dence, and had drawn a sword in its support. He recollected the first appearance of "Common Sense," and the electric shock that it produced throughout the country. He could recal the various circumstances of the war, and all the hopes, and fears, and rejoicings of the people. "All," to use his own words, 66 as if it were yesterday. I have lived," he continued, "to see my country established in her rights; to see her trebled in population, and quit of party jealousies and factions; and I think," said the old man, smiling, "that I have now lived enough." I felt somewhat affected by his parting salutation. His discourse had very naturally fixed my attention, which he, perhaps as naturally, had observed with pleasure. When the boat touched the shore," You seem," he said, "to be a foreigner; I wish you may soon become a citizen, for I think that you are worthy to be a citizen of our country." The old patriot meant this for a compliment; as such I received it, and as such, I assure you, I felt it.

THE WOMEN.

I believe I have before remarked upon the beauty of the young women; I might almost say girls, for their beauty is commonly on the wane at five and twenty. Before that age their complexions are generally lovely; the red and white so delicately tempered on their cheeks, as if no rude wind had ever fanned them; their features small and regular, as if moulded by fairy fingers; and countenances so gay and smiling, as if no anxious thoughts had ever clouded the young soul within. It is a pity that the envious sun should so soon steal the rose and lily from their cheeks, and perhaps it is also a pity that the cares of a family should so soon check the thoughtless gaiety of their hearts, and teach them that mortal life is no dream of changing pleasures, but one of anxieties and cheating hopes. The advantages attending early marriages are so substantial, and the country in which they are practicable, is in a condition of such enviable prosperity, whether we regaad its morals or its happiness, that I almost blush to notice the objections which, as an idle observer, one might find in a circumstance resulting from so happy an order of things. The American youth of both sexes are, for the most part, married ere they are two and twenty; and indeed it is usual to see a girl of eighteen a wife and a mother. It might doubt

less, ere this, be possible, if not to fix them in habits of study, at least to store their minds with useful and general knowledge, and to fit them to be not merely the parents but the judicious guides of their children. Men have necessarily, in all countries, greater facilities than women for the acquirements of knowledge, and particularly for its acquirement in that best of all schools, the world. I mean not the world of fashion, but the world of varied society, where youth loses its presumption, and prejudice its obstinacy, and where selfknowledge is best obtained from the mind being forced to measure itself with other minds, and thus to discover the shallowness of its knowledge, and the groundlessness of its opinions. In this country, where every man is called to study the national institutions, and to examine, not merely into the measures but the principles of government, the very laws become his teachers; and, in the exercise of his rights and duties as a citizen, he becomes more or less a politician and a philosopher. His education, therefore, goes on through life; and though he should never become familiar with abstract science or ornamental literature, his stock of useful knowledge increases daily, his judg ment is continually exercised, and his mind gradually fixed in habits of observation and reflection. Hitherto the education of women has been but slightly attended to; married without knowing any thing of life but its amusements, and then quickly immersed in household affairs and the rearing of children, they command but few of those opportunities by which their husbands are daily improving in sound sense and varied information.

The manners of the women strike me as peculiarly marked by sweetness, artlessness, and liveliness; there is about them, at least in my eyes, a cer tain untaught grace and gaiety of the heart, equally removed from the studied English coldness and indifference, and the no less studied French vivacity and mannerism. They enter very early into society; far too early, indeed, to be consistent with a becoming attention to the cultivation of their minds. I am, however, acquainted with striking exceptions to this general practice. There are some mothers in this city who anxiously preside over the education of their daughters, and are yet more desirous of storing their minds with solid information than of decking them

