what he witnessed at public houses, he did not infer that the young Americans were likely to be a church-going people; out of four hundred visiters at the Astor House, not more than a dozen appeared to go to church anywhere. He should have remembered, that a stranger cannot here, as in England, hire a place in which to attend a single service, and that, in most of our city churches, a visiter in want of a seat is more likely to be invited out than in ; a sort of hospitality which none but persons of very peculiar tastes are ever solicitous to encounter. This is matter of reproach, which ought, if possible, to be done away with; and there is no better appropriation of religious charity than to provide houses where the poor and the stranger may have the opportunity to attend to the first of human duties.

The author was better pleased with the outward aspect of Philadelphia, as more neat and pleasant, with several handsome public buildings, particularly the banks, those temples to a deity who is too much worshipped in all Christian lands. The Girard college, that monument of the folly of trying to do after death what one has not the heart to do while living, he thinks the finest building on the continent. It certainly answers well to the idea, as well as the plan, of the ancient temples, in which use of any kind was the last thing regarded. When the old banker was indulging his spite at the clergy by forbidding their entrance into the building, he little knew what sort of a privilege it was likely to be. Perhaps the best punishment for his narrowness would be to return to earth to enter it himself, to see how it conforms to his own minute directions, and to count the orphans who are likely to be the better for it; according to Bossuet's celebrated suggestion, he would make haste back to his grave. But in Philadelphia, as in all our cities, we see that the warehouses and stores are the most satisfactory buildings, because they are not only ornamental, but have the crowning grace of being exactly suited to their purpose. In respect to mere public edifices, men are not so clear as to what they want, and therefore lie at the mercy of pretenders, who abuse their confidence, and play tricks of architecture which are enough to make the angels weep. How little they consult their own taste is painfully evident in many things. There is nothing, for example, that gives our villages so animated and pleasant an aspect as the white houses, when they are so relieved by their green

blinds and foliage as not to be chalky or glaring. But let some knowing one suggest that this is not in good taste, and people hasten to embellish the landscape with dwellings which, at a little distance, look like cakes of chocolate, or loaves of dyspepsia bread, and then feel perfectly satisfied that the work of beauty is done so that it never can be mended. Our fathers, with unambitious common-sense, built, not what they thought beautiful, but what they wanted, without respect to the eyes of others. Accordingly, as all unpretending things look well in their place, their steep roofs and high gables appear infinitely better than the hipped contrivances to catch the rain and snow which have superseded them, or than the Gothic wall, prevented by fear of the elements from running up into the battlement, which gives to that architecture so much of its effect. It is to be hoped, that, in time, we shall establish in our minds what is wanted in dwellings, churches, and all public buildings; and thus we may secure for them the advantage of answering their purpose, which may be thought but a humble recommendation, but still is worth securing, since at present they have no recommendation at all.

The author remarks, though without severity, on the outbreaks of popular feeling which have given a name and not a praise to the city of brotherly love. It is in vain to deny that there exists, in many parts of the country, a disposition to take the law into the mob's own hands, which is manifested by persecuting Catholics or any other body of men who happen to be too weak to resist them, and thus to gratify those detestable passions which are so easily stirred in the human breast. There is enough right feeling, however, to make these things, like repudiation, infinitely disgraceful to the places where they can be done; and some of our States and cities find, that a good name is easy to lose, but exceedingly difficult to regain. Still, the shameful meanness of repudiation and the high-handed villany of mobs are not so alarming as the manner, alluded to by our author, in which popular sympathy is suffered to interfere with the course of law. There have been cases of deliberate murder, which, whatever the provocation may have been, were still murder in the eye of God and the law, the perpetrators of which not only the blind and thoughtless multitude, but those who had sworn to administer the laws, even judges, have been found so basely

false to their trust, as to release in triumph; and the public feeling, so far from casting down such wretches from the high stations which they dishonored, has actually cheered them, as if for some upright and honorable deed. Though foreigners charge this upon us, it is not false; though some among us may stoutly deny it, it is still true; and as we must live under a government of law or none at all, if such tendencies are not resisted, it cannot be long before the foundations of all authority are torn away.

