers — Difference Between the English and American Language — American Drinks — Sherry Chickens — Astonishing a Publican — American Taverns and English Inns 25 yiii CONTENTS.

Chapter IV

Letter from an Englishman — The Author's Reply— An American Merchant's Views — Old-Fashioned Hotel Management

— Lack of Modern Conveniences — Typical English Inn — Curious Mistake — English Shops — The Guinea Exaction — Fortunes of a Bibliopole 41

Chapter V

A Trip to Eipon — Fountains Abbey — Charming Landscape Effects — Picturesque Ruins — Interesting Remains — Luxuries of a Monastery — The Great Hall — Ripon Cathedral — Superb Decorations — Robin Hood's Well — A Millennial Festival — An Antique Pageant — Old England Represented 53

Chapter VI

Furness Abbey — A Romantic Glen — A Powerful Community — An Abbot-King — Remains of Architectural Beauty — Superb East Window — The Tower and Scriptorium — The Guest-Hall — Suppression of the Abbey — A Memorable Monastery — Glories of the Past 65

Chapter VII

A Look into Lincolnshire — Old Boston — John Cotton and his Work — St. Botolph's Church — Its History — A Beautiful Tower — Fine Stone Carving — Chancel and Ancient Stalls

— The East Window — Cotton Chapel — The American Tablet — Dimensions of St. Botolph's — An Old English Town — Shodf riars' Hall — Modern Improvements .... 73

Chapter VIII

Boston to Berlin — The American Exchange — A Staid German City — Preparations for Trip to Russia — Railway Fares, Guide-Books, and Refreshments — The Smoking Nuisance

— Travelling Companions — Arrival at the Frontier — Passports — Value of Deference to Officials — Baggage Examination — Railroad Restaurants — Experiences on the Line

— Arrival at St. Petersburg — Fine Hotel — Press Censorship — Russian Illiteracy — Shop-Keeper's Curious Signs . 83

CONTENTS. IX

Chapter IX

The Nevski Prospect — Fine Accommodations and Fair Prices — Novel Sights — Street Shrines and Worshippers — Costumes and Droskies — Grand Squares and Splendid Buildings — Churches and Palaces — The St. Nicholas Bridge — Quays, Bridges, and Canals — The Russian Army — St. Isaac's Cathedral — The Grand Entrances — An Architectural Wonder — Barbaric Splendor — Exquisite Stone- Work, Gold, Silver, Malachite, Lapis-lazuli, Marble, and Porphyry in Profusion — The Religious Ceremonies — Begging Nuns and Monks — Income of Monasteries — Sales of Religious Goods 95

Chapter X

Petersburg the Paris of Russia — Beautiful Bridges — Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan — Cossacks of the Guard — Meeting of the Grand-Duke Michael — An Immense Cathedral — Captured Trophies — A Rich Screen — The Wonderful Portrait — Seeing the Czar — Exchange Salutations at Ten Paces — An Unusual Piece of Good-Fortune — The Winter Palace — Peter the Great's Throne-Room — The Hermitage — A Wonderful Collection of Pictures — Fine Works of Great Artists — The Gallitzin Gallery — Priceless Archaeological Treasures — The Grecian Helmet Holding the Owner's Head — Curious Antiques — Jewelry and Vases — Ancient Coins — A Feast for Artist, Archseologist, Antiquary, or Numismatist 109

Chapter XI

Peter the Great — Reverence of him in Russia — Relics of him and his Time — Collection of Snuff-Boxes — Gems and Jewelry — Antiques and Rich Rarities of Every Kind — The Green Vaults Rivalled — A Model Guide — A Hint to Tourists — An Amusing Case — Escorted to the Frontier — Politeness of the Police to an American Offender — Museum of Imperial Carriages — Peter the Great's Sledge — Luxuri-

CONTENTS.