with personal accomplishments. I hope, and am induced to believe, that in the next generation such individuals will be no longer conspicuous among the mass of their fellow-citizens. This might be too much to hope in old, slowmoving Europe, but one generation here sees marvellous revolutions. The society, I mean by this, that which is collected into large evening assemblies, is almost exclusively composed of the unmarried young. A crowded room is in this way a pretty scene for a quiet observer to look into for half an hour; but if he have survived the buoyant spirits of first youth, he will then find it better to walk home again. I ought not to omit a remark, not merely upon the elegance of the dress of these young gay creatures, but what is far better, on its modesty. It may be sometimes more showy and costly than is wise or befitting in the daughters of a republic, but it never mocks at decency, as does that of our English ladies, who truly have often put me to the blush for their sex and their nation. The fashions here are copied from the French; but I am told by those that are knowing in such matters, that they are not very changeable, and that it is judged, if not more wise, (for this, I fear, seldom sways with youth,) at least more becoming to wear the waist and shoulders where nature placed them, than to raise them this month to the ears, and sink them the next to the length of our grandmothers. The dances, too, (and these young women, as far as my judgment may go with you for any thing, dance with much lightness, grace, and gay-heartedness,) the dances are also French, chiefly quadrilles; certainly prettier to look at than the interminable country-dance, whose appalling column seems to picture out some vague image of space and time which the imagination cannot see the end of. The young men do not, in general, appear to me to equal in grace their fair companions; nor, indeed, in general ease of manner and address. In accosting a stranger, they often assume a solemnity of countenance that is at first rather appalling. They seem to look as if waiting until you should " open your mouth in wisdom," or as if gathering their strength to open theirs in the same manner. I have more than once, upon such an occasion, hastened to collect my startled wits, expecting to be posed and shamed by some profound enquiry into the history of the past, or

the probable events of the future. I could ill convey to you the sudden relief I have then experienced on hearing some query upon the news of the day, or as to my general opinion of Lord Byron's poetry. It is not from the young men in an idle drawing-room that a stranger should draw his picture of an American. He must look at these youths when stamped with manhood, when they have been called upon to exercise their rights as citizens, and have not merely studied the history and condition of their country, but are thoroughly imbued with the principles of its government, and with that philosophy which their liberal institutions are so well calculated to inspire.

The youth of both sexes here enjoy a freedom of intercourse unknown in the older and more formal nations of Europe. They dance, sing, walk, and "run in sleighs" together, by sunshine and moonshine, without the occurrence or even the apprehension of any impropriety. In this bountiful country, marriages are seldom dreaded as imprudent, and therefore no care is taken to prevent the contracting of early engagements. It is curious to see how soon these laughing maidens are metamorphosed into fond wives and attentive mothers; and these giddy youths into industrious citizens and thinking politicans.

Marriages are usually solemnized in the paternal mansion of the bride, in which the young couple continue to reside for six or twelve months. It is seldom that the young woman brings with her any dowry, or that the husband has much to begin the world with, save a gay heart and good hopes; which, even should he fail in his profession as lawyer, or physician, or inerchant, are not extinguished, for he has still the wide field of bounteous nature open before him, and can set forth with the wife of his bosom and the children of his love, to seek treasures in the wilderness.

GENERAL BERNARD

General Bernard is a native of France, and one of the earliest and most distinguished scholars of the polytechnic school. His manners, simple and modest as those of a sage, frank and independent as those of a soldier; his principles, talents, varied knowledge, and profound science, such as do honour to his school and his nation. After the battle of Waterloo, (in which he received six wounds at Napoleon's

Napoleon's side,) and the return of Louis, he resigned his commission, and retired to private life with his family. The king twice solicited his service, but he replied, that having been aidede-cump to the Ex-emperor, and honored with his intimacy, he could not enter into the service of the reigning family, without drawing upon himself the suspicion that, in conduct as well as opinion, he was guided by interest. His conduct as an officer, and skill as an engineer, were so well known and acknowledged throughout Europe, that he received invitations from two other courts, Bavaria and Holland, both of which he successively declined, urging the same reasons that he had pleaded to the French monarch. He remained retired in his chateau, and would have remained there still, but for the vexation and inconvenience which the underlings of the court knew how to bring to the fire-sides of the suspected foes of legitimacy.

General Bernard could not submit to the official visits of the petty magistrates and curés of a village, or to those of the under gentlemen of the police of Paris; and though, upon application, the high authorities disavowed any "art or part" in such vexatious proceedings, a disciple of Carnot, and aide-de-camp of the ci-devant emperor, was too fair game to receive the shield of their protection. He was teased and teased till his patience became exhausted, when he addressed himself to the government of the United States, and made a tender of his services. They were accepted with every expression of respect and satisfaction, and he was placed immediately in the corps of engineers, with the same rank that he held in the army of France. The United States are believed to have received in him an inestimable treasure. Since the last war, it has been a great object with the Congress to fortify the American coasts and lines, to be prepared, in the event of any future hostilities with foreign powers, against such surprises as once lost the infant capital, and threatened the destruction of New Orleans. General Bernard has received instructions to take a survey of the country, and draw up a report of what he shall consider requisite to complete the plan of precautionary defence, either on the coasts, or on the Canadian, Indian, and Spanish frontiers. He has already examined the southern lines,

