and indeed everywhere in the country. Yet the dollar is as mighty there as the sovereign is in England. I presume the explanation to be this: all government institutions belong to the community, they have a share and interest in them, and consequently means are taken to admit the people to examine them without charge.

At Washington we happened to be divided from our gentlemen escort. In the Capitol we asked a watchman to admit us to the dome. He guided us up the many flights of steps, and through many galleries, and on the roof pointed out the counties and states, the rivers and cities, and the nearer public buildings and statues, and took much pains lest we should find any difficulty in the descent. I had been cogitating, as we descended, whether half a dollar or a whole one were the right reward to present to so polite and painstaking a guide; when lo! on looking round at the bottom, he had glided away, and I saw him retreating across the rotunda. They have not here any fat and lazy hangers-on of government, who obtain, in lieu of a pension, the privilege of preying on chance visitors. No Beefeaters, as they now call the successors of the old attendants on the buffet, or sideboard, with their jolly faces, and black velvet hats, and Elizabethan ruffs, to hurry you through the place, while they hurry through their story, and care for nothing about you, except the coin they have earned by their services.

On RANDALL'S ISLAND there is also a large establishment. To it, as to the others, we went, leaving our carriage on the opposite side, and signalling for a boat, which came for us at once, and brought us back when we had seen all we wished to see, without charge. On this island we saw upwards of eleven hundred children, from two to fourteen years old. Here the foundlings, the parentless, and the offspring of the worthless and wretched, are cared for. We entered our names in the manager's book. On reading mine, he said, "You are from Scotland, I suppose. Out of these eleven hundred children, ninetenths are Irish, a very few English, the remainder are German; we have little to do with your country here." So we found it on Blackwell's Island, in the hospitals, and elsewhere. Our country-people have a name for upright industry, forethought, and economy, which obtains for them a welcome. Domestics, either male or female, are much preferred from Scotland, and repeatedly our ears were greeted with the accents of our own Doric from the coachman, when driving with friends in various cities.

Dr Bethune gave us a characteristic anecdote which it is pleasant to record. The people in Philadelphia were moved with pity for the Highlanders, on occasion of a severe famine, which occurred some years ago, and assembled to consult on the most efficient way to aid them. If I remember right, a cargo of flour was what they agreed to send. Whatever it was, several present cheerfully volunteered to

go round the city, and raise the money from door to door. The Scotchmen present were not gratified, but troubled, by the kind proposal, and, after mutual consultation, an old gentleman stood up and asked what money would be required, and on a sum being mentioned, he said with much emotion, that "the people of his country were not used to beg, and would not like it. If the meeting would excuse them, though they were full of gratitude, they would rather raise the necessary amount among themselves"—and they did so--not, however, declining volunteered assistance.

But I must return to Randall's Island, where we found no countrymen. It was Saturday. The children were at play. The boys with fife and drum, and banners waving, marched, about twelve deep, past the front of the Centre House, where we stood. Though most of them were of foreign extraction, everything in their training is calculated to naturalise or rather citizenise them. This plan we found pursued in all the institutions. It is wonderful how early they learn to feel themselves a part of the community, and to consider what becomes them in that capacity. Each banner had its motto-" Washington's body-guard"-"Washington, the honest boy and friend of his country "-" Are we not a band of brothers?" &c. We afterwards saw them exercise in a great open hall, shaded from the sun, and heard them sing "Hail, Columbia!" and other patriotic songs. Then two young orators stood on a bench

and harangued "right well," about the power of steam and of the uses of railways; and of the fun they should have on the 4th of July, when they would fire squibs, cry huzza, eat nice fruit and sugarplums, drink cool iced water, and not reduce themselves below the beast with intoxicating liquors, and finally sing "Yankee Doodle." The little fellows are all embryo statesmen. The voice, enunciation, and air of one of those we heard, marked him out for an orator. What should prevent him from rising to high office in the state? We saw them at dinner. On inquiring why two boys stood on the floor looking on while the others were eating, an attendant said that was the punishment for rudeness to each other, but that they should dine when the rest had done and returned to their play. Each child had his little towel fixed to his collar. It serves as a napkin at meals, and also for washing. The plan for ablution was quite new to me, and the object of its construction is, that no one child may by possibility touch the water used by another. In the centre of the room is fixed a circular bath-tub, large enough for a child to swim in, with an aperture in the bottom which carries off its contents. Around the inside rim of the huge tub runs a pipe in which are twenty-four orifices about a foot apart. When the water is turned on it flows out at these, and each child takes his turn to occupy one of them, dabbling freely in the cooling stream, but never finding it possible twice to touch the same water,

as it is all the time flowing away.

Their dormi

tories are airy. They use iron bedsteads, and each child has a bed to himself.

The division of the extensive buildings devoted to the girls is exactly on the same plan as the other. We saw them go through various evolutions, and heard them recite and sing. We saw their nurses at dinner. Their aspect was very unpleasing to me, and when their history was explained I did not wonder. They are all taken from among the criminals on Blackwell's Island. Fierce, vulgar, and unkind, the few words that reached the ear too well suited the appearance of those who used them; and the poor orphans at their mercy seemed little likely to crowd round their knees to seek for attention. Amongst the many profuse and well-ordered charities in this generous country, which draw forth the warmest admiration, this is the solitary instance of false economy that has come under my notice. A few hundred dollars per annum would procure mild, tender, and Christian "care-takers" for these poor nurslings, some of whom looked delicate, and all of whom are capable of moral injury or improvement, according to the treatment to which they are subject.

That which seemed to me defective in the common schools, pervades this and other establishments. The fear of countenancing any denominational religion in particular limits their religious instruction altogether. A small portion of Scripture is read