cms Chariot of Catherine II. — Alexander II. 's Carriage as Smashed by Nihilist Bombs —The Unfossilized Remains of Mastodons from Siberia— Ethnographic Exhibition — Peter the Great's Monument .— Cathedral of St. Peter — Russian Saints — Catherine II. and her Monument — Peter the Great's Cottage — Peter's Summer Palace — Monastery of Alexander Nevski — Death-Bed of Peter — Altar-Screens — A Miniature Palace — Wonderful Wealth of Russian Churches — Peterhof Palace — The Imperial Summer Palace — The Royal Chapel — The Wonderful Amber Room — The Chinese Room —Room of Catherine II. — Prodigal Luxuriance — The Alexander Palace 121

Chapter XII

From St. Petersburg to Moscow — A More Foreign Look — Moscow a Manufacturing City — Russian Cotton — Finances of the Country — Street Scenes in Moscow — Curious Vehicles

— Monks and Nuns — Conflagration of Moscow — A City of Churches — The Kremlin — The Redeemer's Gate — The Big Bell — The Tower of Ivan — The Spoils of War — Napoleon's Cannon — The Arsenal — Great Riding-School — Cathedral of the Assumption — A Picture Decorated with a Quarter of a Million Dollars Worth of Jewels — Heaps of Precious Stones — Church of Archangel Michael — Tomb of Ivan the Terrible — The Treasury — Armor and Trophies — The Crowns and Thrones of Departed Monarchs — Another Prodigal Display of Wealth— Coronation Robes and Plate

— The Carriage Museum — The Patriarch's Sacristy — The Sacred Oil and How it is Made — House of the Holy Synod

— Illimitable Wealth in Precious Stones — Masterpieces of

Art 144

Chapter XIII

The Church in the Wood — St. Basil the Beautiful — Cathedral of St. Saviour — A New Memorial Temple — Grand Proportions, Rich Marbles, and Costly Carving — Visiting the Sanctum Sanctorum — Hew it was Accomplished — The Foundling Hospital — A Wonderful Institution — Training of the Inmates — Admirable System — Government Grant —

CONTENTS. XI

Illegitimacy in Eussia — The Ride to Sparrow Hills — Fine Panoramic View — Napoleon and Moscow — Recalling Historic Events on the Spot of their Enactment — Russian Peasants — Siberian Exiles — Their March and Treatment . 16G

Chapter XIV

An Escape from Siberia — The Story of a Political Exile — The Arrest — Farewell to Friends — The March — Guards, Food, and Treatment — A Disguised Friend — Plans of Deliverance — The Escape — Hardships and Risks in Reaching the Frontier — Narrow Escape — America Reached at Last — Another Exile — A Wood-Cutter in the Forests of Siberia — He Turns Out to be a Learned College Professor — Meets Two of his Former Pupils — The Sweets of Liberty . . . 181

Chapter XV

Russian Post-Office Regulations — Simonof Monastery — A Once Powerful Institution — All Asleep — The Great Bell-Tower

— Built for Defence — Wall and Watch-Towers — The Romanoff House — Antique Russian Style — Curious Relics

— Work for Tourists — The Royal Palace — Standards of the Russian Army — Grand Apartments — Halls of St. George, St. Andrew, St. Alexander, and St. Catherine — The Granite Palace — The Red Staircase — A Historic Spot

— Royal Banquet-Room — Mementos of Bonaparte's Invasion — Traveller's Stories of Nijni Novgorod Fair — The Railway Trip from Moscow to Nijni Novgorod 193

Chapter XVI

Scenes at Nijni Novgorod — Miles of Wharves and Mountains of Merchandise — Russian Beggars — Religious Pilgrims — Fleets of Freight-Steamers — The Iron-Market — Russian Iron — Wool and Cotton Marts — The Tea-Quarter — Tea Testers and Tasters — Tartar Laborers — The Horse-Fair — Orloff Horses — Turkish and Persian Fabrics — Vast Collection of Merchandise — The Turkish Quarter — Entering a Turkish Mosque — An Obliging Mollah — Mussulman Beggars — Precautions Against Fire 205 x ii CONTEXTS.

