earth. If an American vessel attempts to reach any tween Spain and the United States is a question point on the Southern shores of the Caribbean in which she would have no right to interfere, Sea it must pass either along the coast of West- and therefore it would not be our duty to consult ern Cuba within a few hours' sail of Havana; her. If she intrudes the sword must decide. between Hayti and Cuba within a few hours' In properly adjusting the balance of territosail of Santiago de Cuba, Baracoa, and Nipe, rial possession on the American route to Asia, one of the finest ports in the world; between Cuba, as the most important and commanding Hayti and Porto Rico; or, stretching far into point in proximity to our coast, should fall to us. the Atlantic against the trade-winds, still enter The due share of Spain would be Porto Rico: within striking distance of Porto Rico. The it commands and protects the route which the American trader from Panama or California to Spanish commerce with Central America is China finds his path beset by the wide-spread bound to pursue, and in international justice she archipelago of the Philippines, possessions of can demand no more. Whether a fair share of Spain, who also advances pretensions to some of the United States in the territory commanding the Islands near Borneo, if not to that vast ter- the American route to Asia would require the ritory itself. Cuba and Porto Rico together con- cession to them of portion of the Philippines, or tain a territory equal to that of England with the annexation of the Sandwich Islands, is a Wales, and the Philippines equal France in ex- question which we merely state without discustent, (if, indeed, they do not exceed it,) while sion, lest our readers should stand aghast at such Borneo contains a territory twice as large. Spain portentous projects, and forget that we are mereis thus the pre-eminent power, in point of terri- ly treating the general question of a balance of torial possessions and advantage in their situa-power between the great maritime nations of the tions, on the peculiarly American route to Asia. If European Spain, under the influence of peace In speaking of a new adjustment of territory and constitutional government, recover its pris- we do not mean that any arrangement should be tine energy, (an event by no means so improba- sought by improper means. We merely desigble as is imagined by those politicians who de-nate a policy as one to be carried out when occalight in speaking of it as "decrepit old Spain,") sion offers, and by proper means. To go direct it would be also the dominant power on that route to Spain and demand the cession of Cuba would which the most extensive and valuable portion be undiplomatic, and to seize it would be indecoof our commerce may hereafter pursue. Rea-rous if not immoral. But, in case the present ussons of state can influence the conduct of repub-urped authority of Spain over that island—we say lics as well as that of kings, and if the balance usurped, though to explain our reasons for using of power between the maritime or colonial states the word, would require many pages—should be requires that Spain be despoiled of her undue overthrown by its people; in case Spain herself proportion of the territory bordering on the Amer- should be willing to part with it; in case another ican route to Asia, it is certainly the duty as well power should conquer it; in case we should be as the right of the United States to shape its ac- ourselves involved in war with Spain; or, finally, tion, diplomatic or forcible, so as to bring about if from any other just cause we acquire a right such readjustment as may protect its rights and to interfere in its condition, we can then honoraequality. And from this point of view we can- bly assert our claims to its possession. not think that England should be anything be- Mr. Trescot, though comparatively a young yond a passive party to that re-adjustment. She man, is already favorably known to the public has no territory on the Gulf of Mexico; we do by his contributions to the Southern Review and not think with Mr. Trescot that that sea is un- his report to the Memphis Convention held some der the joint protection of England and the Uni- years ago on the Ware-housing System. His ted States: on the contrary, it belongs to Mexi- present essay exhibits vigorous thoughts and exco, Cuba and the United States, and England, tended information on the subjects of which he as a power, has no business there. She has also treats, and on diplomacy in general. We think, her full share of territory on the American route with the Southern Review that he has given us to Asia. The share of Spain is in excess by his "Thoughts" in too succinct a form, and we just so much as we ought to have. The general hope he will find leisure, as he certainly has enbalance of power on the route can be adjusted couragement, to give the public his views and by adjusting the particular balance there between his system at length. The enunciation of those Spain and ourselves. England could have a right