VIEWS

OF

SOCIETY AND MANNERS

IN

AMERICA;

IN

A SERIES OF LETTERS FROM THAT COUNTRY

TO A FRIEND IN ENGLAND,

DURING THE YEARS 1818, 1819, AND 1820.

LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN,

PATERNOSTER-ROW.

ΤΟ

CHARLES WILKES, Esq.

OF NEW YORK.

MY DEAR SIR,

ALTHOUGH I am uncertain how far the sentiments contained in this little volume may be in unison with yours, I cannot resist that impulse of the heart which induces me to inscribe its pages to you.

Viewing, as I did, your adopted country with the eyes of a foreigner, I may have been sometimes hasty, and, therefore, mistaken in my judgments. Though I do not apprehend that my inaccuracies can extend to facts of any importance, it is possible that a citizen of America may detect slight errors which the foreign reader cannot be aware of, and which the Author herself could not wholly guard