Three groomsmen stood on the other side. There were, besides, two pretty little girls, who were held by the hands of two smart boys, not got up for the show, as in the Popish processions, but really relatives and friends of the family. The Episcopal clergyman, in his surplice, was a graceful, nice-looking man, fit to grace such an assemblage. The room was thronged, for not the interested and affectionate friends only, but stewards and housekeepers from all branches of the family, were there. Dark coachmen and white housemaids, black cooks and yellow footboys, Sunday-scholars in their new frocks, Ethiopian Susan, with her ivory black baby in her arms, and all the other five of them at her feet. Waitingwomen, with their ringlets, and their air of mysterious importance, armed with ice-water and essences, in case of need. Aged and withered-looking people, leaning on marble slabs next to elegant brocades and diamonds, were all mingled in most admired confusion. The Africans as far up the room, and for once as much mixed with the whites, as anybody. The scene, as one could withdraw attention from the modest, sweet-looking bride, or from her beaming, affectionate mother, to consider it, was to an English eye most curious and striking.

And now, all being arranged, the service began.It is abbreviated and improved from the old English original, and was felt to be solemn and appropriate.

For the deep trust with which a maiden casts
Her all of earth, perchance her all of heaven,
Into a mortal's hand,"

is calculated to fill the minds of on-lookers with sober thought. Our interesting bride went calmly through her part, as if resolved, and gave no use for essences; while her deeply attached husband never moved his eye from her countenance, as if his all were before him. The only movement that seemed to detract from the unity of the heart-absorption, was when the bride for a moment pressed a finger on the diamond cross on her bosom. "Is she thinking of her appearance?" No-clearly her thoughts are of a higher tone. "Is she entertaining some superstitious reverence for the emblem?" No-still why does her finger rest there? It was his lovetoken; she accepted it in evidence that she accepted him.

A peculiarity which we have not in England has an interest of its own sort in it. The bridegroom first gave the ring to the bride, she took it, looked on it, and gave it back-he then gave it to the clergyman, who also looked on it and returned itso that before the little mystic token of everlasting union was placed on her finger, it had been observed by all the three.

The finger of her glove had been previously opened on one side, so that the bridesmaid had no flutter or struggle in removing the glove from her hand, but merely slipt it off the point of the finger, and thus it was uncovered ready for the ring—a method highly to be commended to all trembling or blundering bridesmaids. At the close, the minister

raised a hand above the head of each, and mentioning their Christian names, blessed them in the name of the Lord. It was very touching.

The emotions of congratulation were pleasantly broken in upon by one of the nice little girls, who, holding her boy-beau with one hand, with the other presented an elegant small basket of white rosebuds, while in a sweet low voice she recited a few graceful lines of hopeful aspiration:

"Bring flowers, fresh flowers, for the bride to wear!

They were born to blush in her shining hair;

She is leaving the home of her childhood's mirth,

She hath bid farewell to her father's hearth;

Her place is now by another's side

Bring flowers for the locks of the fair young bride!"

Then was wheeled in a table with the mighty cake, which is as much a "chieftain" at an American as at a British wedding. From it the groomsmen procured their favours, and mounted them as badges of office, and then came the old English fun about who found the ring, who the sixpence, who the scissors, and who the thimble.

At one o'clock, the pair, with their attendant damsels, arranged themselves for "the reception,” while the groomsmen ushered in the guests, and presented them to the bride. They had no sinecure office till past three. The porter lost count after the number of guests had passed seven hundred, in spite of the custom for each family to give their card of invitation at the door. As a rare privilege, a seat was procured for me in a place where all who

entered must pass, and there, without the exertion of talking, I saw the aristocracy of New York and of many other places glide by.

The movements were quiet and graceful, countenances beaming, many very lovely-dresses rather elegant than gay. Amongst those that one was glad to have conversed with, even in the brief way that an introduction can produce in such a scene, were the Ex-President Van Buren; the Portuguese ambassador, who led one of his children through that lively maze, as several others did; and John Jay, grandson of the judge, whose name has been long held in veneration as the negro's friend. It was pleasant to look on them, and many more men of note in the country.

We went in groups to the dining-room, where tables were sumptuously and most elegantly spread with all the luxuries of the season-when, having a hint that there could be no time for any other dinner, people took advantage of their opportunity. Stewed oysters, which are amongst the most nourishing and healthy luxuries of the country, with sandwiches, game, fruits, jellies, ices, and champagne, were most dutifully handed about by the gentlemen. After refreshing ourselves, we returned to the saloon with some difficulty, as the throng thickened, and the young people, who had lately begun to time their steps to the music which issued from a side-room, had at last got to dancing. The reception-callers were for a season figuring up the hall amid the

circling dancers, and were almost obliged to galope their way into the saloon.

This hugging, and whirling with shut eyes because of dizziness, and panting and falling on each other's shoulders, confounds people of sedate and tranquil manners. I once saw in a cursaal in Germany, through a glass door by which I passed, something similar to this, but never in Britain, though I suppose it may be seen there. A bright lady by my side quoted in my ear what Washington Irving had said at a similar scene-" Go fetch half a dozen parsons to marry these couples, for they have done all the courting already."

As the conflict thickened, the servants who had withdrawn trooped back again. It was quite new to me to see half a dozen dark people laughing, joking, and enjoying the fun familiarly. You might see the whites within one door of the hall, or hanging on the stair, and the blacks at anotherand an elegant, breathless dancer, fanning and swinging in one rocking-chair, and a black child of nine or ten in the next, quite unconscious of anything like forwardness in her position. My bright friend explains the superior familiarity of the dark people in this way—"The whites are so nearly our equals, that we dare not approach nearer, but there is a bar for ever between us and the coloured people." There are among the coloured so many "aunt" Silvas and Celias and Sukies, old friends of the houses too,