and proceeds this year to the lakes The cheerfulness with which this soldier, broken down as he is by military service, undergoes the fatigues of such hard duty, travelling in all ways and in all climates, through all the varieties of forest, swamp, or savanna; and the pleasure and pride which he expresses in being permitted to employ his time and talents in the service of the republic, is truly gratifying to contemplate. It is not from General Bernard that you will hear complaints of the illiberality of this government, or the inhospitality of this people; nor is it of such foreigners, as this soldier and gentleman, that the Americans will express themselves with coldness or disrespect. I often hear them name him with admiration, and acknowledge themselves as proud that their country should be the chosen abode of such a character, as he on his part acknowledges himself in being devoted to its service.

PHILADELPHIA.

Though we have found some quietism in the society, we have found less absolute quakerism than we expected; and I own that I at first felt something like disappointment, when, on looking round a room, I saw not one drabcoloured son of Penn in it. It is very true that a man is none the better for wearing a brown coat, but I have a notion that he is sometimes the better for being a Friend.

The society has here very wisely relaxed some of its rules. It is no longer necessary for its members to forego innorent amusements, or any honest profession; nor considered as an important form to use the second person singular rather than the plural, or to prefer drab cloth or pearl coloured silk. The same regard to their morals and fair dealings is still preserved; they must be honest members of the community, and then may wear what garments they please. There is, however, much indulgence practised towards the follies and even the errors of youth. A wild young

man is privately reprimanded, and much time allowed him to gain wisdom and reclaim his habits, before he is expelled the society. Expulsion, there fore is regarded as a serious blot upon a man's character, even by those of other persuasions, as it is known to be resorted to in cases of obstinate vice or convicted fraudulency.

To William Penn humanity is indebted

debted for the first enactment of that beautiful penal code which is now the admiration of all enlightened political economists throughout the world. In retaining the punishment of death even for the murderer, his mild spirit seems rather to have issued the sentence of "blood for blood" in conformity to the divine law, as given in the Old Testament, than from the argued conviction of its propriety. The code of this humane legislator was cancelled by the authority of government, as were the tolerant enactments of the liberalminded Calvert. After the revolution, by the strenuous exertions of many philanthropic citizens, among whom were chiefly conspicuous the venerable Franklin, William Bradford, Caleb Lowndes, and Dr. Rush, the abrogated code of the father of Pennsylvania again superseded the bloody statutes of England.

I shall not fatigue you with the enumeration and description of the public edifices and institutions of this city. Innumerable travellers, however unwilling to see beauty and good order in the moral and political frame of American society, bear ample testimony to the peaceable virtues and active benevolence of the people of Philadelphia.

It is curious to picture the Philadelphia into which the young Franklin threw himself, friendless and pennyless, to seek his fortune, and the Philadelphia that now is, we may say, too, the Philadelphia that he left it, when he sunk, full of years and honour, into the grave. From a small provincial town, without public libraries or institutions of any kind, he lived to see it not only the thriving, populous, and well-endowed capital of an independent state, but the seat of a government, the novelty of whose principles fixed the eyes of the whole civilized world. It has now all the appearance of a wealthy and beautiful metropolis, though it has lost the interest which it possessed as the seat and centre of political life.

I never walked through the streets of any city with so much satisfaction as those of Philadelphia. The neatness and cleanliness of all animate and inanimate things, houses, pavements, and citizens, is not to be surpassed. It has not, indeed, the commanding position of New York, which gives to that city an air of beauty and grandeur very imposing to a stranger, but it has more

the appearance of a finished and longestablished metropolis. I am not sure that the streets have not too many right angles and straight lines to be altogether pleasing to the eye, but they have so much the air of cheerfulness, cleanliness, and comfort, that it would be quite absurd to find fault with them. The side pavements are regularly washed every morning by the domestics of each house, a piece of out-door house-wifery, by the way, which must be somewhat mischievous to the ladies' thin slippers, but which adds much to the fair appearance, and, I doubt not, to the good health of the city. The brick walls, as well as frame-work of the houses, are painted yearly. The doors are usually white, and kept delicately clean, which, together with the broad slabs of white marble spread before them, and the trees, now gay with their first leaves, which, with some intervals, line the pavements, give an air of cheerfulness and elegance to the principal streets quite unknown to the black and crowded cities of Europe.