to consultation only in case the United States, in a spirit of conquest, should attempt to gain an undue preponderance. England should watch, but a mere adjustment of the balance be views, as a system, is, we believe, entirely new, and Mr. Trescot may claim the credit of originality in bringing them before the public. His style is vigorous and chaste; in one small particular, however, we must take exception to his language. He invariably speaks of the United ever may have been individual opinion as to his States as if that term were in the singular num- course, Palmerston, and Aberdeen, and Peel, felt ber, as, for instance, in one of the passages we that in representing the nation he represented have quoted; "are not the interests of the United them all. This point, however, never can be States sufficiently extended-its power &c." reached until foreign missions cease to be reWhy not be grammatical and say their, they &c.? wards for electioneering services; until we cease If any political principle be involved, (and how to apportion certain honors to certain States, as any can justly be so we are unable to see.) we if their share in the country's influence was not answer that Mr. Webster, the head of the school more largely recognized in the selection of a which advocates the indivisible unity of our con- proper representative of our common character federacy, in speaking of the United States, in and common interests than by the very abstract despatches laid before Congress, uses the word and absurd honor of making the country ridicuthey. If the ungrammatical usage were fixed. lous in the person of a fellow citizen. There is like that in virtue of which an editor speaks of still less excuse for the constant uncertainty in himself as if he were a plurality of persons, no our diplomatic appointments, because whatever objection could be made; but, as it is not fixed, may be the width of our political domestic differwe are sorry to see an accomplished scholar like ences, our foreign policy has generally been subMr. Trescot sanctioning a practice which must ject of agreement, we have almost uniformly create grammatical confusion, and is contrary to sympathised in our estimate of ourselves, and that simplicity and regularity of construction, to- our respect for others. The country, however, wards which our language is advancing. has hitherto always found what it needed, and as As our readers will have seen, we are unable the necessity presses, it will, we trust, create a to follow Mr. Trescot in all the deductions he school of American diplomacy, sound in its atdraws from his general principle, though that tainments, sagacious in its means, and governed general principle itself seems to us as correct as as to its ends by a strong sense of national power, it is consistent with our dignity and interests, and and a solemn conviction of national responsiflattering to our pride and our position in the bility.” family of nations. But, as he himself observes, "there is no system of foreign relations of which more can be said in advance than that it deserves attention as a possible solution of a political perplexity. The necessary and constant changes of national interests and national duties warn the student of diplomatic history most emphatically against the spirit of even honest partizanship, and confirm the pointed advice of Talleyrand, above all, sir, no over-zeal.'" We conclude this notice by inserting the closing remarks of Mr. Trescot, which, couched in decorous language, are yet made terribly severe by their undeniable general truth. "Whatever may be men's opinions as to this or that scheme of foreign policy, this much is certain, that in the future relations of the world, our part is destined to be a great one,—and it is time that the diplomacy of the nation should be characterized by grave ability, honest, laborious attainment, calm and conscientious purpose. To effect this, it must to a great extent be removed from the selfish struggles of mere party interests. The Ambassador represents no financial differences, no constitutional constructions, no personal preferences. He is the voice of the nation's common pride: the guardian of its common character; the trustee of its proudest prerogative; and in his bearing and character and career all parties are equally interested. The expulsion of Sir Henry Bulwer from Spain was no question of party interest in England. What-I A HUSBAND TO A WIFE. Wife, my heart is yearning for you, For your fond and winning ways. But my heart I think grows older. Brushing past my cheek, and dim Books once petted, poor companions Any more for reading aught You and I embarked together When all Earth was full of speech, for the picturesque in nature and the beautiful in humanity. He never passes a flower without affectionately noting its color and perfume; "hazy promontories" are watched by his eye with rapture. If he visits an old cathedral he makes trial of the organ; and keenly enjoys, during a spring promenade, the "balsamic serenity of the air." Amid the wild crags of the Grande