“I see,” observed another guest; “you want to have a peep at the great temple the Mormons built before Joe Smith was shot at Springfield. ’Tain’t much you’ll see, though, stranger, for the place is all to ruin. The bhoys were not soft enough to let so much cedar-pine and dressed limestone stand, when houses were costing hat-fulls of dollars. But Nauvoo has some fine bluffs, con-sidered aiqual to any scenery the old Rhine can show.”
“Air you in the hardware line? If so, we might trade, I guess;” said a little man at my elbow.
“No, no;” I returned, “my journey is not of a commercial character, exactly.”
“Political, eh?” asked the Major: “picking up news, perhaps, for your Downing Street wiseacres, and feeling Uncle Sam’s pulse to know when the old gentleman is at fever heat, eh, mister?”
“Not at all,” said I; “I have no mission of the sort; nor, indeed, do I believe the British Government to entertain any peculiar anxiety on the subject you mention.”
A cough and shrug of disapprobation pervaded the assembly.
“It is well known, sir,” said the tall Major, “that the Government of your benighted land is ever on the watch for the expression of American opinion. American opinion, sir, has great weight in your House of Commons.”
“I was not aware of it, I give you my word;” I answered with a smile.
“Perhaps not, sir, perhaps not,” replied the Major, pityingly. “Do you never read the ‘Evening Planet,’ sir, when you are at home?”
I winced. The truth was, that I did take in the ‘Evening Planet,’ and heedfully perused therein the valuable dicta of its eloquent proprietor, a celebrated parliamentary and platform orator. And I had been accustomed to give credence to the confident assurance of this gentleman, that we were miles behind the Northern States of the American Union in all that was useful and good, and that we could not do better than copy so shining a model in all things. I had read and heard the bold statement, made in defiance of statistics, that America was floating peacefully on the tide of prosperity into the haven of universal empire—an empire won by bloodless means, of course; for what nation, unsaddled with an aristocracy, would dream of war, while Britain was sinking into decrepitude and decay! All this, and much more, had I heard and read, and I had believed that Britannia ought to sit at the feet of her flighty offspring for instruction, and to remodel her old institutions after a republican pattern. But, as not seldom happens, a nearer view of the United States did not precisely confirm the loud assertions of the Americanising party in the British press and senate, and I was gradually losing my ideal admiration for transatlantic liberty and customs. After the rapid dinner, and the more leisurely supplement of juleps and brandy-cobblers imbibed in the bar-room of the hotel, I asked a coloured waiter if my waggon and mules were forthcoming, as I was desirous of reaching Nauvoo before dark.