



Produced by Gardner Buchanan





THE ATTACHE

or, SAM SLICK IN ENGLAND.

By Thomas Chandler Haliburton


(Greek Text)--GREEK PROVERB.

Tell you what, report my speeches if you like, but if you put my talk
in, I'll give you the mitten, as sure as you are born.--SLICKVILLE
TRANSLATION



London, July 3rd, 1843.

MY DEAR HOPKINSON,

I have spent so many agreeable hours at Edgeworth heretofore, that my
first visit on leaving London, will be to your hospitable mansion. In
the meantime, I beg leave to introduce to you my "Attache," who will
precede me several days. His politics are similar to your own; I wish I
could say as much in favour of his humour. His eccentricities will stand
in need of your indulgence; but if you can overlook these, I am not
without hopes that his originality, quaint sayings, and queer views of
things in England, will afford you some amusement. At all events, I feel
assured you will receive him kindly; if not for his own merits, at least
for the sake of

Yours always,

THE AUTHOR.

To EDMUND HOPKINSON ESQ. Edgeworth, Gloucestershire.



     CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

     CHAPTER I.    UNCORKING A BOTTLE
     CHAPTER II.   A JUICY DAY IN THE COUNTRY
     CHAPTER III.  TYING A NIGHT-CAP
     CHAPTER IV.   HOME AND THE SEA
     CHAPTER V.    T'OTHER EEND OF THE GUN
     CHAPTER VI.   SMALL POTATOES AND FEW IN A HILL
     CHAPTER VII.  A GENTLEMAN AT LARGE
     CHAPTER VIII. SEEING LIVERPOOL
     CHAPTER IX.   CHANGING A NAME
     CHAPTER X.    THE NELSON MONUMENT
     CHAPTER XI.   COTTAGES
     CHAPTER XII.  STEALING THE HEARTS OF THE PEOPLE
     CHAPTER XIII. NATUR'
     CHAPTER XIV.  THE SOCDOLAGER
     CHAPTER XV.   DINING OUT


     CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME.

     CHAPTER I.    THE NOSE OF A SPY
     CHAPTER II.   THE PATRON; OR, THE COW'S TAIL
     CHAPTER III.  ASCOT RACES
     CHAPTER IV.   THE GANDER PULLING
     CHAPTER V.    THE BLACK STOLE
     CHAPTER VI.   THE PRINCE DE JOINVILLE'S HORSE
     CHAPTER VII.  LIFE IN THE COUNTRY
     CHAPTER VIII. BUNKUM
     CHAPTER IX.   THROWING THE LAVENDER
     CHAPTER X.    AIMING HIGH
     CHAPTER XI.   A SWOI-REE
     CHAPTER XII.  TATTERSALL'S
     CHAPTER XIII. LOOKING BACK
     CHAPTER XIV.  CROSSING THE BORDER
     CHAPTER XV.   THE IRISH PREFACE




THE ATTACHE; OR SAM SLICK IN ENGLAND.




CHAPTER I. UNCORKING A BOTTLE.

We left New York in the afternoon of -- day of May, 184-, and embarked
on board of the good Packet ship "Tyler" for England. Our party
consisted of the Reverend Mr. Hopewell, Samuel Slick, Esq., myself, and
Jube Japan, a black servant of the Attache.

I love brevity--I am a man of few words, and, therefore,
constitutionally economical of them; but brevity is apt to degenerate
into obscurity. Writing a book, however, and book-making, are two very
different things: "spinning a yarn" is mechanical, and book-making
savours of trade, and is the employment of a manufacturer. The author
by profession, weaves his web by the piece, and as there is much
competition in this branch of trade, extends it over the greatest
possible surface, so as to make the most of his raw material. Hence
every work of fancy is made to reach to three volumes, otherwise it will
not pay, and a manufacture that does not requite the cost of production,
invariably and inevitably terminates in bankruptcy. A thought,
therefore, like a pound of cotton, must be well spun out to be valuable.
It is very contemptuous to say of a man, that he has but one idea, but
it is the highest meed of praise that can be bestowed on a book. A man,
who writes thus, can write for ever.

Now, it is not only not my intention to write for ever, or as Mr. Slick
would say "for everlastinly;" but to make my bow and retire very soon
from the press altogether. I might assign many reasons for this modest
course, all of them plausible, and some of them indeed quite dignified.
I like dignity: any man who has lived the greater part of his life in
a colony is so accustomed to it, that he becomes quite enamoured of it,
and wrapping himself up in it as a cloak, stalks abroad the "observed of
all observers." I could undervalue this species of writing if I
thought proper, affect a contempt for idiomatic humour, or hint at the
employment being inconsistent with the grave discharge of important
official duties, which are so distressingly onerous, as not