Chapter XVII

The Cheap Quarter — Dust-Bin of the Empire — Raree-Shows and Cheap Exhibitions —Dance-Houses and Music-Hails — The Man-Eating Savages — A Cannibal Selling Photographs and Speaking English — A Surprised Showman — Tea-Drinking in Russia — Vodki-Shops — Business During the Fair — Russian Merchants Represented — The Daily Exchange — Russian Grain-Trade — A Clever Ruse — Russian Honesty — Drosky-Drivers — Shops — Travelling — Russia's Extent of Territory — Her Power and Possibilities 21S

BRITONS AND MUSCOVITES;

TRAITS OF TWO EMPIRES.

Chapter I

The Americans are said to be an uneasy race, from the fact that, go where you will, in any quarter of the globe, you are sure to meet them, and that more frequently than the natives of any other country.

It is a well known fact that London, Paris, Vienna, Switzerland, Rome, and other European localities depend on American visitors during the travelling season for increasing the business of their retail tradesmen, their hotels and travel routes. Indeed, a fallingoff of American travel, owing to business panic or any other reason, is noted at once in European capitals and the consequent loss of trade commented on, both by tradesmen and the press. Again, the investigating spirit of the American, his thirst for something new, his desire to see something beyond what others have seen, to go farther, run greater risks, travel more miles or at greater speed than others have done before him, sends him to the uttermost parts of the earth and causes him to pervade the world generally.

American travellers are as plentiful all over Europe as flies at a sugar barrel. They wander through England's castles and abbeys, throw money away prodi-

2 UBIQUITOUS AMERICANS.

gaily in Paris, applaud at bull fights in Spain, secure the best rooms in the Swiss hotels to the disgust of the plaid-suited and thick-shod Englishmen, scare their guides half out of their wits by their acts at the crater of Vesuvius, abuse custodians of the Vatican at Rome, ride like mad through the streets of St. Petersburg, charter unnecessary donkeys in Cairo, pay double price for curiosities at Thebes, get into difficulties in the crooked streets of Damascus, shoot alligators in Florida, dash in carioles over the mountain roads of Norway, meander through Mexico, steam along the gold-laden rocks of Alaska, and elbow their way round the streets of Melbourne.

In fact, Dr. Livingstone, the African explorer, who fancied that his was the only pale face among the ebony-hued natives of what he supposed was unknown Africa, must have been astonished, in that terra incognita, at seeing an individual advance with the American flag and the greeting : —

"Dr. Livingstone, I believe."

The Americans, by their continual pushing about, have done much to improve means of travel, to introduce conveniences, comforts, and facilities of their invention, often temporarily used by foreigners to please their visitors, but finally permanently adopted for themselves.

Notwithstanding it is now as much the fashion to examine and praise new American inventions as it used to be to decry and abuse them, yet there is something so clumsy and awkward in the English manner of trying to do anything after the American plan as to make Americans who suffer by it wish it had never been attempted. On the other hand, the pertinacity with which the English cling to customs obsolete elsewhere

METHODS OF TRAVEL. 3

drives the bright, wide-awake Yankee, who is detained, hampered, and annoyed thereby, almost to the verge of desperation.

It is so much the fashion to travel nowadays, and there are so many methods by which what were formerly long, costly, and somewhat dangerous tours have been rendered enjoyable, cheap, and safe pleasure-trips, that almost all persons of moderate means can make or have made extensive tours at home or abroad. The Cook and Gaze tourist tickets, in Europe, and the better and perfectly managed Raymond excursions, here in the United States, remove a greater part of the burden and bother of travel, and really give to the tourist nearly all his time for the sight-seeing and enjoyment of his trip without the annoyances of ticket-buying, luggage-checking, and hotel arrangements, which necessarily fall to one's lot when travelling independently upon his own account.

Nevertheless, the latter method has its advantages to those who have the time and means to use it. The English are notorious grumblers as tourists, and prone to cavil at everything that does not exactly suit them ; but if there is any one country in which the average American has reason to expect so much advance in the way of convenience and accommodation to the traveller, and finds so little, it is England.