Chartreuse, he is "seized by the genius of the place," finds a knoll whence to observe, and goes there at sunrise and moonlight, in storm and calm, to study, with a zest that makes him unmindful of exposure and the flight of time,— the phases of mountain, ravine and firmament. William Beckford and the Literature of "Lilies streaked with pink," silent nooks in a Travel. BY H. T. TUCKERMAN. forest, where the rabbits sit undisturbed," a strain from Bertoni's Armida, a mass by Jomelli or an anthem by Hadyn-even "the soft and barmonious color" of a straw mat by candlelight-find One striking effect of the progress of know- a place in his pleasurable experience and are ledge and its application to life, is that the redeemed worthy of emphatic mention. The records of travel seem to have passed from the lation of character to art and of nature to exdomain of wonder to that of taste and philosophy. pression is, at once, a subtle and inexhaustible It is with but feeble expectations of strange ad- theme; yet the question is often unimportant exventure or rare discoveries, that the modern pil- cept to the curious analyst. If it were proved grim sets out on his tour; and few readers open beyond a particle of doubt that Shakspere his journal with the hope of learning what is was a deer-stealer the fact would not lesson the quite new or marvellous. In fact the scenes de- tragic grandeur of Lear or the tender beauty of scribed, the countries visited and the experiences Romeo and Juliet; and the actual value of the undergone are, in general, too familiar to awaken inductive system of philosophy remains undesurprise; it is the point of view whence they preciated by the mean ambition of Lord Bacon. are regarded, the descriptive powers of the The works of imagination and reason,—those writer, the talent and spirit by which he conwhich are invented or conceived by a process of tinues to make them suggestive of new associa- thought, have an intrinsic worth dependent altotions and ideas, that lends attraction to what gether on the artistic perfection or absolute truth would otherwise be a monotonous narrative. they contain, so that Young's merriment, Scott's Unredeemed by such original treatment this class family aspirations and Goethe's heartless amours of books seem destined to speedy oblivion. are quite as irrelevant to a just critical estimaAmong those, however, which have escaped this tion of the Night Thoughts, Ivanhoe or Faust, fate, through an inherent vitality derived from as would have been the consideration of Liston's the vividness of the author's sensations and the hypocondria to the enjoyment of his comic gefaithful, yet at the same time, elegant record of nius. The case is, however, reversed in that dethem,—although inspired by the most frequented partment of literature which deals chiefly with countries, are the Travels of William Beckford fact and professes mainly to inform. Writings in Holland, Italy, Portugal and Spain. Romantic by nature and classical by education, he writes with the finish of a scholar and the freedom of an enthusiast. Independent in his circumstances, there is in his style a tone of observant leisure which puts the reader into a quiet, Perhaps there are no books so identified with receptive humor; and accustomed to the best the writer's character as those of travel. His social intercourse, a high-bred ease imparts to integrity of nature, the clearness of his vision, his letters both refined pleasantry and a cultiva- the fairness of his reasoning, his tone, disposited air. Before leaving England, he had given tion and even his temperament either fit or unfit evidence of his knowledge of and sympathy him to report correctly; and the consequence is with Art, by the publication of a volume of that, in the works of travellers, there is a meas"Memoirs of the Painters." Habits incidentally ureless scale of reliability from the statistical revealed, prove him to have been of the order of precision of Von Raumer to the absurd exaggeappreciative travellers; for he constantly sought rations of Baron Munchausen. In attempting that are the result of observation have a very intimate and essential relation to character. The veracity and good perception of a witness are indispensable requisites, even to the interest of his communications in history, science and travels. We by the warped mirror of their prejudice. to discover the moral pre-requisites of a traveller, | pect. Indeed, however this class of writers may in the literary aspect of the subject, we have fall short of the ideal of a traveller in the unibeen impressed with the fact that all who have versality of their minds, they often attain a desecured any permanent credit are men of decided served eminence as original explorers in a spemodesty. Egotism seems to be as fatal to suc- cial domain. Thus in the pursuit of general cess in this kind of writing as in the drama and science, Humboldt gleaned and published some the novel; something of a kindred breadth and of the most valuable results of his long and inquickness of observation is needed by the tourist dustrious life; while the geologist Lyell was as of sympathy by the delineator of human life hunting up strata, in this country, he was brought and nature.