The city of Baltimore, when the author visited it, brought up in his mind recollections of the last war with England, and he indulges in a strain of remark which shows that he is in utter darkness as to the causes in which it originated. He seems to think that it was a piece of self-indulgence on our part to strike a blow at his country when it was busily engaged with other foes; and that, as soon as those other enemies had been dealt with, the United States at once became peaceful in their disposition, and were glad to lay down their arms. This view of the subject is novel and original; but to those who know any thing about the matter, it is needless to say that it is far to the north of true. The city of Washington he describes as an architectural joke; but it appears to have entertamed him. He speaks of admiring the Capitol very much, without being troubled by its faults of execution; the statue of Washington he thought stiff and undignified in its bearing, but redeemed in part by the head. To show how much it is respected, he mentions that some person has written his name, John H. Brown, on the upper lip, after the manner of moustaches, placing himself where the world can determine the interesting question whether he is more knave or fool. With the electric telegraph he was particularly pleased. The arsenal and dock-yard there, as elsewhere, did not strike him with any feeling but respect for the manly bearing of the officers who showed them. When he waited on the president, the colored servant who ushered him in advised him to retain his umbrella, if he did not want somebody "to walk into it." He thought it might savor of disrespect to take it with him, and left it behind as he was entering the presentation-room, where he was followed by his guardian angel, who gave him the umbrella again, with some very serious advice against trusting it out of his own hands. Whether the counsel of the worthy African was founded on his

general acquaintance with human nature, or his particular experience of the corruption of courts, does not appear; but it was no doubt wise and necessary, for, unless matters are greatly misrepresented, many things are walked into in Washington, as in all other courts, from which people of delicate conscience would be likely to walk away.

When the traveller arrived in Boston, the hotel was so full that he was obliged to put up with one of three beds in the same apartment; but after receiving this taste of aboriginal habits, he was taken down into more comfortable quarters. In regard to the inn, he says, that there was a large drawingroom with a piano, and a gay circle was always to be found in it; but that the smoking-room offered greater attractions to the gentlemen, and in it there was an enormous expenditure of saliva and cigars. No wonder that foreigner's nerves are tried by these filthy exhibitions; we have never been able to understand why smoking should be allowed within the dwelling, where so many are disgusted and sickened by it, while it is prohibited in the streets, where the atmosphere can be cleansed by the winds of heaven. With the situation and aspect of Boston our author was much pleased; not so with its architecture, though he has not much to say about it. He visited the different points of interest, and, among others, the monument at Bunker Hill, where, instead of any disparaging remarks, such as are generally heard from English visiters, he simply says, "It was a gallant fight, and the Americans may well be proud of it." When he visits King's Chapel, and asks the reason why the doctrinal portions of the liturgy are omitted, and their place supplied by Scriptural ascriptions, he is regaled by an explanation of the matter sufficiently original on the part of his informant, who must have relied on the traveller's leaving the city without having time to ask if it was true. He appears to have been very much gratified with the opportunities of social intercourse which he enjoyed in Boston. At a club where he met several gentlemen of high standing, the Oregon question was discussed; and while they were all in favor of a peaceful arrangement of the difficulty, they seemed unanimous in the opinion, that this country could never grant to England the free navigation of the Columbia river. It illustrates the manner in which trifling matters are made important by party interest or popular feeling, that the free navigation is now conceded, and so completely has the whole matter passed by, one is

obliged to make an effort to remember what it was which brought forth in Congress so much feeling, and so much eloquence of that kind which blesses neither him who gives nor him who takes, since it is painfully exciting to the one, and wearisome almost unto death to the other.

Our author of course visited the usual resorts in the neighbourhood of Boston, but has only a few words to say for each. The cemetery at Mount Auburn made the same impression on him as on every other person of taste and feeling; but unless he took occasion to visit it at the same season when he attended the Pilgrim Festival, an account of which comes soon after, it is marvellous that he should speak of the silence as unbroken by the voice of birds, which always abound there, partly in consequence of the protection afforded them, and partly attracted by the rich varieties of the woods. The festival just mentioned gave him considerable satisfaction. He was particularly pleased with an address at the table from Mr. Everett, "whose manner and delivery," he says, "were perfectly gentlemanlike and singularly pleasing, his style classic and finished, without a taint of pedantry, animated eloquent, and totally free from effort, while good taste and kindly feeling were in every sentence he uttered." After the dinner, the arrangements of which were quite satisfactory, he attended the ball in the evening, where he was pleasantly impressed by the beauty of the ladies, and the simple good taste of their dress, of some varieties of which he gives an odd, and to us not very enlightening description; but was not equally pleased with sundry bipeds who abounded with every sort of hirsute abomination on their faces, besides ringlets, and flat greasy locks on the back of the head, waistcoats of dazzling magnificence, coats with collars scarcely visible and skirts of enormous size, pantaloons with enormous plaits round the waist and ample width down to the foot, where they suddenly contracted into a sort of gaiter, leaving visible only the square end of a boot of great breadth and wonderful acuteness of angle, and, in short, altogether the worst style of Young America." He was still more annoyed in New York with the large assortment of these ferociously elegant persons which the shops of that thriving place afforded. Dr. Johnson remarks, that rags will always make their appearance where they have a right to do it; and the same is true of this ambitious foppery, compared with which rags are quite a respectable affair.