He took me after the great event to the Maryland Club (making me a member for a month), and we had a glass of wine together, meeting again several of the bigwigs migrated like ourselves for something better than iced-water! for the odd thing is that, although the eating luxuries were profuse at this grand banquet,--whole salmons, bolsters of truffled turkey, oysters in every form, and plenty of terrapines, canvas-back ducks, and other costly comestibles,--not a drop of anything but water (except indeed tea and coffee) was to be had, the excuse being that at least some of the party would be sure to take too much; so all are mulcted for a few as usual." But my American journals are full of that sort of thing, and this honest extract may serve as a sample.

I never guessed how crowded up by popularities a poor author may be till I had crossed the Atlantic and reaped the kindness of Greater Britain.
After all this, I went down South,--where I have seen brilliant humming-birds flying about, some two or three days after I had waded through deep snow northwards; my chief host, and a right worthy one, being a good cousin, S.Y.Tupper, President of the Chamber of Commerce at Charleston, S.C.With him and his I had what is called over there a good time, and indited several poetical pieces under his hospitable roof, in particular "Temperance" (see a former page).

Also I wrote there another stave of mine which caused great discussion in the States, because I, reputed a Liberian and Emancipator, was supposed to have recanted and turned to be South instead of North; but I was only just and true, according to my lights.

Here is the peccant stave, only to be found in Charleston and other American papers of February 1877, therefore will I give it here:-- _To the South_.
"The world has misjudged you, mistrusted, maligned you, And should be quick to make honest amends; Let me then speak of you just as I find you, Humbly and heartily, cousins and friends! Let us remember your wrongs and your trials, Slander'd and plunder'd and crush'd to the dust, Draining adversity's bitterest vials, Patient in courage and strong in good trust.
"You fought for Liberty, rather than Slavery! Well might you wish to be quit of that ill, But you were sold by political knavery, Meshed in diplomacy's spider-like skill: And you rejoice to see Slavery banished, While the free servant works well as before, Confident, though many fortunes have vanished, Soon to recover all--rich as before! "Doubtless, there had been some hardships and cruelties, Cases exceptional, evil and rare, But to tell truth--and truly _the_ jewel 'tis-- Kindliness ruled, as a rule, everywhere! Servants, if slaves, were your wealth and inheritance, Born with your children, and grown on your ground, And it was quite as much interest as merit hence Still to make friends of dependents all round.
"Yes, it is slander to say you oppressed them; Does a man squander the price of his pelf?
Was it not often that he who possessed them Rather was owned by his servants himself?
Caring for all, as in health so in sicknesses, He was their father, their patriarch chief; Age's infirmities, infancy's weaknesses Leaning on him for repose and relief.
"When you went forth in your pluck and your bravery, Selling for freedom both fortunes and lives, Where was that prophesied outburst of slavery Wreaking revenge on your children and wives?
Nowhere! you left all to servile safe keeping, And this was faithful and true to your trust; Master and servant thus mutually reaping Double reward of the good and the just?
"Generous Southerners! I who address you Shared with too many belief in your sins; But I recant it,--thus, let me confess you, Knowledge is victor and every way wins: For I have seen, I have heard, and am sure of it, You have been slandered and suffering long, Paying all Slavery's cost, and the cure of it,-- And the great world shall repent of its wrong." I need not say what a riot that honest bit of verse raised among the enthusiasts on both sides.

I spoke from what I saw, and soon had reason to corroborate my judgment: for I next paid a visit on my old Brook Green school-friend, Middleton, at his burnt and ruined mansion near Summerville: once a wealthy and benevolent patriarch, surrounded by a negro population who adored him, all being children of the soil, and not one slave having been sold by him or his ancestors for 200 years.
According to him, that violent emancipation was ruin all round: in his own case a great farm of happy dependants was destroyed, the inhabitants all dead through disease and starvation, a vast estate once well tilled reverted to marsh and jungle, and himself and his reduced to utter poverty,--all mainly because Mrs.Beecher Stowe had exaggerated isolated facts as if they were general, and because North and South quarrelled about politics and protection.