to any uniform system. The best surveys are those of the "Territories,' in which the land belonging to the United States has been surveyed as United States property. From what I could gather I should say that there are some inaccuracies in the statistical maps. For instance, I could not make out that the Illinois coal-fields are really so enormous as they are there depicted-certainly coal is not so cheap in Illinois as it is in Pennsylvania.

I understand that here joint-stock companies are not so common as in New England, and the reason which has been given to me is, that in Pennsylvania corporate bodies are taxed on all their property, while private persons are taxed on real property only, contrary to the practice of most American States which by their Constitution are bound to levy all taxes upon every sort of property, real and personal equally.

In the afternoon I went with Mr. P to his house, which is within a few miles of Philadelphia, in a pretty, undulating country-something like our Richmond, without the water. The Philadelphia people do not seem to have considerable country places, like the New Yorkers; only villas and moderate grounds. Mr. P's house and family I found extremely pleasant and agreeable. As servants they have only quiet-looking maids, no men; all seems very nice and simple. The boys, according to the American fashion, live at home and go to school. I met a Mr. M——, with whom I had some talk about agriculture. He quite agrees with what I have before heard, that it does not pay to let land. He says that in the German counties the women will work in the fields-they like it, and will not be prevented from doing so; but no other women do this kind of work. Parts of New England, he says, are now much deserted and almost returning to jungle; the people have gone West to better land; and the poor New England land, which sufficed for the Pilgrim Fathers, does not pay now. Even in Connecticut, where the land is better, he says its value is much depreciated. He compares the Yankees (meaning New Englanders) to Jews, who will not work with their hands, but expect to grow rich by their heads.

It seems that Mr. McCulloch (late Financial Secretary) has been holding forth on the deficiencies of American agriculture, comparing it to that of the Old World as very inferior, and saying that agriculture is the only industry to which science has not been properly applied in the United States.

Some of the people here speak with great contempt of the 'shoddy' fine ladies of the oil regions and the Western States, but they admit that the St. Louis women are nicethere is a dash of French blood there. The Philadelphia people are different in style and ways both from Yankees and New Yorkers. They think the latter loud and purse-proud. Cincinnati, one of the pleasantest cities in the Union, is, I am told, very German. The Germans there go in very much for the pleasures of life according to their ideas, musical and other. 'What is money without pleasure and comfort?' says the German. There is now a good deal of society in Washington, I am told, but it is somewhat formal, the foreign Ministers introducing formalities; and there are many questions of precedence and suchlike.

People here say that the New England servants are quite different from theirs. There is more equality in New England; there they have helps rather than servants. Many students, male and even female, go out to make a little money by service in the hotels during the summer, which accounts for the stories told of the waiter interposing to solve scientific or social questions discussed at the table. In the West there is much more difficulty about servants, and the ladies there are said to get prematurely old on this account. In the South people have had great reverses of fortune, and aristocrats were obliged to serve as waiters, while blacks sat in the Legislature and their wives rode in carriages. I gather, however, that this only happened for a time in one or two States.

Mr. M- dwelt very much upon the risk of fever in the Southern States, and warned me very emphatically against it. My subsequent experience, however, did not confirm this. I did not make out that there was much risk of fever in most places in the South; that is, where Yellow Jack' has not made his appearance, as is unfortunately so much the case this year in the States of the Lower Mississippi. In all the lower parts of the Southern States there are tracts which are exceedingly feverish in summer; but few white people live there at that season; and now that the cool weather has come in they are quite healthy.

Next day, on returning to Philadelphia, I went with Mr. P to see the Courts. They retain the old English forms to a surprising degree; even old Norman terms which we have

