That this is the case, the Author has reason to rejoice;
since in eschewing the ungenerous desire of most English
writers on America, to convey a debasing impression of
her people, and seeking, on the contrary, to do justice
to their character, as far as the limited field afforded
by a work, pre-eminently of fiction, will admit, no
interested motive can be ascribed to him. Should these
pages prove a means of dissipating the slightest portion
of that irritation which has--and naturally--been
engendered in every American heart, by the perverted and
prejudiced statements of disappointed tourists, whose
acerbity of stricture, not even a recollection of much
hospitality could repress; and of renewing that healthy
tone of feeling which it has been endeavoured to show
had existed during the earlier years of the present
century, the Author will indeed feel that he has not
written in vain.

One observation in regard to the tale itself. There is
a necessary anachronism in the book, of too palpable a
nature not to be detected at a glance by the reader. It
will. however, be perceived, that such anachronism does
not in any way interfere with historical fact, while it
has at the same time facilitated the introduction of
events, which were necessary to the action of the story,
and which have been brought on the scene before that
which constitutes the anachronism, as indispensable
precursors to it. We will not here mar the reader's
interest in the story, by anticipating, but allow him to