LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, LONGMANS, & ROBERTS.
1859


TO

I. L. T.

* * * * *

MY DEAR LITTLE GIRL,

I dedicate this little book to you; the letters it contains were meant
to let you know how your father and I and your brother William fared in
a rapid journey, during the autumn of last year, through part of Canada
and the United States, and are here presented to you in another form
more likely to ensure their preservation.

You are not yet old enough fully to understand them, but the time will,
I trust, come when it will give you pleasure to read them. I can safely
say they were written without any intention of going beyond yourself and
our own family circle; but some friends have persuaded me to publish
them, for which I ought, I suppose, to ask your pardon, as the letters
have become your property.

The reason which has made your father and me consent to this is, that we
scarcely think that travellers in general have done justice to our good
brothers in America. We do not mean to say that _we_ have accomplished
this, or that others have not fairly described what they have seen; but
different impressions of a country are made on persons who see it under