—a similar capacity to lay aside per- into such contact with the people as more judisonality and become as disinterested in observa- ciously to recognize them, than those of his countion as the higher class of literary artists are in trymen, who professed exclusively to study their feeling; in a word, to lose pride of opinion in character; and Borrow, while ostensibly distriliberal curiosity and individual sentiment in phi-buting the bible in Spain, secured an insight into lanthropic affinity. By this means alone does it the domestic and habitual existence of that counseem possible to observe to any useful end. The try more curious and authentic than any precepoet of nature declares that her beauties are ding English traveller. fairly revealed only to "an eye of leisure;" and The relish, however, of travels written by men it is certain that the abstract pre-occupation of of great individuality either of taste or character the thinker and the imaginative wanderings of must depend upon our sympathy with them; and the visionary, incapacitate the senses from per- such are obviously not the best adapted to give ceiving correctly the genuine aspect, laws and us genuine pictures. The landscape is colored relations of things. In addition to this objectivity by the hue of their mood or the image distorted whereby the external is described as it is, there must be enough of the sympathetic element to awaken that interest without which an outline is alone secured. The traveller may see well enough but unless he takes a decided pleasure in seeing, and has an impulse toward an intelligent acquaintance with nature, art and man, for their own sake, their superficial and isolated phases are alone visible;-these he may report but it is illegitimate. rather in the way of nomenclature than as living scenes as materials, as artists combine bits of realities; while, on the other hand, if enthusiasm landscape; and finally make a composition more overlay and characterise his narrative, however effective, perhaps, but untrue to any existent oripleasant the book may be, it reveals the author ginal. The tour they record is mainly an exporather than the country he visits. Some very nent of their favorite idea. They journalize not worthy people are unable even to appear interest- for the sake of inducting other minds into the ed in any topic except what directly or remotely scenes around them, but to clothe those scenes concerns themselves; and when such undertake with the tints of their own fancy, use them as a to write an account of their travels, it is aston-basis for their castles in the air; or render them ishing with what ingenuity they contrive to bring unconscious yet inspiring recipients of the baffled the reader, at once, from Alps, Parthenon or the gates of Jerusalem to some private association or reminiscence. A celebrated surgeon with large self-esteem, breaks off in the midst of a There is no species of literature which is so picture of a classic scene, to rhapsodize on the dependent upon general knowledge for its felicicircumstance that his visit occurs on the anniver- tous exhibition as that of travel. All have felt, sary of a successful operation he performed at to a greater or less degree, how the interest of a home with the details of which the reader is scene is enhanced and the significance of a counfavored in a lengthy episode. A traveller may, try deepened, when contemplated in the full light indeed, be pardoned who honestly makes his of science and history. The spirit of adventure, specialité a thread round which to crystallize his however, is rarely found united with great learnadventures. If he candidly sets out to explore a ing; the most successful explorers of physical certain object to pursue a definite aim or to fact seldom apply themselves habitually to books: look at new scenes and people through the lens and no two characters assimilate less than the by which it is given him most effectually to see-traveller and the pedant; yet an ignorant tourist we may accompany him or not; and if we do so, and an untravelled scholar lack essential means it is with the knowledge of what we are to ex-both of utility and satisfaction; and it is in the hopes and aspirations for which their experience has afforded no adequate scope. The ideal of this romance of travel is Childe Harold. writings of men whose lives have been divided |pret the actual, in a country,—there must be the between books and journeys, that we usually broad and keen glance and the extensive knowl find that blended insight into life and lore which edge of the philosopher, or the ardent sympathy admits us faithfully into foreign scenery and cus- of the poet-to bring out the principles at work toms. Antiquity, Nature and Society are the or the beauty diffused through its life and scenes. fields of observation revealed by the records of Observation and invention are quite diverse