volumes will sufficiently speak for itself; for while we shall supply the reader, who is bold enough to wade through their pages, with a sufficient quantity of general matter, our attention will be more especially directed to an examination of New England, from which so much of the actual greatness of America has sprung, and which constitutes so much of it at the present hour. It is the cradle in which, when an infant, the giant was nursed; and due notice must therefore be taken of mother and child.

We mean no disrespect to the miraculous city of New York, when we say that it gives by no means a fair representation of a genuine American capital; at least one-third of its vast population is the spawn of other lands, for to every three natives you have at least one foreigner-the predominance of those sons of immigration being Irish and German. The census of New York, if strictly scrutinized, would be found to consist of human contributions from every part of the habitable globe, who tend very much to disfigure the genuine character of the natives. This is not so much the case in any other State of the Union, though we by no means wish it to be inferred that every portion of it is not, to a certain extent, so inflicted. In New England, it is clearly less discernible; and the genuine American

character is nowhere so conspicuous as in the peculiar realm of Yankeeism. We are perfectly

well aware that a New Yorker would feel himself regularly insulted if you were to designate him as a Yankee, and so would a Yankee if you were to call him anything else but this aim at distinction is foreign to the purpose.

We shall talk about New York, and other parts of the States, as much as from time to time may appear necessary, and just as much as we like. In the meanwhile, we shall direct our immediate attention to New England. It seems almost part and parcel of Old England; and as they better understand each other than nearly all other portions of the great Republic, there can be no possible objection to its holding the first position—the place d'honneur, if any such there be-in these our perambulating observations. Some, perhaps, will think that we are too laudatory in our opinions-that we have allowed personal attention to take precedence of national examination, and that we are all altogether cautious, instead of being critical. Nonsense! We can praise without the slightest appearance of servility, or any fear of our eulogium being open to the charge of truckling. We can hold up other people, without letting down ourselves. Vainglory

and idle boasting are poor substitutes for truth and justice those alone we fight for, wherever they are to be met with. Proper reliance is far better than injudicious confidence that alone we stand by. We shall speak of men and things as we have found them, and only hope we shall encounter the same condition of both, wherever the compass may direct our course; but read on, reader, and judge for yourself.

CHAPTER II.

BOSTON-ITS IMPORTANCE-ITS

GENERAL APPEARANCE AND

CHARACTER-PURITANISM AND REPUBLICANISM BUNKER

HILL WIT-THE PILGRIM STONE-DOWN EAST-IRISHMEN

IN entering into an examination of the general feature which New England presents to the observer, and of the peculiarities connected therewith, it is best to begin at the fountain-head; and as Boston is its metropolis, and one of the most important places in the States, we cannot do better than make that our starting-post. It is as delightful a city to gaze upon, and as delightful an one to live in, as any beneath the blue canopy that encircles

all. It has more the appearance of the best of English towns than any we have visited, and its inhabitants follow the fashion of their locality, and are more like ourselves in character than any others. It is unnecessary to state that Boston was the land-mark of the earliest display of Puritanism which was imported by the Pilgrims, and of the Republicanism which followed that importation; and we question whether, from the first moment a footstep was imprinted on Plymouth Rock* to the

*The Pilgrim Stone, or Forefather's Rock, like many other relics of antiquity, is rather the worse for wear; and when we visited Plymouth, it seemed to us to betray strong symptoms of gradual disappearance. We presume it is generally known that the forefathers of America left Plymouth in Old England, and landed at Plymouth in New England, in 1620. A recent controversy has arisen in Southampton as to that town being the one from which the Pilgrims finally departed—which is not the case. On their return from Leyden they touched at Southampton, thence proceeded to Plymouth, and from that port they bade adieu to their native land. They issued on arrival their famous manifesto (which is the first of American Constitutions) on board the 'Mayflower,' on the 11th of November, 1620, as will be seen by this copy of it, and in the following month landed on the rock aforesaid:

"In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the grace of God of Great Britain, France, and Ireland