UTC
Ohio Cultivator
Unsigned
Columbus: 1 January 1854

NOTICES OF BOOKS AND PAPERS.

  THE MUD CABIN; or the Character and Tendency of British Institutions, as Illustrated in their effects upon Human Character and Destiny. By WARREN ISHAM. Published by D. APPLETON & CO., New York, 1853.

  The writer of this book has been known to us for some years, as the editor of the Michigan Farmer, and as a man of good abilities, though somewhat inclined to lead his readers farther into the regions of speculation than was quite safe for them to follow. We met him in London, at the World's Fair, in 1851, and he spent much of that year and the next in traveling in Europe and more eastern nations, writing letters home for his paper, and collecting materials for this book, and another one which is said to be forthcoming.

  This book is mainly devoted to the description of the character and condition of the laboring population of England, especially in the rural districts, and arguments derived therefrom in favor of American, as contrasted with British institutions. As its title suggests, the Mud Cabin is an attempt to exhibit to the eyes of the world, the wrongs and degradation of the laboring poor of England, something as Uncle Tom's Cabin has done the same thing for the slaves of America; and for our part we heartily wish success to both, and all such efforts; for we believe that the more these wrongs are exposed to the moral gaze of the world, the more probability there is of their being alleviated or removed.