opetravel; and it is evident that to interpret these rations of the mind; and to exercise the one to with any effect, there must be a basis of histor- arrive at great truths and for the purpose of ical and scientific knowledge and some famili- gleaning materials for art, are processes as wide arity with the principles of mental philosophy, apart as those of the architect and the landscape to guide the inquiry and suggest the inferences painter; in the one case we hardly recognize the of the traveller's mind; but these needful ac-familiar material of which the structure is built, quirements should enlighten, not interfere with, so original is its form; in the other, we behold his personal experience; and be consulted as a an instant and just reflection-shape, hue, figures, chart when desirable, not confuse his perception light and shade, and grouping all in just relation of the present and the actual. A striking illus- to each other and to truth; the one is ingenious, tration of the necessity of a comprehensive grasp the other is practically true; the one is a magiof mind and the inefficiency of mere genius in cal combination of details, the other a comprean author of travels, occurs in the case of the hensive view of generalities; the aim of the one most original novelist of the age. As an obser- is to display effectively human character in the ver of the details of life and the development ideal; that of the other to investigate and unfold of character in a familiar sphere, Charles Dick- realities either of present interest or past asseciens is unsurpassed; yet among the countless ation. The novelist works chiefly according to tourists of this locomotive era, who have given principles of art; the traveller by the light of their journals to the world, it is difficult to find philosophy; and the shaping power of imaginaone who has more egregiously failed in all the tion to action in the one may invalidate the auessentials of this kind of literature than the authenticity of the other. It is on this account thor of Pickwick. The reason is obvious. It that the travels of authors-unless they are critics is in describing the phases, not in analyzing the or historians, are apt to blend fact and fiction so philosophy of life, that Dickens excels; his sym- incongruously together. The observant, acute, pathies though humane are special; he can for- pleasant and companionable Montaigne, as reget himself in drawing a character but not while vealed in his essays, we could have predicted studying the tendencies of national phenomena; would make a good writer of travels before the he is better at dissection than combination and manuscript of his journey into Italy was discovfar more graphic than profound. In a word, ered. To observe, record his experiences, and Dickens is rather an artist than a thinker; he is philosophize on nature and man, were his favormoreover a genuine cockney in his tone and ite intellectual exercises;-to think, not to crescope; and through this lens-so limited in its ate,-to see, not to imagine, gave him satisfacrange of vision, he undertook to survey two coun- tion. Enlightened curiosity to which travel so tries, the one from its future and the other from agreeably ministers, was his ruling passion; and its past destiny, fitted to attract and baffle the he seemed habitually to regard life itself as a largest intelligence. The flippant and superfi- journey mainly endurable on account of what cial tone of his "Pictures from Italy," at once was to be seen by the way. Montaigne, howeassures us that he was incapable of placing him-ver, with all his mental adaptation to this speself in any genuine relation to the spirit of art cies of writing, lacked an important quality; his and antiquity—the spirit of the beautiful and the sympathies were not extensive nor quickened by grand that broods like a sunset cloud over that any great faith or earnestness of sentiment. That desolate yet lovely region; while the utter want feeling-which so eminently distinguishes the of recognition of the true points of interest af- literature of later times, and which has transforded by a new country like our own,-its poli- formed the knight-errant into the humanitarian, tical institutions, its material prosperity and so- does not warm and expand his ideas; but he was cial tendencies, and the absurd emphasis given remarkably clear-sighted, reflective, and fond of to details of physical inconvenience and conven- truth; and as a spectator of human life is so tional traits, suggest a hopeless want of insight alert, communicative, intelligent and honest, that into great practical questions. Compare the we cannot but lament that its aspects and review taken of America by this author, with that sources, in all countries, had not been opened to of De Tocqueville; or his tour in Italy with the his cosmopolitan mind. He possessed that specpoem of Rogers-extreme comparisons, indeed, ulative turn of thought which renders new places, but useful in exhibiting the truth that to inter-customs and people continually suggestive. Not VOL. XVI-2 |