The public buildings are all remarkable for neatness, and some for pure and classic elegance. Another bank is about to be built on as simple a model as the Pennsylvania. I trust the citizens will never swerve from the pure style of architecture to which they seem at present to have attached themselves; above all, I trust they will never attempt the Gothic, a failure in which being a failure in the sublime, is of all failures the worst. The Academy of Arts contains a small, but well-chosen collection of pictures, among which I have regarded with most pleasure two modern pieces—an exquisite Niobe by Rehberg, and a masterly scriptural piece by the American artist Allston. It is truly surprising how prolific this young country has already been in painters. West, Leslie, Coppely, Trumbull, and Allston, are names known and respected in both hemispheres. The lastmentioned artist seems destined to rise to peculiar eminence.

The State-house-state-house no longer in any thing but name-is an interesting object to a stranger, and, doubtless, a sacred shrine in the eyes of Americans. I know not but that I was a little offended to find stuffed birds, and beasts, and mammoth skeletons filling the places of senators and sages. It had been in better taste, perhaps, to turn the upper rooms of this

empty

empty sanctuary into a library, instead of a museum of natural curiosities, or a mausoleum of dead monsters.

CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT. The constitutions of all these different confederated republics differ in little the one from the other. The legislative power is vested in a general assembly, consisting of a senate and house of representatives; the executive in a governor, or in a governor with the assistance, or perhaps it were more correct to say, the impediment of a council. This impediment, at first adopted by all the original thirteen states, has been abolished by several, and has not been adopted by those which have been subsequently added to the Union. A majority, however, of the old thirteen states retain this check upon the will of their chief magistrate. Considering the short term of his authority, and the slender powers with which he is vested, many regard this check as unnecessary, some think it mischievous, as it tends to retard the operations of government, while others think it salutary on that very account. Perhaps the truth is, that it is very unimportant. This will more clearly appear, if we consider the supreme authority of the legislative branch of the government, which is, in fact, the people speaking and acting distinctly and definitely in the person of their representatives. The governor does, indeed, possess a veto upon the decision of the two houses; but his veto is not decisive; he must, within a given time, return the bill, stating the grounds of his dissent; when the question is debated anew, and two-thirds of both houses are then required to give the effect of a law; but as this majority can impart to it that effect without the signature of the governor, it is, of course, rarely refused; I know not, indeed, that the case ever occurs: it is clear that it can only occur where the voices of the legislators are pretty equally divided, and, consequently, when the wisdom of the proposed law may be supposed to be more than usually doubtful. That the door should then be left open for its reconsideration must surely be accounted wise; and we must farther suppose that the executive could never adopt the extraordinary measure of withholding its consent, but on a question of vital importance, as well as of doubtful merits. By the English constitution, a veto is granted to the monarch, and this with

out a second appeal to the legislative authority. If this veto is never exerted, it is evidently because the royal influence can previously affect the legislative decision, and thus virtually speak the will of the monarch, without the too apparent and irritating opposition of his voice to that of the nation. Whatever power the executive here possesses, it is direct; its influence is nothing; it must simply approve or dissent. The governor is as powerless to affect the voices of the assembly as any other individual in the commonwealth, they are all powerful on the other hand to affect his, or, as we have seen, can render it nugatory. The powers of the governor vary somewhat in the different states; and it is, perhaps, singular, that in Pennsylvania, where there has ever existed an excessive jealousy of the executive, its powers are greater than in other states. The governor is unshackled by a council, holds his office for three years, and is trusted with the disposal of many public offices, which, according to the constitution of most of the other republics, are voted by the joint ballot of both houses of assembly.

Ail public offices, whether in the disposal of the governor or the legislature, or the people, are held only on good behaviour, and are, not excepting the governor, liable to impeachment in the house of assembly. The concurrence of two-thirds of the representatives is necessary to pass sentence, which extends only to removal from office and disqualification to hold thereafter" any place of honour, trust, or profit, under the state."

It is always provided, that no person holding any office under the state, or the United States, shall be a member of either house of assembly; a regulation of vital importance, and without which it is impossible to rely upon the purity of the representative system. The servant of the people must be in the pay of no other man, or set of men, or his interests may be at issue with his duty. Pluralities, indeed, are prohi bited in every branch of American goverument, and all the authorities under it.

This, of course, imparts to it a vigour and clean-handedness which no other regulations could ensure.

The house of representatives may generally be said to be the more popular branch of the legislature: its members are chosen annually, by the whole free male citizens of the state. This

may