Going over the ocean to-day in one of the great Cunard steamers is, however, very different and more speedy than it was twenty years ago. Then the author thought the voyage good and speedy in the old sidewheeler Asia, which accomplished the journey between Boston and Queenstown in twelve days ! Now from the stepping on board the great steamer Umbria, at her pier in New York, to the stepping off at Liverpool,

4 A LOOK AT THE LEVIATHAN.

including the stop at Queenstown, the time was found to be exactly seven days and five hours — about half that covered by the first mentioned voyage.

A look at this huge specimen of naval architecture at the wharf, while exciting the wonder of the beholder, somehow or other gives him an impression prejudicial to her safety in a storm or heavy sea. You wonder if it may not be difficult or dangerous to manage such a huge affair, if something will not give out to render the leviathan an unmanageable mass at the mercy of the waves. A single voyage in rough weather, however, will change one's doubts into the belief, as it did mine, that this giant of navigation is a paragon of safety and comfort, as far as comfort can ever be said to be experienced by those who cross the ocean.

Owing to the size of the ship and the enormous power of her machinery, there is steadiness to her in comparatively rough seas that in smaller vessels would cause rolling and pitching to a marked degree. Then, the wide stairways, spacious, very spacious cabins, grand dining-hall, music-hall, ladies' private cabin, smoking and card room and servants' cabin, and withal the great promenade deck, broad, wide, and long — the length of the ship is very nearly one-tenth of a mile — make a fair-weather passage on one of these ocean greyhounds luxurious travelling indeed.

Ah! but how is it in rough and stormy weather?

Well, the ship, by reason of her immense power of machinery, does not remain long in the locality where the storm prevails ; it is not with these ships as was the case with sailing vessels and slow steamers which made but a few miles a da} 7 and consequently remained long in the radius of a storm. This big ship, in a storm that sent waves away over her upper deck and

CUTTING THROUGH THE STORM-BELT. 5

the spray to the top of her enormous funnels, rolled and was unsteady, and the weather sent two-thirds of her passengers to their state-rooms sea-sick ; but she kept right on, cut right through storm, wave, and tempest, on, on ; — no tacking or stopping or finding that we were detained by the storm, but when the steward, with a cup of porridge, staggered to our state-room the next morning, it was with the cheerful intelligence that the run for the day just ended was 245 miles, and that ten hours more would carry us entirely clear of the storm-belt there prevailing. Best of all, his prediction was fulfilled.

Though we were all day below, the steady and rapid progress of the great ship, and the comparatively little effect which wind and wave had upon her as she faced, encountered, and overcame both with such ease, gave us a feeling of safety which we could not have so fully experienced in a ship of less power, and, we may perhaps add, less skilfully managed.

The dimensions of such ships as the Etruria and Umbria, of the Cunard line, fairly stagger those unacquainted with the size to which steamship-building has been carried in this nineteenth century. They are, iu fact, the natural results of all that lias been done in the development of ocean-going steaming, especially Atlantic steaming, for the past thirty years.

The gradual development of the lines of ocean-going steamers to the proportions of the yacht, combined with the adoption of well tested new methods, have reduced the designing of high speed to matters of certainty. This ship has made the trip to Queenstown in six days, fourteen hours, twenty minutes, and on another occasion in six days, eleven hours, and ten minutes, and it is expected to bridge the Atlantic in six b TREMENDOUS PROPORTIONS.

days. The engines of this ship are a magnificent sight and in perfection of simplicity ; they are said to be the most powerful in use.

The great breadth of the vessel has provided an abundance of room round their tremendous proportions, and the sight of the massive cranks revolving with perfect smoothness and regularity, at a speed of sixty-seven revolutions a minute, is interesting and wonderful. The horse-power of the engines here reached is something over one thousand two hundred and fifty, which is a trifle over the minimum, the maximum not having been reached at the time the author made his voyage.

