12 REASONS FOR THE VOYAGE. LETTER III. ARRIVAL AT LIVERPOOL. Entrance of the Mersey-Scenery on the River-Approach to Liverpool-General aspect of the City-Docks and Pier-British and American Pilots-Captain Bolton-Hon. Martin Van Buren-Dinner at the American Consul's-Conversation-President's Message-Reputation of Gen. Jackson. DEAR VIRGINIA, Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool, INDUCEMENTS of the most tempting kind are ever present to an American for a visit to England. But two circumstances, in particular, led to the resolution on my part of spending the summer abroad: the one a state of health which had interfered for a time with the discharge of my official duties in the national service, and the other the desire of my friend, captain Bolton of the navy, that I should accompany him in a tour which he had determined to make. It was under the command of this gentleman, you will recollect, that I recently accomplished a visit to the south seas. The friendship and intimacy contracted in a voyage of the world had well fitted us for the close companionship of fellow-travellers on land, and every arrangement was made for leaving New York in company, when I was suddenly called to a distant part of the state, under circumstances rendering the practicability of my intended travel doubtful. Captain Bolton, therefore, embarked at SCENERY ON THE MERSEY. 13 the time proposed, with the agreement that I should join him, if in my power, at an early period, in London. Happily I was enabled to sail by the succeeding packet; and, on entering the English channel, learned from an Irish fishing boat, that the ship, in which he was a passenger, had preceded us two or three days only. In the hope that he might still be in Liverpool, I was all impatience for the termination of our voyage; and, greatly to my satisfaction, found on my going on deck this morning, that we were ra· pidly approaching the city, thirteen miles above the entrance of the Mersey, off which we had been lying during the night. The stream is scarce a quarter of a mile in width, and affords a full view of the shores on either hand. The country in the immediate vicinity is not remarkable for its richness, but the high state of improvement to which the whole surface is brought, with the freshness and beauty of the season breathing its fragrance and scattering its bloom on everything around, made it lovely in our eyes; and we hailed with delight the dark green fields, thick hedge rows, neat cottages, and broad winged windmills seen, on every side, through the hazy atmosphere of the "fast anchored isle." Liverpool, as a city, you are aware, is as modern in its rise and history as any of the principal American ports; and presents nothing, in the approach to it, particularly to arrest the attention of a transatlantic visiter. It is smoky and black, and extends two miles or more along the river, and an equal distance inland. The general style of architecture is more heavy than in the United States, and the material for building, except in the public edifices, being principally unpainted brick, blackened with smoke, there is little in the external aspect of the town, when viewed en masse, at a distance, of the brightness and airiness of most of the ports in our own country. The environs, however, ornamented with numerous villas and country-seats, seem pleasant; and the shore of the water opposite is lined with the pretty towns of Egremont and Seacombe, Birkenhead and Tran mere. Small boats and steam vessels crowd the river, but ships do not generally anchor in the stream. The boast of the port is its spacious and magnificent docks. These are immense basins of massive stonework, fronting the city in a line with the river, with which they communicate, by gates at either end. Vessels, on their arrival from sea, enter immediately into some one of these, the high walls of which, overtopped by forests of masts gay with the signals of ships from all quarters of the globe, form the principal view from the water, while the upper stories of the loftier warehouses, and the towers and spires of the city appear in the back ground. A noble stone pier, furnished at short intervals with substantial steps for the convenience of landing from boats at any state of the tide, separates the docks from the river, and affords an open and pleasant promenade, at the water side, much frequented by the citizens. An hour or more was very vexatiously lost to me, under the circumstances, after we had arrived oppo site Princes' Dock, in which the packet ships lie, before we could secure an entrance to it; principally from the stupidity of a half intoxicated pilot. Brandy seemed a chief object of interest to him from the moment he boarded us; and, he soon became so much under its influence, as to have an interdiction. laid, by the captain, to any after visit by him to the steward's pantry. Last night, when the wind was blowing so freshly, in our approach to the river, as to be carrying away the sails and spars of vessels around us, he scarce knew what he was about; and now, in entering the dock, but for the personal exertion and Herculean strength of Captain Bursley, much damage would have been done to the ship against the pier head, through mismanagement and carelessness arising from the same cause. Such a dereliction of character in those to whose skill and integrity, so much of all that is most precious in property and life is daily committed, cannot be too strongly reprobated; and, while censure from all fell abundantly on the head of this victim of vice, the gentlemen of the British army, among the passengers, took occasion to remark the great respectability, as appeared to them, of the pilots of New York, and their decided superiority to any of the same class they had ever met in their own country. The moment I could get on shore, I hastened to inquire for my friend; learned that he was still in the city; and soon had the happiness of being joyfully welcomed by him at the Adelphi. 1 had also the pleasure of meeting, at the same hotel, our late Ambassador at the Court of St. James, Mr. Van Buren, 16 DINNER AT MR. Ogden's. and his son, who sail to-morrow on their return to the United States. Captain Bolton was engaged, with these gentlemen, to dine with Mr. Ogden, the American Consul for this port; and, having received an invitation to join the party, I accepted a seat in Mr. Van Buren's carriage, at six o'clock, for the residence of that gentleman. Among the company at table were some of the most distinguished citizens of Liverpool; and politics, British and American, constituted almost exclusively the topic of conversation. The last year, as you know, has here been replete with tumult and popular dissatisfaction; so much so, as greatly to perplex the administration, if not to endanger the stability of the government; and, the passing month has witnessed a degree of national excitement, without a parallel in the modern history of the kingdom. Had we arrived, even ten days earlier, we should have seen the workings of an agitation which reached the very verge of open revolution. All parties admit the retirement of Earl Grey as premier, and the resignation of the ministers consequent upon it, to have been a most fearful crisis to the empire; and nothing but the speedy recall of that statesman, and the triumph of reform, of which it was the royal pledge, saved the nation, at the time, from the horrors of a civil war. Happily the tempest, which then filled the political horizon with blackness, has passed over without desolating the land; and the only evidence, to the eye of the stranger, of its having existed, is the calm which has succeeded to the violence with which it swept |