BOARDING-HOUSES.

7

those who do not keep house, is at hotels, taverns, or private boarding-houses. My present residence is at one of the latter. Here are two public apartments, one for a sitting, the other a dining room. At present, about forty sit down to table. The lady of the house presides; the other ladies, who are boarders, being placed on her left. The hours are -breakfast, eight o'clock; dinner, half past three; tea, seven ; supper, ten. American breakfasts are celebrated for their profusion: presenting eggs, meat of various kinds, fish, and fowls. My London habits are not yet overcome; I cannot enjoy any addition to plain bread and butter. The hours of eating are attended to by all with precision: charge, two dollars per diem, exclusive of wine. The expense of living here is about 18 dollars per week. There are here at present, the celebrated Commodore Rogers, and several other naval officers; among whom are Decatur, Warrington, and Bidel, all of whom distinguished themselves in the late war: also Mr. Graham, the under-secretary of state, and Mr. Brackenbridge, author of a history of the late war. The two latter gentlemen are said to be upon the point of embarking in the sloop of war Ontario, on a mission to South America. That the object of their voyage may be to assist the patriots in shaking off the yoke of the infamous Ferdinand, is my heartfelt desire.

COMMISSIONERS TO SOUTH AMERICA.

Last evening, while I was conversing with Commodore Rogers, a naval officer, attended by two black servants, ascended the steps: he proved to be Sir James Yeo. Commodore R-s, supposing me to be an American, was free in the expression of his feelings; which, in truth, were honourable to him, and not derogatory to Sir James, or the British navy generally. He referred to the disgraceful conduct of Admiral Cockburn at Havre de Grace, with a forgiving liberality which did him much credit. In his appearance he has more of the English than the American seaman, conveying an idea not dissimilar to the personifications of such characters by Bannister. He is an American by birth, but of Scotch parentage. His anecdotes of persons claiming relationship or acquaintance with him are numerous. One man met him in Baltimore, assured him that he had gone to school and eaten porridge and drunk whisky with him when a boy, at Aberdeen; another, a very old man, accosted him, in the Scotch dialect, in Broadway, New-York, and insisted upon it that he was his (Commodore R.'s) father. Commodore Rogers is now the president of the Board of Naval Commissioners at Washington; an establishment whose objects and powers are nearly similar to those of our Admiralty Board. His present business is, in conjunction with Commodore Decatur, to lay the keel of a seventy-four gun ship. His account of the climate of Washington is

favourable.

STREET POPULATION..

9

He states that he has there a family of seven children, and that for two years they have had no illness in the house.

Immediately upon landing, I treated myself with a glass of cider and some fruit: the charge was dearer than in London. As yet I cannot, of course, communicate any useful particulars. I have walked alone, through the streets for the purpose of forming an independent judgment. Every object is new. I hardly dare trust myself in forming conclusions: one most cheering fact is indisputable, the absence of irremediable dis tress. The street population bears an aspect essentially different from that of London, or large English towns. One striking feature consists in the number of blacks, many of whom are finely dressed, the females very ludicrously so, showing a partiality to white muslin dresses, artificial flowers, and pink shoes. I saw but few well-dressed white ladies, but am informed that the greater part are at present at the springs of Balstan and Saratoga. *. The dress of the men is rather deficient in point of neatness and gentility. Their appearance, in common with that of the ladies and children, is sallow, and what we should

*A place of fashionable summer resort, about 200 miles from this city. The route is by way of Albany, which is 160 miles up the Hudson river, and to which some of the finest steam-boats in the world go three times a week. The fare, including board, is seven dollars, and a tax of one dollar. The time usually occupied from New York to Albany is from eighteen and a half to twenty-two hours.

10

CHURCHES.

HOTELS.

call unhealthy. Our friend D-tells me that to have colour in the cheeks is an infallible criterion by which to be discovered as an Englishman. In a British town of any importance, you cannot walk along a leading street for half an hour without meeting with almost every variety of size, dress, and appearance among the inhabitants; whilst, on the contrary, here they seem all of one family; and though not quite a "drabcoloured creation," the feelings they excite are not many degrees removed from the uninteresting sensations generated by that expression. The young men are tall, thin, and solemn : their dress is universally trowsers, and very generally loose great coats. Old men, in our English idea of that phrase, appear very rare.

Churches are numerous and handsome: the interior of one which I have just visited in Broad-way is truly elegant, being fitted up with more taste, splendour, and, I presume, expense, than many in London. Several hotels are on an extensive scale: the City Hotel is as large as the London Tavern; the dining, and some of the private rooms, seem fitted up regardless of expense. The price of boarding at this establishment is, I understand, cheaper than where I reside. The shops (or stores, as they are called) have nothing in their exterior to recommend them there is not even an attempt at tasteful display. The linen and woollen drapers (dry good stores, as they are denominated) leave

STORES.

STREETS.

11

quantities of their goods loose on boxes in the street, without any precaution against theft. This practice, though a proof of their carelessness, is also an evidence as to the political state of society worthy of attention. Masses of the population cannot be unemployed, or robbery would here be inevitable. A great number of excellent private dwellings are built of red painted brick, which gives them a peculiarly neat and clean appearance. In Broad-way and Wall-street trees are planted by the side of the pavement. The city-hall is a large and elegant building, in which the courts of law are held. In viewing this structure, I feel some objections which require farther observation either to remove or confirm. Most of the streets are dirty: in many of them sawyers are preparing wood for sale, and all are infested with pigs, circumstances which indicate a lax police.

Upon the whole, a walk through New York will disappoint an Englishman: there is, on the surface of society, a carelessness, a laziness, an unsocial indifference, which freezes the blood and disgusts the judgment. An evening stroll along Broad-way, when the lamps are alight, will please more than one at noon-day. The shops then look rather better, though their proprietors, of course, remain the same: their cold indifference may, by themselves, be mistaken for independence, but no person of thought and observation will ever concede to them that they have selected