The Umbria is 520 feet long, 57 feet broad, 41 feet deep, and of over eight thousand tonnage. She is the largest steamer afloat. The City of Rome is forty feet longer, but the Umbria is five feet broader and four feet deeper, and it is in depth and breadth that sea-sick people find comfort and consolation, and the steadiness of this ship is a most agreeable feature. The great breadth of the vessel gives room for the spacious staircases I have alluded to, which are as broad as those of a first-class hotel, and the means of access from one deck to the other are numerous as well as broad. The great saloon, extending from side to side, is 76 feet long and nine feet high, and is lighted from a cupola skylight above, which also lights a sitting or music room above, through the centre of which the light descends. At night the whole is lighted by incandescent electric lights, placed near the ceiling so that the view is not obstructed, thus replacing the odorous and even dangerous oil-lamp so loathed by qualmish passengers.

I do not recall the number of state-rooms in the

CAPACITY OF THE CMBRIA. 7

Umbria, but she can carry 720 first-class passengers, and on the trip we made in her there were btib first-class passengers, yet the size of the ship was such that it was difficult to realize that there were half that number on board, except in smooth weather, at dinner-time, when they were brought together at the two dinners in the great cabin, one set dining at 5 and the other at 6 P. M. I mention details respecting the size and accommodations of this great vessel as illustrating what has thus far been accomplished to render the journey across the ocean comfortable as well as speedy.

The lines of the ship are unusually fine ; she does not by any means look her size, and the disturbance of the water-way when at her greatest speed is comparatively trivial. The two funnels, upon which eighteen extra braces were put during one of our experiences of a two-days blow, are gigantic affairs, and three ordinary-sized men could stand one above the other within their diameter. The upper deck extends the whole breadth of the ship, obstructed only by the necessary hatchways and twelve life-boats, a space of 300 feet by 57 feet.

Everything is on a gigantic scale as compared with other steamers I have voyaged in ; here was a huge air-pump that forced fresh air along the whole length of the corridors on the lower decks, through iron shafts perforated with holes an inch in diameter and two feet apart. By the force of this artificial current the ventilation is continuous and uniform in all weathers, and none of what is known as the betweendeck odor is observable. The huge steam-boilers, the hull of the vessel, the crank-shaft and the more vital parts of the engine are all of steel. A feature of the great boilers that I had never seen before is that they

8 NEEDED REFORM.

were double-ended, that is, they had a set of furnaces at each end.

As steamers have increased in size and speed, the boiler has grown in size ; but it has grown in circumference, not in length. The Umbria consumes three hundred tons of coal per day, and the total of her crew, including firemen, sailors, stewards, coal-passers, etc., is two hundred and eighty men. Although so much has been done in the past score of years as regards speed, convenience, and comfort, yet in the latter characteristic there is still much room for improvement in the matter of cuisine and attendance, and, I doubt not, it will be closely studied.

The majority of people making the voyage are sea-sick, at least for a portion of the time, and, though having the best of attention from stewards and stewardesses, could be still better served by a little departure from the old, established way of doing things, which has prevailed so many years on the ships of the Cunard line. For instance, the hours for meals were : breakfast, 8 o'clock ; lunch, 1 to 2 ; dinner at 5. Thus the patient or the hungry convalescent must wait from 8 to 5 for a hot meal, for at lunch only cold meats are served. One wakes very early in the morning at sea, and it is a terrible time to wait until 8 o'clock for the warm breakfast. Again, the best of beef-tea, oatmeal-porridge, Oolong tea, and hot gruel ought to be kept on tap at all hours, and just as easily attainable by sea-sick passengers as liquors or wines.

A writer on ocean-voyages has written at length against passengers being obliged to furnish their own steamer-chairs, but this feature I think a good one as it enables one to provide for his own exclusive use such as he may desire. The price of this exclusive

AMUSEMENTS OX BOARD. 9

comfort is very small, and the opportunities, on a big ship like the Umbria, of removing one's couch or seat from point to point of observation, and always being sure of it, are many and afford entertainment to the voyager.

