they have rarely emanated from an American's pen, and have been traced to the venom of some expatriated foreigner, who, having left his own country for his country's good, has never done good to any country he has visited.

We were invited to the Press Club of New York, which we found composed of gentlemen of high education, great acquirements, and polished manners. We were received by "hands with hearts in them," and have seldom sat down to a more recherché entertainment-it was a réunion of proprietor, editor, and general writer, between whom matters of learning and research, wit and repartee, were exchanged-imparting alike information and Institutions of a similar character would confer honour upon any intellectual country in the world, and be the means of connecting together, by the electric link of mind, those whose profession it is to direct, to instruct, and to please their fellow-passengers in the journey of life.

amusement.

What more would you like to know about Gotham, the wonder of America, and, we may as well add, of the wide world? If you would like to know something about its places of amusement, or of Peter Barnum, the showman, and factotum of so many of them, turn to the chapter devoted thereto.

Are you curious in equestrian and vehicular matters? Well, the trotting-horses of America are as superior to all others, as are the race-horses of England; but their carriages will bear no comparison with ours. We had seen them here and disliked them-we saw more of them there, and disliked them more. They seem made on purpose to be run away in, and if the animal that whirls them along is not held extra tight in hand, they will There is no such personage as a grace

run away. ful "whip"

one to whom driving is a pleasure, not a labour, in whose hands the ribbons are held so lightly, and yet firmly, that the slightest motion of a finger will guide the most dashing animal. An American "dragsman" holds a rein in each hand (his whip stuck in by his side), and appears to pull at his horse much harder than his horse pulls at the carriage. It has all the appearance of a "bolt," especially as they invariably go at a slapping pace. At the same time, they have singular control over their animal by word of mouth-inasmuch as "C 'go alang" from a gentleman, or the abbreviated " g'lang" from a cabman, will set them off, as the sort of plaintive tone in which they say "oh, ho!" will stop them. Their stables are laid down with planks, instead of being

paved as ours are—which, from becoming saturated must very speedily rot; and then, instead of the familiar sign of "horses taken into bait and stand at livery," you may read stuck up, "boarding-house for horses," as if they were a set of human beings; by which it would seem, the horses and their stables are both boarded.

Like other places of importance, New York has derived valuable assistance in the formation of her public institutions by the munificence of her millionaires—men who have sprung literally from nothing, but with the true feelings of patriots have devoted a vast portion of their means to improve the city in which they have amassed those means. John Jacob Astor stands in the same relation to New York as Stephen Girard does to Philadelphia: his magnificent gift and endowment of the Astor Library is unsurpassed by the benefaction of any country.

Such is a very rough and condensed outline of this remarkable locality, with the delights of which the reader will suppose us to have fallen head over ears in love. Not a bit of it: we would not live in New York if "board and lodging" were given us gratis; it is too dirty, too noisy, too "go-a-headish" to suit our quieter taste. But

to

say that we do not look upon it with admiration and astonishment, that we do not admit its fullest importance, and that we do not dearly regard the many bright spirits and noble hearts who welcomed us on its shores, would be to dip our pen in falsehood, and steep our heart in ingratitude.

CHAPTER VI.

SPIRITUAL RAPPINGS-THEIR EXTENT AND THEIR EXPOSUREVISIT OF HIS MOTHER'S SPIRIT TO THE AUTHOR -THE SPIRIT MOVETH TABLES AND CHAIRS, AS WELL AS ITSELF -SPIRITS TURN BANKERS, AND GET A RAP ON THEIR OWN KNUCKLES BATTLE, MURDER, AND SUDDEN DEATH EXEM

PLIFIED-NEW MARRIAGE CODE-SINGULAR ADVANTAGE OF

BECOMING A MEDIUM-A NOBLEMAN'S INEXPRESSIBLES.

WE are about to devote a page or two to one of the most extraordinary delusions that any country or any age has yet been visited by-surpassing in its extent, and unfortunately in its influence, all preceding inflictions that have, thus far in the lapse of ages, been heaped upon mankind. It is, in the conclusion which a very able writer* upon the

*Rev. H. Mattison.