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tion, instead of simply giving his name, regarded him with a very stern countenance, and said, Sir, we are not accustomed to hear such language as this in Philadelphia," and instantly turned from him in the greatest indignation!

Of the remaining public buildings unnoticed, I shall content myself by merely naming them; and which, as a faithful journalist, I could not avoid doing. These are, the United States mint, just constructed, and highly beautiful both in design and execution; the university, accounted the most richly endowed in the States, and of imposing appearance; an elegant model of an asylum for the deaf and dumb; a handsome masonic hall and theatre; a museum, in which, among a vast variety of curiosities, is seen the most perfect skeleton of the mammoth that was ever exhibited, &c. &c. And were I, in addition, to describe to you the various, and some of them prodigious canals, forming in different parts of the State of Pennsylvania, and which the year before last were under contract, and amounted in extent to 428 miles, of which the Pennsylvania canal alone is to run through a course of 314 miles, I should add as much more to my overcharged letter as what I have already given you. But I am quite satisfied; though I am rather afraid that, with respect to yourself, I have greatly overstepped the boundary as to length, within

108 PROSPERITY OF THE UNITED STATES.

which your satisfaction would have been more unqualified, and your patience less disturbed. However, a review of what I have now given you respecting Philadelphia, as well as my previous accounts of New York, Baltimore, and Washington, will, I am sure, quite convince you of the great and growing prosperity, enterprise, industry, power, and resources of the people of the United States. And, now, adieu!

LETTER V.

Bordentown-Joseph Buonaparte-Sudden Change of Temperature Climate of the States-Anniversary of American Independence - Universal Rejoicings on the occasion Dinners Processions, Fireworks, &c.- Beauty of the American Ladies - Calashes to conceal their Charms Museum at New York

Passage up the Hudson to West

Point-Military Academy at West Point.

West Point, 6th July, 1831.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

AFTER passing upwards of a week in the beautiful city of Philadelphia, much delighted and interested with the varied and gratifying objects which it contains, so worthy of the notice of a traveller; and not the less pleased that I could eat my dinners at leisure, and in Christian comfort, at that excellent hotel the Mansion-house, without the necessity of bolting my meals, as at New York, at the risk of sundry indigestions, I arrived once more at the capital of Manhattan island. I reached New York just in time to witness the overflowing effusions of patriotism consequent on the anniversary of the national inde

pendence. Anxious, however, to see the gallery of paintings, sculpture, and other curiosities, of the ex-King of Spain, Joseph Buonaparte, I stopped on my way at Bordentown, a small village on the Delaware, twenty-eight miles from Philadelphia, in the inmediate vicinity of which he resides, in all the seclusion of the most retired private gentleman. Unfortunately, the Comte de Survilliers, the title he assumes, was absent; having left Bordentown only the day before; and his mansion was closed to all the world, except to the servants who had charge of it, and who had orders never to shew it during his absence; in consequence, as I understood, of some injury having been done to one or two of the statues, on a previous occasion, when their owner was from home. I was obliged, therefore, to content myself by rambling about his extensive pleasure-grounds, and enjoying, from the pavilion erected on the banks of the river, the splendid scenery of the Delaware. Though apparently identified with the republic, having now resided within it for many years, yet the count stands aloof altogether from politics, having never exercised the rights and functions of a citizen of the States. This does not, of course, prevent him from being highly respected by his neighbours, among whom he bears the character of an amiable and charitable man.

On proceeding afterwards to New York, I ex

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perienced, while in the steam-boat, one of those sudden vicissitudes of weather so frequent in the climate of North America, and which, on the present occasion, contrasted rather too violently with the previous operation of jolting in a coach from Bordentown to New Brunswick. This I had just undergone, with nine inside, on a sultry morning, and your humble servant squeezed almost to the consistency of calf's-foot jelly between two corpulent Americans, while, ever and anon, our coach was tossing and pitching about like a little schooner in the Bay of Biscay. The day had been remarkably warm, and, as an agreeable relief, I had been cooling myself under the slender covering of a white linen jacket, or, as it is termed here, "roundabout;" when, almost instantaneously, without any previous symptoms of change, just as we entered the river Rariton, a raw, chilly, damp wind commenced blowing, and was shortly afterwards succeeded by as complete a drizzly Scotch mist as I ever felt on the highland moors of Old Caledonia. I was very

“fain,” as the rustics say, to pull off my lawn sleeves, or what was nearly as thin, and quite as comfortless, and put on good honest broad-cloth, and felt quite disposed to throw a well-lined cloak over that, but which I had left behind me at New York. To supply the deficiency, however, I walked below deck into the cabin, where I re