We found on this trip the same old amusements for passing away time that have prevailed for a score of years and more. The tossing of rope rings over an upright stake about ten feet distant from the pitcher ; shuffleboard, or the thrusting of a sort of big checker or draught by means of a gigantic pudding-stick at a chalked-out diagram on the deck ; and pitching pennies into a pint pot. In the smoking-room, the games of chess and checkers, whist, poker, and other games of cards, drew a strong representation from the male portion of the passengers, and caused a change of ownership of a very respectable number of sovereigns and bank-notes. Of course, the usual concert that is always given for that English Marine Orphan Asylum, that must be accumulating a handsome income from ocean-travellers by this time, took place on our voyage over; and the affair, being run by an English passenger, was conducted in true English style, by calling with some ceremony a titled Englishman to take " the chair/' Englishmen at a meeting, a private concert, and, I believe, at a sewing circle, if they ever had such an assemblage, always contrive to have some Sir Peregrine Poke or Lord Addington Adlehed on hand to " kindly consent to take the chair." Those who are present find that, besides having this fact reported in the newspapers or talked about in certain circles, the object of selecting such a chairman seems often to result in the obtaining of some one who can the most successfully muddle the whole affair.

10 ENGLISH SERVILITY.

The author recalls on one of his voyages, when we assembled to hear the amateur performance, vocal and instrumental, of several clever people who were on board, that the English gentleman who engineered the affair announced that "Sir Benjamin Baucher, K. C. B., had kindly consented to take the chair on this occasion," which the aforesaid Sir Benjamin, after being approached, did, looking quite red and uncomfortable. However, in a sort of beery bass, he explained the object of the charity, by aid of his prompter, and then proceeded to announce the performers set down in the programme, but, not having previously perused it, he announced some of the performers in the wrong places and mispronounced the names of the others. But the sea was smooth, passengers all well and in good-humor, the performances clever, and the usual toll taken up for the hospital was very respectable in amount.

It was a little bit of harmless exultation on our part to pass, just before entering Queenstown harbor, a steamer (the Britannic) that had left New York two days previous to our sailing, and to beat her in gaining port in such aggravating style.

The American Exchange in Europe, under the management of Mr. H. F. Gillig, is of great service to American travellers, and saves them a vast deal of trouble and annoyance. It has offices at London, Liverpool, Paris, and Berlin ; and at each place, although somewhat of a seasoned tourist, I found its service to be of great advantage and at quite a small expense. At Liverpool its agent meets you as you disembark, has a carriage ready to convey you to rooms which you may have ordered in advance (as you should do, through him) at the hotel. You leave your keys

A USEFUL INSTITUTION. 11

with him at the landing, and he expeditiously gets your baggage through the Custom House, and saves a world of fussy annoyances that it is pleasant to avoid in your anxiety to exchange the bustle and confusion attendant upon landing for a "good square meal" on shore and a wide and steady bed in which to sleep.

There is nothing puts the life into one after the seavoyage more than a good dinner after getting on shore, for it is without that indescribable ship-flavor, — halfway style of serving, lack of heat in vegetables, and other concomitants that characterize ship-cooking, — and is, of course, a more legitimate meal in all respects than those served on shipboard.

In a day or two, with digestive apparatus in good order, lungs filled with land-breezes, and sea-legs off, you are in condition to note the inferiority of English hotels in general, the great advantage possessed by the average American workman, employe, or day-laborer, over his English rival, in quickness of apprehension, in the adoption and use of an improvement, in the belief that anything may be improved, or that anything that is new can for any reason whatever be better than that which is old. In fact, the average Englishman seems to cling to the past, and look backwards, while the American is eager to leave even the present well enough for something in advance that may be an improvement.

Many of the American improvements now in use in England in machinery, manufactures, hotel-keeping, and travelling, though at first forced upon them and after long and persistent effort reluctantly adopted, now, after having come into common use, are claimed as English inventions.

Liverpool has changed but little since I saw it, seven

12 LIVERPOOL.