My dear E——.  I have read the articles in the Times to which you refer, on the subject of the inaccuracy of Mrs. Beecher Stowe’s book as a picture of slavery in America, and have ascertained who they were written by.  Having done so, I do not think it worth while to send my letter for insertion, because, as that is the tone deliberately taken upon the subject by that paper, my counter statement would not, I imagine, be admitted into its columns.  I enclose it to you, as I should like you to see how far from true, according to my experience, the statements of the ‘Times’ Correspondent’ are.  It is impossible of course to know why it erects itself into an advocate for slavery; and the most charitable conjecture I can form upon the subject is, that the Stafford House demonstration may have been thought likely to wound the sensitive national views of America upon this subject; and the statement put forward by the Times, contradicting Mrs. Stowe’s picture, may be intended to soothe their irritation at the philanthropic zeal of our lady abolitionists.

Believe me, dear E——­,

Yours always truly,

F.A.K.

* * * * *

Letter to the Editor of the ‘Times.’

Sir,—­As it is not to be supposed that you consciously afford the support of your great influence to misstatements, I request your attention to some remarks I wish to make on an article on a book called ’Uncle Tom’s Cabin as it is,’ contained in your paper of the 11th.  In treating Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s work as an exaggerated picture of the evils of slavery, I beg to assure you that you do her serious injustice:—­of the merits of her book as a work of art, I have no desire to speak,—­to its power as a most interesting and pathetic story, all England and America can bear witness,—­but of its truth and moderation as a representation of the slave system in the United States, I can testify with the experience of an eye witness, having been a resident in the Southern States, and had opportunities of observation such as no one who has not lived on a slave estate can have.  It is very true that in reviving the altogether exploded fashion of making the hero of her novel ’the perfect monster that the world ne’er saw,’ Mrs. Stowe has laid herself open to fair criticism, and must expect to meet with it from the very opposite taste of the present day; but the ideal excellence of her principal character is no argument at all against the general accuracy of her statements with regard to the evils of slavery;—­everything else in her book is not only possible, but probable, and not only probable, but a very faithful representation of the existing facts:—­faithful, and not, as you accuse it of being, exaggerated; for, with the exception of the horrible catastrophe, the flogging to death of poor Tom, she has pourtrayed none of the most revolting instances of crime produced by the slave system—­with which she might have