dropped. They have still Courts of Oyer and Terminer,' and shout out the old Norman 'Oh, yes! oh, yes!' Grand juries and all the machinery of English justice are fully maintained, but the Judges wear no robes. Unanimity of the jury is still insisted on. I was surprised to see the number of Courts at work. The United States Courts, besides dealing with breaches of the United States laws, decide cases between citizens of different States. The defendant is sued where he is found, and in that case the law of the forum-that is, of the State where he is-prevails. The United States Courts draw their juries from the locality, but from a larger area than an ordinary jury area. The Supreme Court of the State is only an appellate court; it has no original jurisdiction. In Pennsylvania there is a Court of Common Pleas for each county; and I think I have said that American Counties are very numerous. Then in each township there are justices of the peace for the summary trial of civil and criminal cases. These justices do not always receive salaries, but are always entitled to fees. In this County of Philadelphia the Court of Common Pleas consists of a Chief Justice and eight Judges; and in rural counties there are at least three Judges of the Common Pleas. There are at least a hundred such Judges in the State. I understand, however, that sometimes laymen are elected to sit as Judges in these courts. In Pennsylvania the pay of the Judges ranges from 600l. to 1,500l. per annum. These Judges of the Courts of Common Pleas hold their office for ten years, but they are often re-elected. I was surprised to find the number of jury courts which were sitting about eight were going on all at once in the same set of buildings. In criminal cases not of the very worst class the prisoner may be called as a witness on his own side, but is not otherwise liable to examination. A man who has pleaded guilty can be called. They have two degrees of murder, for the first of which only the punishment is death. The sentence may be commuted by the Governor, who ordinarily acts on the advice of a 'Board of Pardons,' composed of the chief officials. The rules of extradition between different States do not seem to be very well defined. The Governor surrenders a criminal on the application of another Governor, but he must have prima facie proof of guilt, and may refuse, on the ground that the prisoner will not be fairly tried by jury, or that the demand is made for political objects. Just

now there has been a polemical correspondence between the Governors of Massachusetts and South Carolina on the subject of the surrender of an ex-Governor charged with embezzlement and other offences in his political capacity.

I went to see the proprietary Library here, which seems a large and successful institution. I understand that they have no free libraries in this State, and do not approve of them. I also hear a good deal of expression of opinion that there has been too much education. There seems somewhat a tendency to decry the Common School system. I am, in fact, surprised to find how much of that sort of feeling there seems to be here; but I believe the Common School system was not indigenous in Pennsylvania. New England was its native, land.

On the last day of my stay here I met Mr. M— who is a great enthusiast for the coloured races, and who has written for me a number of letters of introduction to people and institutions in the South. Like many of the friends of the coloured people in these days, he has taken up the cause of the Red Indian, whom he and many others declare to be exceedingly ill-used in the Territories where they still remain. He thinks, on the whole, the negro is more improvable than the Red Indian, because he is not too proud, and is willing and anxious to learn; while the red man is very proud, and won't learn if he can help it. Also he says that the red men insist upon the tribal tenure of land, and will not have individual property. A very important fact is, that white men go amongst the red tribes, marry red women, and are adopted into the tribes, and in this way the race is being crossed and may be absorbed; whereas the whites will not intermarry with the negroes nor even with the mulattos. He, or someone else whom I met, laments this, for the curious reason that in slave days these mulattos were bred from the highest and best blood of the whites, whereas some of the white people come from very low blood indeed.

I had a talk with old Mr. P about politics. He says he used to vote Democrat; but now, though he is not much of a politician, he votes Republican, for he thinks that on the whole it is the least dishonest side, and perhaps it is better to keep in the people who are in, and whose maws have been a good deal satisfied, rather than bring in a new set of cormo

rants. He says the original difference between the two parties was the question of central power against State power, and some very distinguished men were in this sense great Democrats; but now, he says, the Southern question must be settled, and he prefers that the Republicans should settle it.

There are a great many manufacturing establishments at Philadelphia, and a great variety of manufactures; but I had not time to do much in this way. I was obliged to confine myself more especially to the things belonging to my own trade, and to keep the rest till I returned from the South.

an

There are some very sociable clubs of literary and intellectual people here, who meet periodically at one other's houses, and I am promised the pleasure of assisting at some of these gatherings, if I return later in the season. Fashionable New York was quite out of town when I was there, and Philadelphia still is so for the most part. The winter is the time to see something of the society of American cities.

BALTIMORE.

In the afternoon I started for Baltimore. We passed through a pleasant country, with many houses on the banks. of the river. It was dark before we reached Baltimore. The general aspect of the place seemed to be, that in the lower parts land and water were very much intermixed. At Baltimore I stopped at the Mount Vernon Hotel. It is kept on the European and not on the American plan, and seemed nice, but on experience I was a good deal disappointed with it. They say that this European fashion does not suit people here, and that the hotel, which was once good, is not now well maintained.

Comparing the harbour here with that of Philadelphia and other places, I am told that the United States Government undertake the charge of rivers, harbours, and works of internal navigation. They have made some bad essays in that line in Pennsylvania, and the system altogether leads to a good deal of jobbing. I am inclined to prefer our own system, under which each town and municipality undertakes its own improve

ments.

I have been reading an account of the insolvency laws of the different States, now that the general bankruptcy law of