disposed of at work in the interior of the country. Here they rest, with light employment and under good regulations, till they recover from the effects of voyages made in crowded ships.

The captain of the emigrant ship is bound to produce twelve shillings currency, that is, six shillings sterling, for each emigrant that he carries. This levy supports satisfactorily the immense establishment. There the German finds everything excellent, with the exception of the absence of his beer-and the astonished Irishman eats the first roast beef he ever tasted. They have a story of a Ward's man inquiring of an Irishman why, when he wrote to his brother pressing him to come out, he had told him that they had butcher meat twice a week, when he knew they had it every day in life. "Why," said Pat, "I need not ha' been telling him that, for he would never ha' belaved it." They do not generally require to stay long on the island.

On BLACKWELL'S ISLAND we find the prison of the city of New York. The people here seem not under such close discipline as in the State Prison. But we saw bands of men gardening, terrace-making, levelling, and forcing land on their naturally sandy soil. They have made a very handsome façade of terraces, which one admires in sailing up the river. But their island will presently be adorned to the last point, and their ingenuity will then be tasked to find other occupation.

The City Poorhouse is also there.

We saw

about four hundred

on the female side.

women, and a nursery of babes, Every place of this description

is clean and airy. The absence of coal smoke, the annual painting, the windows, doors, and piazzas all so well contrived for ventilation, give an air and a feeling of cheerfulness which I have not found in similar establishments in England. We found women reading, sewing, knitting, and tending the sick, besides the stout band employed as laundresses, cooks, &c.

The Insane Asylum is also placed on Blackwell's Island. It is a very fine building, with a remarkably beautiful iron staircase, which combines beauty and strength in a high degree. The handrail is of dark oak; the stair is spiral, shedding gracefully off into a gallery at each landing-place. There is a fine library, in which we found a solitary German, whose delight is to work daily amongst the books, and whose humour is, as we found, not to answer any questions. We visited several wards under the guidance of one of the medical attendants, and left the place with the usual feeling of depression which the sight of remediless misery is calculated to excite.

We were rowed ashore, as we had been to the island, by a set of stout oarsmen, whose skill, and knowledge of the strong current running up with the tide, were much needed to secure our safety. Yet not a cent was asked or expected by the men. We found this the case on visiting the other islands,

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